a round of applause please, for the long and tedious journey of livestock purchasing in senegal has come to an end. that's right...the goat is bought, paid for, home safe and sound. i went to the weekly market this past sunday with my host father who decided that it was his tabaski good deed to help me out. so off we went, and once we got to the market he told me to go do my thing that he would come find me. so i bought my peanuts, beans, and bananas for the fam and myself some fatayas for breakfast (fried bread with onion sauce. sooo tasty. the lady also gives me a little one for free.) once i finished eating, there he was waiting for me. "okay, so there is a good goat. sixteen mille (about 35 bucks). let's go look and if you want, you buy it". done and done. so we go over to where all the herders are with their goats and sheep for sale, he points out a pretty little number and i hand a herder named ba sixteen mille. goat. check.
so my host father brings my goat home (apparently i own the goat but i don't have to do anything to actually care for the goat...that's what family is for...) once home my host father and uncle explain that their herd of goats is on the island including a nice big billy goat to you know...so they assure me that the next day they will take her to the island to go hang out with the other goats and in no time at all i'll have two goats. but first, i had to 'mark' my goat. thinking i could just whip-up a nifty necklace for it, but nope. mark means brand. so i got to come up with my own brand and take a hot iron to my goat. not exactly what i wanted to do my first day with my goat but hey...when in africa.
i'm pretty stoked about the goat. to be quite honest i didn't think i would actually get my goat at all...after attempt after attempt and attempt...discouragement was settling in. but things work out. i even found out that the little sheep i tried to take care of way back when is still alive and growing. during my second month in the village one of our family's sheep had a baby and then died. being the animal lover that i am i took the little lamb under my wing and fed it some milk as an attempt to keep it alive. however, one weekend i went away from the village and came back...the sheep was gone. my family told me that it went over to the island. i took that for the standard "it's gone to the sheep farm in the sky" routine. a little hurt, but nonetheless it happens all the time here. well, apparently i need to take things a little more literally. they actually meant they took it to the island (to go live with the other sheep. literally).
sometimes i think all i'm good for in the village is to humor everyone with how dumb and naive i can be.
but at least i got my goat.
cheers!
jaime
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
brrrr it's cold out here!
so the cold season has finally hit the fouta. it actually happened rather quickly, pretty much overnight (literally one night i was simly wearing a tshirt and skirt and the next i was huddled with all of my younger brothers in a sweatshirt and pants. i put a thermometer outside just out of curiosity to see how cold it really has been. it's gotten just over 90 degrees here at about one oclock and when i wake up in the morning it is about 65. the sad part, the part that makes me hang my wisconsin winter head in shame is that it IS cold. i go to bed in long sleeves and pants and burrow under my quilt...thank god i brought it with me! in the morning i heat up my water before taking a bucket bath. my littlest brother and nephews all cuddle with me at night for warmth...i never thought i would say it but that africa is so cold right now. even during the day it's comfortable...90 and breezy is the perfect day here. i could quite possibly die of hypothermia when i come back to wisco in february.
no snow shoveling is nice though especially from last winter...
we just celebrated tabaski here which is the most important holiday here. it celebrates abraham's willingness to sacrific issac for his love of god. (y'all know the story)...anyways each family kills a male sheep as a sign of rememberence and then the meat is cooked and shared among everyone. i was excited for tabaski for a number of reasons; after experiencing korite i was better prepared for what was going on in the village, i got a new outfit that was SO beautiful (i was even told so by my teenage sisters and they are pretty critical about my appearance), i bought all the kids candy to eat, and the village becomes so lively and happy. we ate meat all day long with potatoes and macaroni, drank tea, and visited each other. a fun day or i should say days since it goes on for awhile. i hennaed myself which impressed all the women, "banel you are so baleejo (senegalese)" and lauren,a volunteer who lives in podor. all the men got dressed up in their nicest boubous and it was really beautiful to watch all the men line up behind my cousin who is the imam to pray. all their clothes were these vibrant hues of purple; green, blue, and red they looked like a rainbow. and the women got dressed to the nines as well. that was my favorite part for me- watching the women get to dress up. they work so hard day after day after day that they take full advantage of the oppurtunity to pamper themselves. i loved the different styles of clothes they wore and the different braids they did, they were all so happy they even would break out dancing just to do it.
now i'm sure each village is a little bit different in how they celebrate tabaski but i loved the way my village came together. everyone in my village is related some way or another and so when it was time to eat everyone brought their bowls of food together and then split off into different groups which were; kids under 10, boys 10 to 15, girls 10 to 15, teenagers, married couples (20 to 40), older married women, really old women, and older men. where exactly did i fit in? i was too old to eat with the teenagers, not married to sit with the married couples...old women it was. until i got yelled at by my older sister to come sit with the married couples because i was one of them. (i forgot about my little "husband") so i spent most of the time there. it was fun going from group to group though to see everyone's outfits, gossip, chatter, games. i went to bed exhausted but full and happy.
with any luck the next few months will go by quickly. i have a number of things planned starting with a mosquito net dipping in my village next week. i'm a little nervous about it because the chemical is pretty nasty and i'm not the most coordinated of people (broken nose anyone?) but i've done a dipping before and i think that if i can keep people away from the dip area it will go well. it's malaria season right now and i feel like this is the bast time to do it. plus, the mosquitoes here are relentless and tricky little punks...they find there way everywhere and bite through everything. it's time to fight back and i will show no mercy.
on that peaceful note...merry christmas and happy holidays everyone!!
peace,
jaime
no snow shoveling is nice though especially from last winter...
we just celebrated tabaski here which is the most important holiday here. it celebrates abraham's willingness to sacrific issac for his love of god. (y'all know the story)...anyways each family kills a male sheep as a sign of rememberence and then the meat is cooked and shared among everyone. i was excited for tabaski for a number of reasons; after experiencing korite i was better prepared for what was going on in the village, i got a new outfit that was SO beautiful (i was even told so by my teenage sisters and they are pretty critical about my appearance), i bought all the kids candy to eat, and the village becomes so lively and happy. we ate meat all day long with potatoes and macaroni, drank tea, and visited each other. a fun day or i should say days since it goes on for awhile. i hennaed myself which impressed all the women, "banel you are so baleejo (senegalese)" and lauren,a volunteer who lives in podor. all the men got dressed up in their nicest boubous and it was really beautiful to watch all the men line up behind my cousin who is the imam to pray. all their clothes were these vibrant hues of purple; green, blue, and red they looked like a rainbow. and the women got dressed to the nines as well. that was my favorite part for me- watching the women get to dress up. they work so hard day after day after day that they take full advantage of the oppurtunity to pamper themselves. i loved the different styles of clothes they wore and the different braids they did, they were all so happy they even would break out dancing just to do it.
now i'm sure each village is a little bit different in how they celebrate tabaski but i loved the way my village came together. everyone in my village is related some way or another and so when it was time to eat everyone brought their bowls of food together and then split off into different groups which were; kids under 10, boys 10 to 15, girls 10 to 15, teenagers, married couples (20 to 40), older married women, really old women, and older men. where exactly did i fit in? i was too old to eat with the teenagers, not married to sit with the married couples...old women it was. until i got yelled at by my older sister to come sit with the married couples because i was one of them. (i forgot about my little "husband") so i spent most of the time there. it was fun going from group to group though to see everyone's outfits, gossip, chatter, games. i went to bed exhausted but full and happy.
with any luck the next few months will go by quickly. i have a number of things planned starting with a mosquito net dipping in my village next week. i'm a little nervous about it because the chemical is pretty nasty and i'm not the most coordinated of people (broken nose anyone?) but i've done a dipping before and i think that if i can keep people away from the dip area it will go well. it's malaria season right now and i feel like this is the bast time to do it. plus, the mosquitoes here are relentless and tricky little punks...they find there way everywhere and bite through everything. it's time to fight back and i will show no mercy.
on that peaceful note...merry christmas and happy holidays everyone!!
peace,
jaime
Monday, December 1, 2008
what's in a bucket?
i'd like to dedicate this post to the most useful object in country... my bucket.
seriously. living with as few of commodities as possible you start to get creative with what you can use something for. for example...
a bucket by all appearances just seems to be a plastic container with a lid into which you can put things. however... fill it with tasty treats from back home and my bucket becomes my own pantry. if i fill it with water and put a cup in it it becomes my very own bathtub/shower complete with shower head (the cup). if i go back to the well and fill it up with water again...presto! a washing machine powered by human (my) hands! if you sit on a bucket you got a chair. if you stack two buckets on top of each other and then sit on my bed you have a table. if you stand on your bucket you have a ladder. *note, it is better to turn the bucket upside down before standing on it as the lid tends to collapse. my bucket is my cutting board, my sink, my dresser top, my defense against rowdy kids, my place to hide from big scorpions. to me, my bucket is everything. who needs all those extra things when you got a bucket? i guess what i'm saying is that you learn to appreciate the things you have a whole lot more when you use a piece of plastic for every little thing you do.
thanksgiving went amazingly awesome. we (our regional house hosted) had approximately 47 people from all over senegal including one volunteer from mauritania, and a couple from england who wanted to celebrate with us. everyone arrived wednesday and had stew for supper. thursday the men of the region killed the turkeys (yep, we found turkeys in this country) and grilled them as well as five chickens. they even successfully deep fried a few. meanwhile me and a few other volunteers cranked out dinner consisting of mashed potatoes, stuffing, casseroles galore, fruit salad, deviled eggs, cornbread, and ten different pies. enough to literally feed an army. plus we were able to watch the dark knight and part of the new bond movie before the power went out on a "big screen" outside (a sheet with a projector). fun was had all around and it was indeed a great thanksgiving. plus i got to drink out of a boot. need i say more? (thanks joeber!)
the goat update: i want to keep as much money as i can in the village so i have been dead set on buying my goat in the village. so the other week i went around to a few herders i know and discussed my desire to purchase a goat. lucky me, i got a hit with one of my close friend's family. i told them i would come back on sunday to buy the goat. they said, "great, see you sunday, inshallah..." (note to blog followers on a previous entry about that word. i should have gotten the hint...) so i go back home tell my dad and uncles all about the goat i am going to buy. they look at me and shake their heads and say, "go buy a goat at the market sunday". i explain that i want to buy it in the village so that a family i know will get the money. they smile, look at me and drop the subject. sunday rolls around and i head over to go buy the goat (after coming from the market with my weekly purchases). i greet the family and my friend realizes that i've come for the goat. she looks at me and says, "i forgot you were coming...we took the goat to the market to get sold." inshallah... so i do the walk of shame back home and there is my dad and uncle with a knowing smile on their faces. "next time you go to the market and buy it" they tell me. no duh, i want to tell them but i don't think it translates. besides, how am i going to get a goat back to my village on my bike?
inshallah...
seriously. living with as few of commodities as possible you start to get creative with what you can use something for. for example...
a bucket by all appearances just seems to be a plastic container with a lid into which you can put things. however... fill it with tasty treats from back home and my bucket becomes my own pantry. if i fill it with water and put a cup in it it becomes my very own bathtub/shower complete with shower head (the cup). if i go back to the well and fill it up with water again...presto! a washing machine powered by human (my) hands! if you sit on a bucket you got a chair. if you stack two buckets on top of each other and then sit on my bed you have a table. if you stand on your bucket you have a ladder. *note, it is better to turn the bucket upside down before standing on it as the lid tends to collapse. my bucket is my cutting board, my sink, my dresser top, my defense against rowdy kids, my place to hide from big scorpions. to me, my bucket is everything. who needs all those extra things when you got a bucket? i guess what i'm saying is that you learn to appreciate the things you have a whole lot more when you use a piece of plastic for every little thing you do.
thanksgiving went amazingly awesome. we (our regional house hosted) had approximately 47 people from all over senegal including one volunteer from mauritania, and a couple from england who wanted to celebrate with us. everyone arrived wednesday and had stew for supper. thursday the men of the region killed the turkeys (yep, we found turkeys in this country) and grilled them as well as five chickens. they even successfully deep fried a few. meanwhile me and a few other volunteers cranked out dinner consisting of mashed potatoes, stuffing, casseroles galore, fruit salad, deviled eggs, cornbread, and ten different pies. enough to literally feed an army. plus we were able to watch the dark knight and part of the new bond movie before the power went out on a "big screen" outside (a sheet with a projector). fun was had all around and it was indeed a great thanksgiving. plus i got to drink out of a boot. need i say more? (thanks joeber!)
the goat update: i want to keep as much money as i can in the village so i have been dead set on buying my goat in the village. so the other week i went around to a few herders i know and discussed my desire to purchase a goat. lucky me, i got a hit with one of my close friend's family. i told them i would come back on sunday to buy the goat. they said, "great, see you sunday, inshallah..." (note to blog followers on a previous entry about that word. i should have gotten the hint...) so i go back home tell my dad and uncles all about the goat i am going to buy. they look at me and shake their heads and say, "go buy a goat at the market sunday". i explain that i want to buy it in the village so that a family i know will get the money. they smile, look at me and drop the subject. sunday rolls around and i head over to go buy the goat (after coming from the market with my weekly purchases). i greet the family and my friend realizes that i've come for the goat. she looks at me and says, "i forgot you were coming...we took the goat to the market to get sold." inshallah... so i do the walk of shame back home and there is my dad and uncle with a knowing smile on their faces. "next time you go to the market and buy it" they tell me. no duh, i want to tell them but i don't think it translates. besides, how am i going to get a goat back to my village on my bike?
inshallah...
Thursday, November 13, 2008
where does the time go?
so i realize that a lot of time has passed since the last post. although it hardly seems like any at all...time moves surprisingly fast despite the fact that you only have about five hours a day to actually do any work within the community. what i mean is, by the time i get up in the morning and clean, pull water, etc it is nearly 9 in the morning...and there is only about two/three hours before it is super hot outside and then there is lunch. then after lunch there is the "foftere" or rest which lasts until 4 or 5 giving me another two or three hours before dark. these are the only times people are willing to go to meetings/causeries/or do any work. so that said there is a lot of time where i don't have much to do and that has been a much bigger challenge for me- filling time.
there are a few health posts within the area i live in; one in taredji (6k south), one in mbantou (3k southeast), one in diambo soubalou (1k south and where emily lives), one in ndiawara (2k north), and one in podor (16k north). emily and i are starting to paint at each post-specifically growth charts and health murals and colleen, another volunteer who lives near us (and puts my art skills to shame) has started a huge project in podor which she has graciously allowed me to help out with. the health center there just has some major expansion and is more like a mini-hospital than clinic. so when there isn't much to do in the village we've been painting at these places.
i've also successfully grew a few (fifteen out of forty seven seeds) been trees for the village and next week i will be handing them out to a few guys who will plant them so they can grow (inshallah-note previous post)...these trees are like the super tree here. they can grow anywhere and grow fast, their beans and leaves are edible (the leaves used in my favorite dish here), the roots are natural water filters...they are great. i really really really want to be able to do a few gardens of them and spread the bean tree love throughout the village.
there's also vaccinations days at the clinics, causeries that we are sometimes able to do, routine house calls, and in between at all that we got the potato study i'm helping out with which is very interesting and i'm glad to be a part of it. it will be exciting to see how each distribution and weighing goes. i could even blog about in the project in detail...
for another day perhaps.
so yea, it's been a busy time. i've even turned a year older in the midst of it. i even got birthday haako and it was goooood. best i've had in country yet. so october just flew on by and i can't believe that november is nearly half over too...with thanksgiving right around the corner-yikes!
well, that's all for the quick update. now that we got internet at the regional house i hope to be able to post more frequently and share a few of the more exciting stories.
cheers!
jaime
there are a few health posts within the area i live in; one in taredji (6k south), one in mbantou (3k southeast), one in diambo soubalou (1k south and where emily lives), one in ndiawara (2k north), and one in podor (16k north). emily and i are starting to paint at each post-specifically growth charts and health murals and colleen, another volunteer who lives near us (and puts my art skills to shame) has started a huge project in podor which she has graciously allowed me to help out with. the health center there just has some major expansion and is more like a mini-hospital than clinic. so when there isn't much to do in the village we've been painting at these places.
i've also successfully grew a few (fifteen out of forty seven seeds) been trees for the village and next week i will be handing them out to a few guys who will plant them so they can grow (inshallah-note previous post)...these trees are like the super tree here. they can grow anywhere and grow fast, their beans and leaves are edible (the leaves used in my favorite dish here), the roots are natural water filters...they are great. i really really really want to be able to do a few gardens of them and spread the bean tree love throughout the village.
there's also vaccinations days at the clinics, causeries that we are sometimes able to do, routine house calls, and in between at all that we got the potato study i'm helping out with which is very interesting and i'm glad to be a part of it. it will be exciting to see how each distribution and weighing goes. i could even blog about in the project in detail...
for another day perhaps.
so yea, it's been a busy time. i've even turned a year older in the midst of it. i even got birthday haako and it was goooood. best i've had in country yet. so october just flew on by and i can't believe that november is nearly half over too...with thanksgiving right around the corner-yikes!
well, that's all for the quick update. now that we got internet at the regional house i hope to be able to post more frequently and share a few of the more exciting stories.
cheers!
jaime
Friday, October 3, 2008
a few of my favorite things...
since coming to senegal nearly seven months ago i've come to appreciate a few things...
village kids. specifically MY village kids, not nessessarily all village kids. but i am so glad that i have the kids i do in my village. for the most part they are very well behaved (different standard of what a "well-behaved" kid is but still...) i am able to let the kids in my room and they know they aren't allowed to touch or pick up or play with anything of mine before asking (and they DO ask!) whenever i do any sort of chore they come help. i have my regular water helpers who help me pull water from the well and bringit back to my hut. they love playing any sort of games and are just so happy to be around me. this bugged me at first--do you have to constantly be touching me!--but i've come to really like that. the kids don't hide their emotions, you can tell when they are so happy because they literally jump for joy as well as when they are upset because they scream and wail. (at first i was alarmed at this and bothered by it until i noticed the different wailings; i'm really hurt vs. i want you to look at me because i didn't get my way. after a while even i ignore the latter). the other day for korite (more on that later) i went to go greet my village and the herder village. a bunch of my village kids decided to come with me and took me by the hands and led me around. we created a little mini-parade much to the delight of the adults. and although a lot of my frustration comes from the kids, they really are such a god-send to have. a few have started giving me random hugs throughout the day which always lift my spirits and they are up for whatever game i want to teach them. they have even started calling me "banel toubak amen" which is "OUR banel foreigner"
senegalese faith. this is different from the muslim religion that the majority practice here and in fact exclusively practice in the futa just to get that out there. there are three major sayings that some up their outlook on life which are actually arabic (because they are muslim phrases). forgive me of my spelling (never was good at it)...the first one is "alhamdililah" or "thanks be to god". you see this everywhere in senegal from the vehicles to buildings. one of the public transports is even referred to as "alhams" by pcvs because it is written everyone on these big passenger vans. i don't even know their real name. one can say alhamdililah after anythig and they do. when you greet someone the conversation probably goes something like this, "how are you" "i am fine thanks be to god" "thanks be to god" "how is your health" "peace only, and yours" "peace only, alhamdiliah" "alhamdililah"...and so on...now depending on how you say it the phrase can mean several things; thanks be to god!!, thanks be to god i am finally out of that vehicle, thanks be to god now go away, thanks be to god THAT'S over, etc. the second phrase is "inshallah" aka "god willing". you say this whenever you make plans for something or refer to something in the future so..."inshallah"..."god willing i will see you tomorrow, god willing i'll make it back home alive, god willing it will not rain tonight because it is sooo hot in my room, god willing i will never have to do that again... the final phrase, "so allah jebbii" is a mix of pulaar and arabic meaning "if god wills it". is it going to rain tonight? so allah jebbii...are we going to have rice for dinner? so allah jebbii...will you do well on your test today? so allah jebbii...you get the idea. the other night manne my aunt here asked why i don't eat with my hands. i told her that i make too big a mess and that i prefer a spoon (which is true). she said, tomorrow night you must try your hands. and my mother replied, yes yes, so allah jebbii. the next night rolls around and we sit donw to eat and my sister hands me my spoon (knowing full well that i don't want to eat with my hands) and it is a while before my aunt realizes that i'm not eating with my hands. (i should clarify HAND. right hand only). she asks me why i wasn't and without missing a beat i reply, allah jebbani "god didn't will it" to which everyone cracked up. with these three phrases even if you don't know pulaar well -like me- you can still crack jokes and let people know how you are feeling. that's what i like about these phrases. depending on how you're feeling they can mean so many different things...it's a great way to bond with people when you both after a six hour car ride arrive at your destination and utter a "alhamdiliah!!"
my roommates. yep, although we are supposed to live along i have a few squatters in my hut. they've been gradually moving into my hut so i didn't notice them at first but now they've made their prescence known and although they didn't ask, i'm more than happy they call my hut home. i'm referring to shermann, lilypad, and walter my three toads. at first it was just shermann and he kept pretty much to himself. then lilypad moved in and for some reason like to hide in my clothes. (which has sometimes scared the____ out of me. walter is the newest addition and i must admit the most friendly and outgoing of the three. i greet them each morning as i sweep out my room and find out where they are hiding. they each seem to have their own space which is kinda cool so i can tell them apart. we have breakfast together and then i let them have a nap while i go do my thing. (as i discovered the other night they are noturnal and don't do much during the day. i was sleeping outside and it started raining so i had to move inside and couldn't sleep because they were crawling over everything!) but i love having them in my room. my ant problem is gone and there are less annoying beetles around. as long as they keep eating they can stay. it's also a riot because for some reason my village is afraid of them. my brother nearly started crying when i chased him with one and my mom won't come into my hut anymore. i don't understand why toads are so scary to them...my brothers chased a small mamba around the other day trying to kill it, yet they run like hell away from a toad. hmm.
market day. i get to ride into taredji, buy some frozen milk, chat with the vendors, buy beans and bananas...it always puts me in a good mood. plus i love it when i come home and surprise the kids with a treat (usually the bananas).
the landscape. it is soooo different from wisconsin. at first i hated it-it is brown and dry and hardly anything grows- but after a while i have been able to find the beauty in it. everything is in a delicate balance here and when it rains everything comes to life. because it is such a harsh place the things that do live are the toughest of the tough...plus the birds are so cool to look at (yep, birdwatch even here)
star gazing. and you thought the high school roof was the best place to watch the night sky (or get arrested for tresspassing if you're too loud about it)...it's amazing how many stars you can see here...it even beats the wyoming sky of duck creek ranch! i literally sit at dusk and just watch the sky. the sunsets are so beautiful and then night emerges...a great way to wind down the usually stressful day.
podor. when i just need to get away for the day, drink a cold soda (anything cold!), eat a bean sandwich (soooo tasty) and watch a movie trailer i just go to the side of the road wait for and unspecified amount of time, hop on whatever car pulls over and in twenty minutes i there. i love this town. the market is always bustling, the people are friendly, the post man always has a present for me (it's imported from the states) and the cyber guys are the nicest people in country. businesses here usually close for the hot hours of the day and so when we come they let us stay at the cyber, turn on the ac, and watch tv or do whatever we want while they lock up. it's really really really nice of them and i don't know what i would do if i didn't get to do this every week or so.
okra. it can grow in nearly every soil condition which is important here because you can't grow much out of sand...plus it's loaded with vitmins and minerals and available all year round and it's cheap. and it's surprisingly tasty.
ramadan. i won't elaborate as i've taked enough about it, but i really enjoyed it and very glad i got to experience it. we just had korite which marks the end of it. my village killed a cow so we ate meat all day, drank atayaa, and vistited everyone. i got my feet hennaed, my hair braided, and an outfit made for the occasion which the village loved and are still complimenting me on. it was more low key than i thought it would be but fun to see everyone dressed up and visiting with each other.
ok, there's so much i want to talk about but i've been pretty long winded already...enough for this post. i'm off to go hit up the post office then get a cold beverage for the fam.
peace out y'all!!
village kids. specifically MY village kids, not nessessarily all village kids. but i am so glad that i have the kids i do in my village. for the most part they are very well behaved (different standard of what a "well-behaved" kid is but still...) i am able to let the kids in my room and they know they aren't allowed to touch or pick up or play with anything of mine before asking (and they DO ask!) whenever i do any sort of chore they come help. i have my regular water helpers who help me pull water from the well and bringit back to my hut. they love playing any sort of games and are just so happy to be around me. this bugged me at first--do you have to constantly be touching me!--but i've come to really like that. the kids don't hide their emotions, you can tell when they are so happy because they literally jump for joy as well as when they are upset because they scream and wail. (at first i was alarmed at this and bothered by it until i noticed the different wailings; i'm really hurt vs. i want you to look at me because i didn't get my way. after a while even i ignore the latter). the other day for korite (more on that later) i went to go greet my village and the herder village. a bunch of my village kids decided to come with me and took me by the hands and led me around. we created a little mini-parade much to the delight of the adults. and although a lot of my frustration comes from the kids, they really are such a god-send to have. a few have started giving me random hugs throughout the day which always lift my spirits and they are up for whatever game i want to teach them. they have even started calling me "banel toubak amen" which is "OUR banel foreigner"
senegalese faith. this is different from the muslim religion that the majority practice here and in fact exclusively practice in the futa just to get that out there. there are three major sayings that some up their outlook on life which are actually arabic (because they are muslim phrases). forgive me of my spelling (never was good at it)...the first one is "alhamdililah" or "thanks be to god". you see this everywhere in senegal from the vehicles to buildings. one of the public transports is even referred to as "alhams" by pcvs because it is written everyone on these big passenger vans. i don't even know their real name. one can say alhamdililah after anythig and they do. when you greet someone the conversation probably goes something like this, "how are you" "i am fine thanks be to god" "thanks be to god" "how is your health" "peace only, and yours" "peace only, alhamdiliah" "alhamdililah"...and so on...now depending on how you say it the phrase can mean several things; thanks be to god!!, thanks be to god i am finally out of that vehicle, thanks be to god now go away, thanks be to god THAT'S over, etc. the second phrase is "inshallah" aka "god willing". you say this whenever you make plans for something or refer to something in the future so..."inshallah"..."god willing i will see you tomorrow, god willing i'll make it back home alive, god willing it will not rain tonight because it is sooo hot in my room, god willing i will never have to do that again... the final phrase, "so allah jebbii" is a mix of pulaar and arabic meaning "if god wills it". is it going to rain tonight? so allah jebbii...are we going to have rice for dinner? so allah jebbii...will you do well on your test today? so allah jebbii...you get the idea. the other night manne my aunt here asked why i don't eat with my hands. i told her that i make too big a mess and that i prefer a spoon (which is true). she said, tomorrow night you must try your hands. and my mother replied, yes yes, so allah jebbii. the next night rolls around and we sit donw to eat and my sister hands me my spoon (knowing full well that i don't want to eat with my hands) and it is a while before my aunt realizes that i'm not eating with my hands. (i should clarify HAND. right hand only). she asks me why i wasn't and without missing a beat i reply, allah jebbani "god didn't will it" to which everyone cracked up. with these three phrases even if you don't know pulaar well -like me- you can still crack jokes and let people know how you are feeling. that's what i like about these phrases. depending on how you're feeling they can mean so many different things...it's a great way to bond with people when you both after a six hour car ride arrive at your destination and utter a "alhamdiliah!!"
my roommates. yep, although we are supposed to live along i have a few squatters in my hut. they've been gradually moving into my hut so i didn't notice them at first but now they've made their prescence known and although they didn't ask, i'm more than happy they call my hut home. i'm referring to shermann, lilypad, and walter my three toads. at first it was just shermann and he kept pretty much to himself. then lilypad moved in and for some reason like to hide in my clothes. (which has sometimes scared the____ out of me. walter is the newest addition and i must admit the most friendly and outgoing of the three. i greet them each morning as i sweep out my room and find out where they are hiding. they each seem to have their own space which is kinda cool so i can tell them apart. we have breakfast together and then i let them have a nap while i go do my thing. (as i discovered the other night they are noturnal and don't do much during the day. i was sleeping outside and it started raining so i had to move inside and couldn't sleep because they were crawling over everything!) but i love having them in my room. my ant problem is gone and there are less annoying beetles around. as long as they keep eating they can stay. it's also a riot because for some reason my village is afraid of them. my brother nearly started crying when i chased him with one and my mom won't come into my hut anymore. i don't understand why toads are so scary to them...my brothers chased a small mamba around the other day trying to kill it, yet they run like hell away from a toad. hmm.
market day. i get to ride into taredji, buy some frozen milk, chat with the vendors, buy beans and bananas...it always puts me in a good mood. plus i love it when i come home and surprise the kids with a treat (usually the bananas).
the landscape. it is soooo different from wisconsin. at first i hated it-it is brown and dry and hardly anything grows- but after a while i have been able to find the beauty in it. everything is in a delicate balance here and when it rains everything comes to life. because it is such a harsh place the things that do live are the toughest of the tough...plus the birds are so cool to look at (yep, birdwatch even here)
star gazing. and you thought the high school roof was the best place to watch the night sky (or get arrested for tresspassing if you're too loud about it)...it's amazing how many stars you can see here...it even beats the wyoming sky of duck creek ranch! i literally sit at dusk and just watch the sky. the sunsets are so beautiful and then night emerges...a great way to wind down the usually stressful day.
podor. when i just need to get away for the day, drink a cold soda (anything cold!), eat a bean sandwich (soooo tasty) and watch a movie trailer i just go to the side of the road wait for and unspecified amount of time, hop on whatever car pulls over and in twenty minutes i there. i love this town. the market is always bustling, the people are friendly, the post man always has a present for me (it's imported from the states) and the cyber guys are the nicest people in country. businesses here usually close for the hot hours of the day and so when we come they let us stay at the cyber, turn on the ac, and watch tv or do whatever we want while they lock up. it's really really really nice of them and i don't know what i would do if i didn't get to do this every week or so.
okra. it can grow in nearly every soil condition which is important here because you can't grow much out of sand...plus it's loaded with vitmins and minerals and available all year round and it's cheap. and it's surprisingly tasty.
ramadan. i won't elaborate as i've taked enough about it, but i really enjoyed it and very glad i got to experience it. we just had korite which marks the end of it. my village killed a cow so we ate meat all day, drank atayaa, and vistited everyone. i got my feet hennaed, my hair braided, and an outfit made for the occasion which the village loved and are still complimenting me on. it was more low key than i thought it would be but fun to see everyone dressed up and visiting with each other.
ok, there's so much i want to talk about but i've been pretty long winded already...enough for this post. i'm off to go hit up the post office then get a cold beverage for the fam.
peace out y'all!!
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