Je m'adapte

I'm getting used to it here. I realized this was definitely true this morning, in a haze at 6:30 when I woke up on my roof. I've been sleeping on the roof for a while now because it's too hot in my bedroom. Outside, especially on the roof, you can get a breeze and you've already escaped the cinder-block oven that's still 90 degrees minimum at night. Anyways, this morning it was 77 degrees with a slight wind, and I was cold underneath my sheet. I guess I'm used to the 110+ temps every day.

I also can't wait for my work day to be over to drink sweetened spiced coffee and eat grilled corn on the cob. Or go get a bag of vanilla-flavored milk. Constantly restless in College Park and Columbia, MD, I've gotten used to sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Spending a weekend day sitting in the same spot for 6 hours is completely normal, accounted there's a bowl of food and tea at some point. I read some here but staring off into the distance is another favorite pastime.

I actually figured out just now that pastime = pass + time; not past + time. That was a revelation.

Anyways, one thing that's definitely taken some getting used to is intimacy here. Husbands and (up to four) wives don't embrace in any way. Not in public anyways, because with as many kids as there are here there has to be some kind of embracing if you know what I mean ;) .... But yeah, Senegalese will change the channel on TV if there's a scene with a couple laying in bed, and of course the 7 year-old from the family I hang out with switch it if there's anything close to kissing. That might be universal for a 7 year-old boy. Girls have cooties everywhere I guess. So, maybe that's the reason intimacy is so different between males here.

In an African Muslim country, where homosexuality isn't a possibility, there are some customs here that would make young American males feel awkward. Homophobes beware, men here will hold your hand for quite a long time while greeting you, or take your hand while walking down the street and not let go. Not strangers of course, but it's not unusual to see two guys walking down the street hand-in-hand or with arms draped over shoulders. And this is no Castro.

I wanted to make another blog post before too long, so here it is. Other than that not much is new. I've been sick a couple times, but feeling better now. Not testing the unfiltered water so much anymore... There's been a lot of people here visiting, including the Spanish NGO Médicos del Mundo. I'm trying to create a partnership with the local Peace Corps volunteers. And figuring out new vacation plans, because going hiking in the Fouta Djalon, Guinea, fell through. Take care, and I'll update again soon.

Photos

Go here to check out photos I've been uploading to a Picasa account.

Yes, I'm gonna talk about politics...

Senegal's fellow ECOWAS member country Cote d'Ivoire is in another bloody conflict, and its other Muslim nations on the African continent have seen all kinds of turmoil. Al Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb is present in Mauritania, just to the north, and other countries in the region supposedly aren't the safest to walk around in as a toubab. So what's the deal with Senegal?

Senegal is the country of peace and hospitality. Since political situations are raging all over the world, I wanted to explain Senegal's. Granted, there's been some problems recently, but not to the extent of the rest of the African continent. A soldier recently set himself on fire (he didn't die though) for soldiers' rights. There are student and teacher strikes because of funding and pay issues, and there's a strong political opposition movement now called "Y En A Marre," or "We're Sick of It."

Senegal is supposedly a model of African democracy. Since it's independence in 1960 it has respected human rights and been on the path to development. Léopold Sedar Senghor, a Christian Serer, was an author who led the negritude movement and became the first president. After his twenty years, he passed off the presidency to fellow Senegalese Democratic Bloc party member Abdou Diouf, who lost the presidential election in 2000 and peacefully stepped down. Although these two presidents, Senghor especially (despite his anti-colonial rhetoric), were criticized for remaining too close to the French system, they still managed importance advances. Senegal, with its richest resource of the peanut, steadily developed and canceled the majority of its debt acquired after independence.

Some people will tell you another story since 2000, when Abdoulaye Wade won the presidency. Supposedly in 2000 only 9% of citizens had electricity, and now 28% do. I heard that on television, but I'm not sure if it's accurate. In any case, people are frustrated, especially in the regions, because there are so many electrical and water outages. The electricity is only so reliable, cutting out occasionally for a day or more at a time. Hopefully tonight's Champions League game will be fine…

Especially up here in the North, close to the river, people are upset. Matam, a town nearby, has few electrical problems because it receives electricity from a hydroelectric dam built upsteam in Mali, the Barrage Malantali. However, in Ourossogui, a mere 7km away, the electricity cuts all the time. So people are frustrated with Wade. He apparently either intends to run for another term, which was disallowed under his presidency in a new constitution, or have his son Karim run. He has a somewhat large support base still, but this would create enormous problems.

I haven't been in Senegal long enough to comment on Wade's ability, especially compared to the presidents before him. But the speeches of his party, the Senegalese Democratic Party, are very Wade-centric. They always seem to be saying "His Honor Mr. Wade did this for the people of Senegal," instead of highlighting the actions of the party or the government as a whole. Whereas the American political system highlights the party, here the individual is the center of the show.

I don't have much to say, but I almost forgot to mention Wade's other problem. He's at least 92 years old. That's the number he gives, but most people say he's hiding that he's actually 95, and some of the opposition claim he's over 100 years old and has to take all different types of pills to get up and make speeches. Anyways, we'll see what pops off in 2012.

a couple very relevant videos

I want this to be a blog with more than my own words and pictures, so here's some more multimedia. The first video is on empathy, and interesting for me, being involved in international development/NGO/life:




And this video is completely relevant because there's no pork here, obviously:

I constantly get told to eat more

It's been a long time since I last posted mainly because I was in another town. I've been pretty busy the last couple weeks traveling around a bit, and got sick a few days. Consuming the unfiltered water here finally taught me a lesson…. But also, Senegal is having a lot of electrical outages, which is in the news a lot and has been for the past months. I'll talk more about this in a future politics-themed post. But for now, since my mommy is worrying if I get enough to eat and if I have a balanced diet…FOOD!

Senegal is most famous for the spicy dish ceebojen (also spelled thieboudienne, among other ways; pronounced cheb-o-jen). That's a Wolof word meaning rice with fish; ceeb=rice, o=with, dienne= fish. Another, albeit less-often prepared dish, is ceeboyap, or rice with meat. Both dishes can either have red rice, which is spiced, or white rice, which is only spiced with white pepper I think. Typical vegetables include cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, turnips, eggplant, and squash, although you might also eat some that has fresh green bell pepper, tomato, and cucumber instead. Most Senegalese, if they can afford it, eat this every day for lunch. I might be sick of it after 6 months of eating it most days, but for now at least it's delicious, and relatively healthy. Here's ceebojen:



Dinner varies more, although there are still only a handful of dishes. Most nights, with the family I eat with, we have either basse or hacko. They're both what we call in English "bean-paste" based. The former has peanuts in it and the latter has some time of leaf (can't figure out a translation) and dried fish. When mixed together with the cornmeal, gritty couscous called lacciri they're both really good. Some nights we eat lacciri kassam, couscous with milk, or millet with lait caillé, which I think we call curdled milk in English. Curdled milk sounds gross to most people, but maybe that's not the right translation, because this stuff is tasty and sweet, making it a good combination with the salty millet porridge or good to just drink straight.

Other local foods are:
• dibi, grilled meat with onions and mustard;
• niebbé, spicy beans, with bread or fries or both;
• tapalapa is the local bread;
• ataya is the very strong, sweet tea you sip from 2-oz. glasses;
• meat with onions sauce, fries and veggies is another lunch or dinner dish;
• café touba is coffee sweetened and spiced with nutmeg, ginger, and cloves;
• cornmeal fried doughnuts, soooo good;
• roasted corn-on-the-cob;
• fruit and peanut vendors;
• and I eat a decent amount of egg sandwiches.

I think my diet here is pretty good because I eat with a family so much. The one thing I found that is missing from my diet if I don't go out of my way to replace it is potassium. My muscles were twitching for days a while ago, and I thought I might wake up with a charly horse one night, so since then I've been buying bananas. Tapalapa, imitation nutella and banana sandwiches and instant coffee make for a good start to my day. Here's me with the family I've become very close to, in one of my local get-ups. Take care, hope all is well across whatever ocean or sea you're reading this, and I'll talk to you soon.



P.S. I almost forgot to mention that the Senegalese eat around a large bowl, sharing food with 2-9 other people, usually. Some people will eat with a spoon, but more people eat with their hands. Eating rice with your hands requires some skill of rolling it into a ball in your fist (always with your right hand! left hand is for other things). I've only eaten with my hands a couple times, but it's interesting.

It seems like I always learn more about my identify with my own country when I'm not there

It's been two weeks since I last wrote a post, so I figured it was about time. I've been learning a lot and feeling more and more comfortable here over the past couple weeks. I've had the opportunity to travel around my region a little more, and the travel has taught me a lot. I think the most important personal development this experience is going to bring me is generally making me more humble. Obviously you already have to value humility to live abroad and volunteer, but you really can't appreciate the conditions in which you live until you abandon them.

We take our comforts for granted in the United States because, in most cases, we've had them since we were born. Complaining that the hot water is gone or that I don't feel like cooking dinner for myself one night is put in context when you're in Senegal. Granted that I still live in very comfortable conditions here, I'll now appreciated sit-down toilets, showers, and kitchens much more when I return.

I recently went to a couple towns, one of which is about 35km from Ourossogui, called Mboloyel. This area is really dry, and the water table in Mboloyel is 70-80 meters deep. Since drilling a well and lifting water up from that deep with a rope and a bucket is pretty impossible, the women in the village walk 2km each way to wells in another village, balancing water on their heads so their families can drink, eat, wash clothes, and bathe themselves. Not to mention bring water for the rice and millet they grow, and provide for the animals they raise. The vegetable garden in the village isn't exploited, because they don't have enough water and other materials. There's also no form of health clinic, so when anybody gets hurt or needs to give birth or whatever, the 2km trip needs to be made on foot or on a horse cart.

I miss my family and friends, but I've learned about people's experiences here and know that I'm blessed in that way, too. Senegal, like some other African Muslim countries, has a history of talibé children. Because parents want their children to learn the Quran (and might not want/be able to take care of them), they entrust them to marabouts, Muslim leaders. The children learn the Quran and Arabic, but during most of the day are sent out on the streets to beg. Any money they earn goes to the marabout, and they have to scrounge around for food. Because alms-giving is a tenet of Islam and the experience is seen by some people as necessary for their sons to become men, this practice goes on. Even though they're sometimes beaten by the marabouts and made to sleep out on the streets because they didn't bring back any money, there are talibé everywhere. Seriously, Dakar, every town, and every village they're around singing Muslim songs to request money and/or food. A friend of mine was a talibé and went nine years without seeing his family, from 7 to 16 years old. 9 years! Here's more talibe info:

http://www.talibe.net/

http://tostan.org/web/page/694/sectionid/547/parentid/552/pagelevel/3/interior.asp


Mauritania decided to kick out its African-descent residents in 1989, too, which caused serious problems in the region. The Senegalese didn't like Mauritanians coming and taking business here, so there were massacres on both sides and many people lost family members. Also sad, but anyways, my point was to show how humbling this experience has been so far. Despite the numerous difficulties people live with every day here, they're the nicest people I've lived around. They always take the time to greet each other, ask about each other's family, work, etc. And what little they may have, it will always be shared. I talk more about these values in the future. For now, I'm out. Sorry about the depressing post, so here's some good Senegalese music to cheer you up:

Walking around, trying not to get burnt