Goodbye to Kaolack

February 28, 2008

I went to Kaolack yesterday to wrap up things with my work there, as well as say goodbye to everyone. It was not exactly an easy thing to do. Well, the work part of it was easy. I arrived to find out that CNN was waiting until next week to do the report on my project. They have such great timing. Got the additional books organized with the others, spent time talking with my boss about the future, and said goodbye to everyone.

Saying goodbye to my family was much more difficult. My host siblings were acting quite sad the entire time, which was annoying. My host mother/sister had matching boubous made for us, so we tried them on and took lots of pictures. They lamented that they couldn't throw a big party for me in honor of my departure. I spent my last night in Kaolack laying on a mattress outside in our yard in true Kaolack style, staring up at the stars and talking with the family members. I made the rounds and said goodbye to the entire extended family.

The day I left, everyone continued to act weird and sad. My host mother/sister said she wanted to write a letter to my mother. So we sat down in my bedroom, and she dictated the letter in Wolof to Amadou, who then wrote it in French. She left the room, and I was quite confused why Amadou continued to write for such a long time. But later, when I read the letter on my way out of town, found out that Amadou wrote his own letter after the one his mom had dictated. Maguette, the 10 year old, sang a goodbye song with my name in it for hours. Then, when I tried to take a few pictures of the family, she started crying and simply wouldn't stop. So we have family portrait pictures with her face hidden by a kleenex. My host mother/sister also sang me a goodbye song while drumming on a kitchen bowl. She also said a blessing for me. Finally, when it was time to leave, we gathered up all my stuff and walked out of the house. My host mother/sister wrote something in the sand in the yard in Arabic and had me walk over it on my way to the door of the compound.

We sat around and waited for quite some time for the right kind of taxi to arrive. I hugged everyone goodbye, which was very hard, since none of them wanted to let go of me, which made it even harder to leave.

But here I am, back in Dakar. Somehow I managed not to cry. My little host brother has been writing me text messages all day wishing me the best of luck in life and saying that everyone misses me.

Pilgrimage

February 26, 2008

Today is the Grand Magal, the largest pilgrimage in Senegal to the holy city of Touba. It is the holy city for Mourides. People have been leaving Dakar in flocks since Sunday. The city seems quite quiet compared to usual. It's estimated that between one and two million people make the trek each year. Many who don't have the money to make the pilgrimage to Mecca instead make their pilgrimage to Touba. People from all over West Africa flock to Touba for the occasion, as well as some from Europe. Touba is the one place in Senegal where women have to wear long sleeves, floor-length skirts, and keep their heads covered.

All day, the people who are still in Dakar have been complaining that nothing works as normal. One woman complained to me that she was supposed to pay her bills today, but couldn't, because most of the people from the company are in Touba. I went to the HLM market today to buy some fabric, and found only about 1/5 of the merchants as usual. Taxi drivers are also trying to charge higher prices because there are less of them around.

Books From Belgians

February 25, 2008

So many of the books that I was in charge of from USAID while working in Kaolack were in English. Although they were useful to distribute to English clubs and English classes at the high schools, we were really in need of additional books for the libraries in the schools and the book mobile. I spent some time during the past couple weeks in Dakar on the phone with the different francophone embassies asking for additional book donations. Today, the Belgians came through for me. The Belgians have regional cultural organizations with missions to countries around the world. It is the Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation that contacted me and told me they wanted to give me books for my project. So I am a big fan of Belgians at the moment. They gave me the news last week, and I went in today to pick up the books.

In case you don't know, Belgians really like their comic books. They have comic book museums and everything. I had learned that about them awhile ago in one of my French classes, but had forgotten since then. But I remembered immediately when I walked into the waiting room at the mission and saw the huge mural of cartoon characters including Smurfs and Tintin. This conveniently worked in my favor. Not only did the delegation provide me with novels, but also with many hardcover children's comic books. So, I am absolutely thrilled with them to say the least. The comic books are perfect for the region, since many kids there don't speak French, so they can be read aloud and the children can look at all the pictures.

Now I just simply need to drag the books back to Kaolack to put them with all the others this week.

In addition, the man I met with at the mission gave me a Smurf calendar for myself. It's going to be one of my favorite souvenirs from Senegal.

Update on a Sick Girl

February 22, 2008

An update on the girl that Anna and I visited in the village who was sick and had the sores on her legs. Anna and I started talking about the girl this morning, and realized that there was a health clinic in the big village closest to the girl's house. We wondered why the girl hadn't gone to it. We also wondered why the hospital in the city closest to the village wouldn't be appropriate. The girl obviously had some kind of infection on her leg, and at the very least we figured the hospital would be able to diagnose what it was and give her some kind of medicine to put on it. So, Anna called the pastor and asked him about the situation again. He told her that the girl who was sick had both spiritual and physical needs that needed to be attended to. The hospital he wanted to bring the girl to was a Christian hospital, which would be able to treat all the girls' needs because she was a Christian. The hospital closer to the village was not a Christian hospital, so the majority of the doctors were most likely Muslim. Anna tried telling him that with the money he had available for the girl, he could get her treated at the closer hospital. That the doctors there would be able to address her physical needs, and that he as a pastor could address the spiritual needs. He did not agree and said the girl's only hope would be to go to the other hospital.

Anna then called one of her coworkers who is in the village today, to see what she had to say and to suggest that the woman go speak with the pastor in person. The woman agreed with what Anna and I had been thinking and said she would talk to him. So we are waiting to find out what will happen.

In the meantime, it got me thinking about religion in this country. Senegal is a very tolerant country. It's 95% Muslim, but there aren't tensions between the Muslims and the other religions. But Islam is everywhere. The public transportation carries pictures of marabous on it and has the names of marabous written on the sides of the vehicles. The majority of the pharmacies are in the name of a marabou. Almost everywhere here, if you walk into a building, you will see a picture of a marabou looking over you. Islam is in every aspect of the lives of Muslims here. In the same way, those who have embraced Christianity look for Christianity in every aspect of their lives. And this may be why the pastor wanted the girl to go see Christian doctors.

Trip to Popenguine

February 21, 2008

I decided to go to Popenguine for a day to get a break from Dakar and see the lovely coast south of Dakar that everyone says is beautiful. Since my friends were all busy, I set forth on the journey alone. Not a big deal, the village I was going to is closer than Kaolack, and I'm quite comfortable in moving about this country now. I took a sept-place to the nearest city on the main highway, and then waited a half hour to get in the back of a pick-up truck that took me the rest of the way to the village. While waiting, I made friends with the people who worked at the boutique on the corner as well as the women selling vegetables and nuts. They were quite nice, and were surprised to see a toubab waiting around for transportation, since most people who come by there have their own cars or are part of a tour group.

I arrived in Popenguine and made my way to a restaurant for lunch. I ordered chicken yassa, which was the special for the day and also a very common Senegalese dish, but was served the strangest version of the dish I've ever had. It was good, and it had chicken and onions, but it definitely wasn't chicken yassa. I heard some guys my age speaking English at a nearby table and went over to say hi to them. Turns out I had found the majority of peace corps volunteers currently stationed in Mali. They had gone to Dakar for a softball tournament for the weekend, and were on their way back to Mali. There were at least thirty kids all staying in three houses down at the beach. They invited me to come join them and said they were throwing a party on the beach later, but I didn't end up going. I wanted the day to relax, read a book, and enjoy some quiet time. I decided that being around Peace Corps volunteers who were so ecstatic to see the ocean, be away from their villages, and have access to alcohol was probably not the best way to spend my day.

I wandered further down the road to the campement where I wanted to stay that I had found in my guidebook. I arrived at the campement to find out that it was booked for the night. As were all the other places around. A girl took me under her wing and walked around with me to help me find a place to stay. We ended up finding a guy on the beach who has two houses that he rents. So I ended up haggling hard with him over the price, and finally renting one of the houses for the night. It was simple enough, but it was cozy.

I went back down to spend a bit more time on the beach before heading to a restaurant for dinner. I had one of the best meals I've had since arriving in Senegal. I was pleasantly surprised. After dinner, I asked some people who had been speaking English at the table next to me what time it was. They answered, but were so shocked to find an English-speaker that they invited me to their table. One woman was a development worker in Dakar, and the other two were friends who had come to visit her. They were Canadian. We spent about an hour talking before they decided it was time for them to go to bed. I soon after made my way back to the house and fell asleep.

This morning I woke up and went immediately to the beach. I laid out there reading a book and working on my amazing tan. I had been reading for about a half hour when I looked up to see a full-size pig making its way along the beach. Now that's not something you see everyday. And the beach was quite clean, for Senegalese standards, so it's not like there was trash around for the pig to eat. But it didn't seem to mind as it continued its morning walk. A little while later the Canadians from the night before walked over to say hello, they had just been walking in the national park which was a stones throw away from where I was laying. There was a stray dog who had been following them, and when they left the stray dog stayed by me. He was joined by another dog friend and they curled up on the sand within a few feet of my blanket. One tried to come up and make friends with me (I remind you that these dogs are flea-ridden and not clean). I yelled at it and tried to get it to go away, but it was persistent. A man walking by me on the beach told me to hit the dog so that it would leave. I'm incapable of hitting a dog, so instead I took my sandal off and pushed the dog away with it, and that worked just as well.

When I thought I had got too much sun, I made my way to a little restaurant on the beach to have a Fanta and continue reading. When I went in to pay my bill, I met four nice Frenchmen (friendly, grandpa-type men) who were sitting at the bar and ordering lunch. Their wives were sitting outside. The men talked to me for a little while, and one of them with Irish ancestors talked about how we had a common bound. They were absolutely floored when I told them I was American. They complimented me on my French, which made my day.

On my way out of town, I stopped by a restaurant to get lunch. The restaurant I walked into wasn't open yet, but instead the workers were sitting down to eat together. In true Senegalese style, they invited me to join them for lunch, so I did. It was fish yassa and was very good. I made it about 20 feet from where I would wait for a car to take me to the main highway, when a man who was eating lunch invited me to eat with him. I told him I had already eaten, and he took offense. He offered me to drink, and although I should've accepted something, I declined cause I wanted to go find a car and make my way back. He took offense again. And he told me that if I waited for him to finish his meal, he would help me find a car. So I sat there and talked to him for some time. The talking was mostly him lamenting that he had only just met me and I was leaving, but that it was life, and god-willing I would return. A few minutes later he finished his meal, and when we walked around the corner, a car arrived. Perfect timing.

Camels in the Desert

February 17, 2008

The girls and I decided to take a weekend trip to the Desert de Lompoul which is north of Dakar, but south of St. Louis. We left early yesterday morning and met two Spanish friends of ours at the transportation center in Dakar. After arguing about prices and vehicles for probably a half hour with the men who worked there, we ended up renting a white mini-bus for ourselves. There were eight of us going, so that meant two to a seat which made things comfortable enough.

We arrived at the nearest village to the desert, and then were picked up in an SUV by a worker at the campement where we were going to stay. A few kilometers away was the desert. We passed by women carrying things back and forth between the villages on their heads, and people working at agriculture sites funded by NGOs.

We arrived at the campement to find it consisted of many "Mauritanian style tents." In true Senegalese style, the owner brought us to the main tent and pulled a bunch of lounge/couch/bed things into the same vicinity and told us to nap after our long journey (which was only about 4 1/2 hours… and I had actually slept the whole way). We chatted with the workers and waited about an hour for lunch to be ready. Lunch, of course, was rice and fish. It wasn't my favorite, but it was ok. Afterwards, we settled into the tents where we would be staying for the night. We tracked down the showers and toilets, which were very basic and were found in small structures built with dead tree branches and brush, with pieces of fabric that blocked the doorway (which didn't stay in place when the wind blew). After napping for half an hour, we sent out to explore the desert.

I am not a big fan of sand at the beach. I don't like how it sticks to you after you've been swimming. So I REALLY like that aspect of the desert. No water, no sticky stand, just sand everywhere. Granted, it still gets all over everything, but I don't mind. We started walking and saying we would "just go to the top of the next dune," but then when we arrived there we'd say, "ok, just to the top of the next one." Needless to say, we walked for quite some time. When we found a really good drop off, we spent a good half hour running and jumping off of it. This resulted in lots of sand getting stuck in my jeans. The landscape was incredible, and made me want to go to North Africa even more to see the Sahara.

When we arrived at dinner, a lot more tourists had shown up just for the night. We were all exhausted, but they had organized a dance outside around the fire with drums and everything. I laid on one of the couches on the tent and watched from afar, but it was a bit too touristy for me and I ended up going to the tent to sleep.

The next morning (this morning), we had arranged to ride camels in the dunes. So, a young boy (yes, there's child labor in Senegal) arrived with three camels. He only spoke Pulaar, so we could hardly communicate with him. He was about 12 years old, but looked younger. We jumped up on the camels and he led us around for a little while. It was super fun. However, the way the seat on my camel was a bit broken, one of the sides was missing and the leg holds were obviously made for a child. So, I spent much of the ride awkwardly trying to stay on top of the camel. It wasn't too difficult until we started heading downhill. But it was fun nonetheless, and I didn't fall off, so that's good.

After breakfast and camel rides, we headed back to Dakar.

Kayaking

February 10, 2008

A few of my friends go kayaking quite often in Dakar, so me and my girlfriends decided to give it a shot today. The boys had already left before we decided to do it, so we headed out on our own. We rented kayaks from the oceanarium which on the southern part of the Dakar peninsula. It was about $6 for an hour. We paddled along one side of the coast, and then returned and went in the opposite direction. The water was very clear, but we didn't see any fish or anything. It was beautiful, and not too cold. It was interesting to see Dakar from the sea. It looked pretty and peaceful from where we were kayaking… but we knew better. A bunch of Lebanese men went by us on a boat a few times and invited us to go get drinks, but we declined. Three of us had normal-size kayaks, but Sandra's was kid-sized, so it was very tipsy. She ended up getting flipped over, but got herself upright with a little help. We kayaked quite a ways and saw a number of different beaches where people were swimming, as well as the Presidential Palace, and some of the really nice hotels right on the water. We ended up making it back to the oceanarium at the same time as the guys, so they were kind enough to carry our boats up from the water.