Dakar is hot. It’s hard to think of much else because it is so freaking hot. The program requires the families to give us fans in our rooms, and which is invaluable, and most of the time feels completely inadequate. I’m just starting to gear up for a full scale freak out about next week, because that is when we’re heading for a rural village, or rather several rural villages, there will be two students staying in each village. There may or may not be electricity, and because it’s inland it will be at least 20 degrees hotter (I think those degrees are Fahrenheit but I’m not even sure about that). The timing of this trip is interesting, because it’s coming when we all seem to finally be more comfortable in Dakar, but we’re also talking more and more about everything we miss at home. Our study abroad handbook talks about the first three weeks as the honeymoon stage, when everything is new and exciting and you just can’t get enough of it. We all seem to have skipped that stage, because for our first three weeks were too busy being overwhelmed and confused by how different everything was that I don’t think any of us could muster the energy to be that excited about any of it. However, after replacing the honeymoon stage with the oh-my-god-how-the-hell-does-anything-work-here stage, we seem to be right on time for the (and I’m paraphrasing here) this-is-way-too-hard-and-I-miss-macaroni-and-cheese-and-I-want-to-go-home-now stage. I don’t actually want to go home of course, but I do find myself spending a lot time missing things that I didn’t even realize I liked.
Don’t get me wrong, some things are great. This weekend several of the other K students and I went to a club, which was fantastic. We met Shani and Emily’s gorgeous Senegalese guy friends there (both of whom they met on street, yes you can do that kind of thing in Senegal) and after excitement when our taxi driver took to the opposite side of the city because he didn’t know where the club was, we had a great time, and danced until 4. The next morning I went with Shani and her friend Lea to a Senegalese gospel church, which was absolutely incredible, the singing was beautiful, and everyone seemed completely full of joy, even if they maybe did want to convert me.
I just had mafe (a peanut tomato stew dish) for lunch, which is delicious, especially when I was expecting ceebu jen (fish and rice) for the umteenth time. My family is very sweet, and I get so excited when I understand a word of Wolof in their stream of conversation.
We got more information about our village stay today. I will be from Saturday to Monday a span of time that includes my 21st birthday, which should make for some a unique story. I’ll be staying in a tiny village I can’t pronounce the name of, with the family of the President of the village, who is also the president of the River Delta Coalition. It’ll certainly be an interesting trip.
I didn’t realize until recently, but I am so much more acclimated than I was when I got here. We went on a tour de ville on Sunday, and looking out the window, I realized I was seeing the same things I saw on the ride from the airport. Everything looked so alien and dirty and crazy, and it’s a good feeling that I understand so much more now. Yes there’s trash everywhere, but it’s not a big deal, and those guys hanging out of the car rapids are not passengers and that will not happen to me if I ride one. Very slowly, it’s all starting to make more sense.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Hi everyone!!!
The reason I haven't posted since I got to Senegal is becauase not only do I have limited access to internet, but for some strange reason blogspot won't work on my computer here. So here I am on Shani's computer, and hopefully I will be able to post this before the power goes out again, for the 5th time today.
I'm here for another 4 days or so, until I go to live in rural village for a week. Wish me luck.
Here are copies of the emails I've been writting since my blog hasn't been working. If you want me to send them to you, leave a comment and say so, since I'm likely to continue to have better luck with emails than with this blog.
We started classes two weeks ago, which are a lot harder than I was expecting. The classes are in french of course, and two hours long each, which is just too much for me. My professor who teaches both my Dakar in Transition and Senegal River Valley course is almost impossible for me to understand; I think I only know what he's saying when he's telling me information I already know. Yesterday was Korite, which is the Senegalese name for Eid, the festival at the end of Ramadan. It was a little anti-climactic; my host brothers were gone so my family was much smaller, and even though I thought it was customary to go out, we didn't and I ended up sleeping most of the day. I am excited that Ramadan's over, becuase it means I can eat with my family during the day, and my host brothers said that after they get back they'll take me out a lot dancing and to concerts.
I learned this week that part of my program is that in two weeks I will be leaving to live in a rural village for a week with a family. We'll be in the same village with one other student, but that's it. The family will speak Wolof, but probably not french, which is putting a fresh urgency on my wolof classes. After the rural village, we'll all be living in an auberge in Saint Louis, which I will probably needing some creature comforts.
I'm contantly amazed by how little things can become these ridiculous adventures. A couple days ago Shani and I went to exchange money and get some lunch, and while we were in the restaurant, it started to practically huricane outside, light disapeared, trash cans hurtling along the street and sheets of rain. When we tried to leave we discovered that the street had become a river, and so we had to walk through a river of sewage water to get to the bank and then back to school. A man we passed on the way said we might do better swimming there.I've been a bit more homesick lately, dreaming of toilets with seats and food that I can make myself. But I'm still glad to be here, I know even the parts that are so hard they make we want to cry will probably be the things that teach me the most that I will be most grateful for later.I love you all, hope life is treating you well. If you want to send me any mail, I would love to get it, and will try to send you a post card back. My address is-
Robin Greenwood
c/o Dr. Tricia Lawrence-Savané
Africa Consultants International
B.P. 5270
Dakar-Fann, SÉNÉGAL
I'm attaching the first email I wrote, which I know got sent to a lot of people, but I wrote it before I managed to get an email list together; part of being in Senegal is everything, especially anything with internet takes 7 times longer than they do in the states.
Love,Robin
Hello all!
I arrived tired confused and jet-lagged at 6am on Monday morning, where I sat on the conveyor belt while two other students reported their lost luggage and watched the stray cats wondering around the airport. It's been a bit of a whirl-wind since then, buI haven't been thrown in the deep end nearly as much as I expected. The people at the Baobab center. where my program is based are wonderful; they coach us on all of the daily tasks that are so different here, they encourage us to ask as many stupid questions as we like, and they are conducting our orientation in english, for the most part.
It's been harder than I expected in some ways. Our bathroom in my host family's house is very different from anything I'm used to, and I'm beginning to realize how much I like my creature comforts. It is not hotter than I could have imagined, as some people said it would be, but it is way too hot, and I'm trying to get used to being sweaty all the time, since there's no way around it. As predicted, my french is not where I would like it to be, and I spend a lot of my time saying "Quoi?" staring blankly, or saying yes to who knows what.
Despite all of the difficulties, I am so glad to be here. I love the senegalese tradition of greeting everyone, and the looks of pleasure and surprise I get when I, a toubab, greet someone in Wolof. Kids will run after me calling "toubab!" the wolof word for foreigner, which stopped bothering me after the first day. As my friend Shani said, "it's like they're just naming another noun in their world, there's a car, there's a sheep, there's a toubab." Sheep are everywhere, along the side of the road, eating the grass on the medians, in people's houses. I couldn't figure out where the baaing in my house was coming from until Mohamed, my host father took me up to the roof so I could help feel our two sheep. He told me we will have one for Tabaski, probably the male since he is the biggest.
My host family has been good,for the most part. We live in Mermouz, in a quiet, (for Dakar) safe and friendly neighborhood a ten minute walk from the baobab center. There are a lot of people in my house, and I don't quite have them sorted out. I seem to be part of the family who spends all their (our) time upstairs, while another life takes place in thefamily room below. Mohamed, my host father speaks english better than my french, which can be very nice, though I'm a little worried itwill make it more difficult to learn french. His wife Astou speaks only french and Wolof, and she is very patient with my french. There are three boys/young men also who I think are their nephews. We spend most of our time in the same room, which acts as a living room, kitchen, dining room, bedroom for Mohamed and Astou, in short everything but the washroom. We watch tv a lot, often in wolof so don't understand and they will speak to each other in wolof. I think the homestay may get easier the more wolof I know. Mohamed and Astou also have a seven year old daughter who will be here soon, and I am very excited to meet her. There are of course a million other things I could write about--Sandaga market, my Wolof class, the students in my program, the Senegalese values we've been learning... but this email is probably long enough already. Being here is making me think about my own cultural assumptions a lot, which can be uncomfortable, especially when I recognize American values or traditions I miss, or Senegalese customs I cannot understand. But I think I will take it as a sign that there is a great deal I can learn here.
The reason I haven't posted since I got to Senegal is becauase not only do I have limited access to internet, but for some strange reason blogspot won't work on my computer here. So here I am on Shani's computer, and hopefully I will be able to post this before the power goes out again, for the 5th time today.
I'm here for another 4 days or so, until I go to live in rural village for a week. Wish me luck.
Here are copies of the emails I've been writting since my blog hasn't been working. If you want me to send them to you, leave a comment and say so, since I'm likely to continue to have better luck with emails than with this blog.
We started classes two weeks ago, which are a lot harder than I was expecting. The classes are in french of course, and two hours long each, which is just too much for me. My professor who teaches both my Dakar in Transition and Senegal River Valley course is almost impossible for me to understand; I think I only know what he's saying when he's telling me information I already know. Yesterday was Korite, which is the Senegalese name for Eid, the festival at the end of Ramadan. It was a little anti-climactic; my host brothers were gone so my family was much smaller, and even though I thought it was customary to go out, we didn't and I ended up sleeping most of the day. I am excited that Ramadan's over, becuase it means I can eat with my family during the day, and my host brothers said that after they get back they'll take me out a lot dancing and to concerts.
I learned this week that part of my program is that in two weeks I will be leaving to live in a rural village for a week with a family. We'll be in the same village with one other student, but that's it. The family will speak Wolof, but probably not french, which is putting a fresh urgency on my wolof classes. After the rural village, we'll all be living in an auberge in Saint Louis, which I will probably needing some creature comforts.
I'm contantly amazed by how little things can become these ridiculous adventures. A couple days ago Shani and I went to exchange money and get some lunch, and while we were in the restaurant, it started to practically huricane outside, light disapeared, trash cans hurtling along the street and sheets of rain. When we tried to leave we discovered that the street had become a river, and so we had to walk through a river of sewage water to get to the bank and then back to school. A man we passed on the way said we might do better swimming there.I've been a bit more homesick lately, dreaming of toilets with seats and food that I can make myself. But I'm still glad to be here, I know even the parts that are so hard they make we want to cry will probably be the things that teach me the most that I will be most grateful for later.I love you all, hope life is treating you well. If you want to send me any mail, I would love to get it, and will try to send you a post card back. My address is-
Robin Greenwood
c/o Dr. Tricia Lawrence-Savané
Africa Consultants International
B.P. 5270
Dakar-Fann, SÉNÉGAL
I'm attaching the first email I wrote, which I know got sent to a lot of people, but I wrote it before I managed to get an email list together; part of being in Senegal is everything, especially anything with internet takes 7 times longer than they do in the states.
Love,Robin
Hello all!
I arrived tired confused and jet-lagged at 6am on Monday morning, where I sat on the conveyor belt while two other students reported their lost luggage and watched the stray cats wondering around the airport. It's been a bit of a whirl-wind since then, buI haven't been thrown in the deep end nearly as much as I expected. The people at the Baobab center. where my program is based are wonderful; they coach us on all of the daily tasks that are so different here, they encourage us to ask as many stupid questions as we like, and they are conducting our orientation in english, for the most part.
It's been harder than I expected in some ways. Our bathroom in my host family's house is very different from anything I'm used to, and I'm beginning to realize how much I like my creature comforts. It is not hotter than I could have imagined, as some people said it would be, but it is way too hot, and I'm trying to get used to being sweaty all the time, since there's no way around it. As predicted, my french is not where I would like it to be, and I spend a lot of my time saying "Quoi?" staring blankly, or saying yes to who knows what.
Despite all of the difficulties, I am so glad to be here. I love the senegalese tradition of greeting everyone, and the looks of pleasure and surprise I get when I, a toubab, greet someone in Wolof. Kids will run after me calling "toubab!" the wolof word for foreigner, which stopped bothering me after the first day. As my friend Shani said, "it's like they're just naming another noun in their world, there's a car, there's a sheep, there's a toubab." Sheep are everywhere, along the side of the road, eating the grass on the medians, in people's houses. I couldn't figure out where the baaing in my house was coming from until Mohamed, my host father took me up to the roof so I could help feel our two sheep. He told me we will have one for Tabaski, probably the male since he is the biggest.
My host family has been good,for the most part. We live in Mermouz, in a quiet, (for Dakar) safe and friendly neighborhood a ten minute walk from the baobab center. There are a lot of people in my house, and I don't quite have them sorted out. I seem to be part of the family who spends all their (our) time upstairs, while another life takes place in thefamily room below. Mohamed, my host father speaks english better than my french, which can be very nice, though I'm a little worried itwill make it more difficult to learn french. His wife Astou speaks only french and Wolof, and she is very patient with my french. There are three boys/young men also who I think are their nephews. We spend most of our time in the same room, which acts as a living room, kitchen, dining room, bedroom for Mohamed and Astou, in short everything but the washroom. We watch tv a lot, often in wolof so don't understand and they will speak to each other in wolof. I think the homestay may get easier the more wolof I know. Mohamed and Astou also have a seven year old daughter who will be here soon, and I am very excited to meet her. There are of course a million other things I could write about--Sandaga market, my Wolof class, the students in my program, the Senegalese values we've been learning... but this email is probably long enough already. Being here is making me think about my own cultural assumptions a lot, which can be uncomfortable, especially when I recognize American values or traditions I miss, or Senegalese customs I cannot understand. But I think I will take it as a sign that there is a great deal I can learn here.
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