Percussion Festival and Youssou Ndour

Happy Holidays! I hope you are well and sitting around a fire wearing big wool sweaters, singing carols and drinking eggnog. Okay,we all know Christmas isn't really like that, but that's what we pretend when we are far away :)

I'm still having computer issues, so sadly pictures are still delayed

I went to Dakar the day after Christmas to run a bunch of errands and have decidedthat I am not ready for the city. So I promptly returned to Louga (this is a really good sign--I actually want to be here and want to work). But first, I went to Dakar with a fewother volunteers and Kari and I found a movie theater, which happened to be showing the new Harry Potter movie ( the only movie available, and in French, and in a 100° theater, but none of this mattered) I was particularly lost because of my poor French and the fact that I haven't read the book, but we were helped along by the audience..... throughout the entire film the audience responded by wild clapping, cheering, booing or tsk-tsking depending on Harry's predicament. It wasmy first movie that resembled a southern Baptist religious revival, and we loved it. I didn't get much out of the film, but I did enjoy the Senegalese.

This was followed by a Youssou Ndour concert in Louga. As I think I've mentioned before Youssou Ndour is a grammy-winning Senegalese artist who is dubbed "the voice of Africa" He has been wildly successful, but has chosen not to leave Senegal andinstead has re-invested part of his fortune in developing music and the arts in Africa. In any case, he did the concert for 1500 CFA, the equivalent of 3 dollars and it was beautiful. If you ahve the chance to check out his music I highly recommend it.

Finally there was the International Festival of Folklore andPercussion inLouga--for the past 5 years they have held this free five day festival which hosts excellent music, singing and dancing from all over Africa and French speaking European countries (even South Korea is in attendance this year!!!) so I've been fully entertained the last few days. The dancing and music here is absolutely unique and compelling. The center of everything is the drumming--done on different kinds of traditional drums similar to bongo drums. The interesting thing is that the music is polyrhythmic-- I'm not sure if I can explain this well-- but the dancing is so wild you would think that it is random, but after watching for a while you can see that the dancer chooses one drum to focus on and moves with it-- it's a kind of communication between the dancer and the drum beat. maybe you have to see it ( shameless plug for coming to visit....)

now that I've been so serious, one little story. Okay, kids here are bastards. seriously. i don't know what it is, but they are all little trouble makers, rude and mean. okay, they aren't all bad, but itis stort of accepted that this is how kids behave. anyway, part of the culture here is moving into the sort of age system-- you don't have to do anything someone younger than you asks... It has been weird,but I amlearning that I have to assert my authority over kids-- they run errands for me, they do the cleaning around the house, etc. and I absolutely should not tolerate rudeness from kids (or else they will walk all over me and make me miserable) even to the point that volunteers pull switches from trees to hit kids with ( I know, we may not agree, but that is how it is here)

okay, now that I've hopefully explained.... Walking through the festival the other night Kari and I are completely badgered by kids-- they call us names, they touch us, they shout at us-- the new thing is to light firecrackers and throw them at people-- and it isn'tjust us, but being white people we are major targets... So finally after this happens so many times I finally take a kid (probably 12 years old) as he is brushing past us and I smack him, hard, on the face. The stupid grin drained from his face and we were left alone for the rest of the evening. So Martin Luther King might not be proud, but it was the most gratifying action I've taken in recent past. and Kari and I got good laughs from it for the rest of the night too :)

I've changed...

Happy holidays! watch the bowl game for me-- I amexpecting updates!!!!

New Links

I had to add a few links to the sidebar-- please check them out. First there is a very good website created by some Notre Dame grads who went on to service in various capacities and in various parts of the world. The breadth of information and testimonial availablehere is incredible- a valuable resource.

Following that are links to three other Senegal volunteer blogs from my training group.
Evan is an agroforestery volunteer in the central region of the country, near Kaffrine
Lauren is an eco-tourism volunteer in the beautiful delta region
Kari is a fellow small enterprise development volunteer in my region but in a smaller town.

There experiences are rich and varied, I hope you benefit from reading about them!

All my best, Merry Christmas!

Meryl

Making Mud Pies

well folks, I have lots of exciting news on this end...

but first I should start with a little disclaimer, it all should be obvious but I want to stress that everything on this blog is a highly personalized and thus biased opinion. What I am most concerned about is that some of my posts may seem negative towards Senegal or the Peace Corps, etc. Please take my views with a grain of salt. Moving here and settling in is naturally full of highs and lows and unfortunately sometimes I let the "lows" take over. I feel that it is good to write about the frustrations because the struggles are a fundamental part of the experience and without them there would be no room for growth-- so when you read about these frustrations remember that they are just frustrations and they would be interpreted by others to be perfectly normal-- and also have faith that I will bounce back :)

Also on that note I want to thank everyone that sent messages after my last post and also for a certain Michael Flatley starring in Celtic Tiger t-shirt-- you guys are amazing, I don't know what I would do without you

That said I'd like to get to the fun stuff. Someone was asking me about health conditions here in Senegal which I think are really improving- there is a lot of energy given to AIDS awareness, lots of free vaccinations for kids, Red Cross health posts as well as Peace Corps health volunteers. My family even wash their hands before and after meals (which really impressed me). But then there are a few things that lead me to believe otherwise... one example. We have a visiting relative in my house at the moment, essentially an older aunt for me. She is playing with one of the babies the other day when she realizes he has a cold and his nose is running. She promptly covers the baby's mouth and nose with her mouth, sucks the snot out of his nose and spits it into the sand at her feet. And repeats. So you see.....

A couple days over the past week I rode out to a nearby village where a fellow volunteer is building an enormous mud bread oven. I finally fulfilled my dream of playing with poop for hours on end. My two co-volunteers mixed animal manure and clay while I was a "slinger and spreader" meaning I threw huge mud-poop-pies at the oven and sculpted it into a beautiful round dome. There are photos to come I promise, but for the moment you'll have to use your imagination. I also carried water on my head, which (I don't care how easy they make it look) is really really hard. Fifty pounds of water sloshing around on my head while traversing mushy sand dunes does not feel good. And I got to wear a muscle tee. And the kids we paid to help us asked me if I was a boy a or a girl... for those of you who remember a certain Tom Petty comment from a certain Maria's boyfriend from a certain party on Washington street last year should particularly appreciate this.

Then; I got sick; again. OKay; essentially I have some kind of parasite/amoeba/hypochondriac tendancy that has been knocking me out every once in a while for the last month. It's usually kind of funny because my family doesn't really get what is going on and I can't communicate very well, so they think I am just tired but the other day I was really sick and was in bed all day. My family started freaking out and wanted to rush me to the hospital or to Dakar. It can be kind of scary because people don't fully understand illness and how to treat it, yet they are surrounded by some very serious and very preventable diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, even polio. There are all kinds of "Wolof remedies" which are based on soaking certain bits of wood in water and drinking the water or mixng certain powders together-- some of which work for some minor maladies, but clearly in the case of malaria, etc. they don't work at all.

Anyway, my family took really great care of me, to the point of leaving 3 different meals in my room; including an entire fish; none of which I could eat... but then randomly in the middle they also brought in 12 random to wake me up and then sit on the opposite side of the room to look at photos of a random wedding. I may never understand.

I'm out of time for now, but I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!! I wish I could be home to spend my time with all of my loved ones, but I take heart knowing that the time already passes quickly! All my best wishes for the new year!

patience

okay I think I got my first real kick in the stomach and now I'm recovering thanks to a lot of sleep and cookies from the tubab store (a place owned by white people and containing certain white people products such as toilet paper and cookies-- I even found a can of coca cola light which I am very excited about)

The past week was frustrating- really frustrating -- and now I realize what they meant when they said I will learn what it's like to be a minority for the first time in my life -- and they weren't kidding. I don't want to dwell on this since it certainly is not what the experience is about, but I also think it is i^mportant because it explains a lot about the culture here and also how I live. First and foremost is the language, which I have struggled with recently-- but I'm starting to realize that I can't put pressure on myself because it is going to take a long time no matter what I do, so I am just going to start over and keep working at it. Part of the frustration is that the language is not really a written language; so people cannot write words for me and there is little chance of understanding a grammar system. I am working on finding someone who can tutor me, but this isn't a very common thing so I(ll have to wait and see.

Second there is the fact of being a complete outsider-- and white-- I completely underestimated how important this would be. Complete strangers yell "tubab" : white person when I pass on the street. I know; it sounds ridiculous, but it is completely acceptable here. White people are so rare that it is big news when one is around- sometimes it feels like people are being really rude (would we ever yell out at someone like this?) and sometimes I just realize that people are looking for something to do, they just want to talk, or they are curious why I am here. Still it takes a lot of patience some days.

so I kind of hid out in my house for a while with my family so I could regroup-- and that is where things started getting fun. I got put to the test by the 11 women in the household-- they find it really strange that I leave the house every day to go into town to work, that I wear pants, that I don't wear earrings ( another funny story on this to come) etc; So I decided to hang out and do the things that women do-- All of their chores have a very specific process, mopping, doing laundry, cooking. It's so funny, but all I had to do was try everything once, show them that I couldn't do it the way that they do it and they were satisfied. For example, the one that every female volunteer has to deal with is laundry. Thus ensues the exchange:

Senegalese sister : Can you "foot" ?(meaning handwash clothing while making a specific sound with the water that passes through your hands during the process-- similar to a high pitched squish)

Me: No, I can't "foot" (thinking damn right i can, just not with your silly noise)

SS: Here; try this ( at the same time calling the 15 other people around to come watch the tubab "foot")

Me: OKay, I'll try. ( and trying in earnest, and doing just fine if the objective was just to get the clothes clean, but no-- it is also to make "the noise")

Peanut gallery: Oh look! Fary is trying to "foot"! how sweet. ( and failing) Fary, you should probably pay one of your sister's to do your laundry for you.

Me: oh well I tried.... (damn right I will)

and so it goes. I don't know how to react, if I should be happy that I have better things to aspire to or feel defeated that this is what senegalese women aspire to.... Maybe I haven't been clear, maybe I've just been bitter? but I hope I have been at least descriptive

till next time!

week 2

okay, I honestly hope that I don't post quite so often in the future because internet caes are just way too easy a place to hide out and pretend like I am working...

I need to share with you another, favorite quirk... it has to do with Africa time-- I'm sure you've all heard of this phenomenon and I am really impressed by how it functions in reality. Of course a lot of this experience is based on my own poor understanding of Wolof and of the Senegalese culture; but it is still funny all the same. So the other day a friend of mine, Kari (whose blog you can find at this address www.livejournal.com/users/kbsenegal) comes in to visit. We spend a great day sharing our stories (frustrations) and just laughing (it feels so good to laugh after so much Wolof). Then we are supposed to meet another friend for lunch across town-- we decide to take a horse cart called a gallesh-- it's sort of a cheap form of taxi. our gallesh driver promptly starts going the opposite direction from where we want to go. Kari and I start making a fuss, because this 14 year old taxi driver thinks he can just run his toubab passengers wherever he wants. He assures us that he knows where he is going but just has to run an errand first (first lesson-- my time is your time and no one is in a hurry) so we drive into the middle of the market so he can run his errand. We start moving again only to stop a hundred meters later. The driver gets out and we wait patiently.... but then we look around and realize the driver is hanging out behind the car with some friends eating and smoking a cigarette (second lesson-- meal time is paramount) so we decide to get out of the car and take a taxi instead. Our driver sees us; hails us a second gallesh which inevitably tries to charge us 3 times the normal fare. Our now friendly driver yells at the new driver and lets us continue on our way out to the main road on foot. Five minutes later; as we are finally approaching the main road where we can get a cab our first gallesh driver passes us, calling out to us, as he has new passengers in his vehicle ( third lesson-- I have no idea-- does anyone have insight on this?!?)

So Kari and I are prepared for this-- the Senegalese operate differently than we do and we can accept it even if we dont understand it :) and we are able to laugh it off. but now my favorite part of the whole story... a few days later the gallesh driver passes me on the road; calls out to me- so now we are the level of friends that hang out and greet each other even though he left us stranded further from our destination than where he picked us up-- the irony of it always good for a laugh :)

a couple quirks

i think the most common feeling here is just that I am along for the ride. At this point, not knowing the language or the people very well, there must be 50 percent of the day just given to following, blind wandering and utter confusion. from the moment I make my tea in the morning I am bound to be stumped by how to use my silly little half broom, how to hail a horse cart and how best to decline a marriage proposal from my aunt's cousin.

That said, there are two little habits among the Wolof that I've started to at least recognize, if not understand- and "knowing is half the battle" First we have the teasing. Wolofs are known among Peace Corps Volunteers to be extremely abrasive, aggressive, even rude-- I knew there had to be a reason for this-- the Senegalese are such peaceful people, they don'teven like to disagree, so whydo they feel the need to heckle every stranger they see in their community? The truth is; it is completely normal for people to act like this-- they rarely see a foreigner, especially a white one and beyond that this is how the Senegalese act between themselves-- it's just another way of passing the time- constant banter and joking. Some days I can feel it starting to get to me and some days it is no big deal-- it has caused me to adopt this sort of rough persona ( I know, I am very intimidating) so now I can respond to some people without being frustrated. Now when the kids on the street ask me for my watch or my shoes I tell them I want their mother. When my neighbor tells me he loves me I tell him he's ugly. I don't know; I think I'm on my way to sucessful community integration :)

new digs

Here we go, I'm finally joining the group and using a blog. considering my computer's recent death by dust; I've had to turn to less favorable ways of communicating--- so now email might come a bit more slowly, so bear with me.

okay, they finally freed us from Thies and training center. The big news was the swearing in ceremony, which was held in Dakar at the Ambassador's residence. It was particularly ridiculous because Peace Corps asked us to perform a skit to illustrate what our work in Senegal is-- we ended up doing most of the skit in pantomime (could this get any better?) because there are so many national languages that we wanted to respect and include. It was supposed to be a very solemn celecbration which we punctuated with a bunch of toubabs (white people) dressed in formal traditional clothing (think flowing robes and lots of sparkle) running around pantomiming farming; etc. went off without a hitch.

since that day its like we're entirely new people-- language exams are over and we've all moved out to site. up until this point we were so confined to the training center-- and virtue of being a government organization, there was a mile of red tape to go through before we could do anything, now I feel like I've got my feet on the ground. Unfortunately all my beautiful technology is down for the moment, but I'll pass photos along as soon as possible. So, a few words about my site. I am in a city called Louga, roughly 100,000 people strong, although they say it is an urban village-- tons of people but lacking infrastructure. The city is only about 3 hours from Dakar, which will be extremely convenient, but it is also in the North, which means it will be hot--- really really hot. I'm already working on getting a fan installed and it's the cold season now...

When I moved here on Monday I was so sick from eating bad chicken at an aluminum shack with a poster of bin Laden on the wall (who would have thought?) I'm sure it is only the first on many many illnesses. Ever since spending some time in bed I am back on my feet and moved into my house. My family is wonderful ( and enormous-- there must be 15 kids under the age of 8). I have been re-baptized Fary Sarr and my namesake is my mom. Normally I would be bummed because this name so closely resembles Farty, but my mom is too awseome not to be proud of it-- she is a grandmother many times over and extremely kind and attentive-- she is also president of a major women's group in Louga. She is just one of those people who goes out and gets things done, which I think is hard to find-- plus she just takes care pf everyone, and she has a sweet traditional tattoo over her mouth and chin. THis is a lot to start-- so more later; promise!