Hey ya'll, so you might be thinking what now? More specifically, after I've shamelessly recounted my moments of klumsiness and poor decision making you might think to yourself, she's probably learned her lesson by now. Well, not yet, but that's the great thing about Senegal, I learn something new everyday. Unfortunately, last Monday I accidentally left my wallet at the dining hall after breakfast. An hour later when I realized my mistake and returned to grab it someone had "borrowed" my wallet from it's lovely place on the table. Later that day I talked to about 10 different people who had interacted with my wallet and had eventually passed it to my roommate. Fortunately, no one stole any of my identity cards or important stuff, but they did grab a hefty sum of money, which hurt a bit to find out. Lessons I learned, but kind of already knew: 1. don't carry that much money around with you, duh! 2. Be careful with your possessions, knew that... 3. Money is useful and I want to be wise with how I use it, but I don't need much to get by: I lived off of $2.50 between monday and friday last week.
I'm going to interrupt my ramble about losing money to share the fact that as I was sitting here typing that last paragraph a truck drove into the building I'm currently sitting in. Our computer room is on the second floor of the library and I when I looked out the window to see what made an incredibly loud and crashlike noise, I noticed a large truck lodged in the side of the building directly below me. I'm not sure what the driver was thinking, but having had some incidents while driving myself I feel his pain. More importantly, I got a nice photo of the view from our window using the camera on the top of my laptop.
Besides all the usual hullabaloo of trucks hitting buildings and stuff I've been keeping a pretty low profile lately. That sounds kind of shady, what I meant is that since I have less money I've been keeping to campus and hanging out with my roommate, reading lots of books, and writing various papers. Classes are really confusing at the moment because the political science department is taking "exams," but then we have exams again in June for the same classes or something, and all the other departments are starting their second semester. As usual I feel a little lost in it all, plus we're trying to plan what to take next year at Madison. Spring break is theoretically next week, and a few of us were hoping to visit southern Senegal, but I seem to have a class scheduled during the break so I'm not sure how that will work out. Hopefully the professor will realize that you don't have classes during spring break! Another reason for the low profile is because Sunday was election day in Senegal. When I tried to figure out what offices were on the ballot I was told that they were voting for every mayor in Senegal. Hmm, I think there was probably more to it than that, but I can't be sure. From what I saw, most of the campaigning involved people driving around in cars with pictures of the candidates taped to the side and men sitting on top of the cars screaming things through a megaphone. Plus, last weekend the President travelled all around the country and I heard the crowds were a little rowdy. Our friend and shepherd Ousmane told us not to go into town this past Saturday and Sunday because it wasn't safe. Even though Senegal is a fairly functioning democracy, you never really know what can happen because of how unstable the surrounding countries are. It appears that the in the election the President's party lost in every province, which I assume will leave him as a bit of a lame duck. In Wolof class our teacher shared that he thinks the President should step down from power since he no longer has the support of the people; plus he told us that the President lost because he wanted to appoint his son the office after him.
This weekend I got to hang out with some Senegalese friends that are really great. One of my friends goes by the name, Afrika, I think because he is very pro-African rights, but his real name is Daodad. Afrika generously whipped my butt in scrabble, which I need to look into because I was never aware of these things called "scrabble words" that are two/three letter words that don't really exist. Sunday after church I spent the day with Noa and his family who invited me for lunch. Although Noa is a little crazy it was a lot of fun and I feel total comfortable around his family. Oh, and I feasted on warthog again, yummy!
That's a bit of what's new over here in the desert! My roommate Juliette is as wonderful as ever. Especially Sunday night when I got home around 10 and noticed that we had an infestation of fruit flies. After cleansing the room of various fruit items I learned that Juliette has a severe phobia of insects and she proceeded to walk around our room covering her face. Yesterday I spent a nice chunk of the morning spraying toxic chemicals throughout our room and cleaning up the mess! Have a great week :)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Returning to Saint-Louis
Before I continue along my journey home from Southern Senegal I would like to highlight another of my shining moments during the village festival we were invited to. As we were watching the dancing I decided to stand on my chair to catch a better view of the action and random attire (such as leaves of lettuce). Unfortunately, when I decided to return to the ground I tipped over my chair into the three men in front of me taking them out and managing to land with my chair on top of me. It was a lovely graceful moment in which several got to see the spandex shorts under my skirt. Anyways, we left for home Thursday morning bright and early and made a few pit stops along the way. One of the pit stops included a visit to a man who works for the telephone company here in Senegal who generously slaughtered a ram for our arrival. The gesture was extremely nice but I haven't really been able to stomach meat since Tabaski. We also stopped at Touba on the way home so the newbies could visit the grand mosque. It was actually really cool to see the mosque again, and this time at night. Unfortunately none of us brought appropriate clothing to cover ourselves so we dressed in sheets of fabric we bought in the market the day before. As usual, the Americans looked very colorful and completely out of place!
Since arriving back in Saint-Louis I've been attempting to work on some papers (we'll see if I ever finish)...and just bumming around campus. We're theoretically transition from first semester to second semester so we'll see how it goes. Have a good week friends!
Since arriving back in Saint-Louis I've been attempting to work on some papers (we'll see if I ever finish)...and just bumming around campus. We're theoretically transition from first semester to second semester so we'll see how it goes. Have a good week friends!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Safari time
Whew, sorry it's been a long time since my last post but I've had some awesome adventures recently. For a while my posts have been a little dreary sounding, and to be honest with you that's how i've been feeling. Here in Saint-Louis life just kind flows along, but when classes are unstable we don't have too much to keep ourselves occuppied with. First semester is wrapping up, kind of; some of my classes have finished while those in the poli sci department are about two weeks longer than other departments. This makes for tricky scheduling because I'm not sure what poli sci will offer but the second semester for geography and sociology and other departments begins tomorrow...But back to the struggles of life on campus, as my classes end I'm trying to take care papers and final exams so that I will receive grades for my classes, obviously. There have been a few dips in the road though, like when we showed up for an exam and the professor told us to come back two days later, but things seem to be ok now. That exam was for a class that has kinda been a thorn in my side all semester, and when the exam actually happened my professor gave me five minutes to answer the question, "what is the economy?" not exactly my idea of a fair test. Thats an example of small elements of life we can't seem to get right here, and they were starting to weigh all of the Americans down. When you're already frustrated, it seems alot harder to bounce back from the little bouts of racism, homesickness, or professors asking you out on dates that happen everyday here. Consequently, when I found out two weeks ago we were going to voyage to southern Senegal I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement.
Less than a week after Baydallaye told us we were going to be traveling we ventured off to explore southern Senegal. The trip began Saturday evening at 3 am when we loaded up a 12 person Nissan van with luggage, a cooler of water, and 13 people. Unfortunately the cooler was lovingly given one of the seats, so the 11 students crammed into the seats and blocked out the discomfort with images of safari animals. Sunday evening around 6pm we rolled into our first hotel in Tambacounda to enjoy some needed rest in a pool and bed. During the drive Dr. Barry, the professor who accompanied us, recieved a fun little ticket for not wearing his seat belt so we spent a little extra time trying to pay that off. I think the ticket was the officer's revenge because Barry wouldn't pay him off to let us continue. Additionally, much of the road wasnt paved so we had a bumpy and incredibly dusty few hours. Upon arrival at the hotel I slipped into my makeshift bathing suit (I apparently missed the memo on the swimsuits) and proceeded to jump into the pool and smash my face into the bottom. All in all, that was not the best decision I've made in a long time, and when I surfaced Carlie went camp counselor on me and forced me out of the pool so I wouldnt bleed everywhere. As I headed into our hotel room to clean up after begging ice from the restaurant, I found Ariel locked in the bathroom and Carlie perched on the divider between the bath and bedrooms. It took three hotel workers to break the door open and then Carlie broke the chair in our room when she descended from the ledge. Hence, we broke in the first leg of our trip with a messed up room and face.
Monday morning we left the hotel at 6am to head out to Nokolokoba national park home to wildlife and poachers. It was a lengthy drive but well worth the damage done to our car, poor driver. After we got settled in our hotel inside the park, we headed out on a safari. The park is home to a fair amount of wildlife including wharthogs, antelope, gazelle, monkeys, leopards, and hippopatamus. On our safari we saw a few different rivers that cross the park, lots of animals, a frightening suspension bridge, and alot of burned landscape. Depressingly, the park struggles with loads of poachers who burn the forest to scare out the animals. Later that day we got to go out in a boat on the gambia river to some hippopatomus. In total I think we saw 7 hippopotamus, which was so cool, although understandably they were pretty wary of us. Plus, the landscape around the river was incredbly lush and beautiful, like something out of a movie. After dinner our safari guide led us to a little spot where you can supposedly see the hippotamus out of the water when they come to feed, but it was too dark to see anything. Plus, after I went to bed the other kids claim that the guide seemed kinda sketchy, like he was on drugs...
Tuesday we left the park to go to Kedougou another incredibly hot city in southern Senegal. When we arrived at the hotel we learned that we were staying at a hunting lodge housing several french man with ridiculously large guns and a dead wharthog in the back of their truck. It's funny how we all judge tourists as if we are native Senegalese and these guys come in and shoot up our wild life. Immediately after arriving we jumped into a car rapide vehicle = really uncomfortable for a three hour drive down a bumpy, dusty road to see a waterfall. We stopped at a small village for lunch and then continued on foot through the woods until we got to the awesome waterfall. I'd estimate that the fall was 5 stories tall slipping down beautiful rock and filling into a small little pool. Definitely the highlight of the trip was climbing around the rock ledge and jumping into the pool from under the falls. Plus the water was ridiculously cold, so refreshing! After some photos and swimming and hanging out with some goofball kids swimming there as well we hiked back the car and drove 3 hours home. I think all of the traveling was well worth it because of the awesome sights and just the really fun group of people we were with.
Wednesday was a crazy foray into the nearby hills to a village who was celebrating the election of a new governmental official. During the clebration we saw several local village dance groups perfom, including the Basaryi tribe who are one of the only tribes in Senegal who have remain untouched from Islam and Christianity and still follow their animist beliefs. After the ceremony we had a fun traditional Senegalese lunch and then we visited the market to buy some fabric died with Indigo that comes from Guinea. After the markets we walked home and got ready to return to Saint-Louis at 5 the next morning.
Less than a week after Baydallaye told us we were going to be traveling we ventured off to explore southern Senegal. The trip began Saturday evening at 3 am when we loaded up a 12 person Nissan van with luggage, a cooler of water, and 13 people. Unfortunately the cooler was lovingly given one of the seats, so the 11 students crammed into the seats and blocked out the discomfort with images of safari animals. Sunday evening around 6pm we rolled into our first hotel in Tambacounda to enjoy some needed rest in a pool and bed. During the drive Dr. Barry, the professor who accompanied us, recieved a fun little ticket for not wearing his seat belt so we spent a little extra time trying to pay that off. I think the ticket was the officer's revenge because Barry wouldn't pay him off to let us continue. Additionally, much of the road wasnt paved so we had a bumpy and incredibly dusty few hours. Upon arrival at the hotel I slipped into my makeshift bathing suit (I apparently missed the memo on the swimsuits) and proceeded to jump into the pool and smash my face into the bottom. All in all, that was not the best decision I've made in a long time, and when I surfaced Carlie went camp counselor on me and forced me out of the pool so I wouldnt bleed everywhere. As I headed into our hotel room to clean up after begging ice from the restaurant, I found Ariel locked in the bathroom and Carlie perched on the divider between the bath and bedrooms. It took three hotel workers to break the door open and then Carlie broke the chair in our room when she descended from the ledge. Hence, we broke in the first leg of our trip with a messed up room and face.
Monday morning we left the hotel at 6am to head out to Nokolokoba national park home to wildlife and poachers. It was a lengthy drive but well worth the damage done to our car, poor driver. After we got settled in our hotel inside the park, we headed out on a safari. The park is home to a fair amount of wildlife including wharthogs, antelope, gazelle, monkeys, leopards, and hippopatamus. On our safari we saw a few different rivers that cross the park, lots of animals, a frightening suspension bridge, and alot of burned landscape. Depressingly, the park struggles with loads of poachers who burn the forest to scare out the animals. Later that day we got to go out in a boat on the gambia river to some hippopatomus. In total I think we saw 7 hippopotamus, which was so cool, although understandably they were pretty wary of us. Plus, the landscape around the river was incredbly lush and beautiful, like something out of a movie. After dinner our safari guide led us to a little spot where you can supposedly see the hippotamus out of the water when they come to feed, but it was too dark to see anything. Plus, after I went to bed the other kids claim that the guide seemed kinda sketchy, like he was on drugs...
Tuesday we left the park to go to Kedougou another incredibly hot city in southern Senegal. When we arrived at the hotel we learned that we were staying at a hunting lodge housing several french man with ridiculously large guns and a dead wharthog in the back of their truck. It's funny how we all judge tourists as if we are native Senegalese and these guys come in and shoot up our wild life. Immediately after arriving we jumped into a car rapide vehicle = really uncomfortable for a three hour drive down a bumpy, dusty road to see a waterfall. We stopped at a small village for lunch and then continued on foot through the woods until we got to the awesome waterfall. I'd estimate that the fall was 5 stories tall slipping down beautiful rock and filling into a small little pool. Definitely the highlight of the trip was climbing around the rock ledge and jumping into the pool from under the falls. Plus the water was ridiculously cold, so refreshing! After some photos and swimming and hanging out with some goofball kids swimming there as well we hiked back the car and drove 3 hours home. I think all of the traveling was well worth it because of the awesome sights and just the really fun group of people we were with.
Wednesday was a crazy foray into the nearby hills to a village who was celebrating the election of a new governmental official. During the clebration we saw several local village dance groups perfom, including the Basaryi tribe who are one of the only tribes in Senegal who have remain untouched from Islam and Christianity and still follow their animist beliefs. After the ceremony we had a fun traditional Senegalese lunch and then we visited the market to buy some fabric died with Indigo that comes from Guinea. After the markets we walked home and got ready to return to Saint-Louis at 5 the next morning.
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