Sing Sing Sing

Last week turned out to be quite an eventful week in terms of student/administration interaction.  I left you all with a lovely message about protests over student scholarships turning violent, which was I truthfully cannot deny.  I heard that two people were even severely injured from being hit by stones.  Plus, some of the other girls got some crazy photos of tear gas, which I'll try to get ahold of to post.  It was definitely eventful, and the students eventually got their way, I believe the strike officially ended Wednesday night.  Each wednesday night the some of the other Americans and I go over to our friend Ousmane's room (he's the grad student in charge of shepherding us around campus) to help him practice his English.  Hence, I was trying to figure out why he insisted on walking us home that night, and I realized it was because there were several hundered students gathered around this small building which is the site of scholarship dispersal. Apparently, that was the first time scholarships have ever been given out at night, and by at night i'm talking 11:45pm.

Unfortunately, when the students decide to stop striking, the professors don't necessarily run to campus to begin teaching, and I heard some rumors that professors were on strike Thursday and Friday of last week.  Ultimately, I had zero classes last week, but I got to tour several of the classrooms themselves wondering where everyone else was.  Some of the other Americans and I are worried that when we eventually have class, we will have forgotten how to be students. Hmmm, speaking of which, this week is includes the muslim holiday Tabaski.  The holiday is symbolic of when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, and then I think sacrificed a ram instead.  Consequently, each married male is supposed to purchase a ram, sheep, or goat to slaughter.  It sounds gruesome, but I'm planning on returning to Dakar tomorrow to spend the holiday with my host family.  Because 95% of Senegal's population is muslim, I believe that we have all of next week free from class so that students could return home to celebrate.  Although, it seems that most of the students do not plan on returning before January, because there will be one week of classes, and then the Christmas vacation will begin.  It's all pretty backwards to me, but at this point I plan on visiting my roommate in her hometown Mbour for Christmas, and then traveling to Mali.

My weekend was consumed by my much anticipated choir concert.  Friday afternoon we had rehearsal, and Carlie and I spent some time in town before.  We ended up coming home with some pretty wild looking outfits for the upcoming holiday and small travel bags.  We'll see how the outfits work out, but it was pretty entertaining, because we just went into this shop we frequently visit and said we wanted something for the holiday. As it turns out, she made a few outfits for some Canadiens who never returned to pick them up, so she sold them to us.  When I put mine on the tailor was beside herself because she said it fit perfectly and was meant to be...good sales tactic I think, but it will be fun to wear.  

Choir rehearsal Friday was short because only 3 other people showed up besides Carlie and I.  It was slightly disconcerting because the lead singer decided to go to Dakar and return the day of the concert, and the guy who was leading the rehearsal kept trying to add really cheesy choreography to the songs.  Saturday I spent 3 hours doing laundry by hand in buckets, I'm hoping that I will become really buff like all of the Senegalese women. Granted, I'm operating under the assumption that they are buff because of laundry, could be wrong.  After laundry, Carlie and I showed up at Celia's house at 4:30 ish for our "rehearsal." We were supposed to be there at 4, but we learned that you should always come a half hour late for rehearsal, and when we did, there was still no one there.  After talking with Celia, we learned that we still needed to get our outfits for the concert, so we headed off to the tailor in town.  Going into town was a bit more of an adventure than we expected because every vender in Senegal was out selling stuff for the upcoming holiday.  In addition, the tailor had to make several adjustments on our clothes, and it was just kind of a mess because they mixed up whose clothes were whose.  That was slightly problematic when I got stuck in Carlie's shirt, and had to yell aidez-moi (help me) at Celia and Valerie, the other girls with us at the tailor.  On top of that, Valerie's 7 year old daughter decided her new favorite game is to abuse me, she's a little bigger than Isaa, but it seems like i'm a magnet for abusive children.

The concert last night was really wild.  It was supposed to start at 9:00 pm, and we were still rehearsing at 9:15 when Celia's mom ran in and shouted that we needed to leave because everyone else was already there. So, we all hurriedly put on our outfits, and climbed into a bus that took us to the chamber of commerce.  When we arrived, we sat in the bus rehearsing and eating some random couscous concoction in a the usual large communal pan.  The concert eventually started around 11, and there were three other choirs besides us.  All of the other choirs had around 30 people, we had 8, but we still had a good time.  It definitely wasn't flawless, but seeing as I didn't know any of the people there, I didn't feel nervous.  Finally, the concert ended at 2 am with a crazy version of the Hallelujah chorus, and then Carlie, Jeff, and I road back to campus in Jeff's mom's car, which was a mercedes.  A little different than the usual taxi with doors that swing open when they turn.  Today we had church and were supposed to sing again theoretically.  Jeff and I arrived at Celias at 9:45 (we were supposed to be there at 9) to find no one else there and Celia still in bed.  Then, we walked over to the church where the service was to begin at 10, and found 3 people. You would think I'd get used to stuff just moving a little slower, but it still takes me by surprise.  The service was pretty long, and we never ended up performing, but it was fun to be around so many people who were dancing and singing so joyfully.  

AT 3:30 I caught a taxi home, and I'm pretty sure that upon arriving at the University the taxi driver pulled a goat out of the trunk.  All in all, it was a very interesting and fun weekend, and now I need to go pack so we can leave tomorrow morning at 7 and try to make it to Dakar. Happy Tabaski!