Tree Lotion

After patiently waiting for months to learn how to make lotion, yesterday I finally led a training with my friend Mac.  As usual, before having any kind of gathering, I had walked around to people's houses for the previous week telling them what time and where the training would be.  That morning I walked to all the important people's houses and once again made sure everyone knew about the lotion session they had all requested.  As I was sitting with my family waiting for Mac to arrive, a Japanese volunteer-Awa Sow- I had just met, decided she wanted to stay and help with the training.  As a new volunteer she is still in the early stages of Wolof and I was appalled when my family kept telling her that she needed to bring large presents the next time she came and to do this and do that, most of this aimed at making a fool out of here because she couldn't understand .  It's one thing when my family does this to me, but an entirely different thing when they do this to a guest. 

After lunch me, Mac and Awa made our way over to the market where we had planned our training.  We were immediately surrounded by children who were so close they were basically sitting on my back.  And of course after waiting for an hour, no women had shown up.  Finally someone told us that most of the women were having coffee at a house in the village and that we should do our training there.  We walk in and of course there are 20 or so women drinking coffee (all of whom knew of the training and said they would be there).

We start the process and decide we'll talk to whoever's listening and the women who pay attention can teach eachother.  Thankfully those who are there are really interested and they listen well.  Overall about 35 women saw some part of the process and left with a sample.  The lotion we made is called Neem lotion and it not only smells good , but it also protects against malaria carrying mosquitoes.  Made with: 1 cup of water, 1 grated bar of soap, 1/3 cup cooking oil, 2 handfuls of Neem leaves and a few Eucalyptus leaves, it's extremely easy and cheap to make.

Overall with a few blips, the training was a success and I was happy until I got home where my mom, sisters and brother/counterpart (all of whom failed to show up) demanded lotion.  And then my brother, unable to drop the subject, told us we had to make him a batch the next day.  Don't worry, I refused.  I told him that if he wants things from me he has to support me, show up to trainings and listen just like everyone else.  Goodness.