Hey all!

So sorry I haven't been keeping up. It's been pretty hectic, emotionally and otherwise, since Jarod's arrival. I think playing dual roles as student during finals week and girlfriend/tour guide just really wore me out and made me miss home more than ever... so I'm coming home. I'm sure everyone reading this knows, but Jarod and I have two more weeks together and then he's off on his European adventure and I'm going to Portugal with my folks then home. In this last week Jarod and I are just trying to relax and stay cool and calm on these hot, sometimes frustrating, last few days in Senegal. Yesterday we went to marche sandaga with my friend Julie for some last souvenir items I wanted to pick up (don't worry mom and dad I didn't spend too much). And I think over the next couple of days we're going to hit up a couple beaches, maybe Goree island and maybe Isle de Madeline (a really private island with nothing on it-not even vendors-right off the coast of Dakar). Or we may just hang out around Sacre Coeur III, Jarod's staying with my host dad's brother right down the street from me in my neighborhood.

I think the heat and city and the people have been getting to Jarod. I've been dealing with this all for a few months so I think it's a little easier for me, having had time to adjust to the way of things here, but I've definitely had my hard days too.

We're probably not going to make it out to the village; I've been trying to get ahold of Carin for a week now and her phone is dead or turned off. This is a little disappointing because I really wanted Jarod to be able to see the real Senegal but it's probably better this way. It would have costed a little to get out to the village and back and it's easily 20-30 degrees hotter in the interior- with NO cool Dakar breeze- and we've already been suffering through the heat here. As for the candy and toys that my parents sent out, I'm going to leave those with the Dakar Peace Corps house for someone to take with them the next time they go to the Kaolack one and she can pick them up from there. There are people consatantly travelling back and forth so it shouldn't be a problem.

I'm really looking forward to Spain and seeing my parents and Mahayla. I said goodbye to one of my best friends on the program, Anna Lee, yesterday and I told her she should come visit me in California this summer after she gets back from Europe. To my surprise, especially since she lives in New York, she said that she might. That would be awesome to be able to see one of my friends from here so soon. I figure on of these days I'll go on a road trip across the states and visit all these people I met here. Maybe it'll happen, maybe not, but it's a nice idea.


Right now I'm looking forward to seeing my parents, not to mention my grandma, my house, my trees, my Charlie, my car, my friends, and just about everything else in Humboldt county. Homesick...? How could you tell?

Here are a couple pictures from Touba:

Sorry I haven’t written in so long. The end of the semester is nearing I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything done before Jarod gets here and trying to enjoy Senegal as much as I can before I leave. Though I’ve had some trying times here I’ve also had so many wonderful experiences and met so many great people that I’ll be able to look back on for the rest of my life and say, ‘wow, that was really amazing.’

So… last weekend I went to Touba. It’s basically the Mecca of Senegal. The largest Muslim brotherhood in Senegal, the Mouride brotherhood, has its beginnings there. The founder was named Cheikh Amadou Bamba and he was famous for having been exiled by the French. Touba was the city he returned to after his last exile and it’s where he had built his ‘Grande Mosque.’ Every xaliph, the next in the blood line who becomes leader after the last (they’re on their 6th now) adds to the mosque. We visited the mosque and it was absolutely breathtaking. It was evident where all of Senegal’s money goes. Every xaliph adds to the mosque to make it bigger and more beautiful with every generation.

We toured Touba with the old history of Islam professor since the current one apparently doesn’t know a lot about it. He was really nice and inviting and he’s having a house built in Touba, just for guests and celebrations. He’s having six bathrooms put into this small house and plans to have up to 100 guests at a time during festivals and celebrations. After the mosque we went to talk to a woman marabout who was the wife of one of the descendents of Cheikh Amadou Bamba. I guess she heads one of the ‘divisions’ of the brotherhood and oversees its healthcare and education sectors.

We had lunch at the house our guide was building. It was amazing! There were three HUGE platters of ceebu jen for just 11 of us plus the bus driver. It was sooo good. Overall it was a really good day, even with the eight hours on the road.

I was really looking forward to a restful Sunday, getting some work done on my papers after such an exhausting outing on Saturday; but my family had other plans for me. My mom had spent all of Saturday at a marriage and had spent the night at her sister’s house because it was so late by the time it was over. So she invited my host dad and I out to her sisters house, I thought just for lunch. I eneded up spending the entire day, not to mention the entire evening, sitting on a couch in my aunt’s house, listening to the Frolof chit chat and trying to follow along with the Frolof television, including one Brazilian soap opera dubbed into French and the ‘Show Tout Chaud’ an intense Senegalese version of Oprah. We had a lot of really good food and, though I didn’t get to rest or work on my papers, the whole day was very Senegalese and I eventually sat back and took it as less of a kidnapping/hostage situation and more of an exciting Sunday outing to the relatives’ house.

This week has been relatively uneventful. Got a stomach thing and stayed up most of one night with really bad stomach cramps and then stayed home from school the next day- only my second sick day all semester, pretty good for how sick I’ve been here. Still got some lingering mucous in my lungs, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Went to marche HLM to buy fabric and then to the tailor to get things made, you know, the usual. Looking forward to Jarod getting here, and will try to get some pictures of Touba up soon.

Don’t expect to hear too much from me in the next couple of weeks. Love you all!

I left the gare routiere of Dakar around 6:30 Monday morning after having only slept for about 3 hours. To my surprise and delight I slept for a little while in the sept place headed for Kaolack. Several other CIEE students and I took a sept place to Kaolack and then dispersed from there to our various villages. We met our Peace Corps volunteers at the gare in Kaolack where mine, Carin Wunneburger, picked me up and we immediately set off to our first task at hand, helping Omar, a farmer from her village, open a bank account.

Carin was amazing. She was down to earth and positive yet realistic at the same time. She works and lives in a small village of about 4-500 people 14 km south of Kaffrine called Santhie Galngone (pronounced Sanchie Galgonay). She is an agro-forestry volunteer there, meaning she works with trees or, as it were, the lack there of. She fills seed sacks, plants seeds and teaches local farmers about trees and does basically everything else that has to do with helping the people in her village and small community prosper. I got to see all of this first hand.

After helping Omar by visiting several different office buildings with no avail, we returned to the Kaolack Peace Corps house. It’s basically an American oasis in the middle of nowhere. Peace Corps houses aren’t a common occurrence but we have them in Senegal. They’re like frat houses, very communal, where all the P.C. volunteers from the area can come and stay for however long they want to. There are a million books and beds with mosquito nets… and a fan. We stayed there for a couple of hours before heading out to lunch and then to a different gare in Kaolack to find a sept place to Kaffrine. Making it to Kaolack just before dusk, we took a quick turn around the market, bought some food stuffs and went to find a charrette (horse and cart) out to her village.

We just happened to run into her host brother and got a ride on the charrette he had hired for the day back to their village. It was a beautiful ride (it had just begun cooling off a little bit!) and we made it to her village just after nightfall.

I met a few of her family members that night but the real ‘greetings’ began the next day. Carin has her own hut in the village with a small courtyard made out of sackett and a concrete dutch toilet right in the middle. This is her bathroom. You can see through the small spaces in the sacket but when showering and going to the bathroom you just pretend not to see the people walking past and they pretend not to see you.

In the middle of that first night is when I met her puppy. She had told me she had a puppy but it wasn’t there by the time we went to bed. I felt it pawing at my feet in the middle of the night and automatically assumed it was the puppy, which it was. The next morning she told me that she was glad it was the puppy and not the moniter lizard that lives in her toilet. Apparently it’s very large and eats other lizards. I don’t think I ever want to find out what it would do to a human. Probably not much, but the thought of it pawing at my feet definitely made it hard to sleep the next couple of nights. That…and the heat… and the puppy who would continually jump up on the bed and gnaw on us all night with her sharp little teeth. Her name’s Jack and she’s adorable.

Carin told me a story about another puppy she had to get rid of. It had a black muzzle and apparently a dog with a black muzzle is bad luck. They made her take it out into the bush and leave it there. They laughed at her when she cried. People in Senegal don’t get having dogs as pets, except for the Peuls. They understand having dogs because they are a nomadic herding people.

That first day in the village was exhausting. We got up with the sun and began our day by greeting all of the prominent members of her family. We gave out portions of cola nut, a very symbolic food in Senegal. They use it in ceremonies and such. After all the greetings, which were draining in and of themselves, we began with the work. We sifted sheep poop and then sand and mixed them together in her courtyard to make a nice fertilized soil. Then we filled some seedsacks until it got too hot to do anything. In the height of the heat (12-4) you can’t really move without sweating too much so you just lay there reading or something else that doesn’t take much effort. The women braid hair and make attaya sometimes.

After that it was off to town… if you can call it that. There’s a mosque and a boutique and a maternity ward- that last one’s a recent addition. Still no electricity but I guess they’re working on funding for that. We visited a couple of women in their compounds and gave them seeds and talked about how to grow them… well, Carin did. I just sat there trying to follow along in my minimal Wolof while people gathered to stare at the new toubab.

Going to bed now, I’ll write more later. Here are some photos:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rebeccarburke/Village

Goin' out into the bush for a week. Back Friday night, inchallah.

Even though I was sick I went downtown with my friends to see the parade on Friday. We heard there was going to be a lion... there wasn't. But it seemed as though they had every military vehicle within Senegal's possession in this parade, not to mention military personnel.


I dressed in my new Senegalese outfit for the occasion...

Here's another random picture of my host mom and her cousin and cousin's daughter


P.S.
Put up video footage of lutte on 'Iles de Saloum' entry

Turns out this is the sheep I've been eating for the past three months. It's interesting how seeing the animal you're eating makes you appreciate the food a lot more.

My week has been relatively uneventful. The other day I ate until I felt like I was going to burst and realized how fat I've been getting. Went to Marche HLM yesterday and bought some more fabric. Going to the tailor today. By the time you all see me I will be fully decked out in African garb. As Katy put it though 'there is a fine line between having mystique and being Africa girl' so I'll have to watch myself that I don't get too carried away with wearing my boubous back home.

It's Independence day tomorrow. There's a lot of lutte-ing matches and a big parade, but otherwise it will be just another day in Senegal for me. I'm looking forward to rural visits more than ever but found out we are only going for five days. I'm leaving Monday and returning Friday of next week so don't be expecting any calls from me during that period of time. It's already unbearably hot right now in Dakar, but it's going to be a whole new kind of hot on the interior, you know the kind without the occasional cool Dakar coastal breeze.

I'm sick again, third time since I've been in Senegal. I thought I'd be getting sick less here because of the heat but I've been getting kind of stressed out lately so maybe it's weakening my immune system. Hopefully I'm better by Monday.

Miss you all, would love some pictures of home... hint hint...

So...

My weekend was fantastic. It was about a four hour drive down to the Iles by air conditioned bus, one of my more comfortable traveling experiences in Africa. We got there and were swarmed by women selling hats. They were awesome and I needed a hat for Europe so I bought one on the way back home. We then boarded three pirogues and set off for our tour of the mangroves, small saltwater forests. There were pelicans, egrets, and herons and I almost forgot that I was in Senegal, except for the stifling humidity. There were oysters growing on the roots of the mangroves and shrimp farms in the middle of the river. I made a comment about how we better be having oyster and shrimp pasta for dinner... then we did.



Dinner was amazing and we spent the evening chatting in our rooms. It was very hot and there was definitely no lack of mosquitos. We had nets and I wore lots of bug spray but still managed a few bites.


The next day we went for horse and chariot rides through the village and saw 'la lutte', traditional seerer wrestling, in the village after dinner and it was amazing. The men would puff up there chests and walk around the circle while the others had there matches. I almost want to take Jarod back there so he can see the drumming. The wrestling was awesome and it appeared as though the entire village was there to watch. Some of the American students even went up to try their hand at it, I was impressed.


Sunday we left the island at 10 and stopped at 'the sacred baobab' on our way back to Dakar. I think it was sacred because it's just so darn big and old. People used to use baobabs as a burial place but Serigne assured us that we wouldn't see any human remains, and we didn't.

The best part of my weekend was when I got home. I walk in my house (the door was wide open, a rare occurence in my house) and there were a bunch of people dressed up and about four women and two of my cousins, Aissatou and Adja, in the kitchen. My mom was incredibly excited to see me, also rare, and she informed me that we would be having a wedding ceremony that night in our house.

I mostly hung out with my cousins all afternoon- Aissatou, 9 yrs old, revealed herself as a hairstylist and was brushing my hair for about an hour, and Adja (probably around 16) insisted that I film her dancing, first Senegalese and then American (or rather Shakira) styles. I'll post that video if I can figure out how. She's actually pretty good.

The husband was there all day but the bride didn't arrive until 10:30. She and another girl were covered in thick veils so that she couldn't see and no one could see her. She was led into our guest bedroom where she unveiled and sat with her new husband and they shared a bowl of lax. Faatu, my Wolof prof. explained that the girl with her was another girl hoping to marry soon (like catching the bouquet in the states) and the bowl of lax is like our cake, except that whoever eats more will 'wear the pants' in the relationship.

After that lax was served to everyone and all of the older people sat in a circle in our living room with the new husband and went around the circle, each one saying something (advice maybe) and everyone else hm-ing in agreeance. Then we ate Senegalese couscous around giant bowls and the women began counting money and making a list of gifts and by whom they were given.

By the time I went to bed it was around 11:30 and we had just eaten. I felt really bad going to bed so early when nobody else was leaving, but I was exhausted from the weekend. When I woke up this morning, around 6:20, my host mom was still up and about and seeing off the last of the guests.

I found out that I got my first choice for placement in rural visits. I'm going to be in a small town of 10,000 with no electricity south of Kaffrin (not sure of spelling). I'll be there on my own (no other CIEE students) with a peace corps volunteer who specializes in agro-forestry. While I'm there she'll be planting a tree nursery and I'll get to help her, inchallah. I'm really excited about a week away from the program and Dakar.

P.P.S.

I really appreciate everyone's support. I get really excited when I see an email from one of you guys in my inbox. I wish I had time to reply, but my journal entries will have to do for now. And yes,mom, I received the package about a week ago. Cadbury bunny eggs are just what I needed, left you a voicemail but you must have never gotten it.

Love you and miss you all!

This weekend I stayed here while everyone else went to Gambia for our Easter break. I was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, but after finding out Friday morning that my cousins who had come for dinner the night before had never left, I realized that would not be the case.

Though I didn’t get the r and r I was hoping for I did have a good weekend. I went to the beach and then out to Just4U on Friday. Then on Saturday I spent the day at International day at school. Megan D. and Wendell made chili and iced tea to represent the states. There were a lot of traditional dance performances which I really enjoyed.

Sunday I spent reading (read Wrinkle in Time for the first time and started Geek Love-what a twisted book) with uninvited interruptions from my youngest cousin Aissatou, who keept bugging me to play with her. They’re supposed to leave tonight. It was fun at first, but after having tried unsuccessfully to do homework all day, I decided that I’m glad it’s just me and the folks and Fatou here.

Started my History of Islam paper today. Just as difficult as I’d imagined it to be, hopefully I’ll finish it before Jarod gets here.

Speaking of Jarod I found out that the first weekend he’s here we’ll be taking a fieldtrip to St. Louis for 3 days with my environment class. He’s probably going to get to come with us, but it’s too bad I can’t spend those three days showing him Dakar.

Note on food:
I haven't talked about food in a while so here it goes...

I've eaten chicken neck twice. The first time was by accident (I thought it was a drumstick-it's impossible to tell what anything is when it's smothered in yassa) and the second time my host mom dished it out for me- thanks yaay. I guess the only real reason why I think it's disgusting is because we always throw that part away or use it to make gravy with in the states. That and there's a rather thick, rather disgusting layer of skin. When I'm struggling not to gag on things like that while I'm chewing them, my mind always goes to the same place; I should be appreciative that I get as much as I do to eat because there are starving kids in... well you get what I'm saying.

Then there was lunch the other day. We'd never had it before. It was sticky rice that was the color of fecal matter, and quite frankly smelled like it too. I imagine that there was oil and peanut butter and mutton or beef (could decide which it was) but the really awful part was these purple tube things. Maybe they were arteries or something... I don't know.

We had couscous the other night. It's not my favorite dish because the couscous is actually millet or something (not what they have in the states, which is called Morroccan couscous here) and it just absorbs the oil sauce and gets cold half way through eating it. At least we had fish on it instead of mutton this time... oh yeah, the fish. Pretty sure I ate a fish eyeball; it was one of my least pleasant eating experiences in Dakar.

Dinner last night was amazing. My host mom left for St. Louis for a couple of days and it was just my host dad and Fatou and I. She made us salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs, and dijon vinaigrette dressing. There were melt-in-your-mouth potatoes too that tasted like they were boiled in butter (may have been for all I know). But then there was dessert... It was this cottage cheese gelatinous soupy mess with corn kernels and nutmeg for seasoning. It wouldn't have been so bad except that Fatou gave me such a large serving. Of course the Colonel and my host dad loved it and slurped it right up. Oh, I ate it all too, just not as enthusiastically.

Highlights from 1st day of Guinea trip (Friday):

1 ½ hours at the shady gare routiere in Dakar, beginning at 5 in the morning. Finally we figured out what was going on and reserved our places in a sept place

3 random men in our sept place. We decided they were smuggling baseball caps into Mali. One of these men wanted to kidnap Sarah and take her to Mali, another wanted to keep my ipod as a ‘gift’ (dream on buddy), and the last was 7 feet tall and half way through our trip, when we were broken down for a half hour out in the bush, he strapped an unloaded gun to his hip, where it remained for the duration of the trip (except for when he was fake target practicing at road signs, singing ‘Africa Unite’)


Breakfast in a little room which could have doubled as a night club, especially with the blue lighting and metallic leaf ceiling decorations- they looked like maple leaves, no joke.

Lunch at a ceeb shack. While we ate one of our traveling companions informed us that the ‘others’ had arrived. We had no idea what he was talking about until we went outside and saw Marlen, Anna Lee, Christina and Claire; of course the only toubabs for 200 miles knew each other.

Our sept place driver hit a man on a motorcycle. He was okay, but we were stopped on the side of the road for at least a half hour while the two men argued. Sarah thought she overheard that the driver had paid him 5,000 CFAs. I suppose that yelling at one another until one finally gives in is the closest Senegal gets to auto insurance.

Arrived in Tambacounda and were literally the only ones in our hotel. Probably slept about a half hour the entire night because of the heat. Should have splurged for the A/C.

HOT-SWEATY-TIRED


Highlights from Saturday:

Picked up from hotel at 6 by quatre place driver

Went through at least six ‘checkpoints’ along the Guinea border. Would get out and wait in whatever little police shack was there while they wrote down our passport #’s, names, and professions. Then they’d ask us to marry them, not accept our response that we didn’t want husbands at our age, and we’d be on our way.

Stopped for lunch in Koundara, decided there was nothing there and continued on to Labe. Hired 7 place, waited an hour in the heat, then were squished into what turned out to be a 9 place, with 4 more people on top of the car. Poor Sarah was squished in the middle seat with three grown men, two on her left and one puffy down jacket clad gentleman on her right.

Stopped about once every ½ hr or so to pour water on the overheated engine and so the men could pray.

Saw a ‘herd’ of baboons run across the road in front of us

Stopped at dusk to forge a river. Turned out there was a ferry operated by cranks and pullies. Saw the cutest baby sheep and bought oranges.

Finally arrived a little after midnight and hired taxi dirtbikes to get to our hotel. This is when we were our orangest from all the red dirt.

Sick with crud again.



Highlights from Sunday:

Still sick

Exhibitionist in marketplace in Labe harassing us. Nicknamed him ‘Dick Tracy’

Bought the most wonderful chicken and egg fabric- have yet to make anything out of it, waiting for the perfect idea to come to me.

More mototaxis- so much fun.

Met up with group of seven who just happened to be staying in same hotel as us

Biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life on the wall of our room. Of course I’m the only one without a mosquito net for the night. The bugs just seem to be bigger in Africa…


Highlights from Monday:

Chutes de la Saala. Beautiful and amazing and swimming in them was the most refreshing experience.




Got to ride on top of sept place on the way back from chutes. Got a lot of dirty looks and a few cheers, apparently it’s not ‘prudent’ for women to ride on top.

Got to Gare Routiere about 5:30, immediately found a 6 place driver to take us to Dalaba. He drove like the wind, except when we got a flat. This was second flat of the day, our 7 place to shoots also got one. Frankly I’m surprised we had held out so long without getting flats, the roads are so bad.

Got to hotel a little after dusk, beautiful and cheap, not to mention the hot water and toilet paper. First warm water shower since La Citronelle when we first got here.

Met up with yet another group of CIEE students. Exchanged stories, ate salsa spaghetti and went to sleep.

Feeling a lot better but still sick.


Highlights from Tuesday:

Omelette for breakfast!!!

Waited 2 hours at hotel for money changer to come.

30 km hike w/ Sheku: Beautiful fields and conifer forest. Our guide cut us off a piece of bark from this tree that smelled like cinnamon. Amazing garden in the middle of nowhere w/ tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, carrots, coffee, onions, bananas, oranges, herbs, etc.

Basket weaving women

More spaghetti, still sick.


Highlights from Wednesday:

To Pont de Dieu (God’s bridge) with guide Yaya.

Group of 7 ended up in our hotel again.



Highlights from Thursday:

Back to Labe in 4 place, ended up being 7 passengers, one of whom shared the driver’s seat with him.

Bought indigo fabric, for which Guinea is known.

Bought fresh peanut butter, bananas, and bagette in market and made sandwiches for dinner that night


Highlights from Friday:

Left a day early to get back a day early, except not really.

Left our hotel at 4:30 in the morning hoping to catch a sept place back up to Tamba. The journey was 15 hours last time and we were hopeful.

Finally found taximotos to gare, it was 8:30 before we finally left in our 8 person quatre-place.

Unexpectedly spent the night on the border in the car. At least them 4 men spent the night in the mosque so we had the tiny car to ourselves. I ‘slept’ curled up in the fetal position in the front passenger’s seat with my neck uncomfortably propped on the door.
It took us a while to get to sleep but we were in good spirits and were able to see the humor in the situation. Out in the bush with no lights so the stars were amazing.


Highlights from Saturday:

Already behind schedule we were anxious to get on our way in the morning. Made it to Mandia, about an hour south of Tamba around 9:30. We were told our options to get to Dakar were either the big bus or the minibus. The big bus looked much more comfortable and tickets being the same price, we opted for it. Getting on the bus, we realized that we were the first to buy tickets and would be there a while- we had no idea how long…

After waiting about 12 hours, our bus finally left. On board were the group of seven, who made it to Mandia a couple hours before the bus left. Mind you, they did not leave a day early.

That night was spent on the bus, which seemed to stop at least once every half hour for unknown reasons. At dawn we stopped because of a flat and were hanging out on the roadside while the sun rose. It would be about another 10 hours until we reached Dakar.


Sunday:

After arriving in Dakar, a few of us decided to unwind with burgers and milkshakes at Le Regal in Ouakam. I figured since we always have Lax on Sundays it would be good to have some real food before going home. Of course, this just happened to be the one night where we did have real food, and a lot of it. I felt like I was going to throw up but, surprisingly enough, was happy to be back in Dakar.

Sorry I've kind of fallen off the grid. My beloved wireless is no longer working for me, therefore from now on my livejournal will not be quite so lively.

I'll write about Guinea and post more pictures when I have my physical journal for references... Last week we were host to the OCI (International Islamic Conference Organisation) Islamic Conference... lucky us... but not really. President Wade basically shut down the city for a week and spent billions of CFA on this conference. People were not happy. As yaay said, in so many words, he spends millions of CFA a day to rent a boat, but the people are hungry. We Americans were the only students in the entire city who did not have the week off. Many students who could have used that time to study for major exams had to do it on their own. Our education teacher said that some students were organizing study groups and the student who was best in whichever subject they were studying at the time would act as teacher.

Other than Wade obviously not caring about his people, Senegal neex na (Senegal's awesome). We went on two field trips this weekend, yay! The first was Saturday when I visited Mbeubeuse with my Environment and Development class. It's basically a giant uncontrolled landfill built on what used to be a lake. What's worse is that people work and live in the garbage there. There's even vegetables grown there with aid from the water table (medical waste carrots and onions anyone?). The youngest children working there, or say they say, are seven years old; but we definitely saw younger. The odors were the most offensive I've ever smelled in my life and there were little fires everywhere from the high concentrations of methane randomly igniting. The African heat doesn't help either. Words just can't describe.

Sunday we went to visit a daara. This is a coranic school where the marabout, or religious leader, teaches the Coran to the talibes, Wolof word for followers. There were 128 children crammed into a tiny concrete room. Even though they admitted to beating the children, this daara seemed far nicer than ones described to us in our education class. At least they were actually learning here. At some daaras the marabouts make the talibe go out and beg all day on the streets and if they don't get a certain amount of money then they are beaten or not given food. The children who beg at the daara we went to are only ones who can;t afford the 2 dollar monthly fee, and even then they only have to beg for 1 hour a day.

Will post picutres when possible.

I'll edit this entry later with details, but here are some pictures which should give you a general idea of how fantastic spring break was!


Us in the back of our sept place at the beginning of our voyage at 6 in the morning. So happy... so clean.


Us at Guinean border. Literally took two hours to get through the many checkpoints, or whatever they were- military shacks where we had to get out of the car and sit while they wrote down our passport numbers and occupations and such.


Us in front of the sept-place we took from Koundara to Labe... Getting dirtier...


Us in Labe at 1 in the morning, after just having arrived and taken dirtbike taxis to our hotel. Yes, dirtbike taxis.


Sarah with our carrots, pulled right out of the ground at the jardin de fraises out in the middle of nowhere. The whole loop from our hotel to the jardin to the basket weavers' village and back was 30 km- no joke.


Me and Helah buying baskets in a little village on our walk.


Us in front of the office de tourisme in Dallaba with the proprietor. His name was in our Rough Guide to West Africa (i.e. our Guinea bible) so he's practically a celebrity.


"Quatre-place" (actually fit 7 passengers instead of 4 not including driver) which took us to Mandia in Senegal from Labe... eventually. This is when we got a flat and had it repaired in some random village. Ended up sleeping in this thing on the Guinean border- not our decision.


Me and Helah just after having found out that we would be spending the night in our quatre-place on the border without any access to our backpacks. Thankfully Sarah had a brush so I could tackle the mini dreadlocks which had accumulated from our lack of showers the day before (our hotel in Labe didn't have running water).


Random little food place we ate ceebu jen at while we waited the 12 hours in Mandia for our bus to start its journey to Dakar.


We left a day early and the group of 7 who went to Guinea didn't... yet we ended up on the same bus going home.

My new tailored sundress; one must have a sundress in Senegal for it is ALWAYS sunny. (Sorry it's sideways, my internet at home has stopped working so I'm using a school computer.)


Hann Bay. The waste promotes the growth of seaweed so there are massive amounts of dead seaweed and no fish. Not a good combo for an ecosystem, if you could even call it that anymore.






Sludge drying beds at Camberene. This is one of the last processes. They dry the sludge for fertilizer and any leftover liquid goes back to the beginning to be processed and treated.




These huge spirals carry water up in order to use gravity to help with the treatment processes.


Cheikh, our Environment and Development teacher


The beautiful parc/ zoo where we ate lunch.

My weekend was incredibly eventful. On Saturday I went on a fieldtrip with my environment and development class to Camberene to the waste water tratment plant. We learned in detail the processes used to sanitize water for use in gardening and construction, they do not treat water well enough for human consumption. Here's a pretty sad statistic: Only about 20% of waste water is processed, that means that 80% is dumped directly into the ocean without any treatment whatsoever. After learning the processes from the technician there we did a walking tour (in incredible Senegal heat) to see the actual processes taking place. Pictures will come but I'm at school so I don't have my camera or cord. After that we went to the zoo, I know, who would have thought. We didn't actually see the animals, we just went to the park area to have lunch. It was beautiful. Hann Bay however, was not.

After the park we went to Hann Bay, which apparently in the 70's was ranked as one of the world's most beautiful beaches. Because of years of waste being dumped directly into the bay, it's disgusting now. There's still beautiful fine white sand but, even before you can view the ocean, the smell hits you. It's one of the nastiest smells I've ever experienced in my life. Our teacher told us that at one time fishing boats (gals) could be seen covering the bay, but now no fish can live there because the pollution is so great. Will post pictures of this as well.

For dinner that night I had yassa boulettes. Basically, fried ground fish balls with oily onion sauce. I ate a lot and woke up in the middle of the night with really terrible stomach pains, but was better when I woke up the next morning. Saturday night my host mom was talking about the baptism she was going to the next day and my dad volunteered that I might like to go. So when she asked me I, of course, said yes. She seemed a little apprehensive about me going but maybe she was just tired.

I woke bright and early Sunday morning and dressed in the only thing I had which felt appropriate, the wrap skirt my mom had made for me before I left, and we were off. We walked over to my mom's cousin, Aida's house and there met up with her cousin, Fatima and another relative (didn't connect how she was related, something about a sister), Fatou. I felt a little underdressed squished in between yaye and Fatima, in their bright pink and orange boubous in the back seat, but was excited for the experience. We then drove to a neighborhood to find some doctor's house. I was completely left in the dark here so I had no idea what we were doing here. We drove around this neighborhood in circles, for what seemed like a half hour of asking people where the doctor lived, before finding his house. The neighborhood was beautiful, definitely upper class Senegal, each house gated within a cement wall reaching at least ten feet. The doctor and his wife were very nice and they had a german shepherd; very rarely does a Senegalese family have a pet. We ate doughnut cookies, drank orange juice, and I think the doctor gave Fatima a prescription for something but I could be way off. Then it was off to the baptism.

My host mom told me it was in Piquine (not sure of spelling) and I'd never been there. I was expecting a really fancy party and was a little surprised when we stopped in a funky little neighborhood. This was definitely a reminder of how upper-middle class CIEE host families actually are, and that the majority of Senegalese people don't live as comfortably as we do. I made the rounds and shook a lot of hands and met a lot of people, who were introduced to me as yaye's neice or nephew or father's sister's daughter and so on, but mostly I was left on my own. I got to hold the 8-day-old baby and there was a lot of cooing going on. Then we ate lax (the millet porridge with yogurt) and were given little bags of doughnuts. When yaye told me to go talk to the 'girls' I was brought to a tiny little dark room, where about four people were lounging on the bed, including new mother and baby, and several more were on chairs next to the bed. A girl who I'm assuming was a maid, was asked to give me her seat when I came in.

Let me tell you about one of the many awkward situations I encounter on a daily basis here. So I'm sitting there with 'the girls.' The mother of the new baby seems like she's probably around my age, as do the other girls. Amina, one of them, is trying to make conversation with me and I try to keep up with my miniscule Wolof vocab and my shaky French. Meanwhile, there are people coming in and out of the room, all of whom I have to meet and shake hands with. A girl sitting next to me (also looks my age), who I'd been chatting with off and on is playing with a baby; I figure out it's her baby when she, without warning, pulls out her breast and starts nursing it- this happens all the time here, I guess in Arcata sometimes too for that matter. (Side note-this is the cutest, fattest baby I've ever seen in my life, sporadic hair growth and all.) It struck me that a girl so young already had a baby that looks like it was almost a year, but what really surprised me was when a boy, who looked like he was around eight years old, jumped into her lap and she told me it was her oldest son. Her middle son, Rasa, was probably around three. She asked me which I thought was the best looking and when I told her that the baby was awfully cute, she gave me a look like I'd answered wrong...oh Senegal.

After returning to the salon, where yaye was hanging out, we ate mutton around the bowl, had attaya and bissap, and returned home. It was about seven when we got back and before going to bed my friends came over to discuss our trip to Guinea. This morning after Wolof I went to bug the tailor because it's been two weeks today since he said my stuff would be done in two weeks. To my surprise, I walk in to see my finished dress on the mannequin. I tried on the dress and the outfit and both fit me very well. He had a few details to finish up but told me that I could come and pick them up this evening after class. While I was trying them on he was making little comments about how wonderful he was and what good work he did. I agreed with him and told him several times how 'jolie' they were and then it was off to the ceeb shack with Anna Lee. Will post pictures of outfits as soon as I take some.

Today was, without a doubt, a great day. Helah, Katie and I took a trip to the Guinean Embassy to drop off my photos and money and, to my surprise, pick up my already visa-ed passport. This took all of two minutes. After that it was off to an Ethiopian coffee shop that Katie had spotted near the embassy the other day. We were ushered into a beautiful little courtyard with a couple of tables with cushioned benches. We were the only ones there and the man who took our order was really nice. Real coffee. It was delicious. I also had a crepe with bananas and some kind of chocolate. It was also wonderful and, even though it took him about an hour to prepare, was well worth the wait. We took that time to flip through French fashion magazines that just happened to be stacked near our table. Before he served us our food he lit up some incense and put it in a little crevice under our table, what an atmosphere. I'll take pictures next time I have the urge drink real coffee.

Next we were off to the market. We went to Marche Sandaga, Dakars largest market place. You definitely have to mentally prepare yourself before you go to a place like that. Seeing a white person, people immediately flock to your side and insist on either guiding you around the market place or selling you something. If you happen to be guided somehwere by one of these people and you buy something, that person seems to get a small fee from the vendor. Usually people will guide you to their own shops or those of their friends but if you want something that they don't have, they're always more than willing to go to another shop, find the item for you and help you barter the price. Good luck trying to lose these 'guides.' They'll stick to you like white on rice- unless it's ceeb that is. It took us about 15 minutes today to shake the first guy following us around. We kept turning around and trying to quickly walk away but he would not leave us alone. We agreed to follow this other guy to his shop but he wanted 25,000 for the batik table cloth Helah wanted. As we were walking around we spotted several jewelry stands. Helah was wanting an Africa pendant so we were browsing and somewhere along the way we picked up a new guide. I told him I was thinking about buying a bracelet and what kind I was looking for. I've been thinking about getting a nameplate bracelet pretty much since I got here, everyone wears them here. He took me to several different shops until I found exactly what I wanted, and it even fit me. I told him what I wanted engraved (Fatima, my Senegalese name) and bartered the price. After paying him, he gave the money to the vendor and the vendor gave him some change for his job well done on bringing him toubab business. While it was being engraved, Helah found her Africa pendant pretty much the next shop over, so we were all pretty satisfied.

After that her 'Senegalese husband' found us somehow. This is a guy we met at the shop we hung out at for three hours the last time we were in Sandaga. We agreed to come to his shop and Helah got a batiked tablecloth with matching napkins for 4 mil, about 8 dollars, and I got the tusks for Grandma's elephant because it was the same shop I had gotten it from. This is definitely the place to go for stuff before I leave Senegal. They have pretty much everything you could want and they know us all by name now. They're all really nice, yet somehow tricky not unlike every other Senegalese vendor.

The cab ride home was hot but I made it home just in time for lunch; it was something like mafe with shrimp, really tasty. During the meal my host dad explained to me how drinking water before or with your meal makes you fat. Out of all the dieting tips I've heard over the years, that's never been one of them; but it was interesting how he explained it so I nodded my head and said 'hm...' Then I had an hour long discussion (in French, mind you) with him about politics and oil and automobile technology. This is where I was glad to have come from Arcata where such things are discussed often and I had a pretty good handle on situation. We had all the same opinions on the matter so that helped as well.

Then was attaya...mmm...



My Visa for Guinea




My bracelet

Yesterday I went on an adventure with Anna Lee at lunch. I needed to get my Visa for Guinea and she was down for a taxi ride so we left school around 11. I bartered with taximan down to a thousand CFA, probably pretty near to what a taxi should be from Mermoz to Point E. After he got lost and had to ask a couple different people for directions (this happens all the time) he tried to tell us that we had to give him 500 extra CFA for his trouble. We informed him that it didn’t work like that and he relented with a smile; he knew he shouldn’t be trying to pull that kind of trick.

Right as we walked up the path to the embassy, a little bookish man immediately came forward and told us to come with him. I realized that I forgot my extra passport photos because I left my backpack at school and I forgot to go to the ATM to get money out. He insisted that it was fine and I could fill out the paperwork and give him my passport now. I guess he didn’t want me to change my mind about going to Guinea. We bypassed several people waiting, probably because we’re white and white skin means money, but they didn’t seem in the least bit agitated. So I filled out the form which was more difficult than I had imagined, it being entirely in French and asking incredibly detailed questions about the trip, but towards the end he told me not to worry about the last few questions because they didn’t matter. I’m not sure if they would have cared if I filled in my name or not, as long as they get paid.

After we left the embassy, we tried to find this pastry/ food place that Anna had eaten at before in Point E. After asking about six different people and after walking a countless number of blocks in different directions in the heat (it must have been at least 90 degrees) we finally decided to eat at this little fast food place. Anna asked what kind of drinks they had and he brought out a fanta and a coke. Anna wanted the fanta and after being told that they had no water, I took the coke. Anna ordered a burger and I tried to order pizza but he basically told me that their oven didn’t work and I would be having a burger. I wasn’t really worried about it so I didn’t argue.

The taxi ride home was incredibly amusing. First of all the taximan actually started at a reasonable price, 1200, so we didn’t have to barter that hard to get him down to a thousand. Then we had a five minute conversation with him entirely in Wolof! He asked us if we had husbands and we said yes, back in the states. Then he asked us if we had Senegalese husbands and Anna said no, but we had lots of Senegalese boyfriends. He asked us if we had four and we told him ten and we all had a good laugh. There was some other chit chat in there too, but overall it was incredibly satisfying.

We got back to Mermoz, where Anna lives, and we went back to her house to get her money and then to La Citronelle to make reservations for her mom, who’s coming to stay here for about a week in late March. Then we hoofed it back o school in the scorching heat, stopping at the Elton to buy water and talk to some of our friends we saw there, then at the tailor to tell him that if he had any extra fabric from my outfits to make me some head wraps too. He looked a little surprised to see me which probably means that he hasn’t been working on my clothes. C’est pas grave. Then it was an hour of French grammaire, an hour of French phonetics, then two hours of watching a Ndepp ceremony our guest lecturer had filmed. Ndepp ceremonies pretty much consist of sacrificing a bull and dancing to cure people of rab, possessing spirits. There are lots of steps in between but I don’t really feel like going through them right now.

For dinner we had salad and potatoes and baguette, which I was pretty excited about, and whole tiny fried fish, which along with having tiny sharp teeth and angry eyes were pretty difficult to eat. We had fruit salad for dessert which completely made up for the unhappy fish.

Us on the boat to Ngor


Us at Ngor


On the beach at Tubaab Jalaaw (Toubab Dialaw in Wolof)
*Basically Wolof just makes everything sound slightly more Arabic.


Still on the beach.

This weekend was awesome! Toubab Dialaw was beautiful and batiking was so much fun. I tried to do an African design with stencils and stuff but I felt like such a phony so I started over and did some northern California scenery instead. It turned out pretty well. We got to see a drumming and traditional dance performance Saturday night that was amazing. I think Helah got some of it recorded (I didn't bring my camera, which was a big mistake) so I'll definitely post that if she got some good footage. It was a beautiful little resort with hammocks and mosaic tiling and seashells everywhere. I found a bunch of really beautiful shells that all already have holes that I figure I can make into wind chimes or a mobile type thing when I get home (if they survive the journey). I also finished my Golden Compass books. On Saturday we had spaghetti for lunch, oh how I miss spaghetti. I also had the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had in my life at the restaurant in the resort. I'll be back to Toubab Dialaw before I leave Senegal,maybe a weekend trip. The resort is only about $20 a night.



My sandal tan




A stray dog we named Bam Bam.


In our 'resort'




The batik I made


The card I made for my host dad (his b-day was the 13th) and some cake I got for him.

I've been pretty busy this week with school so I haven't had much time to write. It was my host dad's birthday on the 13th so I made him a card and bought him some little cakes from a bakery.

Last night we had moom. I don't like moom though I told my host dad I did. He said it was full of vitamins but that some people, such as one of his daughters, refuse to eat it; I can see why. It's couscous (or what they call couscous, but I have the suspicion that it's millet or some other grain) with a thick gooey sauce on top made of rehydrated fish parts and beef. I was grateful for the beef, that was the first time we've had it or moom in my house. I went over to Anna and Christina's house for lunch yesterday because Anna Lee came home with me for lunch the day before. Christina told me that lunch was special just because they had a guest (me) over. They usually eat around the bowl on a mat but they gave Christina, Anna and me our own bowl and we ate at the table. After lunch we had fanta and bananas for desert. Christina said that they've never had fruit and soda after lunch before. It was all especially for me. Most people make a big deal out of having guests over here.

Today I was planning to go get my visa for Guinea and go to marche HLM with some girls from my neighborhood, but instead I was kidnapped by my host family. While I was eating breakfast this morning they told me that we were driving somewhere together but when I asked them where my host dad said France. After an hour and a half in the car I was beginning to thnk that he wasn't joking. But no, we ended up in Toubab Dialaw, or a twon right next to it, to oversee the finishing touches of a house that's being readied for the Colonel's daughter, who's arriving the 25th. It was a beautiful house, right next to the ocean and I spent a good 1/2 hour standing on the balcony looking out at the beautiful shoreline. Then we drove the hour and a half back to Dakar.