Classes begin and some random thoughts
Classes have gotten into full swing this week. I am taking Wolof at the Baobob center about half an hour away from Yoff, where I am living with a host family. It's been really interesting to learn the local language, and everyone seems to appreciate my fumbling efforts to speak it, although after the very basic "how are you doing" I have to switch into french. Still, it's been nice, especially because some of my host brothers and sisters don't speak any french so this is the first time I've really been able to communicate with them. We have also begun our Ecotourism and Sustainable Development classes, which are both extremely interesting, and the visiting professors we;ve had thus far have been awesome. It is nice to get the school aspect of things underway, I think we were all getting a little antsy, trying to adjust to being here but not having any projects to sink our teeth into. It's been a bit hard to follow 2 hour lectures given entirely in french - I can't stop paying attention for a second without getting totally lost! Still, I'm in a much better position than some of the other students who don't speak any french at all, and I think I've been getting the main idea of everything. More...
Ross Thuotte's Weblog
Hey, I'm also blogging about my Living Routes semester in Senegal –
check it out here!
Visit to a local school
Today, my Senegalese friends Rokhaya and Ndeye Fatou took me to visit the local school's summer program after our own classes at CRESP were finished. Rokhaya works as a camp counselor there in the evenings, in addition to doing the Living Routes program at CRESP. The two of us had previously discussed our similar experiences as teachers/camp counselors, and discovered our shared interest in education.
The visit was a great experience for me on two levels. First of all, it was nice for me to be in my own element, or at least closer to it. Children are easy for me to communicate and play with, and I don't feel as silly stammering along in broken Wolof as I feel with adults. And despite the language barrier, the environment was quite similar to the day camp I worked at this past summer. Being in such a familiar environment made it easier for me to interact with the other staff there as well. As I joked around with them and watched the counselors helping the five year olds get dressed after bathing in the ocean, I felt that I easily might have worked there as well.
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An amusing cultural anecdote
My host sister here, Marie (she's 18), has recently decided to make it her personal mission to get me to eat more. The other night the electricity went out at the house for about 8 hours (not an uncommon occurence) so the whole family and I sat out in the alleyway at night on these little benches they have, where it is both cooler and where we could see by the moonlight to chat with eachother and with the passersby. To pass the time, Marie made this really yummy byssop (?) juice, and tried to get me to drink several cups of it. While it was tasty, it was also quite filling, and we had already eaten dinner, so I tried to refuse the second cup she offered me, but she wasn't having any of that. So I tried a different tack - I told her that if I kept eating so much I would get fat. Now, in the states, because of the standards of beauty, most women would take this as reasonable excuse and not press you any further. Marie only laughed at me, and insisted that I drink another glass. Her motives for getting me to eat more became clearer to me last night at dinner. More...
Photos available! (sort of)
Hey Everyone,
So I went through this whole ordeal to set up a page online where people could view my photos, but apparently I have to send an invitation e-mail to you, in order for you to be able to see them. If you want to check them out send me an e-mail with "photo request" as the subject and I'll send you the invitation. Sorry about that, I know it's kind of inconvenient. I'll keep posting photos on the blog as well.
Be well, D
ps. for those of you who I am meeting for the first time through cyberspace, e-mail me at dgalaski@yahoo.com
Life in Senegal & Toubab Dialo - Katie
New pics!!!
http://community.webshots.com/photo/456517181VngdRl
I apologize for the lack of blogs because the keys on my laptop decided to stop responding, and the computer technition is out because of the horrible incident of the death of his baby. It really puts things into perspective, that while I am horribly annoyed and frusterated because my computer doesn't work, this man is having the hardship of his life because his country doesn't offer enough skilled labor and affordable healthcare to prevent something that could have been so easily fixed in the States. It makes me feel so spoiled to have all the medical help I need at my fingertips, and makes me realize just how unfair this world is.
Anyways, I am slowly but surely becoming more accustomed to Senegal and the life I have found myself in. The weather makes me sweat 1 gallon rather than 2 every day, the taxi's veering at me at 90 mph no longer make my heart stop, and I can vomit for 24 hours straight and just accept the fact it was bound to happen sometime. Yesterday I even ate a fish (whole) with my bare hands!! Like whoa for the vegetarian.
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Toubab Diallo/social life
Hey Everyone,
Sorry it's been a little while since my last post - we were away last weekend at this beautiful (though touristy) place called Toubab Diallo. It's interesting how different the flora/fauna are in different parts of Senegal - for example, on the ride down there (a somewhat long and harried bus trip, on which I successfully managed to negotiate the price in Wolof - score!!) we saw these amazingly huge trees (alas, I couldn't get a good picture) with monkeys in them, which you definitely would never see in Yoff. The trip was a good chance to get to know the other Americans on the program a lot better, which was fun, and I think I am making progress in getting to know the Senegalese students here better too.
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Ecotourism & Orchestre Baobab
Last night was one of the most fun nights I've had thus far. I got to go see my Wolof teacher, Rudy Gomis, play with the Orchestre Baobab at a club in Dakar! It was really awesome afro-cuban music. The band is incredible, and really well known (they've played with Dave Matthews and Trey Anastasio and have toured all over the world), and it just radomly happens that Rudy like to teach Wolof in his spare time when they're not on tour. Crazy, huh? He's an amazing teacher, and such a wonderful person, so it was exciting to get to see him in his element, doing what he loves to do. I'll be sad when our Wolof classes are over! More...
The Culture of Food - Katie
I want to explain a little about the culture of food and meals here, since meals set the schedule for the entire day and are the center of social activity, and are therefore very important.
The family meal is nuclear: in other words, the plate is the nucleus and the people form the bubble around it. Although most of my family eats with spoons, other families that are more traditional eat with their hands, a practice that involves one-handedly rolling the food into a ball that you can pop into your mouth. This is more difficult that it may at first sound, since the food you are rolling consists of rice, maybe a meat, and oil…3 things that don’t exactly amalgamate. But since I am given a spoon at every meal, I am free to eat without dealing with an oily mess all over me.
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it's a party
I mentioned in a recent blog the challenges of negotiating the social situation here, but this past week has been an excellent one for socialization. First of all, five of the girls on the program have started taking an african dance class. We're learning contemporary, modern and tradtional dances from the local griot (kind of like a traditional bard), Bath. It's really fun, and, for someone who has no rhythym, the steps are surprisingly easy to master and look really cool when they're all put together. On monday night, we went to a drum circle, and our teacher was there and made us do our routine for everyone. It was really fun - such a joyous event and people here are incredible dancers! I think they were pleased that we made an effort to join in the celebration. In fact, the best part of the night was probably when one of the men who were dancing in the middle pulled my friend Kristin into the circle and tried to show her this certain step, and she totally mastered it. Everyone watching was like "wow, look at that white girl dance!" It was awesome!
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