Living Routes: Senegal 2007 Fall

Reverse Culture Shock

My semester in Senegal is coming to an end, and everything just feels surreal. We have work to do for just about the first time in the semester and in a week, I�ll be in a hotel with my mother in New York. I still can�t kind fathom saying goodbye to my family and really meaning it, and when Abdoulaye told me he was leaving tonight, meaning that I may never see him again, it just didn�t seem real. As nothing seems real here, nor does anything from the beginning of the trip seem real....

Michael was right

The village home stays were the best part of the trip! I'm posting some pictures of my Palmarin family. I miss them already!

The last days

Things are wrapping up here. We had a party last night and a closing ceremony this afternoon. The American students are leaving. I'm staying around for a few months to learn about another environmental program here. Now I'm starting to realize how much I'm going to miss having all my friends around and what a shock it will be to move on. I think we all had some gripes with the disorganization of the program, but we can't help but be satisfied with the introduction it gave us to...

Palmarin Round Two-yeyuh

12/2/07 I�m back in Yoff! Palmarin was incredible, I wish I could have stayed there rather than coming back to Dakar. My time in the village was definitely the highlight of my entire stay in Senegal. When people ask me what Senegal was like, the first thing I�m going to tell them about is Palmarin. And when I come back to Senegal some day, to work or study or just live, I�m going straight back to the village because that�s where my real family and friends are here. I�m going to try...

Le voyage sur Palmarin

Ben voil�, nous sommes de retour sur EcoYoff le Mercredi 28 Novembre apr�s avoir pass� 19 jours sur Palmarin Ngallou car il y'a 3 autres Palmarin aussi que j'ai eu l'occasion de visiter personnellement. Pour ce second "long" s�jour, c'�tait la partie recherche-action et pratique de nos IS (independent study) et nos SL (service learning)...des interviews � faire par ci et par l� avec des interlocuteurs qui sont des acteurs locaux aussi tant pour le IS que le SL mais il y'avait...

Palmarin-it's village time baby

THE VILLAGE Part of the semester here includes a visit to a village where we carry out our independent studies and service learning projects. This semester the program is going to Palmarin, a village (made up of four smaller villages) of about 5,000 in the Sine Saloum region, a couple hours south of Dakar and just north of the Gambia. We spent one week there already doing preliminary research and we�re returing next week (on Wednesday or Thursday) for a three week stay.

Village Stay

On Friday, we depart for the village for the long stay. What was previously just under three weeks will now be just over two, but we hope that what little bit we can do can be of help to the village. We are there as students and researchers, studying our respective topics, ranging from microfinance to traditional medicine, women's role in development to ecotourism. This is the Independent Study portion of our program. Hopefully, we can find some aspect of our studies which lack something,...

end of Ramadan!

10/9/07 With just one week left of Ramadan, I decided to break fast for good on Saturday. That makes twenty days of fasting. I wanted to go until the end but it was just too stressful and draining. What began as a way to assimilate and create solidarity turned into an obstacle against my integration here. It�s true that at first people really appreciated my efforts in fasting.

THIES

THIES 11/1/07 Day One We left Dakar around 11 AM. Erin and I took a car rappide to Amath�s house. We had breakfast there (second one of the day, awesome) and then left with Amath and his brother. We walked through the neighborhood and along the highway to a sept place junction. Sept places are beat up old station wagons, that act as inter-city taxis. They�re not safe, not expensive, and easy to use.

The Elders of the Village

One of my favorite things, so far, about being in the village, was the chance to talk with village elders. They've lived in Palmarin their whole lives and give a unique perspective of Senegalese culture that can't otherwise be gained being in the village today. My host grandmother, Khady Ndowe Seck Sarr, was so kind to chat with me, using Honorine, one of the Senegalese students as an interpreter, about her life. I started by telling her that I had heard of African wisdom and the wisdom...

Korite or Eid al Fitr

Better late than never... The Muslim religion practices a month long fast called Ramadan, and as Senegal's population is overwhelmingly Muslim, it was a large part of everyday life for a month. Michael explained Ramadan in an earlier entry, but I'll reiterate, just as a refresher. One rises early in the morning, around 5 or 6, to say the morning prayers and eat breakfast. After that there's no eating or drinking until sundown, around 7. At the end of the month of Ramadan, there's a...

More Palmarin Info

Okay, I just thought I'd throw in a little more about Palmarin because there's not too much about it on the internet. I'm ripping this off directly from our academic handbook.

La vie au village

Two weeks ago a few of us went to visit the PNUD in Dakar. PNUD is the French letterword for United Nations Development Programme. We went there because one of the girls had a friend of a friend working there. It turned out that he was on a business trip but we nonetheless had a warm reception. The guard let us in the gate and the man in charge of shipping and logistics welcomed us into his office. For those of you wondering what UN offices look like in Dakar, I would tell you that it...

Back From Palmarin

Sunday morning we boarded our bus for Palmarin and the next Saturday we were headed back to Yoff again. But what happened in the mean time? Read on.

Gaia Theory

So I just realized that the Iles de la Madeleine photos I uploaded were huge. Agh. I stopped caring about computer skills for a year because I believed that Peak Oil was going to make technological knowledge obsolete. Anyway, I'll try to fix those pictures later today. But on the subject of philosophy I have been learning about the Gaia theory and I've kind of fallen in love with James Lovelock, its corny Scottish author.

Iles de la Madeleine

So, we went on this amaaaazing trip to Ile de la Madeleine, one of the many tiny islands off the coast of Dakar. And, that was back on September 15. Sorry for the delay, but I am going to post the pictures now. Of course, my little camera couldn't do justice to the magnificent scenery there...

Language Misunderstandings

One morning, I got up early because I had to use the restroom. I did my thing, and attempted to flush the toilet. Sometimes the top of the toilet doesn't have enough water in it, and there's a pipe from the wall water source to the top of the toilet. So you turn the little faucet that pumps the water into the top of the toilet. I guess I leaned on the pipe, because it disconnected from the wall and started shooting water across the bathroom.

Village Anticipation

Life has been moving pretty quickly around here. It was a shock to realize that we'll be leaving for our first stay in Palmarin on Saturday. On the other hand, we've been in Yoff for five weeks and we've gotten a lot accomplished.

More! Awesome! Photos!

All right, more of le bus tour. Can you handle it?

CADU

The blog has seriously been suffering in quantity of postings. But I swear that's just because Living Routes has us always doin' stuff. Anyway, I also notice that the blog has been lacking photos. So I'm going to post on our bus tour of Dakar... in photos. The first batch are of Cheikh Anta Diop University, where our Senegalese partners matriculate. Its architecture was pretty neat because it managed to display the institutional concrete slabs you'd expect to see in a school serving...

A Senegalese Weekend

After a slight bout of sickness (nothing serious), back to the world of blogging! Since Michael pretty solidly covered the week and put my blogging skills to shame, I'll recount a solid Senegalese weekend. Friday night, Michael, Joan, Kelsey and I got together for some fruit enjoyment that, with a slightly corny touch, Kelsey dubbed F&F, fruit and friends. We reviewed the events and group dynamics of the past two weeks. The group dynamics, in particular, are moving along nicely....

two weeks worth of senegal

HI EVERYONE! Peace be with you. How are you? How are things? How is your family? How are your friends? How is your health? Are you eating well? Are you having a good day? That's a normal greeting here. If you don't ask these questions to everyone when you enter a room, it's considered rude. Shaking hands is also very important, but only with the right (they wipe with the left). I accidentally used my left hand today with a little boy and he gave me a weird look.

Feedbacks

Voil� 11 jours d�j� que nous sommes ensemble, am�ricains, s�n�galais,su�doise et canadienne aussi et je suis tr�s ravi de faire un feedback simplifi� de ces quelques bons instants: Journ�e du vendredi 07/09/07 C'est la premi�re journ�e d�butant le semestre par des s�ances r�cr�atives: -s�ance r�cr�ative de 2 mn (pr�sentation int�ractive et choix d'un partenaire) -Name game qui consiste � dire "je vais au march� et j'ach�te ceci ou cela commen�ant pa l'initial de...

First up today

It's been awhile. I've started five entries in the last week and scrapped them all. Writing about Senegal is hard, because everything is something. Things look differently, places feel differently, and people act differently. All is transmogrified in ways mundane and profound. Skating along on the surface of things is all too easy/fun. Anyway, to break ce grande silence, I offer you...

Village visiting

Been here in the country of Teranga for a week now! The first day was cultural orientation, including an overwhelming amount of French Erin already told you about the super exciting soccer game, not much to add there. The next day we were off to one of the ecovillages in Senegal's ecovillage network, Mbam. Wanting to have a fully authentic experience, we rented the most common mode of Senegalese public transportation for our group, Ndiaga Ndiaye. It's like a minibus, but it has seats...

First post ever

After a prolonged moment of packing and immunizations, I'm finally here. Two days ago, after a full twenty-two hours of travel, I stumbled through the doors of the Dakar airport and into the bosom of 'le pays de teranga,' the land of hospitality. There's been lots more of me stumbling (with French) ever since. It's been good. I haven't taken any photos yet... I'll make sure to get some up here soon. Tomorrow at eight a.m. we're heading out to the boonies but we'll be back on Wednesday....

Rain, rain go away ...

We got our first real dose of rain this week, and on Monday we had a flood of rain water and escaped sewer water (from the broken pipe) that created a small lake in front of our building! This is the building where the Living & Learning Center is now located, but don't worry, the flood drained soon after. I'll try to post some photos of the construction, too, so you can get a sense of what it was like before and...

Slowly gearing up for fall students

Hi everyone, I thought I would just try to figure out how this weblog works, and give you all a short update about how everything is going here in the Senegal office (the Living and Learning Center in Yoff) for the month of July. We just completed our move to the main CRESP building at the end of last month, so now the Living and Learning Center staff all have new offices, and we're easier to find (right on the main road, or the "Route de l'Aeroport," not far from the airport)....

Where is Senegal?

My favorite part of telling people that I�m going to Senegal is seeing their reactions. One person asked me if I was going home. Having never been to Senegal, I looked at him quizzically. He explained, �That�s in North Jersey, right?� I�ve also gotten Spain, Southeast Asia and South America. Another favorite reaction is when people ask, �Do you speak African?� I guess this reflects a bit poorly on the American school system�s focus on other countries. However, to be perfectly frank, I...