As you may have noticed, I’m really bad at thinking of titles. It’s one of my biggest weaknesses.
Anyway, hello there readers of my blog! Long time no talk! Speaking of that, I apologize in advance for the amount of time that occurs between my future posts; we’re just getting busier and busier it seems, and the beginning of workshops/rural village stays/presentations/assignments is not going to aid in my ability to post blogs.
In other news, I left off with the beach last Wednesday. Since then much has happened, let’s put my memory to the test.
Thursday: After an uneventful day at school I decided to share a taxi home with some people who live near me—to cut the cost and to avoid being alone with a taxi driver (my fears of such an event finally came true, I’ll explain in the “Monday” section.) Avery was planning to get off at a university that is on the way to our houses where a friend from home is studying abroad, and Alex and I were invited to come along if we wanted. The driver decided at first not to listen to our directions at ALL and brought us to the wrong university, so we ended up paying more for him to bring us to the right place. Unfortunately, though, Avery didn’t see the university as we passed it and we ended up walking for about half an hour, backtracking to find it. Once we got there we met up with a bunch of other toubabs (white people) and played Frisbee and discussed our African adventures (they’ve been here 2 weeks longer than us so we got a few tips). We played with a couple little boys who wanted to join in our Frisbee game, so that was cute. I got home late and took some pictures of my family (or rather my sister took pictures of her family), ate dinner and went to bed.
Friday: Half of our class took a field trip to L’Ile de Gorée (which I’ll be doing this Friday) and my half went to the Musée l’IFAN. It was pretty interesting, it was very tiny for a museum and we only stayed for about an hour. There were a lot of mannequins displaying traditional African ceremonies/masks/costumes, those were frightfully real and were definitely my favorite part of the museum. Afterwards I went with a few girls downtown to check out the market and get lunch. Later I took a “car rapide” for the first time, which is a big van-thing (half have really intricate murals painted on them, half are white—the white ones are called “njagga njaay” but are exactly the same) PACKED with people. It costs 20 cents (American) to get from my school to my house; by taxi it’s over $2 for the 15-minute ride. The only drawback I see for the car rapide is fear of theft, so I’ll probably just put locks on my backpack and start saving some money! Everyone was supposed to go out dancing but the people with whom I was going to share a taxi all decided not to, and I was very happy to just go to bed. Oh, and I got a cold.
Saturday: Weekends in a Senegalese household mean a LOT of just sitting around and relaxing. I’ve been told it’s partially because it’s “winter” here and people don’t go out much when it’s “cold” (cold meaning 70s to 80s every day and always sunny), but it seems like weekends are just a time to be with family. I asked if I could help a little with the cooking and dishes and my family let me! I cooked French Fries (which are a part of almost every meal) and crushed a bunch of spices with a giant mortar and pestle. I also touched a pepper that is very very hot and was immediately told to wash my hands with soap. I’m not sure if it was because they thought it would burn my skin or because we eat with our hands and the taste would linger…but I did wash my hands and nothing eventful happened.
Sunday: I did my laundry!!! This was an all-day process. It began with me asking my sister to teach me, and my mother telling me to go buy a packet of soap from the boutique next door. I went to leave and my sister yelled, take Kewe with you! I thought, okay, they want the 3-year-old to get out of the house for a minute and do something exciting—but no. They wanted the 3-year-old to talk to the cashier for me and buy my soap, because I’m helpless. (I think they just figured I would get charged too much because I’m white, so I guess I’m thankful for Kewe’s help.) Anyway laundry was fun, I have blisters but at least I know how to do it now. And I smell better.
Monday: The day began with my taxi ride. I argued with the driver over the price (as one does every time before they get into the taxi) and it was pretty animated, but I ended up getting the price I wanted. He had no idea where he was going so I had to show him every turn and correct him when he made a guess. I thought he was really annoyed with me but he turned around after one of my corrections and said, I love you. I just kind of ignored him, so he said it again. I said thank you. He then kept saying it, and saying something about marriage—I thought he was asking if I was married, so I kept responding, yes, I’m married. I’m not sure that’s what he was actually asking though, because after I responded he’d ask again…I always feel confused here but I think it helped me in this situation because it kind of stalled him from trying to make a relationship with me. I asked him to stop when I was pretty close to the school and I got out. He told me he loved me one last time and blew me a kiss. I ignored him and handed him the money, and walked in toward the school. He followed me slowly with his car. I didn’t want him to know where I was going, so I passed the school and went to a store. Sadly it was early enough that all the stores were closed, so I just made it look like I was looking for the hours. He waited. After I ignored him long enough he blew one last kiss and drove away. I don’t want to take taxis anymore.
On a more positive note, we started our dance/djembe workshops!!! I absolutely LOVE to just be able to lose my thoughts in the music and really give myself to art. We’re being taught by very famous people who are both very unique and hilarious in their own ways. For djembe we sat in a semi-circle and practiced “domba” and “lamba,” the first two rhythms, while our teacher and another man drummed, and a man who looked and acted frightfully similar to someone I know in the U.S. just sat and gave encouraging smiles and thumbs-ups. I really enjoy playing and was encouraged when our teacher pointed me out to say I was doing things right! Dance took place in a small, very warm room with similarly hilarious/awkward drummers and our teacher, Touti, who is very intense and…I’m not sure of words to describe her. Hopefully update on that later.
Tuesday: I took the car rapide to school (actually I lied, it was the njagga njaay). For lunch I finally went to this place that might be called “Restaurant” or “Plat du jour” or it might not have a name. But it’s just this one table in a little hut (it seats about 12 people) and a very excited friendly man who cooks the food. He serves a different dish every day, it’s all you can eat for under $2. Today we had my FAVORITE Senegalese meal: Yaasa Poulet. We ate of big trays shared between 3 people each, it was wonderful and cheap and a really neat experience. We had our workshops again, my knuckles are bruised from djembe and my quads are sore from dance, but it’s a good, accomplished kind of pain. Afterwards I worked with my group to finish our presentation on Senegalese fabrics, which we will present Wednesday morning.
And now it is Tuesday night. I just saw the weather on TV and I have to say it was very, very weird to picture myself on that map instead of the usual map of New England.
Ba Beneen Yoon,
EmilyJ
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