Living Routes: Senegal 2006 Spring

Ba bennen yoon...Inch'alla

Pouye and his three white wives!! This is my last weblog�I don�t know how to conclude my entries, except by saying that I am so thrilled to have been able to have this experience. The program itself was good, but I think that the times that I will remember most are the intimate...

Nder moments

Moments that made Nder� *Morning runs with Nafi at 7am � cool air, brilliant sun, saying hi to farmers finishing up breakfast next to their fields before going to work...having to refuse their invitations to eat. *Rocking babies to sleep during my team�s nutrition meetings with the Moms. *Asta � second wife of Papa Thioye; Asta was my mama in Nder, taking care of me like a daughter. She is quite possibly the most beautiful woman in the world, definitely the best mother, and...

Nder Nder Walo

It sounds so clich� � �I can�t believe it�s over� � but it is simply the truth. I have about 8 days left in this experience and I am a wreck. I am incredibly excited to go home, see my family, and share this experience with everyone I have been away from for so long. Yet the thought of leaving what has become my family, my home, my community, my life here makes me want to cry. All of these thoughts are gradually taking over my reflections but I feel like I have after about a week had...

SEBI

This weekend Mari, Sarah and I went to Sebikotane, a village about an hour from Yoff, to stay with the family of our friend Ibrahima Pouye. It was such a great time. I really love villages more than anything�Ibou�s family was so nice. We were only there for two nights and one full day, but we met about 100 people. We talked to beautiful wise grandmothers and held young babies. I had the chance to carry a baby boy around on my back for a little while as we walked around the...

the horse's name was Black

One day in Nder Mari and I took a horse-drawn cart ride to the next village, called N�gnith (neech). The horse�s name was Black, but he was brown. The road was mostly sand and Black had some trouble in the spots where the sand was deep. The cart was really just a flat surface with 2 wheels, and we loaded it with 5 adults, 2 children, and some sacks of something (maybe potatoes). It was a little crowded, but we made it, eventually. We ended up leaving late because there was a problem with...

Taa taa nafi

There is so much to say about our second stay in Nder. I had an amazing time; it was definitely the highlight of my experience in Senegal. I really enjoy the village lifestyle. Each morning I awoke to chorus of calls. There were animal calls, from roosters and donkeys, as well as the morning prayer call from the mosque. The mosque is on the other side of the village, but the village is small enough that I could still hear the calls clearly. It takes about 3 minutes to walk from one side of...

a list of the animals that i have seen so far in senegal

Jackel Egyptian Goose Duck Flamingoes Pelicans Wart Hogs (like pumba in the lion king) Crocodiles Black Wing Stilts Grey Heron African Fish-Eagle Ibis Snake bird Comeran Tortise Moniter River Lizard Monkey Lizards Senegalese Parrot Donkeys Horses Pigs on the beach Goats Sheep Cats Chickens and Roosters Mosquitos Flies Wasps that build adobe huts with little green catepillars in them on the wall Ants (regular ants and ants that bite in a really...

(tou)-BAB!

And we�re back! Two weeks shared with the villagers of Nder are behind us with only a few weeks left in this amazing country before us. The four Toubabs and Sophie got back �home� to Yoff last night after spending a weekend in St. Louis, while the other members of our group came directly back to Dakar from Nder on Saturday. I planned on using my first blog back to reflect on our work in Nder, all that I came to love about village life, the strangers who are now our family,...

Reflections before Nder

Before leaving, I wanted to leave you all with some reflections I included in my last email to my friends and family...some of you might have already read this but I feel like I have come to some important realizations in these last weeks that have significantly shaped my experience here. Peace "I am writing at a particularly emotional time where I am struggling to live in this moment and appreciate every beautiful detail around me that I know I will miss to the point of tears...

Departure for Nder tomorrow...

It has been (too) long since my last entry and I apologize. My stomach has been doing weird things for the last week so I have spent most of my free time in bed, or er actually in the squat toilet but we don't need to go into details! Also, I sometimes get the feeling that I am reflecting more on experiences than I am actually experiencing experiences. Between my personal journal, emails to friends and family, and the weblog I have analyzed to my heart's content. I find that to be...