a letter to the sun and moon of Mon Senegal

Mosque de la Divinité at sunset my last week, Mermoz Bay: Dakar

Salaam malekum, Mr. Sun! Bah mal, I’m wondering if I could ask you a favor or two.

Could you be sure to be kind to my family in Thissa Mass? Come and go gently so their crops grow well. maybe give their harvest days some cloud, you both could use a break.

I want to thank you for your mild and warm glow these past two months. But, if you ever notice me forgetting your power, please come and take the place of the Rocky Mountain sun and give me a swift, burning kick in the ass with your rainy season, unbearable heat. I don’t want to get too comfortable in my cushy life.

And, I know you’re busy keeping West Africa hot most the time, but on a day when I’m thinking about my home in Dakar, probably in the midst of snow banks and snobby and ignorant classmates, can you just shoot one, tiny ray my way? Knowing you still exist will give me the hope I need for the day.

If you’re ever missing my pale skin off which to reflect, I’ll try my best to get back to your kingdom soon.

Now, for your cousin, Madame Lune, could you call her over? Oh, bonsoir, dear! You’re looking aglow this evening. You know how important you are for my Dakar family, deciding when they will celebrate, when they will fast. You’ve lightened many nights without electricity and you took my breath away with your orange garb in Lac Rose.

Now, if you could spare a moment and push some of the gentle tides from Mermoz bay through the St. Louis Seaway, I hope that my cousins in Detroit will know your reality.

When you turn your face away from the Darkarois and look to your children the stars, could you please request a dance from them? Their crossing of the sky gives the youth below you an excuse to wish. You know as I do many people here are in need of a wish.

And, when you have a some spare time, could you escape and visit me? I’m afraid that I will forget to call for Korité if I do not see your fullness next fall. It won’t be the same to see you suspended above the mountains and not the lighthouse in Mamelles, but I know I’ll recognize you and  it would be comforting all the same to feel connected again.

To be connected to your country (and yours, too, Monsieur Soleil).

You’ve been kind and harsh and outstanding these four months.  Please do what you can for me now that I must leave, and I’ll keep you in my heart wherever I end up.

All my love, (je ne vous oublierai jamais!)

Molly Aicha Mbaye Maher

The goodbye of a lifetime: things not to forget

So this is it. I leave my house in 9.5 hours to head to the Leopold Sedar Senghor airport…I’ll be in Michigan Monday morning around 10 a.m. inshala.

Last night, my yaay (mother) started sing-songing a phrase to my baby nephew Pape, this is how he learns new words. “Dinaa naam lo Money! Money dinaa naam lo!” –I’ll miss you, Molly! Molly, I’m going to miss you!

Quickly, everyone started chanting along and soon everyone in the floor level was melodically enticing me to tears.

It was so endearing and really indicative of my time in this house: loud, hilarious, cheerful, unpredictable, musical, embracing, kind and hard to react to.

Here’s a few of the items I wrote down today to think back on, lest I ever start to forget this place:

-how everyone in the house is always taking everyone else’s shoes to walk around in, I never find my own

-How our one maid, Daynaba, will dance in front of me when no one else is around. She’s started to talk to me in Wolof, though she knows I understand only parts.Today when I started packing she came and asked if I would ever come back, and why wouldn’t I just stay another day?

-How at any given moment one of my sisters will jump out of their seat and start dancing wildly, shouting “Ah waayyye!,” music videos are always on the TV enticing them to sway their hips and stomp their feet

-How, when leaving the computer lab or lounge after classes at my campus, I’ll approach the part of the wall that ends and lends an open corner that is always aglow with the richest, most inviting orange-pink in all the world, emanating from the Atlantic Ocean sunset, people in nice bubus milling around below as they head to their evening classes or playing basketball on the university courts, sheep and goats surely grazing behind

-Watching everyone in their beautiful bubus on Fridays, the holy day for Muslims, a constant reminder of what day of the week it is

-How many times someone nearby has said (Toubab, moom, am na xalis! (that white girl, she’s rich)). Never forget the weight of your privileged life. Find a way to lighten this, or suffer its burden when you realize you have not.

-When randomly I’ll find dismembered feet on the back staircase or random animal parts in the freezer, and think absolutely nothing of it.

-Fruit stands that stay open late on weekend nights and butiks that open late in the morning, there’s always someone on the street even when I’m coming home from dancing at 4 or 5 a.m.

-How awesomely warm, but not aggressive, the sun has been since the rainy season left and it’s cooled down.

-Turning a corner and seeing a giant baobab tree rooted between houses, it’s twisted trunk and long limbs creating a meeting space; or encountering a surprise mbalax dance and drum circle at the end of a block on any given night; or a random fooseball table surrounded by kids that’s migrated a block for no real reason.

-Two or three men sittin gon a cement bench that is built off the wall of a building, posed up like they may never leave, shakin gthe sleeves of their even more traditional bubus as they point and discuss, walking passers-by that they will greet.

-the shocked look on older Senegalese faces when you understand a bit of Wolof.

-Drying clothes on a line, blowing gently in the wind on top of a neighbor’s roof

-Constant presence and noise of all types of animals, particularly our three sheep that live in a pen on the roof, my bed placed directly below it.

-walking extremely slow because I can

-Lax (Millet grains formed into clumps and sweet/sour milk/yogurt stuff) every Sunday night for dinner, watching Yaay turn the grains in her hands in a large metal bowl for a whole hour that evening, slowly adding water and creating small clumps

-The sweet taste of Bissap (like hibiscus) juice and the great tang of a lime after a spicy dish of ceebujen (fish  and rice)

-Electricity cuts! And how people will grumble the whole time, saying “Abdoulaye Wade” (the president) every few minutes

-Fat women who will inevitably point to the bench on the car rapides (small communal transport buses) to sit where there is no space, their jaye fondés (big butts) resting on top of their neighbors thighs

-The pawing hands of traditional lutteurs (wrestlers), their gris gris (blessed amulets) tied about their bodies, sand having been superstitiously placed on their chest

-Being able to buy underwear, mint leaves, and headphones in a 20 yard area

-Eating grapefruit for 75 cents every single day

-Cheeky talibé (young male beggars who were traditionally students of the Koran)

The rest is more personal, and so would do you no good. But, overwhelmed with the impossibility of saying goodbye or explaining this place in all its proper splendor, I hope this gives a further taste.

with one week left…

is it possible to miss a place while still in it? because I already feel like I miss dakar.

 

from my first week, I see this several times a week...

I’m having a blast this week, minus the homework that I’m having to complete, even if I don’t do an amazing job 16 pages takes a while.

Pas Bien Organisé

This week was the opening of the 3rd Annual FESMAN, a global festival celebrating black and african arts. It is in Dakar. This is spectacular, but also very telling.

Last night, for example, I went to see a concert as part of the program. It was a concert to present various Haitian talents, including well-known Wyclef Jean. I got to the location, at the foot of everyone’s least favorite monument. The stage they had constructed, which had seemed to me before a very nice setup, now had a large temporary construction in front of it, allowing only those “VIPs” fortunate enough to enter to see the stage itself. There was a large TV screen playing a live feed for all other viewers, but being so close to the stage itself it seemed silly to have to watch on a screen. What’s more, the sound was barely audible from behind the barricades, the acoustics not well accounted for.

I was there with some American friends and some other students who study in both the English Language Institute and the Business Program at Suffolk with us. One student from Benin was trying to convince me to go up to the guards with my SLR camera (looks slightly professional) and my white skin and ask to enter, because he wanted to see if it would work and he wanted to get closer.

Because I am both slightly shy about some things like this and because I am very, very furious about the disadvantages placed on the local patrons, I refused.

He was frustrated, and so was I.

 

Interesting view on Senegal from American Diplomat

http://www.ediplomat.com/np/post_reports/pr_sn.htm

 

the report offered to diplomats planning to relocate temporarily or long-term in Dakar.

ICT4D & Women in Sub-Saharan African

A shallow sweep of the topic I wrote for my Gender & Development class. (this is the short version. I thought that was nicer to share.)

Read more in this helpful book: African Women & ICTs, get some Twitter action through @ICT4D and check out Eldis’s one-stop-website on the topic.

 

 

Information Communication Technology for Development:

Gender and a Ugandan case

The dawn of the digital age has come for the entire globe. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), born and nurtured in developed countries through the past century, have restructured the exchange of information, practical production, and social constructs. Parallel to general development trends, the use of ICT for development purposes, both with a focus on actual service delivery and on the social implications and improvement because of access to ICTs, have vastly increased. These efforts have already changed certain aspects in the way of life of communities around the globe. In the past perhaps fifteen years, women in rural villages of Uganda have acquired cell phones, farmers in remote areas of India have begun the use of mapping technology for agricultural improvement and governments and development agencies have launched programs for the positive growth of ICT in developing nations.

In many ways, ICT for development has brought positive change to countries. In theory, ICT should also be a liberating and strong developing force for women, offering opportunities for education, open communication, economic growth, and participation. (Hafkin 3) However, what was often the case in early IT implementation was a regard for gender not thorough enough to actually promote female participation. In fact, in many cases the projects served to further deepen gender disparity because females could not utilize the new resources freely. In some cases it led to increased burden or stress for women. For example, in Zambia the easier and cheaper access to cell phones have offered women the opportunity to have their own mobile communication outlet. But, because of the pre-existing social constructions, husbands of these women often because jealous and distrusting, sparking controlling and harmful behavior and diminishing the women’s overall freedoms and reversing the ICT progress if husbands decided to take away the phone. (Melham 33)

The situation of ICT is pertinent particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa for several reasons. First, ICT is frequently used as a means for rural poverty elimination; an issue that women in this region are very familiar with. Furthermore, in all demographics of Sub-Saharan Africa, “women have the lowest participation in the world in science and technology in all education levels.” (Hafkin 6) Increased familiarity with any form of ICT will increase the likelihood of female participation in technology development, which requires the best the citizens can give, male or female. (Melham 8) Also, with “e-government” becoming a popular trend amongst Sub-Saharan African nations, such as NICI policy in The Gambia, the opportunity for the female voice to be present in and informed about politics like never before makes access to communication technology pressing. (Islam 3)

It is nearly undeniable that with these timely opportunities and the counter-productive situations like that in Zambia, along with the low ratio of female to male participants in many ICT initiatives because of other socio-economic constraints, encourage an engendered approach to and evaluation of ICT for development in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Melham 5) In order to effectively create and implement positive ICT for development projects in this African region focused on the participation and benefit of women and girls, it is important to look at a few of the main obstacles of ICT in recent history. One of the main issues facing the use of Information Communication Technologies as a means of engendered or gender inclusive development is that traditionally data collected, by either government when related to policy or outside organizations when related to development work, had no segregation by sex. (Hafkin 4) In this way, governments or development agencies saw positive numbers with out the realities behind them, which were most frequently a situation of alienation from ICT for women community members. (Hafkin 4) Another inherent issue is the lack of female presence in policy and decision-making. The majority of Sub-Saharan African nations have traditional roles in which men are dominate in all levels of politics and participation. In this way policy development and implementation have largely neglected the concerns of women. (Litho) Females in this region tend to have lower literacy rates and receive a lower level of education than male peers, making even accessible ICTs difficult to use. Lastly, general obstacles for ICT development tend to become magnified when approached by females. Issues such as lack of resources like consistent electricity, the cost of use of ICT, and socio-cultural obligations that limit time and activity tend to restrict females in a household more than men. (Litho)

In the past ten years, development projects can be seen that address these issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is widely accepted today that ICT is a development tool that is “neutral and useful to all regardless of gender, social, economic, or political context.” (Litho) Because of this point of view, ICT for development is “now being promoted by governments and development agencies as a tool having the potential to empower the marginalized, especially women living in rural Africa.” (Litho) In some cases, new projects have even been created to alleviate problems from originally gender-neutral initiatives. Such a project has been created in rural Uganda: WIRES.

In Uganda, women are the majority of the population and many of these women reside in rural areas. Because they are the majority, their role in socio-economic strength is paramount, but is often ignored because of social status. Over the past decade, the creation of telecentres was a major cooperative between NGOs and the government. In the planning stages of the telecentre system, gender had been a thought. Telecentres are multi-platform hubs in rural areas that offer internet connection, landline telephones, computer access, and more depending on regions. However, women did not consume the successfully created ICT centers in the way hoped. Using the Social Construction of Technology viewpoint of development and technology (SCOT), one researcher has identified some obstacle points to female usage and why the development of this program had not effectively considered the “realities” of the region in which the ICT would be implemented.

First, the researcher found that women used mobile phones much more largely than computers, as is also a trend for both genders in Uganda. “Women are reported to be uncomfortable with especially computer related ICTs,” including e-mail and Internet, while they find the mobile phone “accessible.” (Litho) Women surveyed reported feeling uncomfortable using the facilities in the presence of local men. Their domestic schedule made walking the long distance to the telecentres difficult, leaving mobile phones as a much more convenient form of communication. Because of their low-income levels, virtually none since husbands hold household earnings, women did not have the disposable income for the fee of entry into the telecentre. Lastly, their literacy levels are lower than those of men, and even if they used telecentres despite these challenges and a large technophobia, women would not easily find the information they seek.

These facts in mind, the researcher says one will find only men surrounding computers in the telecentre, with women sometimes gathered in a second room in the facility. He attributes this real failure of inclusion to the planning. “The international agencies possibly based their model on western concepts…without consideration of the environment to which the technology was being delivered.” (Litho) Conversely, the researcher presents the new, counter project, WIRES, as an inclusive ICT. WIRES is a female-only environment that offers a CD-ROM to its visitors. The CD-ROM includes audio-visual materials, making it accessible to illiterates, and uses the local language. The CD-ROM is designed to present ideas about bettering personal economic practices, with relation to their own family and production levels. Its goal is to reduce rural poverty in Uganda by empowering its women. As of the time the researcher published, women using the WIRES resources said they understood the materials and benefited from them. (Litho)

Thinking on the example of women in rural Uganda with in the larger context of ICT in Sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed its global trends, ICT is clearly at a crossroads with gender. Timely opportunities for increased participation in government, self-education, and communication must be seized. However, it is my opinion that, as the researcher in Uganda said: “It should not be assumed that the rejection of a technology is due to a lack of understanding by the recipients, it is just that the technology does not work for them.” (Litho) With all of the innovation going on around the world, interactive technologies for development should be created that offer women accessible ways to be involved with ICT. Knowing what is most important to women in rural Uganda, a computer may not be the answer. A woman would do better to have a portable device that is accessible from the home. Participatory ICTs are empowering women like never before, and devices must offer women—even illiterate women—a way to participate, perhaps through audio recording. Solar powered chargers to sidestep electricity shortages are most reasonable. Above all, steps must be taken before turning these technologies over to women to ensure that the social environment in which they are being placed does not cause a reaction that will only serve to increase a woman’s burden or stress at home.

 

SOURCES

Hawfkin, Nancy and Taggart, Nancy. “Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Counries: An Analytic Study. Executive Summary.”  Washington, DC: LearnLink.

Islam, Dr. Baharul. “Creating an Outer Circle in the Digital World: Participation of Women in the e-Government System.” 12 December 2005. Economic Commission for Africa.

de Jager, Arjan and van Doodewaard, Margreet. “The e-Society Programme of the Apac District, Uganda” May 2008. Hivos, IICD.

Litho, Patricia K. “ICTs, empowerment and Women in rural Uganda: A SCOT Perspective.” 22 April 2005. SSMAC Centre for Narrative Research. http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/ICTs.htm

Melham, Samia and Tandon, Nidha. “Information and Communication Technologies for Women’s Socio-Economic Empowerment.” 30 June 2009. World Bank Group Working Paper Series no. 51259.

 

Snow?! Finals. Grades?! Food advice.

I just logged onto WordPress to find snow flurries on the homepage. I know cold is awaiting me, but I was trying to forget about it!

I finished my last class session ever in Senegal today. I allowed a celebration to ensue (keep in mind I am writing a paper more than 4 days before it’s due, which is a big step for the super procrastinator I am) when I ran into a few students in the nearby gas station market buying a beer and heading to the closest beach. I’m writing my papers a lot faster now that my toes are a little sandy and my nose a little rosy.

The first paper is for Gender and Development and concerns Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). There is a book available on Google commons that I would recommend browsing through if you have spare time. The topic itself is very pertinent to me and I’m happy to be researching it, but I am not adding much new material from the first version we turned in earlier this semester (had 6 pages, adding 3 with only one new source…)…all my classes are going back as pass/fail credit so I don’t have much motivation to work harder than necessary after learning about a topic.

My second paper is about the book Nervous Conditions and the use of missionary schooling in colonial Rhodesia. That’s more of a task and still have to do a lot of research. 8-10 pages.

The final is a paper on Senegalese Culture and Society, written in French, and requiring research this time. I have selected the brain drain (ou le luitte des cerveaux), but have not gone much further than declaring the topic. 6-8 pages.

Then I have one Wolof exam (not worried about this) and an oral French exam (can’t prepare for this), and I’m done with the first half of my senior year!

While working on these and after, I am hoping to get to several FESMAN events. It is really an amazing opportunity that I want to take advantage of, even if this is a reason we’ve had so many power cuts the past couple weeks.

Next week, I’m hoping to make my host family a dinner to celebrate the end of my time and my sister’s birthday. Anyone have recommendations? I have a stove and oven, but they are never used and I don’t trust them. If I could keep it to things over a gas flame, that would be ideal. Please comment and let me know! Recipes would be much appreciated.

Only 11 nights left…time is flying at a snail’s pace with all these things I’m doing, but the snow flurries I saw just now remind me of the Joyeux Noel I’ll be returning to.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

I know I’m very far behind in writing…again…Sorry!

I had an amazing experience on my rural stay. I learned a lot and was confronted with a lot of things my comfortable life has never presented to me, including being the only foreigner for miles and treated like a sideshow joke —though I hope this was not done with malice but rather just for amusement.

I’m a little written-out as I’m still trying to finish a reflection paper in French on this experience, but here are some photos of the village I stayed in called Thissa Mass.

The sun sets on baobaob trees in Thissa Mass

Raskah Sarkho, one of my host sisters

Me going to "help" glean the peanut fields in Thissa Mass. I had no where near the physical capacity of the girls I was with. I will forever be in awe.

My host mother works in the yard of the compound at Thissa Mass

Field of Thissa Mass

xale bi (child)

The project sponsored at Thissa Mass by APROFES (who I traveled through) started a small vegetable garden with its own well to lighten the burden on the women working it.

 

 

 

Since that week, I celebrated the biggest holiday in Senegalese Islam tradition known worldwide as Eid, but here as Tabaski. It is the holiday of the sheep, and we killed and are still eating three at my house. We had very little school, my Senegalese traditional boubou turned out beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

This week I’m kind of on a downswing, something that tends to happen no matter where I am. I lost a lot of hair after rural visits, probably as a culmination of a lot of normal factors I’m facing here, and got a pretty nasty-looking scab on my face. These made me embarrassed (though they shouldn’t) and a little nervous (though I know better than to sweat the small stuff like this when I am in the midst of a dream-experience). But I am still healthy and am trying to focus on how awesome my life is instead of the (hopefully) soon-to-be-gone bald spots on the sides of my head.

For Thanksgiving, the students at my school are invited to a huge dinner at the American club nearby, complete with pumpkin pie! So I’ll be missing all of you, but none of the goodies.

We go to St. Louis this weekend, leaving tomorrow and spending one night in tents in the desert. It should be pretty amazing and I’m doing all I can to kick myself out of this mental lull.

When I get back on Sunday there will only be three weeks left until I board a plane, and the thought of actually leaving is blowing my mind.

 

 

 

Adda ak cossanu Senegal: Education

In Wolof, the word “yar” means both “to beat” and “to educate.”

Needless to say, the approach to education in Dakar and the whole of Senegal is very different from that of the US or any place familiar to me. And, indeed, beating children as a punishment or example to instill order is common practice, just as it is in the home.

With my Senegalese culture and society class, we visited elementary schools to observe a classroom then debrief on what we noticed there (I visited a Catholic, private equivalent of 8th grade class) and to listen to a lecture from a local professor on the history and condition of education, which is a national right in Senegal.

The professor said, point-blank, that the situation in Senegal is “a sick education system. There are many sicknesses.” (His English was totally clear for communication, but his word choice made everything very emotive and entertaining)

The first ailment he mentioned was it’s lack of cultural adaptivity. The national language remains that of colonization, and really the ethnic make-up of the country makes the process of language unifcation extremely difficult, he said. He cited the 1981 attempt to unify under the Wolof language (majority ethnicity), [the 1980s was a period of major Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) imposed by the World Bank and IMF in Senegal and many other African countries] saying that he and his other activists friends fighting to change the school system were not satisfied with this solution. To this day, the issue of students who can pass under the radar of language check-ins, never really learning to speak French correctly, leads to grade repetition.

Furthermore, students in that period were forced to be a “café au lait,” he said. One was neither white nor black, French nor Africa. But rather, as he had done, one recited dictés on winter, central heating, and French ancestors in a village school on the border of Mauritania. Today, as I saw in my class, things are getting a little better, but there remains the issue of the style of education.

To this day the style is very French. Students listen to lectures and memorize pages and pages of notes which they regurgitate back to their professors, having to be prepared for spur of the moment questions, though the answers are all in the paragraphs they memorize.

The professor explained that the education system is largely accustomed to strikes, include student, teachers, and administration alike. In 1988, he said, there was an entire year off (une anée blanche). In 2008, there was 80 days of striking. The Millennium Development Goals and national check marks set a goal of 100% enrollment in schools in 2018 (a feat my host sister mistakingly thinks has already been accomplished).

To meet this goal, the ever unpopular (unless he employs you!) aging, President Abdoulaye Wade has alloted 40% of the total national budget to education, an amount equivalent to $470 million US. However, the professor says that of this 90-95% goes directly into salaries of teachers and ministry employees. Meanwhile, more than 80% of schools are with out electricity, more than 59% with out running water, and more than 25% with no toilets.

Perhaps an increased infrastructure and ensured resources for students would lower the repetition and failure rate of students. Currently, 16% of primary school students will repeat a level. If a student fails 2 or 3 times, they will be removed from the education system, forced into private schools if they can afford it. Or, as the professor’s own son had done, for a cost of merely 5,000 to 10,000 CFA ($10 to $20 US) a new birth certificate can be made making the child younger and able to re-enter the system, what he called “rebirth”.

This practice carries the same name as the eyesore that is Wade’s Renaissance statue, whose shadow my neighborhood hides under daily. It makes me wonder when a real rebirth is coming to this country, filled with opinions and citizens such as this professor who are sick of their “sick education system.”

 

Gestu Dekkinu Waa Senegal

Leaving on Monday for a “Gestu Dekkinu Waa Senegal,” formerly known as “rural visits.” The new name translates to ways of living for people of Senegal.

I will be going through an organization called APROFES. It’s aim is to empower and aid women in many realms. The organization does everything from microfinancing to local plays, support for victims of domestic violence and creation of buvettes at girls’ schools, according to the website.

I will stay two nights in the city of Kaolack where the organization is headed, then three nights in one of their site villages. It should be very interesting and a nice break from Dakar.

I am filling good and digging in more and more here, but still a little stir crazy so this should be a great change of pace to bring me into really the middle of November.

 

Jàmm ak Jàmm!

all of my photos thus far

Or at least those that I have edited and uploaded are here:
in my facebook album!

taking a pirogue across Lac Rose

so very lucky

I have the most privileged life. I knew this before, but it is becoming more apparent everyday.

This morning, our new and most quiet maid in my home here had a visitor at the front door. I pointed her to the entryway because the visitor had disappeared into the entryway by the time she had reached the ground level. I wish I had just played dumb because whatever that visitor said or did threw this girl into a full on wailing cry. I have never heard such a gut-wrenching noise. She would not look at anyone or respond to questions. I still have no idea what caused her to cry out. I have never heard her make so much noise. But I know I have never be in that situation, where I was stuck in an employer’s house as a young girl inconsolably upset.

Not only that, but I have the life of dogs and yoga, coffee shops and dark comedies. I get an expensive out-of-state education and get to spend 4 months being a voyeur in a developing, West African country.

I am making a vow to never complain again.

Loo bees? (roughly, “what’s new?”)

Came from a very interesting discussion with a women who started an organization to combat illegal emmigration in Senegal after her son, along with 40 other young men, died crossing the sea to Spain. I am going to do more research and write about that this week.

We have Monday off of school for All Saint’s Day! Who knew that would be a national holiday in a 95% Muslim society?!

I went last week to learn some pottery techniques to helpo teach at an Atelier right near my house. It offers classes to children with disabilities, mostly deaf. They also open doors to “children in the street” once a week. Because of my class schedule, I may not interact much with them, but am planning on going back tomorrow morning? donc on verra! (We’ll see…apologies I can’t keep to one language in my brain today)

I visited Lac Rose last weekend. It was not rose at that time (it sheens a rosey color in the winter because of it’s high salt content which is 10 times that of an ocean), but was a nice break from Dakar. More info and pictures soon!

I feel like I’m actually starting to dig in a bit, which is good. Hopefully I still feel that way in a week because then the last half of this program will be even more successful than the first.

More class next week, then departing the following week for a rural stay in a village! I’ll make an entry when i have info about where I’ll be staying so I can give some before/after reflections. I’ve been writing a lot more so I will try to get some of my best thoughts from my personal writing to you all.

Ciao ciao! (I swear every country loves this saying…even hear. blows my mind;)

Al Jazeera is awesome

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/africa-states-independence/2010/09/201091911832707777.html

This article is a really quick and accurate summary of some of the things I’ve been learning about in Dakar. Read it! Let me know how the video is, it wouldn’t load on my computer right now.

about the flooded street comment in the article: that musician i saw in concert last week (Awadi) said something so great about it. He was basically drawing out a long satire of the state? critiquing many things? most of which related to the bad governance. He said, “The chief of state, knowing how much Senegalese love to dip their feet in the water, decided to let them do this all fall!” ( that is only a loose translation, but it was really funny in person…)

I live in the shadow of that Renaissance statue. It’s power is never cut. (It is good to note that power cuts are much less frequent now than at the start of the program.)

Bayi yoon

^my favorite song right now, and it’s great saying “the oldest civilization in the world was born in Africa: ask your teachers!”

I wanted to leave a quick note saying that I’m not always an over-emotional pessimist. I’m feeling a lot more realistic right now and am looking forward to stuff coming up.

Plans for this weekend:
-THURSDAY: Dance class!
-FRIDAY: going to a local pottery shop that has volunteers teach young kids who are mute and in some cases deaf/other developmental issues how to create little crafts that are sold, offering them a community and skill set and self-empowerment.
going to a language club for college students learning English to be a part of a discussion on homosexuality and its stigma in Senegal
going out for shawarma with a friend, then to the French Institute downtown for an Awadi (hip hop group/awesome musician activists) for a concert
-SATURDAY: Lac Rose? TBD

It should be pretty awesome.

Then in a couple weeks we all head to villages for a week, cannot wait! Gotta work on my Wolof so I can hopefully actually communicate. Story of the semester.

Jamm ak jamm!!

If you can find this movie…

You need to watch it. Bamako. It is a very interesting film in many ways, including the way the story line is presented. It carries in a nutshell the most emotionally-charged thing I am taking away from being in Africa. I had always been a believe in the continent and sympathetic for problems of colonization, but this drove the ideas deeper into my soul. It is truly, if understood correctly, the tale of a death of a people who are in dire need of revival.

mbok and starbucks (I complain too much)

Sometime between feeling like I had not been here long enough to understand properly the culture or communicate fully (the first month and a half) and now (at about two months in), when I feel a sad plateau in relationships and experience, I think I lost my confidence.

Nothing is worse than trying to fit into a place—or whatever the goals I have set for myself—when you have lost your spark, sense of humor and assuredness that you deserve to be liked and accepted. It’s like the progress took too long in my eyes, so now I’m sure it’s just a failure. But, being conscious of that again I’m going to try to retrieve myself somehow.

Part of this feeling, I think, was a major downgrade in language skills this week. I could not for the life of me speak proper French the past week. It may have been because of our Fall break, but hopefully that will get better.

All this self-pity and emotional indulgence aside, I am just about halfway done with my time here. I have less than 70 days before I will be in one of those planes that takes of at the airport just across a field from my home here. Being at this crossroads, I know I am ready for a few things from home. I miss doing my hair and making my own food, little things like that. I’m ready to see my family and friends and to feel at totally at ease, because here even when I am comfortable and happy I am always calculating actions through cultural formulas.

All the same, I can’t imagine being home right now. I can’t imagine spending $4 on a latte at a Starbucks when I’ve become accustomed to spending 20 cents on grilled corn on the street. I can’t imagine being in a place where black is not the majority race.

I know there are already so many amazing things about the culture I am going to miss.

The main question I am posing to myself right now is: What will you do to make the next half better? Or are you going to let your self-doubt and the vision of your home on the horizon slow down your adaptation?

some photos to catch up…

homosexuality in senegal (pre)

I’m about to go to a section of our Senegalese Culture and Society class where we will have a panel of two gay and two lesbian Senegalese locals. It is not a likely thing to have this discussion here, and I am really glad my program directors set it up. I am not sure if I had mentioned this directly in a post, but have definitely been noting it in my personal writing, but this country is highly homophobic. My friend told me last night that a study that polled something like 46 countries on their social views on homosexuality put Senegal at almost dead last. I believe she said 96% of those polled said that homosexuality should be rejected by society. It is not hard to believe that these views would come from a country that is highly religious and has traditional family views, but it is still striking how strong the feelings are. My younger sister once told me about their Muslim faith in the judgement day, mentioning that homosexuals would be among the first sent to hell.

Apparently it is less socially acceptable to be a female and engage in homosexuality, while males my do so discreetly and not be spoken of. I am looking forward to the discussion as this is a subject that interested me in a lot of ways before coming here and a social rights movement that I came to know well with my work in Boulder.

If I’m not as lazy as normal, I’ll write something after this or very soon.

If I ever get married…

…I think I found a perfect honeymoon location.

Our program took us to Toubab Diallaw last weekend. It’s a village on the Petit-Cote and I, along with a few dozen other girls, fell in love.

The resort was a surprising structure of stones and beautiful carved rock. The beach was gorgeous and the area remote and untouched.

It was a wonderful time to relax, and our program directors were right in thinking that we would be at the point where we needed it. It was just enough time to be away from the polluted, rainy, crowded Dakar and from our strenuous homelife (albeit amazing and fun, it always requires more energy to speak in 3 languages and be conscious of your actions).

But, we came back as quickly as we went and one night was almost a tease, offering a little bit of the things I miss most while living here. (independence, wheat bread…)

Couche de Soleil : Toubab Dialaw

Toubab Dialaw

fall break

I leave on Friday very early in the morning for our fall break! It is the only long trip I will be taking. Making plans with 7 other students in my CIEE program to go to The Gambia. We will be taking sept-places (otherwise known as bush taxis. literally means 7 seats, so large public taxis that travel between major stops.) We’ll be visiting the capital then traveling east (inshala (God willing, a common saying in Senegal for anything that will be happening in the future)). The road eastward is apparently an adventure and with the rainy season slowing down, it has had months of degredation. Should be interesting! Eastward there are beautfil nature reserves and lots to explore. We’ll then travel back west and north to Sine Saloum, also full of nature to explore. Then it’s back to Dakar. Bout 10 days total to be traveling, I’ll be sure to add photos on my return. and I know I have a lot…a LOT… of catching up to do with everyone. I’ve been worse at it than I anticipated. But I will work on it. More soon, inshala.

photos

COMING ASAP!
the internet has been murdering me.

I’m still giving it to my mother

Your typical tourist trap story

Or, I am such a Toubab.

Toubab is a word that means something along the lines of white, foreign or non-Senegalese person in Wolof (the locally dominant language in Dakar). This evening, after a long day of non-Toubabing, I Toubabed so hard that my embarrassment almost stopped me from sharing my story. However, I think that it’s human nature to share the worst things in life with another, seeking reassurance that the whole world is not against us. So tell I will…

I have just completed my third week of studying abroad in the capital city of Senegal. I am now used to the friendly approaches and greetings of strangers on the street and of the high level of hospitality, the infamous Senegalese value of taranga.

Now, as I have known in the other some dozen countries I’ve been to, and have been told many times by the study abroad program, this means that you need to keep your wits about you and not trust people you just met.

But, I am such a Toubab, I was stubborn and foolish and broke all these rules.

The lone Toubab in a sketch bar some few blocks from the friends I had parted ways from in Dakar’s centre-ville, my new artist friends from Casamance explained to me the habit of giving certain gris-gris (sort of amulet meant to promote well-being). This while we “waited” for a “card” explaining their schedule of “drum performances.” I already knew they didn’t care about me.

But I took the twisted metal bracelet to, as they instructed, “only give to my mother back in the US. And only to her,” an act to protect the elder of the two’s newborn son. I wore a gifted necklace as I insisted I leave to go home to my family. This reference to my host family as my second family plus my few dozen Wolof phrases entertained them to no end, and made me “a great Senegalese!”

Then, a mere block from the bus terminal I vaguely recognized from the week before when a school guide had taken us on a downtown sortie, we stopped at a boutique (corner store with all you could want to buy).

Oh wonderful, I now had the opportunity to pay back this man by buying him a bag of rice. Smiles all around and often a new person reinforcing these customs, saying it is such a great coincidence that I have met these men and that we can all have luck for our futures.

Frustrated and flustered, a dix mille bill comes out of my wallet ($20 US), very faint tears from my eyes, and shame into my heart.

No doubt this cash went straight to their rasta weed and Flag 40 oz.

One of these new friends walks me to the right stop for the Dakar Dem Dekk (bus route meaning to Dakar and back) and I tell him I will never call him, and that this strange experience did not improve my day. But he pretends that I had just misspoken the French (not true.) and parts with a handshake and smile.

It may have all been a scam, but I am still giving the bracelet to my mother. It must be karma-tically lucky somehow.

bullet points on my life

So I am very sorry for being MIA. I am slowly adjusting to everything and there is a lot to experience. And I actually have a lot of classes? And with the heat there is no way I can stay up late to write something. I will try to update more now that I can use the internet at school. A couple complete/written entries to come soon, but in the mean time here are some bullet points about the past week:

-my skin is having a very adverse reaction to the heat. big surprise.

-in less than a week of living with my host family, my sisters already call me sister and the little boy (1-2 year oldish “Pop”) calls me Tata.

-Pop also likes to grab my face with his nails.

-I have a hard time speaking yet in the house, but I think it’ll get there. In any case, they are used to having students (I am the 6th) so the worst thing that happens is that I don’t leave with a Senegalese family forever-but they’re definitely making me comfortable.

-I have only eaten one thing that I find disgusting. It was like curdled milk or watered cheese or something else that made me gag. Super unfortunate, but that in mind everything else has been really tasty! Spicy, fresh fruit, coffee and tea everyday.

-I’m hoping to go to the tailor to get clothes made for the end of Ramadaan festival in a week-ish, but apparently did not communicate this well enough with my sister. We shall see.

-I am taking a culture and society class, a contemporary lit class, French, Wolof, and Gender & Development

-I take the local bus and the small car rapides. They would freak out my mother but I am used to them already.

-I always eat pain au chocolate for breakfast. I probably have an entire baguette a day. If I come back chubbier, do not say anything.

-showers are a lot different. there’s nothing surrounding them, just a dip in the floor and a drain. But used to it already. There’s sometimes a little lizard on the wall who is my shower buddy.

-the wolof language is awesome in that it has some really heavy words with great meaning- like kolere for rememberance and connection (like to a people you are not near), teranga (which is the hospitality reputation of the country, their football team is the lyons of the teranga) and so on. more on that later.

-not a lot of pics yet. still feeling out cultural reactions to the camera and don’t want to be tooooo touristy. but i am goign to a really pretty area tomorrow ona field trip and to Goree (slave trading island) on saturday, so I’ll have some from those days soon.

-I really miss home for the first time ever. I think that might be a good thing though, because the rumor and fact is that a lot of people who come on these programs end up never really leaving Senegal… I have the distinct feeling that I’ll end up wanting to visit but based on my feeling right now I don’t think I’ll be the converted community.

-In some ways this is super luxurious. we have two maids and I never make my own food, they brought me breakfast in my room the other morning. In some ways it’s not like that at all, the power is always going out (more on that later I’m sure) and bathrooms are just soooo different.

-during orientation we are all seriously warned that Senegalese men are frequently searching Toubab companions (Toubab=foreigner/whitey) and that we should be cautious to protect ourselves emotionally, physically, etc. This has not been a problem at all for me. Maybe I’m not friendly yet, but the best story I’ve heard today is the reverse of this where a kid in my program has a female admirer who will not give up on trying to date him. Pretty awesome.

-My first home-food craving: burrito/Mexican.

-I have never slept so hard in my entire life.

-Biggest issues: being present at home, having to ask for permission to do things && being friendly to everyone in the street for the most part. I can’t strike the balance of who to greet.

-my host family is Moslem and is observing Ramadaan right now. Meals are awkward for the time being but it ends in a week.5ish. There is a call to prayer through out the day on loud speakers, it’s awesome.

-The beach is gorgeous! Or rather the ocean. the water is warm.

-the verdict is still out whether I’ll look tan in December.

-I still find myself counting time until the end of the program way too much.

-Got our first drink here yesterday, just stopped for maybe a half hour. My family still thought I was back late. Not very good at answering to people.

- I have to wake up way too early sometimes and miss breakfast. It’s a daily struggle.

-We have two maids, they’re like the family though only one spends time around us. She’s funny, atleast I think what she’s saying in Wolof is funny.

-My youngest sister in the house (Haday Mbaye) has Downs. I haven’t gotten a feel for how this is addressed here. She’s really sweet.

-You call people byf rist and last name here, last names are very important. My family (Mbaye, silentish M) is pretty loud and you can always here Madjiguene Mbaye being yelled from outside the house.

-I don’t know exactly how I will register for classes/find an internship while here. It is yet to be seen and will undoubtedly be a struggle.

-My view of Africa is definitely changing, though I’m not sure what it was before.

-they watch so much TV it’s outrageous.

-I have forgotten/been too nervous to ask about laundry. The time is running out (maybe 3 outfits left…)

-We have some spectacular trips planned with the program for weekends, I am excited to figure out what I’ll do for Fall break.

-As much as I am counting too much the time left here, I am nervous I won’t get to everything I’d like to do at the same time. This is a good thing.

-HIP HOP

-So our program is housed on the Suffolk campus in Dakar- it is “an American university in Senegal”- students are meant to spend two years here and two at an american school, usually Suffolk in Boston. The students here start this week and we will have language and cultural exchanges. The students come from several areas in West Africa.

-they don’t use toilet paper, which is why the left hand is never used.

-we eat around one communal bowl, which helps me not have to eat a ton. traditionally it’s just hands, I usually have a utensil or bread to scoop with.

-I think my father has multiple wives. He is so funny, him and Yaay (mother) are my driving forces for learning Wolof.

-Overall I think this was just the right choice for me this semester.

Gotta go- A bientot!

(Can’t find accents on this computer…oops)

Constellations on the horizon

Accounting for the time difference, precisely 36 hours ago I was on my parents’ couch in posh suburbia, petting my poofy-haired dog and watching HGTV. Fast forward to now and I am sitting at a desk in the main dorm of l’École Nationale d’Economie Appliquée in Dakar, Senegal.

Across the road from ENEA (Suffolk) in Dakar.

For many Americans, Senegal is just a spot on a map —though for some that spot’s location is a mystery) — something I realized while staring at a flight map through sleep-heavy eyes on a plane some 12 hours ago.

From the crack I had left open in the shade of my rounded window, the sky seemed impossibly dark outside. Pulling up the shade revealed a familiar web of stars in a non-familiar position. At the horizon just below the wing of the plane were a set of three stars I vaguely recall knowing the name of during astronomy lab in Fiske Planetarium at CU three years ago.

Sitting at this desk, the West African capital city of Dakar has only barely gained more life than a spot on a map for me. Jetlagged and uncertain, I have yet to leave the school’s compound…

What I know is that I had a breakfast of bread and nutella, a shower with no curtain, a toilet with no paper (yet) and puddles of muddy rain and piles of trash surrounding the rear of cafeteria building.

But none of this seeming change of convenience has curbed my excitement to be here. This seems the same of the few dozen other US students in my study abroad program through CIEE. Because really, as the back-lit Senegalese silhouette I passed in the hall of the dorm told me, “It’s a beautiful day out.”

There are twinkling stars on the horizon whose names I have forgotten or have yet to learn.

While abroad I will continue to contribute selected entries to the CU Independent. Visit this article on their page.

WORKING ON IT

Soooo in typical fashion I was not totally prepared for this trip. So the blog look and feel is going to change, hopefully the function is up to par for now. It will be prettier soon!