Chere ma famille et mes amis
Less than 3 weeks left and I still seem to be having cultural "expierences" on a daily basis. Monday brought a visit to the doctor. Last week, I was feeling feverish, exhausted, and having bad headaches. I figured the 3rd world had finally kicked my butt and I'd be over it soon. But by Monday my arms were starting to ache and worse, I was actually wearing a long sleeve shirt from being cold (I still sweat regularly here). Trying to suppress thoughts of malaria, I finally made a doctor's apt. Of course, when I say made an appointment, I first called a local real estate office and got very annoyed when the receptionist did not seem to understand when i repeatedly said medecin medecin (doctor doctor). Finally got my hands on the right number and not only got an apt for that afternoon but the office was incredibly nice. The doctor was very friendly and after looking down my throat said Ahhh, une infection des amygdales. I starred at him blankly. You don't know the word "amygdale?" , "AMYGDALE?" (speaking louder and repeating it always helps). A few hand gestures later and with the help of another doctor, I realized I have a tonsil infection. Believe it or not, tonsils is not in my vocabularly. Words like "diarrhea" and "I'm sick to my stomach don't make me eat intestines" have been more necessary while here. Nevertheless, got some medecine and am now on the mend :)
Tuesday: went to HLM fabric market for retail therapy. Unfortunately everyone who lives in Dakar was there because big Muslim holiday, Tabaski, is coming up and everyone needs a new bou-bou (dresses women and men wear here). After buying something for my mama, the next time I stopped to open my backpack, my bag was in fact already wide open for me because I had been robbed. Clearly someone had seen me put my wallet back in my backpack and while I was getting tossed around in the crowd- someone reached in. Dakar is known for its pick pockets but I was just so bummed because I am usually so careful and had almost made it to the end with all my stuff. The good news- I only lost 40 bucks. In fact, 30 minutes later someone called me because they found my wallet on the ground, void of money but still had my ID cards in it. Retrieving it involved an hour adventure with the help of a Senegalese whose name was Monsieur Yess and greeting an entire family and sitting in their living room before I got it back. Nevertheless, it restored some faith and all in all, was only 40 dollars.
French class is calling, but I'll add that Wednesday's expierence was eating lunch at my house with a complete stranger. My family just sat me down with her and I prayed I had not met her before and was now being rude. She gave me an apple at the end so I guess I did not offend her.
Much love
Hannah
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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!
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!
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... ).
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Long Time, No Update
Long time, no update. Sitting here munching on Reese’s pieces from my roommate who received them in a “Halloween package” from her mom. Some students in my program are considering testing trick-or-treating in Dakar. They’d probably just be really full because every house they would stop at would demand they eat part of their dinner. The Senegalese sense of hospitality means even random people on the street offer to share their food with me.
Since my return to Dakar about two weeks ago, school has gotten more demanding, I am in the midst of having a tailor make clothes for me (they have beautiful cloth here- some people say Dakar gets the shaft for not being considered one of the fashion capital’s of the world; I agree for the simple fact that all Senegalese women walk around in very high heels on a Monday morning on the sand sidewalks), and running water has ceased to flow at my school. Apparently the neighboring school has also stolen our generator. Nevertheless, I have begun to think more about what I will miss about Senegal opposed to what I currently miss about the US. For one, the aforementioned classes at my local gym. One of the numerous awkward moments that seem to characterize everyday here was during a “Body Attack” class. This class is unbelievable. The room is always filled past capacity and is an hour of either jumping up and down, an obscene number of push-ups, or splitting the class in two and having everybody run at each other. By the end of the class, everyone is so exhausted people actually look pissed as the instructors continue to scream Allons-y! (Let’s go!). During one exercise they had everyone running around the room in circles doing high knees. An instructor was suddenly next to me and put his hand out as if he wanted to hold hands. In the scheme of things it didn’t seem too weird- we had already done some type of square dancing that involved interlocking arms. So I finally put my hand in his. Only to finally hear him say “genou! genou!” (knees! knees!). The hand motion was to get me to lift my knees higher. My face was probably the color of a tomato. He just let go of my hand and pranced off to the next victim.
The theme of being kind of lost continued throughout the week. This past Sunday, three other girls from my program and I headed off to the nearby “Ile de Madelaine”- an uninhabited island off the coast of Dakar- for the day. We paid for the 15 minute boat ride over to the island (fully equipped with life vests and a driver who was wearing a hard hat?) as well as a guide. Upon arrival, no sooner had we gotten out of the boat, it was gone. While there were some Frenchies with us, one sporting an entirely too small speedo, it wasn’t exactly clear where this guide was and we had just been deserted on the island. So, we decided to just started walking around. But, the Senegalese have a way of coming through and within 10 minutes a man just emerged from the brush and started walking with us. “Ummm, are you the guide?” “Yep”. Hey great! The island turned out to be beautiful and included hundreds of birds and some quality kodak moments inside a baobab tree (national tree of Senegal).
Then, yesterday, it had finally been set for me to have a meeting with the company I am supposed to be interning with (yes, I have been here for 8 weeks already). The woman who coordinates all the internship business is less than pleasant. She is very scatter-brained, rarely listens but prefers to bark in French over the phone, and has a tendency to ignore people for weeks on end. Nevertheless, she has lots of connections and has found me an internship at a microcredit agency, an aspect of economics that really intrigues me. When she and I arrived in the neighborhood where the company was, she realized she didn’t know exactly where it was. Unfortunately, neither did the 10 people we asked on the street. She had also forgotten the number of the agency. Solution? Go home and try again another day. Had to laugh when she told me I’d have to come back another day and find it by myself once she got the address and phone number. That sounds like that will end well. Oh well, all about patience.
Finally, I gave a presentation in my French class today on marabouts (heads of Islamic brotherhoods) in Senegal and their power in the government (HUGE topic). Despite being a secular state, marabouts who head some of the major brotherhoods have a lot of power in Senegal because citizens have deep respect for the marabouts’ opinions and will usually vote the same way as their marabouts. Today, the president, Wade, is a member of a major brotherhood in Senegal called the Murids. As a result, the government is essentially being run from the holy Murid city, Touba. Yesterday, my culture class had a speaker who works in Senegalese media. He talked about all the opposition media (against the government) and the emergence of private radio in Senegal. Given that 30 or so percent of the population can’t read, the radio in Wolof (most prevalent language in Senegal) has allowed many more people in Senegal to be more aware of what is going on in the country. As a result, more people, especially young people, now view the marabouts only as a spiritual leader, rather than as a leader on every aspect of society from religion to politics. Religion will continue to be a huge factor in the Senegalese state but it was interesting to learn about the influence of the media.
Ok, long update. 1 week until rural visits. Apparently we will be staying in villages outside of Dakar by ourselves and few people speak French (funny how at this point French is the comfort language; there is a sense of relief when you find out someone speaks French). Sounds like some quality time in my own head.
Since my return to Dakar about two weeks ago, school has gotten more demanding, I am in the midst of having a tailor make clothes for me (they have beautiful cloth here- some people say Dakar gets the shaft for not being considered one of the fashion capital’s of the world; I agree for the simple fact that all Senegalese women walk around in very high heels on a Monday morning on the sand sidewalks), and running water has ceased to flow at my school. Apparently the neighboring school has also stolen our generator. Nevertheless, I have begun to think more about what I will miss about Senegal opposed to what I currently miss about the US. For one, the aforementioned classes at my local gym. One of the numerous awkward moments that seem to characterize everyday here was during a “Body Attack” class. This class is unbelievable. The room is always filled past capacity and is an hour of either jumping up and down, an obscene number of push-ups, or splitting the class in two and having everybody run at each other. By the end of the class, everyone is so exhausted people actually look pissed as the instructors continue to scream Allons-y! (Let’s go!). During one exercise they had everyone running around the room in circles doing high knees. An instructor was suddenly next to me and put his hand out as if he wanted to hold hands. In the scheme of things it didn’t seem too weird- we had already done some type of square dancing that involved interlocking arms. So I finally put my hand in his. Only to finally hear him say “genou! genou!” (knees! knees!). The hand motion was to get me to lift my knees higher. My face was probably the color of a tomato. He just let go of my hand and pranced off to the next victim.
The theme of being kind of lost continued throughout the week. This past Sunday, three other girls from my program and I headed off to the nearby “Ile de Madelaine”- an uninhabited island off the coast of Dakar- for the day. We paid for the 15 minute boat ride over to the island (fully equipped with life vests and a driver who was wearing a hard hat?) as well as a guide. Upon arrival, no sooner had we gotten out of the boat, it was gone. While there were some Frenchies with us, one sporting an entirely too small speedo, it wasn’t exactly clear where this guide was and we had just been deserted on the island. So, we decided to just started walking around. But, the Senegalese have a way of coming through and within 10 minutes a man just emerged from the brush and started walking with us. “Ummm, are you the guide?” “Yep”. Hey great! The island turned out to be beautiful and included hundreds of birds and some quality kodak moments inside a baobab tree (national tree of Senegal).
Then, yesterday, it had finally been set for me to have a meeting with the company I am supposed to be interning with (yes, I have been here for 8 weeks already). The woman who coordinates all the internship business is less than pleasant. She is very scatter-brained, rarely listens but prefers to bark in French over the phone, and has a tendency to ignore people for weeks on end. Nevertheless, she has lots of connections and has found me an internship at a microcredit agency, an aspect of economics that really intrigues me. When she and I arrived in the neighborhood where the company was, she realized she didn’t know exactly where it was. Unfortunately, neither did the 10 people we asked on the street. She had also forgotten the number of the agency. Solution? Go home and try again another day. Had to laugh when she told me I’d have to come back another day and find it by myself once she got the address and phone number. That sounds like that will end well. Oh well, all about patience.
Finally, I gave a presentation in my French class today on marabouts (heads of Islamic brotherhoods) in Senegal and their power in the government (HUGE topic). Despite being a secular state, marabouts who head some of the major brotherhoods have a lot of power in Senegal because citizens have deep respect for the marabouts’ opinions and will usually vote the same way as their marabouts. Today, the president, Wade, is a member of a major brotherhood in Senegal called the Murids. As a result, the government is essentially being run from the holy Murid city, Touba. Yesterday, my culture class had a speaker who works in Senegalese media. He talked about all the opposition media (against the government) and the emergence of private radio in Senegal. Given that 30 or so percent of the population can’t read, the radio in Wolof (most prevalent language in Senegal) has allowed many more people in Senegal to be more aware of what is going on in the country. As a result, more people, especially young people, now view the marabouts only as a spiritual leader, rather than as a leader on every aspect of society from religion to politics. Religion will continue to be a huge factor in the Senegalese state but it was interesting to learn about the influence of the media.
Ok, long update. 1 week until rural visits. Apparently we will be staying in villages outside of Dakar by ourselves and few people speak French (funny how at this point French is the comfort language; there is a sense of relief when you find out someone speaks French). Sounds like some quality time in my own head.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Relaxing Vacances
Hello everyone, I am back at school after spending fall break in south-eastern Senegal. Let's just say, I am definitely looking at Dakar in a new light. As my friend Grant put it- before we left for fall break, I judged Dakar based on all the things it didn't have. Now, I am appreciating it for everything it does have. like toilets.
Last Friday, I left my house at 530 am to meet up with 3 girls and 3 guys from my program to take a sept-place (old beat-up station wagon that has seen better days with one seat in front, 3 in the middle, and another 3-seater stuffed in the trunk) to Tambacounda- the "hub" of Southern Senegal. 12 hours and miserably bumpy roads later, we arrived. For about 6 of those hours our driver swirved in and out of potholes as we drove through vast very green landscape and passed increasingly smaller villages with thatched huts, goats, pigs, and kids jumping up and down as we passed. By day two we had reached our "base camp"- the southern most "city" in Southeastern Senegal, Kedougou. It began to dawn on me just how far into rural Africa we had gone when the options for lunch at a local food store were canned lentils, tuna, or ravoli. That was when the game began: what do you wish is around the next corner? At the moment, it was a super Stop & Shop. By the end of our biking adventure, it was a spa.
By the third morning, we had run into a guide who said he charged 15 dollars a day and would bring us around to the local villages. My group proposed the idea of renting bikes to get around; our guide said we had to be "tres fort" (very strong) to bike the 75 km or so to get around over the next few days. We confidentely said yes, we are tres tres fort. It turns out it was not the distance, but the boulders we were biking across on one-speed easy-rider bicycles with occassional chains breaking and questionable gears that was the issue. That day, we biked for a while, stopped, climbed a mountain with stunning views across to Guinea (wasn't really planning on doing this but all of a sudden our guide was leading us up a steep incline and there you go), and then continued on to the town of Ibel. About 3 km away from Ibel, my chain snapped. So, we did the most logical thing: tied a string to the back of Grant's bike and had me hold on to the other end. Great video clip of that.
That night, we had climbed a second small mountain to the town of Iwol where we stayed for the night. Even when you know in advance, it comes as a surprise when there is no electricity or running water. I took a bucket shower behind a hatched fence next to what seemed to be the entire town sitting around, cooking. The next morning (post sleeping on wood bed = did awesome things for my back) I expierenced a little culture shock. We spent the morning walking around the village and any one- ranging from old grandmothers to small children- would just walk up to us, stick their hand out, and say "cadeau" (gift). We handed out tons of candy and kola nuts that our guide had instructed us to buy, but people kept asking for more and given this isn't the first time this had happened, it was overwhelming and disheartening that we were just seen as rich people who should give them stuff. Our guide sometimes had the same attitude- sticking out his hand during every meal we had, expecting to be shared with. Later on that day, part of our group got lost (to explained in a minute) and when we tried to recruit some people for help, their first question was - what will you give us? In some ways, sharing is part of Senegalese society- it is a communal society. Just today, a guard on the street offered to share his lunch with me. But, in other ways it is shocking, as I wonder how someone would react if I invited them over my house and immediately said "what did you bring me?".
We left the town around midday, climbed down the mountain, and jumped back on our bikes. We were feeling "fort" and ready to roll. Within 15 minutes we turned off the main road. Little did we know, we would be riding over what seemed to be a dried up river bed for the rest of the day. Trying to be good spirited, jokes were made like- good thing we are wearing helmets, glad my chain just fell off my bike again, gears would be awesome right about now. A few hours in, our guide said we were 30 minutes from a village where we could get much-needed water. A few minutes after, our group ended up on two different roads and being out in hot rural Africa suddenly got less funny. One group ended up forging 3 rivers and tramping through people's corn fields, going without seeing human beings for an hour at a time. Another guy ended up by himself for a while until our guide found him and had him bike through a stream to get to the village. Me and Grant- the only two people who had water-purifying sticks- managed to stay on the path the whole time and just thought the rest of the group was being really slow as we sat and waited at the village (in the meantime, we both got shit on by a bird- Amy, Paris take 2?). By the end of the day we all managed to meet up, looking quite rough and really shaken up, but fine. The next few days we saw a beautiful waterfall, met some peace core workers, biked on more ridiculous roads, played a lot of cards at various campements (little huts where we stayed), and trecking our way back to Dakar.
Driving home yesterday, I actually looked like a different person because there was so much red dust all over my face. My host family looked at me in horror and directed me towards the shower. The final stretch home had been scary because there had been a soccer game in dakar between Senegal and the Gambia. After the game, people were flooding the streets and one man actually reached into our car and snatched a friend's money purse right off of him. People were banging on the windows, starting fires, and throwing rocks. I have never expierenced any kind of riot and am happy to never be in one again. Needless to say, great week- what an adventure. So many more thoughts on everything, but this is enough for now. Back to school tomorrow morning and then three more weeks until "Rural visits". I think I am going to tell the director I already did mine and should probably sit by the beach instead. xoxo miss you all.
Last Friday, I left my house at 530 am to meet up with 3 girls and 3 guys from my program to take a sept-place (old beat-up station wagon that has seen better days with one seat in front, 3 in the middle, and another 3-seater stuffed in the trunk) to Tambacounda- the "hub" of Southern Senegal. 12 hours and miserably bumpy roads later, we arrived. For about 6 of those hours our driver swirved in and out of potholes as we drove through vast very green landscape and passed increasingly smaller villages with thatched huts, goats, pigs, and kids jumping up and down as we passed. By day two we had reached our "base camp"- the southern most "city" in Southeastern Senegal, Kedougou. It began to dawn on me just how far into rural Africa we had gone when the options for lunch at a local food store were canned lentils, tuna, or ravoli. That was when the game began: what do you wish is around the next corner? At the moment, it was a super Stop & Shop. By the end of our biking adventure, it was a spa.
By the third morning, we had run into a guide who said he charged 15 dollars a day and would bring us around to the local villages. My group proposed the idea of renting bikes to get around; our guide said we had to be "tres fort" (very strong) to bike the 75 km or so to get around over the next few days. We confidentely said yes, we are tres tres fort. It turns out it was not the distance, but the boulders we were biking across on one-speed easy-rider bicycles with occassional chains breaking and questionable gears that was the issue. That day, we biked for a while, stopped, climbed a mountain with stunning views across to Guinea (wasn't really planning on doing this but all of a sudden our guide was leading us up a steep incline and there you go), and then continued on to the town of Ibel. About 3 km away from Ibel, my chain snapped. So, we did the most logical thing: tied a string to the back of Grant's bike and had me hold on to the other end. Great video clip of that.
That night, we had climbed a second small mountain to the town of Iwol where we stayed for the night. Even when you know in advance, it comes as a surprise when there is no electricity or running water. I took a bucket shower behind a hatched fence next to what seemed to be the entire town sitting around, cooking. The next morning (post sleeping on wood bed = did awesome things for my back) I expierenced a little culture shock. We spent the morning walking around the village and any one- ranging from old grandmothers to small children- would just walk up to us, stick their hand out, and say "cadeau" (gift). We handed out tons of candy and kola nuts that our guide had instructed us to buy, but people kept asking for more and given this isn't the first time this had happened, it was overwhelming and disheartening that we were just seen as rich people who should give them stuff. Our guide sometimes had the same attitude- sticking out his hand during every meal we had, expecting to be shared with. Later on that day, part of our group got lost (to explained in a minute) and when we tried to recruit some people for help, their first question was - what will you give us? In some ways, sharing is part of Senegalese society- it is a communal society. Just today, a guard on the street offered to share his lunch with me. But, in other ways it is shocking, as I wonder how someone would react if I invited them over my house and immediately said "what did you bring me?".
We left the town around midday, climbed down the mountain, and jumped back on our bikes. We were feeling "fort" and ready to roll. Within 15 minutes we turned off the main road. Little did we know, we would be riding over what seemed to be a dried up river bed for the rest of the day. Trying to be good spirited, jokes were made like- good thing we are wearing helmets, glad my chain just fell off my bike again, gears would be awesome right about now. A few hours in, our guide said we were 30 minutes from a village where we could get much-needed water. A few minutes after, our group ended up on two different roads and being out in hot rural Africa suddenly got less funny. One group ended up forging 3 rivers and tramping through people's corn fields, going without seeing human beings for an hour at a time. Another guy ended up by himself for a while until our guide found him and had him bike through a stream to get to the village. Me and Grant- the only two people who had water-purifying sticks- managed to stay on the path the whole time and just thought the rest of the group was being really slow as we sat and waited at the village (in the meantime, we both got shit on by a bird- Amy, Paris take 2?). By the end of the day we all managed to meet up, looking quite rough and really shaken up, but fine. The next few days we saw a beautiful waterfall, met some peace core workers, biked on more ridiculous roads, played a lot of cards at various campements (little huts where we stayed), and trecking our way back to Dakar.
Driving home yesterday, I actually looked like a different person because there was so much red dust all over my face. My host family looked at me in horror and directed me towards the shower. The final stretch home had been scary because there had been a soccer game in dakar between Senegal and the Gambia. After the game, people were flooding the streets and one man actually reached into our car and snatched a friend's money purse right off of him. People were banging on the windows, starting fires, and throwing rocks. I have never expierenced any kind of riot and am happy to never be in one again. Needless to say, great week- what an adventure. So many more thoughts on everything, but this is enough for now. Back to school tomorrow morning and then three more weeks until "Rural visits". I think I am going to tell the director I already did mine and should probably sit by the beach instead. xoxo miss you all.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
African at Heart, Partying with Muslims
Think dinner is soon and since it may just be mystery meat, anxious to get home. Ended up having a splendid birthday. Highlights included: lots of great birthday wishes and letters (thank to you as well Teddy), buying and eating (correction: devouring) pasteries with my family from a place that was air conditioned and smelled like Paris, getting sung happy birthday in multiple languages multiple times, and hitting up a local restaurant/bar at night where not only had the other students bought me a cake but old senegalese men sung me happy birthday and told me I was an American, but African at heart... like i said, going to be a good decade.
yesterday was korite and all of the americans were super excited. some families gave their students bou-bous to wear (gorgeous dresses that are very colorful and apparently quite warm)and lots of food was made- it marks the end of ramadan. of course, as with everything unclear what was going on generally throughout the day. just basically sat and greeted six billion people who came to wish good tidings etc. had a big lunch and delicious baobob juice (baobob trees are the huge trees that are everywhere in senegal). turns out that no one really has dinner then (so not really our american idea of eating all day and stuffing your face- even lunch it was like i mean i could eat more...) and while i was fortunate enough to get some leftovers from lunch for dinner, some students were a little starved this morning. funny different concepts of holidays. we americans are like so where is the buffet? and we have to give food to every single person who comes over? who wasn't even invited and just showed up?
today had a european day. went to the center of town which was nice and quiet, ate at the institute francaise, went to probably the biggest grocery store in senegal (aka little smaller than average american one) to buy snacks for fall break, and then topped if off with some "nice cream"- delicious ice cream store. off to south eastern senegal tomorrow. someone's mom's friend is driving us in his station wagon...
sure to be many good stories upon my return :)
yesterday was korite and all of the americans were super excited. some families gave their students bou-bous to wear (gorgeous dresses that are very colorful and apparently quite warm)and lots of food was made- it marks the end of ramadan. of course, as with everything unclear what was going on generally throughout the day. just basically sat and greeted six billion people who came to wish good tidings etc. had a big lunch and delicious baobob juice (baobob trees are the huge trees that are everywhere in senegal). turns out that no one really has dinner then (so not really our american idea of eating all day and stuffing your face- even lunch it was like i mean i could eat more...) and while i was fortunate enough to get some leftovers from lunch for dinner, some students were a little starved this morning. funny different concepts of holidays. we americans are like so where is the buffet? and we have to give food to every single person who comes over? who wasn't even invited and just showed up?
today had a european day. went to the center of town which was nice and quiet, ate at the institute francaise, went to probably the biggest grocery store in senegal (aka little smaller than average american one) to buy snacks for fall break, and then topped if off with some "nice cream"- delicious ice cream store. off to south eastern senegal tomorrow. someone's mom's friend is driving us in his station wagon...
sure to be many good stories upon my return :)
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