We spent more than 3 hours sitting on a "basang" today (which is Wolof for a mat, which means I was sitting on the floor for more than 3 hours), learning about many different items that illustrate a different part of Senegalese life. I am being shown quite evidently every day that I lack all things related to flexibility, and my hips are now those of a much older woman. I just hope that I get used to sitting on the ground quickly - it's embarrassing to hobble around like I am currently. But for all our sitting at least we've been rewarded - today it was Yassa Poule (an amazing big dish of chicken, rice, onions and spices, so many spices) - so I think I can handle it. Good food tends to be a reward for which I can endure pain - such as arthritic joints.
When we arrived in the morning, we were told to pick one of the displayed items, find a partner and then go outside and ask people about the item. (I can't imagine if we had this assignment in the US - people would cross the street to avoid our questions). This was all the information we were given for our first assignment, so we walked outside and went up to anyone that didn't look in a rush, and tried out our minimal Wolof and my broken French. (There weren't very many people that seemed to be in a rush though, so it was simple to find someone patient enough to humor us). It was incredible how welcoming and patient everyone was. The two items I was carrying were dried Bisap (from the hibiscus flower) and Buy (Wolof for "Pain de singe," which is French for "monkey bread," which comes from the Baobob tree). Both are used to make tea or juice, and help with "fatiguement."
Path to the drumming classroom
Front door of office/room for melting frozen ginger and bisap juice (can't get enough of the juice already, definitely a highlight of the day...)/place I'm going to spend many hours "studying" in.
Another view of the front of our office/classroom/SIT center
Break room
Classroom. Definitely like these learning conditions. The vitamin D will be essential to my academic successes, I can already tell.
I'm so so happy to hear that the classroom experiences are good! Cause you know that the out-of-classroom ones are guaranteed to be fantastic too
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could figure out some of those recipes! Ginger and Bisap juice sounds so amazing. Actually ginger has all sorts of really wonderful natural benefits and is really good for soothing your tummy! Or so I've heard ;)
Just imagine how much you're going to have learned and grown completely comfortable with by the end of the trip. This is going to be a wonderful way to capture the changes and revelations! Maybe even keep some private notes as well to add later!