One more thing...

Today, while I was waiting for my lunch to arrive... a man walked by me with a monkey on a leash.

Isle de Goree

The Baobab Center arranged for me to tour the Isle de Goree today with one of their tour guides. The Isle de Goree is was the last stop for a large number of slaves who ended up in Europe and the Americas. It's about a 20 minute ferry ride from Dakar. My tour guide brought her husband with us. They were both very nice, but made it obvious that they'd rather just be talking to each other very fast in Wolof than talk to me. The husband was fasting, and it was terribly hot today, so he was tired. And my tour guide hadn't felt well all week so she didn't feel like doing much. So, instead of taking me into the museums to narrate them for me and walking me around the island to show me around, she merely gave me money for the admission to first museum and waited for me outside with her husband.

The first museum I went to was the House of Slaves. It was a house that used to be the "point of no return" for many West African slaves. I saw the rooms specified as holding chambers for children, those for young girls, and those for men. It was an eerie place. The second story of the house held a lot of information about the slave trade as well as artifacts such as shackles that were used. In the "welcome center" of the museum, there were many pictures of Bill Clinton, as well as one of Chelsea and Hillary from their visits. There was one picture of G.W. Bush.

After that, we went to get lunch. My guide, Ada, and I both had hamburgers and hibiscus juice to drink (which is a specialty in Dakar; the juice, not the hamburgers). The hamburger was absolutely huge and there were a good number of fries crammed into it, as well as a fried egg. Hamburgers are always served with a fried egg on top (basically, the egg replaces the lettuce and pickles and onions that Americans would eat on a hamburger). It tasted alright, but would have been much better without the egg, with half the fries, and not drowning in ketchup. After lunch, I was given money for another museum and pointed in the right direction. It was the History Museum. It consisted of 10 rooms, with very limited displays in each, except for the religion rooms (one for Islam and one for Christianity) and the room dedicated to the slave trade with were filled with items.

After that, I wandered around the island by myself while Ada and her husband sat on a bench. The people on the island are quite poor and will do anything to get you to buy from them. They're ridiculously persistent and, may I say, a bit annoying. Ada has many friends on the island, and since they had seen me with her earlier, they all insisted that I buy things from them since we're friends by association. They would tell me how stiff the competition is, but that they of course had the best things and the cheapest prices. I ended up buying a pair of earrings from a friend of Ada's for a dollar (she had tried to get me to pay her $20 for a skirt, two necklaces, and a pair of earrings). She was not very pleased with me that I didn't buy more. It was my first lesson in bargaining here. I hate it, but it's really not as bad as I figured it would be. In the end, if you know the appropriate price for what you want to buy, you can get it for that amount. I ended up finding a woman who I liked who actually had nice things, much of what was on the island was not very great quality of course. And I bought a sarong-type skirt that I've been wanting as well as a necklace. Many of the women in Dakar dress up very nicely when leaving their house, but wear sarong-type skirt wraps with a tank top or tshirt around the house. Since I have a limited amount of clothing here, I figured it would be good to keep my clothes clean for going out, and just have a few sarongs to wear when I'm at home.

I also made friends with a guy named Ibrahima. I was weary of him at first, cause I figured he wanted to bring me somewhere so that I could buy something from him like everyone else was trying to do, but that wasn't the case, he was just bored. He's about my age and lives on the island. He walked around with me for a little while as I wandered around. He, like all the Senegalese I run into, was amazed that I'm learning Wolof, and he tested me on how much I know. It was terribly hot today, and after wandering around for a bit, I knew I wanted to cool off, drink some water, and go home. So I met back up with Ada and her husband and we caught the ferry back to the main land.

Now I'm at home, sitting in front of my fan. I'm no longer roasting and sweating profusely, for the first time since 9am (it's 5pm now). After a quick trip to the telecenter across the street to post this and send some emails, I think I'm going to spend the rest of tonight studying French and reading (in English).

Out and About

My classes on Friday were condensed so that they ended at 3pm instead of 5pm. It was nice, because it gave me time to get work done and time to hang out with some other students whose last day at the center was Friday. One guy is returning home to the states. The others are moving to St. Louis (Senegal) for a month, so they'll be back towards the end of October. I'll probably go and visit them as well, since I'll at least have a free place to stay there for the next month.

Friday (last) night, I planned on going to the semi-finals game for Senegal with my host mom, Laila (girl from Denmark who lives with me), and an Irish girl named Sarah. We got there about an hour before the game started, and it was merely chaos. The line for tickets wrapped around the stadium. And the line to get into the stadium wrapped around it as well. They kept selling tickets to anyone who would buy them, but the stadium was already basically full. There were police everywhere, and people were rushing in all directions, we had to hang onto each other to keep from losing one another. I ran into one of my friends there and he had lost the two other girls he was with. He hung around by us for a bit, but then went in search of the girls. We decided it was hopeless, cause the lines were too long, and decided to return home to watch the game on television. We sat outside in our backyard drinking pop and eating chips and relaxing while we waited for the game to start, and also during part of the game. Two Senegalese friends of Laila's came to join us as well. Soon after the game started, my host mom started yelling my name really loudly, it turns out that the friend of mine who had lost the other two girls at the game was on tv at the game with the two other girls. I missed it, but my host mom said they were the only tubabs (white people) in the stadium, and were cheering wildly for Senegal. Senegal won, again, of course.

The power went off soon after the game ended. It was difficult to decide what we could do with our evening. Since it is Ramadan, all of the clubs and restaurants with music are closed or at least don't have music. So we ended up going to a random bar/restaurant downtown. Since it's Ramadan, not many Senegalese were out. So the bar was at least half full with a random assortment of foreigners. One man had a handlebar mustache, and another had the shortest shorts I've seen a man wear in public in a very long time; as I said, quite the assortment of foreigners. Being inside the restaurant, even though we were speaking a mixture of French and English, we could've easily been in a bar in the United States or elsewhere. That was until merchants started standing outside the window next to our table holding up merchandise that they were trying to sell to us. Laila and I call moments like that: "Oh yeah, I'm in Senegal" moments. One of the Senegalese friends who we were with is studying American civilization at the university here and so he began a lot of conversations about the United States with me so that he could find out more about what he was asking. He asked me who Uncle Sam was. I don't think I've ever been asked that question before, and I didn't know what to say right away. I put an explanation together about how he's basically a patriotic symbol of the United States. The Senegalese guys could hardly believe that he was a fictional and not a real man. Laila said she thought there was a book about him called "Uncle Sam's Cottage." We quickly straightened out that she was in fact getting Uncle Sam confused with Uncle Tom's Cabin. Which led one of the Senegalese guys to start a conversation about how fascinating that book is.

One of the things I like best about the Senegalese is that they're so open to talk about everything. They freely talk about things that are very personal. They really do not hold back and there is no topic that is off limits, but even if they disagree with you, they are very respectful. At the bar/restaurant we also talked a bit about the religious differences between Senegal and the United States, which there are many. It's fascinating to hear them talk about the role Islam plays in the daily life of their country. I will get into that more in another entry, this one will be long enough as it is.

Today, I went to the Isle d'Ngor with Laila and Sarah. It's about a 20 minute taxi ride from here ($3). After we arrived at Ngor, we paid $1 to take a boat to the island. It was a long skinny boat with a motor. The island "streets" are paths about five feet in width with 7 foot cement walls on either side that are filled with graffiti and beautiful (real) flowers. I felt like I was a little kid going on an adventure as I made my way about the island, somehow I was designated as the leader since at one point in my life I was a Girl Scout. The beach was wonderful and the water felt delightfully cool in the incredible heat. We rented some umbrellas and beach mats and made ourselves comfortable when there was still hardly anyone on the beach. By the time we left at 5:30pm, there were a lot of people there. To get back to the shore, we were crammed on the boat with at least 25 other people. We couldn’t all sit properly (don't worry, they gave us all life jackets), but it was an incredibly amusing experience. The boat ride was only about 4 minutes long and the water never really gets very deep in that area. The boats, like the car rapides and many of the taxis, are run by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Greetings from the Land of Taranga

This week went by so quickly! The past three days I have thought it was continuously Tuesday (that really speaks to the kind of variety I've had in my schedule this week). I was obviously wrong two of those three days. Today was, as usual, filled with classes. My morning class consisted of an hour long discussion about the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The Senegalese people generally love Bill Clinton and hate George Bush, so I heard the reasons behind that as well. I already somewhat knew, but my teacher gave me a detailed explanation. Basically, when Clinton came to visit Senegal, people turned out in the streets to see him and there was an event in the main square, Place de l'Independence, which the Senegalese turned out en masse to attend. I was told there was lots of cheering and festivities. Clinton also visited Isle de Goree and spent time with a lot of Senegalese people. Also, my professor pointed out, Chelsea Clinton has visited Dakar twice because she has a Senegalese friend. One of those times she was accompanied by her mother. When Bush came a few years ago, the airport was shut down for the 12 hours before he arrived and the duration of his 7 hour stay. All the main roads were closed so that he could travel down them. There also was an event for him at Place de l'Independence, however that day all the buildings surrounding the major square were evacuated for security reasons and security guards were placed on every balcony within sight. People were not allowed in the streets, and it sounded like only pre-approved people were allowed to attend, much like Bush's "public" appearances in the United States. Bush, too, visited Isle de Goree. The people who live on the island were told to leave before he arrived or to stay at home with the door locked. All businesses on the island were shut down during the visit, and boat transport to the island was stopped the day before the visit until after he left the Island. The Senegalese people pride themselves on hospitality, or "teranga." The way Bush's visit was handled was incredibly insulting to them. Not only that, but due to the airport, the evacuated buildings, blocked streets, and the closed businesses and transport, there was a loss of profit for many people that day, in a city where unemployment and economic hardship are widespread. There was a bit of backlash towards not only Bush, but America and Americans as a result of his visit. But, I was assured, it has calmed down quite a bit since then. Not towards Bush, but towards your average American living in or visiting Senegal.

There was a huge thunderstorm this evening. Again, like the last time, my host dad said this was the last rain of the season. I have a feeling he's going to be wrong again this time, too. I like the thunderstorms, because everyone then comes inside and hangs out in the same room together for a few hours. The rain simply pours and pours. Always after a storm, my host mom is out in the backyard, with a handheld small broom made out of thin twigs, sweeping the water from all areas of the backyard into the one in the cement. Always the day after the rains, girls and women can be seen doing the same thing to their front porches and the street in front of their houses. The water collects in all sorts of places because almost everything is covered in cement, and it's not exactly an even service, so sweeping it away is much needed.

I made contact with the organization 10,000 Girls which I'm hoping to begin working with in January. I spoke with the woman who runs the organization on the phone tonight. She's currently in the United States, but will return next Friday. She wants to set up a meeting with me as soon as she returns. The organization is located in Kaolack, which is a few hours Southeast of Dakar. The organization works with "throw away" girls and has an after school project which supports over 1000 girls, as well as in-school support for thousands more. There are 60,000 girls who start primary school in Kaolack, 200 go to secondary school, and 15 attend a university. The goal of the organization is to have 10,000 girls attend secondary school, while providing skills training to those who have already dropped out and are not supported by their families.

French and Bad TV

I finished my Wolof courses yesterday and began my 2 1/2 months of intensive French. As with the Wolof, my classes are 5 hours a day and one-on-one with a professor. I have the youngest professor in the morning and then the oldest professor in the afternoon. The professor in the morning is great and we always get into really long discussions about things (he was one of my Wolof professors as well); today's topic was polygamy. The afternoon professor is great as well, but he speaks SO slowly, and he emphasizes the end of his sentences like the narrator of the movie Amelie, so I often have to hide my smiles. My classes really don't seem like they last multiple hours. After each hour there is a short break. After the first hour in the morning there's always coffee available in the courtyard and my professor makes sure that at that time I have the same break as the other students who have morning class so I can hang out with them for a bit, which is quite nice.

This is the second day in a row that I've gone to the telecenter to try to use the internet and the power hasn't worked. And the internet connection at the Center where I take classes hasn't worked either. This week has been much worse than last week in regards to electricity. It has been off for at least part of the past three days, and last night it went off for a bit. It's almost impossible for me to sleep without it, because my room quickly gets unbearably hot. It also gets quite loud outside when the power is off at night, because other people can't sleep as well so they leave their house and sit outside with friends.

I'm starting to like some terrible soap operas that are on television. The kids watch them in the afternoon when I get home from class. One is Mexican and the other is from Quebec. Dubbed Mexican soap operas aren't typically my favorite, but the acting is quite entertaining. The speaking in both shows is a bit slower than the average French television show, so I can follow along a lot easier. And this afternoon on my lunch break (it's 3 hours), I watched Ferngully with a few of the children. It's an easy way to review vocabulary.

Just Another Manic Monday

It's the beginning of week two. I can hardly believe it. In some ways it feels like I've been here for some time, and yet in other ways it feels like I'm just beginning. My Wolof classes are going well. They've managed to fit over 50 hours of course into 25 for me, so as I've mentioned, it's a pretty intense pace. But it's definitely worth it and rewarding. My favorite reward is surprising Senegalese people by talking to them in Wolof. They're shocked to meet Tubabs (white people) who can speak it. Today, as I walked home from class, I greeted a man in French who was standing right on the edge of the sidewalk where I was walking. Here responded back by asking me how I was doing in Wolof, so I responded back in Wolof. The look on his face was utter disbelief, and he basically responded in Wolof: "My God, you speak Wolof!" I told him I only spoke just a little, but as I walked away he continued to exclaim how shocked he was.

Walking down the street here, typically the only people who greet me are children who always refer to me as "tubab," and guys my age who are obviously trying to hit on me (I even had one guy shout from a rooftop down at me and start waving his arms, I couldn't help but laugh because I knew he would never do that if he were actually on street level with me). The women are the most unfriendly. They will even make eye contact with me, and I can smile at them, and I'll get nothing but a stone cold stare. However, if I say "hello" or "how are you" their faces typically lighten up and I almost always get a smile at the very least. At the most I'll get women who stop in their tracks to start a conversation with me. With men on the street, it's more of a perfunctory salutation from those whom I don't know. There is one old man who sits about two doors down from my house all day and I pass him every day as I walk to and from class, to and from the store, and basically to and from anywhere. His face always lights up and he smiles and waves at me.

There are stray cats everywhere here. A few stray dogs, but mainly stray cats. As a cat lover, I find this very frustrating. Most of the cats are scraggly and don't exactly look cuddly or friendly, but it's still frustrating. There are always cats that jump down off of the back wall of our compound to eat anything they can find in the trash, and then they climb back up the tree and go away. A few nights ago, there was a baby kitten, who definitely was not more than a week old, in the corner of the backyard simply crying and crying. I saw it the next night crying on our front sidewalk. I went up to it, and it looked terribly sickly. It tried to come over to me like it wanted attention, but it frankly looked too sickly and I didn't touch it cause you never know what kind of disease/bugs it could be carrying. That made me even more frustrated. Its eyes were huge and pouting, like you would see in a cartoon. Earlier tonight I heard some strange noises outside, so I went to check it out. A mother cat with three baby kittens was making its way through the backyard. The kittens looked healthier than the other one, but still sickly. I look forward to seeing my cat at home again, which I can both pick up and pet without fear of contracting anything.

More Monkeys! Senegal Wins Again!

I saw more monkeys today!! But that was more a result of the fact that I went to the zoo this morning. Leila and I took our host siblings to the Dakar Zoo. We were there right when it opened at 10am, which was nice because it wasn't too hot yet and there weren't many people there yet either. So we saw lions, tiger (just one), monkeys, birds, crocodiles, porcupines, a camel, an ostrich, and various other animals. It was not a fancy zoo and many of the cages/pens weren't labeled so we had to guess what exactly we were looking at (easy when the animal is a tiger, a bit less easy when the animal is the strangest looking bird you've ever seen). The wire fences for the camel and antelope, two separate areas, had been damaged, probably by the animals themselves. So the broken wire had made holes large enough for the camel to stick its head out of the cage, which was convenient for petting it. Same with the antelope, although the kids didn’t try to pet it. One of the monkeys got a bit perturbed while we were walking by and flung a large fruit at Fatou and Dany's heads, but it just BARELY missed them. It definitely would've hurt too, because he threw it quite hard. The fruit went through the mesh wire (which simply was made with large holes in it) and right across the path. We arrived at the lions' cage right as the zookeeper was leaving it. So, I got to watch him put two padlocks on a door that was supposed to keep the lions in their cage. I was a bit unnerved to see that the padlocks were not very large, but the lions didn't make a break for it while we were there at least.

By the time we had left, it had gotten quite hot. So I spent much of the afternoon drinking water and napping in front of my fan. It really was terribly warm today, hotter than usual. I studied Wolof for a bit (Amnaa benn mag bu jigeen) and went to a telecenter in an attempt to connect my laptop and upload some pictures to this blog. But, the connection at the center was too weak, so I couldn't.

This evening I went to the Senegal vs. Mozambique women's basketball game. Senegal has been playing different African countries about every other day this week, and they’ve won all their games, at least the ones that I'm aware of. We've watched parts of the game here on tv at the house. The Kalamazoo students from the Baobab Center went last week to one of the games and loved it. I went with Laurent and his friends. The stadium is in fact about 2 minutes from my house. It's a large circular building, but it is much smaller than any other arena I've been in. It was absolutely packed with people and hotter than hot. I think if there were American basketball players they would have passed out. No air conditioning, so it was well over 90 degrees in the building. Instead of pep bands like the ones we're used to in America, the basketball games in Senegal have drummers. There was a set of drummers near me, and then another set by the other basket. They played with only one break throughout the entire game. It was as loud as a concert. I had to yell into the ear of Louis, who I was sitting next to, so that he could hear me. The vendors who sell cold drinks walk around with a bowl filled with drinks balanced on their head, and they walk up and down through the seated people, not just up and down the aisles. The energy in the room was absolutely amazing. And, I'm happy to report, Senegal won again!

Monkey Sighting! And Rotary!

I saw a monkey today!!! I was so excited. But, we'll get to that part of my day soon enough…

It's Saturday (Samedi), the day when my host siblings all go to the houses of the people who they're named after. It's also the one day a week that for multiple hours this house is quite tranquil. It was terribly hot today, one of the worst days so far. I spent most of my time, when I was at the house, laying on my bed with the fan blowing on me. It wasn't even comfortable outside in the shade with a slight breeze. I took two showers to keep cool, and I might be the person in the house who took the least number of showers today.

I met with my Rotary host counselor today! I've gotten phone calls this week from whom I thought was his personal assistant, except it turns out that it's his son who basically acts as his personal assistant. I was invited to their house for lunch. Laurent, the son, picked me up in his car with a friend of his and we made our way to the part of the city called Almadie. Laurent speaks English very well, and returned this year to Dakar after living for six years in Connecticut (he attended UConn, as did all the other sons of the family). Along the way, as I was gazing out the window and Laurent was serving as my tour guide through areas of Dakar I haven't been to yet, I spotted a monkey hanging from a tree!! I was absolutely ecstatic. I've never seen one outside a zoo before, so it made my day. I thought I might have to wait until I was on my way to a village or smaller city to see them, but I was pleasantly surprised. Probably 5 minutes after I saw the monkey, I quickly noticed that we were not in a neighborhood that was at all like the one I live in. The houses were huge and there was construction everywhere. The house my host counselor lived in felt much like an American house. It even had flush toilets, which of course I was very excited about. I ate lunch with the family and then was invited to sit in the family room and relax for a bit, while Mr. Sene, Laurent, and the friend got some work done on the other side of the room. So, I watched what basically is the African version of sports center for about an hour. It was more interesting to me than Sports Center, but I was disappointed to see that the Irish rugby team had lost to France. I was served diet coke, ice cream, and the strongest tea I've ever had. It was nice but also odd to be in a home that felt like I was in the States. They had air conditioning as well, which was much welcomed today. The family was incredibly welcoming and kind. I talked with Mr. Sene (host counselor) for awhile about Rotary and my involvement, where the meetings are, when they are, how long they last; all the basics. He also told me that I am always welcome at his house. I can stop by any time I like to eat lunch or dinner with them, or simply to spend some time relaxing or visiting with them. He seemed to insist that I could spend time with his daughters. Becky, the maybe 10 year old, spent the afternoon looking at me from across the room and asking Laurent questions about me when she didn't think I could hear her, but she's very shy. The other girl was upstairs the whole time, 16 years old, so I didn't meet her. They also have an outdoor pool, which looked incredibly inviting in today's heat. I'll probably stop by to see them from time to time. It costs about $3.00 to take a taxi there, and I think it might be about a 20 minute ride.

The way home proved to be interesting as well. Laurent continued to serve as my narrator/tour guide. We stopped by a construction site and Laurent said he had to go check on something. It turns out their family is building a hotel nearby their house and that's what he was checking on. Then, we pulled into Club Med Almades. I've never been to a Club Med before, and I think the closest resort type thing I've been to like it would be at Disney World, which is also very very different. Laurent parked the car right up front in the circle drive and said we were just making a "quick visit." He has friends who work there, and Hertz Rent-A-Car runs its shuttles and transportation (Mr. Sene, my host counselor, is President of Hertz in Senegal). One of his friends gave me a tour of the resort and then we sat down at the bar/restaurant by the pool for a bit before leaving. The place was very busy because a huge group of Parisians had arrived this morning. I got some interesting looks from some of the guests, I'm assuming it was because I was the only white person at the resort who wasn't walking around in a bathing suit, but instead I was wearing a long skirt and walking around with four Senegalese guys.

It turns out that Laurent, the son, lives directly behind my house in an apartment, and I walk by it every time I walk to and from class. He invited me out with his friends last night, but after having a migraine I wasn't feeling up to anything but sleeping. But I'll probably end up hanging out with his group of friends from time to time.

It also turns out that Laila, the girl from Denmark who also lives with my family, has the same birthday as I do.

Settling In

I'm settling in quite well still. The people in my neighborhood are beginning to realize that I'm not just stopping by or vacationing, but that I'll actually be here for awhile. That means people have started to talk to me when I walk down the street. I see most of the people in the exact same spots everyday, it is merely the people whom are also walking on the street who tend to change. A woman called me over to the side of the road today and among other things asked me if I wanted to learn how to sew a dress like her daughter was currently doing. By the end of the conversation, we had used French, Wolof, and English. Her English and my Wolof capabilities were equal… very limited. She began to introduce me to members of her family who also worked in the tailor shop, but I had to cut the conversation short because I was going to be late to class if I didn't continue my commute. There is a little girl who calls me "tubab" (white person) every afternoon when I walk past her and then immediately asks me what my name is. Everyday she repeats "Shannon" twice. But always she forgets before the next day or merely wants to ask again.

What did you eat for dinner tonight? Or last night? I bet it wasn't eggs made with onions and topped with French fries, was it? That's what I ate for dinner tonight. Yeah, I was a bit surprised as well. We put a little salt on it, and it was quite delicious. The eggs might have had a little cheese in them, but I'm not sure. They didn’t taste like plain eggs, and I really liked them. They were cooked like a fried egg with a hard yoke. Next time you don't know what to eat for dinner, I recommend trying it. It's an experience, to say the least.

I bought a cell phone a few days ago and have received a few phone calls both yesterday and today, all related to Rotary. I'm going to meet with my host counselor on Saturday. Someone, I believe his assistant, will pick me up at my house and take me to my counselor's house for lunch. I'm looking forward to finding out more details about Rotary here in Senegal. A fellow Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar was supposed to arrive in Dakar today, so I hope to meet up with him within the next couple of days as well.

I also received my first text message tonight, and it was from a Senegalese friend wanting to make plans with me. Aside from that, I already have plans for both Saturday and Sunday (with Rotary, my host family, and friends), and I haven't even been here a week yet. As I said before, I'm settling in quite well.

Also: On my way to class this afternoon I watched a boy about three years in age delightfully chase a chicken down the sidewalk, barefoot. I found it amusing, as did he. That spectacle is not typically something you see in Bloomington, Grand Rapids, or Chicago for that matter.

Waaw, man degg na tutti wolof.

Asalaa Maalekum! (Hello/Peace to you)

This morning soon after I woke up, the power went off. It remained off until the middle of the afternoon. I had power at the Center where I take classes, so I was lucky, plus we have air conditioning there (a rarity). At home before class and during lunch it was terribly warm inside the house. No lights is not a big deal, but no working fan in my bedroom means it's over 100 degrees in there. Not exactly pleasant. By the time I returned home from class it was back on.

During my afternoon class, I can always hear the sounds from the mosque. The center where I take classes is on a busy street. It's a divided street (kinda like the African East Beltline, for those of you from Grand Rapids). In the middle of the street is what one might loosely describe as a park area. There are benches, and people lounging around, and random cars parked in the middle as well. I believe one of the many men who spend their afternoon (and morning, too) in that "park" area has a radio from which he blasts the voice of the holy leader from the mosque. Throughout my lesson I hear the voice which lists of what good Muslims should and shouldn't do in Arabic for over three hours. It has already begun when I walk to class sometime between 2-3pm, and it continues until at least the end of my class at 5pm. It's a very interesting experience to hear that not only throughout my class but also overhead as I walk through my neighborhood in the afternoon.

Tonight, when I sat down in my room to relax, I heard the unmistakable theme song from Star Wars. Of course, I ran out to see if the children were indeed watching the movie, and they were. It was playing on tv dubbed in French. I'll have you know, Darth Vader was never supposed to be French. The voice they gave him was a higher pitched male's voice, instead of the low, raspy voice of the original Darth Vader. The French one simply wasn't very intimidating. But it did make my day to sit down for a half hour and watch part of the movie which I haven't seen it quite some time.

My meals here at home are typically millet (sort of like large couscous) and some type of meat with sauce and limited vegetables mixed in, or a few token vegetables laid on top. We don't all eat together, aside from breaking the fast around 7:10pm. At that time we all have bread, tea, and dates. During lunch, I eat with a few of the children, but they don't even all eat at the same time. The table we eat at is about 1 1/2 by 2 feet in size, and it's about a foot and a half off the ground. Needless to say, no more than four people can fit at the table. We all eat off of one plate, so there's plenty of room for that plate. The kids all drink out of one glass when they eat together, and I bring my own water bottle to drink out of. At night, I usually eat dinner with Layla (the student from Denmark who is also staying with us) and Pape (my "host father"). The food is always served to us by my "host mom" and the dishes are always cleared by the children. I'm never supposed to help with the dishes. The whole "being served" idea is a bit hard to get used to. I rarely see my "host mom" eat a meal, because she typically eats by herself in the kitchen. The niece who lives with us is the same. The food is almost always delicious. When it isn't, thus far it has always been because there was too much fish in it. I don't like fish too much, but with a fisherman as a "host dad," we have it a lot. I usually pick around it and let those around me eat the fish that is laying on top. Yes, it usually has scales and head and tale and everything. Fish is definitely not my favorite food, particularly when it is served that way.

The power just went out again. It's 11:19pm. It's pitch black (aside from my laptop). Now, it's definitely going to be a very warm night.

Ba suba. (until tomorrow)

Alhamdulilaay! (Thanks be to God)

Day 3!

Today was the coolest day I've spent here thus far, only a little over 90 degrees! It was quite comfortable compared to the weather since I arrived. It was mostly due to the drop in humidity. There was a terrible thunderstorm last night. When I mean terrible, I mean the trees (aside from the Baobab trees) were blown well over a 45 degree angle. The rain just poured and poured, which also showed where all the holes in the roof are. Not too many, no worries. There was lots of lightning, which lit up the sky, but no thunder that we could hear. My host dad said that he thinks this is the end of the rains, which means the dry season is coming. I think I'll sleep quite comfortably tonight since my room is definitely under 95 degrees, which it has stayed consistently above.

I bought a cell phone today and a converter. The cell phone, of course, did not come with a box or anything but did come with instructions. The converter came wrapped much like a toy with cardboard on one side and plastic on the other. When I opened it up tonight, I realized I didn't know where the trash can was. In fact, there are no trash cans in the house. There is very VERY little trash… in our house. There is plenty of trash strewn through the streets. But here, nothing. There is one small box, against one of the walls in the backyard that has trash in it. It's rarely emptied, and the local stray cats often dine out of it when the members of this household aren't around and shooing them away. Trash like fish guts and blood and other various liquid-type garbage (the fish we eat is caught by my host dad) are tossed/poured into a hole in the cement in the middle of the backyard. By the way, the entire backyard is cement, aside from that one hole, the other larger whole which a huge tree grows out of, and the back corner which has a 4x4 area of sand for the "sheep." Just another way living here is much MUCH different from the States.

Last night and tonight have consisted of two things with my host siblings: games and language lessons. Marianne, the littlest, always wants to play games. At night, when her two brothers closest to her in age are done playing futbol with the other boys on the street, they join us as well. We play cache-cache (hide and seek). It usually begins with us in all the rooms of the house. And ends with us simply hiding in my room… in the same three hiding spots repeatedly (there's nowhere else to hide in the room). The kids always pretend that they don't know where each other are, and just get a kick out of who has moved to which spot. I usually stand repeatedly behind the door of the room with my hand over my eyes. I'm a pro, I know.

My language lessons at the Baobab Center this week is Wolof. My lessons are in French and my textbook is in English. Quite an interesting combination. Today, I was responding to my professor with a sentence in Wolof and absentmindedly slipped a Spanish word in. My professor's eyeballs almost popped out of her head. She couldn't stop laughing for quite some time. At home, the kids love quizzing me on all my Wolof words. They think it's absolutely wonderful that I'm learning that language. Mohammed has become my teacher (he's 10), and Moctar and Marianne always whisper me the answer if I can't think of it immediately. When Mohammed isn't teaching me Wolof, he is pointing out things in the house and telling me the French words for them. Yesterday during the thunderstorm, he pointed out specific parts on his toy Escalade teaching me the appropriate French word for things like "rims." It's quite the education.

In other news, I ate both a hamburger AND a salad today. I was downtown touring with a guide during lunch time, so I was able to eat at one of the "best, most famous" restaurants in Senegal. It's called Ali Baba and serves fast food. Except, the hamburger was a real homemade hamburger patty (nothing like mcdonalds, and huge) and there were french fries crammed between it and the bun. It was absolutely delicious, haha. The salad was before dinner with my host dad. It was the most vegetables I've eaten since arriving. They simply don't eat many here. I've never been so excited to eat cucumbers and tomatoes in my life.

My trip through central Dakar was quite interesting. In a nutshell, since this entry is much too long like the others, the place is like one huge market. Tons (TONS) of people, traffic with no regard for the pedestrian, and stuff everywhere. It's almost like every sidewalk is an outdoor market. They, of course, also have outdoor markets. But almost every street is filled with street vendors packed side to side, and those who don't have a booth set up are wandering around on foot trying to sell you whatever they happened to have in a bag or a box. I didn't find them any more insistent than those in Latin America or even in the States at times, but that could change. I did go in one supermarket, which made me feel the most "at home in the States" as I've felt since arriving. In that supermarket the number of foreigners also outnumbered the locals.

September 17, 2007 (Day 2!)

I'm sitting in my room during my "lunch break." It's quite strange to have a lunch break when no one around me is eating. This morning, my three host brothers and two of their friends walked me to the Baobab Center where I have classes. My host dad told me it was just a 10 minute walk, not far at all, and in the same neighborhood as my house. It would have been a 5 minute walk at the pace I've been walking my entire life, but here, it's a 10 minute walk. It was not exactly a simple route either, but the kids dropped me off. Eventually, I had to find my way back to my house, and I definitely did not make it back the same route. But eventually, after a 10-20 minute walk and a stop at the corner store to buy water, I made it back. The boys will be walking me again this afternoon until I get the hang of it. However, this morning it looked like quite a mini parade, as I had two boys a few feet ahead of me and three boys a few feet behind me the entire way. I had quite the 10-16 year old entourage.

This morning I went on a walking tour of the city with one other new student at the Baobab Center. My tour guide was a local university student, Khadia, who is studying English and would really like to move to the United States. She thinks Michigan sounds wonderful : ) The other girl taking the tour with me was named Sandra. For any of you from IWU, she reminded me so much of Professor Gearhart, just with dark hair. We made our way to the post office, supermarket (the same one I stopped at on the way out of the airport), ATM, a doctor's office, and various other places. The children are on holiday right now, so there are kids everywhere in the streets. There are also simply people everywhere in the streets. Some selling things, others simply hanging out. It was terribly hot and many people were simply laying down and napping. Unemployment here is 50%, so that helps explain a lot of the people hanging around and not working.

We ran into a few kids who were begging and other kids closer to my age who were trying to sell phone cards and newspapers. They get your attention, but at least the ones in this area of the city aren't nearly as insistent as street-sellers I've seen in larger U.S. cities. I was talking with a man at the Baobab Center about my walk around the city and he said many of the children who beg on the streets are actually students of the Koran. It's somewhat of a tradition that some of the children leave their parents and go live with a teacher who teaches them the Koran. The parents send their children without any money, so the children turn to the streets to beg for money to support both themselves and their teacher. He said you can look at it from a very exploitative perspective, and in some cases that is so, but one can also look at it as a boarding school in which students have to make money to support themselves. He said if you ask one of the children to explain their situation, it sounds much more idealistic coming from their mouths. He also said that many of the most successful merchants and powerful people in government in Dakar were students like those begging on the streets when they were younger. The government does not support the schools, obviously, otherwise the children would not have to beg. But it's a very touchy subject in the city. Last year there was a tremendous march from Dakar to another city to bring attention to the situation of child beggars. Those in power don't want to get rid of the "schools" for those students, but they also don't want to legitimize them by giving them government support since some of the schools are more shady than others. Thus, at the moment the schools remain as they are. There has been private support of some schools to turn them into more boarding-type schools so that the students do not have the financial need to go out on the street and beg.

White people here seem to become instant friends. There are a few of us here and there. Right now, it's easy to track down foreigners because we're the only ones stopping for a bite to eat around lunch time. While I was walking to the Baobab Center this morning with my entourage, a white man came up to me and asked me if I was going to the Baobab Center. He was walking to work and our paths were the same for a few minutes. He's French and is doing some internet work here in Dakar, but is a university student back in France. I have heard the ex-patriot community here is easy to meet and hang out with, probably because we stick out quite a bit. But the Denmark girl I live with said that it's just as easy to make Senegalese friends, even with guys as long as you are up front at the beginning and tell them you're not looking for a husband.

Also, there are nine students studying at the Baobab Center from Kalamazoo, MI. They are K College students studying abroad in Senegal until February.

September 16, 2007 (First Day!)

I'm in Dakar! I arrived on Saturday evening. From the air, Dakar looks much like Google Maps makes it look, but more real. The airport was not nearly as hectic or bad as I was expecting, so that was a pleasant surprise. Two people from the Baobab Center picked me up, a woman and a man. The woman will be one of my Wolof teachers this week. During the 20 minute drive to my house we ate dates, because they had to break their fast for the day. We also stopped by the most modern-looking building which we passed on the drive, which was a gas station/convenience store. They bought me an orange Fanta, which of course was delicious.

The buildings in Dakar look very square and rectangular and simple. Right as we were landing, we passed over a neighborhood that to me looked like it was bombed out (side note: no neighborhoods in Dakar are bombed out, this is not a violent place), but upon closer look I could see there was a lively futbol (soccer) game taking place in the streets and people standing on the roofs. Many of the buildings look like that in the city. Some are abandoned, but most I could see had a light on somewhere. One of the things that give the buildings the "bombed-out" look is that hardly any of them have windows with glass, just the window holes. My house fits that description as well, except that there are shutters on each of the windows.

After a 20 minute drive or so, I was taken directly to my host family's house. Some of the streets are paved, but even most of them that are still are not paved like us Americans are used to, and there are periods of time when paved streets go through a patch of being sand and dirt. We live on a somewhat busy street. There's a wall in front of our house and a gate to walk through to get in. No one uses the front door, instead we walk through a corridor to get to the backyard, and enter the building from there. The house itself has three bedrooms and a common area. I have one bedroom, another student from Denmark has the second bedroom, and the rest of the family shares the third bedroom (There's eight of them). The kitchen and bathroom are outside the house, but attached. One must exit the house and go into the backyard to get to them. There is a toilet, but it doesn't flush. One must pour a bucket of water into the toilet bowl to "flush" it. The shower is what looks like a 2 ft by 2 ft area in the corner of the bathroom which is lowered by about 2 inches, and there's a showerhead that detaches, but no shower curtain or anything like that. And of course, there's no hot water. But in this kind of heat, the cool water feels really good.

It is terribly hot here. I really don't mind it, but it makes you tired after a little bit. The mother of the house has already taken two naps today, and insisted that I take one as well. It's hard to sleep in the heat though. They did give me a fan, so that helps a bit. It is much cooler outside simply due to the fresh air and the breeze. The boys run outside and douse themselves with water from the spigot to cool themselves off. In this heat, they're dry in only a minute or two.

The boys have been playing futbol off-and-on in the backyard of the compound all day. I joined them for a bit. I've also been hanging out with little Marianne who is 6 years old. She's a constant source of entertainment. If I want privacy, I must go into my room and shut the door. If I do that, for the most part (as in now), they do not bother me. But if I leave my door open, even though I have a curtain over it, Marianne always comes in to see what I'm up to and whether or not I want to play a game. She came in here earlier today and I was clipping my fingernails, so she ran out and came back with her own nail clipper and did the same.

We have a sheep! Well, the kids tell me it's a sheep, but it doesn't really look like one. It's terribly skinny, and has hardly any hair. It looks more like a goat. But if you can imagine the sound of a sheep belching, that's the sound this animal makes. It's terribly terribly loud. It woke me up very early this morning. The sheep is tied up by its ankle in a corner of the backyard. Its meal this afternoon was pages from old magazines. It has been belching for the past hour or so, so I went out to see if I could figure out why, and it had tangled itself up around its tie-out and could hardly move, so I untangled him. At least now he's only belching on occasion instead of every 10 seconds.

One last note. The first billboard I saw when on the way to my host family's house was one that advertised Desperate Housewives. Yep, I was surprised as well. And this morning while I was eating breakfast, the kids were playing video games in the same room as me. They then decided to go outside to play futbol, but Mohammed found a channel that had Celine Dion singing on it, and he said "Is this English?" and I said yes, so he left it on for me and ran outside. 20 seconds later, Moctar came in and asked me if I liked something (I couldn't understand what that something was), so when I told him I didn't understand, he ran over to the television and changed it to a channel that had the new Justin Timberlake music video playing, smiled at me and told me that he knew who Justin was, and then ran back outside to play futbol. And so I finished my bread, butter, and tea while listening to Justin sing Lovestoned and watching Marianne dance along to the music.

Je suis en Afrique

My travels went as planned and I am here in Senegal. I would use an exclamation point, but I cant find one anywhere on this computer. I already have two full length blog entries typed up on my laptop, but I am having trouble with the converter for it, so I cant post them yet. Instead, I am at a telecentre which happens to be located directly across from my house [I live on a very busy street, and yes, its paved]. It is unimaginably hot right now, and is consistently day and night. It is comfortable when there is a breeze, but that is about it. I dont mind though. Everyone is constantly sweaty, so it isnt just me, haha.

My host family is wonderful. They are incredibly nice. I get to eat with the kids during the day while the parents fast. The kids are trying to fast, too. They wake up at 5am for prayers and a meal, and then go back to bed. By the time I get out of my room, around 8:30, the kids are up again and have sandwiches in their hands. And they ALWAYS eat more than I do.

This city is so incredibly different than anywhere Ive been. It is a big, noisy, dirty city. There is sand everywhere, because the city is on the edge of the sahara. With half the population unemployed, there are always people sitting around outside all day not working. It is definitely a developing country. I will of course explain that more in subsequent entries.

I will hopefully post my other entries tomorrow. In the meantime, I am going to sit here and listen to the American rap music the guys a few computers down from me are using, and write some emails.

Last Minute Preparations

I leave for Senegal tomorrow! In the meantime, I'm frantically trying to gather last minute things that I need and pack. I also have one last shot to get this afternoon. I don't know what number shot this is, but it's definitely over ten. The people at the health department downtown have gotten to know me pretty well over the past couple months.

I found out some details about my host family. They live in a northern residential area of Dakar, about 20 minutes from downtown. The house is conveniently located in the same neighborhood as the center where I will take my language classes. In addition to the parents, there are four children in the family: Dany (15), Moctar (12), Mohamed (10), and Marianne (6). I believe a niece, Fatou (16), lives with them as well. It should definitely be a busy household. I received an email from the language center which provided these details about my host family. However, the bottom of the email stated that this information is supposed to be indicative but not necessarily accurate, because changes may have occurred. Also, in Senegal, "it is not recommended to count the number of people in a household or even ask how many there are for 'mystical reasons'. Also, due to the extended family system, people may show up anytime." So I'll find out the real details of my family when I arrive. I believe the "mystical reasons" refer to curses. There are no numbers on the houses for addresses with the belief that this omission makes it more difficult for people to place a curse on a house. Not counting the number of people in the house is probably related to that.

The schedule for this weekend: I leave tomorrow night from Detroit around 10:30pm. I should be in Dakar by about 6pm on Saturday (Dakar time, so noon Chicago time). I will be picked up at the airport by someone who works at the language center, and they will take me to my host family. Then I'll relax, rest, and hang out with my host family until 9:30am on Monday when my orientation at the language center begins with a guided walk through Dakar.

Please keep me and my travels in your prayers! Thank you!!

"You're going WHERE?"

Africa.

Last fall I was awarded a Cultural Ambassadorial Scholarship from the Rotary Foundation to spend 3 months in Dakar, Senegal. I am sponsored by the Bloomington Rotary Club and District 6490 in Illinois. My hosts in Senegal are the Rotary Club Doyen of Dakar and District 9100 in West Africa. The purpose of scholarships like mine is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of countries around the world.

As a Cultural Scholar, the focus of my scholarship is to immerse myself in the culture of my host country through language study and a homestay. I will be living with a family in Dakar while studying French and Wolof (a local language) at the Baobab Center of African Consultants International. I will also give presentations to Rotary clubs in Senegal, participate in Rotary activities, and lend a hand to projects that my host club is sponsoring. I look forward to spending whatever "free time" I have exploring the city of Dakar as well as volunteering my time with local organizations (in the past, scholars have started a school lunch program at a local elementary school, volunteered at a local orphanage, etc).

My scholarship covers a 3 month period. I leave for Dakar on September 14th, and my language classes will wrap-up around December 17th. I have extended by "come-home" date by a few months in order to spend additional time in Senegal hopefully continuing work I begin during my scholarship period. My goal is to be able to spend about 3 months working with an organization in Senegal that focuses on poverty alleviation through emphasis on women's rights and education, and/or basic health care.

I cannot begin to describe how blessed I feel by being given this award. I truly appreciate all the help and inspiration that I have received during the past year beginning the moment my application process began.