"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. "
-Mark Twain
This past weekend Joleen, Modou, Assane, Wally, El Hadj and a few others from the dorm block headed to Hydrobase beach for a nice end to the weekend. After a few hours of rounding up the folks, we got our group of eight on the road into town and added a few friends along the way. A quest for 15 hard boiled eggs, a jar of mayo, 4 giant baguettes, and 2 kilos of mangos ensued as we tried to feed our group of 10 on the cheap.
El Hadj brought his tent and we set up camp at the beach. The day consisted of watching the boys play soccer, eating egg salad sandwiches, and sand fights and cooling off in the ocean. After a day out in the sun I was completely exhausted, covered in sand, and burnt to a crisp but it was one of the best days I've had here in Senegal. There is nothing better than a day spent in the company of great friends.
Joleen and I before we got too burned
El Hadj, Assane's roommate, hanging out and refereeing the soccer match
Modou playing soccer (which he does in his free time when he's not busy being a basketball star)
Wally looking fly and listening to music beachside
Assane hanging out while playing soccer
Joleen, Modou, and I
Mbacke, El Hadj, and Joleen hanging out in the tent
Preparing of the egg sandwiches and a hoard of hungry boys
The ideal beach snack: mangos. Two bucks for two kilos!
Lutting (a type of wrestling) on the beach amongst all the boys before the soccer game starts up
Where there are boys and an open space, you will find them playing soccer.
Assane reposing after a game of soccer and referee El Hadj taking a break
Joleen in the car rapide we took to get back into town. It's cramped and stops at random but affordably cheap, therefore ideal for the broke college student.
And that concludes our trip to the beach.
My time in Senegal is winding down, which means lots to do before the end of the semester on June 15th. Hope everyone is doing well state-side.
I'll be seeing you all soon, but for now, lots of love!
Now that I have fast, reliable internet source I can upload pictures that I've been meaning to post without waiting 3 hours for them to upload! Here are some pictures from the night that we made s'mores. Khadim, Bobo, Modou, El Hadj, Assane, Wally, and a few others got to enjoy them for the first time despite multiple power outages which forced us to improvise our grilling techniques aka we lit some candles. Everyone loved them! Here are a few pictures from the night:
Two of my bestest friends, Modou Fall and Joleen Csuka chilling out while looking gangsta' rekk
Assane and our friend Eminem not being serious, as usual
Assane and I being goofy
Tea time at Assane's. It's what we do every night. No joke.
Wally drinking attaaya, Senegalese tea.
Trying my hand at making attaaya. I spilled a lot of tea making the foam and didn't measure the water right so only had two glasses for 6 people...
Mutitasking- s'mores and attaaya
Yummy, yummy, s'mores thanks to the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers my mom brought with!
Our friend Khadim roasting marshmallows on a finely whittled stick over a hot plate. You make do with what you've got!
Mmmmmm marshmallows. The s'mores were a huge hit. It's no wonder since senegalese love their sugar.
It was no surprise to anyone when the power went out ( and on again, and off again, about every 15 minutes for a few hours) so we improvised and roasted the marshmallows over a candle.
It has been quite a while since I have written. Second semester classes have officially started, I am currently interning at an NGO and and starting to work on my expose that corresponds with my study abroad here.
The internet has been down on campus for about the past week, but luckily it's back up and running! I also have internet here at my internship which makes it convenient. Not much has happened since the last time I posted but here's a quick overview:
Spring Break! Joleen and I took a 3 night 4 day vacation to Warang, a city of about 5,000 along the Petite Cote of Sénégal. It ranks among one of the cheapest vacations ever ($50 total for lodging, food, transportation and all meals.) but also one of the best. We spent our time lounging by the pool, walking to the ocean, hanging out playing cards, and wandering around Warang. Modou and his friend Ado came to visit for a day. Quite enjoyable, although I must say the whole first semester felt like spring break so it didn't feel much like a break.
Second semester officially started! I am taking three classes: 18th Century French Literature, History of African Politics, and Sociology of Identities and Cultures. I have massive amounts of reading for the literature class but since I'm not as busy as I am at Madison it should be a lot easier to get done. All I need to do now is find the motivation...
I met up with Claire and Clementine after being apart four years! Claire was my host mom from France on an exchange program I did in high school. Her daughter, Clementine came and stayed for a month summer after sophomore year high school at our house in La Crosse and I stayed at there house for a month the following summer. Claire works here in Senegal and travels here about two weeks every month. We went out to dinner and after some talking I found out Claire works for and NGO here in Saint-Louis. Thanks to Claire, I now have an internship at Programme d'Appui Communautés Rurales (PACR) which deals with rural development in the Saint-Louis region. So far the internship involves lots of Excel spreadsheets, but it is an excellent experience and helps build a foundation for potential after-college endeavors. I have the opportunity to visit development sites, gain work experience, and learn how NGOs function in Senegal. It great!
I still continue to volunteer teaching english at Ndata Yalla, an elementary school in Saint-Louis, every Wednesday. Some days are definitely harder than others (like the ones where I lose control of the class and they start jumping on the desks...) but as a general rule the two hours go by quickly and I'm back to campus before I know it
Most of my days here look like this:
11:00am-12:00pm: Wake up
1:30: Eat lunch
1:30pm-3:00pm: Lounge
3:00pm-5:00pm: Make senegalese tea
5:00pm-7:00pm: Lounge, read, clean [This is sport time for the boys]
7:00pm-9:00pm: Eat dinner
9:00pm-2:00am: Make senegalese tea, do homework, play cards
2:00am-11:00am: Sleep
The exceptions are, however, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when I have class. And now that I have my internship I think this will change up a bit too, but for the most part it's an accurate description of my past 4 months...
That's about all I have for now, but I miss you all, hope everything is well, and best wishes from Senegal!
I hear it's snowing in Wisconsin right now, in April! A few days back it was around 107˚F over here... Here are just a few pictures from recent happenings at Université Gaston Berger. There aren't many pictures because not much has happened :) A lot of tea drinking, bananagrams, cards, and movie watching when the power isn't out (which is usually more often than not.)
My friend Modou and I at our village's integration party. (My dorm block had a party for all the residents. Shrimp chips and coca cola were served. Tres neex!)
Andrew on his 21st Birthday. Senegalese birthday tradition means for the 24 hours on your birthday anyone and everyone gets to douse you with water. This was right after Joleen got him with a bucket of water.
Joleen, Kate, and I dressed up for the integration night.
Picture of the entrance to my G, or dorm building. I'm second floor off to the left, which means my shower never works because the water never works on the second floor...
In case you were wondering what I kept in my closet...
Pictures of Wisco landscape and painting complete with the Christmas lights my mom sent me in a care package. Unfortunately I forgot about the voltage difference and I plugged them in without using a convertor. They promptly fried. Senegal's energy grid killed Christmas that day. They're still festive so I left them up anyway.
My desk area. I assure you I do no work there :) Usually I just pile stuff on it or use it to write in my journal.
My bed and the all-important Changli Crown Fan. The bed leaves something to be desired on the comfort end of things, but it works.
Probably the two best care packages in the world. My mom brought so much delicious stuff when she came [see: s'mores supplies, pizza and taco kits, cliff bars, peanut butter, mac & cheese, granola, funfetti, pudding, goldfish, tea, and a giant bag of candy. Thanks mom!]
Kate enjoying sandwiches we made for dinner. Complete with vegetables! We all felt sick afterwards because our stomachs forgot how to digest stuff like that...
Three weeks of laundry tied up on my head. All laundry here is done by hand. It's not like I have anything else to do so I don't mind spending 4 hours washing, scrubbing, rinsing, filling up buckets, and the like, but I would say that it's my favorite thing. I prefer naps.
Picture looking back at the Univeristé from the highway while the students were on strike. They blocked the national highway and traffic was backed up for miles. We decided to head to town and hang out while everyone was striking.
Kate and I looking very enthusiastic about the student road block. Since traffic was stopped it was nearly impossible to find a taxi and we had to walk almost to the next town before we found one.
Kate, Joleen, and Juan Carlos (a new UGB student from Penn State for the 2nd semester) all also looking thrilled. Note the bottle of Coke- we made sure to prepare for our desert hike to a taxi by packing pop. An essential supply for any trek.
Kate, Andrew, Pape Laye Dial our wolof Professor, and myself posing for the cover of his wolof grammar book. Lookin' classy, everyone.
Hope all is well! I am currently planning out my Fall 2011-2012 semester schedule so no one worry- I am coming back to the US eventually :)
This is only half of the post I wanted to put up, but the internet has been so slow and inconsistent here that it took over an hour to upload these six pictures...
These are all pictures from my trip to Touba. It is the holy city of Mouridism (a brotherhood of Islam) and the burial place of Mouridism's founder, Cheikh Amadou Bamba. Completed in 1963 the mosque is also the site of his tomb.
Every year, millions of Muslims from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Touba (called the Magal), worshipping at the mosque and honouring the memory of Cheikh Amadou Bamba.
The mosque early in the morning.
Day before Magal and people were already pouring in by the thousands by 5am...
The mosque in Touba. (Rich followers will often donate things to help improve the mosque. You can see in this picture that a load of air conditioners has been donated and in the process of being installed.)
Two of the four towers. The one on the right is where the imam sings the call to prayer five times a day.
Inside the mosque where people pray facing east towards Mecca. It was incredibly beautiful and during the Magal, even at 5am, there were so many women praying that it was impossible to walk through.
More prayer space in the mosque.
A look at one of the towers with a few talibé children hanging around
(Talibé are children who attend coranic schools and live with a marabout (religious leader) and usually do not wear shoes and beg for money as a way to learn humility.)
Some ladies with their children walking through the mosque.
I have more pictures I would like to put up but since the internet is being so frustratingly slow I am going to leave that for another time. In other news here's what has been happening on my end of things recently:
The strike is finally over!!!! Although to tell you the truth, I was really starting to like not having to do anything for weeks on end. I like to think of it as a 3-month-long vacation. Spring break is coming up soon, although there were rumors that it was going to be canceled because of all of the lost time from the strike. If they took away spring break there would be more strike to bring it back, so I suppose it's in everyone's best interests to just relax and enjoy these next two weeks.
Second semester should be starting April 11th, although with the way the school year has been going I'm a little skeptical. I am hopefully going to be taking a few literature classes and maybe a french grammar class. However, if last semester is any indicator, one of my classes won't exist, one will be at the same time as another, and I will not be able to find the third class because they will have changed the room without telling anyone. Gotta love the French system... I'm still teaching english to elementary school children in town every Wednesday and continuing with my wolof classes. Even though the UGB has been on strike most of my time here I have still learned a lot outside of school and I can't even begin to realize what I've subconsciously learned until I get back.
Speaking of returning, I am officially coming home July 7th, 2011. It's only about three months away... I try not to think about leaving because mostly it just ends in tears. Senegal is absolutely wonderful and I am going to be very sad having to leave behind such amazing friends. My Senegalese life is quite different from my American one (for example I have four things on my To Do list here and it's really quite stressful.) A life full of sand, 105˚F heat, goats, cafe touba, daily powerouts, wolof, mosquitos, no obligations (except for the very important social obligations) and I am going to miss it quite terribly.
The end of winter is upon Senegal (although I'm sure most of you wouldn't agree that what I had to endure could be called winter...) Today was a toasty 100˚F and the mosquitos are starting to come back. This means the battery-powered fan my mom brought me will come in handy because I am sure there will be a spike in the power outages as more people start using their fans and the power grid won't be able to handle it...
Other than that, life has be tranquil as usual. I'll be gone from the internet for a while again because I'll be out and about for spring break, but I assure you that I'm staying safe as always!
The internet has been down for the past week so I haven't been able to post any pictures. As we speak I am attempting to upload pictures from my trip to the Magal and Touba, but the internet is so slow that they aren't uploading. Hang tight, folks, and when the internet finally gets back to cruising speed i'll get some pictures up. In other news I can write a little bit about what I've been up to for the past little bit:
The strike continues... Tomorrow is another student assembly and they will decide whether or not to go on striking. I'm all for the strike because it means naps everyday and a whole lot of time to do whatever I want. In my defense I did actually finish one class from first semester, which is more than most students can say here since they are probably going to have a blank first semester.
My mom came to visit! Mom came from March 3-10 we toured Dakar, Gorée island, Langue de Barbarie, Deserts of Lampoul, and Saint-Louis + Campus. Pictures to come soon (if the internet ever decides to work!)
I also went on a week long vacation with the UW kids to south eastern Senegal a few weeks back. National parks, mountain top villages, swimming in waterfalls. Pictures of this adventure to come, too, when the internet decides to work.
Powerouts and internet failure daily. No running water and the mosquitos are returning. Looks like the end of winter is finally here...
Other than that I seriously have done nothing. Absolutely nothing...
I've got to go drink attaaya (Senegalese tea) with some of my friends, so I'll post more later (not like there's much to post about anyways...)
Pictures to come soon once the internet starts cooperating!
As you have probably noticed I have been missing for the past month. I have been traveling all around Senegal for the past three weeks so I'll be posting pictures after I drop my mom off at the airport tomorrow morning.
Expect some pictures by the end of the week and I'll work on updating as I can despite the frequent powerouts.
Just saying a quick hello before heading out to try to watch the Super Bowl.
I'm alive and well, and I assure you far away from any danger that's happening up in Egypt and Tunisia. I'm all the way on the other side of what is a very, very large continent.
Keeping busy with school and generally just hanging out.
Went on a holy pilgrimage to the city of Touba. I'll write all about that soon, hopefully within a few days. It was pretty amazing, although I ended up with an intestinal infection as a result.
Well, I'm off to try to go watch the Packers win the Super Bowl, inshallah. Hopefully some television around campus will be nice enough to air the game on Canal+.
Hi guys! I’ve got to do a lot of catching up on my blog since I was in Dakar for the holiday break (which meant I actually had something to do, so I was out and about for most of the past couple weeks.)
3em Festival Mondial des Arts Negres (also known as Fesman3) was happening in Senegal, and apparently other countries in Africa (although I can’t confirm this.) There were concerts, cinema, literature readings, theatre performances, dance exhibitions, art galleries, and architecture conferences all relating to African roots and all free to the public.
I had a chance to go to three of the concerts. One was a hip-hop concert located at an old cookie factory (this was by far my favorite concert.)Another was at Place de l’Obélisque with the ancient rap star Busta Rhymes and also at the Obélisque I attended a concert with Magic System, a group from Cote d’Ivoire.
The Magic System and Busta Rhymes concerts were both awesome.Busta Rhymes played a bunch of old school rap that my friend Bamba had a great time shouting all the lyrics to.Magic System was a great group that played more traditional music- impossible drum beats, on-stage dancers who danced mbalax better than I have seen anyone dance, and rhythms so infectious the only thing you can do is dance.[Mbalax is a type of Senegalese dance that involves ridiculous flexibility, very sultry lower body movements, and lots of energy.I will try to find a video to post of some mbalax dancing.It’s truly incredible.On a relevant side note- every Senegalese I have met has been born with rhythm in their blood.I have not met a Senegalese who doesn’t know how to dance.I don’t know how they do it.I look like I have hip dysplasia compared to these people.My friend Modou is going to try to teach me how to dance mbalax before I come back home, inshallah.]
The best concert, by far, was the hip-hop concert at the Biscuiterie.Featured were: Tigrm B, Nixx, Matador, Daara J Family, and special guest Rick Ross. Kate and I came with her host brother and sister.Bro was working for the festival so he was able to get backstage and get pictures with some of the artists.He decided to see if he could get us backstage too, so he disappeared for a while.In the meantime, Kate, Sis, and I danced and had a great time listening to hip-hop in French and wolof.Bro returned with two guest passes. Success!
We walked behind some port-a-potties that way he could give us the passes without the guards seeing. With passes in hand we attempted to enter through security but the route was barred so we had to find another way to get in.Right next to the aforementioned port-a-potties was an open window that led to the security room.Kate, Bro, and I hopped on through and said hello to the security guards eating dinner before casually walking out the other door that lead to the back area.Gotta love Senegal.
One security checkpoint down, two to go.We sauntered past the second set of guards but were stopped at the third, the last hurdle standing between us and all-access-backstage-awesomery.Bro was able to pass since he had a worker’s badge, but since ours were mere guest passes, we were not allowed back because there were too many celebrities, or something like that.Bro disappeared for five minutes while he tried to finagle our entrance, but with no success.We walked back through the maze of old warehouse buildings and back to the security room to jump out the window, but not before the old security guard manning the video monitors managed to throw out a marriage proposal because he wanted a tubaab wife.I used the standard line of“I’ve got a Senegalese husband from _________.His name is __________.Next time though.” [I’ve found that if I try to use an invented American husband that usually prompts the proposer to claim I need a Senegalese husband because they are better.]I was also conveniently wearing my fake wedding ring, so that sealed deal and I was allowed to hop back through the window.
So it looked like backstage access was out of the question (I wasn’t about to try and sprint past the very muscular and very intimidating guards blocking the only other entrance) but that didn’t mean I wasn’t about to dance like a crazy fool.I got a few weird looks from some Senegalese girls, but who cares? I was having an awesome time dancing like there was no tomorrow.
The rappers were excellent, although I did have to question their street cred because they would address the audience by saying: “Faites du bruit biscuiterie!” which translates to: “Make some noise cookie factory!” I found it quite hilarious that these large and very hip rappers were holding a concert at a cookie factory, but c’est la vie.
Much to my surprise and excitement, my friends Modou, Joleen, and Andrew showed up out of the middle of nowhere and joined us in crazy dancing. (Apparently the concert was full by the time Modou showed up so Joleen had to pull a sassy Senegalese move and argue with the guard for about a half hour before they let Modou in on the grounds that he was Joleen’s fiancé.Not really true, but all in the name of hip-hop.)
During one of the sets, one of the rappers shouted: “Raise your hand if you love being African!”Kate and I sort of just stood there looking awkward (we were one of only a handful of white people surrounded by a bunch of Senegalese people at a hip-hop concert.It’s like we were the minivan attempting to hide itself in a Porsche dealership.Not possible.)Either way, Kate and I just sort of stood there not knowing what to do, until the guy in front of us turned around and said, “Why aren’t your hands raised? You’re black on the inside!”That got a chuckle out of us and we put our hands up and joined in the festivities.
Crazy dancing by all of us until 3am.Rick Ross had been rumored to be the final artist appearing, but no one was really sure if he was actually going to show.At around 4am he finally rolled on stage (literally… he’s quite large.)His publicist didn’t do a very good job of informing him of where he was because he decided that “I am going to dedicate this song to the people of this city, in this country!”Way to be specific, Rick Ross.He also kept asking the crowd “Can I get a Roseeeeeeeeeee?” (referring to the wine.)No sir, you may not, this is a Muslim country.
And so, after about seven hours of dancing, I was exhausted and the concert finally ended around 4:30am.Walked home on my tired, tired feet and passed out within a matter of minutes of putting my head on the pillow.
I’ve included the link to my favorite song from Daara J Family that way you can get a taste of the concert (click here) (Bayi Yoon translates to something along the lines of "Fathers of the Past" it's about remembering your roots.) That concludes this very long post about 3em Festival Mondial des Arts Negres. Congratulations if you read the whole thing.I hope all of you are enjoying the beginnings of 2011 (even if we did lose the Rose Bowl…).
It's been a long while since I've last posted. Since the last time:
The strike finally ended (6 weeks in total) which means classes will start up again when I return to school on the 2nd
I went to the 3em Festival Mondial des Arts Negres in Dakar which meant some really awesome concerts fo free (Rick Ross, Daara J Family, Busta Rhymes, and many others.)
Celebrated Christmas with my friends in Dakar- a lovely dinner with some friends, a ridiculous christmas with Kate, Joleen, Andrew, and Joleen's friend Karolina (who has come to visit us for a month.)
Took an interesting vacation to The Gambia for four days which involved a very sketchy hotel, a gourmet dinner, sandy beaches, and many weird things- details to come in my next post
I spent a pretty relaxed New Years Eve in Dakar. Watched Pineapple Express with Kate and ate some ice cream. All of the residents of Dakar (or so it seemed) had bought cheap fireworks at the market so at midnight the sky was bombarded from all sides. Safety first...
Today is the ROSEBOWL! Since the games starts at 1:30PT that means I get to watch the game at 9:30pm. My computer is being ridiculous so I'm going to borrow my friend Kate's and hope Dakar doesn't have a power out so I can actually watch the game.
Life has been pretty slow otherwise. As soon as I get back to school I'll put up some more updates about the past month. It's a lot easier to feel motivated to post on my blog when I've got nothing else to do.
I hope your 2011 will be filled with health and happiness for you and your families!
Much love to all in 2011 and for many years to come (GO BADGERS!)
