Moose

Well another week gone and I find myself getting closer to the end than I thought. I found myself remembering when I first arrived at my house and how many people came out to greet me when I got there. All their names sounded similar and difficult and everyone looked the same. Our housekeeper , Ami and her little boy, Sidi, left to go visit her mother in another city and I swear it feels like the house is empty with two fewer people there taking up, not space, but making noise, saying hello, having warm greetings, just a presence I guess. The ISP period is coming up soon, and as I get everything in order, I have thought about where I will live during this time as well. I hope that I am able to stay with my family, but it is one more thing on the list that I need to get worked out before then!
I recently thought of things that I have learned here and some of them were sad as well as funny… well I guess for me they were…
· Mosquitoes rule the world here
· Sheep on the roofs don’t always mean dinner, but elimination of sins
· Sheep WILL eat green dresses if they are hung within munching distance
· Chocolate spread is good on pretty much anything ever invented, especially fresh, warm bread
· Not all the strays have happy endings
· Vehicles WILL NOT slow down for pedestrians
· Confusion is always a must, especially with language
· Starch is a food group
· Little brothers don’t really ‘help’ with the laundry
· Bathrooms are optional
· So is toilet paper
· Women are not created equally
· Noise never ceases
· Handshakes go a long ways
· Greetings last for minutes
· Sand can find its way into ANYTHING
· Not all plungers were created equally
· Sunscreen is a must
· “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”
· Seatbelts are a strange concept
· Ice cream makes everyday better
· Standing out is hard
· Deodorant is NOT as strong here
· There is ALWAYS more room on the bus and in the car rapides
· Muslim prayer at 5am is not something you ever get used to
· Ear plugs don’t always work
· Appearance is everything
· Sweaty butt is frequent
· There is always a day that will be hotter
· Fruit stands have the best fruit
· Smoking is a popular hobby
· No answer is ever straight forward
· Art is everywhere you want to find it
· Goats are taking over
· Getting ripped off is hard to avoid
· Time is of no essence
· The power/internet doesn’t always/usually work
· The ground works just as well as a garbage can
· Religious holidays are often, school, not so much
· French men wear the shortest shorts, and more leg, is not always better
· Not price is fixed
· ‘Moose’ is cat in Wolof
· Not everyone is what they appear to be
· ‘All in the family’ is a literal term
· The shack around the corner, is often the best place to find food and conversation
· Walking is often faster
· It is better to not know what the meat is your eating for dinner is
· Not every society has people to help
· Markets have the coolest stuff, and sometimes the scariest foods
· Pointing at things works just as well as talking
· It is about who you know

I think that the list is much longer than I have made it, and that most of the little ‘realizations’ that I have are lost to the moment. It still amazes me how many thoughts that I have coming at me during the day, and it is not until later when I try to write them down that I actually realize how many of them I have forgotten.

The days seem to stay full of things to do, and they often pass faster than I anticipate. I had my first bout of stomach aches last week and it wasn’t really that bad. I am crossing my fingers that it was the extent of my “African illness” and I won’t have to experience anything too horrible. We had out last week of the dance, djembe and kora lessons last week and my hands are slowly peeling from the small blisters that I got. It was really cool being able to continue with the djembe and I feel like I learned some really cool rhythms. These classes were ones that we got to sign up for and we were able to pick the instrument/dance that we wanted to. I think that if I could do it over, that I would try a different instrument, that way I would be able to learn a little about multiple instruments. Our instructor was the same, but this time he seemed to say even less and we played the same rhythms even longer.

We are doing art classes this week, but since most of them are introduction type classes, I had already done a majority of them. There is bronze, using the lost wax method, glass painting, ceramics, sand art, and batik. I am doing batik and it is like tye dye, only the areas you want to stay white you paint over with wax instead. It is amazing and I love it, and want to try it when I get home. I hope that I can make some of the things that I make into items of clothing, but knowing me, it won’t be a problem thinking up more clothes that I want J Most of us caught on how to prepare everything by the end of the week and I was able to get the fire started and prepare all the little things that they put the charcoal in to keep the wax melted while people use them. I felt pretty cool having all the other students just watch as I took charge of the situation. I have found how good I am at being independent here even without a strong language background in French. It is a wonderful feeling to accomplish the little things or try things that are new for most of us, and get to help the other students with it later on.

Last weekend we decided to get up early on Saturday and walk to a pastry shop that morning to chow down on delicious things full of chocolate. It was a beautiful walk and we had a flower garden along one side and the beach on the other. It was located in a part of Dakar where a lot of rich people live so the houses were all HUGE and there were a lot of really nice shops. The pastries were wonderful but we have been on a starch overload and after the pastries we ended up getting salad…. It is really nice to be able to walk to places to go and get what you need, and I hope that I continue to walk to places that I can when I get home. It is probably harder than I am giving it credit for right now, but I am sure that I will attempt it several times when I get home.

Sunday I had to do cleaning and Hibra Rima, my 4 year old little brother decided that he was going to help me with laundry. The last weekend he tried to, but my sisters wouldn’t let him. He came up with his little bench, and as soon as I saw him walk through the doorway to the roof, I knew that I was going to have a helper… more or less… He got really into washing the socks, and I think it was because they were not only small, but when he used the soap, they made lots of bubbles. He wouldn’t rinse them very well, and since he only speaks Wolof, it makes it hard to teach him how not to do something. My rinse water got dirty pretty fast so I finally had to give him his own bucket. He took the laundry bag that Dad gave me to use, and decided it was his goal for the next half hour to clean it, and make as many bubbles as he could. It was pretty cute, but then the soap was running out faster than I wanted it to, so I had to take it away. He kept telling me to hand him the soap and I kept saying no. But we have this form of communication where one of us will say something, the other one will look at them for a long time because they don’t know what, and then we will repeat it, and the other one will continue to stare and then either yell it again louder in his case, or just laugh. He tried the laughing thing when I didn’t hand him the soap, and got up to get it like I didn’t understand what he wanted. I did. He wasn’t getting it. He tried to throw a hissy fit, but then eventually gave up, and tried to make bubbles on his own. He tried to use bubbles from the bucket and when those weren’t soapy enough for him, he tried to spit on the clothes to make bubbles… literal ‘spit shine’ I guess you could say.

He eventually gave up but by that point I was already done so he had to be done too. He helped me empty the buckets and then decided to play in the water… I guess he has played in worse considering what the animals and men do in the sand he plays in. Later that day I was sitting in the kitchen watching my sister and cousin make Chebijin, my favorite thing here, and when I was trying to show my little sister this clap game, she looked at me, and then she and my other sister and cousin stood up and started singing and clapping. It was the coolest thing, and they taught me how to do the song “who stole the cookie from the cookie jar” along with the clapping rhythm in French. It was a lot of fun and it was really neat watching them do the longer more complicated songs in French really fast. I brought out my camera to take a few pictures, and my family thought that it was fantastic so while my sisters decided to braid my hair and give me a 'makeover,' they practiced taking pictures of everyone by this fake plant. I think that when I get back I will put an album together to send them so that if they continue to have other students, those students can do the same.

We leave for another Village stay next Thursday morning and I am very excited since it is a Wolof village and we have been learning Wolof. I don’t think that I will be able to have any in depth conversations while I am there, but since I can’t really do that in French yet either, I am not too worries, especially since I have managed quite well thus far. After we go to the villages, we go for a week in Saint Louis, and really nice area of Dakar that is where many colonial buildings and architecture can is still present. It will be like a vacation/Spring break for us I guess, and I am really excited to have another whole week of exploring and seeing new places. Pretty much as soon as we come back we start our ISP’s and that time I am sure will go super fast.

I went by the WWF with my letter of introduction along with Kate (to help if I needed a translator) on our morning off Wednesday. I wasn’t expecting anything, and was willing to just go along with whatever happened. We got there and after we greeted the security guard, he said something to me really fast and I looked to Kate to see if she understood and he said “do you speak English?” I was amazed, and taken aback, and was flustered for a minute and I think that Kate realized that and said we wanted to see if the Director was here. He took my letter and we went inside to sit. It was really a neat little building and I started to grad up information brochures while we waited. They came back and said that the director had already left for the holiday and wouldn’t be able to meet until the following Tuesday. Which was fine, and I am just going to miss class, but considering our proposals are due that Thursday… I guess finding out if I can work with them sooner rather than later would be in my best interest. I really want to work with them and get some information from them about the smaller fishing villages and the impact that the large commercial fishing has had on the individual communities. I hope to be able to talk to WWF and see what things they are doing to help the overfishing and destructive fishing and compare that to the communities, specifically the Cayan community. I really want to be able to go out a few days on the boats with the fishermen and see what it is like being out there and how difficult it is for them to make a living while competing with such large commercial companies that are coming in from other countries. We will see how this goes! I went with Kate to talk to the business school that she wanted to work with, and it turns out that the man, who is in charge of it, is the one that taught the director of WWF. So he gave me his card and said if I need any help or that the Director ‘gives me any trouble’ he will help me out. So the networking begins!