The two things I DON’T like about Senegal

This experience has been life changing, so far, and has exposed me to so many new and different things. The culture is bright, lively, and full of unexpected twists and turns, the people are exciting and inquisitive, and the fact that everything is unlike anything I have encountered before, has made this an unforgettable study abroad. I am extremely fortunate to be abroad right now, and wouldn’t exchange it for anything. I can’t thank enough people for this opportunity.

However, as much as I love this place, one quote will always resonate with me in regards to going through the infamous STAGE TWO. A fellow American on the program says, every time I am frustrated, angry, or sad about being in Senegal, I just remember that I don’t have to stay here, nor do I really live here, and that I am American. Now, as much as that quote may make it seem like I want to get out of this place ASAP, I really do not. I am simply in stage two. Stage two, or cultural confrontation, is characterized by confusion and frustration with feelings that have shifted from very positive to extremely negative, a view that is monopolized by wanting to do things back home, and discouragement or doubt with whether adjustment is even possible. So, here are the two things that really frustrate me about Senegal…

1. THE WAY THE EDUCATION SYSTEM “FUNCTIONS”:

The Senegalese education system has made me realize how fortunate I am to have an education in the United States of America. The value of an education in the states is so valuable, and I would not exchange anything for my college education at Wooster. In Senegal, there are no plans or syllabi, everything is about being “flexible”, and classes are driven more by the students, not the teachers. Teachers expect students to have questions (which in the states is very much encouraged), but they expect you to have questions on topics that they have not given you any information or readings on.

Also, there is no sense of ownership in Senegal; there is plagiarism left and right here. I witnessed a Senegalese student completely cut and paste an entire presentation. Unfortunately, there is no explanation for why students, and even professors, do this. As American university students, it is hard to explain what copyrights are and what the concept of ownership is because everything in Senegal is about sharing and teranga…what’s his is mine and what’s yours is hers!

2. BEING CALLED “CHINOIS” OR “CHIN-CHIN” AND BEING MOCKED FOR BEING OF ASIAN DESCENT:

It’s not racism, but it is the classification of people based on looks and perceptions. In Senegal, they classify everyone and I know that it is part of their culture, or so they say it is, but it makes me feel uncomfortable. I don not like it.

There have been an infinite amount of times when I have been walking down the street and someone points to me and says one of the following: chinois, chin-chin, de chine ou de japon, or ching-chon-chi-king. I respond with I am American and they laugh at me, I respond with ca va and they say don’t pretend your French, I respond with oui and they continue to mock. There has never been a time in my life where I have been ashamed to be Chinese or of Asian descent. I am an Asian-American. I ate rice when I was little. I celebrate Chinese New Year. I know a few things about being Chinese. I eat dim-sum. I even speak a little bit of Chinese.

So, maybe I am just confused, am I American or am I Chinese? If I am Chinese then Daniel is Irish. If I am Chinese then Sarah is German. If I am Chinese then Myra is French and Mexican.

SIGNED, frustrated "american"

Parc National de Langue de Barbarie Excursion

“This park includes the far southern tip of the Langue de Barbarie peninsula, the estuary of the Senegal River (which contains two small islands) and a section of the mainland on the other side of the estuary. The park covers a total area of 2000 hectares, and is home to numerous water birds, swelled from November to April by migrant birds from Europe. If you choose to come to the park independently, you must first go to the park office at Mouit to pay your entrance fee. At the river you can hire a pirogue (traditional canoe). ” -Lonely Planet Book: Senegal

On 10/24/2008 (our last day of class before we would begin working our final projects), we had an excursion to the Langue de Barbarie. This has been one of the highlights, of not only my stay in St. Louis, but during my entire stay in Senegal. The park was absolutely gorgeous, there were no trash piles, the water was clean and “blue-ish”, the amount of green, lush vegetation was almost overwhelming, and there were lots of migrating birds. As a group we had a chance to ride in pirogues down the river and had an informative talk on the birds of the region, as well as the park. Our pirogue ride lasted about an hour and was followed by a picnic (catered by La Louisiane, featuring yassa poulet and Swiss cheese sandwiches, bananas, watermelon, and fruit juices) and swim on the beach. We had a really good opportunity to spend time with the Senegalese students, jumping and swimming in the water with our clothes on (because only about three people brought bathing suits).

**Random tidbits about the day: There were two Spaniards that we picked up and spent the entire day with, Myra had a mild a mild case of malaria, Val was at Myra’s side in the hospital the night before until 4AM, Anne-Marie became extremely ill half-way through the day and was driven back home with Yakham…

Ross Bethio Visit/Stay (10/16/2008-10/19/2008)

Our first attempt at some sort of a “rural visit” began with a visit to Ross Bethio. Ross Bethio is about an hour northeast of St. Louis (75km) and was rural in the sense of a midwestern farm town that most people just drive through on road trips…not exactly what we were all expecting. We were all expecting huts and no running water, but instead when we arrived in the 2 gas station, 12 boutique, 3 welder, 1 mosque town, we pulled into a “gated compound-like hotel” or “conference-like facility with bedrooms”, where we would be spending three nights and four days.

The straight out of the 1970s, bright pink, art-deco building was well furnished, had “running water”, eight bedrooms, a “restaurant”, and numerous other amenities (roof access and a wonderful view of the farm fields). However, don’t think that we were in any sort of five star resort; it was just a lot nicer than our expectations. Overall, the best part about the visit and stay was the opportunity to get to know the Senegalese students better. It was nice to get out of the formal classroom setting at FEPRODES, and have a three-day field experience (which helped put the content of our “La Vallee du Fleuve, lieu de Culture et de Developpement” Course in better perspective). Our three-day visit was highlighted by: (1) Kassack Nord, (2) Les périmètres de la SAED and Thilène, (3) A Charbon Vert Factory, (4) La Compagnie Sucrière Sénégalaise (CSS), (5) rooftop shenanigans Senegal-American style, and (6) les pneus crevés (flat tires).

1. Wait…there are theme songs for Toubabs in Senegal?

Kassack Nord is what could be considered HUD housing (Senegal version), in the sense that the village infrastructure has been completely funded by the government. Kassack Nord is a village just outside the Ross Bethio area and is home to numerous homes, a school that enrolls 327 students, a clinic, various other structures to accommodate the population of 3000, and (most importantly for our visit’s purposes) a very extensive irrigation system. The irrigation system was developed by the government and is used to bring water from the river valley into the rice fields. Unfortunately, the government created rice fields have generated a limited source of revenue for the community, and, furthermore, provided the village with just barely enough food. The village, as our professor has said, is all of the problems of Senegal in one place. Kassack Nord does not have electricity, a good running water system, and when we arrived we could see the hunger in many of the children’s eyes. The village has been forced to choose education over health, and this choice is very visible.

So, theme songs… When we got off the bus at Kassack Nord, we were greeted by what appeared to be the entire village (or at least the entire village under the age of 16) and two loud speakers playing Senegalese hip-hop/rap/something music (later we were told that the village played the music using the energy from a car battery, since they do not have electricity). It was quite a welcome, and as we descended the bus we were greeted with TOUBAB! TOUBAB! and lots of smiles and handshakes (even the Senegalese students were welcomed in this fashion, or at least more or less). We all got off and, like toubab, we took pictures and videos of the children and used our limited Wolof, later to find out that most of them only spoke Pulaar (another regional language in Senegal). We were off the bus for about 15-20 minutes before we got back on to head to the rice fields, where we would see the irrigation system and the harvesting of rice. As we got back on the bus…more music!

So, more theme songs… YES! When we returned from our trip to the rice fields, music, screaming children, and clapping elders again greeted us. We were given a tour of Kasack Nord (the schools, the medical/clinic facilities, the housing plan, etc.) and then had the opportunity to talk with the local government about their role in constructing the village, the village’s influence in Senegal, and how they have used the river valley to their advantage. We were also served beverages and cookies…definitely a highlight because it was about 3PM and we still hadn’t eaten lunch (breakfast was at 8AM) and the weather was about 85-90…in mid-October!

2. Back to the homeland…the rice fields

At Kassack Nord, I learned how rice is grown and harvested! I was “back in the homeland”, as many of the others enjoyed saying. Anyways, it was really interesting to see how the village was able to irrigate such a dry area of land into an extremely green and lush rice field. The government chose this region because of its impermeable soil that is perfect for rice culture. We were shown the various pump stations and secondary canal systems, as well as the machine that removes the rice from the stalk. On each rice stalk there is about a teaspoon of rice, so you can imagine how many acres of rice fields there were. Senegal has started to grow its own rice because it is becoming more and more costly to import from Asia. As our professor likes to say, “Senegal is without a doubt the largest consumer of rice, after China”…I can attest to that statement and say that I have eaten pounds of rice in my first two months (probably about 1-2 cups of rice per meal)!

Also, at les périmètres de la SAED I was able to work on the rice fields; I helped/tried to water the rice fields using a tube, and after about 20 attempts was successful. At SAED, they water the fields with 1-inch tubes, using physics and suction of air to pull the water from the canal over a small mound into the rice field. It is extremely interesting, and seems completely counterintuitive that water is going up a hill against gravity...but somehow it works. After I embarrassed myself, we watched a group of farmers take harvested rice stalks and put them in a machine that removed the rice grains.

3. Typha to Charbon Vert!?

Typha: a water plant that has been extremely devastating to the river valley region; it started to grow in the river valley after the building of the Diama dam and has caused problems with fish populations.
Charbon: charcoal (in French).
Vert: green (in French).

So, there is a company associated with SAED, in the Ross Bethio region, that uses typha and turns it into charcoal. This factory was very interesting because it illustrates how the Senegalese are using a devastating plant and turning it into something that every person in Senegal uses on a daily basis. I did not know that anything like this existed or could be done, so I found this visit very beneficial. Unfortunately, it was so late in the day that many of us were extremely tired and could not appreciate the visit as much as I think we would have liked to. I am definitely going to look more into how this charcoal is made and whether or not it is good for the environment. When we were in the factory, it appeared as if they might have been using more energy to make the charcoal then the charcoal actually produces. Also, it seemed that they were polluting a lot when they were burning the typha. It made it very apparent as to a huge difference between the US and Senegal—the lack of government regulation. There are no environmental laws, and I do not think the government is going to take any steps in the near future to correct their mistakes. This is just one of many differences that I am experiencing by living in a third world country.

4. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Senegal edition)

By far the sweetest day that I have had in Senegal (pun intended)! We visited the Compagnie Sucrière Sénégalaise (CSS) on 10/17/2008 and saw acres of sugar cane fields, the molasses/alcohol factory, and learned about how sugar cane is turned into cubes, grains, molasses, alcohol, etc…

We started our visit by being denied access into CSS, but after we were let in we headed to the sugar cane fields. The fields were huge and the sugar cane was at least 10-12 feet high. We were told about how the sugar cane is cut with a machete, and how it takes one man an entire day to cut down 2 hectares (200m2). As we were going from field to field we kept looking at each other trying to figure out when we were going to actually get to sample/eat the sugar cane…when we finally did arrive at the “chosen” field we were like little kids in a candy store. We broke the stalks and peeled back the hard stem casing and started to chew on the stringy center. It was my first time trying sugar cane…and it was delicious! We all looked like panda bears in a bamboo forest, except we were eating sugar cane, covered in cane juice, and had nowhere to wash our sticky hands. I think that everyone enjoyed eating the sugar cane and I know that some of the Senegalese students even took full stalks home with them! Another highlight of the CSS visit was getting to ride in the back of a pick-up truck! On a hot day in Senegal it was so nice to be able to cool off in a truck bed. Unfortunately, I got a lot of dust in my eyes, but it was worth it in the end.

5. Diversity Day

Note to self, Ross Bethio is not Dakar and does not have any sort of nightlife. We (as in the Americans) decided to look for “beverages” in Ross Bethio, so that we could have a proper celebration of American and not-so Senegalese values! During our last night in Ross Bethio, we (Americans) bought our “beverages” from what appeared to be the back room of someone’s house. We then had a roof party with the Senegalese students…and as Amelia likes to say we “integrated” ourselves. Well, it was a lot of fun because basically all of the American students made fools of themselves in front of the Senegalese students, though we know they appreciated and loved every second of it. The Senegalese students were dancing with us and singing our American hip-hop and rap songs that were played...Akon and Beyonce are definitely favorites in Senegal!

The roof party was also highlighted by Alejandra, Myra, and my ethnic nicknames that we decided to give each other…every ethnic food from quesadillas to wonton soup to kimchi to baguettes to queso cheese… (FYI: Alejandra is Venezuelan, Myra is French and Mexican, and I am Chinese.) This entertained us for a good hour or so, and it still does… my little kimchi. my little queso-baguette. my little wonton soup. my little egg roll with duck sauce. my little queso. my little quesadilla. my little strudel. my little rotten potato. my little yassa poulet. my little fried ice cream. my little beef and broccoli. my little blanched asparagus…oh the list goes on.

We made a lot of progress and “broke the ice” with the Senegalese students after our experience with them at Ross Bethio. Everything from this roof top party to Kalen and I learning how to make attaya with Ousman to Anna talking with Mairetou about “appropriate” skirt lengths to Thomas teaching Penda and Ndeye-Fatou how to play Texas Hold’em to learning the “ventilateur” dance.

6. Les pneus…CREVES!

I can check off my list of things to do in Senegal: (1) get stranded on a road in the middle of Senegal because of a flat tire, (2) get stranded on a road in the middle of Senegal and have to change buses because the spare tire has already been used, and (3) start walking 15km because it might be faster than waiting for the replacement bus to come.

We got two flat tires over the course of three days…that’s what happens when your bus goes off-roading like a four-wheel drive hummer! The first flat tire we got was on our way from CSS to our “hotel-like compound”. It was really exciting because we all got off and wondered around the “Serengeti of Senegal”, looking for lions, tigers, elephants, gazelles, and other big game animals (like donkeys, goats, and sheep). We found the latter three. Our second flat tire occurred 15km outside of St. Louis on our way home from Ross Bethio. By this time, we were already used to the drill of getting off the bus and waiting patiently. However, instead of waiting, Anna, Anne-Marie, Amelia, Djibril, Absa, and myself started to walk back…thinking that walking 15km might be faster than waiting.

The walk…well it lasted about 30 minutes, and after 1.5km we stopped to pick thorns off of Djibril’s trousers. Amelia, Anne-Marie, and I decided that it would be a good idea to wander off the road and go exploring…Djibril insisted that we not go anywhere, warning us of serpents…we continued and Djibril followed. Djibril, somehow, ended up in a thorn bush and his trousers were covered with little thorns. He said, “C’est a cause de toi que there are thorns on my trousers”. Amelia then proceeded to pick them off of him like he was a five year old (he is 29). We ended up having to get on the replacement bus and did not get to walk back…

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Well, that’s my update for the week, or at least until something else worthy of a blog entry happens! FYI: this blog entry is being awarded “THE LONGEST BLOG ENTRY TO DATE AWARD”!

ALEX

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COUNTDOWNS:

10 days until HALLOWEEN
11/12 days until we return to Dakar
13 days until I can go to the post office in Dakar to pay X CFA to pick up my absentee ballot
14 days until ELECTION DAY…go blue!
29 days until THANKSGIVING
49 days until TABASKI and another NEW OUTFIT!
61 days until I leave SENEGAL…what!? ☹ I have only been in Senegal for 45 days…

Darhas de MPal Visit: LOUGA, SENEGAL (10/11/2008)

ASALAA MAALEKUM! Today, we had a field trip to help supplement the content of our Histoire de l’Islam class; Professor Ba from Dakar came up to St. Louis for the day so that he could take us to a mosque in St. Louis and to Louga, Senegal to visit a school. The purpose of this trip was to help us better understand the function of mosques in Senegal (and other Islamic countries), as well as the role of Koranic schools in local communities.

We left FEPRODES at 8h30 for a local mosque in St. Louis; it was about a five-minute walk from the school. The mosque that we visited is considered to me one of the larger mosques in the area, so we were able to see some people reciting the Koran and others praying in this mosque. At the mosque we were shown two burial rooms that previous marabous have been buried and the separate praying areas for men and women (at this mosque, the men pray inside the mosque, while the women pray in a building that is literally just cement blocks with a roof held up by 2-3 inch sticks). It was good to see the inside of a mosque because I now have a better understanding of the structure and purpose of all the spaces; they are no longer just beautifully constructed buildings that I walk by every day. Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures of the inside, but I hope to have some mosque pictures after I visit Touba (google it, if you don’t know what it is).

After we visited the mosque, we left and took a bus to Louga. Louga is a small town in the St. Louis region about 40 minutes northeast of St Louis. In Louga we visited Darhas de MPal (the local Koranic school that teaches the Koran to what appeared to be 250 students, ranging in age from 2-16); the visit lasted about 3-4 hours and has been a highlight of my time in Senegal. The experience was invaluable and extremely informative.

The visit started when we arrived and were seated on mats, under a gorgeous tree and served bisap juice (juice made from hibiscus flowers and mint…definitely will be bringing this back in some form of a concentrate). It was a perfect day for the visit, not too hot or humid…or at least for the guys. All of the females in our groups were asked to wear headscarves, long-sleeves, and long skirts…so they were not as cool as I think the guys were in shorts and t-shirts. Anyways, we were welcomed and then introduced to past students of the Darhas School, most of who are current students at the University of St. Louis or Dakar. It was interesting because for about an hour and a half we were able to ask them any questions about Koranic schools, the teaching methods, Senegal; essentially it was an opportunity for many of us to talk one on one with a previous Talibe about their life from Koranic school to now. I was extremely fortunate and talked with the son of the marabou at Darhas; his name was Assane H’Gom. We talked about the Darhas and the structure of Koranic schools.

Koranic schools start at about 5AM (when the first pray usually begins) and go until about 5PM. At 7AM the talibe go home and have breakfast, at 1PM they go home for lunch, and then the finally end at 5PM. The students learn the Koran little by little; each day the students are given about 15-20 pages of the Koran to memorize. They are suppose to recite what they have learned three times each day, right before they go to bed, and the following morning. When we were seated on the mats there were three talibe they came over and recited their lesson for the day. Basically, the previous students of the Darhas asked each talibe to recite a certain part of the Koran and the student was able to do it verbatim. Students learn the Koran differently depending on their age, the students first start by learning how to recite the Koran (6-10) and then learn how to write the Koran (11-16). It usually takes about 3-4 years to learn how to recite the entire book and 4-5 years to learn how to write the book. They students are tested by lesson, and do not need to be able to recite/write 500-600 pages at once.

The Darhas School had five different “classrooms” (each was dependant on the age of the students). I say “classrooms” because one of them was a piece of metal and one wall, two were huts, and two were actual buildings. The first classroom was for the youngest students (2-4) and was under the piece of metal. During this age students learn the Arabic letters, usually 2-3 letters a day. This helps them for the second level, where they begin to recite small passages of the Koran. It is not until the third level that they actually begin to recite and chant passages. This was very interesting to actually see because when we went into this classroom we were able listen to them chant a passage; they chant a single passage three times in a row then start over. In the fourth and fifth levels, culture is added into the lessons and students (depending on their ages begin to be tested on the Koran).

From my observations, the Koranic school system seems to differ depending on communities and marabous. I think that for my final paper for my Histoire de l’Islam class, I am going to write on these differences and whether or not there is a certain structure that schools should be following. Is this system regulated? To what extent do marabous have the power to physical hit a student if they recite incorrectly? How is this punishment perceived by non-muslims? The paper itself is suppose to focus on an aspect of Islam and its relevance in Senegal…I think that I can make that topic work…my only problem is going to be obtaining resources!

Counting down the days till I receive my absentee ballot and November 4^th!

ALEX

 

 

What…you don’t like FONDE, but you’re in Senegal!

Marie Gaye…oh how much Anna, Daniel, and I love our hot mother! She greets Daniel and I by saying “Mes fils…Ça va?” and does a little dance waving her hands in the air. She calls Anna “la reine” and has started to call all of us “bébé” plus our respective name!

***FONDE: yogurt, milt that has been boiled and made into a porridge like soup, & sugar (basically the Senegalese equivalent of porridge)

10/10/2008-DINNER (9PM): We at fonde for dinner… The dish is a very traditional Senegalese meal and is often eaten when people have eaten a heavy lunch or large afternoon meal. It was Anna and my first time eating fonda (Daniel has eaten it a handful of times with his host family in Dakar, and loves it THERE). So, basically, the point of this story is that Marie asked us if we liked the fonde and we all kept saying “ça va, oui, ça va… nous avons déjà mangé un peu chez Codou, notre directrice” and she would respond with, “vous ne l’aimez pas, je ne fait jamais le porridge encore”… we never actually said that we liked the fonde, but we didn’t say we hated it either. I think that Marie could just tell that we were not enjoying our dinner; it even came to a point where she said that she would go to the boulangerie and buy us some bread and make us another meal. We insisted that she not make us another meal and that the fonde was good... in the words of Anna, “We just hit a porridge wall and couldn’t eat it anymore.” Marie will not be making us fonde anymore, or at least we think… We all felt terrible after dinner, but in the end we were all happy about it. 

So, since we didn’t eat enough…right, we had plenty of food (we had watermelon, peanuts, and attaya at Codou’s house about and hour before we ate dinner and then our fonde), we went across the street to a boutique and bought cookies around 10:30pm. Actually, we were all just craving something sweet, but that is not why I am writing this in my blog. To preface what Daniel and Anna thought was hilarious, I really wanted candy and had no idea what JUMBO spice was. In Senegal, there is apparently a spice seasoning packet or bourbon-like cube spice that is called JUMBO; Daniel and Anna have said that they see the commercial for it like six times when they watch TV in Dakar…I have never seen it. So, we are at the boutique and I inquiringly have the following conversation, as Daniel and Anna stand, laughing their brains out: 

Alex:  Qu’est-ce que c’est ça?

Boutique Owner: C’est le JUMBO.

Alex: Oui, mais quelle TYPE de bonbon?

Boutique Owner: C’est le JUMBO.

Daniel and Anna: Alex that’s the spice that we have been talking about for the past week.

Alex: Oh. (to the boutique owner) Merci, je ne le veux pas…juste des biscuits s’il vous plait.

Well, that’s it for this entry. These “souvenirs” might just be hilarious to me, but I need a place to put them and thought that you all might enjoy reading them.

ALEX

p.s. sorry if you don’t know French…you shouldn’t have taken Spanish, Russian, German

Diama Barrage, our Mauritania illegal border crossing, and running Bejing Olympic style... all in one day!?

I think that I have made it very clear that St. Louis is extremely dirty…or at least comparatively speaking to Dakar; there is trash everywhere and, like Dakar (but worse), they have yet to figure out how to properly dispose of everything from rubber tires to cardboard juice boxes. Before my arrival in St. Louis, I was expecting lots of blue water from the Atlantic Ocean flowing into the delta of the Senegal river valley, clear blue skies that I could sit under after class, and less traffic that would allow me to run whenever and wherever I wanted to go.

Well, I was sure wishing for paradise... It is not that I am not enjoying my time in St. Louis; it is just not exactly what I was expecting. So, about this “barrage”…

For our “La Vallee du Fleuve, lieu de Culture et de Developpement” Course we visited the Diama dam. The Diama dam is one of two dams that were constructed to help regulate and provide energy for the river valley. Diama is a “anti-sel” dam that has eliminated the high saline concentration of the Atlantic Ocean from entering into the river; it is also used to regulate water levels, especially during the dry season (ten months out of the year). We left FEPRODES, the center where we have our class…I have no idea what the acronym stands for, at 8:45AM for Diama. Diama is about 35km north of St. Louis and is situated right on the boarder of Mauritania and Senegal. When we arrived at the dam we had a lecture/presentation on Diama and the general geography of the river valley (Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, and Mali comprise the Senegalese River Valley, which is roughly 300,000 km2; the river is about 1,800 km long and runs from the Atlantic Ocean, St. Louis, Senegal, to various smaller rivers in Guinea and Mali.) After our lecture/presentation, we had a tour of the dam and then did the unthinkable…

It is necessary to have a visa to enter Mauritania for one minute, one hour, one day, one month, one year, etc. unless you are a citizen of Senegal. There is a hefty fine and jail time for those that enter the county illegal without a visa…my American passport is not that great… So, you have all probably figured out that now I can check to countries off my Africa map that I have visited. That’s correct, I have been to Mauritania! Though only for about five minutes…it was beautiful and in no way different than St. Louis. It was funny because we were just walking across the dam and before we knew it we had crossed the “boarder”. I say “boarder” because some people think that the “boarder” is the halfway point on the dam (if that’s the case I was in Mauritania longer) and others say it is once you get off the dam. Either way, I was there and it was great…I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I didn’t take.

When we got back to St. Louis, Thomas, Stephen, Daniel, and I ran. We started running at about 6:30PM, but it was still extremely hot, probably about 75 degrees and very humid. The run was really good except for that fact that Thomas and I decided that this is exactly what the Olympic athletes in Beijing must have felt like. In St Louis, there is a layer of haze that fills the sky, it is so bad that you can look directly into the sun and see the entire sun’s circle without being blinded! In addition, there is so much pollution from car and bus exhaust and there is this wonderful fish smell. In the end, it was nice to go for a run…it ended up just being Thomas and I because Daniel and Stephen slowed down slightly…not to say that Thomas and I are amazing runners, but I want/need to go back to the states in shape (potentially ready to run track…ugh!) and Thomas wants/needs to be in shape for ultimate frisbee. We ran for about 45 minutes from the FEPRODES, over Pont Faidherbe, and around historic St. Louis (the island).

So sad that I am missing Fall, apples, apple cider, Halloween, seeing the leaves change colors, and everything else that makes Ohio and the states so wonderful at this time during the year! :(

ALEX

P.S. I listened to the second presidential debate via an itunes podcast and BARACK OBAMA definitely did a lot better than John McCain.

P.S.S. Last time I checked realclearpolitics.com the Obama/Biden ticket would beat the McCain/Palin ticket 353 to 185 if the election was today…giving Obama the three key swing states: OHIO, FLORIDA, and PA!!! Go Blue…not the first time I have said that (shout out to you OSU fans)!

St. Louis, SENEGAL…who does study abroad in Missouri anyways?!

(10/5/2008) We left at 8AM this morning, or I should say we were supposed to leave at that time…we actually left around 8:40AM. This morning we got off to a late start; someone in the group (Nadia) woke up at 7:55AM, so we had to wait for her to get her items together. It didn’t take us long to get out of Dakar, I mean with there only being one exit out of the city it didn’t take that long. For the most part there were mixed feelings about leaving Dakar…I personally was excited to see something different and have a change of pace, but at the same time I was leaving behind (for the month) a host family that I had formed relationships with during my entire stay in Dakar.

The trip from Dakar to St. Louis took us about five and a half hours; it wasn’t too bad. We drove from Dakar to Rufisque to Thies to St. Louis, stopping in Thies for breakfast and coffee. The ride itself was not as bad as I think many people were anticipating…we had an air-conditioned bus, we weren’t crammed like sardines, and the roads were in pretty good shape. The landscape was filled with lots of baobab trees, after we left the Dakar/Thies region, and there were plenty of small rural communities scattered along the “highway”…FYI: to the best of my knowledge, I am going to be doing a weekend rural visit in November! When we started to approach St. Louis there was a lot more water and we could tell that we were in the Senegal River Valley, but it was no more lush or green than we had seen in Dakar. We arrived safely at around 2:30PM…and were moved in with our host families immediately, at around 3PM.

The host family situation is different for our one-month stay in St. Louis; I am living with two other students on the program. In St. Louis, the whole group was divided into pairs (except my group) and then dispersed across seven “families d’accueil”. Daniel, Anna, and I live with Marie Gaye and her children Dieylani 28, a teacher, Bamba 21, a student currently in Dakar taking an exam, Thiane 11 and Moustapha 4 (actually the maid’s kid). The family is Muslim and Marie is a widow and retired teacher. The house is extremely spacious with a beautiful courtyard filled with exotic tropical plants and a nice terrace on the third floor, which they use to cool off at night. When we arrived at Marie’s house, we were greeted by Moustapha and taken to our rooms. Daniel and I share a room, it’s like a dorm room with two twin beds, a desk, and dresser, and Anna has a suite style room with her own bathroom and double bed…hardly fair!?! Actually, it’s okay because during our first meal with Marie she insisted that Anna serve us our food and clean up after us…she explained how women in the house are suppose to serve the men. Anna is catching on…she has taken dishes into the kitchen, served us yogurt and watermelon, and has started to understand that she will be “working” for her suite! It is quite amusing!

After our first meal, which was beef with rice and beans, we headed into historic St. Louis as a group. Historic St. Louis is filled with brightly colored, French colonial architecture and looks like the French Quarter in Louisiana. We had a horse drawn carriage tour, and it made me think of what it would have been like to live in colonial Virginia (St. Louis edition)… The only thing was that it was dark when we had our two-hour tour, so we were not able to appreciate the architecture and culture as much…plus we were all extremely tired from our journey. The highlight of our tour was visiting La Maison Rose, an old colonial house that has since been turned into one of the nicest hotels in St. Louis…rooms start at 3,200 USD per night and are as expensive as 9,500 USD per night!!! We are all thinking about splitting the cost of the low-end room among fifteen of us…it will only about 215 USD per person that way! The hotel had a beautiful bar terrace that we went up to and could see Pont Faidherbe (designed by Gustav Eiffel…not!) as well as both the north and south ends of St. Louis; as a group we want to head back to that terrace for ONE drink (seeing that it will probably be quite “cher”). We got back to our house at about 8:30PM and had dinner at around 9PM. Dinner was so good, we had one of my favorite meals…FRIED EGGS and FRENCH FRIES!!! I was in bed by 11:30PM.

(10/6/08) The first “official” day of our “La Vallee du Fleuve, lieu de Culture et de Developpement” Course began today… “official”, in the sense that we basically introduced ourselves to the Senegalese students who are in the class with us and had a cross-cultural session on American customs and values. It was a really good discussion and helped to further define some of the many dos and don’ts in both Senegalese and American cultures. We were also able to discuss not only differences in our cultures, but also the values of each of our cultures. For example, the idea that individuality is valued in American society/culture was extremely shocking to the Senegalese students. The idea of an individual, in Senegal, is someone who has no family or friends and is essentially unwillingly cut of from a society. In Senegal the teranga concept, which I talked about before, reinforces why the students thought of individualism this way. In a society where there could potentially be three or four generations of a family in one home, the idea of branching off to become who you are is slightly inconceivable. We concluded our discussion with lunch (yassa poulet), watermelon, bananas, and lots of delicious fruit juices!

We left around 3:30PM and Daniel, Anna, and I headed back to our house. We all rested for a bit, or at least tried to rest…Anna was able to “escape”, but Daniel and I played with Moustapha on the terrace and in the courtyard. A four year old, who doesn’t speak French, can be a handful to play ball with! The three of us then left the house and did a short walking tour of historic St. Louis, we walked for about two hours and were able to see more of the historic colonial architecture on the north end of the island…we will complete our walking tour later on, it was just getting late and the heat, heaps of trash, and dry air were all getting to us!

jamm ak jamm ci St. Louis! ALEX

LISTS...

Originally, I wanted this entry to be exclusively a list of what I miss about home (the people, the places, the food, the "everything"…), but I decided that: (1) I would get too sad doing it and (2) I would have to put it in a specific order. I didn’t want to have to go through either. Then, I thought why not write an entry where I listed everyone’s name on the Kalamazoo-Beloit Program, introducing each (their majors, hometowns, likes/dislikes, etc.), but I decided that I would save that entry for a later date. So, now I am at some sort of "fork" in the road, and not just a fork with two or three prongs, but one that seems to have fifty billion prongs. So, these prongs… I have decided that each is some sort of "want" that I would like to do as I continue my experience abroad… so here it goes!

WHAT I WANT TO DO IN DAKAR, SENEGAL:
-Visit the IFAN (Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire) Museum
-Go to the Parc Forestier de Hann
-Head to the fishing beach and market of Soumbedioune
-Buy African art at Marche Sandaga and Marche Kermel
-Have more custom clothes made for me..in addition to my one outfit and two pairs of shoes
-Go clubbing at Youssou N’Dour’s Club Thiossane
-Watch the returns of the 2008 Presidential Election from 1am-9am GMT Dakar, Senegal time
-Campout on a beach
-Find an organization to do volunteer work with
-See a movie at the French Cultural Center in downtown Dakar
-Buy ice cream for my host brothers
-Make dinner for my host family…this will be interesting seeing that they cook over a propane tank
-Call somebody from a "telecentre"
-Learn how to cook Senegalese food
-Learn to make attaya (Senegalese tea)
-Write more "snail mail"
-…

WHAT I "THINK" WANT TO DO IN ST. LOUIS, SENEGAL:
-Walk over the Pont Faidherbe designed by Gustav Eiffel
-Go to the Parc National des Oiseaux du Djoudj (60km north)
-Run 5-6 times a week
-Take a boat tour somewhere
-…

WHAT I WANT TO DO IN AFRICA/SENEGAL:
-Go to the "dangerous" Casamance region via ferryboat
-Visit Lac Rose
-Fly to Casablanca, Moracco
-See an amazing sunset over the Atlantic Ocean
-Learn to speak Wolof…better than I do now
-Get caught in another rainstorm
-Go on a train ride
-Take a bush taxi
-Some sort of African Safari (I mean everybody in Africa has to…the closest possible safari might be in Kenya)
-…

THE BOOKS I WANT TO READ ABROAD:
-Dreams of My Father
-Asian X
-Si Une Longue Lettre
-No Country For Old Men
-L’Enfant Noire
-…

Well, this is a start…I will definitely continue to add to these lists and I will for sure let you know when I have done these things. Feel free to give me suggestions on what might be something cool to do… while I am in AFRICA!

Miss you all A LOT!
ALEX