Photos

i posted my pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/licia.joy/Senegal02#
http://picasaweb.google.com/licia.joy/Senegal2#

.Maangi fi rekk.

We are leaving for the US is two days. I cannot believe how fast this has passed by. There are times when i'm so excited to go home and times when i'm so sad to have this experience be over. Sitting in my room i can remember that first night going to sleep and looking up at the ceiling thinking, "well, this is gong to be my life for the next couple months." And last night i just looked around the room wanting to remember every little detail. Its sad to think that with time, i'm not going to be able to remember all those little details that have become my experience and my life in Senegal. Its a sad thought but that is what time is - always changing - and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The best you can do is to live in every moment.

.maangi fi rekk.

Namm naa leen.

So its been a really long time. Namm naa leen. I’m back in Dakar… which is really kinda weird… its almost a feeling like I’m home again…. But that feeling makes me really miss my family and friends at home. But I must say it is really nice to have some of those good old comforts I have been living without for the past month or so – a toilet, shower, sink, variety of foods…. Mmm that last one is one of the best.

I left Toubacouta Saturday morning… a teary-eyed goodbye, a hard goodbye to say the least. I already miss my family there… but am getting really anxious and excited to go home.

So last night Ara made me and Ndiawar an omelette with bread. It was really good but because eggs are expensive I picked up that because Ara had gotten eggs for me her, Gnima, and Kaba didn’t eat anything for dinner (yeah, the family is way too super nice). Luckily I had some left overs from lunch that I made them eat.

I gave my younger brother my diskman and CDs and told them that listening to English music will help his English… I also left him my French to English dictionary for him to use cuz I won’t be there to teach him anymore. He went on and on about how nice I am and how he was gonna miss me… “I won’t have my big sister anymore.” At one point I thought he was gonna cry… which was making it really hard for me.

And last night Ara kept going on about how she was gonna miss me and said that when they have dinner she’s gonna say – Licia, kay reere (come eat dinner) and I told her that from the US I’ll say, maangiy new (I’m coming).

So leaving them this morning was really hard. I started crying when we left the house even though most of the family came with us – Kaba, Gnima, Binetou, Ndiawar, and little Lamine. Gnima had told Lamine that he was going to America so when I asked him, Foy dem? (where are you going?) He replied, Amerik. We went to Eva’s house and said some goodbye’s. There Gnima said she was gonna go back home and when she called Lamine he ran to me and grabbed my leg… so he continued the journey with us. So by the time we left Eva’s house with a lot of her family and most of mine, we had a small village accompanying us to the road. When the car came I was trying to hold everything back while we all said quick goodbye’s. Lamine was crying and trying to get loose from Kaba to come with me. I couldn’t even look at Ndiawar for fear of crying… but when I saw Binetou’s tears I lost it. I climbed into the car in tears and looked out to see Fatou crying too. As we drove away and waved it was really hard to believe that I will most likely never see these people again, people I had really come to love.

Being back in Dakar is a really weird feeling…. But tonight for dinner when had chicken and fries and there was flan and fruit for dessert… I feel like I live like a princess here. It is really nice to be back here… but making me really anxious to go home. Only one week left. Time really has flown by.

See you soon.

Chha cha cha changes

Hey.
So... my internship might be a changin. my supervisor doesnt really believe in schedules or telling me whats happening ever.. so im hoping to change to something new.. im meeting with an american girl tonight who has been in a village near here for a year with the peace corps, she works in eco tourism and if it sounds like i like her organization, i might be switching it up. inchallah.

Life here is still hot. im still sweating everyday, no worries. and my family here is amazing. i wish you all could meet them. Kaba is like my older brother whos probably around 30. i live with him and his wife Ara, Badu, a friend of the family's who is prob around my age; Sidy another boyaround my age, Ndiawar, a boy around 16 or 17 who is like my best friend - who doesnt speak very good french which makes for interesting conversation...; Binetou, my other bff who is a little girl about 10 years old; a little boy, probably 5 named Lamine who is adorable and a big trouble maker. There are the "mom's" Nafi and Hadi and random people who live in the back houses in our complex who i still continue to meet... Kaba speaks pretty good french and Ndiarwar a little but for the rest of the time its Wolof only... so my wolof has been improving but it seems as though my french is slowly deteriorating... and i can no longer really understand the nasaly french accent after being accustomed to the African take on the language.

i'm getting to know the village a little more each day... yesterday eva and i went out to the field with a friend to pick white bissap - which is used as a seasoning. but red bissap s a good juice they make and eva and i found the random house with the fridge that sells frozen bissap in little bags...mmm deliciousness...

i dunno what else. we eat dinner all together around a big bowl, some of us with our hands only, under the stars in our courtyard with the light of a flashlight that usually ends up being my cell phone.

i don't pee at night after dark cuz there's too many cockroaches in there...

um, my senegalese name is Ayesha, or Aissatou, or Binetou... or toubab, obviously.

okay, i dunno what else there is... i'm taking lots of pictures, no worries, so lemme know when i get back if you wanna see 'em.

mucho amor.
ba ci kanem, inchallah

The Toubacouta Life

So im here in Toubacouta... a small village of about 3000 people right on the coast at the delta of the Saloum River.

Things are a lot more chill here. My family is really nice. I eat fish and rice for every meal, shower with a bucket and pee in a squat pot. There is a mouse in my room, my internship is in a protected area that is really beautiful, and i still have yet to have any sort of a schedule. Random goats, cats, chickens, donkeys, toads, etc. wander through the town and even though people here are used to seeing white people - there are a couple hotels here- i still get called toubab on my walk here to the cyber cafe - the only one in town with two computers with a connection that sometimes works - hence the lack of blogging, emails, etc.

My supervisor just showed up. so im off... see you soon.

ba beneen yoon Dakar.

so i leave Dakar bright and early tomorrow morning.

in the last few weeks i've really been falling in love with my host family, feeling more at home here, and realizing that after i leave in december i will probably never see them. life is random like that - people can come into your life and then never come into your life again. it has been really great getting to know them and to be able to share their lives with them... but its going to be really sad to say goodbye.

i'm starting to get a little nervous about tomorrow... i'm excited to spend a week in Joal which seems like a cool city... but it may be an awkward week, living with a random family for a week and attending a conference with my supervisor who i have yet to meet. i basically am bracing myself for a lot of awkward moments in the next 6 weeks or so. language barriers can make things really awkward... especially when i'm already awkward to begin with. okay, how many times can i say awkward.

last night was a great last night in dakar... finished with about 8 of us cramming around a huge bowl of macaroni in a friends courtyard under the stars at 6 in the morning. oh, senegal.

i'm not sure how much, if any, internet access i'll have for about the next month or so... but if there is - i will try to keep you posted.

ba beneen yoon.

the little things about senegal

• putting up a mosquito net before going to bed
• mangoes and mango juice
• BT and his boutique
• Biskrems and bread and cheese
• powdered milk with powdered coffee
• omelette sandwiches
• thiakry
• the grocery store
• my shop, elton, le gondole - milkshakes
• fondaye
• car rapide
• cute sandals
• electricity outages
• dubbed over soap operas
• sweat rags
• washing undies in the shower
• Waly, Josephine and Prof Sene
• bed bugs, bites, rashes
• call to prayer at 5 am
• garbage, stagnant water
• wolof

today we went aroudn the Baie de Hann. it was really beautiful and really sad. the first part that we saw was really pretty but it was clean cuz the sand is raked of garbage everyday. there were beautiful (expensive) houses in that neighborhood. but the next part we went to we had to walk past a canal of nearly stagnant bubbling (not in a good way) black water slash sludge that flowed right into the ocean. it smelled horrible. we walked down and talked to a women who was one worker of a large government funded clean up project. the workers were cleaning up the solid waste and sending it to a dump in dakar. however, they were still not doing anything for the liquid pollution flowing in and making the water black. even worse, nothing is being done about the canal, which means that the clean up project will be continuing indefinitely. at another stop at the bay we saw a group of children swimming in the water, just past where a dead goat was washing up...

it was so sad to see that this place that is sobeautiful is just being destroyed. it was sad to see that the government was putting money into the clean up but not into prevention of the problem. it was sad to se the people wanting to have the area clean but not having a garbage removal or sewage system infrasructure in their city. senegal has only been independent for 50 years but is developing so fast. i wish there was someone, some funding, that would help it develop in a sustainable way, instead of a way that uses America as a model.

this morning i went with the education class to see a 'street school' (it actually was called ecole de la rue). it was another time that reminded me that this is still a developing country. sometimes i've gotten so used to the talibe begging in the street or walking past the people with polio asking for money or jumping on the car rapide to school for 20 cents. it was great to know that the kids had a place to learn but it was really sad to realize that this was their schooling, their only form of schooling. the 'front' part of the school was just pieces of wood painted black that they used as chalk boards that were hanging on the wall of the building. since there were shops there - they can only teach when they are closed. we walked around in back through a little shany neighborhood to see the other 'class rooms'. one was an actual one room building filled with donated books, old computers, benches, chairs, etc. although they talked about how a lot of stuff gets ruined during floods in the rainy season. another 'class room' was like an old trailer (with holes in the floor covered with random pieces of wood) that was tiny and actually divided into two class rooms by putting one chalkboard in the middle. everything was funded by donations and all 14 teachers are volunteers.

being at the school and having that feeling again - being extremely sad about seeing the conditions and restrictions that the kids learn in - made me scared to go back to the US. i already always feel too lucky to live the life i'm living, to just be born in the US, and being here has only intensified that. i'm afraid that - after i get back to normal in the US, after the initial excitement of being home - i'm going to be too sad all of the time. thinking of my host family, the children i've seen in the daara or the stree school, the babies at the orphanage, how am i supposed to go back to complaining about gas prices? i feel as though i could just sit here and cry when i think about how unfair it is that i was born where i was and with the family i have. its a feeling i've had before and one i think i'll stuggle with for the rest of my life.

it was a good weekend. but it would be a really long blog post... so im gonna fill you in later with more stories once im in the states.

sunday morning josh, paulina, mairead, and i went to a church way far away... supposedly their guidebook said there was gregorian chanting in wolof... but it was far away... we had to take a car rapide downtown, then walked to a plaza, then a bus to Rufisque, and a clando to the church. the church was really pretty but not too much different than normal - aka not worth the 2 hours to get there... but the ride there and back was the adventure.

when we got back downtown laura met us and we hung out there... got great burgers at Ali Baba an damaaaazing milkshakes from nice cream. it was good... then laura and i went back and doxantu-ed around... doxantu means walk in wolof.

paulina is going home on wednesday! foreshadowing of us all leaving... the last week in december will be so bitter-sweet. ill be happy to be back in dakar yet excited to go home. happy to see everyone again but sad to leave them.

this experience really has been like none other... and i still have my internship left. but im getting more excited for my internship. ill be happy to get out of the city and to practice my language skills more .. hopefully, unless they only speak wolof slash malinke there... but im excited for a change and a new challenge. it should be a good time.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

.Senegal makes me absent minded.

Today, Josh, Paulina, Kerry, Eva, and I went back to that 'orphanage' to volunteer.... (It's called La Pouponnieres des Soeurs Franciscaines) its a place where families can bring their babies if they can't afford to take care of them, the babies are really sick, they leave the hospital too early, the mothers are sick, or they are abandoned all together... So it was amazing (hot and really exhausting, but amazing). Paulina and I stayed and played with the toddlers first. i just sat down and 4 of the toddlers just flocked and kinda flung themselves on me. they were all really adorable. while we were there we met three flight attendants from the US who fly here (stop in Dakar on the way to South Africa) and during their layover they volunteer there, about once a month. cool job.

one of the attendants were telling us that one of the toddlers there were born with a skull that was stuck and wouldn't expand (there is a word for this but i can't think of it)... anyways, normally in the US the baby would just have a small operation after birth and be fine... but here, thats not really possible and so now her brain in going to keep expanding... while her skull stays the same size... i.e. she's gonna pass away pretty soon because there isn't another option.

after playing with the toddlers for a while, paulina and i went upstairs to where the other were with the babies (under 6 months) and we got to bottle-feed them, burp them, and put them to sleep. adorableness.

it was really kinda sad to see all the kids without their parents (many parents do come visit, however, every sunday afternoon) but there were a lot of women there working and spending time with them and it was great to be able to help and see other volunteers there too.

i also found out today that for the first week of my internship phase i'll be staying with a host family in Joal Fadiout while attending an environmental seminar... the organization that i'll be working with for my internship is attending the seminar so i'm just gonna go there for the week and then go to Toubacouta with my supervisor when its over.... i asked my family if they knew Joal and my mom said that the people built their houses and the town on shells... and that they know if you're a foreigner if you break the shells when you walk.... and i guess there are women there who can read shells... like reading your fortune from cards... should be interesting..

if you wanna see where i'm going: http://www.suertenich.com/html/afriq/senegal.jpg

you can zoom in on the map...

Joal Fadiout is south of Dakar right on the coast... and just a little bit south east of there (just north of Gambie) is where Toubacouta is....

hope fall weather is nice.. cuz i'm still sweating.

borders.

yesterday i went with Cait, Kerry, Laura and some of Cait's friends out to Ngor Island. it was beautiful. it only cost 500 CFA (about a dollar) to take the bopat out there and was like paradise. the boys had gotten a few beers before hand so basically we just sat on the beach under the shade of the palm trees and hung out. it was perfect.

at one point Abdu (one of the boys we were with) came out and joined me and laura in the water. he asked what we had been talking about and we kinda jokingly said we were talking about life... what it is ... why we are here... he started telling us about the philosophy of begeu or happiness in wolof. how he thought that life is here and now and the past is only for the future. about laura and i being here he said how in other countries, in other places, there are always so many answers to questions you may have never thought to ask... and he thought that life is pink... la vie en rose. it was deep

we talked to him a little about how no matter how long we'll be in senegal or how much we learn we'll still be toubabs... he said he understood, but there are people here who will respect you for who you are... but such is life as a toubab.

on a completely different note... i lost my cell phone last night, which, yeah, sucks cuz now i'll have to buy a new one but its just a replaceable thing so its all good. but later in the night it just made me feel so isolated... there have been a lot of times here when i just feel really alone and so isolated from anything normal. its been hard being here and not being able to call anyone back home whenever i want. its been hard to experience really great or really awful things and not be able to share that with the people i love. losing my phone just made me feel that much more isolated, even isolated from my american friends here... but this made me question if i'm actually living here- in the sense that i'm so tied to my cell phone or other americans.... but this made me think about what my home is... its not just a place... but wherever the people i love are... and i'd love to be there right now.....

"we all have our own borders. on one side is whats easy, what's known, what we've been told is true and have taken for granted. its comfortable here, familiar. but the other side is wider than possibility, brilliant with potential and is looks like our dreams... and they are ours if we can find them and hold them, if we can catapult ourselves across whatever border of fear or doubt or tiredness seems to keep us from them. in the end, the only thing standing between each of us and what we most want, is ourselves.... we are our own border guards. " - off the map.

this afternoon i went with the public health group on their field trip (there are different 'track' classes - i'm in environment and auditing microfinance... and there is another one called public health) the first place we went to was kinda like an orphanage where people could take their babies if they can't care for them, if the mother is sick, or if they are abandoned all together. the families pay 5-10 thousand CFA (10 - 20 dollars) per month if they can and they get a lot of money from donations and through various organizations. the kids stay there until they are about one year old. eva and i are thinking about going back to volunteer... i hope so, the kids were adorable and it would be a ton of fun.... keep you posted

the second place we more of a refuge for boys on the street. a lot of them come from Guinea Bissau or Mali or other places in Senegal to go to a daara and end up on the streets because they were mistreated by marabouts. the place called l'empire des enfants tries to locate the families and bring back the boys....

it was a cool experience to see more places around the city and see that there are a few options for kids who aren't necessarily born into great situations...

i leave for my internship in two weeks! i'm nervous. time really has been flying by and its gonna be hard adjusting to a new place all over again cuz i've gotten so used to being here.

i'm so lucky. (alhamdoulilah)

candle lit showers, pasta and ketchup, deo (or lack thereof) and life with a maid

Candlelit showers: the power goes out her at least once a day... maybe two, three, or flickers on and off a few times. this means that many daily activities become romanticized by the flicker of a candle... this means that dinners, showers, homework are all sometimes done by the light of a candle.

bread withdrawal: we eat bread here so much. baguettes that is. i usually have some baguette with butter or chocomousse for breakfast. for lunch or at least an afternoon snack i have bread and fromage from BT on the corner. and we usually have bread with dinner. meme si i have bread every meal, if a long break comes up in between bagueete time, i go through bread withdrawal. and evern though i have it every meal i still look forward to having it. i don't know if i'll be able to go back to sliced bread...

deodorant... or lack thereof: sometimes when i ride the car rapide, have riden on a crowded bus... or when the fan blows towards me pasat my professor... i wish that everyone in the world could enjoy the benefits of deodorant.

pasta and ketchup: so here they have a lot of the same foods as in the US but they eat them differently. for example, they have peanut butter and jelly here but my brother went on about how PB and J sammiches are the grossest thing ever. my family does eat pasta semi-often (alhamdoulilah) but usually with different stuff. sometimes they eat it just with chunks of meat... and one time we ate it they offered me ketchup with mine... my brother found it really odd that i don't eat it with my pasta. they have fries with a lot of stuff here, but never on the side. they put coleslaw inside their hamburgers, and a 'hamburger complex' comes with an egg inside. and tonight my brother said again how much he hates milkshakes... i reassessed our friendship at that point...

life with a maid: Leonie, our maid, is probably the one i talk to the most even tho neither of us speak perfect french and now she speaks to me first in wolof. she doesn't eat dinner with us (but after a few weeks i asked why... she enjoys eating on a low stool in the kitchen cuz its more fun -wolof style). she makes my bed, puts up my mosquito net and clears my dishes if i don't do it myself fast enough. we have another 'maid' who comes once a week to do laundry. but in all cases i still feel selfish having someone else do work i consider my own... i've gotten used to it even though i still rush to make my bed in the morning before Leonie realizes i'm up....

A couple nights ago i went on a walk with my host brother and two cousins around the block. it really wasn't anything big but for me it seemed so special. just to be shown around and casually walk and hang out with these guys that i didn't even know a few weeks ago. we spoke a little english, french, wolof... it was fun.



and the other night at dinner we were talking and my mom and i were talking and my brother was saying that my french was really good... and i thought back to that first awkward dinner when he just laughed at how horrible i was at speaking french... and we had lait caille (kinda like homemade yogurt) for dessert and my mom said i shouldn't have the home made kind cuz it was too acidic and would make me sick... and stephen (my cousin) was like.. nah, shes senegalaise now. it was cool, fine, nice...

on tuesday we went to a daara (a koranic school) on a field trip. 60-70 boys lived there in a small smelly room and spend a good portion of their day beggin for money. it's incredible to me that there are so many people in this world that live completely different lives that i would never even think about. it has been interesting living here and learning new things about life here everyday.

yesterday was Korite the party after the end of Ramadan. it wasn't as big of a deal as most of us thought it was. it was fun at my house though cuz all the neighbors kept coming and leaving food for us. i got to try Ngallakh which i guess is popular on Korite which is kinda like a sweet peanut sauce. i also took some time to make fish balls with my maid... it was really fun and i remember the patience that she gave me that first day when i spoke none of her languages and was horribly butchering the frites she was trying to make...

its so weird to me that i'm getting to know people here and their personalities, people living in west africa, people that i may never see again.

.just thoughts.

Today as i rode the car rapide home i realized that i felt so relieved to be back 'home' to a place that was familiar. it made me happy but then i realized that i'll be leaving forever pretty soon... which made me really sad. it made me realize how much of myself i'm putting into this experience and how much it'll change me. it's gonna be hard to go home, go back to the same old thing as if this whole experience was just a trip instead of four months of my life, some of the most life-changing moments of my life. it's gonna be hard to talk to people and sum up this experience in a few words or sentences. cuz it can't be summed up. this is my life.

Garbage, Car Rapides, and life in a Muslim country...

There seems to be garbage everywhere. i've maybe seen two garbage trucks since being here. there is garbage on the road sides, overflowing bins on the side of the road, washing into/from the ocean, dirtying the Senegal River... everywhere. its strange to me especially cuz it seems that people are very conservative. My maid saves and reuses everything. we use a small plastic bag as a garbage in our house that actually fills up really slowly. she even will wash and reuse other plastic bags. people reuse old water bottles to store water or juice. bucket showers are an amazing way to save water and be conscious of how much you use.

i take a car rapide to school everyday. they are run-down 'mini-buses' that are brilliantly painted on the outside. most say alhamdoulilad (thanks to god) on the front... they cost around 100 CFA (about 25 cents) depending on how far you go. guys hang off the back open doors to call people on, take money, and let the driver know where to stop. so you hop on and when you want to get off you bang on the side, roof, etc. or let the guy in the back know who will usually tap change on the back to let the driver know to stop... i think they're fun, cheap, and get the job done (even if there is no option of personal space..)

So far my life in a muslim country has been during Ramadan. i have a mosque RIGHT outside my window so i hear the call to prayer every morning around 5 30 am... its great. most muslims here have been fasting for ramadan until about 7 when then pray and break the fast... although, i like in a christian family so have only experienced this from other families or WARC faculty. people are fasting during the day and normally just rest... but i have seen people doing construction or working in the fields.... and cannot believe that they fast AND work in this heat! a lot of restaurants and businesses are also closed and any kind of night club or discotheques are usually empty during this month... but only a few more days till Korite - the end of ramadan and a day of eating!

Goat on the Roof

We spent most of the mornign at a great bakery we found with great coffee (real coffee and real milk). We stayed in St louis until about 1 and then headed out to get a spet-place. When we got to the car lot Laura's brother (host brother from here) got us two sept-places. Four of us got into our sept place and there was one more guy in the front seat - so we still had to wait for two more people. while we are sitting in the car (and boys are asking us for money and women are trying to sell us stuff throught the window... and we're sweating cuz its so hot) we started talking to the guy in the front seat who explained that he was a story teller. so he told us a story about bukki (the wolof word for hyena) who had a curious dream... and Mairead told him our story of beauty and the beast. it was fun

About an hour or so later it finally fills up but right before we leave they load some stuff onto the roof including a live goat in a bag. yeah. and on our way home we stopped a few times to unload some stuff, but the goat stayed with us until Dakar. at some point int rained which dripped in through the roof onto me... but the car actually was pretty comfy despite the fact that the back seat was added in, the seat belts had been ripped out, and there was really no insulation, it only really got hot until we were stuck in traffic:

"we always have our own private swimming pool... of sweat."

"i'm fine with traffic as long as people sell us stuff through the window."


the ride was great especially cuz it took half the time that it took us to get to st louis.

it was great to come back to Dakar and feel like i was back home to something familiar.

St. Louis

Our hostel ended up being really nice and the guys who owned it were really nice. I had read that St. Louis was a lot like New Orleans... i could see that there. There was a lot of really cool architecture and it was really pretty but seemed kind of rundown. St. Louis is really like an island in the Senegal river which borders Senegal and Mauritania. You must take a bridge to get there and its only about 20 blocks long by about 7 blocks wide. You can take a bridge out to a smaller penninsula from the main land that has ocean beaches. We walked around and shopped most of the day saturday. In the late afternoon we took taxis to the occean to swim. When we walked over the sand ridge and saw the stretch of beach, it was so beautiful. but as we got closer the beauty was overshadowed bu the washed in garbage and a headless rotting goat. The waves were great but we did get harrassed by people trying to get us to buy stuff (comme toujours) On the way back all eaght of us and a local we called Joe crammed in a taxis back to St. Louis.

That night we went to dinner at a really beautiful restaurant along the river we had found earlier during the day. we ate delicious food and hung out there for a few hours. was a good ending to a great day in St. Louis.

F Z

So. St. Louis. Friday after our first class we head out to St. Louis. We grabbed two taxis to the gare pompier and before getting out of the taxe peiople were already harrassing us trying to get us to take their cars. Our plan was to take two different 'sept-places' (station wagons with added seats to take seven people) because there were eight of us... but the first guys we talked to we bargained to get 3500 CFA for our own ' mini-bus' with 15 seats. We all piled in just in time to realize as the guy we bargained with spoke wolof to our only wolof speaking driver over me and laura that he wanted us to pay 3500 per seat (i.e. too expensive). So us and ou luggage exit the car. We are hounded some more and get a 'deal' for 2800 per person in another mini-bus, here they are called Ngiaga-Ndiaya's. We follow the him across the car lot and get in this bus with shady curtains. Laura and Josh end up getting off cuz of the PB and D's to take a sept-place... we asked the driver of the bus how long to St. Louis... he says the bus going direct to St Louis in 3 and a half hours.... So we wait on the bus for more people to fill it up. In the meantime we watched a fight in Wolof, and a guy who came on that was saying that if i married him he would take me and Cait to St. Louis for free... also, one of the passengers - we had a hard time figuring out its identity (male or female) so we discussed that for a long time and realized that the correct pronoun is zee (fun fact by Mairead). After about an hour or so later we finally left (the guy thatsold us the seats said that we were ready to leave when we had gotten on... clearly he lied) so we asked Zee how long it would take to get there and zee said 11pm at the latest... it was then about 3 pm.....

So we leave the lot and head North. Keep in mind that any time the bus slows down or stops people jump on the bakc of the bus or shove their arms through the window trying to sell us stuff. So we start getting out of Dakar a little and into traffic (there's alwasy traffic) and at some point another bus drives by, hits ours and takes out the driver's side mirror. We stop, both drivers get out and yell at each other, i'm sure there was an exchange of money...and we continue on our way. So even though the driver had said direct to St. Louis, he really meant a stop every 20 minutes... so thats how it was, basically a stop anywhere there was a lot of people. At one stop soon after however, a lady jumps on selling donuts in a bag that looked delicious! for 100 CFA (about 25 cents) so Mairead and I had to buy one... best purchase ever (it ended up having nutella in the middle... amazing). Another 'only in senegal' moment happened a while later - only in senegal does the driver in a public bus stop to get out and pray. A little later while getting gas Mairead and i bought little cupcake things out the window and Cait got a fan...

more time passes till its 7 pm - time to break the fast so we pulled over in the middle of nowhere where there were random food stands. We wandered and found these big tables along the side of the road where people were eating. Some guy offers us to sit but we just ogt a sandwich of whatever they were eating and were on our way.

8:30 rolls around and Josh and Laura are already in St. Louis at our hostel. A while later at another stop in the middle of nowhere Dorothy bought some 'donuts' out the window...

Paulina: "How are they?"
Mairead: "They're like donut chicken nuggets."

At some point when the bus stops later we had to be pushed in order to get the bus going again...

Still more time and we're in the middle of nowhere and i hear a blaring car horn... the bus slows down to a stop and most people on our bus get off. I looked out the back and saw a ton of locals at the side of the road staring into the middle of the road where there was on car diagnal across the road... Finally Mairead and i decide we have to get out and see what it is. But when we got ou tpeople where starting to back on... it was dark and i couldn't see much so we asked the ony guy on our entire bus who spoke French (the others only Wolof) what happened and he said an accident... and i said yeah but with what? he said not to worry about it and get back on the bus...

11 pm rolls around. Mairead and i look at each other and say F Zee and F our lives right now...

"You know its been a long day when your water bottle becomes your pillow..." - Mairead

Around 12:30 (8 and a half hours after we left) we get to the station in St. Louis, cram 6 of us in the same taxi to the hostel. We arrive to find Josh and Laura drinking with two Germans. Bienvenue a St. Louis.

Baalma for the late blogging

So i kinda realized that having a blog will be easier than not... i keep forgetting what i told everyone or who i told it to or things like that... hence the beginning of my blog. i just sent out an email so i'll post the previous emails on here... and for more updates... just watch my blog!

Sept 25

so... today Waly told me that i had an internship change... i guess the internship i was gonna work with was asking for too much money... i dunno... kinda a long story... BUT
i'm going to a place called toubacouta...
we are actually going there next weekend for a four day excursion... so i'll get to see where i'll be living! i'm excited! so on this map (you can zoom in more): http://www.iss.co.za/af/profiles/Senegal/senegal_rel89.jpg

it is south of Dakar the coast... just south of Ndangane (my town is not on the map...). but i'll be working in a national park right there... where there's a ton of mangroves and bamboo..... its right on the coast still and the place i'll be staying is small but i'll still have internet (probably in a small shady net cafe of a shack....) and phone access... so i'll still be able to keep in touch. but yeah... i'm excited! it should be a lot of fun!

aaand tomorrow we are going to Saint Louis for the weekend! i'm really excited! just about 6 or 7 of us are going... we have to take a taxi to this random place where you 'rent' "sept places"... which are just station wagons that you can take places... the ride will be about 4 hours in a stuffed station wagon... and two nights stay in a 10 dollar hostal... should be fun. alrighty tighty...
damay dem. ba baneen yoon....
i hope u all are doing well... keep me posted on your lives!
love you.

Dirty Underwear, Random Conversations, and Mangoes

So in Wolof culture, it's rude to ask for someone to wash your undies... like with the rest of you laundry (understandably - i wouldn't wanna wash somebody else's dirty undies). So this means that everyday before i take a shower i wash my undies first. At first i wasn't very good and though... oh god, i'm gonna be wearing dirty underwear for three and a half months... but i'm getting better at it...

Random conversations - they happen so often here. Is seems like the main reason they start is a wolof lesson... but usually ends in the senegalese males favorite question - are you married? as if i'm going to say: why, not i'm not... did you want to get together later and get married..?

Random conversations also come about within us Americans too... whether it be about D, cockroaches, big toes... the convo normally ends with "only in senegal"... a few good only in Senegal's:

• I'm afraid to go by the man who has a closet-sized boutique on the corner cuz i forgot to return my coke bottle one time
• the 'new' peanut butter flavored chocoleca is the shit
• i've had bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner the night before, but i still want bread and cheese from the guy at the corner at 5 pm
• i tried to explain my absentee ballot to our maid and she has no idea what i'm trying to say
• there's a flashlight on your cell phone that comes in handy all the time

Mangoes: since i've had mangoes here i'm pretty sure i'll never be able to have a mango in the us that i think tastes good. They are supposedly not in a season here anymore, but they are soooo good. Today Prof. Sene came to introduce a friend to us. After telling us he was going to Ethiopia soon and talking about Bob Marley he decided to buy us all mangoes to prove our friendship... Neex na.

Sept 23

hey guys....
it seems like its been forever since i've sent an email out... so here goes:
things have been the same here, i'm getting into the rhythm of classes and such. its still really hot and i can't imagine october being any hotter but supposedly october is the worst!
this weekend we took a field trip to this place called lac rose (pinklake) its called that cuz it has 10 times as much salt as the ocean sothat when the sun hits it, it reflects a pink color... we also wentaround to different farms around in that area... which was cool....this local taught us about how they graft? different types oftrees/plants together... i.e. like a japanese orange tree with anafrican orange tree that will then yield different types of oranges oneach branch... we got to plant tomatoes with a bunch of local womenout in the fields... and we got to try kola nuts (which are verysymbolic in west african villages) and they were disgusting! although very cool looking...

i can't upload pictures cuz the laptop i brought broke after like the 5th day here... so its a hastle to try and upload pics... so i'll show you them when i get home if you wish...
i think we are gonna try and go to Saint Louis this weekend... and ramadan ends next week... wo hoo! no more fasting! and the next weekend we are taking a four day trip out of dakar to see some villages and such! should be fun...
alrighty, i'm off to do homework...
ba beneen yoon.
mucho amor

Sept 12

im typing on a french keyboard so i dunno how long ill last on this one... i hope all is going well in the states.. im excited to come back and not be sweating constantly... u of i people: how are your classes going? i saw a monkey today on my walk to class.. although it wasnt in a good way... he was tied to the tree... random i know... sorry on that same note... there are a lot of dogs and cats here roaming around... like latin america style. call to prayer still wakes me up every morning around 530 but im getting closer to sleeping through it...maybe if the fan is on and the window is shut.... but ramadan will be over at the end of the month and Dakar should be a lot more lively then... im excited we eat mangos a lot here and they are beyond delicious one of the girls in our group left the other day (heather actually... one of the girls that goes to u of i) so thats been kinda weird. but for the rest of us, everyone seems to be adjusting pretty well and settling into classes in Dakar... im adjusting fine except for the fact that i still cant believe im here... usually when wer walk along the ocean to go to lunch i go... holy crap, this is actually happening. what else... OH we founf this place semi close to where wwe take classes... its a lebonese slash italian "fast food" place and they have amaaaaazing gelato. i love it. last night for dinner we were eating this really gross millet like stuff (like small ground up grains...) and it was gross.. i asked my brother what it was and he knew i didnt like it and told me that they eat it every day in the village im going to... so i may die. all of us are gonna go to the market tomorrow.. an artisan one and a regular huge one... it should be a lot of fun. i think thats all i have to report...
ba beneen yoon.

Sept 10

saleemalekum everyone...
the other night, the power went out when i was in the shower... it was a lot of fun. the power goes out here at least once a day and two nights ago it literally went off and on like 5 times... it was great. they don't really have milk here... its all just powdered. i dont' remember if i told you guys this but i'll tell you again just in case... cuz it rocks.. so my internship... i'll be living in a small wolof village (ie they only speak wolof...) right on the coast south of Dakar... i'll be working with a women's org cleaning the beach of seaweed... and making seaweed bread with them. yeah, seaweed bread adventure in wolof... we'll see how that goes. we started official classes on monday... waaaay too much homework... i already have three papers due... sweet. and they're all in french which makes it impossible to zone out at all... for the three hours of class (we have class from 9-18 with classes three hours long each...) i should go cuz we're about to start... ba beneen yoon.... inchallah

Sept 4

people here like obama... i think cuz he's black... but i've seen obama bumper stickers and such... tis cool
i live in an apartment with maman monique who is a high school french teacher... and works at an international universite teaching french when her high school is on holiday. we have a maid whose name is leonie who i share a room with... maman monique's son whose 20, jean daniel, lives there too but works during his holiday (which goes until october... or november he said with a laugh... scheduling is not very strict) at a mustard factory... where the pollen makes the workers cry all day... he listens to american musique so when igave him the cd he knew all the artists... maman monique looooves your pottery... they don't have that many kitchen things like dishes and silverware and such so she likes them a lto....she wsays that when she drinks her beer she will use your mug... she comes from the south (called Casamance... the southern part of senegal) where the Jola people live... so she speaks jola, wolof, french, a little english, a litle spanish, and a portuguese creole that she speaks with leonie... cuz i think she was saying that they speak portuguese where leonie is from...
they don't use toilet paper here. the sewer system doesn't work well so beacuase its the rainy season there is a lot of water in the roads and such. there are random cats dogs and goats everywhere. the drivers are crazy... like mexico... but a little worse... like peru. there are no lights or signs, people just honk and go. so the taxii ride yesterday was intense. yesterday we took a boat to goree island where a lot of the slave trade took place... it was pretty. on our way back home we were ambushed by people trying to sell us stuff. was great. i should go. hope all is well in the states.
ba beneen yoon. alhoumdililaa

Sept 1

nna nga def!! je suis ici in Senegal! yeah, i'm actually here. its crazy. we got off the plane this morning at 5 am here time (5 hours ahead of you).... and i've been up since the previous night... and we had a full day today. so basically i'm exhausted... but a rundown of the day: -got off the plane, spoke first french to customs. -MSID coordinator Josaphine met us at the airport - she's super nice and speaks french, wolof, and english.-it was 6 am and we were all sweating profusely.-we get on this crazy bus thing after a bunch of wolofians chucked our bags on top of it. as they were saying "americans! welcome to senegal!"-bus ride to hotel... we have air conditioning in our hotel... but right down the street people are living in these little 'shack' things made out of wood posts and metal. way more third world country than i thought because we have yet to go to centre ville (downtown)-a herd of goats walked across the highway on our bus ride to maman honorie's house.-we met our 'assistants' and coordinators... who danced with us, gave us some senegalese food (which we ate with our hands... very messy - cee bu jen - a traditional rice and fish dish)- Wally qui parle francais avec un accent africain took us to the beach... the ocean! many of the girls complained about the fishy smell... but it was amazing. bustling with people, and tons and tons of boats and people playing football on the beach and children running after us yelling toubab (white person) and asking us to take their pictures in wolof.- we stick out like sore thumbs. people mainly stare and say toubab with other things in wolof. its great.- one girl was sick all day and crying and is saying she wants to go home. it's been an intense first day.-i meet my host family tomorrow. should be exciting. ramadan started today... so fasting for the muslims all month. heard my first calls to prayer.-alright, i'm gonna pass out soon. hope all is well in the states. beaucoup de braiser.ba beneen yoon.licia