Sorry for the inconvenience...

I realize my updates are just as vital to your day as your first cup of coffee, and this may be hard for you, but for 8 days (starting on Friday..tomorrow!) I will be out of commission.

Tomorrow at 7:30 (an ugly time no matter where I am...) my group and I are leaving the SIT office for a (theoretically) 10 hour drive to Kedougou, a village in the southeastern corner of Senegal. (Look at the handy little map if you like!)

For the first few days we're staying in a "campement" together, going on mini-hikes (yes, even for my standards they're "mini"), picnic-ing and swimming in waterfall pools. Monday is the first day I am actually staying with my village family - in a Basaari settlement. As of right now I know all of their last names start with B, and they are Christian Animists...and apparently enjoy a good bon-fire dance. After three days in our separate villages we come back together - to decompress a little - and do some good market shopping. Apparently I must get some honey, indigo dyed cloth, and jewelry. I think I can handle these shopping requirements.

So to summarize...you must find some other way to fill your days than by reading my incredibly thought-provoking, witty and astounding blog posts.

Also just as an interesting aside, and to further ensure that my uncle maintains an appropriate level of jealousy, I have recently been invited, by the manager of Baaba Maal, to visit Baaba Maal at his house, after we return from the village. So we'll see if that happens...

Good luck. Get ready for some great pictures (hopefully) of Kedougou and my bon-fire dancing.



Just to add some color to all this fascinating text - this is the cultural center with free events every night, and incredible artwork. I went there (last week?) for a break dancing/hip hop performance.

Batik

I made this today! It looks better in real life, after it dried and turned red (the tub of dye is the complement of the color it actually turns into...so if you want yellow, you had to put the cloth in the purple tub. It required some advanced thinking...) Aand, I didn't even get any of the dye on my clothes. Good day of class.

Ceebu jen for a good price

I can make it now - the national Senegalese dish. (If you would like to employ me for the summer that would be great too.)

Sunday was chore day. I got to help dust. They didn't think I could do the hard sweeping because I'm a spoiled American with easier cleaning equipment. My cousin actually said she didn't think I could use their broom because I'm accustomed to using brooms that don't require you to bend over. Not going to argue that one.

But the best part of the day was making lunch. I walked through the neighborhood (SICAP Baobab) with Rose finding and buying the vegetables and dried fish we needed for the ceebu jen (rice and fish). Maybe I didn't help cook much of the dish, but I was there for the whole time and could cook up a mean combination of rice and spices and vegetables if you offer a good price...

I loved the feeling of being able to wander just a few blocks from our home to get our food, with the rest of the neighbors doing the same thing. I still am quite sure that I need a guide to wander through the neighborhood without getting lost, but it's nice to start recognizing some of the streets and people.

Here's Rose, with Ndeye Marienne in the background, and my masterpiece (or...her masterpiece with a little help from me...but who's checking). It was delicious. I'm telling you - I could use a summer job and I'm sure one of you could use a summer chef.



And here is the great indoor living room I so carefully dusted.

Mom I know my finals schedule...

...and you can push back my flight home if you like.
The second half of Saturday, we went to a hotel for a little lunch and relaxation. More like a huge lunch of chicken, rice, ginger juice and fruit salad, followed by Ataya (Senegalese tea). The hotel, fortunately, was right on the beach so I didn't have to move far when I was in my post-meal comatose phase.
This is also the hotel where we'll be staying during finals week, when we will all present our Independent Study Projects to one another, in between naps on the beach. It might be tough to fit in the presentations.

This will be our dining hall for finals. I'm here with my NESCAC friend (yeah, I've got one!) who goes to Bates when she's not abroad in Prague in the Fall, and Senegal in the Spring.

The gate leads to the back of the hotel, into a nice courtyard area with lawn chairs and tables, which then leads into the area where we had lunch.

The great thing about being abroad is I'm losing track of the Blazers' losses, so I can still be a fan even if the Celtics killed them. The book I have to read for French class (all in French!) is there under my shirt...so you can see I may have tried to be studious.
This is from the beach, looking onto the back of the hotel, where I'll do some really efficient studying and practicing for my final presentation.

Here is the view from the back of the dining area, onto the courtyard area, before the beach.

And another shot of where we ate.
After we finished here, we drove the two hours back to Dakar. Along the way, as we were sitting in traffic, some of our teachers bought vegetables from street vendors for dinner, my classmates bought mandarins, and we all got Cafe Touba to drink. Drive through shopping and eating at its best! I hardly had to move. My laziness is being greatly encouraged here. If you even so much as glance at the DVD of Lost being sold, the vendors will come up to your window.

Animals are cooler in Africa

On Saturday we went to the Reserve de Bandia Sanctuaire, about two hours from Dakar. If I could have taken a souvenir, I would have pocketed a giraffe.

 Want to ride a camel for an hour? Only $20...
I'm not really an animal person (I can only just handle my very sedentary household cat), but I definitely was one this Saturday. The wind in the truck was warm, and smelled so sweet (which is surprising, considering this was like a zoo) I could have driven around for hours.


Here are some monkeys in the famous Baobab tree. The Baobab tree has fruit - Pain de Seigne (which I had heard as monkey breath when translated a few weeks ago... of course "pain" means bread...so that was a less than intelligent mistake) - which look like they have been attached one at a time. You know the Christmas ornamental spheres some families hang in their trees outside? These fruits looked like that, hanging down from a branch by a string.
I was also surprised by the lack of boundaries that were enforced. Apparently it's accetable to sit on the animals we came to see.  Buona, one of the staff at SIT, took the first seat. Of course we each the took turns.

Mbalax

Even after three classes, these dancers' moves are no less blurry than this photo suggests. At least I can tell that this dance - mbalax - is incredible. 
If I was had any sense of rhythm my mbalax would look almost as cool, but as it is right now, I'm not quite sure what it looks like I'm doing. With all the jumping, arm swinging and repetition, at least it's a great workout.
The past three days we've spent our afternoons with roughly an hour of this dance, and an hour of djembe drumming. This means during our lunch break I rest up, hydrate, and pray to the rhythm gods in order to prepare for class. It's that intense - at least for me. No wonder I've been sleeping so well. Both classes are a complete workout, mentally and physically. My hands are too weak for the constant pounding we're expected to do on the djembe drums. And this was simply a week of orientation to drumming and dancing. In a few weeks we start the real workshops. You can choose either one of three different instruments, or the mbalax dance to focus on. I've chosen the dance.  Fortunately I can only make improvements - there's no room for me to be any worse.
It's still incredibly warm, I'm still covered in mosquito bites, but at least I think my French and Wolof are improving. That, or people are just being nice and smiling and nodding because they don't understand what I'm saying. Either way, I'm having a lot of fun, and still not realizing that this is actually accepted as "school."

College is hard

Happy Valentine's Day

(it is celebrated here, in case you were wondering)

This picture is not the best...but I wanted to show the "club" we went to Friday night. The entrance is on the right, past the crumbling wall and piles of rocks. I walked past it the first time, and had to be called back by a friend. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I'm still stuck with my American images of clubs. I don't know when I'm going to learn to get rid of these expectations, but they're definitely always wrong.
This "boit" was called something like Timbuktu. I've learned that the Senegalese have a similar saying to the one we have - "I'm going all the way to Timbuktu." Instead of Timbuktu, they say Santa Barbara. Pretty comparable.

Saturday night my 10 year old cousin had a birthday party, just around the corner from my home. This sent me right back to the US - Chris Brown, Pitbull, Rihanna, Lil Wayne...all the great American artists were playing.

Moussa (9) on the left, Cherif (7) to his right, with their sister Khrady Aita, all dressed up before the party - before the pizza and cookies and quiche found their way all over Khrady Aita's skirt, and well before the ties were taken off to play soccer.

This last picture is just something I saw on my walk to the SIT office this morning. Can't disagree really.

Now I'm about to go find some lunch (hopefully some more grapefruit, it's been a few days, I'm getting antsy...) and then I'm doing an "urban arts exploration." Going to go interview some men who make rugs and scarves. I'll try to elevate my mind as much as possible.

L'ile de Goree

Boat ride from Dakar to l'ile de Goree. 

The vendors started their charming before we even stepped on the boat. I meet Fatima - she sells beautiful necklaces for a good price - and I was supposed to find her on the island. Not surprisingly, she ended up finding me.  I didn't buy one of her necklaces, even though she wasn't lying - they were gorgeous, and cheap. I figure I have a few months to start my collection. 

The building on the right edge of the island is the Musee Historique. The island has no cars, and is  peaceful escape from the honking and shouting in the streets of Dakar.
I was overwhelmed by how much this island felt like a peaceful, Mediterranean resort town.  Judging from all the European sunbathers, I'm not the only one.
I don't know whether this is a good thing or not. Clearly, the island is more of a tourist trap than some may like, but at the same time it is attracting visitors who are able to learn about the history of the slave trade and of Western Africa in general. I will admit it felt more like I was  on a family vacation, than in a college class, but I did not just go there for the cheap jewelry.

This is the "porte pour un voyage sans retour" - the door of no return. Even this Maison des Esclavages is bathed in beautiful colors. This was one of the houses in which slaves were brought, compared and sold. Most of the houses along the coast were similar slave houses, although many have now been turned into restaurants, hotels, shops and homes for the local residents.

First Half Day - a la plage

After walking around a market, we took a taxi to a private beach - Voil d'Or.
The market wasn't like any I'd seen - I wish I'd taken pictures, I was just so overwhelmed. Real, dead meat was hanging all over the place, with flies, blood and people everywhere. The smells were incredible.
But so was the beach.  Across the way we could see l'ile de Goree, where we'll be boating to on Friday.



















Khrady Aita is 2 1/2 years old and loves touching everything, unfortunately with her lollipop in tow.  But, she loves having her picture taken, so it's worth a little stickyness.
We played a card game the other night - more like hiding the cards in the sofa during the constantly playing Brazilian soap opera - and she helped me with my Wolof homework by adding in her own drawings and drool.
This is the view from on of the apartments of another student in our SIT group. I'm learning to love Choco Mousse, or chocopain, which is on the billboard in the background...not that it takes much learning. It's just nutella, but we have it every morning with our baguette.
In addition, my addiction to les pamplemousses is flourishing.  (Don't worry, that just means "grapefruits"). The fruit stands here are the Senegal equivalent of the Starbucks in Portland.

Lunch Break

This is the ocean view from the Place du Souvenir, one of President Wade's cultural projects to stimulate the economy and attract tourists. It is not quite finished, but the sculpture of Africa is part of a large fountain, in front of the ocean.
I walked here during our two hour lunch break. For lunch, I bought a sandwich from the corner stand for $1 - a whopping value meal of a dense package of french fries, mystery meat, mayonnaise, a fried egg and hot sauce. I really don't know how I survived.  Fortunately, it's been a few hours and I'm still here, however I think I don't need to try it again.
This is another view from the Place...this type of contrast between beautiful sculptures and buildings and piles of garbage has been a reoccurring theme.

Cribs - Edition: Senegal

Stairs to the second floor





View to the right of my door









View to the left of my door









My own bedroom, bigger than my last one at Williams.






And my bed...also bigger than my last one at Williams.

First Day of School

So it's Monday, and I just had my first morning of class. I'll try and recap on my weekend quickly before 2:30, when we have a Wolof class. So Saturday we went on a tour all over Dakar, and Saturday night we went to a club "Just 4 U" to see Orchestra Baobab.
It was incredible..but because of my difficulty with speaking French, I thought I had to return home earlier than was actually necessary...so I was only able to see the group preform one time. It was still great. After talking with Alioune, the father of the three younger children in the house, I figured out that it's alright with them to stay out late so I can get my money's worth. I'm slowly learning that it takes a lot of time to learn what is actually expected/required/allowed here...

What I have learned so far, is that Sundays are very sedentary days. I was able to help "faire un melange" of the spices in the grinding bowl for the lunch we had. But lunch was at three. Which is of course fine, but it's hard to know what to do for the entire morning when you don't know what time things start, and people are generally sitting around and talking, in Wolof of course. So I spend a lot of time trying to find out what people are saying through their gestures and faces. Turns out you can actually understand a lot even went you don't know the language. I know this is not some original thought, but I've never had to experience it. It's pretty incredible.

Also Sundays seem to be the day when so many people are coming and going and eating and giving gifts that one can lose track of who actually lives in the house...

I think I was also invited to watch a basketball game tonight..so we'll see if I understood correctly. Alioune has a friend who plays basketball, and he says his favorite player is Iverson, so at some point we can play, and I can be Roy (as in Brandon, from the Blazers). Sounds good to me.

I also saw some female soccer players yesterday, who invited me to play with them. I was on my way to a meeting so I couldn't play (which ripped my heart apart...) but they said I could play with them another time. It also sounded like they usually play in a different neighborhood though..so we'll see if I can find them again.

Another one of Alioune's friends has invited me to his house, because he says his house, and my house, are one in the same. Everyone is welcome. Plus, his wife is learning English, so we could help each other. My neighbor also wants to learn English, so I should have a lot of people who can help me as well, so hopefully next time I go to a concert I can speak fluently enough to understand the expectations..


These pictures are from our quick visit to Village des Arts, last Friday. We will be returning for workshops (for Batik, ceramics, glass painting), and they also have rooms you can rent for projects, and also for sleeping in. It seems like artist/hippie/relaxing heaven - sand is everywhere and the atmosphere is incredibly chill.

He started with this and less than a minute later...

More of my home..

I need to do laundry. I guess it'll be more fun on the roof than in the basement of a dirty dorm.



The door on the second floor is my own. The one below it leads to the shower.










Moussa is 9, and helps me with my French and Wolof. He had a lot of fun pretending to poke himself with the Obama button I gave him. He also had a lot of fun making me eat a mystery snack..which turned out to be ketchup on an olive, which makes sense I guess - I like pizza. He also has shared his bissap juice, his pizza and his candy with me. I haven't met a nine year old boy like him before! I can't imagine sharing my candy at that age...or, well, at any age really!

Moussa also came with me when I went to buy a 10 liter bottle of water, and tried to carry it back for me. His sister, who is 2 (and a half) was also very helpful, bringing me toilet paper right to my room. She also shares her candy, but only after she's enjoyed it for a little.

I have a family!

First night with my family was amazing and overwhelming. I only remember two names, and I definitely met more than two people.  More pictures to come later - I need to go buy a soccer ball.

One of my "nephews" and my mother at breakfast today, outside

One small part of a market near Place de la Gare in downtown Dakar

The Plateau

Today was "the drop off" day - about as ominous sounding as it is in "Finding Nemo."  Because there was a large pilgrimage (over 3 million people) to Touba yestereday, the city was relatively empty.  "Relatively empty" is the most crowded "empty" I have ever seen.  I can't imagine what it is like on a normal day.
I wish to add more, because it was the most incredible day so far, but tomorrow we start our first night in our Senegalese family's house, and I need to get prepared.  I have never been so nervous - including any track meet I have dreaded (and if you know track...that means something).
So here are my pictures from my fifth day in Dakar.

Place de la Gare...where we were dropped off without a map, to wander for hours.

My first lunch on my own steak and french fries, in a baguette. Ouch