.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