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
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Toubab Dialo-like a vacation in a vacation
I have a Wolof quiz in a few minutes, but here are some photos from this weekend. Everyone went to Toubab Dialo, a little village two hours south of Dakar. It was absolutely beautiful there! We stayed at a really cool hotel and you can see my room, which overlooked the ocean. A few of us went on a walk yesterday morning to explore the village and got invited into the house of these five artists, who gave us fonde and watermellon and played the flute and danced for us, and we talked for the morning. We all shook with our left hands because we plan on meeting again some time. You can also see the pirogues (boats) on the beach and a big rock on the beach in front of the hotel where Sarah and I posed for a shot. Also we did baticking, so I have a cool piece of fabric now.
Friday I went to another beautiful closeby beach/island called Ngor and will post photos of that later, as well as the lighthouse I climbed. I'm a little worse for the wear right now with various scrapes and cuts and blisters so I'm going to get that straighted out at the doctor first and will post again. Wish me luck on the quiz!
Ba beneen yoon
Amanda
Monday, September 15, 2008
Jaay Fonde!
Jaay is to sell and fonde is millet (a grain you cook like rice, etc.) so it means to sell millet. When you boil millet and mix it with sugar and pour sweet yogurt over it and eat it for dinner it's supposed to make you fat so you get a big booty. So if you have a big booty people say "jaay fonde!" because you have so much millet you can sell some and because if you sell millet it's a win-win situation because you either make money or you eat it yourself and get a nice big butt.
One of the guys in the big Marche Sandaga downtown who was following us around kept saying that to me to which I kept responding "Je comprends!!" and then he tried to touch my butt so I pushed him away and we (five of us) busted a move across the street. You've got to stick in packs at the market.
In other news, I'm preparing the dinner for the family tonight. I hope they like it. It's a bunch of vegetables with curry and garlic and raisins. They also want me to make soul food. On Thursday we were all talking about food and I was saying how I want to make dinner. They said "you know soul food?" and I was all "Oh yea I do" and was listing off good foods so they said "you can make us soul food!" So that's what I'm going to do next week. Yankee white girl makin soul food in Senegal.
Speaking of race, I saw a guy with a shirt that said "nigga fatal"- I found it intriguing.
Another interesting use of words- I really thought I could tough it out, but I have so many mosquito bites all over my body I feel like I have chicken pox. My host sister said "Tu as beaucoup du pimps!" Yea I have a lot of pimps! Pimps being short for pimples meaning mosquito bites. I've put up the net on my bed and it feels like sleeping in a transparent coffin.
Also my host family, mainly my host mom, was discussing marriage with me a couple days ago (this subject comes up very often here-I get asked often if I am married and when I will marry and why not and what I think of marriage) and she asked "you marry Senegalese?" I said maybe "you marry American?" Maybe, again. "You marry Renee?" (my host brother!) I said well I don't know about that, maybe!" People believe that the easiest way to getting to the US, or anywhere else, is by marrying someone from there. Hence me and all of the other girls on the trip often get asked if we are married and have people propose to us and say they love us.
Healtchare: I spent twelve hours downtown on Friday, and among the many sights was a street lined with dozens of people in wheelchairs and with crutches begging for money. This was tragic and uncomfortable. Maybe since it was Friday (the holy day) and people are most likely to donate alms on Fridays, they make it more convenient for money giving. There are more people than at home walking around with knarled feet or in wheelchairs. Maybe as a result of other untreated diseases? Access to preventative medicine and healthcare in general is extremely difficult without money. Not that the US doesn't have it's own failed healthcare system- failings have different symptoms everywhere.
A friend (who will remain nameless upon her request due to mixed feelings about the incident) and I decided to check out a music store I read about a couple days ago. We set off, but predictably never reached the fabled store. First some guy from her neighborhood spotted her and was talking to us and wanted to go all the way to the music store-he asked for us at a stand and apparently it was shut down. I was feeling a bit uncomfortable so we ducked into a bookstore to gently say goodbye. Not three minutes after leaving another guy came up to us who said something about being at the university and that he was Mormon and he looked very spiffy and had a cell phone and zip drive and briefcase. Then came the catch-he had diabetes and needed us to give him medicine-it only cost 6000 CFA (about $12, but it's the principle). I said no because I wasn't buying him, but my friend gave in, so we traipsed around for the better part of an hour listening to how he has diabetes and she paid for our ride to the right pharmacy where he got the medicine. I went to make sure she was safe, but I just...am not sure because he looked much better off than many other people on the street and I didn't buy the story, but I suppose he wouldn't have asked us if he didn't need the money. I don't know. After that we started walking toward the bus and happened upon a huge mall-like structure with Casino inside-a huge supermarche a cross between Stop and Shop and Walgreens. There were a lot of toubabs there and upper class types. We didn't buy anything, but I enjoyed looking. The clinical brightness and cleanness was striking and odd compared with the rest of things outside the store.
I have much more to say but got to get home for lunch.
Ba beneen yoon!
(Until next time!)
Speaking of money: an update on the bus strike. It only lasted half a day because it's Ramadan and people need the money for their families especially right now.
One of the guys in the big Marche Sandaga downtown who was following us around kept saying that to me to which I kept responding "Je comprends!!" and then he tried to touch my butt so I pushed him away and we (five of us) busted a move across the street. You've got to stick in packs at the market.
In other news, I'm preparing the dinner for the family tonight. I hope they like it. It's a bunch of vegetables with curry and garlic and raisins. They also want me to make soul food. On Thursday we were all talking about food and I was saying how I want to make dinner. They said "you know soul food?" and I was all "Oh yea I do" and was listing off good foods so they said "you can make us soul food!" So that's what I'm going to do next week. Yankee white girl makin soul food in Senegal.
Speaking of race, I saw a guy with a shirt that said "nigga fatal"- I found it intriguing.
Another interesting use of words- I really thought I could tough it out, but I have so many mosquito bites all over my body I feel like I have chicken pox. My host sister said "Tu as beaucoup du pimps!" Yea I have a lot of pimps! Pimps being short for pimples meaning mosquito bites. I've put up the net on my bed and it feels like sleeping in a transparent coffin.
Also my host family, mainly my host mom, was discussing marriage with me a couple days ago (this subject comes up very often here-I get asked often if I am married and when I will marry and why not and what I think of marriage) and she asked "you marry Senegalese?" I said maybe "you marry American?" Maybe, again. "You marry Renee?" (my host brother!) I said well I don't know about that, maybe!" People believe that the easiest way to getting to the US, or anywhere else, is by marrying someone from there. Hence me and all of the other girls on the trip often get asked if we are married and have people propose to us and say they love us.
Healtchare: I spent twelve hours downtown on Friday, and among the many sights was a street lined with dozens of people in wheelchairs and with crutches begging for money. This was tragic and uncomfortable. Maybe since it was Friday (the holy day) and people are most likely to donate alms on Fridays, they make it more convenient for money giving. There are more people than at home walking around with knarled feet or in wheelchairs. Maybe as a result of other untreated diseases? Access to preventative medicine and healthcare in general is extremely difficult without money. Not that the US doesn't have it's own failed healthcare system- failings have different symptoms everywhere.
A friend (who will remain nameless upon her request due to mixed feelings about the incident) and I decided to check out a music store I read about a couple days ago. We set off, but predictably never reached the fabled store. First some guy from her neighborhood spotted her and was talking to us and wanted to go all the way to the music store-he asked for us at a stand and apparently it was shut down. I was feeling a bit uncomfortable so we ducked into a bookstore to gently say goodbye. Not three minutes after leaving another guy came up to us who said something about being at the university and that he was Mormon and he looked very spiffy and had a cell phone and zip drive and briefcase. Then came the catch-he had diabetes and needed us to give him medicine-it only cost 6000 CFA (about $12, but it's the principle). I said no because I wasn't buying him, but my friend gave in, so we traipsed around for the better part of an hour listening to how he has diabetes and she paid for our ride to the right pharmacy where he got the medicine. I went to make sure she was safe, but I just...am not sure because he looked much better off than many other people on the street and I didn't buy the story, but I suppose he wouldn't have asked us if he didn't need the money. I don't know. After that we started walking toward the bus and happened upon a huge mall-like structure with Casino inside-a huge supermarche a cross between Stop and Shop and Walgreens. There were a lot of toubabs there and upper class types. We didn't buy anything, but I enjoyed looking. The clinical brightness and cleanness was striking and odd compared with the rest of things outside the store.
I have much more to say but got to get home for lunch.
Ba beneen yoon!
(Until next time!)
Speaking of money: an update on the bus strike. It only lasted half a day because it's Ramadan and people need the money for their families especially right now.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Strike!
The buses went on strike today. I have no idea how long the strike will be, but it means car rapide rides at all times, which will be that much more cramped without buses! At least I've discovered that there is labor organizing here.
Also, the CIEE (my program) office got broken into, including the safe, and someone's laptop and a ton of money in an unspecified amount was stolen last night. Good thing I didn't bring my computer with me!
On a lighter note, this Friday I plan on visiting the IFAN museum which is Dakar's museum of art, and have a trip to this fabled patisserie (pastry shop) downtown where the rich and famous go- it has a guard at the door! I'll just tell myself that I'm contributing to the regional economy. One of our neighbors is going to make me a boubou for pretty cheap money, so I've got to go buy fabric anyway. Yay for new handmade clothing! This woman isn't just a neighbor, but is somehow related to my host mom. At the end of our street is also my host mom's sister-in-law and her family. Small world! It must be nice having so much family around. The suicide rate in Senegal is extremely low because people realize their place in the family and get so much socialization all the time. If I say to my host family "I'm going out for a walk" (which I tried once) they don't understand why I would walk by myself for no reason, and assumed I was going to a friend's house. Also, everyone's stuff is communal. Once something is left out in the open, it's for everyone. Everyone in my family, from what I've seen, shares food when they bring it home-whether it's peanuts or donuts (mmm) and if I leave my sandals out people wear them around (which I've been doing, but they're so worse for the wear that I'm hiding them under the bed now so I don't have to buy new ones). From what I've seen, it's common to be asked for small amounts of money or things, and people are willing to give. I've let my host sisters have a little money and use my phone, and people have also paid for my bus fare twice when I didn't have enough or the right change!
To Farid: Would you like me to buy you a new "teapot" here? I have no idea how to spell the Hindi word but I know how to say it! All of them here are plastic and striped usually. Mostly kidding since I know you've already got one :D- maybe a pair of sandals?
I don't have a webcam but I do have a microphone and will look into the Yahoo/skype thing.
Also, the CIEE (my program) office got broken into, including the safe, and someone's laptop and a ton of money in an unspecified amount was stolen last night. Good thing I didn't bring my computer with me!
On a lighter note, this Friday I plan on visiting the IFAN museum which is Dakar's museum of art, and have a trip to this fabled patisserie (pastry shop) downtown where the rich and famous go- it has a guard at the door! I'll just tell myself that I'm contributing to the regional economy. One of our neighbors is going to make me a boubou for pretty cheap money, so I've got to go buy fabric anyway. Yay for new handmade clothing! This woman isn't just a neighbor, but is somehow related to my host mom. At the end of our street is also my host mom's sister-in-law and her family. Small world! It must be nice having so much family around. The suicide rate in Senegal is extremely low because people realize their place in the family and get so much socialization all the time. If I say to my host family "I'm going out for a walk" (which I tried once) they don't understand why I would walk by myself for no reason, and assumed I was going to a friend's house. Also, everyone's stuff is communal. Once something is left out in the open, it's for everyone. Everyone in my family, from what I've seen, shares food when they bring it home-whether it's peanuts or donuts (mmm) and if I leave my sandals out people wear them around (which I've been doing, but they're so worse for the wear that I'm hiding them under the bed now so I don't have to buy new ones). From what I've seen, it's common to be asked for small amounts of money or things, and people are willing to give. I've let my host sisters have a little money and use my phone, and people have also paid for my bus fare twice when I didn't have enough or the right change!
To Farid: Would you like me to buy you a new "teapot" here? I have no idea how to spell the Hindi word but I know how to say it! All of them here are plastic and striped usually. Mostly kidding since I know you've already got one :D- maybe a pair of sandals?
I don't have a webcam but I do have a microphone and will look into the Yahoo/skype thing.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Mango Madness/Goree
This won't be a long entry, but here are a few photos. I can't get all of my photos up on facebook because these computers aren't compatible with facebook's uploading program, so you'll have to settle for these! If you know my family, you know that we aren't very renowned photographers, that is if we even remember to bring the camera anywhere. Add that to my self conciousness around looking like a privileged tourist and you have me-who doesn't take as many photos as some others. ---Note: okay so I can only get this one photo up, it's a view from the balcony outside a classroom at school. This is the center of campus. Note the Senegalese flag in the center and the ocean just behind :D---
As I mentioned previously, the computers here cause me unending frustration, but otherwise I try to let things slide.
A little while ago after class I was excited to eat a mango I bought yesterday because my fruit and vegetable intake is very low, and I went to open the skin when a little white worm started crawling out, so I immediately dropped it and threw it away-simultaneously grossed out and dissapointed. However last night I did get to have some bueye, which is a smoothie-like juice made from the fruit of baobab trees. It is delicious and tastes sort of like banana and strawberry combined, along with some orange.
This weekend at Goree Island was great. A cheap ferry takes you out (cheap for students anyway) and the island is carless and has winding narrow dirt streets. It's famous in history for being the headquarters of slave export in the Senegambia region, and we went to the Maison des Esclaves- the building where 300 Africans at a time were kept before being shipped out to the new world. The upstairs of the building is where commerce and trade deals were made by white and Afro-European (mixed race) merchants. We saw the cramped rooms where people were kept, and the "door of no return" where boats could pull up to load their "cargo"-never to be seen again. It is open and looks out onto the ocean. Despite the deadly history of the island (there are also WWII era cannons at various points and an old fort turned into a history museum-once the island was even bombed when the Vichy regime and the free French were fighting) it's extremely picturesque, colorful, and peaceful. Theres a little beach where we all went swimming, a church, and many many people selling tourist items who follow tourists around trying to sell them things. Since I've been to some concentration camps in Europe, forts in the US, etc. I thought of how much this place contrasts with those. At Goree, it's about unification and fun in the sun as you check out the architecture and talk with residents- the level of seriousness when touring the Maison was not the same. Maybe they don't think Europeans (and Americans) can take that level of seriousness-it would dampen their mood for buying food and tourist items. It's probably true? On Goree is also one of the most renowned high schools in Senegal-it's a boarding school for girls named after the famous Senegalese author Mariama Ba. There is a church for Catholics on the island, a hospital type building, and at the top of the island where parts of old WWII forts are people have made their homes (inside). Nothing is made on the island and everything is shipped in on the ferry-it seems even the baguettes that people generally eat for breakfast are shipped! (That might not be true).
The first week in October is our "fall break" and I and three other girls have begun planning our excursion. I think we're going to stick to the "petite cote" which is the coast south of Dakar and north of the Gambia. There is one place where the rooms are treehouses in huge baobabs. It's going to be a very nature oriented, riding pirogues (canoes) through the coastal mangroves sort of trip. Very exciting!
Got to get home for lunch-stay tuned.
Amanda
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
I Am A Toubab and So Can You! / Ramadan Begins
Happy Ramadan to one and all! I started writing this post yesterday on the first day of Ramadan, but the power went out and the generators in the computer lab were being funky so I had to get off. The second day of Ramadan is equally good. One thing about Dakar is that there are a lot of power outages- for at least a couple hours every day. It's been going on for about two years now. People just light candles and go about their business. More on Ramadan in a few paragraphs.
I know that you (my family) are very anxious to hear about the continuation of my travels- my internet access is limited to the computers at school in the computer lab (which is sometimes closed and other times occupied by a class). There are "telecentres" around but most of them only have one computer or so and I haven't bothered to try one yet. We'll see how I feel when I have to finish my two final papers. I've gotten a phone though and tonight I'm going to buy a sim card, so I should be working approximately by tomorrow.
Well then! Last week I finished orientation and signed up for classes, and have now had all of my classes at least once. I'm in Intermediate French 2, Beginning Wolof, Senegalese Culture and Society (which is this semester also functioning as a class in cross-cultural communication, and I'm very excited about it), a history class called Colonization and Decolonization focusing on Senegambia (that's Senegal and the Gambia combined-Gambia being the country that is completely surrounded by Senegal except for the Atlantic), and Gender and Development (which is going to be totally awesome because it's all field trips, guest speakers, and movies and we volunteer at an organization that works with girls in one of the poorest areas of Dakar as part of our grade).
On Friday the end of our orientation we traveled to the Baobab Center (named after that lovely national tree) where we learned about different cultural concepts in Senegal and "ate around the bowl" for the first time and tasted about ten different scrumptious juice drinks particular to Senegal. One of the ladies at the center is an artist who coordinates a workshop programme to train women in different arts so that they can start their own businesses. I got her card and she is going to come do a batik workshop with some of us in the near future!
The most exciting thing about Friday however was that our host families came to pick us up! In my case it was a guy who lives down the street from my family and his little sister, who are also hosting a student. The university is in the neighborhood of Mermoz and I'm living in Ouakam, which is a 15 minute bus ride north. Our street is a block away from the far side of the airport. I'm living with a grande famille! Along with my host mother are five sisters, all between 16 and 25, two nieces (daughters of 2 of my host sisters) who are 1 and 6 respectively, and a host brother (the nephew of my host mom) who I think is 28 or so. My host father works in the Casamance, which is the southern part of Senegal, so I have yet to see him. There are also other kids from the neighborhood who hang out at our house, and there are a lot of young people my age on the street who we go visit and who visit us. At every corner there are little shops, like tailors or telecentres, but mostly minimarches, many of which are the size of a walk-in closet but are stocked with everything you could possibly need. We go to different mini-markets depending on what we need for the best price. My host brother keeps to himself pretty much and doesn't eat with us or any of that. My first extended conversation with him was last night when him and his sister decided to have a French lesson for me. So it's basically a house of women! they're always sitting in the living room talking and there's always activity and we're always going to some mini market to get some thing. The TV is always on but mostly people don't watch it (sounds kind of familiar :)? ).
I've been in about five houses by now and they're all very open so that the air can flow. For example, you have to walk outside to get to the washing area and the bathroom but it's tiled and closed off. There are a couple of small rooms beside the bathroom and kitchen that are open (no roof), and one of them has the stairway that's open and leads up to the roof, which is flat, and is where we hang the clothes to dry. There are no air conditioners, but sometimes a fan is on. It's always extremely hot and humid and I am forever sweating. Everyone is very clean and forever taking showers-so I am too (mom) :). The toilet doesn't flush and you just squat on it, which I'm still getting used to, but it's all good.
The food. The food has definitely lived up to my high expectations! I mentioned "eating around the bowl"- for meals the food is put in a large, sort of flat, bowl for everyone to eat out of. Traditionally you use your hands (everyone washes first, and only uses the right hand because your left is for the bathroom. You do everything with your right hand- like eat and accept/give gifts). We did that the first night for my sake I think, but usually we use spoons. There is no stove, so food is mainly rice, couscous, and maybe some lentils with either fish or chicken and some mostly root vegetables. There are lots of spices. I like the concept of eating from the same plate. There's this one dish whose name I forget that is more like a dessert, but we had it for dinner too. It's fattening apparently so it will give you a "fonde"-a big butt- which is desireable here :). It's boiled millet (a grain) with sugar and something else I think, and then you pour this sweetened yogurt over it, or sometimes condensed milk I think, and it's so good! My favorite drink is a popular one in Senegal called bissap. You get a bunch of dried hibiscus flowers, boil them, add mint candies which melt in the boiling water, and I think you add some ginger too. Then when it cools off you add a ton of sugar, and it turns out as this sweet red minty cold drink. Yum! I had one of my host sisters write down the recipe for me, though it's in French.
Speaking of food, Ramadan is great in this respect. Of course there's the fasting, but most of the people in my house don't fast (including my host mom)-though they do get up at 5am before sunrise. My favorite part is when we break the fast at sunset- we ate sweet bread with butter, dates, and nescafe creme. The coffee people drink here is nescafe-powdered instant coffee. This one we had last night comes in individual packets and is powdered cream and coffee, and then we put a bunch of sugar cubes in- very tasty. At the same time on TV they turned to the Arabic prayer chanting with scenes of Mecca and people praying that is special programming for Ramadan. Then dinner is between 9 and 10pm. Everyone stays up until at least midnight just hanging out.
Saturday night I went to a nightclub with three of my host sisters and three of their friends. It took about two hours for everyone (besides me) to get ready and trade clothes. We went to this posh club called the Senat (pronounced sena) at the Hotel Meridien which was verry upscale. (The kind with multiple swimming pools with different color lights in them and large palm trees.) Luckily it was free to get in for some reason. We spent another 20 minutes in the bathroom so everyone could put on makeup. There was too much "grinding" for me and mostly American hip-hop. It was okay, but we didn't leave until 5:30 am, walked a mile for a taxi, and then didn't get back home until 6:30am!! What's more, I had to get up at 7:30am for a trip to downtown Dakar with the students in my program! It was worth an hour sleep though, because we saw the major sites downtown like the presidential palais, American embassy, and Marche Sandanga (this huge market area! People follow you around trying to sell you things. It looks kind of like a flea market only much more cramped and crowded, and some people have store fronts, but they're all really small-like open closets.) We all got coconuts that the vendor chopped open for us so we could drink the milk, then chopped them again so we could scoop out the insides. My group's (6 people) guide was really cool and graduated from the university we're at a few years ago and now works at a bank downtown. After the trip he took us to the naming ceremony of his little nephew, back in Ouakam! The naming ceremony happens when a baby is a week old, and the whole family gets together to eat a lot of food and celebrate. We all got to hold the baby (there's a photo of my somewhere on my friend's camera) and eat. In the evening my host brother and sister and I went with a family down the street to the Point des Almadies- a nice beach spot north of us in the same super rich neighborhood as the nightclub. There were a million little kids and we watched the sunset as a rainbow appeared behind us before it started to drizzle out. Love the rainbows here! It's been raining often, but in large bursts so I've hardly used my umbrella. Most of the streets aren't paved and even ones that are aren't cambered, so the rain leaves huge puddles everywhere that splashes people on the sidewalks when cars drive by. The water combined with heat makes the trash that's around smell particularly bad, but luckily the trash is mostly in large piles rather than evenly spread. There are a lot of cars here, but not an overwhelming amount. Most people can't afford them, so there is a good transportation infrastructure. There are tons of taxis, but there are also blue public buses that go most places, and privately owned car rapides (mini-buses-kind of like big VW buses) that go everywhere. People drive horribly though. In a car rapide on Sunday on our way downtown the day almost became a tragedy when we hit a little boy crossing the street. Thankfully, he was able to stand up afterwards and had many adults around and we called an ambulance, so it was okay.
Contrary to Adam's (my brother) warning, there are not any children slapping me and asking for money. The only people who've asked me for money are the little boys who are talibes- followers/students of different marabouts (religious leaders). They're pretty unobtrusive and I feel bad for them, but most people I've talked to think it's exploitation and don't give money to them.
This Saturday we're going to Goree Island, which was one of the four communes (cities) where people were French citizens during colonization (as opposed to everywhere else where they were subjects). It was the main slave port in the area, although Senegal wasn't one of the biggest slave export areas. I'll have another entry to write by some time next week and will be able to include that trip, hopefully with a couple of photos. I'm still adjusting and the cultural learning curve is a challenge, but that's exactly why I came here so I'm really glad about everything!
Thanks for reading,
Amanda
P.S. I am a toubab. Did I mention this already? Originally it meant white person but it's been extended to mean any type of foreigner or outsider. I and the other students regularly are referred to as toubabs within our families, etc. There are actually a surprisingly large number of toubabs in Dakar. When I see other white people, who are mostly tourists or are wearing sun glasses and driving nice cars, I usually avert my eyes. I've discussed this with my friends in the program and they feel similarly. It's generally awkward. In the US one thinks of outsiders as lower on the power scale and usually with less privilege, but generally it's the other way around here so I've been thinking about that a lot, as I had expected. It's really weird. Why bother flaunting how much money you have, you know? Why bother pretending your back home by walking your dog, going to posh restaurants, and driving your SUV, when clearly you are somewhere else? Why not embrace? I don't know.
P.S.S. This p.s.s. is especially for my mom but anyone can read it: The sheets were a BIG hit! They loved the sheets a lot. And here it's so hot you only use one sheet and don't have anything over you, so it's really like two sheets for them. And the lotion was a big hit too, as well as the coloring books.
I know that you (my family) are very anxious to hear about the continuation of my travels- my internet access is limited to the computers at school in the computer lab (which is sometimes closed and other times occupied by a class). There are "telecentres" around but most of them only have one computer or so and I haven't bothered to try one yet. We'll see how I feel when I have to finish my two final papers. I've gotten a phone though and tonight I'm going to buy a sim card, so I should be working approximately by tomorrow.
Well then! Last week I finished orientation and signed up for classes, and have now had all of my classes at least once. I'm in Intermediate French 2, Beginning Wolof, Senegalese Culture and Society (which is this semester also functioning as a class in cross-cultural communication, and I'm very excited about it), a history class called Colonization and Decolonization focusing on Senegambia (that's Senegal and the Gambia combined-Gambia being the country that is completely surrounded by Senegal except for the Atlantic), and Gender and Development (which is going to be totally awesome because it's all field trips, guest speakers, and movies and we volunteer at an organization that works with girls in one of the poorest areas of Dakar as part of our grade).
On Friday the end of our orientation we traveled to the Baobab Center (named after that lovely national tree) where we learned about different cultural concepts in Senegal and "ate around the bowl" for the first time and tasted about ten different scrumptious juice drinks particular to Senegal. One of the ladies at the center is an artist who coordinates a workshop programme to train women in different arts so that they can start their own businesses. I got her card and she is going to come do a batik workshop with some of us in the near future!
The most exciting thing about Friday however was that our host families came to pick us up! In my case it was a guy who lives down the street from my family and his little sister, who are also hosting a student. The university is in the neighborhood of Mermoz and I'm living in Ouakam, which is a 15 minute bus ride north. Our street is a block away from the far side of the airport. I'm living with a grande famille! Along with my host mother are five sisters, all between 16 and 25, two nieces (daughters of 2 of my host sisters) who are 1 and 6 respectively, and a host brother (the nephew of my host mom) who I think is 28 or so. My host father works in the Casamance, which is the southern part of Senegal, so I have yet to see him. There are also other kids from the neighborhood who hang out at our house, and there are a lot of young people my age on the street who we go visit and who visit us. At every corner there are little shops, like tailors or telecentres, but mostly minimarches, many of which are the size of a walk-in closet but are stocked with everything you could possibly need. We go to different mini-markets depending on what we need for the best price. My host brother keeps to himself pretty much and doesn't eat with us or any of that. My first extended conversation with him was last night when him and his sister decided to have a French lesson for me. So it's basically a house of women! they're always sitting in the living room talking and there's always activity and we're always going to some mini market to get some thing. The TV is always on but mostly people don't watch it (sounds kind of familiar :)? ).
I've been in about five houses by now and they're all very open so that the air can flow. For example, you have to walk outside to get to the washing area and the bathroom but it's tiled and closed off. There are a couple of small rooms beside the bathroom and kitchen that are open (no roof), and one of them has the stairway that's open and leads up to the roof, which is flat, and is where we hang the clothes to dry. There are no air conditioners, but sometimes a fan is on. It's always extremely hot and humid and I am forever sweating. Everyone is very clean and forever taking showers-so I am too (mom) :). The toilet doesn't flush and you just squat on it, which I'm still getting used to, but it's all good.
The food. The food has definitely lived up to my high expectations! I mentioned "eating around the bowl"- for meals the food is put in a large, sort of flat, bowl for everyone to eat out of. Traditionally you use your hands (everyone washes first, and only uses the right hand because your left is for the bathroom. You do everything with your right hand- like eat and accept/give gifts). We did that the first night for my sake I think, but usually we use spoons. There is no stove, so food is mainly rice, couscous, and maybe some lentils with either fish or chicken and some mostly root vegetables. There are lots of spices. I like the concept of eating from the same plate. There's this one dish whose name I forget that is more like a dessert, but we had it for dinner too. It's fattening apparently so it will give you a "fonde"-a big butt- which is desireable here :). It's boiled millet (a grain) with sugar and something else I think, and then you pour this sweetened yogurt over it, or sometimes condensed milk I think, and it's so good! My favorite drink is a popular one in Senegal called bissap. You get a bunch of dried hibiscus flowers, boil them, add mint candies which melt in the boiling water, and I think you add some ginger too. Then when it cools off you add a ton of sugar, and it turns out as this sweet red minty cold drink. Yum! I had one of my host sisters write down the recipe for me, though it's in French.
Speaking of food, Ramadan is great in this respect. Of course there's the fasting, but most of the people in my house don't fast (including my host mom)-though they do get up at 5am before sunrise. My favorite part is when we break the fast at sunset- we ate sweet bread with butter, dates, and nescafe creme. The coffee people drink here is nescafe-powdered instant coffee. This one we had last night comes in individual packets and is powdered cream and coffee, and then we put a bunch of sugar cubes in- very tasty. At the same time on TV they turned to the Arabic prayer chanting with scenes of Mecca and people praying that is special programming for Ramadan. Then dinner is between 9 and 10pm. Everyone stays up until at least midnight just hanging out.
Saturday night I went to a nightclub with three of my host sisters and three of their friends. It took about two hours for everyone (besides me) to get ready and trade clothes. We went to this posh club called the Senat (pronounced sena) at the Hotel Meridien which was verry upscale. (The kind with multiple swimming pools with different color lights in them and large palm trees.) Luckily it was free to get in for some reason. We spent another 20 minutes in the bathroom so everyone could put on makeup. There was too much "grinding" for me and mostly American hip-hop. It was okay, but we didn't leave until 5:30 am, walked a mile for a taxi, and then didn't get back home until 6:30am!! What's more, I had to get up at 7:30am for a trip to downtown Dakar with the students in my program! It was worth an hour sleep though, because we saw the major sites downtown like the presidential palais, American embassy, and Marche Sandanga (this huge market area! People follow you around trying to sell you things. It looks kind of like a flea market only much more cramped and crowded, and some people have store fronts, but they're all really small-like open closets.) We all got coconuts that the vendor chopped open for us so we could drink the milk, then chopped them again so we could scoop out the insides. My group's (6 people) guide was really cool and graduated from the university we're at a few years ago and now works at a bank downtown. After the trip he took us to the naming ceremony of his little nephew, back in Ouakam! The naming ceremony happens when a baby is a week old, and the whole family gets together to eat a lot of food and celebrate. We all got to hold the baby (there's a photo of my somewhere on my friend's camera) and eat. In the evening my host brother and sister and I went with a family down the street to the Point des Almadies- a nice beach spot north of us in the same super rich neighborhood as the nightclub. There were a million little kids and we watched the sunset as a rainbow appeared behind us before it started to drizzle out. Love the rainbows here! It's been raining often, but in large bursts so I've hardly used my umbrella. Most of the streets aren't paved and even ones that are aren't cambered, so the rain leaves huge puddles everywhere that splashes people on the sidewalks when cars drive by. The water combined with heat makes the trash that's around smell particularly bad, but luckily the trash is mostly in large piles rather than evenly spread. There are a lot of cars here, but not an overwhelming amount. Most people can't afford them, so there is a good transportation infrastructure. There are tons of taxis, but there are also blue public buses that go most places, and privately owned car rapides (mini-buses-kind of like big VW buses) that go everywhere. People drive horribly though. In a car rapide on Sunday on our way downtown the day almost became a tragedy when we hit a little boy crossing the street. Thankfully, he was able to stand up afterwards and had many adults around and we called an ambulance, so it was okay.
Contrary to Adam's (my brother) warning, there are not any children slapping me and asking for money. The only people who've asked me for money are the little boys who are talibes- followers/students of different marabouts (religious leaders). They're pretty unobtrusive and I feel bad for them, but most people I've talked to think it's exploitation and don't give money to them.
This Saturday we're going to Goree Island, which was one of the four communes (cities) where people were French citizens during colonization (as opposed to everywhere else where they were subjects). It was the main slave port in the area, although Senegal wasn't one of the biggest slave export areas. I'll have another entry to write by some time next week and will be able to include that trip, hopefully with a couple of photos. I'm still adjusting and the cultural learning curve is a challenge, but that's exactly why I came here so I'm really glad about everything!
Thanks for reading,
Amanda
P.S. I am a toubab. Did I mention this already? Originally it meant white person but it's been extended to mean any type of foreigner or outsider. I and the other students regularly are referred to as toubabs within our families, etc. There are actually a surprisingly large number of toubabs in Dakar. When I see other white people, who are mostly tourists or are wearing sun glasses and driving nice cars, I usually avert my eyes. I've discussed this with my friends in the program and they feel similarly. It's generally awkward. In the US one thinks of outsiders as lower on the power scale and usually with less privilege, but generally it's the other way around here so I've been thinking about that a lot, as I had expected. It's really weird. Why bother flaunting how much money you have, you know? Why bother pretending your back home by walking your dog, going to posh restaurants, and driving your SUV, when clearly you are somewhere else? Why not embrace? I don't know.
P.S.S. This p.s.s. is especially for my mom but anyone can read it: The sheets were a BIG hit! They loved the sheets a lot. And here it's so hot you only use one sheet and don't have anything over you, so it's really like two sheets for them. And the lotion was a big hit too, as well as the coloring books.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
J'ai arrivé
I am currently in the midst of orientation. We are staying in the dormitories on campus where our classes are held, until Friday when our host families pick us up. The university campus is in the neighborhood of Marmoz. The Senegalese army has a post across the street, and the Indonesian, South Korean, and Saudi Arabian embassies are around the corner, as well as USAID. We can see the ocean from the classroom windows, and frequent rain showers leave at least a couple of rainbows arching across the sky every day.
There are lots of dogs and cats wandering around, as well as herds of goats (some with, others without herders), and some horse drawn carts beside the zooming cars, taxis, buses, and car rapides, which are colorfully painted cheap mini-buses that run constantly and are super-crowded (people hang off the backs). Some of us rode with student guides yesterday on a car rapide to Ouakam, the neighborhood I'll be living in. There is an incredible amount of construction going on everywhere because of recent foreign investment, apparently, and many walled off beautiful villas are right next to cramped apartments. Trash tends to be everywhere, but people are resourceful. At the beach, kids were using a large piece of plastic (maybe it used to be a top or door?) as a boogie board. I have yet to see a chain store or fast food joint, (or a large supermarket for that matter) which is cool. There are innumerable street vendors and small shops and people just selling things without shops or by the side of the street. We will be receiving a food stipend, and I plan on eating many a mango and banana because breakfast consists of a piece of baguette and lunch and dinner mostly involve meat and rice. It's great because I'm not eating tons of snacks! Did I mention that it's extremely humid here and I'm sweating my butt off, but the weather is wonderful nonetheless.
My French is very bad, and we just started learning Wolof today (the teacher is a wonderful woman! and the class is in franglish), so communication has been difficult, but it can only get better from here! Everyone is extremely friendly once you say hello, especially in Wolof, which involves an exchange of about 8 questions and a generous handshake every time you see someone. Though considering our freshness here, we're only expected to exchange about 3 greetings at a time.
Not much exploring has been done yet, but I'll have a lot more to say be next week after I've seen downtown and been with my host family. Ramadan starts next week so the stores will mostly be closed but that's not a problem.
P.S. the call to prayer from the nearby mosque may just be a call to prayer but it's mesmorizing and beautiful!
P.S.S. there's no toilet paper here.
a biendot!
amanda
Monday, August 18, 2008
Books, Music, Movies: Oh my!
In case you want to do your own research, here's an incomplete bibliography of sorts...
This summer, instead of practicing my French as I should have (I mean, in addition to this research) I've tried to do some reading on and related to Senegal, as well as watch some Senegalese movies, and listen to some famous musicians. Many of the musicians are famous enough that I was already listening to them without realizing they are Senegalese! Fancy that.
Movies
The most famous and prolific Senegalese director was Ousmane Sembene (1923-2007). I found three of his many films at my local library in Arlington, MA- including
"La Noire de..." (Black Girl) (1966),
"Xala" (1975),
and "Moolaade" (2004).
His work explores many social issues facing contemporary Senegal and gives great critique and insight into his culture.
Sembene was actually an author until around age 40 when he realized that movies were the real way to reach most people in a country where illiteracy rates are high. Additionally, Senegal's first president Leopold Senghor was a poet and during the beginning of his term especially he gave a great deal of funding to the arts in Senegal. From my understanding, Sembene somehow benefitted from this.
I read a couple of his books, which are listed in my "books" section.
Also, check out this short documentary (free online!) called "Democracy In Dakar" about the role of hip-hop in the last presidential election. The full set of video shorts is here: http://nomadicwax.com/film/democracy-in-dakar/
Here's the trailor:
Music
Popular music for young people includes rap, r&b, hip-hop, and mbalax (pronounced mbalakh) which developed in the 1970s and incorporated soul, funk, and Cuban music with Wolof (the major language in Senegal) lyrics, local rythms, and the local sabar drum. Today there is greater r&b and hip-hop influences and electric instruments. South American and Carribean sounds are also involved.
Youssou N'Dour has this style, and I've been listening to him. I also have...
Cheikh Lo
Ismael Lo and the more old school
Orchestra Baobab
Some other famous Senegalese musicians and groups include
Baaba Maal
Positive Black Soul
Xalam
MC Solaar and
Akon
Orchestra Baobab video:
Baaba Maal video from 1992. Very cute. Couldn't embed this but here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv78EPSxbvI
Youssou N'Dour video (made for global consumption, being a superstar and all-it's in French and English):
Couldn't embed this one so you've got to click the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBSDE-Dywo
Books
Unfortunately for me I didn't read any of these in French (or Wolof). :)
CIEE, the company that is running my program, suggested some books to participants. Though I didn't read two of them, the rest were great, especially the fiction. I read and skimmed a bunch of other books, but didn't write down the titles before I took them back so regrettfully they aren't listed here. There are some that I do remember and those are here.
CIEE Fiction:
God's Bits of Wood by Ousmene Sembene
So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba
The Beggar's Strike by Aminata Sow Fall
Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane
CIEE Non-Fiction:
The Collected Poetry by Leopold Sedar Senghor
Africa Notebook by C.W. Gusewell
Mandinko: The Ethnography of a West African Holy Land by Matt Schaffer and Christine Cooper
Lonely Planet: The Gambia and Senegal
Muslim Brotherhoods and Politics in Senegal by Lucy Behrman
Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick by Leonardo Villalon
Fighting the Greater Jihad, Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–1913 by Cheikh Anta Babou
A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal by Allen Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts, and Gassia Armenian
The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? by Cheikh Anta Diop
The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity by Cheikh Anta Diop
Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology by Cheikh Anta Diop
Other books, mostly indirectly related to Senegal
The Belly of The Atlantic by Fatou Diome (is related to Senegal directly)
Xala by Ousmane Sembene (is related to Senegal directly)
Notebook of a Return to My Native Land by Aime Cesaire
Segu by Maryse Conde
The Wretched of The Earth by Franz Fanon
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
This summer, instead of practicing my French as I should have (I mean, in addition to this research) I've tried to do some reading on and related to Senegal, as well as watch some Senegalese movies, and listen to some famous musicians. Many of the musicians are famous enough that I was already listening to them without realizing they are Senegalese! Fancy that.
Movies
The most famous and prolific Senegalese director was Ousmane Sembene (1923-2007). I found three of his many films at my local library in Arlington, MA- including
"La Noire de..." (Black Girl) (1966),
"Xala" (1975),
and "Moolaade" (2004).
His work explores many social issues facing contemporary Senegal and gives great critique and insight into his culture.
Sembene was actually an author until around age 40 when he realized that movies were the real way to reach most people in a country where illiteracy rates are high. Additionally, Senegal's first president Leopold Senghor was a poet and during the beginning of his term especially he gave a great deal of funding to the arts in Senegal. From my understanding, Sembene somehow benefitted from this.
I read a couple of his books, which are listed in my "books" section.
Also, check out this short documentary (free online!) called "Democracy In Dakar" about the role of hip-hop in the last presidential election. The full set of video shorts is here: http://nomadicwax.com/film/democracy-in-dakar/
Here's the trailor:
Music
Popular music for young people includes rap, r&b, hip-hop, and mbalax (pronounced mbalakh) which developed in the 1970s and incorporated soul, funk, and Cuban music with Wolof (the major language in Senegal) lyrics, local rythms, and the local sabar drum. Today there is greater r&b and hip-hop influences and electric instruments. South American and Carribean sounds are also involved.
Youssou N'Dour has this style, and I've been listening to him. I also have...
Cheikh Lo
Ismael Lo and the more old school
Orchestra Baobab
Some other famous Senegalese musicians and groups include
Baaba Maal
Positive Black Soul
Xalam
MC Solaar and
Akon
Orchestra Baobab video:
Baaba Maal video from 1992. Very cute. Couldn't embed this but here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv78EPSxbvI
Youssou N'Dour video (made for global consumption, being a superstar and all-it's in French and English):
Couldn't embed this one so you've got to click the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBSDE-Dywo
Books
Unfortunately for me I didn't read any of these in French (or Wolof). :)
CIEE, the company that is running my program, suggested some books to participants. Though I didn't read two of them, the rest were great, especially the fiction. I read and skimmed a bunch of other books, but didn't write down the titles before I took them back so regrettfully they aren't listed here. There are some that I do remember and those are here.
CIEE Fiction:
God's Bits of Wood by Ousmene Sembene
So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba
The Beggar's Strike by Aminata Sow Fall
Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane
CIEE Non-Fiction:
The Collected Poetry by Leopold Sedar Senghor
Africa Notebook by C.W. Gusewell
Mandinko: The Ethnography of a West African Holy Land by Matt Schaffer and Christine Cooper
Lonely Planet: The Gambia and Senegal
Muslim Brotherhoods and Politics in Senegal by Lucy Behrman
Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick by Leonardo Villalon
Fighting the Greater Jihad, Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–1913 by Cheikh Anta Babou
A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal by Allen Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts, and Gassia Armenian
The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? by Cheikh Anta Diop
The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity by Cheikh Anta Diop
Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology by Cheikh Anta Diop
Other books, mostly indirectly related to Senegal
The Belly of The Atlantic by Fatou Diome (is related to Senegal directly)
Xala by Ousmane Sembene (is related to Senegal directly)
Notebook of a Return to My Native Land by Aime Cesaire
Segu by Maryse Conde
The Wretched of The Earth by Franz Fanon
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
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