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
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Kora Galora and the beginning of Crunch Time
Hello All, I'm back in the world of technology after what seemed like a very quick week (that ended my kora lessons!)...here's what I've been up to!
Friday, April 24
As I mentioned in the end of my last post: after my lesson I left for Dakar; I had a lovely, stress-free trip and saw some new places, so I didn’t mind paying the extra…lot…to take a taxi as opposed to a car rapide (which would have been nearly impossible with my kora). Later that evening I went back to the boarding house, where I was sharing a room with Abby for a couple nights, and took a warm, much-needed shower (luxury!).
I ate dinner with the family, which was a wonderful mutton-pea stew that I’ve only eaten in that house but which might be my favorite Senegalese meal. It rivals maffé and yassa and feels healthier (by healthier I mean it contains lots of peas)…so it’s a tough decision. That night Erin and I went to listen to some music at a little club called Pen Art. Her uncle Samba met us there so that was fun; the music was amazing, but what was the most interesting for me was observing the bizarre mix of people who came to listen. Let’s just say there were some people getting REALLY into the dancing: Senegalese dancing, some type of bellydancing, and…we’ll call it “freestyle” (aka really drunk white guy who joins the Senegalese dancers). We stayed until about 2AM and then took a taxi home.
Saturday, April 25
In the morning I walked around Dakar a little bit to check out the “shoe market” and randomly ran into one of the guys who lives in the boarding house. He wears an outfit made out of the same material of the kora case I was borrowing from SIT with little red, yellow and green Africa designs—otherwise I doubt I would have recognized him and would have ignored him like I do the rest of the men who try to say hello on the street. After walking a bit I headed to SIT to meet Edouard, the kora player I originally took lessons from/my ISP advisor, who was going to show me and Sara (the other girl doing Kora for her ISP) where the “Day of the Kora” festivities would be held. He was going to introduce us to Lamine Conté, a very famous griot, and we would be able to ask him questions for our projects. It turned out that he wasn’t at the place, though, so I just talked to Edouard about the logistics of traveling to the U.S. with my kora (which should be ready for me when I get back to Dakar!). I ate lunch at the shack and met a nice man who plays music for a living and who’s been to NYC quite a bit.
Later in the afternoon, after some research for my project, Erin and I went downtown to do some souvenir shopping. I find whenever I get into a market I immediately go into “by ma” mode: “by ma” (not sure of the spelling since it’s an oral language) is the Wolof phrase for “leave me alone,” and I use it frequently to the vicious vendors who grab and follow me while shoving their merchandise in my face. I am a very angry market shopper here, but it seems to work.
That night I went back downtown with Kenna and Bethany to go back to our burger place (where they’ve been almost daily while I’ve been at the monastery), and I got the “hamburger complet” which is a luscious juicy burger complete with a fried egg and French fries, mayonnaise, sugary ketchup and hot sauce (all together)—basically a heart attack on a bun but oh, so wonderful. Afterwards we hopped on a car rapide and I headed to the “Maison de la Culture,” where the kora day festivities were happening. To my surprise there were a bunch of other SIT students there and, even though I was an hour late, I hadn’t missed anything!
The first concert was Lamine Conté (the griot I mentioned earlier) playing with around 8 other kora players, all with their traditional koras, switching off who sang/soloed, and it was mesmerizing to hear all those koras playing at once, and very Senegalese in the performance (people would walk up to Lamine while he was playing to talk to him or to hand him something, others would come up to dance once in a while or sing a portion of the song, etc.). There were photographers everywhere and I got to take some movie clips. (One man did come up to me to make sure I knew I wasn’t allowed to film the WHOLE performance, only small parts, even though there were other cameras filming the whole thing for news stations.)
The next performance was a guitar player and a drummer; the guitar player seemed like anyone in the U.S. would expect (except he sang in Wolof) but the drummer was absolutely hilarious to me. He sat on the ground pretty far away/behind the guitarist with his half-calabash on a mat, spread his legs wide around it and drummed on the calabash while always looking up at the guitarist. He reminded me of a little kid banging on pots and pans looking up at his parents, waiting to be scolded.
The last performance was Lamine Conté again with his band, which consisted of one of the strangest mix of instruments I can imagine: the traditional kora, an electric bass, a full drumset, a large finger piano, a trombone, and a traditional African instrument called the “balafon” which resembles a xylophone made of wood with gourds hanging underneath it. The sound was, obviously, quite unique. It was really a great show; I was just disappointed the festivities only went on for two hours while Edouard had made it sound like it was a daylong festival. I’m glad I came back to Dakar because it gave me a) a break from monastic life/practicing kora, b) access to communication, c) a chance to see my friends…but I’m not sure I would have done all that traveling just to see this one concert.
Sunday, April 26
I awoke very early to meet Erin and head back to the monastery; she wanted to see the mass and visit for the afternoon so I had a travel buddy! On our way to the monastery in the taxi we picked up a woman with her daughter that the taxi driver knew. I thought, “Well that girl looks strangely familiar, and the way she’s staring at me reminds me of something…” I thought maybe she looked like a bunch of other little Senegalese girls I’d seen and I’m used to kids staring at me…but then I realized that I had met her while buying phone credit at a little store in the town and she had literally stared at me for 7 minutes straight. It was interesting, though, to see the same person twice and recognize her—maybe I’m becoming a local!
After the mass (which was disappointing compared to the other 2 or 3 I’ve been to: there was only one kora and it was rarely used, other instruments weren’t used at all, and it was a lot less music/singing in general than I’ve seen previously), Erin and I walked around Keur Moussa (the town) for a while looking for a restaurant for lunch. We found that, just because someone has a sign out that says “Restaurant” or “Lunch” or “Sandwiches” or anything to that effect, does NOT mean they will have any food. A lot of the places we went in seemed very confused as to why we were asking if they were serving lunch that day and replied, “Well, we haven’t prepared anything, but we can…” I tried to picture the same thing happening in the U.S. and I couldn’t imagine what kinds of complaints restaurants would get if they didn’t have any food—here, though, it’s completely normal.
Then Elena arrived! She’s doing her ISP in a town about 15 minutes away from mine and we still hadn’t seen each other, so she came to visit and have lunch with Erin and me. We had a great time talking and hearing what she’s been up to and it made me realize how excited I am to see everyone else’s presentations of their ISPs!
Later I got back into practicing the kora—it came back surprisingly easy for not having played in over 48 hours! In the evening I went for a nice jog on a new road and found an abandoned well and watched the sun set, but left when two birds started chasing me. Before going to bed I did more kora practicing and some background research for my project; it’s surprising to me how enjoyable doing background research seems to me, but I think it’s not only because I get a break from practicing, but also because I’m really interested in the subject! And that’s a good sign!
Oh, and I also found out I have more housemates: it’s not just my friend lizard living in the bathroom with some scary spiders, but at least 3 friend lizards and at least 4 different species of scary spiders! So we all played together a little bit before I went to bed. They don’t speak French or English so I’m not sure how well we’ll end up getting along, but for now we’re living together in peace.
Monday, April 27
In the morning I practiced some before my lesson, which apparently my teacher forgot about, so about 45 minutes into the “lesson” he showed up. I had him play a song I’ve been having trouble with so I could record it and listen to it while I’m practicing, and that turned out to be VERY helpful. The French people who were living with me left in the afternoon so I now have the house all to myself (for now)! (They ate my tomato and eggplant and drank my grapefruit juice while I was gone, but I’m not sure they knew they were mine. But I stole some of their M&M’s, so they’re forgiven. And I think I got the better deal.)
My lesson in the afternoon was much more enjoyable than the one in the morning; I’m beginning to realize that Jean Baptiste always seems to be in a much better mood in the afternoon and that there’s a pattern of me getting extremely frustrated in the morning lesson and the afternoon lesson going really well. I know in the afternoon he’s just come from his nap, so maybe I should ask him to take a nap in the morning before our lessons too?
I walked to town to grab some soap and then came back to do my laundry on the peaceful porch. Afterwards I made dinner and sat outside to watch the sun set, and then concocted some “hot chocolate” and practiced some kora. This is the first day that I wasn’t assigned anything new; I just had to work on a bunch of things that weren’t quite finished, and this was extremely comforting for me.
Tuesday, April 28
Well so much for not being assigned anything new; on this lovely day I was assigned two new pieces! Not that that’s a bad thing, I’m definitely learning a lot of music—it’s just difficult to learn everything in 2 weeks!
Along with my two lessons of the day, I went through the process of buying strings for a kora (for Edouard); I didn’t realize that every single string is a little bit different, so they’re packaged one cord to a bag and Jean Baptiste had to go through a big box of them finding the ones Edouard needed (he needed 40). It was quite the process!
I took another nice jog. There’s something so serene about running here—in the wide-open African savannah towards the giant setting sun. The horizon where I watch the sun set is lined with Acacia trees with one big palm tree stretching up like a giraffe’s neck, and a lonely baobab right beneath the sun. I can see waves around the sun’s perimeter from its heat, and when the sun is resting in the branches of the baobab I turn and run home.
Some new people moved in to my house, one a friend of a French guy I met at the convent (I think she’s Senegalese?) and a young couple who’s biking from Dakar to the capital of Mauritania. They’re from Sweden and very nice and speak English, it’s a shame they’re only here for one night!
Wednesday, April 29
In the morning something sort of strange happened. I was picking out my clothes for the day, enjoying the sunlight coming in through my window when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hand, inches outside my window, holding what looked like a partially decomposed fruit of some sort. (Yes, just a hand, no body—though looking back, I’m sure there WAS a body, probably blocked by the curtain.) I quickly shut the curtain and was a little frightened. Soon I heard a knock at the front door. It was one of the nuns from next door.
“Good morning,” She said. “How are you? Was it you who put the onions outside your window?”
“Excuse me?” I said. “Onions? Outside?”
“Do you only speak English? [slower] Was it you who put the onions on the ground outside your window? Because that’s not good, they’re not good anymore.”
“No, it wasn’t me. I was looking for onions yesterday to cook with—“
“Well they’re not good anymore, you can’t leave them outside—“
“I didn’t put them outside! I never found onions! I don’t know who it was but it wasn’t me!”
“Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
“Yes! It wasn’t me!”
“Okay. How are you?”
Anyway yes so that’s how my morning began. We really need to get a lock for that back gate.
After leaving my morning lesson early I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon lying in my bed sick. Just a cold, but it all decided to come in one day.
I went to my afternoon lesson feeling quite unmotivated and not in the best of spirits, but I was willing to try to make it through a lesson. The afternoon lessons are usually pretty enjoyable; I usually play the songs I’ve been working for and get tips on how to improve them/which passages I need to work on, and then a lot of times we just have a conversation about either the kora or the monastery or something like that. But on this special day, when my teacher arrived he brought with him two other men. They all sat down around me and said, “Okay, performance time!” I laughed and said oh no, it’s not a good day for that. Turns out they weren’t joking at all, and they left me alone for 10 minutes to practice the song they wanted me to play! They kept saying don’t be nervous, this guy hasn’t ever even touched a kora, he won’t know if you mess up…they didn’t understand that it wasn’t the nervousness that was keeping me from playing but the fact that I could hardly concentrate on anything other than trying to remain breathing for the duration of a whole song (okay I’m exaggerating)…but anyway I ended up playing the song, doing horribly, and then finding out that “this guy” was actually a very famous griot korist from Dakar. Great. So he played for us for a while and that was enjoyable, and then he and I walked together afterwards when I was on my way home and we had a nice conversation.
My friends Lucy and Caitlin were supposedly going to visit that evening but never showed up. I took a walk as I was feeling quite unmotivated to play anything even resembling a kora. I got offered a ride on a cart pulled by a donkey, and would have loved to take the offer but that might have defeated the purpose of a “walk.” I went to bed extra early and the mosquitoes found the tiny hole in my mosquito net. Basically it just wasn’t my day.
Thursday, April 30
In the morning I got up early to walk to town and buy some vegetables. It took me that long to figure out the “Mystery of the Vegetables”: one day, long ago, I walked to town and there were women selling vegetables on the sides of the roads, but every other time I’d been there, there were no veggie women! Where had they all gone? The secret, you ask? I pondered this for many a day, and there was one thought that crossed my mind each time this pondering occurred but I never got up the real ambition to test it…But yes. It turns out that the vegetable sellers are only there in the morning. I solved a big mystery, and finally got my veggies.
Anyway, I then had my morning lesson, where I officially agreed to perform at this Saturday’s Mass. This was a decision that took a lot of thought for me, because as most of you who know me know, I am not really one to choose to perform, especially on an instrument; there was also, though, the question of religion: would a foreign, non-religious person playing in a Mass really make sense? Would it offend anyone? We’ll see, come Saturday! I’ll be playing one song while the monks enter and one while they’re leaving (with one other monk, my teacher). By the time you read this, though, that will be old news!
After my lesson I made a weird concoction with my veggies and some whole wheat couscous I found in the cupboard (which surprisingly tasted really good by the end) and then Lucy and Caitlin called to say they were at the monastery! So I showed them around a little bit and got my monk friend Justin to take us back into the area where we’re not allowed (unless accompanied by a monk) and they just loved it here. It was so nice to have visitors and we spent a lot of the afternoon out in the sun but it was stifling! Summer really has begun!
Later I practiced some kora and went to my lesson, where Jean Baptiste and I played together outside in the beautiful garden to practice for Mass. The first song actually went really well (it’s one I played in a piano recital many years ago (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, but here it’s called “Jésus, que ma joie demeure”) so it’s bringing back memories!) but the second one, which I’m usually better at, went pretty awfully. So, we’ll see how this goes.
Two nuns moved into my house today, one from Mauritania and one from Dakar. It’s so interesting to see who happens to pass through this monastery and stay for a couple days. It also never ceases to amaze me how different the pace of life is here in Senegal. I mention this because I felt like I didn’t do much today because Lucy and Caitlin came to visit, and when I came back from my afternoon lessons these two nuns were just coming out of their rooms. They looked at me with shock on their faces and said, “You didn’t take the rest?” I think from 1 to 3 or 4 PM here most people take a couple hours just to rest, nap, relax…I’m really not sure what goes on in that time but everyone’s always so surprised to see me doing things during those hours.
After my lesson I met with Brother Justin to watch an animated slide show he made of his mother’s burial ceremony. I was apprehensive going into it and I’m still not sure how I feel about it…though it was interesting to see pictures of how death is celebrated in Nigeria.
Friday, May 1
My last day of lessons! I think it’s time; I’m not sick of the kora and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the lessons (even the challenges), but I think this was the perfect amount of time for an intensive study and I’m not sad to be done. I counted up my hours: the ISP asks for 120 hours total (from April 11-May 8) and this includes writing the paper; On May 1, before even starting the paper, I only have 19 hours left to meet the requirement (split between the 8 days that are left, that’s about 2:20 per day). All that practicing not only helped my kora playing but also made it so I don’t have to stress about getting hours in over this last week!
My morning lesson was cut very short because it’s a holiday (labor day) so there’s a special mass going on. It was extremely hot again so I spent a lot of the day in the shade of my room/the kitchen/dining room, practicing kora, packing and getting some ISP things organized. During my afternoon lesson I played with the kora I’ll be using tomorrow; it has a beautiful sound but it’s just so different to play on because the strings are spaced differently and my hands can barely reach the cords on the end…so hopefully I’ll be able to adjust in the few hours I’ll have to practice before mass!
In the evening Megan came to visit!!! She was on her way back to Dakar from Saint Louis and she decided to spend a night with me and go to Mass/my performance the next morning. So we cooked a lovely dinner and talked for a long time before going to bed, and it was so nice to have a visitor.
Saturday, May 2
I got up early to practice some kora before my performance. Megan and I had a nice breakfast outside before it got too hot (which, in this season, is around 8:30 AM), and then I headed to my rehearsal with Jean Baptiste. We played in the church and it went almost perfectly! I then read some before the Mass started, helped Megan set up the video camera to tape the performance, gave out “goodbye” gifts to some of the monks, and then the Mass started. I was playing with Jean Baptiste; we played while the monks entered and that song went pretty well (though I played much quieter than him, just in case!). The mass was nice, a lot of music and singing and prayer, and then I got to perform again for the exit of the monks. For some reason I just COULDN’T hit a right note!!! If I had been playing alone I’m not sure how I would have dealt with it…but Jean Baptiste just covered me and I wasn’t that worried about it because he knew I tried and just for some reason (this reminds me of my last piano recital), I knew the song by heart, but it just all disappeared. Anyway, I’m glad that’s over, it was painless and actually enjoyable and I’m glad I got the experience of playing the kora in a Senegalese mass!
I packed up and said goodbye for the last time to my monk-ey friends, and Megan and I headed back to Dakar. The traffic was awful for a lot of the time but it was a nice ride and we chatted a lot, experienced some Senegalese road rage, and ate a very weird new fruit.
And now I am back in Dakar; Megan, Erin and I went downtown to a market and caught up, it’s so amazing how much there is to tell after only a week of not seeing each other! I ate a wonderfully delicious dinner with the family at the boarding house (oh I got a different room this time, with a hot shower and it’s right next door to Abby, so that’ll be fun!) and I might go out to hear some music tonight with Erin and friends.
So that’s what I’ve been up to! Whew! And now it’s crunch time; my ISP paper is due in less than a week, next Saturday starts the presentations of people’s ISPs, and then there’s only a week until we hop onto the plane to return to good ol’ America, “greatest country in dee world!” (Speaking of Borat, I heard he’s coming out with a new movie?) So anyway I’m going to have a lot of trouble trying to do everything I want to do in Dakar before leaving AND writing my paper at the same time, but I hope to find a balance sooner rather than later.
I’ll be in touch soon!
Friday, April 24
As I mentioned in the end of my last post: after my lesson I left for Dakar; I had a lovely, stress-free trip and saw some new places, so I didn’t mind paying the extra…lot…to take a taxi as opposed to a car rapide (which would have been nearly impossible with my kora). Later that evening I went back to the boarding house, where I was sharing a room with Abby for a couple nights, and took a warm, much-needed shower (luxury!).
I ate dinner with the family, which was a wonderful mutton-pea stew that I’ve only eaten in that house but which might be my favorite Senegalese meal. It rivals maffé and yassa and feels healthier (by healthier I mean it contains lots of peas)…so it’s a tough decision. That night Erin and I went to listen to some music at a little club called Pen Art. Her uncle Samba met us there so that was fun; the music was amazing, but what was the most interesting for me was observing the bizarre mix of people who came to listen. Let’s just say there were some people getting REALLY into the dancing: Senegalese dancing, some type of bellydancing, and…we’ll call it “freestyle” (aka really drunk white guy who joins the Senegalese dancers). We stayed until about 2AM and then took a taxi home.
Saturday, April 25
In the morning I walked around Dakar a little bit to check out the “shoe market” and randomly ran into one of the guys who lives in the boarding house. He wears an outfit made out of the same material of the kora case I was borrowing from SIT with little red, yellow and green Africa designs—otherwise I doubt I would have recognized him and would have ignored him like I do the rest of the men who try to say hello on the street. After walking a bit I headed to SIT to meet Edouard, the kora player I originally took lessons from/my ISP advisor, who was going to show me and Sara (the other girl doing Kora for her ISP) where the “Day of the Kora” festivities would be held. He was going to introduce us to Lamine Conté, a very famous griot, and we would be able to ask him questions for our projects. It turned out that he wasn’t at the place, though, so I just talked to Edouard about the logistics of traveling to the U.S. with my kora (which should be ready for me when I get back to Dakar!). I ate lunch at the shack and met a nice man who plays music for a living and who’s been to NYC quite a bit.
Later in the afternoon, after some research for my project, Erin and I went downtown to do some souvenir shopping. I find whenever I get into a market I immediately go into “by ma” mode: “by ma” (not sure of the spelling since it’s an oral language) is the Wolof phrase for “leave me alone,” and I use it frequently to the vicious vendors who grab and follow me while shoving their merchandise in my face. I am a very angry market shopper here, but it seems to work.
That night I went back downtown with Kenna and Bethany to go back to our burger place (where they’ve been almost daily while I’ve been at the monastery), and I got the “hamburger complet” which is a luscious juicy burger complete with a fried egg and French fries, mayonnaise, sugary ketchup and hot sauce (all together)—basically a heart attack on a bun but oh, so wonderful. Afterwards we hopped on a car rapide and I headed to the “Maison de la Culture,” where the kora day festivities were happening. To my surprise there were a bunch of other SIT students there and, even though I was an hour late, I hadn’t missed anything!
The first concert was Lamine Conté (the griot I mentioned earlier) playing with around 8 other kora players, all with their traditional koras, switching off who sang/soloed, and it was mesmerizing to hear all those koras playing at once, and very Senegalese in the performance (people would walk up to Lamine while he was playing to talk to him or to hand him something, others would come up to dance once in a while or sing a portion of the song, etc.). There were photographers everywhere and I got to take some movie clips. (One man did come up to me to make sure I knew I wasn’t allowed to film the WHOLE performance, only small parts, even though there were other cameras filming the whole thing for news stations.)
The next performance was a guitar player and a drummer; the guitar player seemed like anyone in the U.S. would expect (except he sang in Wolof) but the drummer was absolutely hilarious to me. He sat on the ground pretty far away/behind the guitarist with his half-calabash on a mat, spread his legs wide around it and drummed on the calabash while always looking up at the guitarist. He reminded me of a little kid banging on pots and pans looking up at his parents, waiting to be scolded.
The last performance was Lamine Conté again with his band, which consisted of one of the strangest mix of instruments I can imagine: the traditional kora, an electric bass, a full drumset, a large finger piano, a trombone, and a traditional African instrument called the “balafon” which resembles a xylophone made of wood with gourds hanging underneath it. The sound was, obviously, quite unique. It was really a great show; I was just disappointed the festivities only went on for two hours while Edouard had made it sound like it was a daylong festival. I’m glad I came back to Dakar because it gave me a) a break from monastic life/practicing kora, b) access to communication, c) a chance to see my friends…but I’m not sure I would have done all that traveling just to see this one concert.
Sunday, April 26
I awoke very early to meet Erin and head back to the monastery; she wanted to see the mass and visit for the afternoon so I had a travel buddy! On our way to the monastery in the taxi we picked up a woman with her daughter that the taxi driver knew. I thought, “Well that girl looks strangely familiar, and the way she’s staring at me reminds me of something…” I thought maybe she looked like a bunch of other little Senegalese girls I’d seen and I’m used to kids staring at me…but then I realized that I had met her while buying phone credit at a little store in the town and she had literally stared at me for 7 minutes straight. It was interesting, though, to see the same person twice and recognize her—maybe I’m becoming a local!
After the mass (which was disappointing compared to the other 2 or 3 I’ve been to: there was only one kora and it was rarely used, other instruments weren’t used at all, and it was a lot less music/singing in general than I’ve seen previously), Erin and I walked around Keur Moussa (the town) for a while looking for a restaurant for lunch. We found that, just because someone has a sign out that says “Restaurant” or “Lunch” or “Sandwiches” or anything to that effect, does NOT mean they will have any food. A lot of the places we went in seemed very confused as to why we were asking if they were serving lunch that day and replied, “Well, we haven’t prepared anything, but we can…” I tried to picture the same thing happening in the U.S. and I couldn’t imagine what kinds of complaints restaurants would get if they didn’t have any food—here, though, it’s completely normal.
Then Elena arrived! She’s doing her ISP in a town about 15 minutes away from mine and we still hadn’t seen each other, so she came to visit and have lunch with Erin and me. We had a great time talking and hearing what she’s been up to and it made me realize how excited I am to see everyone else’s presentations of their ISPs!
Later I got back into practicing the kora—it came back surprisingly easy for not having played in over 48 hours! In the evening I went for a nice jog on a new road and found an abandoned well and watched the sun set, but left when two birds started chasing me. Before going to bed I did more kora practicing and some background research for my project; it’s surprising to me how enjoyable doing background research seems to me, but I think it’s not only because I get a break from practicing, but also because I’m really interested in the subject! And that’s a good sign!
Oh, and I also found out I have more housemates: it’s not just my friend lizard living in the bathroom with some scary spiders, but at least 3 friend lizards and at least 4 different species of scary spiders! So we all played together a little bit before I went to bed. They don’t speak French or English so I’m not sure how well we’ll end up getting along, but for now we’re living together in peace.
Monday, April 27
In the morning I practiced some before my lesson, which apparently my teacher forgot about, so about 45 minutes into the “lesson” he showed up. I had him play a song I’ve been having trouble with so I could record it and listen to it while I’m practicing, and that turned out to be VERY helpful. The French people who were living with me left in the afternoon so I now have the house all to myself (for now)! (They ate my tomato and eggplant and drank my grapefruit juice while I was gone, but I’m not sure they knew they were mine. But I stole some of their M&M’s, so they’re forgiven. And I think I got the better deal.)
My lesson in the afternoon was much more enjoyable than the one in the morning; I’m beginning to realize that Jean Baptiste always seems to be in a much better mood in the afternoon and that there’s a pattern of me getting extremely frustrated in the morning lesson and the afternoon lesson going really well. I know in the afternoon he’s just come from his nap, so maybe I should ask him to take a nap in the morning before our lessons too?
I walked to town to grab some soap and then came back to do my laundry on the peaceful porch. Afterwards I made dinner and sat outside to watch the sun set, and then concocted some “hot chocolate” and practiced some kora. This is the first day that I wasn’t assigned anything new; I just had to work on a bunch of things that weren’t quite finished, and this was extremely comforting for me.
Tuesday, April 28
Well so much for not being assigned anything new; on this lovely day I was assigned two new pieces! Not that that’s a bad thing, I’m definitely learning a lot of music—it’s just difficult to learn everything in 2 weeks!
Along with my two lessons of the day, I went through the process of buying strings for a kora (for Edouard); I didn’t realize that every single string is a little bit different, so they’re packaged one cord to a bag and Jean Baptiste had to go through a big box of them finding the ones Edouard needed (he needed 40). It was quite the process!
I took another nice jog. There’s something so serene about running here—in the wide-open African savannah towards the giant setting sun. The horizon where I watch the sun set is lined with Acacia trees with one big palm tree stretching up like a giraffe’s neck, and a lonely baobab right beneath the sun. I can see waves around the sun’s perimeter from its heat, and when the sun is resting in the branches of the baobab I turn and run home.
Some new people moved in to my house, one a friend of a French guy I met at the convent (I think she’s Senegalese?) and a young couple who’s biking from Dakar to the capital of Mauritania. They’re from Sweden and very nice and speak English, it’s a shame they’re only here for one night!
Wednesday, April 29
In the morning something sort of strange happened. I was picking out my clothes for the day, enjoying the sunlight coming in through my window when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hand, inches outside my window, holding what looked like a partially decomposed fruit of some sort. (Yes, just a hand, no body—though looking back, I’m sure there WAS a body, probably blocked by the curtain.) I quickly shut the curtain and was a little frightened. Soon I heard a knock at the front door. It was one of the nuns from next door.
“Good morning,” She said. “How are you? Was it you who put the onions outside your window?”
“Excuse me?” I said. “Onions? Outside?”
“Do you only speak English? [slower] Was it you who put the onions on the ground outside your window? Because that’s not good, they’re not good anymore.”
“No, it wasn’t me. I was looking for onions yesterday to cook with—“
“Well they’re not good anymore, you can’t leave them outside—“
“I didn’t put them outside! I never found onions! I don’t know who it was but it wasn’t me!”
“Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
“Yes! It wasn’t me!”
“Okay. How are you?”
Anyway yes so that’s how my morning began. We really need to get a lock for that back gate.
After leaving my morning lesson early I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon lying in my bed sick. Just a cold, but it all decided to come in one day.
I went to my afternoon lesson feeling quite unmotivated and not in the best of spirits, but I was willing to try to make it through a lesson. The afternoon lessons are usually pretty enjoyable; I usually play the songs I’ve been working for and get tips on how to improve them/which passages I need to work on, and then a lot of times we just have a conversation about either the kora or the monastery or something like that. But on this special day, when my teacher arrived he brought with him two other men. They all sat down around me and said, “Okay, performance time!” I laughed and said oh no, it’s not a good day for that. Turns out they weren’t joking at all, and they left me alone for 10 minutes to practice the song they wanted me to play! They kept saying don’t be nervous, this guy hasn’t ever even touched a kora, he won’t know if you mess up…they didn’t understand that it wasn’t the nervousness that was keeping me from playing but the fact that I could hardly concentrate on anything other than trying to remain breathing for the duration of a whole song (okay I’m exaggerating)…but anyway I ended up playing the song, doing horribly, and then finding out that “this guy” was actually a very famous griot korist from Dakar. Great. So he played for us for a while and that was enjoyable, and then he and I walked together afterwards when I was on my way home and we had a nice conversation.
My friends Lucy and Caitlin were supposedly going to visit that evening but never showed up. I took a walk as I was feeling quite unmotivated to play anything even resembling a kora. I got offered a ride on a cart pulled by a donkey, and would have loved to take the offer but that might have defeated the purpose of a “walk.” I went to bed extra early and the mosquitoes found the tiny hole in my mosquito net. Basically it just wasn’t my day.
Thursday, April 30
In the morning I got up early to walk to town and buy some vegetables. It took me that long to figure out the “Mystery of the Vegetables”: one day, long ago, I walked to town and there were women selling vegetables on the sides of the roads, but every other time I’d been there, there were no veggie women! Where had they all gone? The secret, you ask? I pondered this for many a day, and there was one thought that crossed my mind each time this pondering occurred but I never got up the real ambition to test it…But yes. It turns out that the vegetable sellers are only there in the morning. I solved a big mystery, and finally got my veggies.
Anyway, I then had my morning lesson, where I officially agreed to perform at this Saturday’s Mass. This was a decision that took a lot of thought for me, because as most of you who know me know, I am not really one to choose to perform, especially on an instrument; there was also, though, the question of religion: would a foreign, non-religious person playing in a Mass really make sense? Would it offend anyone? We’ll see, come Saturday! I’ll be playing one song while the monks enter and one while they’re leaving (with one other monk, my teacher). By the time you read this, though, that will be old news!
After my lesson I made a weird concoction with my veggies and some whole wheat couscous I found in the cupboard (which surprisingly tasted really good by the end) and then Lucy and Caitlin called to say they were at the monastery! So I showed them around a little bit and got my monk friend Justin to take us back into the area where we’re not allowed (unless accompanied by a monk) and they just loved it here. It was so nice to have visitors and we spent a lot of the afternoon out in the sun but it was stifling! Summer really has begun!
Later I practiced some kora and went to my lesson, where Jean Baptiste and I played together outside in the beautiful garden to practice for Mass. The first song actually went really well (it’s one I played in a piano recital many years ago (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, but here it’s called “Jésus, que ma joie demeure”) so it’s bringing back memories!) but the second one, which I’m usually better at, went pretty awfully. So, we’ll see how this goes.
Two nuns moved into my house today, one from Mauritania and one from Dakar. It’s so interesting to see who happens to pass through this monastery and stay for a couple days. It also never ceases to amaze me how different the pace of life is here in Senegal. I mention this because I felt like I didn’t do much today because Lucy and Caitlin came to visit, and when I came back from my afternoon lessons these two nuns were just coming out of their rooms. They looked at me with shock on their faces and said, “You didn’t take the rest?” I think from 1 to 3 or 4 PM here most people take a couple hours just to rest, nap, relax…I’m really not sure what goes on in that time but everyone’s always so surprised to see me doing things during those hours.
After my lesson I met with Brother Justin to watch an animated slide show he made of his mother’s burial ceremony. I was apprehensive going into it and I’m still not sure how I feel about it…though it was interesting to see pictures of how death is celebrated in Nigeria.
Friday, May 1
My last day of lessons! I think it’s time; I’m not sick of the kora and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the lessons (even the challenges), but I think this was the perfect amount of time for an intensive study and I’m not sad to be done. I counted up my hours: the ISP asks for 120 hours total (from April 11-May 8) and this includes writing the paper; On May 1, before even starting the paper, I only have 19 hours left to meet the requirement (split between the 8 days that are left, that’s about 2:20 per day). All that practicing not only helped my kora playing but also made it so I don’t have to stress about getting hours in over this last week!
My morning lesson was cut very short because it’s a holiday (labor day) so there’s a special mass going on. It was extremely hot again so I spent a lot of the day in the shade of my room/the kitchen/dining room, practicing kora, packing and getting some ISP things organized. During my afternoon lesson I played with the kora I’ll be using tomorrow; it has a beautiful sound but it’s just so different to play on because the strings are spaced differently and my hands can barely reach the cords on the end…so hopefully I’ll be able to adjust in the few hours I’ll have to practice before mass!
In the evening Megan came to visit!!! She was on her way back to Dakar from Saint Louis and she decided to spend a night with me and go to Mass/my performance the next morning. So we cooked a lovely dinner and talked for a long time before going to bed, and it was so nice to have a visitor.
Saturday, May 2
I got up early to practice some kora before my performance. Megan and I had a nice breakfast outside before it got too hot (which, in this season, is around 8:30 AM), and then I headed to my rehearsal with Jean Baptiste. We played in the church and it went almost perfectly! I then read some before the Mass started, helped Megan set up the video camera to tape the performance, gave out “goodbye” gifts to some of the monks, and then the Mass started. I was playing with Jean Baptiste; we played while the monks entered and that song went pretty well (though I played much quieter than him, just in case!). The mass was nice, a lot of music and singing and prayer, and then I got to perform again for the exit of the monks. For some reason I just COULDN’T hit a right note!!! If I had been playing alone I’m not sure how I would have dealt with it…but Jean Baptiste just covered me and I wasn’t that worried about it because he knew I tried and just for some reason (this reminds me of my last piano recital), I knew the song by heart, but it just all disappeared. Anyway, I’m glad that’s over, it was painless and actually enjoyable and I’m glad I got the experience of playing the kora in a Senegalese mass!
I packed up and said goodbye for the last time to my monk-ey friends, and Megan and I headed back to Dakar. The traffic was awful for a lot of the time but it was a nice ride and we chatted a lot, experienced some Senegalese road rage, and ate a very weird new fruit.
And now I am back in Dakar; Megan, Erin and I went downtown to a market and caught up, it’s so amazing how much there is to tell after only a week of not seeing each other! I ate a wonderfully delicious dinner with the family at the boarding house (oh I got a different room this time, with a hot shower and it’s right next door to Abby, so that’ll be fun!) and I might go out to hear some music tonight with Erin and friends.
So that’s what I’ve been up to! Whew! And now it’s crunch time; my ISP paper is due in less than a week, next Saturday starts the presentations of people’s ISPs, and then there’s only a week until we hop onto the plane to return to good ol’ America, “greatest country in dee world!” (Speaking of Borat, I heard he’s coming out with a new movie?) So anyway I’m going to have a lot of trouble trying to do everything I want to do in Dakar before leaving AND writing my paper at the same time, but I hope to find a balance sooner rather than later.
I’ll be in touch soon!
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