Discussing politics in the dark

So the French classes that I have taken at GW haven't really prepared me for conversations like, "the water does not work during the day" or "were your sheets changed" etc. which has resulted in quite a few misunderstandings. However, I am well prepared for conversations about history and politics. Lucky for me, the daily power cuts have started many a conversation about politics in Senegal.

Senegal is a democracy but President Abdoulaye Wade does not seem to feel like he needs to listen to the needs of the ordinary Senegalese citizen. This is illustrated by the giant statue (designed by North Koreans) in my neighborhood built as a dedication to the African Renaissance. My family and a majority of the population are utterly disgusted by the statue for many reasons. One, it depicts a family who are dressed very indecently for a country where a majority of the population is Muslim and values conservative dress. Second, the statue cost $27 million in public funds in a country where millions live in poverty and 48% of the population is unemployed. This money could have gone far in projects to improve the infrastructure. The torrential rains make the roads impassable as I found yesterday when mid-car rapide ride to my first Senegalese dance class, it started to pour. We pulled over to the side of the road and stayed in the car rapide (which wasn’t waterproof due to the more than ten rust holes in the metal roof) until it stopped. We then had to wade ankle deep in water (and I don’t want to think about what else) to get to class.

Okay so I went on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, paying $27 million dollars for a statue is absolutely ridiculous when the government cuts power at least twice a day because it cannot afford the price of petrol.

Every time we lose power my family and I sit outside the house on a bench and talk. I really like this time because I'm at school for most of the day so it provides time to talk about politics and have Wolof lessons. One night we used the time in the dark to make milk. I am not exactly sure what the drink is called but that is what my sister said to me when we were trying to think of things to do "do you want to make milk with us" (in french of course). We went to the boutique (tiny convenience stores you can find on almost every street corner) and bought a huge bag of powdered milk, three cans of condensed milk, laughing cow cheese and a bag of mint candies. I was very confused about how all these ingredients would go together, but when combined over heat they made a very delicious, thick, milky and minty drink.

There are a lot of people in my family, this means lots of birthdays! Here are some pictures from two of them:

Here are some more photos from my walk to school:

And some photos from when my host siblings discovered my camera:

That’s all I have time for now. I am off to Toubab Diallo, a beach town north of Dakar, for the weekend so I am sure I will have photos and stories for next week. The first week in October I have a vacation from school so I am off to the Sine Saloum Delta and The Gambia so i'll be doing lots of traveling in the next couple of weeks, (we'll see how that goes as traveling during the rainy season can get very difficult.)

Jamm ak Jamm,

Ba Beneen Yoon

Korité

Some of the Ouakam Toubabs in their Korité finest

So the month of Ramadan came to a close this weekend with the celebration of Korité. After a month of fasting Korité is a day to eat, visit friends and wear a new outfit. I went to the market in my neighborhood of Ouakam to buy fabric with two friends and one of their host moms. The market was small but had a decent selection of eye popping patterns for us to choose from. I then gave the fabric to one of my host sisters and she made a traditional outfit for me to wear on Korité.

On the morning of Korité I helped to prepare pommes frites (french fries) while eating a breakfast with my family for the first time, which consisted of yogurt and millet. Later we sat down for my first lunch with my family, which required two bowls and two circles since the family is so large. We eat fried chicken with an onion sauce over pommes frites. Then everyone got all dressed up and we walked around Ouakam visiting friends.

Here are some of my family members all dressed up for Korité,

Viki Junior

Babacar

Therese (The one who made my dress)

Adji, one of my older sisters

Yacine

Therese Sow

Bebe Anna or Chupete

Yacine and Chupete

Greetings

Greetings in Senegal are very important. Every time you enter a room you must shake every ones hand and ask some questions which shows that you acknowledge their presence. I have gotten much better at them, as long as the person I am talking to follows the script we learned in class:

Salaamaalekum! (May peace be upon you)
Maalekum salaam! (May peace be upon you also)

Nanga def? (How are you)
Maangi fi, rek. (I am here, now)

Sa yaram jamm? (Is your body in peace?)
Jamm rek, alxamdulilaay. (Peace only, thanks be to God.)

Naka waa ker ga? (How are the people in your house?)
Nunga fa. (They are there)

and so on and so on. There are so many ways to ask how someone is doing but I am slowly learning them ndank, ndank (slowly.)

For the first week I took the bus or a car rapide to and from school. Car rapides are small buses that are colorfully painted, I think partially to cover up how rickety they are. But driving in one is a very culturally rich, but overwhelming experience. You hold on to your seat with dear life as you fly over potholes and hope that the car rapide doesn't brake in two. But everyone in the car rapide goes through it together and they are great for people watching.

I have discovered that the walk to school is very pleasant. It takes about an hour and follows the ocean.

Ba beneen yoon

Bonjour from Senegal!

Orientation is over and the real adventure is beginning. On Friday I was picked up by one of my host sisters and I knew my adventure was really starting when I had my first taxi ride in Dakar. Dogging people cows and major potholes on the dirt roads are enough of a problem but there seem to be no rules holding drivers back so they can be avoided by swerving on to the opposite side of the road towards on coming traffic, ahhh!

My Senegalese family is huge! There are three families all living in one house and Senegalese houses are always open to friends and family so there are always people stopping by. Luckily I got one of my uncles to help me with a family tree so I think have know the names of most of the people living in the house. All the little ones are very excited to have a new Toubab (foreigner) jungle gym in the house. I arrive home to screams of "Tata Kate" (aunt Kate) followed by five or six children launching themselves at me. They have decided to try to teach me French and Wolof however its no going very well because my most frequently used phrase continues to be, "je ne comprends pas" (I don't understand).

Meals have been really great. We all sit around a bowl filled with rice or couscous with some kind of meat in the middle. The bones and whole fish have been a bit of an adjustment but I love the idea of eating as a family. Although I only understand about 25% of what is going on most of the time because they are usually speaking wolof, I am slowly getting to know everyone.
We don't have any running water, which has been a bit of a problem for me but I am working through it. There is a large bucket of water in the bathroom with a cup in it for showers and for "flushing the toilet." It is a western style flushing toilet but since there is no running water I have not figured out how to use it yet. What I have gathered so far is that you have to kind of throw the water into the bowl with the cup to kind of flush it manually. So we will see how long it takes to master that one...
 
Ba beneen yoon (Until next time)