Archives: October 2007
Wed Oct 31, 2007
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 of elders and that I would love to hear what she had to say. My first question was how life was different under colonialism. She said simply, we used to grow our own rice and now we have to buy it. It was better to grow our own. She said that before the French came, they didn't wear shoes, but now even if the ground's hot and someone doesn't have their shoes on, they will put leaves under their feet to protect them. She also said that they didn't have horses before.
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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 large feast, which across much of the Muslim world is known by the Arabic name, Eid al Fitr, but in Senegal is called by the Wolof name Korité.
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Tue Oct 30, 2007
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.
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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 was like any other office--plants, piles of neatly stacked papers and a photo of Beyonce in a plastic frame.
Anyway, logistics man told us about his job, answered our questions and gave us tons of UN publications plus some very nice pleather UNDP 2007 day planners. Then he took us on a tour of a building; the UNDP has something like 8 floors in the building with a cosmetic surgery outfit renting the first floor. Strangely, everyone was gone from their offices, taking the afternoon of for a march against poverty at the Presidential Square. When we got to the top floor, we found one office gnome who hadn't left.
This girl was from a micro-sized European country and was working as a Junior Project Officer with the UNDP. Turns out that a lot of European states actually bankroll their nationals' first few years salary with the UN because they want to have their people in good places there. She's spent a year in Dakar with a year to go before she's transferred to New York City. She crossed her fingers and sighed "One more year and then HQ." She was really nice to us and gave us a lot of good advice for our projects. What surprised me was that according to her, most of the UN officials in Dakar don't spend time in the villages wher 50% of the population lives and where so many of their projects take place. This woman herself had never even seen a village.
I'm really happy that Living Routes gives us the chance to spend a month in the village. To stay in villagers' homes and live among people so different from us is a rare opportunity and I am so very glad to have it. In fact, part of me wishes the entire program took place in Palmarin...
By the way, for anyone who wants to get a better idea of Palmarin, the satellite image on Google Maps does a pretty good job of showing the setting: lots of beach, baobabs and lagoons. If you zoom in close and move up the coastline you can see the shipwrecked fishing trawler just offshore. We're staying in the settlement just northwest from that spot.
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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.
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Sat Oct 20, 2007
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.
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Thu Oct 18, 2007
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... 
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Wed Oct 17, 2007
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.
More...
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Tue Oct 16, 2007
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.
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Tue Oct 02, 2007
More! Awesome! Photos!
All right, more of le bus tour. Can you handle it?
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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 tens of thousands of students while incorporating an African flair.
More...
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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 of elders and that I would love to hear what she had to say. My first question was how life was different under colonialism. She said simply, we used to grow our own rice and now we have to buy it. It was better to grow our own. She said that before the French came, they didn't wear shoes, but now even if the ground's hot and someone doesn't have their shoes on, they will put leaves under their feet to protect them. She also said that they didn't have horses before.
More...
[0] comments (943 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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 large feast, which across much of the Muslim world is known by the Arabic name, Eid al Fitr, but in Senegal is called by the Wolof name Korité.
More...
[0] comments (889 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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. More...
[0] comments (851 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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 was like any other office--plants, piles of neatly stacked papers and a photo of Beyonce in a plastic frame.
Anyway, logistics man told us about his job, answered our questions and gave us tons of UN publications plus some very nice pleather UNDP 2007 day planners. Then he took us on a tour of a building; the UNDP has something like 8 floors in the building with a cosmetic surgery outfit renting the first floor. Strangely, everyone was gone from their offices, taking the afternoon of for a march against poverty at the Presidential Square. When we got to the top floor, we found one office gnome who hadn't left.
This girl was from a micro-sized European country and was working as a Junior Project Officer with the UNDP. Turns out that a lot of European states actually bankroll their nationals' first few years salary with the UN because they want to have their people in good places there. She's spent a year in Dakar with a year to go before she's transferred to New York City. She crossed her fingers and sighed "One more year and then HQ." She was really nice to us and gave us a lot of good advice for our projects. What surprised me was that according to her, most of the UN officials in Dakar don't spend time in the villages wher 50% of the population lives and where so many of their projects take place. This woman herself had never even seen a village.
I'm really happy that Living Routes gives us the chance to spend a month in the village. To stay in villagers' homes and live among people so different from us is a rare opportunity and I am so very glad to have it. In fact, part of me wishes the entire program took place in Palmarin...
By the way, for anyone who wants to get a better idea of Palmarin, the satellite image on Google Maps does a pretty good job of showing the setting: lots of beach, baobabs and lagoons. If you zoom in close and move up the coastline you can see the shipwrecked fishing trawler just offshore. We're staying in the settlement just northwest from that spot.
[0] comments (731 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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. More...
[1] comments (831 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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. More...
[0] comments (730 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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...
More...
[0] comments (801 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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. More...
[1] comments (730 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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...
[0] comments (718 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
More! Awesome! Photos!
All right, more of le bus tour. Can you handle it? More...
[0] comments (725 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
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 tens of thousands of students while incorporating an African flair. More...
[0] comments (799 views) | [0] Trackbacks [0] Pingbacks
