Paradise

Paradise is in fact a beach in Senegal located down a long dirt road with signs that say "Forbidden to the public". Its funny because the name of the beach is paradise and when I think about it, it was pretty close. On Saturday me, my host brother and his cousin walked halfway across Dakar to get to the beach. It was amazing to swim in the ocean with giant sand cliffs behind you and the endless ocean in front. One of the best parts about the beach was the line of boulders that protected the beach from the giant ocean waves. In between the rocks on shore and the rocks far out in the ocean the water was calm and relatively deep. One of the funnest things to do (and it appeared all othe other Senegalese kids thought so because they did it all the time) was to swim out to the rocks in the ocean and stand on them and wait for a wave to come and dive into the water just as the wave hit your feet. When I did this the wave carried me almost the entire way back to shore. Watching everyone at that beach was intersting, it wasn't a designated beach and it was on private property but everyone (entirely Senegalese besides me) just came there and spent their time swimming around. Walking back from the beach was an intersting experience in itself, we stopped almost every other block to talk with a friend or relative of my host brother's. One of the best parts about walking throught the streets of Dakar is the ability to talk with anybody without it seeming odd. I made friends with some workers just because they invited me to drink tea with them. Its interetsing to see how people value time in Senegal much differently, I haven't felt rushed in a long time.

Funniest thing I have heard: My host brother described his dream of becoming a modern viking. It basically consisted of looking like Santa Clause (Having a large stomach and a long white beard) smoking a pipe and wearing a viking hat.

Wolof word of the day: ci-degg-degg
Meaning: truely

Top Ten

Just for fun I decide to include at Top Ten Coolest Things You Can Buy From Random People on The Streets of Dakar.

1. A Turtle (a guy just walked up with a turtle in his hand and asked me if I wanted to buy it)
2. Trees (Its quite common to see people walking around with trees trying to sell them to taxis)
3. Beds (A guy had about three foam beds balanced on his head)
4. Electric fans (Although the fan was as tall as the guy he felt he had to sell it to me through the bus window)
5. Someone else's keys (He doesn't tell you what they open but he'll sell them to you)
6. Passports (You never know who's passport you're going to get)
7. Brooms (Selling brooms from car to car just seems unnecessary)
8. Car parts (self explanitory)
9. Paintings (The funniest ones are they giant romantic landscape paintings)
10. Instruments (I actually find this awesome, you never know when you'll need to buy a good drum).

All of these things are sold by people walking around the streets who thrust their merchandise into people's windows when they stop.

Sortir et Reentrer

I swam in the ocean.

The last week has kinda flew by in a mixture of chaos and calm. I spent the last week visiting different village and areas in Touba-Couta, a region close to Gambia, near Koalack. The trip, now that is has passed, was good in retrospect but during the trip I remember thinking constantly about the oddity and problems of the various places. We spent our entire first day traveling from Dakar to Touba-Couta. This was the first time I've been out of Dakar so it was interesting to see the city from afar. I've now realized how insanely large Dakar really is. The city sprawls and spills over the entire peninsula (Downtown Dakar is located towards the end of a long peninsula which pushed out into the Atlantic ocean). The urban sprawl absorbs the entire landscape until you are well out of the penninsula and heading towards Koalack. The difference between downtown Dakar and the urban sprawl of the suburbs (of the banlieu in french) is indistinguishable (that is the developing part). Every building is a shade of grey concrete mixed with the strange off colored advertisements that litter every wall. I often wonder how every little market managed to get the same Coca-cola advertisement. Once we got out of the city the countryside passed without much thought. I'm not sure whether the countryside is natural or man made, everything is flat and there is a lack of any sorty of large vegitation (except for some Boabab trees scattered about). Once we arrived in Koalack, to get some gas, we were confronted with the sad realities of city life. As a bus full of American tourists we were surrounded on all sides by people trying to sell us things. I often find it difficult to engage in conversation with strangers in the city because I often feel like if I start a conversation it will only drift towards giving money or buying something. Once we arrived in Touba-Couta we spent the next few days visiting villages and seeing "traditional" dances and such. I couldn't help but feel like a tourist during our entire stay. "Are these really the customs or are they dancing just because we said we wanted to see some dancing?" During a trip to a village, were I assumed we would be talking to the local population, we ended up trying to convince them to send their kids to French school. I think everyone was shocked when our professer said, "If you don't convince them that they need to send their children to french school then you will have failed?" How can we as foreigners, who are not culturally informed, tell a local populace its needs? I've never felt so foreign and imposing in my entire life. We spent the next few hours sitting under a tree while the professer argued with the village chief (in Wolof meaning we didn't understand much of anything) about the importance of a french education in a village where Quranic school is the primary means of education. The following day we visited an island on the coast of the atlantic ocean to start a mangrove reforestation project. We spent much of the morning lazing around in the shade (a few of us went swimming in the ocean) and finally walekd to another island to plant the mangroves. It was amazing to be able to walk through the ocean from island to island, all we had to do was wait until the tide went out and the water stayed at waist level. During the entire trip I couldn't help but feel like a tourist though, we just appear in a city, do one thing (plant mangroves, tell people they need to go to school), eat (which was really akward since it was the third day of Ramadan so we were the only people eating in the entire city) and leaving. Coming back to Dakar was a nice change though, surprisingly the city is more relaxed and slow paced (at least at my house). Its funny how something small reminds you of being in the U.S. Today, for example, during class we had air conditioning. For some reason I couldn't help but feel like I was back in the U.S. sitting in a French class solely based on the presence of air conditioning (especially since we don't even have fans at my house in Dakar).

Favorite experience in Touba-Couta: Being able to walk from island to island on little sandbars.

Oulof saying of the day: Nit nittaay garabam
Meaning: Man is man's own remedy

Salt Water

The last few days have been spent traveling Dakar and seeing the environs. The entire city of Dakar is one giant dash to build, develop and construct as fast as possible only to let things deteriorate in less than a year. We visited "Le Millenaire", a statue commemorating the peaceful transition of power in Senegal from the socialist party to the democratic party. The statue had been built the year of the transition (2000) but it was already half eroded away. We also visited the most western point of senegal, a small penisula that was used as a military post by the french during the colonial period. I think that this point is the furthest west that continental Africa reaches. The entire coast of Dakar is slowly eroding away, leaving cliffs of black volcanic rocks behind. It was amazing to see the contrast between the giant sand beaches and the stark clifss along most of Dakar's coast. Dakar, like most coastal cities, is losing the battle to the sea. A director of city planning told us that within a few years, many of the houses that are on the coast will have to be moved or they will be sunk under the approaching tides. This last sunday me, Jiba and Jenny walked to a little beach right next to a carnival like amusement park. There were people everywhere swimming in the salt water and going in and out of "Magic Land", the name of the amusement park. I am extremely surprised at the amount of T.V. people watch in this country. During the past few days with my host family, the majortiy of my time has been spent sitting in front of the T.V. watching soap operas, music videos or American movies. Its hillarious to see the terribly dubbed soap operas and movies and even funnier to see all the music videos, full of people trying to emulate American rappers. It is hard to understand whether the people really enjoy watching this much T.V. or whether they just have nothing better to do. I talked with so many people that tell me that life in Senegal is too hard, and the little that they do get is so little that they have to keep working all the time just to keep it. I don't know whether the T.V. and obsession for America is an escape from the harsh realities but people seem set on convincing me that America is the greatest country in the world. I think ultimately it is a matter of interpretation, I may not be hearing the right worlds, conflating the wrong adjectives, missing puns, or something else. We are heading to a coastal commune on Wednesday, a village that predates colonialism.

Funniest experience: The giant Reggae concert held in some stadium. Less of a concert and more of an excuse for a bunch of people to get up on stage, dance and pretend to sing the lyrics to a song (because although it was a Reggae concert there were only two Reggae bands, the rest were people singing kaoroke)

Oulof word of the day: ndank-ndank
Meaning: Little by little

Le premier

This is the first post in country. I am still getting used to writing on a french computer, the words are in an entirely different order. The last three days have been spent between driving around and seeing Dakar and sitting with the director of the program and eating. C'est le premier fois. A lot of new experiences and questions. Everything in the country seems to be either in a process of decay or construction. People crowd into houses that stop construction only after they have been half built. It seems as if everything is the process of going somewhere but never does. One has to wonder if this is how it always is? Living in a "developing" country appears so uncertain. Power goes in and out during our classes but the signs are pasted over the street speaking of progress. "Un avenir", a better future seems to be the campaign on every billboard whether it is for mobile phones or government projects. A weird sense of absurdity attaches itself to every situation due to the integration of U.S. Pop Culture into this world. For example, during our first tour of Dakar the driver played nothing but 70's music (the most memorable being "I can survive" live in Dakar) and club music. Seeing the city this way is like seeing a ghost the world round. Those who can't afford to have their own clothes made wear nothing but second hand U.S. brands (it is common to see people walking around wearing 49er jersey's). I don't know really what I think of all of this yet. Despite these apparent oddities learning both to use French and Oulof has been exciting. People who want a future tend to inherit the past of others, and in this case I don't know what to think. L'avenir approache, alors je attenderais (The future comes so I will see).

Favorite experience thus far: As funny as it sounds driving around the city and listening to American club music was fun.

Oulof saying: Slowly bit by bit one catches the monkey in the countryside
Meaning: Things take time so be patient.