Donate Now! (You know you want to)

So I have a proposition for you all. As some of you may already know I have been trying to raise money for my very own project in village (hooray!) since January. This is my one big project I am undertaking during my service that requires outside funding and unfortunately Peace Corps is not footing the bill. I have taken out a Peace Corps Partnership grant to build a wall around the primary school in my village; however this grant is not actually a grant in the traditional sense. Seventy-five percent of the funds come from donations (which are 100% tax-deductible) and the other twenty-five percent comes from the village. The total cost for my part of the project is $5,858.51 or 11,716.00 cfa.

Way back when I had my original action plan meeting with my village leaders the number one thing they wanted was a wall for the school. The school lies in the heart of the village, made up of five classrooms, one water spigot and a few latrines. There are currently 135 students. A road runs directly through the middle of the school. In the past there have been two serious accidents involving students due to the road. This is why my community has dubbed this wall their number one priority. The villagers are extremely excited to begin building the wall and have whole heartedly jumped on board the project. When I first proposed the actual project plan, the wall committee immediately started the process by figuring out how they could make sure to get all the contributions necessary for their 25%. They even started bringing in cart loads of sand and I had to explain that we cannot start any building until I receive all of the funds for the entire project. That was in February. Since then I have only raised a little over $1,000 and it is almost October.

If my village can pull together and donate the little money they have for a wall, I hope my friends and family in the United States can too. I am setting a new goal to have my part of the bargain filled in one month. October 25, 2012 is the deadline. Please help out a small community in West Africa and help us build a wall to protect the school children. Not only is this wall important physically, but it is also a source of pride for the village. You can donate to this project on the Peace Corps website: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-206. 
Please tell as many people as you can so we can fund this project in one month! Thank you so much to those who have already donated!

Our School!

Donate for the kids!

Hilly and the Lion Cubs

I'm finally updating, yay! So if you haven't already heard I have been pretty busy these last couple months; you know, seeing Hillary Clinton, playing with baby lions, planting 40,000 endangered mangrove seedlings. Just the usual. My friend Hilly decided to make a little trip to Dakar to do some "work stuff" and wanted to hang out with all the cool Peace Corps volunteers and some embassy guys, so she made a speech at the Radisson Blu Dakar and swore in the new community enterprise development volunteers. No biggie. 

Waiting to meet Hillary

The Ambassador to Senegal introducing Secretary Clinton

There is a game park near Toubacouta called Fatala, which is on the Delta (southwest of Kaolack). Recently two South Africans have taken over the park which hosts a rhino, giraffes, hyenas, zebras, gazelles, and their newest addition: five lion cubs! This litter of lions were born in South Africa and were shipped to Senegal when they were about a month old. They have been in the care of a South African woman since they were two weeks old. A couple of my friends and I were able to go make a special visit to see the two month old cubs and have dinner with their caretakers at the park. It is currently rainy season, so the cubs were pretty wet and muddy. They are already huge! It was so fun to play with them and watch them wrestle each other. While some of them were fiesty, one was really sweet and kept licking me. Imagine a house cat's tongue times 10! The lions are now enclosed off the main house, but have started to take supervised walks outside in the park. Pretty soon they will be too big for visitors and will be in the park full time. To see and play with lion cubs in Africa was such an amazing experience, one I will never forget!