Hello from Burkina!
First order of business, I just found out that I was accepted to Harvard School of Public Health. Holy crap! I really wasn't expecting that....I kind of just wanted to see if I could get in!
Yes, I am now in the city that I remember hearing about in my high school French class and thinking, "That city has the best name ever." And here I sit.
I flew in on Friday night from Dakar and got in at around 11 pm. I thought the Dakar airport was small, but this one is even smaller, with the added advantage of being less aggressive and easier to deal with. It was easy to find a taxi and a hotel, so that was good. I was a little worried about that since I was getting in late. Anne, the first I am traveling with, took a bus from Niamey, Niger and got to Ouagadougou on Saturday afternoon. I had spent the morning looking for and moving to a cheaper hotel than the one I spent the first night. I didn't do much the rest of the day but around 4:30 pm I went in search of Anne at the hotel where we had planned on meeting (it was full). Turns out her bus had gotten in earlier than I had expected and I missed her. Luckily she had left me a note there. So I then went in search of her at the new hotel, which was closer to downtown than the place I had found. We decided that I should move, so I again packed up my stuff and moved to the new hotel.
In the process of all this moving around, I had acquired a follower named Michel. At first he was okay because he was just helping me find the different hotels and whatnot, but soon one of his friends joined us and they wouldn't leave Anne and I alone. Every time we left the hotel, they were there waiting for us. That's weird. We tried to tell them to go away (in those words) but no, they kept insisting on following us and inviting us to a concert. We eventually lost them for the night. But where were they the next morning? Oh, waiting for us outside the hotel, again ready to follow us around. This time I REALLY told them to leave but of course it didn't work. We had breakfast and they found us AGAIN. Creepy! Finally we decided to ignore them and haven't seen them since. I don't know what they wanted in reality, but they knew that we both lived in other African cities. Did they really think they could pull something on us?
Ouaga itself is somewhat of a disappointing town for me. I never knew how well we had it in Dakar! The interior countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) have it a lot rougher, for obvious reasons and I guess I never realized that it was to this degree. Everything seems much smaller....fewer large buildings and in such. I felt that right away when I started walking around. The city is very dusty (the ground is red clay) and oppressively hot. To me, Ouaga feels more like a small town, where as Anne is impressed with the city. I told her she is going to love Dakar! I will definitely appreciate it when I get back. I'm getting to like it better as time goes by though. There's actually a lot of art here. Good live music, cinema (some of you may know about the film festival that is held here at the end of February on odd numbered years....too bad we missed it by a year! I've heard really good things about it). We just spent the morning at the craft market, where things were cheaper than I am used to paying for in Dakar and the bargaining was much less aggressive.
We are actually hoping to get out of Burkina as fast as possible and start traveling in Ghana. We went to apply for the visa this morning and apparently you are supposed to apply 3 days before you want to go. I really don't understand why visas take so long because all they do it put a stamp in your passport. Anyway, the guy seemed to think that they would be done by tomorrow and gave us his phone number. I hope he's right! Later this afternoon we are going to bus station to see when we can get a bus out. I'm trying to be patient but it's hard when I know there are so many good things waiting in Ghana while the things to do here are running out. This will help me work on my patience I guess?
We did meet two people from the Peace Corps this morning and they told us we should go check out the American embassy, which apparently has a rec center with pool, restaurant (the girl said they even have Tex Mex!), and a place to watch movies. We are also going to check that out this afternoon. It's so hot here and no water to swim in except for pools!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
My Trip to Kaolack, or I Hate Everything
The ride to Kaolack was a lot shorter than I expected. It took about 2 hours when I was expecting 3. Nice surprise. I got out at the gare routière and took a taxi to the house of my old host family. I miraculously remembered where it was despite the fact that I spent only 2.5 weeks there 3 years ago. One good marker is the giant baobab tree directly across the street. Everything was pretty much just as I remembered it but the wierdness was just about to begin.
After I had put my stuff away in my room, I went outside to watch TV (I'm sure this sounds very strange but it gets hot in the house so they watch TV outside in their courtyard). A little while later, the dad pulled into the driveway in his car. As he was getting out I kind of waved at him but he gave no response. As he walked closer he was looking at me like, "Who the heck are you?" Finally he said, "Oh, it's you." Then he asked me what my name was and walked into the house. Meanwhile the mom is having an asthma attack.
Then they had some friends who came over, which isn't at all unusual. They were just chatting a bit and trying to help Madame Sow (the mom) feel better. After talking for a while in Wolof, they asked me if I wanted to come with them to see if two computers at ASBEF worked. I said yes. What a big mistake that turned out to be!
The entire duration of the stay: 3 hours, beginning at about 9 pm and ending at midnight with no dinner beforehand.
It turned out that they weren't actually checking to see if the computers wirkd but instead installing printers. They started installing the first printer in the accountant's office while I sat in the mosquito-filled main office with one of their wives. Everything was fine and I was only a little annoyed by the standard questions that she was asking (Why aren't you married? Don't you want a Senegalese husband?) Finally she asked me for my address and phone number....still not that strange. Then she started repeating to herself, between intermittent mumbling to herself in Wolof, "Aïcha (my Senegalese name)is my friend. We met today." It only got better when she started telling me that I should be her husband's 3rd wife (and then we could be "sisters"). She also decided that she should tell him this when he came into the room. So we had a conversation about why I didn't want to be his 3rd wife. Sweet, just the conversation I have been preparing myself for all these years.
Once the first printer was installed, I started getting hopeful that th installations would soon be over and we would be able to leave. Well, it took them a ridiculously long time to figure out that the printer wouldn't install in the second computer, after which they decided to try installing it on the laptop computer. This also didn't work. I was getting to my wits end at this point but knew I couldn't really say anything too harsh because I didn't know these people. I had had enough of sitting in the room, watching things not work, talking to people who aren't right in the head, and being bitten by mosquitos. Finally I told them that I wanted to go home and the wife said, "Oh, do you want to take a taxi?" I thought I finally had my way out. When I said yes, she told me that I couldn't because it wouldn't have been "prudent" of me and Madame Sow had said I needed to stay with them. I had made the mistake of leaving the house with no money or I might very well have just marched out the door anyway.
With nothing else left to do, I decided to go see what the problem with the laptop actually was. It turns out that when the guy tried to open the installation disk it would say something about not being able to find the material needed. After this, he would try to open it a different way and it still wouldn't work. Then he would restart the computer. I think this is what he had been doing for an hour. I finally told him that it was a problem with the drive and that he could restart the computer a thousand times and it would never work. He acknowledged this fact like he had already thought of it. Why he kept retrying I'll never know.
Finally we got to go home where I was served cold mouton for dinner with lots of bony chunks (I don't actually know what they were because I never turned on the overhead light to examine them).
The next day I went to the clinic where I had interned for about 3 weeks. It too is pretty much the same as I remember. I spent the first part of the morning in the clinic and then went with a group of people into 2 surrounding villages to conduct meetings about a nutrition program that they would soon be starting. It was interesting and also boring, unfortunately. The meetings were in Wolof and I could only understand snippits. I tried to enjoy it because I know its a very unique experience, but it's hard to sit for hours and not understand much and get carted around from place to place without really knowing where you're going.
The rest of the week I spent bored out of my mind at the clinic because again, all I could really do was observe and search for files (see picture below). Also, there's pretty much no one at the clinic after 2 pm.
Instead of recounting every detail of my stay, I would like to describe 2 people to you.
The dad, Monsieur Sow: The second night that he came home he also acted as if he didn't recognize me and again asked my name. He then went into the house and I didn't hear from him again until the phone started ringing. He yelled for the maid to get it (she was out buying something) and then for his wife to get it (she was praying) and since neither of them answered, instead of walking to get the phone himself, he walked outside to see why no one was responding to him. Night 3: He recognized me at last! His wife had gone to Dakar for a meeting at ASBEF headquarters so he decided to call her. For some reason she hung up on him twice in a row. A little while later he came back in and told me be was going to get a beer. He is Muslim and this is strictly prohibited. Night 4: He remembers me again! He goes into the house and later in the evening I hear him yelling at his wife (she had returned from Dakar). He was speaking Wolof but I could kind of tell what he was saying. My hunch was confirmed when he came back out of the house to tell me, "You don't know what's going on but it's not right. I wanted to drink a glass of water but I didn't have a glass. The maid wasn't there and my wife wasn't there. Is that normal? Is that what would happen at your house?" Well, I don't think he really wanted to hear what I had to say about that so I jsut kind of shrugged and he eventually went back into the house.
Ndeye: The woman who cleans at ASBEF but mostly just hangs around there during the day. I never really liked her when I was there in 2002 because she was always asking if she could have my things and bothering me because I couldn't speak Wolof (but I've improved a lot since then so that isn't so much a problem anymore). One of the first things she said to me was, "What did you bring me as a gift?" so I told her I brought myself. Apparently that wasn't good enough because then she asked if she could have my jean jacket. She kept doing this periodically during my stay. She even told me that I should being her to the US with me to be my maid.
There are more stories but my brain is getting tired and this entry is getting really long!
Conclusion: Kaolack is a very strange place with strange people and I can now see why I went crazy there is 2002. Time seems to stop there and my 3 day stay dragged on and on. It obviously would have been better if I had friends to visit, etc. but the town doesn't have much going for it. It's basically a transit stop that connects 5 major roads, is FULL of garbage and smelly water, is ridiculously hot (33 C in mid-Feb...that's a little over 90 F), has many flies and MANY mosquitos. I feel bad saying this but I wish it would have just been a transit spot for me. Overall though, I'm glad that I went back to see my host family (well, the mom at least). I think it meant a lot to them.
Charts in disarray!
House - View from front gate
After I had put my stuff away in my room, I went outside to watch TV (I'm sure this sounds very strange but it gets hot in the house so they watch TV outside in their courtyard). A little while later, the dad pulled into the driveway in his car. As he was getting out I kind of waved at him but he gave no response. As he walked closer he was looking at me like, "Who the heck are you?" Finally he said, "Oh, it's you." Then he asked me what my name was and walked into the house. Meanwhile the mom is having an asthma attack.
Then they had some friends who came over, which isn't at all unusual. They were just chatting a bit and trying to help Madame Sow (the mom) feel better. After talking for a while in Wolof, they asked me if I wanted to come with them to see if two computers at ASBEF worked. I said yes. What a big mistake that turned out to be!
The entire duration of the stay: 3 hours, beginning at about 9 pm and ending at midnight with no dinner beforehand.
It turned out that they weren't actually checking to see if the computers wirkd but instead installing printers. They started installing the first printer in the accountant's office while I sat in the mosquito-filled main office with one of their wives. Everything was fine and I was only a little annoyed by the standard questions that she was asking (Why aren't you married? Don't you want a Senegalese husband?) Finally she asked me for my address and phone number....still not that strange. Then she started repeating to herself, between intermittent mumbling to herself in Wolof, "Aïcha (my Senegalese name)is my friend. We met today." It only got better when she started telling me that I should be her husband's 3rd wife (and then we could be "sisters"). She also decided that she should tell him this when he came into the room. So we had a conversation about why I didn't want to be his 3rd wife. Sweet, just the conversation I have been preparing myself for all these years.
Once the first printer was installed, I started getting hopeful that th installations would soon be over and we would be able to leave. Well, it took them a ridiculously long time to figure out that the printer wouldn't install in the second computer, after which they decided to try installing it on the laptop computer. This also didn't work. I was getting to my wits end at this point but knew I couldn't really say anything too harsh because I didn't know these people. I had had enough of sitting in the room, watching things not work, talking to people who aren't right in the head, and being bitten by mosquitos. Finally I told them that I wanted to go home and the wife said, "Oh, do you want to take a taxi?" I thought I finally had my way out. When I said yes, she told me that I couldn't because it wouldn't have been "prudent" of me and Madame Sow had said I needed to stay with them. I had made the mistake of leaving the house with no money or I might very well have just marched out the door anyway.
With nothing else left to do, I decided to go see what the problem with the laptop actually was. It turns out that when the guy tried to open the installation disk it would say something about not being able to find the material needed. After this, he would try to open it a different way and it still wouldn't work. Then he would restart the computer. I think this is what he had been doing for an hour. I finally told him that it was a problem with the drive and that he could restart the computer a thousand times and it would never work. He acknowledged this fact like he had already thought of it. Why he kept retrying I'll never know.
Finally we got to go home where I was served cold mouton for dinner with lots of bony chunks (I don't actually know what they were because I never turned on the overhead light to examine them).
The next day I went to the clinic where I had interned for about 3 weeks. It too is pretty much the same as I remember. I spent the first part of the morning in the clinic and then went with a group of people into 2 surrounding villages to conduct meetings about a nutrition program that they would soon be starting. It was interesting and also boring, unfortunately. The meetings were in Wolof and I could only understand snippits. I tried to enjoy it because I know its a very unique experience, but it's hard to sit for hours and not understand much and get carted around from place to place without really knowing where you're going.
The rest of the week I spent bored out of my mind at the clinic because again, all I could really do was observe and search for files (see picture below). Also, there's pretty much no one at the clinic after 2 pm.
Instead of recounting every detail of my stay, I would like to describe 2 people to you.
The dad, Monsieur Sow: The second night that he came home he also acted as if he didn't recognize me and again asked my name. He then went into the house and I didn't hear from him again until the phone started ringing. He yelled for the maid to get it (she was out buying something) and then for his wife to get it (she was praying) and since neither of them answered, instead of walking to get the phone himself, he walked outside to see why no one was responding to him. Night 3: He recognized me at last! His wife had gone to Dakar for a meeting at ASBEF headquarters so he decided to call her. For some reason she hung up on him twice in a row. A little while later he came back in and told me be was going to get a beer. He is Muslim and this is strictly prohibited. Night 4: He remembers me again! He goes into the house and later in the evening I hear him yelling at his wife (she had returned from Dakar). He was speaking Wolof but I could kind of tell what he was saying. My hunch was confirmed when he came back out of the house to tell me, "You don't know what's going on but it's not right. I wanted to drink a glass of water but I didn't have a glass. The maid wasn't there and my wife wasn't there. Is that normal? Is that what would happen at your house?" Well, I don't think he really wanted to hear what I had to say about that so I jsut kind of shrugged and he eventually went back into the house.
Ndeye: The woman who cleans at ASBEF but mostly just hangs around there during the day. I never really liked her when I was there in 2002 because she was always asking if she could have my things and bothering me because I couldn't speak Wolof (but I've improved a lot since then so that isn't so much a problem anymore). One of the first things she said to me was, "What did you bring me as a gift?" so I told her I brought myself. Apparently that wasn't good enough because then she asked if she could have my jean jacket. She kept doing this periodically during my stay. She even told me that I should being her to the US with me to be my maid.
There are more stories but my brain is getting tired and this entry is getting really long!
Conclusion: Kaolack is a very strange place with strange people and I can now see why I went crazy there is 2002. Time seems to stop there and my 3 day stay dragged on and on. It obviously would have been better if I had friends to visit, etc. but the town doesn't have much going for it. It's basically a transit stop that connects 5 major roads, is FULL of garbage and smelly water, is ridiculously hot (33 C in mid-Feb...that's a little over 90 F), has many flies and MANY mosquitos. I feel bad saying this but I wish it would have just been a transit spot for me. Overall though, I'm glad that I went back to see my host family (well, the mom at least). I think it meant a lot to them.
Charts in disarray! 
House - View from front gate
La petite côte
I'm back!
Last time we left off I think I was about to leave to go traveling for a bit. Well, now I'm back from the adventures with stories to tell. I left Dakar with Lamine on Friday evening in a Peugeot station wagon thing called a sept-place (like seven places to sit) for the gare routière, a crazy, dirty parking lot type place where you can find transport going to ever part of the country. It's surprising organized considering the chaos that you see while walking through. The ground is covered in garbage and black residue. There are people all over directing people where to find the cars that will get then to the right location and vendors walking around and selling a variety of items, especially food and water. The fares generally end up coming out to about two dollars per hour of travel. I wish places like this existed in the US! Unfortunately, Lamine and I found a sept-place going to Saly-Mbour (they are right next to each other) that only had 2 spots left so we were squished in the back in the undesirable seats. Our driver was CRAZY and since the traffic was bad going out of the city (it reminds me of trying to get to northern MN in the summer because there is pretty much only one road out and everyone wants to use it at the same time), he decided to do a little off-roading at high speeds. Super fun. He ended up getting pulled over eventually. I'm not sure if he had to pay a fine but right after he got done with the police man he went right on off-roading and speeding.
We made it to Saly in about 2 hours and went to see Lamine's friend Habib who is currently working there on a construction project. Saly is a strange city because it's probably the most touristy place in the country, with a very high concentration of fancy hotels, restaurants, banks/cash machines, villas owned by white people, and the white people themselves. It almost had the feel of a sleepy American beach town. The good thing about having all the white people around is that you don't get harassedd as much because there are already so many others around! In any case, it's quite a strange place but nice to go for a weekend because it's kind of like taking a break from Senegal for a while.
Saly at Night
Saturday morning we went to see Habib at his construction site (he had to work that weekend for some reason). At first I didn't know what they were building but assumed it was a complex of villas for rich people to puchase. Boy was I wrong! They are building a soccer training complex that is beautiful but I can't help but wonder if the money couldn't have been spent on other more important things....like maybe education or health? Hmmm...well, I suppose it will help the country in some way....I hope.
Habib had to go back to work fairly quickly so Lamine and I headed to the Réserve de Bandia, a wildlife park near Saly. We tried to get a taxi to take us there but he wanted 7000 CFA (about 14 dollars). That was a ridiculous price so we took a Niang Ndiaye (ex-MSIDers, I have no idea how to spell this!), a white mini-bus type thing there instead and payed about 60 cents each. The guidebook said that you need a car to enter but since we obviously didn't have one of those, we decided to check it out anyway in hopes that they would have vehicles to rent. Luckily, they did. The only catch was that they were super expensive (well, by Senegalese and my standards). We decided to have lunch and wait to see if another group without a car would show up. Sadly, they didn't. However, since I will possibly never make it back there, I decided that we should go anyway. It only ended up costing about 83 dollars for the car, the guide, and 2 entrance passes. It ended up being well worth the money because it was kind of like a 2 hour mini-safari. While there were no big lions or tigers, we did see giraffes, rhinos, lots of cool birds, warthogs, little monkeys and lots of different gazelle and cow-like animals.
Since Saly is well-known for it's beautiful beaches, I forced us to spend Sunday at the beach. I say forced because Lamine thinks that it's still too cold to go to the beach. He’s crazy because it’s getting hot here! I laid in the sand whild he ran on the beach and did his sports stuff so we were both happy. While it is warm enough to lay out in the sun, he is right about the water. It's definitely not warm enough for swimming yet! I could only manage to go in up to my legs.
After the beach, we packed up our stuff and went back to the gare routière where I got into a sept-place headed for the much less appealing Kaolack and Lamine got in one headed back to Dakar.
Last time we left off I think I was about to leave to go traveling for a bit. Well, now I'm back from the adventures with stories to tell. I left Dakar with Lamine on Friday evening in a Peugeot station wagon thing called a sept-place (like seven places to sit) for the gare routière, a crazy, dirty parking lot type place where you can find transport going to ever part of the country. It's surprising organized considering the chaos that you see while walking through. The ground is covered in garbage and black residue. There are people all over directing people where to find the cars that will get then to the right location and vendors walking around and selling a variety of items, especially food and water. The fares generally end up coming out to about two dollars per hour of travel. I wish places like this existed in the US! Unfortunately, Lamine and I found a sept-place going to Saly-Mbour (they are right next to each other) that only had 2 spots left so we were squished in the back in the undesirable seats. Our driver was CRAZY and since the traffic was bad going out of the city (it reminds me of trying to get to northern MN in the summer because there is pretty much only one road out and everyone wants to use it at the same time), he decided to do a little off-roading at high speeds. Super fun. He ended up getting pulled over eventually. I'm not sure if he had to pay a fine but right after he got done with the police man he went right on off-roading and speeding.
We made it to Saly in about 2 hours and went to see Lamine's friend Habib who is currently working there on a construction project. Saly is a strange city because it's probably the most touristy place in the country, with a very high concentration of fancy hotels, restaurants, banks/cash machines, villas owned by white people, and the white people themselves. It almost had the feel of a sleepy American beach town. The good thing about having all the white people around is that you don't get harassedd as much because there are already so many others around! In any case, it's quite a strange place but nice to go for a weekend because it's kind of like taking a break from Senegal for a while.
Saly at Night
Saturday morning we went to see Habib at his construction site (he had to work that weekend for some reason). At first I didn't know what they were building but assumed it was a complex of villas for rich people to puchase. Boy was I wrong! They are building a soccer training complex that is beautiful but I can't help but wonder if the money couldn't have been spent on other more important things....like maybe education or health? Hmmm...well, I suppose it will help the country in some way....I hope.
Habib had to go back to work fairly quickly so Lamine and I headed to the Réserve de Bandia, a wildlife park near Saly. We tried to get a taxi to take us there but he wanted 7000 CFA (about 14 dollars). That was a ridiculous price so we took a Niang Ndiaye (ex-MSIDers, I have no idea how to spell this!), a white mini-bus type thing there instead and payed about 60 cents each. The guidebook said that you need a car to enter but since we obviously didn't have one of those, we decided to check it out anyway in hopes that they would have vehicles to rent. Luckily, they did. The only catch was that they were super expensive (well, by Senegalese and my standards). We decided to have lunch and wait to see if another group without a car would show up. Sadly, they didn't. However, since I will possibly never make it back there, I decided that we should go anyway. It only ended up costing about 83 dollars for the car, the guide, and 2 entrance passes. It ended up being well worth the money because it was kind of like a 2 hour mini-safari. While there were no big lions or tigers, we did see giraffes, rhinos, lots of cool birds, warthogs, little monkeys and lots of different gazelle and cow-like animals.
Since Saly is well-known for it's beautiful beaches, I forced us to spend Sunday at the beach. I say forced because Lamine thinks that it's still too cold to go to the beach. He’s crazy because it’s getting hot here! I laid in the sand whild he ran on the beach and did his sports stuff so we were both happy. While it is warm enough to lay out in the sun, he is right about the water. It's definitely not warm enough for swimming yet! I could only manage to go in up to my legs.
After the beach, we packed up our stuff and went back to the gare routière where I got into a sept-place headed for the much less appealing Kaolack and Lamine got in one headed back to Dakar.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
The Burkina Visa, the "Conference" and Tamxarit
First, I have a ticket home! I'll be back in the States on July 23rd, 2 days before my birthday that I may or may not be awake for :)
Second, did you know that you can send me text messages? I don't know how much they cost but my guess is a quarter. All you have to do is put "011 221 457 7418" as my number and send! I can even reply for about 20 cents.
Well, hello from Kaolack, the city where I did my more rural internship. It's pretty much how I remember it but oh so strange! Seriously, I think this is where Senegal harbors its strange citizens. Also, I think it's the water and I'm not kidding. There really is something in it that make people's teeth turn brown. It's pretty gross. Most people in Senegal seem to have lovely white teeth, but not here! The teeth are brown and many are sticking out in all directions. I have some some strange tales to tell (I've only been here 2 days!) but those will be for later.
Now it is time to tell of Tamxarit, the Muslim New Year that took place last Wednesday (and the rest of the day).
I spent the morning and part of the afternoon getting my visa for Burkina Faso, which better be a nice country because the visa cost me 60 dollars! It was quite easy to get the visa after I found the embassy. The woman at Air Burkina had told me the wrong neighorhood (that's pretty much the only way you can find stuff here) and told me it was across from a building that it was actually connected to. My poor taxi driver was not very happy when I told him I actually didn't know where I was going. Then some nice man from the water service helped us figure it out by asking a bunch of people and then calling the embassy.
The next part of the day I spent downtown with some of the people from ASBEF at what I was told was a conference. It definitely wasn't a conference. It was more of a presentation about obstetrical fistules (sp?) and the launch of the campaign to address this problem. For those of you don't know what a fistule is and won't be grossed out by the definition, please continue reading. Otherwise, skip to the next paragraph :) A fistule a condition that can occur during child birth in which the tissue of the vagina and the bladder are damaged and join together (this can also happen with the rectum) and the woman can no longer control her urine (or bowel, or both) because of the damage. As you can imagine, this causes many problems and often results in the woman being abandoned by her family and husband. The baby often dies from complicated labor. This often happens when a baby is too large for the mother's body, especially in young women. There was a lot of talk about how the problem could be addressed by not giving young girls away for marriage at a young age.
Okay, gross description over. Anyway, it was interesting but long and sometimes very boring because they kept switching to Wolof. Also, the seats in the theater were WAY too close together and my legs were not comfortable.
When we finally left the conference, I did not go back to ASBEF because I didn't have anything to do there (as usual). I was trying to get a taxi to take me back to the Burkina embassy to get my visa when this guy came up and started talking to me (surprise, surprise). He invited me to his house for couscous, the food that everyone eats for Tamxarit. Yeah right. But then after unsuccessfully bargaining for a taxi, he decided to counsel me on ways to get to the embassy for less money. he presented several options involving different buses and modes of transportation but I really wanted a taxi. Then he decided to find me a "taxi clandestine", taxis that I think are illegal and take more than one person around for a fairly cheap price. Instead, I ended up in a taxi with 3 Senegalese women who were apparently going to same direction as me. So strange. So I did end up getting where I needed to go for about a third of the price!
Now to Tamxarit, the Muslim New Year. Senegalese couscous is the meal that EVERYONE eats for this holiday, although I don't really know why. It's couscous made from millet and it is much coarser than Moroccan couscous (what you are all probably used to eating). I like to say that it resembles sand and many Senegalese people will even agree with me on that one! It also doesn't have that much of a flavor. Yeah, so I don't really like it but it's the traditional food of the day so obviously I ate it. I went to Vieux's house for dinner and ended up paying an huge amount for a taxi there because it was a holiday and the traffic was super bad. Also probably because I am white.
Nothing too exciting about the dinner. Senegalese couscous with sauce and meat. There is a belief that if you don't eat enough on Tamxarit you will hungry for the rest of the year, so obviously I was forced to eat WAY more on the couscous than I wanted to. Luckily Vieux's wife works at a restaurant that her mom owns and is a very good cook.
The other interesting part of the holiday is what the childran do at night. They paint their faces white, the boys dress up like girls and the girls dress up like boys, and they walk around the streets banging pots and pans and asking people for money and treats. It's kind of like Halloween but I don't actually know the story behind it. It's a very funny sight to see though!
Sometimes I just have to laugh at my life here!
Second, did you know that you can send me text messages? I don't know how much they cost but my guess is a quarter. All you have to do is put "011 221 457 7418" as my number and send! I can even reply for about 20 cents.
Well, hello from Kaolack, the city where I did my more rural internship. It's pretty much how I remember it but oh so strange! Seriously, I think this is where Senegal harbors its strange citizens. Also, I think it's the water and I'm not kidding. There really is something in it that make people's teeth turn brown. It's pretty gross. Most people in Senegal seem to have lovely white teeth, but not here! The teeth are brown and many are sticking out in all directions. I have some some strange tales to tell (I've only been here 2 days!) but those will be for later.
Now it is time to tell of Tamxarit, the Muslim New Year that took place last Wednesday (and the rest of the day).
I spent the morning and part of the afternoon getting my visa for Burkina Faso, which better be a nice country because the visa cost me 60 dollars! It was quite easy to get the visa after I found the embassy. The woman at Air Burkina had told me the wrong neighorhood (that's pretty much the only way you can find stuff here) and told me it was across from a building that it was actually connected to. My poor taxi driver was not very happy when I told him I actually didn't know where I was going. Then some nice man from the water service helped us figure it out by asking a bunch of people and then calling the embassy.
The next part of the day I spent downtown with some of the people from ASBEF at what I was told was a conference. It definitely wasn't a conference. It was more of a presentation about obstetrical fistules (sp?) and the launch of the campaign to address this problem. For those of you don't know what a fistule is and won't be grossed out by the definition, please continue reading. Otherwise, skip to the next paragraph :) A fistule a condition that can occur during child birth in which the tissue of the vagina and the bladder are damaged and join together (this can also happen with the rectum) and the woman can no longer control her urine (or bowel, or both) because of the damage. As you can imagine, this causes many problems and often results in the woman being abandoned by her family and husband. The baby often dies from complicated labor. This often happens when a baby is too large for the mother's body, especially in young women. There was a lot of talk about how the problem could be addressed by not giving young girls away for marriage at a young age.
Okay, gross description over. Anyway, it was interesting but long and sometimes very boring because they kept switching to Wolof. Also, the seats in the theater were WAY too close together and my legs were not comfortable.
When we finally left the conference, I did not go back to ASBEF because I didn't have anything to do there (as usual). I was trying to get a taxi to take me back to the Burkina embassy to get my visa when this guy came up and started talking to me (surprise, surprise). He invited me to his house for couscous, the food that everyone eats for Tamxarit. Yeah right. But then after unsuccessfully bargaining for a taxi, he decided to counsel me on ways to get to the embassy for less money. he presented several options involving different buses and modes of transportation but I really wanted a taxi. Then he decided to find me a "taxi clandestine", taxis that I think are illegal and take more than one person around for a fairly cheap price. Instead, I ended up in a taxi with 3 Senegalese women who were apparently going to same direction as me. So strange. So I did end up getting where I needed to go for about a third of the price!
Now to Tamxarit, the Muslim New Year. Senegalese couscous is the meal that EVERYONE eats for this holiday, although I don't really know why. It's couscous made from millet and it is much coarser than Moroccan couscous (what you are all probably used to eating). I like to say that it resembles sand and many Senegalese people will even agree with me on that one! It also doesn't have that much of a flavor. Yeah, so I don't really like it but it's the traditional food of the day so obviously I ate it. I went to Vieux's house for dinner and ended up paying an huge amount for a taxi there because it was a holiday and the traffic was super bad. Also probably because I am white.
Nothing too exciting about the dinner. Senegalese couscous with sauce and meat. There is a belief that if you don't eat enough on Tamxarit you will hungry for the rest of the year, so obviously I was forced to eat WAY more on the couscous than I wanted to. Luckily Vieux's wife works at a restaurant that her mom owns and is a very good cook.
The other interesting part of the holiday is what the childran do at night. They paint their faces white, the boys dress up like girls and the girls dress up like boys, and they walk around the streets banging pots and pans and asking people for money and treats. It's kind of like Halloween but I don't actually know the story behind it. It's a very funny sight to see though!
Sometimes I just have to laugh at my life here!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Au bord de la mer (et Magicland)
Casie, I'm going to warn you that this post might make you jealous!
Medina is a neighborhood in Dakar that is....well, hard to describe. I hear that it was once very crime ridden but is better now. It's definitely one of the liveliest, busiest and crowded neighborhoods. I think it's also one of the poorest, although I could be mistaken about that. It kind of had an inner city feel without the fear of getting mugged or confronted by someone stumbling around drunk. I actually kind of like it better there than in my neighborhood because people aren't all hidden in their houses being waited on. They are out in the streets and interacting with each other.
Anyway, I had several friends who lived in Medina while I was studying abroad but only visited there a few times because it was just far enough from where I lived to be inconvenient. However, the people who did there had an amazing experience and made great friends. Casie is one of them (hi Case!!!) and she send me back to Senegal with gifts to give to her friend Laye and her other friends in the neighborhood. Sunday was the night that I finally went to Medina to see Laye and bring him his gifts. On the phone he said something to me like "Je vais preparer quelque chose au bord de la mer" (I'm going to prepare something by the ocean). I didn't think this would actually happen.
When I got to Medina I was taken around to the necessary houses to say hello to a bunch of people I didn't know and may or may not have met when I visited the neighborhood in 2002-2003. They all have a better memory of me than I do of them. I ended up sitting at Helen's old house (hi Helen!) for quite a while while Laye got things together to grill fish on the beach (or more accurately, on rocks and sand near the ocean). He got everything together, sent most of the stuff down to the water with his friends, and then took me to the Soumbadiounne fish market (I have NO idea how to spell that!!), a place where I would NEVER have the guts to go alone.
It was one of the most beautiful markets I have ever been in. Of course there are women in colorful prints everywhere, but there are also many stands selling all kinds of vegetables and rows and rows of different types of fish that can be gutted, scaled and have the fins chopped off before your eyes. Stella's doesn't know that West Africa has it beat on the freshness of its fish!! I was very surprised by the variety of fish that was available because as far as I can tell, there is one a few kind of fish that have ever been served to me. Laye chose some fish that I had never seen before but that he assured me were very good.
We brought the fish back to this rocky sandy just outside the walls of the crazy Magicland place I mentioned in my last post. This is also a place where I would never have come by myself because the people you have to walk by to get there seem a little....strange, though harmless. If only Magicland visitors knew about the garbage and squatters (sp??) just outside its walls. Very stark contrast. We grilled the fish and ate them. It was very lovely and a very nice change from whatever else I would have ended up doing that night. Senegalese hospitality almost makes me uncomfortable at times because Laye kept paying for stuff and I know he doesn't have very much money. And I don't even know Laye all that well but a friend of a friend is automatically a friend here, but probably mostly only if they are American. I also know that it makes them happy to be hospitable so sometimes you just have to sit back and accept what is offered to avoid offending.
Medina is a neighborhood in Dakar that is....well, hard to describe. I hear that it was once very crime ridden but is better now. It's definitely one of the liveliest, busiest and crowded neighborhoods. I think it's also one of the poorest, although I could be mistaken about that. It kind of had an inner city feel without the fear of getting mugged or confronted by someone stumbling around drunk. I actually kind of like it better there than in my neighborhood because people aren't all hidden in their houses being waited on. They are out in the streets and interacting with each other.
Anyway, I had several friends who lived in Medina while I was studying abroad but only visited there a few times because it was just far enough from where I lived to be inconvenient. However, the people who did there had an amazing experience and made great friends. Casie is one of them (hi Case!!!) and she send me back to Senegal with gifts to give to her friend Laye and her other friends in the neighborhood. Sunday was the night that I finally went to Medina to see Laye and bring him his gifts. On the phone he said something to me like "Je vais preparer quelque chose au bord de la mer" (I'm going to prepare something by the ocean). I didn't think this would actually happen.
When I got to Medina I was taken around to the necessary houses to say hello to a bunch of people I didn't know and may or may not have met when I visited the neighborhood in 2002-2003. They all have a better memory of me than I do of them. I ended up sitting at Helen's old house (hi Helen!) for quite a while while Laye got things together to grill fish on the beach (or more accurately, on rocks and sand near the ocean). He got everything together, sent most of the stuff down to the water with his friends, and then took me to the Soumbadiounne fish market (I have NO idea how to spell that!!), a place where I would NEVER have the guts to go alone.
It was one of the most beautiful markets I have ever been in. Of course there are women in colorful prints everywhere, but there are also many stands selling all kinds of vegetables and rows and rows of different types of fish that can be gutted, scaled and have the fins chopped off before your eyes. Stella's doesn't know that West Africa has it beat on the freshness of its fish!! I was very surprised by the variety of fish that was available because as far as I can tell, there is one a few kind of fish that have ever been served to me. Laye chose some fish that I had never seen before but that he assured me were very good.
We brought the fish back to this rocky sandy just outside the walls of the crazy Magicland place I mentioned in my last post. This is also a place where I would never have come by myself because the people you have to walk by to get there seem a little....strange, though harmless. If only Magicland visitors knew about the garbage and squatters (sp??) just outside its walls. Very stark contrast. We grilled the fish and ate them. It was very lovely and a very nice change from whatever else I would have ended up doing that night. Senegalese hospitality almost makes me uncomfortable at times because Laye kept paying for stuff and I know he doesn't have very much money. And I don't even know Laye all that well but a friend of a friend is automatically a friend here, but probably mostly only if they are American. I also know that it makes them happy to be hospitable so sometimes you just have to sit back and accept what is offered to avoid offending.
Where The Streets Have No Names
First, my big news of the day: I've been accepted to the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health! They just sent me an email actually. I applied to the Global Health MPH program.
Now time for a post that I've really been meaning to do since the beginning and which I think will be of particular interest to people who have lived in Dakar: things that have changed. Here is the list of the things that I have noticed so far.
-There are more and newer buses (not all of them are new but I think the fact that even some of them are new is a significant change). Now the buses come preatty much every 10-15 minutes, although I doubt they are on a schedule. They also go many more places. In addition, little white mini-bus things have been added to the public transit scene just about a month ago I've been told. I have no idea where they go or how much they cost, but they are running.
-There are street signs!!! I don't think any one really pays attention to them or uses them for that matter, but they have been put up. I found that pretty impressive. When I was here before in 2002-2003, I was very much bothered by the fact that street signs pretty much didn't exist. Now that they have been put up, it's not nearly as satisfying as I would have hoped. My host family lives on DD-21 and I live on KR-08 or something like that. Not too exciting. The letters come from the name of the neighborhood.
-There seems to be more of a presence of traffic cops directing traffic. This seems to make the traffic patterns a little less crazy. Thank goodness!
-Taxes and cars have stopped honking so much (thank goodness again!) and now flash their brights to get people's attention.
-The Mobil station by WARC has expanded! Now it's got 3 little fastfood places inside and a little jungle gym things for kids. I hardly even recognized the corner when I first saw it.
-There has been a strange emergence of amusement park type places. One is in Baobab and it is a bumper car thing. The other is an ACTUAL amusement park complete with a ferris wheel and located next to Terrou-bi Casino (not too surprising). I'm scared of it. It's way too wierd to have that in Dakar. Now when you look down the Corniche from Medina you see a ferris wheel in the distance!!
-Fewer people yelling toubab (white person/foreigner)!!
-People downtown seem to be less aggressive, but that could just be because I'm used to blowing them off and ignoring them now. Or maybr they've figured out that gtting aggressive and in people's faces doesn't make them want to buy things from you.
-The money has changed! The bills are smaller, the 5000 CFA is now green, a blue 2000 CFA bill has been added, and the 500 CFA bill has now been replaced with a coin.
-Somehow violet and red eyebrows have become trendy. Senegalese makeup can be strange and unnatural enough to begin with (mostly just for big occasions). Now many women have taken to plucking their eyebrows out and replacing them with red or violet lines. Granted, it doesn't look as wierd on them as it would look on me, but still.
Now time for a post that I've really been meaning to do since the beginning and which I think will be of particular interest to people who have lived in Dakar: things that have changed. Here is the list of the things that I have noticed so far.
-There are more and newer buses (not all of them are new but I think the fact that even some of them are new is a significant change). Now the buses come preatty much every 10-15 minutes, although I doubt they are on a schedule. They also go many more places. In addition, little white mini-bus things have been added to the public transit scene just about a month ago I've been told. I have no idea where they go or how much they cost, but they are running.
-There are street signs!!! I don't think any one really pays attention to them or uses them for that matter, but they have been put up. I found that pretty impressive. When I was here before in 2002-2003, I was very much bothered by the fact that street signs pretty much didn't exist. Now that they have been put up, it's not nearly as satisfying as I would have hoped. My host family lives on DD-21 and I live on KR-08 or something like that. Not too exciting. The letters come from the name of the neighborhood.
-There seems to be more of a presence of traffic cops directing traffic. This seems to make the traffic patterns a little less crazy. Thank goodness!
-Taxes and cars have stopped honking so much (thank goodness again!) and now flash their brights to get people's attention.
-The Mobil station by WARC has expanded! Now it's got 3 little fastfood places inside and a little jungle gym things for kids. I hardly even recognized the corner when I first saw it.
-There has been a strange emergence of amusement park type places. One is in Baobab and it is a bumper car thing. The other is an ACTUAL amusement park complete with a ferris wheel and located next to Terrou-bi Casino (not too surprising). I'm scared of it. It's way too wierd to have that in Dakar. Now when you look down the Corniche from Medina you see a ferris wheel in the distance!!
-Fewer people yelling toubab (white person/foreigner)!!
-People downtown seem to be less aggressive, but that could just be because I'm used to blowing them off and ignoring them now. Or maybr they've figured out that gtting aggressive and in people's faces doesn't make them want to buy things from you.
-The money has changed! The bills are smaller, the 5000 CFA is now green, a blue 2000 CFA bill has been added, and the 500 CFA bill has now been replaced with a coin.
-Somehow violet and red eyebrows have become trendy. Senegalese makeup can be strange and unnatural enough to begin with (mostly just for big occasions). Now many women have taken to plucking their eyebrows out and replacing them with red or violet lines. Granted, it doesn't look as wierd on them as it would look on me, but still.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The One Month Update
I'm back from my little absence, which means that I have been busy!
Last Tuesday I met again with Aziz, the director of my old internship, and he gave me a few more people to contact, but not too surprisingly, I haven't heard anything yet. Tuesday night, Vieux (see last post) called me and said "What are you doing tomorrow? I don't work until the evening so we should go visit ASBEF (where I had my first internship, though since the youth center no longe exists, he was talking about the headquarters). Seeing as I had nothing else to do, I went. I felt a little hesitant about it because Aziz was telling me about how I shouldn't go back there and Vieux was telling me that I should. Vieux, Aziz and ASBAF have a strange history of conflict that I don't really understand. Vieux tried to explain it to me but the two sides of the story dont really match up. Basically Aziz says that ASBEF is not well run etc, etc. and Vieux says that it was Aziz who didn't run the youth center well and is responsible for it's closing. I don't really know.
They have a new director since the last time I was there (I hear the last directer of the headquarters also did a bad job of managing). I seems fine now and there are always many people. They do family planning, pre and post natal checkups, vaccinations, gynocology and pediatrics. So (and Kris is going to hate me for this!) I guess I'm back there, having no other options at this point! It's actually a very interesting place to be although I haven't gotten to do much yet. I like the fact that they have a clinical aspect because the other places I was looking at were purely office settings. It's not as interesting as the youth center was though because there were ALWAYS kids around and activities going on.
The other bad part about the internship, besides the fact that is boring at times, is the fact that I don't feel very invested in it. I won't be there for all that long because of some traveling that I have decided to do (more on that later) and there's not all that much I can actually do besides observe. Maybe by the end of the week they will have fiured out something productive that I can do for them.
In the area of travel, I will hopefully be leaving Dakar for about 9 days. Lamine really wants to visit one of his friends in Mbour, a fairly touristy beach/fishing town about 80 km down the coast from Dakar (yes, my life is in metric now) so I think that we are going there for the weekend. Then I want to travel on to Kaolack, the armpit of Senegal, where I had my first internship. It's not a very small town but it's definitely more rural than Dakar. It's SO SO dirty and not really a place that I would normally choose to spent any amount of time. I want to go back to see the family that I stayed with there since I left on the not the besr terms, having gone crazy from the Larium I was taking. I spent the whole morning before I left crying because I thought I was dying. I think I can make a better impression than that. I originally wanted to travel all the way to Kédougou in the SE corner of the country but that's really really far and I don't think that I will have time because the transport would take so long. I have compromised and am thinking of just traveling a bit south of Kaolack to the Sine Saloum Delta, which is actually quite green. There are a few national parks, lots of birds, and forest and boating tours.
However, the lost exciting excursion that I be taking is to Burkina Faso and Ghana with my friend Anne who is currently doing Peace Corps in Niger. We are going to meet in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (best city name ever)where we will get our visas for Ghana. I'm EXCITED. I hear good things about both countries and Ghana is so green and has beautiful beaches! The whole trip is going to last 2 weeks. Then a few days after I get back, Nicki will be arriving and then 2 weeks after that I will be leaving for Morocco. My how time flies! I shouldn't get too ahead of myself though because there is still quite a bit of time left to spend here.
In other news, I have actually been watching soccer! The Africa Cup of Nations is going on in Egypt at the moment, although I doubt there is really any US coverage of it. Senegal played so well but they just got eliminated in the semi-finals earlier today. Egypt won, which did NOT make us happy because we want someone from sub-Saharan Africa to win. The final is going to be Egypt against Cote d'Ivoire so there is still a chance!
The weather has started getting warmer already. It was cold one day and then the next day it was hot. I remember the weather changes being sudden here. I am very amused though because one day everyone was saying how cold it was (Lamine said he didn't want to cut his hair yet because he would get headaches from the cold ...what??) and the next day everyone was complaining about how hot it is. Whatever people.
Okay, that's all for now. Ciao.
Last Tuesday I met again with Aziz, the director of my old internship, and he gave me a few more people to contact, but not too surprisingly, I haven't heard anything yet. Tuesday night, Vieux (see last post) called me and said "What are you doing tomorrow? I don't work until the evening so we should go visit ASBEF (where I had my first internship, though since the youth center no longe exists, he was talking about the headquarters). Seeing as I had nothing else to do, I went. I felt a little hesitant about it because Aziz was telling me about how I shouldn't go back there and Vieux was telling me that I should. Vieux, Aziz and ASBAF have a strange history of conflict that I don't really understand. Vieux tried to explain it to me but the two sides of the story dont really match up. Basically Aziz says that ASBEF is not well run etc, etc. and Vieux says that it was Aziz who didn't run the youth center well and is responsible for it's closing. I don't really know.
They have a new director since the last time I was there (I hear the last directer of the headquarters also did a bad job of managing). I seems fine now and there are always many people. They do family planning, pre and post natal checkups, vaccinations, gynocology and pediatrics. So (and Kris is going to hate me for this!) I guess I'm back there, having no other options at this point! It's actually a very interesting place to be although I haven't gotten to do much yet. I like the fact that they have a clinical aspect because the other places I was looking at were purely office settings. It's not as interesting as the youth center was though because there were ALWAYS kids around and activities going on.
The other bad part about the internship, besides the fact that is boring at times, is the fact that I don't feel very invested in it. I won't be there for all that long because of some traveling that I have decided to do (more on that later) and there's not all that much I can actually do besides observe. Maybe by the end of the week they will have fiured out something productive that I can do for them.
In the area of travel, I will hopefully be leaving Dakar for about 9 days. Lamine really wants to visit one of his friends in Mbour, a fairly touristy beach/fishing town about 80 km down the coast from Dakar (yes, my life is in metric now) so I think that we are going there for the weekend. Then I want to travel on to Kaolack, the armpit of Senegal, where I had my first internship. It's not a very small town but it's definitely more rural than Dakar. It's SO SO dirty and not really a place that I would normally choose to spent any amount of time. I want to go back to see the family that I stayed with there since I left on the not the besr terms, having gone crazy from the Larium I was taking. I spent the whole morning before I left crying because I thought I was dying. I think I can make a better impression than that. I originally wanted to travel all the way to Kédougou in the SE corner of the country but that's really really far and I don't think that I will have time because the transport would take so long. I have compromised and am thinking of just traveling a bit south of Kaolack to the Sine Saloum Delta, which is actually quite green. There are a few national parks, lots of birds, and forest and boating tours.
However, the lost exciting excursion that I be taking is to Burkina Faso and Ghana with my friend Anne who is currently doing Peace Corps in Niger. We are going to meet in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (best city name ever)where we will get our visas for Ghana. I'm EXCITED. I hear good things about both countries and Ghana is so green and has beautiful beaches! The whole trip is going to last 2 weeks. Then a few days after I get back, Nicki will be arriving and then 2 weeks after that I will be leaving for Morocco. My how time flies! I shouldn't get too ahead of myself though because there is still quite a bit of time left to spend here.
In other news, I have actually been watching soccer! The Africa Cup of Nations is going on in Egypt at the moment, although I doubt there is really any US coverage of it. Senegal played so well but they just got eliminated in the semi-finals earlier today. Egypt won, which did NOT make us happy because we want someone from sub-Saharan Africa to win. The final is going to be Egypt against Cote d'Ivoire so there is still a chance!
The weather has started getting warmer already. It was cold one day and then the next day it was hot. I remember the weather changes being sudden here. I am very amused though because one day everyone was saying how cold it was (Lamine said he didn't want to cut his hair yet because he would get headaches from the cold ...what??) and the next day everyone was complaining about how hot it is. Whatever people.
Okay, that's all for now. Ciao.
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