28 April 2007

Just some notes about living here in Senegal in general. Being with Mame Fatou is awesome, she is extremely warm and really helpful. It seems to me that she knows everyone because she is constantly introducing me to new people on the street. Most of whom are 'freres''soeurs' and 'cousins' but more so in the friendly type of way.Though I think she does in fact have a lot of cousins in Thies. Thies itself is pretty big, more than a million people, but I'm only really familiar with the quarter where we live. In fact, I'm really only familiar with the path to the boutique to buy bread and the path tothe cyber where I go and write tons of emails. Everyone is super friendly in the street and while they usually stare at me, they are quick to smile and ask me how its going. The millions of kids allover love to say 'Bonjour' to me since they think that I'm french, so I usually play along. Mame Fatou is an excellent cook and she alsohas Awa, a 19 year old girl from around the corner, around to help with the cooking and cleaning. We eat a lot of fish, rice andveggies. And tea. There's this excellent tea called dutay ... but thats in Wolof... that I drink every morning. I'm already a big tea drinker and now I've got a tea Senegalese. I've only been here for 10days, but so much has happened and so much happens every day that it feels quite longer.

26 April 2007

So today was my third day of teaching. Since the strike has continued today, again I got two two-hour classes with each age group. I think today I discovered that the conversations that I was trying to do withthe littlest kids were basically too abstract because I was having areally hard time keeping their attention. There was also a smallcrowd outside the door to the class since the other kids arent in class while I'm teaching. Finally Anne came and yelled at the kids at the door (which I had tried unsuccessfully to do) and helped keep thecontrol of the classroom. The second class again went really muchbetter. We did a lot of numbers which they enjoy doing, but have a hard time with the teens. Apparently to a native Wolof speaker,Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen all basically sound the same. So I try press the pronounciation. We also did a worksheet that I had made athome that had a dialogue on it. This was a pretty good challenge forthem and took longer than I expected... for 10 to 14 year olds, their writing is not very good. We didn't finish the worksheet, soI'll probably continue with it on Monday.

24 April 2007

Today was my first day teaching. I was originally going to start yesterday, but Anne, the director of the school, had a sick friend so he couldn't stay at school. So anyway, my first day. So the teachers are all actually on strike right now, which pretty much sucks for the students but is also good for me because I got two two-hour blocks to teach in. The kids were amazed, intruiged, curious, distrusting andobsessed with this new crazy white girl teacher. They have never had a female teacher in the school, let alone a "tubaab" female teacher.Woah. So I started off the younger class with 'Hello, my name is...'They are really used to repeating after the teacher so it was achallenge to get them to actually say their own name here instea d of Ms Aine . With the younger kids, basically everything is a challenge because I'm trying to teach them English via French which is neitherof our first languages anyway. A lot of the littlest kids barelyunderstand much French, theyre just repeating after me. The older class went a bit better... though I still probably was too nice whichis what the director kept saying. Its tough because its not really my style to be a total jerk and then I feel like I'm taking myself a bit too seriously, but apparently its the only way to maintain control inthe classroom. I did intros and started numbers with the older kids.They were mixed like 10 to 14 and some of them were pretty bright.

22 April 2007

Today, we went to Goree. It was basically an all day affair. We started by having an early breakfast with Vieux, Mame's newphew. It's funny, I noted that his name is Vieux as that means old person in French and he is only 23. We walked from Mame's to this bus/ carstation thing which was packed with people selling things and talibe... slightly overwhelming. Then, we got in this car with about 5 other people that took s on the hour ride to Dakar. Once we gotthere, we had to wait a while for the next ferry. The ferry ride andwaiting room were packed full of tourists, so this was interesting inanother sort of way because it was my first time seeing so many a)white people and b) other signs of wealth. The other white people were mostly European tourists and I didn't talk to any of them, but they were definitely interesting. The island is absolutley gorgeous and very historic, so you can understand why there'd be so many tourists. We went to the "maison des esclaves" and saw the famous port that slaves went through on their way to America. It was pretty intense... as was the tour guide. We also went swimming for a bit inthe water which wasn't warm at all, but felt supurb in the African heat. We ate a late lunch at a little Senegalese cafe that was excellent. Eventually, as we all got tired, we took the ferry backand then this time a bus... one that made rather frequent stops...back to Thies. I was pretty tired by the end but it was awesome to goout and see this historic and beautiful place.

20 April 2007

I'm sitting under a thatched roof in Mame Fatou's courtyard right now in the shade. Everything is so beatiful. We haven't done too much today, which is really fine by me. I'm trying to learn some Wolof. We went to the market again today and I bought a big 10 liter jug ofwater and also some little cakes to give to the talibe. The talibe are these little begger boys that are all under 10 or so. Apparently, they are taken in by the local Mosque, but they are really dependant on the community for donations. One thing that I think really displays the amazing communal living is how often, when we haveleftovers from a meal, Mame Fatou or Awa just goes over to the frontdoor and a talibe will come and she'll give him the leftovers. I can't imagine all the people we could feed in the US if we all gave away our leftovers to people that didnt have enough. This afternoon, I drank this tea called "ataia". Its very Senegalese to drink and its like 400 percent mint and sugar. Its extremelystrong.... but good. On thje way back from the market this morning ,we took a horse and carriage thing because of my water jug. It was soawesome ; I loved it. I told Mame about how we have them in the US but theyre actually more expensive than taxis so I never take them. Funny that its reversed here. The driver of the cart asked where Iwas from and I said the states and he asked if I could take him backwith me. I told him that I didnt have enough room in my bag form him. He and Mame Fatou both loved this and they taught me how to say 'I dont have enough room for you in my bag' in Wolof. I love how the Senegalese are always hoking around... I think I'll fit in.

19 April 2007

This morning, I went with Anne and Bamba to the village where I will start teaching to meet some people and see the school. The school is only six years old and before that, there wasn't any form of education at all. It's a pretty small village, and it seems that most people have the same last name, Ndieye. We were going to take the 9 am bus this morning, but when we show up at 8 :40, it had already left. Bamba and Anne indicated that if the bus is full, it just leaves. So weended up taking a taxi there, which was fine. Even though it was onlya 15 minute ride to the village, life seems quite a bit more rural there. Things are slower and my foreigness is even lore of an attraction. Anne introduced me to a few people, but they didnt speak any french at all because they hadnt gone to school. Woah. Theyseemed nice anyway. The buliding was fairly new and it had a Senecorps sign because Senecorps helped build the school. I met one of the other teachers and introduced myself to some of his students.They looked pretty dumbfounded. Mr. Anne's classroom has more stuff than I expected. I guess they just got a donation, so the kids have workbooks that they keep in their desks. The desks are woodednand the floor is concrete. They mostly use chalk and the semi oldlooking board. There's also a bureau in the back where I can keep all the supplies I brought. Eventually, we decided to walk towards thebus to see if it was coming, and we were in luck, it was just passing by. The bus was awesome and intense. I definitely felt like a major "tubaab" with my cluelessness about where to sit and how to pay, but Bamba and Anne had me covered. This one brightly dressed woman on the bus was started talking really loudly to me and Bamba in Wolof andBamba started laughing. I guess Bill Clinton came to this village like 10 years ago, and this woman sang to him when he was here, so she really wanted me to know that she sang for one of my presidents. Awesome. We came back here and I had lunch with Mame Fatou, Cheikh and Awa ( who helps cook and clean for Mame Fatou). Mame Fatou said this was the Senegalese plat nationale, it was full of new flavors and pretty tasty. Lots of fresh veggies, rice and fish. When I was walking back from the internet place this afternoon, I was walking with Awa and some little kids were yelling 'tubaab ! !' I waved to them and laughed. Because I'm white, they actually think I'm French , so they come up to me and say 'Bonjour !' Then this one tiny little girl ran up to me from behind and kissed the back of my arm , I laughed and turned around and saw a gang of little kids cheering asshe ran back to them. Hilarious.

Bits from My Senegalese Journal

18 April 2007

I just arrived last night and am finally in Senegal , after thelongest journey ever (via Johannasburg). When I arrived last night,at first I couldnt find Bamba , the Senecorps member I was supposed to meet. I got pretty nervous because there were a number of people asking me if I wanted a ride or a cart. Apparently, Bamba came up tome and said 'Anne' but I ignored him ! Then he found me again andshowed me a Senecorps piece of paper and I was like 'Bamba ! Phew !'It took about an hour to drive to Thies and it was all around 2 am soI didnt really know what was going on. When we arrived at MameFatou's house, she had made a meal forme that would have looked quite a bit more tastey if I wasn't so exhausted. And off to sleep I went. This morning , I first woke up slightly confused at 5 am because therewere Mosque prayers over some sort of PA system. I woke up again at 8: 30 and Mame Fatou informed about the prayers at the Mosque. I'm abit nervous, but Mame Fatou calms my nerves because she is sowelcomiong and warm. We also communicate really well in French. Idon't speak any Wolof yet, so I'm pretty clueless in a lot of otherconversations. Bamba came over for breakfast and so did Cheikh (but its pronounced Chere), I gave Mame Fatou the Chicago book and the hairdye that I brought as fits for her and she really liked them both.She made me eggs, tea and bread this morning, but I couldn't finishall of it. Then, we all went to the Senecorps construction site and to see Akema's new house for when she comes this summer. While both are 'under construction,' there wasn't anyone working on either building... this must be very Senegalese because I think bothb uildings are waiting on more supplies or more money. Akema's house will be very beautiful. I can tell its fancy even though itsunfinished. The new school is also awesome. There will be two computer rooms , a board room for volunteers, a conference room, and lots of classrooms. It would be sweet to return and teach there. The head mason of the house was really cool. He doesn't shake my handbecause he is traditional muslim , but he liked my joke about being related to Jenny McCarthy. Mame Fatou says that she is also Muslim,as are most people here. Although, she is Muslim, she doesn't go to the Mosque. She says women usually go on Fridays anyway, and even then its mostly grandmothers that go. She says its more imporant to know God in her heart. She says there are lots of nonpracticing Muislims just like there are non practicing Christians...this is all pretty interesting to me. The quarter where Mame Fatou lives is called Diakhao (Ja-Cow)... obviously that is my spelling and not Wolof, but spelling in Wolof doesn't seem that regimented anyway.The quarter has sandy roads that are lined with walls that have doors as entrances into the courtyards that start each family's home. Most of the families that live together are pretty extended, although Mame Fatou lives on her own. In the sandy roads,basically everyone is just hanging out. And there are kids everywhere. This afternoon , we took a taxi to the bank and thenwalked back. We walked thgouh downtown which had paved roads, lots ofhorses and carriages, and people selling stuff. I didn't look too closely at the things being sold because I didnt want them and I didnt want the vendors to think I wanted them either, but it was still sointeresting to walk though. It was like a senses overload. The women all wear such beautiful clothes and there are just sooo many kids. Many women carry their babies on their backs, it looks like a prettycomfortable ride. On the way back, we stopped at Bamba's house...which I think also used to be Mame Fatou's house because I believethey are cousins. We met Bamba's father who was pretty old and very polite. I love that you stop by and visit people all the time on yourway to or from some place. I get introduced, stumble through a little Wolof introduction, and Mame Fatou and the other people babble away in Wolof.