"What's been goin down around there?", you might be asking...
Well for starters I have a new "joking husband" who is this old guy somehow related to this lady by a tailors shop I was talking to two nights ago and then last night my host mom said "oh I hear that you are married now to Mr. Diouf!" and I said oh no no that's not true and she said "oh yes it is true! that's how we joke around here. Kodu (pointing to my seven-year-old host niece-daughter of my oldest host sister) has many husbands!" Oh okay then! All single people do it. When in Rome!
Also on Sunday night I had my first experience ever in life of being slightly grossed out by food. Now we eat goat all the time, and I'm a big fan of goat-it's great! Meat is meat. However before dinner we had what I can only describe as goat's head soup, with the jaws and a piece of the skull with the eye socket, like that, and some vegetables. I was sort of eating a bit of potato and poked at the meat and realized "oh that's the tongue there on that jaw" and stuck to the pieces of meat my host mom and sister handed over to me and then when I spit a bone out in my hand it was of course a tooth. I was not going for it. Only the two kids and those two adults were eating it. The way one of my other sisters looked at me, I realized she wasn't a fan either.
I'd eat it again.
The main course really made up for it though! It was Morroccan and was like little pasta balls in a milky sugary stew. Deeeelightful.
This week has been fairly low key because I've been at school most of the time studying/taking midterms. Now I am officially on vacation again, however because next week are our "rural visits" and my friend Sarah and I will be staying with the family of the director of our program a couple hours away outside Mont Rolland, which is outside Thies. We'll be harvesting crops, planting tomatos, helping at the elementary school, and hopefully will get to talk about the election on the community radio station.
(P.S. Obama's infomercial: kinda creepy. I'm not into the idea and this whole thing of making him an inpenatrable, sliver, packaged, changing America product. Obviously I want him to win, but I just am resentful of the way campaigns have to work today in the US and how removed and media and sound-bite and image driven they are as opposed to other countries where a candidate can have very little money behind him (usually him let's face it) and just does major footwork and gains clout with the people and even a poet can become president (think Vaclav Havel. Even Senghor-the first of Senegal-was a poet, but I'm not very into him). In any case, I will be getting election results over a transistor radio, maybe a TV, I expect to have to call my mom. It will be a late night.)
Have I yet mentioned that I think it's bull crap that all the schools here are in French? Wolof, which 80% of people speak, is never taught anywhere. It's written on billboards, but there isn't necessarily a standardized way of writing that regular people have access to. It's been an argument since before independence, whether schools should be in French, but if schools can be in Hungarian or Czech or Mongolian or Khazak or Cambodian-languages not widely spoken outside of their respective countries- then Wolof could be taught here. Only 30% of the population even reads and speaks French, kids don't speak it when they get to school at age 6, it slows down learning, it discourages kids from continuing in school if they aren't good at languages, it continues the pyschological colonialism by the French- and besides, English and Arabic are much more useful for international relations and trade.
Sarkozy had the nerve to come to Dakar in 2007 and talk about the underdevelopment of Africa, speaking mostly to Senegalese, and blame it on them for the lack of progress they've made. The French didn't even really end slavery in their colonies until after WWI (same for Britain) even though they had "abolished" it in 1848. They set up a net (trap) of beaurocracy that is impossible to navigate and is self defeating-it effects not just the government, but educational institutions and other areas of life.
Then there's the economic dependence and monoculture and then of course after Senegal was reprimanded for not being developed enough they got structural adjustment as the answer. How would you feel if the American dollar was devalued and everything you had yesterday was reduced in value by a half today? The American people would not deal with that-everyone would be in poverty- and that's exactly what happened. The promise of libralization actually lowered incomes and made countries like Senegal more dependent on loans and debt. Every step along the way, people here and other places have resisted what was being imposed on them in order to adapt (while elites within the country of course benefited/still benefit) whether it was growing millet and creating local peanut oil to increase food security in the early 1900s while the peanut price plumeted, or the first fully televised presidential election with intense youth and GOTV campaigning in 2000 after 30 years of the same party.
Stuff's crazy.
But in any case, last weekend I went a couple places. Three of us took a bus and then a taxi to see Lac Rose- a lake said to be ten times as salty as the Dead Sea, and which turns pink at certain times of day because of all the salt. It was indeed pink and we got to take a pirogue ride around the lake, and also we walked through a forest and over sand dunes to an unending stretch of beach with huge waves and no people. It made a great pitstop. After the lake we headed over to Kheur Moussa monestary, only 12km away but it felt much longer. It's a Benedictine monestary with a convent just down the road. The monks were mostly Senegalese, with a Canadian and a couple of French thrown in. Brother Andre was the housing coordinator and he was one of the friendliest, happiest people I've ever met in my life. I thought he was laughing at my bad French when I made arrangements on the phone, but I found out that everything makes him laugh. He made us dinner- potato soup, raviolis, bread with fresh monk-made cheese, and mangos. The three of us each got our own rooms and went to service in the morning. There was a lot of music-much better than the standard fare, and instead of an organ or piano they use jembes (drums), koras (like a lap guitar/harp) and a xylophone looking instrument. Its in a very peaceful surrounding, with many small farms-including their own. The monks make goat cheese, preserves, chocolates, and juices.
Muslims and Catholics seem to actually have a great relationship here. People display their religion proudly in their houses and through their clothing and jewelry, and give one another food on their respective holidays. It's an interesting dynamic that I can't do justice to right here and now, but suffice to say it's unique and refreshing after what I sometimes experience in the US (like uhh...Islamo-fascism awareness week by a couple groups at school).
(**If anyone is interested in some Catholic/Christian fabric, let me know now and I'll get you some.)
Also I've been thinking about media here, especially since we're going to a community radio station next week. Until about the 1990s most of the media people consumed, if they got any at all, was the government's TV station, the government's newspaper (in French only) or the government's radio station or the French world radio-so people were getting news about their own country from an international source. News was regulated, suffice to say. It wasn't until 1994 that radio really came into it's own and anyone could get stations. Now there are channels in every community (group of villages) that broadcast in the local language. There are more TV stations now, but the number of Senegalese one's are not so many, and newspapers are also more free and there are more of them-with strong readership- but they are mainly in Dakar and the big cities. It's interesting that here people don't have a loyalty to a particular newspaper-they just buy whatever looks interesting and it can be different day to day. It's hard for me to imagine now that information freedom has really only existed for about 20 years here. Now people can be informed about political candidates, domestic issues, and their communities. Oh how small things have big effects.
Anyway I'm off and will not update next week but will have one the week after.
Happy voting!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"everybody rides the bus"
Yo and I mean everybody. Since school started for the high school and younger kids, the morning bus has been that much more crowded. I've never been on the subway in Tokyo, but I imagine the rush hour Dakar buses are something like that only worse, because people are bigger and it's very hot-though there is equally a different idea of what constitutes personal space (in this case very little is just fine) which means yesterday when I didn't snag a seat in time I was a sardine with my stomach pushed up against a humming engine type part of the bus and had to step on people's feet to get off. They're very polite about it.
***Inserted after thought: Colin Powell=has my respect. The Senegalese media (at least TV) acts like Obama is already president! People may know McCain's name here now, but my family didn't know McCain when I got here in August. Everyone knows Obama, however-out and inside of Dakar. Watching the news here is actually a pleasant experience I look forward to here because it gives me information. In the US I dread the news because it makes my stomach hurt and my heart beat faster and makes me anxious-regardless of the story. If you've seen me in the cafeteria at school I'm usually yelling at the screen, whereas here I just watch. I didn't even notice it at first. The only violence I've seen in my two months here on TV has been from American and European movies. It's just a different approach...
Speaking of the bus, one of the daily interactions when I'm waiting in the morning are with the talibe- boys between the ages of 5 and 14 who roam around from 6am to late into the evening begging for money and food (500 CFA -a little more than $1- a day is what they aim for or else they get beaten). They're historical roots are in the Islamic schools around Senegal where boys would be sent to learn the Koran, and usually during lunch/meals they would go out and beg to be made humble and also because giving charity is an important part of the Muslim faith. Now there are Muslim brotherhoods in Senegal, the most powerful being the Mourides, who each sort of had their own "prophet" type figure and are let by various levels of "marabouts" who serve as intermediaries between Allah and disciples. This is something relatively unique to Senegal and the average Muslim in most countries will tell you she has a direct relationship with Allah and doesn't believe someone can tell her what to do. So by various processes many Marabout have become corrupt (doesn't everyone) and they run these "schools" which are basically money making machines for them and the boys don't learn much, if at all, and they spend the whole day begging. Because it is still seen as religious and because of the importance of charity, the corrupt version of the system has been slow to decline. Most of the boys come from very poor families either in rural Senegal but mostly other bordering countries from parents who usually believe they will get an education. There have been many studies of the talibe and if you actually pay attention to them they are very depressing and I have a hard time being culturally relative about them. Fortunately alternative Koronic schools are beginning to be built that teach Arabic and the Koran, as well as the standard French education in some of the regions where boys are coming from. I wish there were more of these schools! Interestingly, the talibe are the main beggers I've encountered. Yes there are occassionally people on the street asking for money who seem homeless, but there are many other people who ask for money and are clearly not homeless, which is also interesting.
Poverty. We read a bit in French class yesterday about clandestine emmigration from West Africa to Europe and the US and the different methods people use for emmigration. There have been a couple cases (one also from Colombia to Miami) of boys (18 or 20) who climb up onto the wheels of a plane and stay in the space where they wheels draw into the plane for 5 or 6 hours to get to Europe and they bear temperatures of -60 degrees farenheit! How desperate do you have to be? We deal with this a lot in the US but I guess being in a place where people emmigrate from makes me think a little harder. What does your life have to be like and what do you have to think awaits you on the other side? Inshallah I will never have a life so desperate that I would do something like that, and yet millions of people do it all the time all over the world.
On Friday there was a movie night here at school. Most of the Senegalese students in our part of the school are going on after two years to study in the US and they all speak really good English-so the movies were American. Hancock and Sex and the City. People watch European and American shows and movies all the time on TV (Actually all the most popular shows are telenovellas from Mexico) and it's easy to get a very false impression of life in those places (judging by the Mexican telenovella's I'd say they live a much more lavish lifestyle than I do). Besides the stereotypes, the more amusing thing especially with Sex and the City was the awkwardness at some moments that reveal cultural difference. Whenever Anthony and Stanford kissed on New Years, the whole audience went "EEEWWWWUGH!" and the sex scenes were more awkward than if I was watching with my grandmother (granted, she is MY grandmother) and the responses to the marriages and all that were different because you don't have sex until marriage, you marry young, and for the most part you stay married and have a bountiful family (I guess in reality it isn't so different for many Americans, but the culturally accepted standards are different).
Speaking of which, there was a marriage on my street on Saturday (I believe it was the son of our family's favorite tailor) and it was his second marriage. The drums were going all day and I chilled on the roof listening-it was great! I heard from my sisters that his first wife is Senegalese, but this wife is American, which was very intriguing. I for one could never be one of multiple wives, but it's not the same for everyone. My sisters did not forsee a good future for the marriage however (maybe it's because my host mother's family is Catholic so they're not very into polygamy. I have suspicians that my host dad has a second wife but I'm not sure.)
As far as not knowing things goes, another interesting thing here is that when someone is pregnant, you don't talk about it and don't talk to them about it and they certainly don't mention it because otherwise it could put the evil eye on the baby and something bad could happen-bad luck basically. This applies to my house because my second oldest sister is getting very pregnant with a second child (there's an adorable 1 1/2 year old girl already) but it's never talked about. Once I asked her how many children she wanted and she insisted "just one" and another time at dinner I tried to push more food her way (remember-always one big plate for everyone) and said "you need more food" and she gave me a look and insisted that she didn't. All very interesting! I wonder if she's getting any prenatal care...That's one of the problems that comes along with this system. I really hope the baby is born before I leave though so I get to experience the naming ceremony and bapteme!
Babys are given a name a week after they are born at a huge celebration when the extended family comes to eat and hold the baby and witness the naming. The bapteme (baptism) I think might be even bigger. There was one at my friend's house on Saturday and she got up at 7am to help make the food, but everyone was already awake. Guests started arriving at 8:30 and by midmorning all the women of the extended family were crammed into one room with the baby, and all of the men mingled around the house and street. There was eating, then a second round of eating for dinner, and all the men leave and the women stay. The mother of the new baby presents money to her mother in law and sisters in law who go through a ceremony of not wanting the money, and then gifts are presented to them and each gift is explained at length. (You do this for every baby, but the gifts are biggest when the first baby comes-the gifts given counter the amount of money given by the grooms family for dowry at the wedding). I guess it all ended around 11pm and at least 50 or 100 people were there from the extended family. Like I said, I'm hoping for baby 2!
As much as we talk about women not having equality to men and being unequal in health and education etc. we don't take into account often enough the power structures that women exist in and how much power they hold-at least in Senegalese society from what I've seen. The family is the center of the culture I see and vital to everything, and women run it-all the ceremonies and relations with neighbors and they do the talking and all that. Sexualization of women is different here-breasts are maternal. Period. (pretty much) and your jaay fonde is what you shake on the music videos-of course covered by a long skirt in Senegalese videos. The ideal of beauty is attainable as well-is actually healthy looking. As far as women's roles-of course there are many problems, but they are different. Women can be leaders without having to suffer trying to fit themselves into the male power structure like in the US. If you have a baby, you bring it to a meeting or an interview on television and that's completely legitimate.
One thing I think that I will miss after I leave Senegal is that there are always people around. People get up in your business probably, but they're there looking out for you. You're expected to greet people on the street and people walk up to you and have conversations and don't expect anything from you and are frindly and want to contact you in the future and have you for tea or to see their family-and it's true most of the time. Yes, I am experiencing this as a toubab-a foreigner, and there is a certain level of curiosity, but even so- strangers and regulars alike don't generally interact that way at home. At home, I avoid eye contact so people don't think I'm staring, and when my mom tries to interact with someone's baby at the doctor's office he thinks she's hitting on him and leaves the room with the baby. What's that about?
I just remembered the presidential election, but I'm going to put that at the top of this entry because if you read this far you must be my mom!
xoxo
Amanda
***Inserted after thought: Colin Powell=has my respect. The Senegalese media (at least TV) acts like Obama is already president! People may know McCain's name here now, but my family didn't know McCain when I got here in August. Everyone knows Obama, however-out and inside of Dakar. Watching the news here is actually a pleasant experience I look forward to here because it gives me information. In the US I dread the news because it makes my stomach hurt and my heart beat faster and makes me anxious-regardless of the story. If you've seen me in the cafeteria at school I'm usually yelling at the screen, whereas here I just watch. I didn't even notice it at first. The only violence I've seen in my two months here on TV has been from American and European movies. It's just a different approach...
Speaking of the bus, one of the daily interactions when I'm waiting in the morning are with the talibe- boys between the ages of 5 and 14 who roam around from 6am to late into the evening begging for money and food (500 CFA -a little more than $1- a day is what they aim for or else they get beaten). They're historical roots are in the Islamic schools around Senegal where boys would be sent to learn the Koran, and usually during lunch/meals they would go out and beg to be made humble and also because giving charity is an important part of the Muslim faith. Now there are Muslim brotherhoods in Senegal, the most powerful being the Mourides, who each sort of had their own "prophet" type figure and are let by various levels of "marabouts" who serve as intermediaries between Allah and disciples. This is something relatively unique to Senegal and the average Muslim in most countries will tell you she has a direct relationship with Allah and doesn't believe someone can tell her what to do. So by various processes many Marabout have become corrupt (doesn't everyone) and they run these "schools" which are basically money making machines for them and the boys don't learn much, if at all, and they spend the whole day begging. Because it is still seen as religious and because of the importance of charity, the corrupt version of the system has been slow to decline. Most of the boys come from very poor families either in rural Senegal but mostly other bordering countries from parents who usually believe they will get an education. There have been many studies of the talibe and if you actually pay attention to them they are very depressing and I have a hard time being culturally relative about them. Fortunately alternative Koronic schools are beginning to be built that teach Arabic and the Koran, as well as the standard French education in some of the regions where boys are coming from. I wish there were more of these schools! Interestingly, the talibe are the main beggers I've encountered. Yes there are occassionally people on the street asking for money who seem homeless, but there are many other people who ask for money and are clearly not homeless, which is also interesting.
Poverty. We read a bit in French class yesterday about clandestine emmigration from West Africa to Europe and the US and the different methods people use for emmigration. There have been a couple cases (one also from Colombia to Miami) of boys (18 or 20) who climb up onto the wheels of a plane and stay in the space where they wheels draw into the plane for 5 or 6 hours to get to Europe and they bear temperatures of -60 degrees farenheit! How desperate do you have to be? We deal with this a lot in the US but I guess being in a place where people emmigrate from makes me think a little harder. What does your life have to be like and what do you have to think awaits you on the other side? Inshallah I will never have a life so desperate that I would do something like that, and yet millions of people do it all the time all over the world.
On Friday there was a movie night here at school. Most of the Senegalese students in our part of the school are going on after two years to study in the US and they all speak really good English-so the movies were American. Hancock and Sex and the City. People watch European and American shows and movies all the time on TV (Actually all the most popular shows are telenovellas from Mexico) and it's easy to get a very false impression of life in those places (judging by the Mexican telenovella's I'd say they live a much more lavish lifestyle than I do). Besides the stereotypes, the more amusing thing especially with Sex and the City was the awkwardness at some moments that reveal cultural difference. Whenever Anthony and Stanford kissed on New Years, the whole audience went "EEEWWWWUGH!" and the sex scenes were more awkward than if I was watching with my grandmother (granted, she is MY grandmother) and the responses to the marriages and all that were different because you don't have sex until marriage, you marry young, and for the most part you stay married and have a bountiful family (I guess in reality it isn't so different for many Americans, but the culturally accepted standards are different).
Speaking of which, there was a marriage on my street on Saturday (I believe it was the son of our family's favorite tailor) and it was his second marriage. The drums were going all day and I chilled on the roof listening-it was great! I heard from my sisters that his first wife is Senegalese, but this wife is American, which was very intriguing. I for one could never be one of multiple wives, but it's not the same for everyone. My sisters did not forsee a good future for the marriage however (maybe it's because my host mother's family is Catholic so they're not very into polygamy. I have suspicians that my host dad has a second wife but I'm not sure.)
As far as not knowing things goes, another interesting thing here is that when someone is pregnant, you don't talk about it and don't talk to them about it and they certainly don't mention it because otherwise it could put the evil eye on the baby and something bad could happen-bad luck basically. This applies to my house because my second oldest sister is getting very pregnant with a second child (there's an adorable 1 1/2 year old girl already) but it's never talked about. Once I asked her how many children she wanted and she insisted "just one" and another time at dinner I tried to push more food her way (remember-always one big plate for everyone) and said "you need more food" and she gave me a look and insisted that she didn't. All very interesting! I wonder if she's getting any prenatal care...That's one of the problems that comes along with this system. I really hope the baby is born before I leave though so I get to experience the naming ceremony and bapteme!
Babys are given a name a week after they are born at a huge celebration when the extended family comes to eat and hold the baby and witness the naming. The bapteme (baptism) I think might be even bigger. There was one at my friend's house on Saturday and she got up at 7am to help make the food, but everyone was already awake. Guests started arriving at 8:30 and by midmorning all the women of the extended family were crammed into one room with the baby, and all of the men mingled around the house and street. There was eating, then a second round of eating for dinner, and all the men leave and the women stay. The mother of the new baby presents money to her mother in law and sisters in law who go through a ceremony of not wanting the money, and then gifts are presented to them and each gift is explained at length. (You do this for every baby, but the gifts are biggest when the first baby comes-the gifts given counter the amount of money given by the grooms family for dowry at the wedding). I guess it all ended around 11pm and at least 50 or 100 people were there from the extended family. Like I said, I'm hoping for baby 2!
As much as we talk about women not having equality to men and being unequal in health and education etc. we don't take into account often enough the power structures that women exist in and how much power they hold-at least in Senegalese society from what I've seen. The family is the center of the culture I see and vital to everything, and women run it-all the ceremonies and relations with neighbors and they do the talking and all that. Sexualization of women is different here-breasts are maternal. Period. (pretty much) and your jaay fonde is what you shake on the music videos-of course covered by a long skirt in Senegalese videos. The ideal of beauty is attainable as well-is actually healthy looking. As far as women's roles-of course there are many problems, but they are different. Women can be leaders without having to suffer trying to fit themselves into the male power structure like in the US. If you have a baby, you bring it to a meeting or an interview on television and that's completely legitimate.
One thing I think that I will miss after I leave Senegal is that there are always people around. People get up in your business probably, but they're there looking out for you. You're expected to greet people on the street and people walk up to you and have conversations and don't expect anything from you and are frindly and want to contact you in the future and have you for tea or to see their family-and it's true most of the time. Yes, I am experiencing this as a toubab-a foreigner, and there is a certain level of curiosity, but even so- strangers and regulars alike don't generally interact that way at home. At home, I avoid eye contact so people don't think I'm staring, and when my mom tries to interact with someone's baby at the doctor's office he thinks she's hitting on him and leaves the room with the baby. What's that about?
I just remembered the presidential election, but I'm going to put that at the top of this entry because if you read this far you must be my mom!
xoxo
Amanda
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Paved roads, electricity, clean running water, trash pickup- these are a few of my favorite things! (and healthcare, schools, housing, safety)
Bonjour! Ca va? Nanga def?
It's been a couple weeks since my last entry because I was on break from Wednesday the 1st to Sunday the 12th, and it was great! It started with Korite, which I did write about, and then some wandering around, and then the real "vacation" began on Friday morning at 4:30am when the five of us (Sarah, Tiffany, Amanda, Hannah, and myself) met at the Guare Routierre de Pompiers to negotiate the price for a sept-place to get to Tambacounda. It took about an hour of negotiating and waiting around and we were slightly overcharged, but off we went in our sept-place (a 30 year old station wagon) for a ten hour journey.
But before I go on, let me be tangential...
1) On Saturday (this past weekend) Senegal and the Gambia played an important soccer game in Dakar. It ended 1-1 so neither team has a chance at going on in the world cup (Algeria is going on). As a result, there were riots with tear gas and burning vehicles, and stone throwing. Senegal's soccer team has had 8 coaches since 2000, so there's frustration about how bad the team is, but that's not the only reason why the riots happened.
Last week while I was frollicking around the country on vacation, Dakar didn't have power for three whole days- power outages have been getting worse and prices for energy have gone up for households, all because the government has not been paying it's end for the energy. (This by the way is the same reason why trash doesn't get picked up-the government stopped making payments to the company involved.) After nearly three years of blackouts, there were riots about this last week too.
( Don't worry, I'm completely safe here- probably safer here than at home)
On the news here there are always a lot of stories about various conferences going on- to fight FGM/excision with girls, other health issues, agriculture, education, the environment, religion, etc. I was talking about this with my host dad and he was saying yea there are too many conferences! At some point you need to work! The Senegalese cannot be faulted for not trying to solve the problems facing their country, that's for sure. There are a lot of people who recognize what the problems are, talk about solutions, want to implement solutions, but don't have the means to do so.
A big part of the problem to me, from my small view of things, is not that there aren't enough "development" efforts going on or that people don't understand what's happening to them (that would mean lack of agency), but the problem has a lot to do with politics. The politics of money and the centralization of power and resources and how resources are distributed. You could call it corruption, but I don't like the connotations of that word. The legacy of how the French ran things, and the first president's (Leopold Senghor) close relationship with France ("I speak French better than I speak the language of my people" to paraphrase) and his legacy have something to do with it. There are many factors. In any case, politics and money.
On vacation this week we were in the far southeastern corner of Senegal. Tambacounda, which is really closer to the middle of the country, was the last place with a bank. Kedougou, where we spent most of our time, only has Western Union-where money can be wired out and in. There were about a million development groups in Kedougou, even the Peace Corps has their regional house there, but there aren't any banks for people to save their money safely, take out loans, access credit, facilitate opening new businesses, or access more tourist money through being able to take credit cards, etc. 10 miles outside Kedougou there wasn't any running water or electricity -however there were solar panels at our campement and there were cell phone towers 40 KM outside the city when we visited the waterfall at Dindefelo.
Also, and this goes back to the use of resources, there is the issue of paved roads. Once we got past Kaolack, the second largest city in Senegal (and a lot of fun, actually!) the road went from good to horrible. What should have taken four hours took seven because we spent the whole time swerving all over the road to avoid pot holes and rode on the edge of the road for the same reason. Many huge trucks were stopped, tumbled over because of the pot holes, or at the very least had popped tires and other niceties. At one point on our way in we saw a completely crashed truck with a person inside. We didn't see any blood. Our driver didn't notice and we didn't stop-there was no 911 to call. I don't know what we saw. Trucks drive on the opposite side of the road when their side is bad, so it could have been something like that. Apart from being horrible for safety and being very uncomfortable, roads like this prevent trade and transportation of goods. Yet, the Corniche, a decent highway in Dakar bordering some of the wealthiest neighborhoods, was just redone. It's interesting. It looked as if parts of this road are being repaired, to it's credit, but there is a long way to go, and it had to get this bad first! But, repairs are good! (The road from Tamba to Kedougou however was smooth sailing! Many tourists fly into Tamba and take that road farther east.)
Some things don't make sense. Some things are changing.
2) In completely other news, am going to volunteer at the US Embassy haloween party and am pretty stoked about that. Got to wear a costume, and get free dinner! What a bargain! Good thing Haloween is a Friday this year.
I didn't even write about vacation yet! It was entertaining- ate warthog sandwiches (saw warthogs and baboons, as a matter of fact), ate rabbit spagetti, saw a huge waterfall, climbed 2km up a 50degree hill to see a little village and the amazing view-all with a fever and dysentary, went to Madame Wade's (first lady) rural hospital outside Kedougou and met a strange French doctor (I was better by then but someone else got sick), drank some palm wine, gave away kola nuts and candies, almost went to dinner with someone who used to be in Senegalese jail, went to a 1970s Bollywood film in Kaolack, saw the milkyway, swam in a pool, shared a whole watermellon for 50 cents, (jeez I like food....) rode a bike, got some indigo fabric, drank ataya with some Guineans in the market at Kedougou, got really dusty at all times. And some other stuff.
I may or may not update this but want to give some people time with the computers.
Ba ci kanam! (See you later!)
It's been a couple weeks since my last entry because I was on break from Wednesday the 1st to Sunday the 12th, and it was great! It started with Korite, which I did write about, and then some wandering around, and then the real "vacation" began on Friday morning at 4:30am when the five of us (Sarah, Tiffany, Amanda, Hannah, and myself) met at the Guare Routierre de Pompiers to negotiate the price for a sept-place to get to Tambacounda. It took about an hour of negotiating and waiting around and we were slightly overcharged, but off we went in our sept-place (a 30 year old station wagon) for a ten hour journey.
But before I go on, let me be tangential...
1) On Saturday (this past weekend) Senegal and the Gambia played an important soccer game in Dakar. It ended 1-1 so neither team has a chance at going on in the world cup (Algeria is going on). As a result, there were riots with tear gas and burning vehicles, and stone throwing. Senegal's soccer team has had 8 coaches since 2000, so there's frustration about how bad the team is, but that's not the only reason why the riots happened.
Last week while I was frollicking around the country on vacation, Dakar didn't have power for three whole days- power outages have been getting worse and prices for energy have gone up for households, all because the government has not been paying it's end for the energy. (This by the way is the same reason why trash doesn't get picked up-the government stopped making payments to the company involved.) After nearly three years of blackouts, there were riots about this last week too.
( Don't worry, I'm completely safe here- probably safer here than at home)
On the news here there are always a lot of stories about various conferences going on- to fight FGM/excision with girls, other health issues, agriculture, education, the environment, religion, etc. I was talking about this with my host dad and he was saying yea there are too many conferences! At some point you need to work! The Senegalese cannot be faulted for not trying to solve the problems facing their country, that's for sure. There are a lot of people who recognize what the problems are, talk about solutions, want to implement solutions, but don't have the means to do so.
A big part of the problem to me, from my small view of things, is not that there aren't enough "development" efforts going on or that people don't understand what's happening to them (that would mean lack of agency), but the problem has a lot to do with politics. The politics of money and the centralization of power and resources and how resources are distributed. You could call it corruption, but I don't like the connotations of that word. The legacy of how the French ran things, and the first president's (Leopold Senghor) close relationship with France ("I speak French better than I speak the language of my people" to paraphrase) and his legacy have something to do with it. There are many factors. In any case, politics and money.
On vacation this week we were in the far southeastern corner of Senegal. Tambacounda, which is really closer to the middle of the country, was the last place with a bank. Kedougou, where we spent most of our time, only has Western Union-where money can be wired out and in. There were about a million development groups in Kedougou, even the Peace Corps has their regional house there, but there aren't any banks for people to save their money safely, take out loans, access credit, facilitate opening new businesses, or access more tourist money through being able to take credit cards, etc. 10 miles outside Kedougou there wasn't any running water or electricity -however there were solar panels at our campement and there were cell phone towers 40 KM outside the city when we visited the waterfall at Dindefelo.
Also, and this goes back to the use of resources, there is the issue of paved roads. Once we got past Kaolack, the second largest city in Senegal (and a lot of fun, actually!) the road went from good to horrible. What should have taken four hours took seven because we spent the whole time swerving all over the road to avoid pot holes and rode on the edge of the road for the same reason. Many huge trucks were stopped, tumbled over because of the pot holes, or at the very least had popped tires and other niceties. At one point on our way in we saw a completely crashed truck with a person inside. We didn't see any blood. Our driver didn't notice and we didn't stop-there was no 911 to call. I don't know what we saw. Trucks drive on the opposite side of the road when their side is bad, so it could have been something like that. Apart from being horrible for safety and being very uncomfortable, roads like this prevent trade and transportation of goods. Yet, the Corniche, a decent highway in Dakar bordering some of the wealthiest neighborhoods, was just redone. It's interesting. It looked as if parts of this road are being repaired, to it's credit, but there is a long way to go, and it had to get this bad first! But, repairs are good! (The road from Tamba to Kedougou however was smooth sailing! Many tourists fly into Tamba and take that road farther east.)
Some things don't make sense. Some things are changing.
2) In completely other news, am going to volunteer at the US Embassy haloween party and am pretty stoked about that. Got to wear a costume, and get free dinner! What a bargain! Good thing Haloween is a Friday this year.
I didn't even write about vacation yet! It was entertaining- ate warthog sandwiches (saw warthogs and baboons, as a matter of fact), ate rabbit spagetti, saw a huge waterfall, climbed 2km up a 50degree hill to see a little village and the amazing view-all with a fever and dysentary, went to Madame Wade's (first lady) rural hospital outside Kedougou and met a strange French doctor (I was better by then but someone else got sick), drank some palm wine, gave away kola nuts and candies, almost went to dinner with someone who used to be in Senegalese jail, went to a 1970s Bollywood film in Kaolack, saw the milkyway, swam in a pool, shared a whole watermellon for 50 cents, (jeez I like food....) rode a bike, got some indigo fabric, drank ataya with some Guineans in the market at Kedougou, got really dusty at all times. And some other stuff.
I may or may not update this but want to give some people time with the computers.
Ba ci kanam! (See you later!)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Korite/Tambacounda or bust
Yesterday was Korite-the end of Ramadan! The moon was seen in a couple of cities in Senegal and the Khalif of the Mouride brotherhood said so too, so yesterday was Korite. It was unclear if it would be yesterday or today until late Tuesday night. Fortunately we got classes off both days and vacation has begun! Unfortunately I have a French test the Monday I return. Such is life.
Korite is a day of togetherness and celebration after Ramadan ends- we ate food, sat around, and everyone dressed up in their new boubous and kaftans and visited neighbors, friends, and family to say hello and ask after their health. All of the kids ran around in their best outfits and got pieces of change from neighbors so they collected a couple dollars worth-not shabby!
Today I'm going with a friend to negotiate a price for a sept-place to get to Tambacounda tomorrow-an 8 hour drive across the country! I already did this on Tuesday but the guy's phone number doesn't work and it was sort of expensive, so maybe second time will be the charm!
Everything takes longer to do here, such as return something at the store, obtain money from an ATM, or cook food, however it gets done eventually. I try not to be frustrated because I don't want to act entitled. I get the sense that, like anywhere else, there are many things people would like to see done differently-like not have power cuts, get the trash picked up, and see more people getting jobs-or even better-good jobs. They would take advantage of healthcare if it was cheaper and more available, send all of their kids to school if there were enough schools-and equipped ones at that, and they knew that their kids could get jobs afterwards. From what I've seen people don't want the prices of food to go up as they have been-and it would be nice to be more agriculturally independant and not get all of the rice from Thailand and everything else from France, China, and Brazil. These are only observations from my limited experience and the few people I've talked to, but they are logical enough to me.
Yesterday morning I was sitting on the roof sipping mint tea, listening to a boy and man chanting from the Koran at the nearby mosque and reading Audre Lorde's book Sister Outsider. It was very peaceful. I also highly recommend the book. Highly.
Earlier this week I read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness-which was based on his experiences traveling into the Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (I had to read it after reading King Leopold's Ghost a couple weeks ago). It's jarring to read and be thinking about a different part of this continent in a brutally exploitive context and be sitting in front of the tv in the living room in another part of the same continent that shares some similar historical exploitation watching music videos and sipping Fanta. Fanta? Coca Cola, American pop-rap music videos, French cell phone company but also Africa Cola, Senegalese music videos, Senegalese salt, EcoBank...
Bon Korite!
I will write again when I get back from break.
I finally bought myself a mango without worms in it! (I've eaten a lot of other scrumptious mangos here, just not ones I bought myself successfully).
Refer to a map of Senegal (google) to locate Tambacounda, Kedogou, and Dindefelo Falls.
Korite is a day of togetherness and celebration after Ramadan ends- we ate food, sat around, and everyone dressed up in their new boubous and kaftans and visited neighbors, friends, and family to say hello and ask after their health. All of the kids ran around in their best outfits and got pieces of change from neighbors so they collected a couple dollars worth-not shabby!
Today I'm going with a friend to negotiate a price for a sept-place to get to Tambacounda tomorrow-an 8 hour drive across the country! I already did this on Tuesday but the guy's phone number doesn't work and it was sort of expensive, so maybe second time will be the charm!
Everything takes longer to do here, such as return something at the store, obtain money from an ATM, or cook food, however it gets done eventually. I try not to be frustrated because I don't want to act entitled. I get the sense that, like anywhere else, there are many things people would like to see done differently-like not have power cuts, get the trash picked up, and see more people getting jobs-or even better-good jobs. They would take advantage of healthcare if it was cheaper and more available, send all of their kids to school if there were enough schools-and equipped ones at that, and they knew that their kids could get jobs afterwards. From what I've seen people don't want the prices of food to go up as they have been-and it would be nice to be more agriculturally independant and not get all of the rice from Thailand and everything else from France, China, and Brazil. These are only observations from my limited experience and the few people I've talked to, but they are logical enough to me.
Yesterday morning I was sitting on the roof sipping mint tea, listening to a boy and man chanting from the Koran at the nearby mosque and reading Audre Lorde's book Sister Outsider. It was very peaceful. I also highly recommend the book. Highly.
Earlier this week I read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness-which was based on his experiences traveling into the Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (I had to read it after reading King Leopold's Ghost a couple weeks ago). It's jarring to read and be thinking about a different part of this continent in a brutally exploitive context and be sitting in front of the tv in the living room in another part of the same continent that shares some similar historical exploitation watching music videos and sipping Fanta. Fanta? Coca Cola, American pop-rap music videos, French cell phone company but also Africa Cola, Senegalese music videos, Senegalese salt, EcoBank...
Bon Korite!
I will write again when I get back from break.
I finally bought myself a mango without worms in it! (I've eaten a lot of other scrumptious mangos here, just not ones I bought myself successfully).
Refer to a map of Senegal (google) to locate Tambacounda, Kedogou, and Dindefelo Falls.
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