The Quiet American

Creepy Crawlies

Back in training, my friend Amy became infamous for talking about the Creepy Crawlies during a med session. Our group was particularly nervous about all the critters we were going to encounter in Senegal. I blame it on the locust swarm, but really, we were nervous before we even left Philadelphia. I saw my fair share while I was gone, between the locusts, scorpians, snakes, mongooses, dragons, etc. It's nice to be safe again. I saw this bug (or is it insect?) on my front doorstep in Pasadena. It looks pretty crazy, but it has nothing on the scorpian cochroach thing that lived in the Asta Kebe pool.

Sunny Southern Cali

Last week I drove down to Southern California for the second time since I got back home.  The reason was ostensibly to help out my friends Sarah and Steve with an event for DIG, but it also gave me an excuse to escape the valley.  While it was relaxing to have a change of pace, and while I can easily see myself living anywhere but here right now, SoCal is just not the life for me. 

Case in point: The day after the DIG event.

The DIG event was held in West Hollywood, and was as much as success as possible, considering that the day before, we were still running throughout L.A., trying to drum up support and donors.  The event officially consisited of happy hour drinks and mingling, a silent auction of African crafts and locally donated items (including a night's stay at The Standard!), photography, a "live auction" of supplies needed for the gardens, and a demonstration area of how a micro-garden works.  My highlight of the evening was not any of the above, but was a spontaneous hula-hoop/dance demonstration by Steve's former roommate, Tom.  Gotta love the Burning Man folks.

Everyone who attended was very receptive to hearing about Africa, and gardening/AIDS work, and were very engaging.  Despite the last-minute work, and not-so-stellar attendance, those who came were generous, and interested in supporting DIG.  We ended the evening happy, and hit the Beverly Hills IHOP, sharing our conversations from the night, and happy with all of the support.

The next morning, I drove to Pasadena, to meet up with Freya, whom I had been staying with before the event work kept me in L.A.  I had some time to kill before seeing her, so I trolled around Old Pasadena, looking for the new H&M that was supposed to open soon.  While I was walking, I saw several news helicopters in the air, and worried if a bad accident may have happened.  No accident occured; they were in the air because the H&M store was opening that day.  I walked down the block, and saw thousands of girls lined up (many of whom looked as if they were skipping school), all of them excited and waiting to shop.  The Press were out in full force, and rumors floated around that Madonna Herself may show up.  Admist all of the hysteria, the screaming, the Madonna talk, and the dancing employees, I thought, where were these people the night before?  Why would the helicopters show up for a single store, when we were not even able to get on NPR for DIG? 

While walking down the other side of the street, I heard some protesters trying to engage the rest of us.  I heard the words, "need more development in Africa," and wondered, had any of the protesters actually left L.A.?  Worked in community service?  Done anything beyond yelling at people?  I talked to them for a minute, and told them I actually had done development work in Africa, and was just as upset about hyper-consumerism as they were.  So they asked, "You aren't actually going to wait in line at that store?"  I was caught in my own hyperbole, of wishing people cared more, but wanting to shop myself.  The timing just seemed off, to see people practically worshiping a store after spending the past few days talking to people about development work.  And by development, I don't mean real estate development! 

Tracking Down Vanity Fair

I have been a loyal Vanity Fair reader for several years (that is, of course, in addition to The New Yorker and The Economist). I had what I called my "prescription" to it sent to my post box in Kidira for most of my time in Senegal. The magazine, which had a tendancy to run scandalous photos, such as the infamous Keira Knightly-Tom Ford-Scarellet Johannson spread, came thoughtfully wrapped, so I did not have to shield the cover from those prying Pulaar eyes in Kidira.

There has been a little glitch in transferring the magazine to my California address, so yesterday I went out to buy the latest copy. What I forgot was that Vanity Fair had just released the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes-Suri baby photos. When I arrived at Border's, I spent a good half an hour scouring the magazine racks, and saw no sign of Vanity Fair. I checked and re-checked the culture section, current affairs, even the side display areas, but it was all to no avail. So I walked over to the information desk, where the clerk was spending her work time reading the Vanity Fair. I asked her about the magazine, and she replied that it was sold out. This was all while she continued to flip through the pages. After some more talking, she released the magazine to my hands. While I was in the process of buying the last Vanity Fair, the sales clerk had a bit of a grin on his face. I justified to him (and to myself) that I was not buying the magazine for the photos as everyone else had, that I was buying it because it is a magazine I enjoying reading.

Of course, I went straight to the photos. They were lovely.

In Memory

I noticed today that my site was referred to several times by people who googled "american volunteer dies mali", and Peace Corps Mali in general, so I knew something must have happened in Mali. Unfortunately for us all, something has; two Peace Corps Mali volunteers died on Sunday in a boating accident.

To: All Peace Corps

From: Gaddi H. Vasquez, Director

Subject: Peace Corps Volunteers Justin W. Brady and Matthew S. Costa

It is with great sadness that I inform you that we have lost two members of
our Peace Corps family. On Sunday afternoon in Mali, Volunteers Justin W.
Brady and Matthew S. Costa died as a result of a boating accident on the
Niger River in Bamako.

Justin W. Brady was 27-years old from Philomath, Oregon. He graduated from
Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Construction Engineering
Management. Justin joined the Peace Corps in January of 2005 and served as a
water sanitation extension agent in the village of Donthieribougou in the
region of Koulikoro. He addressed the serious human health challenges common
throughout Mali by working alongside members of the community to build a
well, improve latrines, and construct soak pits and hand washing stations.
He cared about the difficult challenges faced by Malian women and involved
over 200 of them in a gardening project to increase their income and improve
their nutrition. He also introduced a millet grinder to the community of
Kita, trained 15 men in pump maintenance, educated youth about AIDS
prevention, and taught English at a local school.

Before joining the Peace Corps, Justin wrote, "I want to know what it is
like to live, and work, and eat, and smell, and sleep in a place that is
outside of everything I have known so far. I want to gain the experiences of
another part of the world, and at the same time, try to give back as much as
I've been given."

Matthew S. Costa was 24-years old from Cheshire, Connecticut. He graduated
from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 2003.
Matthew was first assigned to Peace Corps Chad from 2003 – 2005 where he
served as an English teacher. He extended his Peace Corps service and
transferred to Mali in November of 2005 to become a small enterprise
development Volunteer serving in the village of Kati in the region of
Koulikoro. During that time, he was a high school English teacher and
organized training for other teachers in the community. Matthew was widely
recognized in his community as the host of a popular local radio show
featuring American music, fulfilling the Peace Corps' second goal of
cultural exchange. He also worked to improve the radio station's marketing
strategy. In addition, Matthew was engaged in the community by playing on a
local soccer team and distributing donations of sporting equipment.

In his aspiration statement, Matthew described his hope that his experience
as a Volunteer would "not only broaden my perspective on the human race but
will make me more understanding of the problems and strengths of other
people and cultures."

Their passing is a tremendous loss for the Peace Corps and for the people of
Mali. I hope you will join with me in remembering Justin and Matthew and
their families in your thoughts and prayers.

"Confronted with sudden disaster we all focus on how unremarkable the circumstances were in which the unthinkable occured, the clear blue sky from which the plane fell, the routine errand that ended on the shoulder with the car in flames, the swings where the children were playing as usual when the rattlesnake struck from the ivy. ' He was on his way home from work-happy, successful, healthy-and then, gone,'" - Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

Maybe Peace Corps isn't such an unremarkable thing, but to those two men, it probably was any ordinary day in Africa. Their families and the Peace Corps community have suffered a great loss, and I send my sympathy to them.

DIG

Two friends from Senegal have recently formed an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) to target the nutritional needs of AIDS patients in developing countries. Steve's establishment of an AIDS garden in Dakar as an PC Urban Agriculture Volunteer sparked the idea for the NGO. He saw the need for AIDS patients not just in Dakar, but across the world. His NGO, DIG (Development In Gardening), formed with Tamba PCV Sarah, is just starting, but they already have a website and upcoming fundraisers! Check out the site to read about their exciting approach to assisiting AIDS patients. I visited the Dakar garden, and it was quite possibly the best garden in Senegal, not just because of its' purpose, but because the garden was well-run, and overflowing with beautiful, fresh vegetables.