"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