I find it a little bit humorous that I updated so much more when I had MUCH less reliable/accessible internet…
That said, yes, I did make it back to the states; yes, I’ve been home for 3 whole weeks; yes, I am happy to be home but also have mixed feelings about not being in Senegal anymore… let me just tell you what I’ve been up to.
I got home on May 17th, after a surprisingly smooth voyage through 3 different airports and successful transport of my kora as well (what are the chances of that!?) and walked out of the terminal right as my family was arriving! Starting in Paris, I was surrounded by herds of white people—and thought I recognized each and every one of them. It’s psychologically proven that a person of one race can see more nuances in the facial features of others of that same race; I think that, because it had been so long since I’d seen so many people of my own race, I recognized all these features and kept thinking everyone was someone I knew. It was bizarre. So arriving in Burlington as these 3 strangely-familiar but probably-not-people walked towards me with surprised looks on their faces and open arms was quite confusing to me. My brother’s about a foot taller than when I left, but other than that it felt oddly…normal.
I visited my grandparents and the Pearls, and then went back to my real home—not some Senegalese family’s house that even taxi drivers can’t find with the street address, not a house-turned-study-abroad-program-schoolroom, not a round cement hut covered with a straw roof containing one mattress that I have all to myself the family sleeps outside, not a tent placed under a mango tree and carefully lined with blankets in the 100 degree weather, not a huge empty room with a tin roof and me in the middle surrounded by all the children of the village, not a little room on the roof of a boarding house next door to goats and one of the only hot-water showers in Dakar—this was my real home, with MY family and kittycats and a dwarf hamster and chickens and a kitchen and electricity and hot running water an a kitchen table and silverware and furniture and wall decorations and my bed!!!! Whew! But, even with all that change…nothing seemed new. Except the color of the kitchen, and the fact that I knew what we were having for dinner before it was even being prepared.
Nothing seemed new to me but I ate with my hands. All I talked about was Senegal, because that’s all that was on my mind. I expected to be paying so much attention to the simple pleasures I’d been missing for the past 4 months and hearing about everything that went on at home while I was gone, but it was like I was still in Senegal! Nothing was new because I hadn’t changed my mindset.
I spent two weeks at home: cooking, visiting with family, seeing friends and people I know from town—basically consuming 14 days that seemed like 2. Obviously it was wonderful to see everyone and finally spend time with these people I missed so much for the last 4 months…it just surprised me how normal it felt.
On May 31 I left again, this time to Hanover, NH to start my internship at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical center, in the Arts program. I moved into the house where I’ll be living for the summer, which is very quiet and quite lonely at this point because it’s finals week and everyone is either studying or out in the wilderness trying to get away from studying. I started my job that Monday, June 1st, and so far I LOVE it!!! I’ve been mostly doing odd jobs for now until I start shadowing the artist in residence, which should be sometime soon…next week or the week after maybe? I’ve been filing/organizing, doing lots of typing (labels for artwork, artists’ biographies, price lists, etc.), helping artists transport/hang/take down their work, photographing/documenting all the artwork in the hospital, copying lots of papers and distributing them all around to the information desks…basically office-type jobs for now. But that’s what I’m good at, and I love organizing things, and my advisor is great, so I’m very happy with my job!!! I ride the free bus there and back, I work 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, and am cooking lots of meals in a…well, I won’t say a nice kitchen, but it has a counter, a stove and running water so I can’t complain. And no cockroaches! That’s one Senegalese thing I don’t miss.
Anyway, as of now, even after looking through all my pictures and reading through my journals, I still have a really hard time comprehending that I ever actually went anywhere. There are some points I’ve thought about a bit, so I’ll try to explain those:
-Walking through the hospital the other day, I realized that I’ve gone through a huge and kind of disturbing change of environment: from a poverty-stricken country obviously in need of medical care to a sterile, what now seems like over-privileged, hospital. This point has many sub-points, most having to do with money, different views of the word “necessity,” etc...but what I notice most is the disposition of the ill people (or, I guess, how I perceive their disposition). In the hospital, although the staff and atmosphere are inviting and friendly, there is an eerie ambiance…people waiting for their ill loved ones are worried and fidgety, the ill are unhappy to be in this hospital setting and seem to just want to get on with their lives minus these tests and sterile white hallways…I’m really not sure how to go about explaining this but I think anyone who has spent time in a hospital would understand. In the villages probably a larger percent of the population (village vs. hospital) was sick…but that didn’t stop them from living their lives, from carrying water from the well, from visiting and kissing and hugging loved ones, from eating out of the communal bowl, or from raising a family, even if that meant that their children would carry on this sickness... I know that this wasn’t quite a case of “ignorance is bliss,” because my families made it very clear to me that they knew that medicine was out there and they knew people had access to it; I just wonder if it was the hopelessness of ever receiving care for their sicknesses that made them appreciate life and continue to live it, if it was a different cultural outlook on life…? The difference in atmosphere between these two communities is just baffling to me. It’s hard to think about because of the infinite number of possible explanations for all the differences…but yes I guess my point is that it’s been difficult adjusting to life at the hospital.
-My next point I’ve thought about a lot but was never really able to put into words. Then I got an email from my much more eloquent friend Avery who apparently was feeling exactly the same way, so I’m going to steal his explanation for this one (excerpt):
“…and here I was back in my own home, and for different reasons I felt like a celebrity all over again. Only this time, I didn't like the attention at all. I guess I was hoping my experience would just become a part of me right away and it would be invisible to others unless I decided to share it (I've noticed I'm hella selfish about Senegal because no one is as fun to talk to about Senegal as the people I was in Senegal with and thus I don't even want to bother with most). Luckily I've found the more people I run into the fewer seem to know where I've been and I love the power of throwing it in as a fun fact at random points in discussion just to see the reaction I get!”
And the next part is a story by Avery; I’ve had many situations like this but not quite so funny, so I’m being lazy and using his:
“My favorite so far has to be that of my Dental Hygienist!! You know how they always talk to you when clearly you are incapable of responding with more than a handful of words before they jab you with metal tools and spray water off your front teeth all over your face and then blow air in your mouth as if its going to help the situation. Then they suck out your drool excessively until you feel like your choking on your tongue because it’s dried up only to ask you another question you can't answer. Well this time was different! She asked all the same questions, but as soon as I mentioned Senegal, she couldn't stop asking questions. She was so interested in my experience and project and excursions...etc that she kept stopping to let me respond and tell her more…”
With this thought in mind, it’s really neat being at Dartmouth where the majority of people study abroad; it’s not that amazing to them that I went to Africa or that I studied abroad at all, so I feel much less of that uncomfortable celebrity-esque sentiment. People don’t give me that vague, unanswerable question: “How was Senegal?” What can I say to that?? My most concise and accurate answer I’ve come up with so far is: “It was any adjective that you can possibly think of.”
Ahhhh anyway there are SO many other things I’ve been thinking about (materialism is a biggie) but I have trouble putting things into words, if you haven’t noticed.
Oh but before I put an end to this I would like to share a little story. The other day I was on Facebook and noticed one of my friends’ statuses was in Wolof, and it said something like “I miss Senegal.” I didn’t find this weird at all until I noticed it wasn’t a friend from my trip; it turned out to be a girl who was apparently there the whole time I was but with a different study abroad program, in the same city, who lived in the same town as me in a different homestay, and who I probably saw walking down the street and didn’t recognize because it just would have been too bizarre to see someone I knew from VERMONT, USA in SENEGAL. Right?! It was her first night home and it was so interesting to talk to her about her experience, to see what she noticed, what she hated and loved and missed…maybe that’s why I’m not that willing to go into ALL my thoughts here, because I just finished going through all of them with her!
Anyway.
Overall:
I am not sad to have left Senegal.
My time in Senegal now seems like a dream, and though I read at points in my journal how slow time seemed to be going or how difficult it was, it now seems like a whir of happiness that passed by, a little tributary off of my real life.
I feel uncomfortable judging the Senegalese culture after living there for only 3.5 months and not even fluently speaking ANY language there. But I can’t help but compare our cultures and tend to prefer most aspects of my own.
I miss a lot of things about Senegal. A LOT of things.
But I’m glad to be home.
I don’t want to overload the contemplative tone of this blog, so I think I’ll stop here. But this means maybe I will update again someday with new thoughts!
Until then…
Ba Beneen. Inchallah.
-Emily
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Last post from Abroad...
Welcome, friends, to my last update from Senegal! This is unreal for me, that I feel like I’ve been here forever and that I really have a life here, but I also feel like it just started and like I haven’t even left my homes in Vermont and Alfred…I’m having many mixed feelings about this, but have really been enjoying this last week!
Friday, May 8
I handed in my ISP around noon, and it was like dropping a large dumbbell that I’d been carrying on my shoulders for the past month. I left the school through a crowd of students hunched over their computers typing frantically, sat on my roof in the beautiful sun and did my laundry.
I then met Bethany and Kenna for the second attempt at visiting my homestay family (we were going to go the day before but Bethany ended up having to have a meeting and hamburgers and…it just never worked out). We walked along the ocean all the way to Ouakam, and finally got to my old house. It was very…unreal to be back there and I had mixed feelings about this meeting. I got to the door and strangely, it was locked. The family knew I was coming, I had called twice to tell them and they were looking forward to the package I was delivering them (sent to me by one of their past homestay students), so it seemed weird that they wouldn’t be there. I called my sister Aminta and she said something to the effect of, “there’s a problem with the house, we moved to my sister’s house.” I’m not sure if she meant for the night, for a little while, or permanently, but I was a little frustrated that they hadn’t let me know before I made the trip. She said though that she’d be at the Final Party the following day so I could bring her the package then…so I went home.
That night I met Alex at the Thai restaurant and we had a delicious dinner and multiple desserts, and stayed there talking until the restaurant closed. I got home around 1AM and played some kora, starting to prepare for my upcoming performance at the resort.
Saturday, May 9
I met Megan for lunch at Les Ambassades, a glorious little French restaurant packed with cakes and pastries of all shapes and sizes. Afterwards we went on a very short souvenir-shopping trip at Marché Tilène, the market I fell in love with the first time I went downtown so many months ago. We then headed to the Final Party at SIT, where we’d all get to say our final goodbyes to our homestay families and see the art everyone had created during the Art workshops earlier in the semester. There was a band playing (consisting of my 2 griot kora teachers, my djembe teacher, my dance teacher, a balafon player and a singer), and tons and tons of food. I expected my family to show up because a) they really wanted that package and b) they told me they’d be there to say goodbye…but they never did. A man I’d never seen before came to pick up the package to bring to them, saying the mother was in the hospital so they couldn’t make it (I never found out whether she really WAS in the hospital or not); as this was my 3rd try to say goodbye to a family with whom I never really connected, I just told him to say goodbye for me.
Later that night, after another lovely family dinner, Abby and I put on Madagascar II for Aida, the 3-year-old in our house, and her cousins who were visiting (half-Italian, half-Senegalese, beautiful children), in French. Sally came over later (since she had lived in this house for the first 2 months) and we had a little sleepover and packed for the trip to Mbour!
Sunday, May 10
We all gathered at SIT in the morning to see the first of the presentations: a kora presentation, some dancing and some visual arts. It was really great to see what everyone has accomplished in the past month! The presentations are almost like a little talent show.
After visiting the Village Des Arts for the visual arts presentations, we hopped on a bus to Mbour. We got keys to our bungalows (I was with Erin and Elena) and entered the beautiful 2-level hut we’d be lounging in for the next week. I worked on my presentation that evening while my friends went to the market, played some kora, and relaxed. What a lovely escape from Dakar!
Monday, May 11
In the morning we had more presentations, took a break for lunch, and then mine was the first one in the afternoon. I got to experience my wonderful nerves! The presentation didn’t go AWFULLY, it was just extremely choppy, sweaty, and many wrong notes were played among the right ones. I was just SO relieved when it was over! For the rest of the week I’d be able to relax, lounge on the beach, and just enjoy others’ presentations without the pressure of thinking about my own. Afterwards I went with Megan and Erin to get thiakry (which I will miss immensely in the US) and we walked around and explored the town a little. We went to a supermarket, which was a little bit of a culture shock.
Tuesday, May 12
In the morning we had more presentations, and then in the afternoon we had an optional excursion to L’Île de Coquillage (shell island) which is famous for the mix of Muslims and Catholics living together and sharing a cemetery (90% Catholic and 10% Muslim, so pretty much the opposite of the rest of Senegal). We explored the touristy island and walked around the beautiful cemetery, and then on the way home were planning on stopping at President Senghor’s birth house (which is now a museum). Before the museum, however, we stopped at a place called Warang, where many liquers are made from exotic fruits. Sarah, one of the program directors, wanted to buy some for her family, but the students wanted to check it out too. So we all went in and were offered a “tasting,” which consisted of I think 7 consecutive shots of their various liquors: pineapple-grapefruit, tamarin, ginger, hibiscus, passionfruit, mango, and chocolate-banana-coffee. I must say, it was one of the most surprising and wonderful group excursions we’ve had so far! Needless to say, the bus ride back to the hotel was a little crazy.
After dinner there was a party going on for Lucy’s birthday in the big bungalow so we went there and danced for a while, and then sat in a circle and played “Most Likely To…” where we went around the circle and chose what we thought everyone would be most likely to do in their lives. I was “most likely to have dreads down to my feet” and “most likely to start my own line of organic macaroni and cheese.” I think the second one is fitting. Around 11 we heard a very loud round of what sounded like gunshots right outside the hut, but it turned out to be fireworks on the beach! Apparently there was a party going on at the resort next door for some Belgian chefs…and there was a neighbor who showed up very angry that the unexpected fireworks had woken up his 2-year-old son, and was threatening to “kill someone”….so we left pretty quickly after watching the beautiful show. At midnight everyone sang me “Happy Birthday!” And soon I went to bed, because I am an old woman.
Wednesday, May 13
My 21st birthday!!! We had presentations in the morning, then spent some relaxing time on the beach, and in the late afternoon I went to the Mbour market with Erin. The first 20 minutes were about the most hellish 20 minutes I could imagine; a strange man trying to convince us that it’s obligatory for a Senegalese person to “guide and protect” every white person who comes to the market, and therefore following us around constantly while we tried to tell him to leave us alone and that we could “protect” ourselves, we had lived in Senegal for over 3 months and weren’t stupid; then his friend joining in and telling us there was no way they could leave us alone; us standing still and staring at the ground, trying to make them give up on us; us speedwalking through a maze of small market paths trying to lose them; them finding us and me being extremely angry and yelling at them; them continuing to follow us and us finally having a shopowner tell the men to leave us alone. Whew. I was fuming. “Steaming mad.” After they finally left the market was lovely! On the way back to the resort in a taxi we made some friends, the taxi driver and another man in the taxi, but then the car stopped working so we switched to a different one. That night we had a lovely dinner and watched “Juno” afterwards on the projector, while Erin, Alex and I shared the homemade mango-passionfruit wine and the hibiscus wine I had purchased at the monastery, and it was delectable. A very relaxing, happy birthday ☺
Thursday, May 14
We finished presentations in the morning (meaning ISP is officially OVER!) and had a little re-entry/goodbye session, which I think is just an incomprehensible idea for everyone here. The rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach, swimming, filling out evaluation forms, and eating wonderful huge amounts of curry and vegetables. In the evening SIT provided us with 3 “surprises”: Been (1): luscious creamy ice cream; Naar (2): crab races and prizes; Neent (3): drumming and dancing. It was cute. Afterwards it was only about 11, and Erin, Elena, Megan and I went back to my bed to lounge and talk and all passed out within 10 minutes.
Friday, May 15
This morning we had to say goodbye to four members of our group who are taking flights out of Dakar tonight. It’s so unreal to think that tomorrow I’ll be getting on a plane and coming home. I’m not going to reflect much now, I still have tomorrow in Dakar and I’ll do a final update once I get home…basically the last couple days of things are anxious for me; I hate goodbyes!
So, I guess…I’ll see you soon! Really soon!
Love☺
Friday, May 8
I handed in my ISP around noon, and it was like dropping a large dumbbell that I’d been carrying on my shoulders for the past month. I left the school through a crowd of students hunched over their computers typing frantically, sat on my roof in the beautiful sun and did my laundry.
I then met Bethany and Kenna for the second attempt at visiting my homestay family (we were going to go the day before but Bethany ended up having to have a meeting and hamburgers and…it just never worked out). We walked along the ocean all the way to Ouakam, and finally got to my old house. It was very…unreal to be back there and I had mixed feelings about this meeting. I got to the door and strangely, it was locked. The family knew I was coming, I had called twice to tell them and they were looking forward to the package I was delivering them (sent to me by one of their past homestay students), so it seemed weird that they wouldn’t be there. I called my sister Aminta and she said something to the effect of, “there’s a problem with the house, we moved to my sister’s house.” I’m not sure if she meant for the night, for a little while, or permanently, but I was a little frustrated that they hadn’t let me know before I made the trip. She said though that she’d be at the Final Party the following day so I could bring her the package then…so I went home.
That night I met Alex at the Thai restaurant and we had a delicious dinner and multiple desserts, and stayed there talking until the restaurant closed. I got home around 1AM and played some kora, starting to prepare for my upcoming performance at the resort.
Saturday, May 9
I met Megan for lunch at Les Ambassades, a glorious little French restaurant packed with cakes and pastries of all shapes and sizes. Afterwards we went on a very short souvenir-shopping trip at Marché Tilène, the market I fell in love with the first time I went downtown so many months ago. We then headed to the Final Party at SIT, where we’d all get to say our final goodbyes to our homestay families and see the art everyone had created during the Art workshops earlier in the semester. There was a band playing (consisting of my 2 griot kora teachers, my djembe teacher, my dance teacher, a balafon player and a singer), and tons and tons of food. I expected my family to show up because a) they really wanted that package and b) they told me they’d be there to say goodbye…but they never did. A man I’d never seen before came to pick up the package to bring to them, saying the mother was in the hospital so they couldn’t make it (I never found out whether she really WAS in the hospital or not); as this was my 3rd try to say goodbye to a family with whom I never really connected, I just told him to say goodbye for me.
Later that night, after another lovely family dinner, Abby and I put on Madagascar II for Aida, the 3-year-old in our house, and her cousins who were visiting (half-Italian, half-Senegalese, beautiful children), in French. Sally came over later (since she had lived in this house for the first 2 months) and we had a little sleepover and packed for the trip to Mbour!
Sunday, May 10
We all gathered at SIT in the morning to see the first of the presentations: a kora presentation, some dancing and some visual arts. It was really great to see what everyone has accomplished in the past month! The presentations are almost like a little talent show.
After visiting the Village Des Arts for the visual arts presentations, we hopped on a bus to Mbour. We got keys to our bungalows (I was with Erin and Elena) and entered the beautiful 2-level hut we’d be lounging in for the next week. I worked on my presentation that evening while my friends went to the market, played some kora, and relaxed. What a lovely escape from Dakar!
Monday, May 11
In the morning we had more presentations, took a break for lunch, and then mine was the first one in the afternoon. I got to experience my wonderful nerves! The presentation didn’t go AWFULLY, it was just extremely choppy, sweaty, and many wrong notes were played among the right ones. I was just SO relieved when it was over! For the rest of the week I’d be able to relax, lounge on the beach, and just enjoy others’ presentations without the pressure of thinking about my own. Afterwards I went with Megan and Erin to get thiakry (which I will miss immensely in the US) and we walked around and explored the town a little. We went to a supermarket, which was a little bit of a culture shock.
Tuesday, May 12
In the morning we had more presentations, and then in the afternoon we had an optional excursion to L’Île de Coquillage (shell island) which is famous for the mix of Muslims and Catholics living together and sharing a cemetery (90% Catholic and 10% Muslim, so pretty much the opposite of the rest of Senegal). We explored the touristy island and walked around the beautiful cemetery, and then on the way home were planning on stopping at President Senghor’s birth house (which is now a museum). Before the museum, however, we stopped at a place called Warang, where many liquers are made from exotic fruits. Sarah, one of the program directors, wanted to buy some for her family, but the students wanted to check it out too. So we all went in and were offered a “tasting,” which consisted of I think 7 consecutive shots of their various liquors: pineapple-grapefruit, tamarin, ginger, hibiscus, passionfruit, mango, and chocolate-banana-coffee. I must say, it was one of the most surprising and wonderful group excursions we’ve had so far! Needless to say, the bus ride back to the hotel was a little crazy.
After dinner there was a party going on for Lucy’s birthday in the big bungalow so we went there and danced for a while, and then sat in a circle and played “Most Likely To…” where we went around the circle and chose what we thought everyone would be most likely to do in their lives. I was “most likely to have dreads down to my feet” and “most likely to start my own line of organic macaroni and cheese.” I think the second one is fitting. Around 11 we heard a very loud round of what sounded like gunshots right outside the hut, but it turned out to be fireworks on the beach! Apparently there was a party going on at the resort next door for some Belgian chefs…and there was a neighbor who showed up very angry that the unexpected fireworks had woken up his 2-year-old son, and was threatening to “kill someone”….so we left pretty quickly after watching the beautiful show. At midnight everyone sang me “Happy Birthday!” And soon I went to bed, because I am an old woman.
Wednesday, May 13
My 21st birthday!!! We had presentations in the morning, then spent some relaxing time on the beach, and in the late afternoon I went to the Mbour market with Erin. The first 20 minutes were about the most hellish 20 minutes I could imagine; a strange man trying to convince us that it’s obligatory for a Senegalese person to “guide and protect” every white person who comes to the market, and therefore following us around constantly while we tried to tell him to leave us alone and that we could “protect” ourselves, we had lived in Senegal for over 3 months and weren’t stupid; then his friend joining in and telling us there was no way they could leave us alone; us standing still and staring at the ground, trying to make them give up on us; us speedwalking through a maze of small market paths trying to lose them; them finding us and me being extremely angry and yelling at them; them continuing to follow us and us finally having a shopowner tell the men to leave us alone. Whew. I was fuming. “Steaming mad.” After they finally left the market was lovely! On the way back to the resort in a taxi we made some friends, the taxi driver and another man in the taxi, but then the car stopped working so we switched to a different one. That night we had a lovely dinner and watched “Juno” afterwards on the projector, while Erin, Alex and I shared the homemade mango-passionfruit wine and the hibiscus wine I had purchased at the monastery, and it was delectable. A very relaxing, happy birthday ☺
Thursday, May 14
We finished presentations in the morning (meaning ISP is officially OVER!) and had a little re-entry/goodbye session, which I think is just an incomprehensible idea for everyone here. The rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach, swimming, filling out evaluation forms, and eating wonderful huge amounts of curry and vegetables. In the evening SIT provided us with 3 “surprises”: Been (1): luscious creamy ice cream; Naar (2): crab races and prizes; Neent (3): drumming and dancing. It was cute. Afterwards it was only about 11, and Erin, Elena, Megan and I went back to my bed to lounge and talk and all passed out within 10 minutes.
Friday, May 15
This morning we had to say goodbye to four members of our group who are taking flights out of Dakar tonight. It’s so unreal to think that tomorrow I’ll be getting on a plane and coming home. I’m not going to reflect much now, I still have tomorrow in Dakar and I’ll do a final update once I get home…basically the last couple days of things are anxious for me; I hate goodbyes!
So, I guess…I’ll see you soon! Really soon!
Love☺
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Maangi Bind... Bouba! (I write...a lot!)
Hey there,
Just a little update because I’m at SIT where the internet actually works!
Sunday, May 3
I got up nice and early and took the longest, most needed, and most effective shower of my life! I’m really appreciating the hot water in this house, and the wireless internet…it’s kind of spoiling me but getting me back into “U.S. mode!” I then spent the morning starting my ISP paper, and got quite a bit done on an outline. Abby and I took a walk to buy water so I got to see more of the neighborhood, and then later in the afternoon Erin and I took her two homestay “sisters” (they’re actually the two maids who live/work in her homestay house but she calls them her sisters) to Ngor Island, an island just off the tip of Dakar. We rode a Pirogue (a big wooden fishing boat) to get over there and landed on a disgustingly touristy section of the island where they were trying to charge us $4 apiece to rent beach chairs. We decided to walk to the back of the island and explore a bit; we saw some beautiful rocky cliffs and it was so calm and empty. We then found a little quiet private beach and the three of them swam there while I waded and watched our bags, and then the woman who owned the beach came to swim and made friends with us so she gave us a blanket to sit on and a man brought us coffee! It was SO relaxing, a real escape from Dakar. I walked home and hung out with Abby in our rooms, ate dinner with the family, and hung out in the living room while they watched soccer.
Monday, May 4
I worked on my ISP in the morning and then went to the shack for lunch, where Megan was cooking Ceebu Jen for lunch! (She’s doing her project on Ceebu Jen, the national dish of Senegal (fish and rice) and along with her research on its place in culture and other subjects related to her area of anthropology, she’s cooking it in I think 11 different places!) Neexoon na (It was delicious) but I was in a hurry to meet with my advisor: he was bringing me my kora!!!! And we were going to go to the fabric market together to pick out the fabric for the case. After waiting for him for 45 minutes I finally called to ask if he was still coming (he’s not the most punctual of people, but then again no one in Senegal is ever on time), but he told me I must have misheard him, he wasn’t coming until 3:30. I have trouble seeing how I could have misheard “treize heures” as “quinze heures et demie,” especially when I repeated “treize heures” back to him and he agreed…but I didn’t get too upset since, magically, this is the first time during my ISP that time has really caused an issue. So I met him around 4:15 when he finally showed up, and he had my kora! He tuned it and showed me how to tune it, and he kept asking me how much I’d sell it back to him for, because he loved it too much. We didn’t end up going to the fabric market together because he had to get back home for some reason, but I went anyway with Lucy who wanted to pick out some fabric. Afterwards I came home to work on my ISP but the power went out, so I played my new kora in the dark and it was delightful. It’s very different from the koras I’m used to at the monastery, but hopefully I’ll be able to get used to it before my presentation next week…
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
I woke up early to work on my ISP paper and to prepare for my morning meeting: a discussion with Ethnomusicologist Gaby Ba, who came to SIT early in the semester to do a presentation of traditional African instruments. I had called him the previous day to see if I could meet with him to get some help analyzing my findings from my kora field research and he seemed happy to help! So at around 9AM I left the house to get a taxi to his town, and because I arrived about 40 minutes early, I decided to explore his town a bit and sit and watch the waves crash on the beach. Of course this couldn’t happen in solitude, because when a white girl sits down alone on a hill overlooking a beach that’s a sure sign that she wants to talk to a Senegalese man, right? Let me give you a brief overview of almost every conversation I’ve had with a Senegalese man. (In French, of course)
Me: [tries to avoid eye contact or any sign of interest]
Him: [quickly approaching, sometimes grabbing my arm so I’ll stop walking away from him] Hello my beautiful woman. How are you?
Me: [obviously uninterested] I’m fine, thanks.
Him: Fine? You are from what country?
Me: The United States.
Him: Are you married?
Me: Yes.
Him: With an American, or a Senegalese?
Me: An American.
Him: Oh, then it’s no problem!
Obviously there are variations sometimes, like the “are you married” comes before “you are from what country,” or occasionally he’ll ask some filler questions before the “are you married” like “how do you like Senegal?” or “How long have you been here?” or “Where do you live?” etc. I am just getting absolutely fed up with knowing the intentions of the majority of Senegalese men and knowing that makes it impossible to establish any sort of friendship or even just have a normal conversation with men on the streets. Of course I’m not trying to stereotype these people and I know there exist many, many men who do NOT have this intention…it’s just the men who approach white women, who happen to be the only men I end up talking to. It’s a vicious cycle.
Anyway, after escaping from my new friend “Roby,” I went to my meeting with Gaby and he showed me around his house. He introduced me to his family and then brought me into a room and said, “and this is another student,” and to my surprise Isa, another girl on my trip, was sitting on his patio! I guess he’s her advisor and they were in the middle of a meeting when I arrived, but it was quite the surprise to find someone I knew in a stranger’s house!
We had the interview in a little room he was turning into a studio, filled with traditional African instruments and an exercise ball. He sat on the exercise ball, bouncing and rolling during the meeting, and it was a little hard to take him seriously. But the meeting went really well, we had some really interesting conversations and it definitely added to the analysis of my project.
Later I went back to the shack for lunch because Megan was cooking again, this time Ceebu Jen Rouge (red rice with fish), and afterwards walked to a tailor with Erin. I came home to work on my ISP, showered (again?!) and ate a mango as a reward for my hard work (the shower or the ISP?). Just in case you were wondering, this trip has taught me a lot, and among other important skills (such as extreme rudeness to Senegalese men and vendors, ability to survive on mainly rice, and tendency to get infected wounds) I have become an expert at cutting mangos. I only hope that the Pearls have forgotten the one time in my life before coming to Senegal that I tried to cut a mango. How embarrassing.
Wednesday, May 6
I worked on my ISP for most of the morning and in the afternoon met for my final Advisor meeting. I went through my whole paper with Edouard, explaining what every paragraph said (it’s in English and he speaks French). It went really well, he gave me a good evaluation, and it’s just really nice to have that last meeting done so I don’t have to worry about planning things AND trying to finish my paper.
That night I went out to eat Ethiopian food with Abby, Nicola and Michael’s mom (Michael didn’t end up going because he went to the doctor instead). It was a really cute restaurant on the roof, with pretty couches around tiny tables. The food was delicious, we each ordered a plate and just shared them all so we could try a bunch of different things. Yum yum.
The rest of the night just basically involved more writing, nothing too exciting.
Thursday, May 7
I think I pretty much finished my ISP! I just need to keep reading it and keep editing it…and what I REALLY need to do is practice the kora. I haven’t done that at all this week because I’ve been writing so much, and when I take breaks I don’t feel like doing something ELSE that has to do with my project. I found out I’m presenting on Monday afternoon, and I still have no idea what I’ll be doing for this presentation.
I went to SIT expecting to meet Bethany to go and visit my homestay family, but she ended up having other things to do…so hopefully we’ll go tomorrow. Tonight I hope to practice the kora…other than that, I don’t have much new to say! It’s amazing how little there is to say about the intense-writing week. It makes me realize how little I’ve actually done.
Anyway, after tomorrow our ISPs will be officially DONE and all that leaves is the presentations!
Lots of love!
Just a little update because I’m at SIT where the internet actually works!
Sunday, May 3
I got up nice and early and took the longest, most needed, and most effective shower of my life! I’m really appreciating the hot water in this house, and the wireless internet…it’s kind of spoiling me but getting me back into “U.S. mode!” I then spent the morning starting my ISP paper, and got quite a bit done on an outline. Abby and I took a walk to buy water so I got to see more of the neighborhood, and then later in the afternoon Erin and I took her two homestay “sisters” (they’re actually the two maids who live/work in her homestay house but she calls them her sisters) to Ngor Island, an island just off the tip of Dakar. We rode a Pirogue (a big wooden fishing boat) to get over there and landed on a disgustingly touristy section of the island where they were trying to charge us $4 apiece to rent beach chairs. We decided to walk to the back of the island and explore a bit; we saw some beautiful rocky cliffs and it was so calm and empty. We then found a little quiet private beach and the three of them swam there while I waded and watched our bags, and then the woman who owned the beach came to swim and made friends with us so she gave us a blanket to sit on and a man brought us coffee! It was SO relaxing, a real escape from Dakar. I walked home and hung out with Abby in our rooms, ate dinner with the family, and hung out in the living room while they watched soccer.
Monday, May 4
I worked on my ISP in the morning and then went to the shack for lunch, where Megan was cooking Ceebu Jen for lunch! (She’s doing her project on Ceebu Jen, the national dish of Senegal (fish and rice) and along with her research on its place in culture and other subjects related to her area of anthropology, she’s cooking it in I think 11 different places!) Neexoon na (It was delicious) but I was in a hurry to meet with my advisor: he was bringing me my kora!!!! And we were going to go to the fabric market together to pick out the fabric for the case. After waiting for him for 45 minutes I finally called to ask if he was still coming (he’s not the most punctual of people, but then again no one in Senegal is ever on time), but he told me I must have misheard him, he wasn’t coming until 3:30. I have trouble seeing how I could have misheard “treize heures” as “quinze heures et demie,” especially when I repeated “treize heures” back to him and he agreed…but I didn’t get too upset since, magically, this is the first time during my ISP that time has really caused an issue. So I met him around 4:15 when he finally showed up, and he had my kora! He tuned it and showed me how to tune it, and he kept asking me how much I’d sell it back to him for, because he loved it too much. We didn’t end up going to the fabric market together because he had to get back home for some reason, but I went anyway with Lucy who wanted to pick out some fabric. Afterwards I came home to work on my ISP but the power went out, so I played my new kora in the dark and it was delightful. It’s very different from the koras I’m used to at the monastery, but hopefully I’ll be able to get used to it before my presentation next week…
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
I woke up early to work on my ISP paper and to prepare for my morning meeting: a discussion with Ethnomusicologist Gaby Ba, who came to SIT early in the semester to do a presentation of traditional African instruments. I had called him the previous day to see if I could meet with him to get some help analyzing my findings from my kora field research and he seemed happy to help! So at around 9AM I left the house to get a taxi to his town, and because I arrived about 40 minutes early, I decided to explore his town a bit and sit and watch the waves crash on the beach. Of course this couldn’t happen in solitude, because when a white girl sits down alone on a hill overlooking a beach that’s a sure sign that she wants to talk to a Senegalese man, right? Let me give you a brief overview of almost every conversation I’ve had with a Senegalese man. (In French, of course)
Me: [tries to avoid eye contact or any sign of interest]
Him: [quickly approaching, sometimes grabbing my arm so I’ll stop walking away from him] Hello my beautiful woman. How are you?
Me: [obviously uninterested] I’m fine, thanks.
Him: Fine? You are from what country?
Me: The United States.
Him: Are you married?
Me: Yes.
Him: With an American, or a Senegalese?
Me: An American.
Him: Oh, then it’s no problem!
Obviously there are variations sometimes, like the “are you married” comes before “you are from what country,” or occasionally he’ll ask some filler questions before the “are you married” like “how do you like Senegal?” or “How long have you been here?” or “Where do you live?” etc. I am just getting absolutely fed up with knowing the intentions of the majority of Senegalese men and knowing that makes it impossible to establish any sort of friendship or even just have a normal conversation with men on the streets. Of course I’m not trying to stereotype these people and I know there exist many, many men who do NOT have this intention…it’s just the men who approach white women, who happen to be the only men I end up talking to. It’s a vicious cycle.
Anyway, after escaping from my new friend “Roby,” I went to my meeting with Gaby and he showed me around his house. He introduced me to his family and then brought me into a room and said, “and this is another student,” and to my surprise Isa, another girl on my trip, was sitting on his patio! I guess he’s her advisor and they were in the middle of a meeting when I arrived, but it was quite the surprise to find someone I knew in a stranger’s house!
We had the interview in a little room he was turning into a studio, filled with traditional African instruments and an exercise ball. He sat on the exercise ball, bouncing and rolling during the meeting, and it was a little hard to take him seriously. But the meeting went really well, we had some really interesting conversations and it definitely added to the analysis of my project.
Later I went back to the shack for lunch because Megan was cooking again, this time Ceebu Jen Rouge (red rice with fish), and afterwards walked to a tailor with Erin. I came home to work on my ISP, showered (again?!) and ate a mango as a reward for my hard work (the shower or the ISP?). Just in case you were wondering, this trip has taught me a lot, and among other important skills (such as extreme rudeness to Senegalese men and vendors, ability to survive on mainly rice, and tendency to get infected wounds) I have become an expert at cutting mangos. I only hope that the Pearls have forgotten the one time in my life before coming to Senegal that I tried to cut a mango. How embarrassing.
Wednesday, May 6
I worked on my ISP for most of the morning and in the afternoon met for my final Advisor meeting. I went through my whole paper with Edouard, explaining what every paragraph said (it’s in English and he speaks French). It went really well, he gave me a good evaluation, and it’s just really nice to have that last meeting done so I don’t have to worry about planning things AND trying to finish my paper.
That night I went out to eat Ethiopian food with Abby, Nicola and Michael’s mom (Michael didn’t end up going because he went to the doctor instead). It was a really cute restaurant on the roof, with pretty couches around tiny tables. The food was delicious, we each ordered a plate and just shared them all so we could try a bunch of different things. Yum yum.
The rest of the night just basically involved more writing, nothing too exciting.
Thursday, May 7
I think I pretty much finished my ISP! I just need to keep reading it and keep editing it…and what I REALLY need to do is practice the kora. I haven’t done that at all this week because I’ve been writing so much, and when I take breaks I don’t feel like doing something ELSE that has to do with my project. I found out I’m presenting on Monday afternoon, and I still have no idea what I’ll be doing for this presentation.
I went to SIT expecting to meet Bethany to go and visit my homestay family, but she ended up having other things to do…so hopefully we’ll go tomorrow. Tonight I hope to practice the kora…other than that, I don’t have much new to say! It’s amazing how little there is to say about the intense-writing week. It makes me realize how little I’ve actually done.
Anyway, after tomorrow our ISPs will be officially DONE and all that leaves is the presentations!
Lots of love!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
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