Dundu Afrikan yi

February 28, 2011

Oh dear…it’s been an exorbitantly long time since I last wrote a blog post, but at least it’s still February! (though only barely, I admit) Well, in the interim, I have been to Toubacouta (a village several hours south of Dakar), and have nearly finished with classes. Toubacouta was really wonderful: it’s primarily a tourist village, so we had quite ritzy accommodations. Seven out of the ten of us got sick at once point or another, though, which was unfortunate. While we weren’t sick, though, we were able to attend many traditional dance ceremonies, a traditional wrestling ceremony (la lutte), and learn a lot about development in a rural area. One of the site visits that most affected us was the visit to a community garden in the village of Dassilamé Sérère, which has a gardening coop run almost exclusively by women. It kind of seems like the men just sit back and relax while the women spend all their time in the fields. Anyway, Gabe had the idea to start a project to fund a pump for their well: right now they have to haul all the water up by hand, and a pump would make their work a whole lot easier. A couple of us are really spearheading this project, and we intend to set up a website in the next couple of weeks where we can take donations to fund our well pump project. I’ve sort of fallen into place as the treasurer for this project, and I will definitely post a link once we get our website up and running. In the meantime, please think about if you would be willing to donate to fund a well for these women.

It’s been really hard for us to believe that we have less than two weeks of classes! Most of us are going to St. Louis for spring break, which is in the north of Senegal (it’s the old colonial capital). We’ll spend 4 nights (I think) in St. Louis and then head back down south to the deserts of Lompoul, where hopefully we can do some roughin’ it and riding camels, possibly. After that, I will be headed to my internship! I’m going to be in a little village of about 4,000 people called Leona, which is about an hour south of St. Louis, I think. I’ll be teaching in the equivalent of a middle school, and most likely I’ll be working with 12 and 13 year olds. I’ll be teaching English and maybe another social science topic, as well as doing administrative duties. I might also get a chance to work in the primary school! I can’t tell you how excited I am, despite going to a tiny village where I will probably eat fish for three meals a day (ceeb u jen, here I come!). Speaking of food: I know this is a sidenote, but today the WARC cafeteria served curry (Indian-style except for the beef), and it was delicious. Not very Senegalese, but just what I’ve been craving. Normally I can’t eat the large portions that they give us, but today I ate the whole darn thing, and it only took about an hour.

This morning, as part of our International Development class, we visited the Liberté 6 barracks. Normally, I’m not the biggest fan of my International Development class, but today was easily the best day we’ve had yet. The strange thing is, Liberté 6 is a very well off neighborhood, but there are these slums right in the middle of it. ENDA Tiers-Monde, which is a local NGO, funded people to move from more established poor areas to Liberté 6, but the effect is very chilling: poverty in the midst of bourgeoisie. ENDA sponsored them and built them schools and everything, but the schoolrooms aren’t even used because there are no teachers. It was strange to see little chairs and desks in perfect condition but with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs because they were so rarely used. About halfway through our tour of the barracks, a group of children ran up to us, as they did in Toubacouta. In many parts of Dakar, being approached by a mob of children means that they are usually asking for money, but in the barracks it was more similar to the village. They are not as accustomed to seeing white people, and thus immediately run up to you and hold your hand (or stroke your hair, or laugh at your moles, etc.). The minute we brought out our cameras they went crazy and wanted pictures taken left and right; very different to many parts of the city where people don’t want you taking pictures, or want you to pay for them.

It was really amazing to see people living in such squalid poverty, especially when contrasted with just across the street where there were modern-looking apartments. Everyone was really making do, though, and they were very proud to show us their houses, which were honestly no more than shacks. It’s also astounding to realize that while this NGO was perhaps helping them by moving them out of the banlieue, they either ran out of money or left before they could really implement the programs, like the school, that they had planned for, and so constructed a school that no one uses. It was quite a contrast from when we visited the Ecole de la Rue (street school). Even though the Ecole de la Rue started off with almost no money, they are really making a go of it by getting university students to volunteer as teachers. The whole thing is funded by one man’s profit from his farm, and he has invested so much into this school that it’s become more sustainable. By no means is it a perfect system, but they are able to send students from the street school into public school, and it seems like a more effective way of getting them out of poverty. Liberté 6 just seemed like an unfinished project, where the conditions hadn’t really improved much and, while there were some necessary infrastructures that had been put in place, ENDA hadn’t done enough to sustainably implement their programs.

On a completely different note, this weekend Regina and I paid a visit to Marché Sandaga where we bought (fake) hair to put in tresses. I think my host sister is going to do it tomorrow…it should be interesting and I will definitely post pictures. I can’t deny I’m a bit nervous, especially for the fact that I won’t be able to wash my hair as long as I keep it in. Regina is also blonde, and we probably bought all the fake blonde hair that is sold in Dakar…there’s not exactly a high demand for it. I also bought some more fabric this weekend at the Foire Internationale de Dakar! Hundreds of merchants came from a bunch of different African countries, and I bought some absolutely beautiful fabric from Benin. Still not sure what exactly I’ll have made…maybe another taille baisse, but maybe I’d like to have clothes that are a little more Western-style, I don’t know.

The Foire, which we visited on Saturday, was also a bit of a study in contrasts. When we first walked in, it literally felt like some sort of strange expo in the States, like a Homes and Gardens show. There were a lot of booths selling very different things: some were selling home furnishings, some were NGOs, and we talked to one man about aquaculture. There almost didn’t seem to be anything linking them together, besides a common interest in Senegal. There was also a complete other pavilion where merchants were just selling things from their home countries, which was quite cool. You can get a lot of the same stuff at Marché Sandaga, but Sandaga is so overwhelming: at the Fair, there weren’t people constantly following you around and trying to get you to come to their stalls (though that did happen a bit, let’s be real, we are in Senegal).

Anyway, it’s probably getting close to dinnertime. There’s a coupure so that means no electricity for now, though we were really lucky to have it for nearly two days straight! It’s always funny to see who gets courant (electricity) and who doesn’t, and sometimes it’s not what you’d expect. Of course, neighborhoods where influential people live don’t often get power cuts, but on the flip side, wealthier neighborhoods like Mermoz get cut a lot more often than poor neighborhoods like Pikine. Why? Mermoz is a very calm neighborhood as well, so there aren’t going to be any riots in the street if there isn’t power. Apparently, in more turbulent, poverty-ridden quartiers, people will take to the streets and start burning tires in the case of a power cut. Speaking of power cuts, I keep thinking about something my host niece Florinda said the other day. We were walking back from buying beer for my host mom (they’re Catholic, so they sometimes like to faire la fête), and I asked Florinda about her birthday. First of all, she doesn’t know when her birthday is, only that it is two days after her mother’s wedding anniversary (how she knows when that is, I don’t know). I asked her about her last birthday and she told me that she prayed and prayed and prayed that there would be electricity for her birthday. Instead of praying for gifts, she prayed for courant. Something that we in the US take for granted so much is so important here, where we don’t have it all the time. Now that I think about it a bit more, though, it makes more sense to me. She can’t really expect to get many gifts for her birthday, so instead of praying for something she knows won’t be fulfilled, she prays for something that is up to chance, and it’s no one’s fault if she doesn’t get it (well, maybe Abdoulaye Wade’s [current president] fault).

OK, dinner is soon. I’ve been attempting to keep up with current events in Libya but have not been doing such a great job. No one needs worry that the unrest will spread to Senegal, though; I would be extremely shocked if the movements from the Middle East reached us. A couple of weeks ago I asked my host family what they thought of the situation in Egypt and they had no idea what I was talking about, though I think they’re more informed about Libya. All is pretty much safe and sound here, and though people are angry at Wade, as always, at the moment Senegal doesn’t have the willpower to take to the streets.

Kudos to you if you read through this whole post—it was quite longer than I expected. Pictures, as always, are on my Facebook, though I will try to put some up here soon. Also, in the vein of trying, I will try to be a more regular updater.

Ba beneen yoon!