Wrapping Up Service !

Hi Wonderful Friends and Family ! 

I hope you are doing very well and enjoying the month of August in America or France ! 

I have a little under four months of my service left and am making the most of it. It's a time of wrapping up many projects, such as the big garden I worked with the community of Missirah Panjon to create. This project was made possible by the amazing help of my best work partner, Ablaye Sow. He has honestly been one of the most helpful people I have ever met, as well as being a great friend. Ablaye helped me to find all the prices for the materials of the garden, from the chain-link fencing to the garden gate, as well as find all the people who would aid in the construction of the garden, including the mason and the well-digger. 

Additionally, it's malaria season here in Senegal, so members of my Work Zone (Volunteers whose sites are located close to mine) and I are going around to people's houses in our sites together to talk to them about the value of using a mosquito net and how to repair it. I recently traveled to my friend Danielle's site for the first time to do this work and really enjoyed seeing her community and meeting her work partners, host family, and friends at site! Here's a photo of Danielle, Jenna (another friend nearby) and our Senegalese work partners, Ablaye and Danielle's Cultural Integration Facilitator. 

Recently, two of my good friends in Peace Corps also wrapped up their service to go to grad school and we celebrated their amazing time in Senegal and helped to see them off: 

This month, I will be hosting my friend Juliet, who is coming to visit! I am beyond excited that she took the initiative to buy a plane ticket and be open to the experience. We will spend a few days in the capital city, then head to my site for three nights. After, we will have a couple of days along the coast, in an area where there are lots of mangroves as well as a beachy spot. I am so excited for a close friend to see some of my favorite spots in Senegal and see what I've been living for the past 22 months here. 

I'm also looking forward to outplanting trees later this month when the rains become more consistent and stronger. Outplanting is taking the trees that we have been growing in tree sacks in a tree nursery and planting them in their final spots after digging the hole in the ground. I will be working with Ablaye to outplant many cashew trees this year as well as some live fencing trees with the women's group in the village where we recently completed the garden, Missirah Panjon. 

Some things I'm very much looking forward to in the next few months: 

1.) Having our Close of Service Conference end of August and see lots of friends from my stage (the cohort of Volunteers I entered Senegal with) again

2.) Having the Kolda Youth Camp with middle school aged kids in the region where I live in Senegal and putting on great, fun sessions with other Volunteers in my region

3.) Seeing my Mom who will come back to Senegal in October to work with an group of volunteers at a school along the coast! 

4.) Joining a group of Volunteers to help reforest mangroves along the coast in later September

5.) Going with a fantastic group of fellow Volunteers to visit a waterfall in Kedougou, which is southeastern Senegal. 

If any of you have any questions about life in Senegal or what other work I've been up to as a Volunteer, please reach out! I love fielding any and all questions. 

Wishing all of you the best and can't wait to reunite in a few, short months! 

Love,

Sophie