Bonjour! I'm still alive (and doing well!) despite 2 weeks of no blog. Since my last blog, my Dad and Carolyn visited. I was so excited the day they arrived I actually ran away from a scheduled field trip to jump in a taxi and meet them. They meet my Senegalese family- including eating the national dish around a bowl with them- saw lots of Dakar, and the three of us traveled south of Dakar to stay at a pretty beach hotel for the weekend. I definitely expierenced a little bit of culture shock eating one good meal after the next, having a mirror in my hotel room, and being able to crank up the air-conditioning as much as I pleased. I even spent an evening watching MSNBC's special on 'Sex Slaves in America' just because it was in English. Carolyn and my dad brought me enough toilet paper for a small army and lots of great gifts for my family. During our beach visit, one taxi driver insisted on calling my dad "Le President" and asking him whether he wanted a second wife. It was less funny when someone asked me whether I was his second wife. Both my dad and Carolyn mastered the "walk away" when taxi drivers jacked up prices because we are toubabs (throw your hands in the air, act pissed, walk away from taxi until they lower their price). It was so nice that they came and visited - even my friends appreciated it when my Dad and Carolyn treated them to a nice meal out!
Since they left, I cranked out my first ever 10 page French paper (no thanks to the dodgy computers at school) and found a group of foreigners to play frisbee with! The group consists of Spanish embassy workers, some Frenchies, a British man with a fabulous accent, the occassional Senegalese, and some other American students. It has been so nice playing and very funny at points- especially when one French man says "H-up" every time the disc goes flying in the air.
I find I miss WashU classes while I'm here. Whether it be my economics teacher who becomes very defensive when someone criticizes anything Muslim or another professor who spends more time preaching to us then leading an effective discussion, it is an example of how different education is across cultures and often very frustrating. I have another professor who simply lectures the entire time, writing dates of wars on the board, instead of making interesting conclusions about those same wars. More thoughts on this for another day. Needless to say, I find myself going to the bathroom frequently just so I don't explode in class.
This weekend, off to the north to St. Louis with the program. Going to St. Louis, Senegal makes me feel that much closer to St. Louis, MO! Before that, Thanksgiving dinner at the local American club with proper turkey and all. Looks like it will be a good weekend. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
For those of you in the forgotten corners of the world...
Hello everyone! I am back in Dakar, after a week on “rural visits”, for the final 6 weeks of the program. The rural visit was just that- quite rural and in many ways, our hope to “make a difference” was replaced with visiting everyone and their brother in a small village for a week.
As I said, six other students and myself arrived in Kaolack, a small city 3 hours inland from Dakar on Monday. Our director in Dakar told us we would be working with a local NGO, APROFES, that worked in the region on many projects involving the advancement of women (whether it be giving out credit, helping women suffering from domestic violence, or encouraging women to get prenatal care). We would be divided into groups to study microfinance, health, and gender issues. The first afternoon we did the usual round of greetings, ate two huge platters of ceebu jen (national dish of Senegal; red rice, fish, veggies- in my opinion, quite tasty), and sat around for a while. When a few of us started dozing off in a post-ceebu jen food coma during a presentation, they asked us whether we would like nap time and showed us to some beds upstairs. While I had a fantastic nap, I had to laugh thinking whether my first day at a US internship would ever consist of a large lunch, a short slideshow, and nap time. Later on, we headed over to their bank to learn more about microfinance. One of the women had actually worked with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (I would later stay at this women’s house and then share a mattress with her for three consecutive nights in some family’s living room in a nearby village). As I have learned at my internship here in Dakar, the biggest problem is not having enough international donors to be able to give out credit to all the people who want it. The woman who had worked in Bangladesh said microfinance has been more successful there because they have more money to work with and because the poverty is that much more extreme so small loans go that much further.
The next day we hit the road for the village of Paoskoto, an hour outside of Kaolack (yes, I was supposed to stay an extra night in Kaolack and in my mind, be able to see the election. I was not too thrilled when that turned out not to be the case…). The APROFES woman, Ramay (who worked in Bangladesh), came with us. We were also accompanied by 3 men whose professions we never really figured out, but they did seem to know everyone in Paoskoto. We toured the local health center, met the local government official, met the town leader and his wife, visited a local school, and to top it off, went to a hair salon! It was overwhelming in that every place we went tons of ambiguous people had to get involved (at the school, hundreds of children ran at us upon our arrival and then crowded around us while the teachers expected us to ask questions over the dull roar of all the children). We also kept facing impossible questions. We would arrive somewhere and with little explanation of where we were, the APROFES women and ambigious men would say : ask questions! It suddenly felt like the meeting was completely our responsibility and we struggled to come up with good questions that were also not offensive. When we asked a group of students if they had questions for us, one student asked us “Why don’t we have books? Where are our computers?”. Looking over to the APROFES woman for help with this impossible question, she looked directly back at us with the same inquisitive eyes. A group of men from another village could only come up with one question for us: “How can you fix our water supply problem?”. Hold on, let me consult my American-students-can-fix-the-world’s-problems manual. By the time we were dragged into a hair salon and asked to “pose questions” to the women who worked there, our patience had thinned.
Another day we took a horse drawn cart to another village (pretty fun, felt bad for horse- was right after we ate a lot of lunch, the people from the village fed us A LOT) where we got to see hundreds of cute kids and pull up water from a well. Some women started dancing for us and in return, we suddenly became a traveling chorus. I can’t tell you how many times we sang “Ain’t No Mountain High” (only song we all knew the words too) this past week. While frustrations ran high at some points, being dragged to unnecessary places and hearing “Toubab! Toubab” everywhere we went, I did learn more about development projects in Senegal. In some towns, it seemed like people needed more motivation and felt down-trodden by their struggles, where as in another village, a group of women had started a credit center to help pay for health related costs and spent their free time going around to other villages spreading the word. They said their biggest problem was transportation- for some people, just going to the credit center to pay their monthly bill involved taking a bus they couldn’t afford. Imagine getting to the actual health center in the time of an emergency! We met another woman, Viola, who has been nominated for top 10 “heroes” on CNN. Her program, 10,000 girls, has helped local girls stay in school and start their own businesses so they can be self-sufficient. Some days, everything seemed inefficient, while other days, we felt really inspired. Always a rollercoaster here!
The best part of the week had to be the election. On the morning of the 4th, despite being shipped off to the village, I was determined to find a TV. I am sure I probably seemed obnoxious asking everyone and anyone where we could find one. The good news is everyone seems to own a TV in Senegal, no matter how poor you are, and our family had a TV the size of my two palms put together. I almost cried when they switched to CNN in ENGLISH. Not only was Obama’s win thrilling, but as I sat watching the election, munching on crumbly madelaines, taking power naps under the stars at commercial brakes (by the time Obama won, it was 5 am Senegal time), with a donkey 5 feet to my left, and topless women in my family casually walking by in-between Obama capturing Pennsylvania and Ohio, it was a memorable night. In Obama’s speech he referenced people watching in the forgotten corners of the world. I decided I was in that category, never having been so proud to be an American and never having felt so far from America at the same time. Priceless.
Another long blog. Miss everyone comme toujours. My dad and Carolyn are coming to visit in just 4 days!
As I said, six other students and myself arrived in Kaolack, a small city 3 hours inland from Dakar on Monday. Our director in Dakar told us we would be working with a local NGO, APROFES, that worked in the region on many projects involving the advancement of women (whether it be giving out credit, helping women suffering from domestic violence, or encouraging women to get prenatal care). We would be divided into groups to study microfinance, health, and gender issues. The first afternoon we did the usual round of greetings, ate two huge platters of ceebu jen (national dish of Senegal; red rice, fish, veggies- in my opinion, quite tasty), and sat around for a while. When a few of us started dozing off in a post-ceebu jen food coma during a presentation, they asked us whether we would like nap time and showed us to some beds upstairs. While I had a fantastic nap, I had to laugh thinking whether my first day at a US internship would ever consist of a large lunch, a short slideshow, and nap time. Later on, we headed over to their bank to learn more about microfinance. One of the women had actually worked with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (I would later stay at this women’s house and then share a mattress with her for three consecutive nights in some family’s living room in a nearby village). As I have learned at my internship here in Dakar, the biggest problem is not having enough international donors to be able to give out credit to all the people who want it. The woman who had worked in Bangladesh said microfinance has been more successful there because they have more money to work with and because the poverty is that much more extreme so small loans go that much further.
The next day we hit the road for the village of Paoskoto, an hour outside of Kaolack (yes, I was supposed to stay an extra night in Kaolack and in my mind, be able to see the election. I was not too thrilled when that turned out not to be the case…). The APROFES woman, Ramay (who worked in Bangladesh), came with us. We were also accompanied by 3 men whose professions we never really figured out, but they did seem to know everyone in Paoskoto. We toured the local health center, met the local government official, met the town leader and his wife, visited a local school, and to top it off, went to a hair salon! It was overwhelming in that every place we went tons of ambiguous people had to get involved (at the school, hundreds of children ran at us upon our arrival and then crowded around us while the teachers expected us to ask questions over the dull roar of all the children). We also kept facing impossible questions. We would arrive somewhere and with little explanation of where we were, the APROFES women and ambigious men would say : ask questions! It suddenly felt like the meeting was completely our responsibility and we struggled to come up with good questions that were also not offensive. When we asked a group of students if they had questions for us, one student asked us “Why don’t we have books? Where are our computers?”. Looking over to the APROFES woman for help with this impossible question, she looked directly back at us with the same inquisitive eyes. A group of men from another village could only come up with one question for us: “How can you fix our water supply problem?”. Hold on, let me consult my American-students-can-fix-the-world’s-problems manual. By the time we were dragged into a hair salon and asked to “pose questions” to the women who worked there, our patience had thinned.
Another day we took a horse drawn cart to another village (pretty fun, felt bad for horse- was right after we ate a lot of lunch, the people from the village fed us A LOT) where we got to see hundreds of cute kids and pull up water from a well. Some women started dancing for us and in return, we suddenly became a traveling chorus. I can’t tell you how many times we sang “Ain’t No Mountain High” (only song we all knew the words too) this past week. While frustrations ran high at some points, being dragged to unnecessary places and hearing “Toubab! Toubab” everywhere we went, I did learn more about development projects in Senegal. In some towns, it seemed like people needed more motivation and felt down-trodden by their struggles, where as in another village, a group of women had started a credit center to help pay for health related costs and spent their free time going around to other villages spreading the word. They said their biggest problem was transportation- for some people, just going to the credit center to pay their monthly bill involved taking a bus they couldn’t afford. Imagine getting to the actual health center in the time of an emergency! We met another woman, Viola, who has been nominated for top 10 “heroes” on CNN. Her program, 10,000 girls, has helped local girls stay in school and start their own businesses so they can be self-sufficient. Some days, everything seemed inefficient, while other days, we felt really inspired. Always a rollercoaster here!
The best part of the week had to be the election. On the morning of the 4th, despite being shipped off to the village, I was determined to find a TV. I am sure I probably seemed obnoxious asking everyone and anyone where we could find one. The good news is everyone seems to own a TV in Senegal, no matter how poor you are, and our family had a TV the size of my two palms put together. I almost cried when they switched to CNN in ENGLISH. Not only was Obama’s win thrilling, but as I sat watching the election, munching on crumbly madelaines, taking power naps under the stars at commercial brakes (by the time Obama won, it was 5 am Senegal time), with a donkey 5 feet to my left, and topless women in my family casually walking by in-between Obama capturing Pennsylvania and Ohio, it was a memorable night. In Obama’s speech he referenced people watching in the forgotten corners of the world. I decided I was in that category, never having been so proud to be an American and never having felt so far from America at the same time. Priceless.
Another long blog. Miss everyone comme toujours. My dad and Carolyn are coming to visit in just 4 days!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Blog Update!
November 1st. Apparently today is daylights savings, but Senegal has decided it is uninterested in all this clock changing business. After some quick research, it turns out Guam, Arizona and Senegal all have this in common. The explanation? All three have too much sunlight as it is and don't need the extra hour. Amen to that.
Monday morning I leave for Kaolack, a city three hours inland from Dakar. I will be working with APROFES, a women's organization that works on a lot of issues, including microfinance (something I was looking forward to studying here). 6 other students and I spend a day getting debriefed on what they do (will probably involve a lot of tea and pretending like we understand Wolof) and then get sent off to local villages to live with families and work in our respective fields (gender, health, microfinance). It turns out I made a fabulous life decision when I picked microfinance. The 3 students who are studying microfinance get to stay in Kaolack for Tuesday night as well: essentially, our chances of watching the elections on TV just went up exponentially. I'm thrilled. A bunch of students who are going to very remote areas have been told that hopefully someone in their village will have a radio. Before I heard about my specific assignment, I had a nightmare that I couldn't find out who won for three days. The dream wrapped up with Obama paying for my laundry and buying me a meal (my roommate commented on what a romantic dream it was, I thought it was more indicative of my priorities these days- food, clean clothes, and knowing I don't have to move to Canada at the end of my study abroad expierence).
Other highlights: Went to the DESERT. Jumped in a van (ok that makes it sound more casual than anything ever is- involved about 10 calls with the driver who still brought a van that was too small) with some fellow students last Saturday morning and went 3 hours north of Dakar to the town of Lampool. When we got there, we met a woman from Dakar who was doing work in Lampool. Turns out she and the local women make jewelry, baskets, statues, etc. and use the profits to buy birth control. Found it pretty amazing in a heavily Muslim country where many believe birth control is agaisnt the teachings of Islam. More and more women are taking birth control in Lampool and yet, it is kept very quiet and none of the men have been told. While the secrecy is unfortunate and I'm sure the men wouldn't be thrilled to know they have been kept in the dark, I was impressed and bought a necklace. Then a safari-like-car came, drove us out in the middle of the nowhere for 20 minutes and all of a sudden we turn the corner and miles of sand dunes were spread out before us. After dropping our bags in the spacious Mauritianian tents we stayed in and climbing around the sand dunes for a while, we realized arriving in the desert at 10 am wasn't our smartest decision yet. As it quickly became incredibly hot, we grabbed cards, food, and laid around comatose for the next 6 hours under a big tent. Around 5 pm, 6 camels came walking across the sand dunes and we got to ride the camels (only about 15 minutes actually on the camels in comparison to the hour we spent having a photo shoot with the poor camels) .That night we danced while men who worked at the campement drummed along(included making all the women line up and shake their "jaay fondes" for all the men drumming - can we say degrading?) and enjoyed the fact that it was COLD. But, there is always a glitch and we had to laugh the next morning when the campement tried to charge us for 3 of the 9 free sodas we were guaranteed with our "all-inclusive" fee. Their reasoning? We had drank 6 of them before 5 pm, but the other 3 after 5 pm. If you have them after 5, you have to pay. If you are going to rip of the Toubabs, come up with something better than that. We said no one told us this "rule", they said who is the person who did not tell you this rule? Umm, all of you? Ridiculous.
This week it was two of my sisters' birthdays. Birthdays really are not a big deal here - especially in my family it seems- but me being me and being American can't really stand for this. So, Hanna (roommate) and I blew up some balloons and bought chocolate bars and left them outside one of the sister's doors. When we saw her in the morning, she had tears in her eyes she was so surprised and thrilled. Everyone in the family was saying "oh wonderful surprise!". It was really nice. The other sister's, Bijou, birthday was yesterday and Hanna and I embarrassed her at her work by stopping by with balloons and a little cake. Equally fulfilling because Bijou is usually a little too cool for me and Hanna and she gave us big hugs and told us we were "tres gentille" (very nice). So, feeling good about the family. We are going to try to make smores tomorrow night with them. Should be funny, especially when I burn the house down.
Off to the gym and then a Halloween party with other American and Senegalese students. My friends Leanne, Caitlin, and I are going to be the Senegalese flag. In other words, we will each wear a different color dress and can casually take off the hideous jewelry we bought if no one else is dressed up (taking this precaution after wearing a garbage bag to a "Dress Up Like Your Favorite State" WUWU-Contra Party freshman year (New Jersey = garbage state for much of America) only to find no one else was wearing a costume and I was wearing a garbage bag... ).
Monday morning I leave for Kaolack, a city three hours inland from Dakar. I will be working with APROFES, a women's organization that works on a lot of issues, including microfinance (something I was looking forward to studying here). 6 other students and I spend a day getting debriefed on what they do (will probably involve a lot of tea and pretending like we understand Wolof) and then get sent off to local villages to live with families and work in our respective fields (gender, health, microfinance). It turns out I made a fabulous life decision when I picked microfinance. The 3 students who are studying microfinance get to stay in Kaolack for Tuesday night as well: essentially, our chances of watching the elections on TV just went up exponentially. I'm thrilled. A bunch of students who are going to very remote areas have been told that hopefully someone in their village will have a radio. Before I heard about my specific assignment, I had a nightmare that I couldn't find out who won for three days. The dream wrapped up with Obama paying for my laundry and buying me a meal (my roommate commented on what a romantic dream it was, I thought it was more indicative of my priorities these days- food, clean clothes, and knowing I don't have to move to Canada at the end of my study abroad expierence).
Other highlights: Went to the DESERT. Jumped in a van (ok that makes it sound more casual than anything ever is- involved about 10 calls with the driver who still brought a van that was too small) with some fellow students last Saturday morning and went 3 hours north of Dakar to the town of Lampool. When we got there, we met a woman from Dakar who was doing work in Lampool. Turns out she and the local women make jewelry, baskets, statues, etc. and use the profits to buy birth control. Found it pretty amazing in a heavily Muslim country where many believe birth control is agaisnt the teachings of Islam. More and more women are taking birth control in Lampool and yet, it is kept very quiet and none of the men have been told. While the secrecy is unfortunate and I'm sure the men wouldn't be thrilled to know they have been kept in the dark, I was impressed and bought a necklace. Then a safari-like-car came, drove us out in the middle of the nowhere for 20 minutes and all of a sudden we turn the corner and miles of sand dunes were spread out before us. After dropping our bags in the spacious Mauritianian tents we stayed in and climbing around the sand dunes for a while, we realized arriving in the desert at 10 am wasn't our smartest decision yet. As it quickly became incredibly hot, we grabbed cards, food, and laid around comatose for the next 6 hours under a big tent. Around 5 pm, 6 camels came walking across the sand dunes and we got to ride the camels (only about 15 minutes actually on the camels in comparison to the hour we spent having a photo shoot with the poor camels) .That night we danced while men who worked at the campement drummed along(included making all the women line up and shake their "jaay fondes" for all the men drumming - can we say degrading?) and enjoyed the fact that it was COLD. But, there is always a glitch and we had to laugh the next morning when the campement tried to charge us for 3 of the 9 free sodas we were guaranteed with our "all-inclusive" fee. Their reasoning? We had drank 6 of them before 5 pm, but the other 3 after 5 pm. If you have them after 5, you have to pay. If you are going to rip of the Toubabs, come up with something better than that. We said no one told us this "rule", they said who is the person who did not tell you this rule? Umm, all of you? Ridiculous.
This week it was two of my sisters' birthdays. Birthdays really are not a big deal here - especially in my family it seems- but me being me and being American can't really stand for this. So, Hanna (roommate) and I blew up some balloons and bought chocolate bars and left them outside one of the sister's doors. When we saw her in the morning, she had tears in her eyes she was so surprised and thrilled. Everyone in the family was saying "oh wonderful surprise!". It was really nice. The other sister's, Bijou, birthday was yesterday and Hanna and I embarrassed her at her work by stopping by with balloons and a little cake. Equally fulfilling because Bijou is usually a little too cool for me and Hanna and she gave us big hugs and told us we were "tres gentille" (very nice). So, feeling good about the family. We are going to try to make smores tomorrow night with them. Should be funny, especially when I burn the house down.
Off to the gym and then a Halloween party with other American and Senegalese students. My friends Leanne, Caitlin, and I are going to be the Senegalese flag. In other words, we will each wear a different color dress and can casually take off the hideous jewelry we bought if no one else is dressed up (taking this precaution after wearing a garbage bag to a "Dress Up Like Your Favorite State" WUWU-Contra Party freshman year (New Jersey = garbage state for much of America) only to find no one else was wearing a costume and I was wearing a garbage bag... ).
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