Mouton All Day Long

I'm 3 months into my Senegal experience. I am discovering new things every day. Yesterday I moved to a new neighborhood called Yoff. A large house with chill people, pretty excited.

I haven't given a public healthy post in a lil while. So check it.
The BP Gulf oil spill is an environmental catastrophe, but what impact will it happen on peoples lives? The fishing industries and people who depend on the Gulf for their livelihoods will surly suffer but how will the spill affect the public's health? Every time there are winds from the southeast to the shore people are getting sick. People are complaining of "severe headaches, nausea, respiratory problems, burning eyes and sore throats." The long term health effects will be neurological disorders and cancer. Louisiana really can't catch a break, can it?

I went to Keur Massar again two weekends ago and had another awesome time. We chilled, danced, played some scrabble, and ate a ton of mouton (lamb). I got there and we immediately bought this lamb. I decided not to name him since I knew I was going to be eating him in a days time. They have these zones in Dakar where there are all of these livestock just chilling out. You can buy a whole lamb for like 30,000 CFA (like $60).
Check out this cooking device. That pot (filled with the entire lamb) is right on some hot charcoal and got cooked all day.
Then it got turned into this:
It fed like 50 people. So good. I don't know if I've described how Senegalese meals go. People sit around, usually on the floor or a stool, a big metal bowl or plate like one of these. Then you rip the meat or fish up and scoop the food in like a little ball of tastiness. People either use their hands (right hand only! left hand is for your butt) or a big ol spoon. I love eating in a group like this. Everyone hunkers down over this huge platter of tastiness cooked by the ladies together and encourages each other to eat more. "Mange Benjamin!" "J'ai bien mangé!" "Mange encore!" (eat Ben! I ate! Eat again!)
People are so nice. I really like it here.

Chilling and Bissap

I've been chillin au Senegal.
There are a couple of awesome Senegalese things in this picture. My brown bag on the ground (thanks Aunt Laurie), the mat on the ground that is the dining room floor eating zone, and the purple cloth (called tissue here) that Leanna ended up getting tailored into a dress.

Bissap: the national drink of Senegal
Its tasty, full of antioxidants and good for the brain. Drink it if you are tired, stressed, or thirsty. People sell this stuff everywhere and its also a common beverage at parties BYOBissap

Ingredients:
two to three cups of dried hibiscus flowers
one to two cups of sugar
optional:
sprig of mint
one cup pineapple juice or orange juice

1. Rinse the dried flowers in cool water.
2. In a pot heat two liters of cold water. As soon as the water begins to boil, add the dried hibiscus leaves. Immediately remove from heat and let the flowers steep for ten minutes. Pour the water from the pot into a pitcher using a strainer to separate the flowers from the water. Stir in the Sugar. Add the other flavorings (if you want).
3. Add ice and chill completely
4. Serve anytime, and especially with ceebu jën or poulet yassa (ill hook yalls up with those recipes soon)



Now I'm working on the value of local foods in nutritional security and malnutrition for IDPs, irregular migrants, and refugees in West Africa. Check this out about the moringa tree. The peace corps and other agricultural development organizations are doing work on microgardening and school/community/health post gardens. I think its all fascinating.

We started working on this because of the growing food insecurities in West Africa, specifically the crisis in Niger.

FEBS moves forward. New plan: big health event in July. T-shirts should be ready to go by June. Meeting with the Medicin Chef and another guy in Yoff on tuesday. Monsieur Dieng is mailing our proposal to the national malaria (PNLP) and HIV (ANCS, CNLS) initiatives so that we can have a HIV and TB testing site and mosquito net giveaways at the event. You know how it do.