30.11.07

end of novemeber...
it is getting "cold" here. not really COLD as i'm used to but cold enough that the bucket baths are getting painful in the morning. also they've been cutting off the water lately too...i don't mind it until i am thirsty. we didn't have water for 48 hours around thanksgiving...and talk about dishes! besides that, i am meeting prostitutes. they even know my name and stop me in the street to chat! this research project is on its way! there is supposedly a soirée here on campus tonight (a dance in the cafeteria) but it doesn't start until midnight i know it would be lame to show up before 1:30am anyways. maybe i will go into town for a glass of wine. everyone was on strike yesterday so i didn't have class which was sad because thursdays are arabic days. there is this student that sends me love texts. i think i met him once and he started leaving letters in my room. which is CREEPY because i don't like it that he knows where i live. and he's even kind of creepy looking. his name is maurice. the most recent text said, "you are the most beautiful of the flowers, the 1 that embellishes my life, that fills my head with thousand of colors, even if in my heart everything is grey..."!!!!!!! i don't like that this happens. but there is no escaping it. even my roommate told him to back off! i shook his hand once! what crazies...i don't know what to say. i am going to scoot off now...feccleen! (dance!)

thanksgiving

everyone is writing "i am thankful for..." blogs today but i think i am going to skip doing that. i am kind of tired and unmotivated to think of things i am thankful for besides people and i don't want to forget anything/one. last night was a strange experience. i joined this club called cinéclub (you can guess what it is about) and every week we watch documentaries and comment about them afterwards. there is always a lively little discussion afterwards and it inspires some really nice brain activity (which i feel lacks in my daily life). well yesterday we watched a documentary about soldiers in mauritania who were put in prison for planning to overthrow the government. they were treated horribly in prison and it was unjust etc. the movie was called "Le Cercle des Noyés" (the circle of drowned ones) and was made in 2006 and was in black and white. part of the conflict was about ethnicities, one black and one of arab descent (aka white). this was supposed to represented by the use of black and white. there was no music in the whole movie and the only sound was the narrator speaking some language that i don't think was arabic in monotone about his experience in the fort where they kept these people and the only images were of sand blowing in the desert and the fort in all different kinds of light. when the movie was over the whole room went crazy. there were some "white" mauritanians there that were arguing with black mauritanians and a girl who's uncle had fallen victim to this almost completely unpublicized genocide who was freaking out and sobbing. people kept getting up and giving testimonies...it was so intense and so upsetting i felt like everything was spinning out of control. the scariest part is that the people that tortured these black elites that were in prison haven't been punished, this story isn't over yet and people don't really know about this happening. sometimes i wonder how this is still happening here. i can't believe in race anymore. skin color really REALLY doesn't change anything. everyone eats, poops (or in my case, hopes to poop), breathes, needs water, etc. the fact that there are STILL black slaves in mauritania, only about 5 miles north of saint-louis, is incredible to me. i can't see how anyone can treat anyone else like they're a different value. and maybe i feel this so strongly because i am a minority for once but i think it is strange that skin color matters. so what if people that look alike have different traditions? they're still people and they still need to do the same basic things as everyone else. so i guess today i am thankful for all good people and for this experience and understanding that i am gaining through being here. i hate sounding sappy but being the only toubab from the western world in a room of intellectual africans screaming and crying about reality really makes you spin off to another world. thanks for reading. JAMM REKK.

06.11.07

well so here is the attitude today...
maren (aka. mariam ci wolof) and i have spent the morning being...well, what we thought was going to be...productive. we had our usual breakfast of powdered milk and coffee...though i just stuck to powdered milk, ew, and then proceeded to class. maren was on the second floor already and called up to me so i attempted the stairs...and when i say attempted, i really mean it. i tripped up the stairs twice, these weren't just little trips either, i thought i was going to go right back down again. there was a senegalese student behind me who tried to catch me i guess...well you know it wasn't really a catch just a desperate push back into stair-climbing position...TWICE. once up the stairs the two of us had a little giggle and i tactfully said "c'est le matin..." (it's the morning) and he continued on his way. then suddenly, and i honestly don't know how it happened, i took flight and landed horizontally in the hallway i was turning into to meet up with maren. the poor kid who had previously been there to give me a helpful hand apparently looked at maren in utter disbelief and pity. the best part was that here i am, in a muslim country where everyone dresses beautifully and conservatively for class (not that beautiful and conservative go hand in hand), and i somehow manage to fall 3 times with a grand finale of some butt cheek en air. my skirt totally flew up and the whole rule about no skirts above the knee thing was totally blown into outer space. good morning annie! besides that little drama, maren and i tried to go to two orale litterature classes neither of which had teachers in them. we went back and forth between the two classrooms hoping to snag someone to tell us what the hell was going on but no one seemed to know. so we went to the library instead and decided to try again next week. once in the library, i studied arabic grammer and verbs while maren taught herself the arabic alphabet. i felt pretty accomplished. the problem with classes this week is that baydallaye kane, the professor that was SUPPOSED to help us pick them out and organize everything had schedulled a meeting for last thursday but then got the flu and changed it to friday which ended up not really accomplishing what needed to be accomplished and rescheduled for saturday but then happened to be in a meeting all afternoon and now is gone until NEXT TUESDAY. so we've been wandering into classes to see what's up but that's about it. i'm going out tonight to get some observations on my research project tomorrow there are no classes in the afternoon and there are very few french department classes in the morning. ugh. needless to say we're all a little bored. i have a feeling that things will get moving soon though. we do have two hours of wolof a day from 1 to 3pm which is HORRIBLE because it is hot and yesterday there were at least four of us that thought we were going to hurl. oh well. i guess i should think about lunch soon, at least my arabic and wolof are advancing. ma'a asalaama (go in peace, arabic).

03.11.07

well now i'm in saint-louis working on getting all this school stuff and figuring out classes. we were all supposed to meet with the head of the wisconsin-senegal program named baydalaye kane but as usual he wasn't there when we were all supposed to meet...i guess i shouldn't say as usual but man everything in senegal is slow and usually inaccessible. oh well, i think i am just going to take african literature this semester...a few classes, and then spice things up next semester with oh i don't know a women's study class or something. in anycase the first few weeks of class seem very laid back and unplanned. other than that we've had some islam classes and wolof for sure and i'm working on some way to take arabic...wolof is advancing but i had an oral exam in dakar with my teacher ismailah who is great but i started saying mi piace instead of begg naa for i like. haha i laughed and had to explain that i can't keep all my 5 languages straight in my head. let's just hope my grade didn't suffer too much because of that. at least i wasn't speaking english. besides that it is quite an experience of it's own that we are a group of 10 white girls and organization is ALWAYS an issue. people feel left out alot and my new philosophy is do what you want to do and don't wait for other people to do it for you. so since i have this research project to do and i think the sexploitation here is disgusting and i wanted to do a case study on three or four prostitutes/hired boyfriends or girlfriends (those are the worst, at least the guys that make it out to the clubs to pick up prostitutes are young and spunky enough to try to dance with them). the hired boyfriends/girlfriends are like escorts but their toubab counterparts are NASTY!!! oh well. i got a prostitute's phone number, she said we could meet for tea and talk but i haven't called her yet...i should do it. other than that we've made some friends in town which is fun. the people on campus are elite and almost stuck up...but that opinion might change, it's just what i think so far. i changed rooms already because my roommate apparently didn't want another american roommate and i could tell, she was NOT friendly and didn't want me there so i changed. well it is an egg sandwich for me tonight. i'm off.