23.10.07

ok so there are alot of things to update about...i will try to do this chronologically for my mental state. last week we had an AIDS session called "an AIDS reminder: come home healthy" which included a simulation of writing down specific things/beings in your life that are really important and then crossing them off with the simulation leader going into detail about losing that thing or ability or person or whatever. needless to say it ended in a few of us crying. hysterically. including me. but not because i was sad about losing things, well i was, but also because i was thinking about people with AIDS that lose things that are as important to them as my list was and i felt sad. hands down BEST way to learn about AIDS. then we watched a movie about 5 peace corps volunteers that got AIDS while they were abroad and that was nauseatingly sad too. the next day we visited the "ecopole" which is the poorest area in dakar (it is a pocket of extremely impoverished families living right in the bustle of downtown dakar which keeps them plenty aware that they're poor and isolated) where they are trying to teach the people living there how to make things with trash to sell each year at their exposé. they make everything from rugs out of woven plastic bags to lamps out of wire and bottle caps. their stuff is pretty clever. the area is also known as "le quartier raille" (rail quarter) because the train tracks used to go through there. then saturday we went to ile de goré which is where they have "la porte sans retourne" (the door of no return) in a house where they brought and processed africans that they were shipping overseas with the slave trade. being in that house made me want to scream and cry or throw up. i'm not sure which one. so i had to step out. besides that they island was bea-u-ti-ful. i took bad pictures though. luckily the other ladies took many pictures and we're sharing them. ok now that i've updated the sad parts...let's talk reggae. so saturday night there were some sortie (going out) options and i decided to attend the outdoor reggae concert that was going to be near my house. it cost 1500 CFA ($3) to get in and that included a Flag beer. so three of us ladies attended the concert with one of the other ladies' host brothers and friends and as usual, on senegalese time, we got there after 1 as the music was just starting. and all i did all night was dance, dance, dance. for a little while, i danced two wonderful arm's lengths away from a senegalese man with 1 inch think lenses on his glasses and vaguely reminded me of steve urkel. we danced until after 4am and i still regretted going home because i was having so much fun dancing without being accosted by young men. then sunday i slept until 1am which i felt horrible about but i somehow dealt with my alarm in my sleep and didn't get up until 1. at which point i realized my feet were dusty-filthy. then i went to a soccer game Karack vs. Grand Dakar (kind of like neighborhood vs. other neighborhood) and ooooooh boy was it intense! Grand Dakar is kind of like the ghetto near Karack (i live in SICAP Karack) and i guess their fans are pretty intense and tend to get in fights over the soccer matches but it was calm when i left even though we won 3-1. i heard there was a fight later though. it was really fun. there are some intense djembé drummers there that do. not. stop. they don't use electronic anything either. you just keep track of the score and the time yourself...if you can. the power was out most of sunday so i went to bed at 9pm when it was dark and there wasn't anything important to do. the power goes out all the time here. it even went out today. i am hoping really hard right now that it won't go out before i post this blog too..............................



jamm rekk (peace only) - a positive response to how's your day/night.

17.10.07

well so today was a good day. good and hot...to say the least. 32 degrees celcius. i went into town with 5 of the other gals to get fabric. we went to the marché sandaga right downtown and i bargained down from 14,000 CFA/6 yards ($28/6 yards) to 9,000 CFA/6 yards. i thought i did a really great job bargaining but i guess i wasn't really supposed to pay more than 6,000 CFA/6 yards. but i figure the price i got came out to $18 total and that is only $3 a yard. is that good in the US? in any case, i got two kinds of beautiful REAL african fabric and tomorrow i am off to the tailleuse (taylor) to get some nice outfits made. i will hopefully feel less like a toubab (white person) when i have some senegalese clothes. i guess toubabs in senegalese garb are more respected. other than that i forgot to tell about my first experience out dancing. we went to a club called "Melissa" around 1am...i guess clubs and concerts etc. don't even get going until around 2. only toubabs show up earlier. i swear i have NEVER sweat so much in my life. my entire head was sweaty and i was sporting the signature jenny-vulpas-red-face...thanks mom. my glasses wouldn't even stay on my face, they kept slipping off! the men are naughty dancers, a little too close for comfort, thank you...but honestly, it is true, white people cannot, CANNOT dance...or at least xonq ñopps can't (xonq ñopp=toubab but literally, "red ear" and that is what they call you in wolof when they don't want you to know they're talking about you). i didn't dance much with the fellas seeing as i was disgusting and they were too but it was fun and the tunes were easy to sway to. the best part was the strobe light and mirrored wall because the strobe light makes EVERYONE look like they're a star dancer...but then it stops. no good. and the mirror, i felt like a total flailing toubab! that was all saturday, it was the party at the end of ramadan so everyone was out. the holiday in french/wolof (not sure which) is called korite. everyone gets REALLY tack-tastic (as in tacky) with really glittery tafetta outfits and then they walk around giving people millet and lait caillé, "sour milk," which might just mean yogurt and they appologize for anything they may have ever done to bother that person. it's a nice thing to do. and at night the ladies go out to show off their fancy toubab fake hair-dos and their fancy make-up (which they don't wear during ramadan) and...the absolute BEST PART...they shave their eyebrows only to draw them on again long and skinny! hahahahaha...i'm sorry i am not as into it or as admiring as they are, but WOAH they kind of look like the 3am prostiutes you find lolly-gagging in paris when everyone is partied out and heading home with tipsy legs. naka nga def? = how's it going...mangi fii rekk= i'm here only (question and response, must know it if you ever plan on walking down a street in senegal because you'll hear it alot.) PS. g's in wolof are pronounced like the g's in "game" or "guy."

16.10.07

ok yesterday i got a bite on my elbow and then an ugly rash that streched up to my armpit happened over night but then it got better and i dont have to go to the doctor and get my right arm amputated after all. thank goodness. other than that there was a goat, well apparently they're actually hairless sheep that look like goats, that was making some weirdo noises in the street for a very long time last night. in french we call them moutons. the power KEPT going out last night...well, all day yesterday for that matter but you really only notice at night when everything goes dark and dreary. my host dad, papito, was finally in a good mood yesterday though he warned me if i let someone convert me to islam, they will marry me only to come back to the US and start a new sect there and divorce me and it will all be in hopes of a visa. EVERYONE wants a visa here...oh well, i am not interested in bringing back any new friends. mosquitoes bite alot here, and they're fast little buggers too. not joking, considering the number of bites i have already i am doomed to catch le palu (malaria). not coolio at all. my new religion is called doxycycline. the daily antibiotic that should ward off the malaria parasites sitting in my liver. i hope. every morning i have to take one of those big bad boys with my hot powdered milk and bread and butter. oh yeah, the food, shoot. i luckily still don't have much of an appetite but oh man, the day it happens, let's hope i can practice some restraint like the muslims practice because it is SO fatty!!! oh boy oh boy, and papito YELLS if his food is too fatty for his achy heart. he says noises make his heart palpitate more and every morning he goes for a walk and every time he finishes his walk he thinks he is sick and has to go to the doctor but only ACTUALLY makes it there about twice a month. my little 7 year old host brother told me my host mom, mamichou, gives papito money for medicine but he doesn't buy medicine. that is all for now folks. jamm ak jamm (peace and peace). i will give you a wolof word/ phrase on occasion.

14.10.07

for future references: uppercase means emphasis.