16 days...i think.
i hate STA. or airplanes...or whoever. i have to crunch everything in to two weeks. i had an interview with the prostitute i have had my eye on all year last night. it went well though she made me answer all the questions i asked her. and slapped me on the back a few times. oh and i visited a village last sunday for the first time. it was very nice, if i join the peace corps that is where i want to be: in a village. i did everything you're not supposed to though. before we came they said no swimming in fresh water (dangerous viruses and bacteria), no walking around barefoot (worms, dirty things etc...), and be wary of insects as our bodies aren't used to their bites/stings. so i explored a broken down school room and got stung by a two inch black wasp on my back and then took my shoes off and ran around barefoot on the bank of the senegal river where i got some gash near my ankle and then swam in the river with alot of bare-breasted african women. i figured i am going home in two weeks any ways...i might as well en profiter. and nothing happened. i still have a sore spot on my back and a scab on my ankle but nothing is turning green (or black for that matter). i have to run to my wolof party but i will add more pictures later. leegi leegi.
mercredi 28 mai 2008
samedi 17 mai 2008
17.05.08
this is a picture from the mainland in st. louis to the hydrobase at sunset. i liked the tires.
i forgot to tell a toubab story in the last blog...so the other day i was going to go upstairs in my block to collect sara for breakfast and when i left my room i noticed some new little kittens running around that this cat madeleine and i named "smutty" had. (for a while she wanted to give birth in my armoire and my roommate had to chase her out at least 10 times) so i decided to surprise sara with a kitten and picked one up. the whole time there was a gardener there watching the little episode pan out (when i say kittens, these aren't cute little fluffy things...they're dirty and look as though they've been knocked around a bit but not rabid or anything, that is for sure) and needless to say was probably pretty grossed out. but in anycase i picked up the smallest one and went up the stairs and sara and i played with it for a little bit and let it down to walk around when i noticed it dangerously close to a hole in the wall where all the piping is and as i went over to get the kitten of course it disappears and all i hear is "meeeeeeeeew *thunk*" as it falls all the way in the wall to the first floor of the building. so, slightly panicked and thinking "oh shit i just killed a kitten" i went running back down the stairs to try to pry the little door off the pipe area on the first floor to let the kitten out all the while the gardener is craning his head around a bush watching me poke at the wall. so then i went back upstairs to tell sara what happened and as i get up there i hear some crashing noises downstairs and realize the gardener has broken the wooden door on the pipe area open to let the kitten out. i can't even imagine what he thinks:"stupid toubabs carrying dirty little kittens around and then dropping them down walls..." the happy ending is that the kitten made it out and is still alive and i saw it today playing with weeds. no more muus surprises for sara i guess.
mercredi 14 mai 2008
14.05.08
i guess a blog isn't interesting unless someone writes on it...
...here's my attempt.
i have a plane ticket home for the 13th of june which is earlier than i wanted...and planned on of course. there are days when i cannot wait to stop standing out toubab-style. but there are also other days where i panic when i think about coming back to the US and what it is going to be like to shop for food at the...'super'market? and i sometimes get anxiety thinking about the fact that i probably won't be able to find bouye (baobab fruit) to suck on when i am hungry between meals. the other night i was realizing that there is so much to learn...i was talking to two travellers from england and scotland who asked me what i was studying at the university and when i said african literature one of them asked if i'd read A---- someone i've never heard of and i laughed and said "i don't really know that much about anything" and the more i think about it, the more i realize i don't. there are people who haven't even been to elementary school here who know more about practical life things than i will ever figure out and i am supposed to be graduating from college in a year? i think travelling is a good way to learn but i can't help but smirk when the new kids (toubabs) on campus think they've got something figured out...i still don't think i know anything about anything here. this continent has more secrets than people can ever imagine...i have a friend who lives in a village and some of the girls from the program went to visit and on their way back they were waiting by the side of the road for a taxi when mansour's dad (my senegalese pal from campus) came up and asked if he should call a taxi...they said sure and he then threw three stones in the road, after 45 minutes of waiting without a single car going by, an empty taxi showed up. i don't know if it is a coincidence but weird things happen like that all the time here. one of my best friends i made here, paco, just left for italy without really telling anyone...he just called last thursday and told us he was in italy for 5 years. i guess it is superstition that if you talk about leaving/travelling you won't ever go. it is hard to see his other friends suffer...it is like he just got promised a life and they are still stuck here living off less than $2/day. but then again it is always hard to see grown men cry.
...on a less spiritual note...
i think my roommate has forgotten about me. she uses everything i own and sleeps on my bed when she invites her friends to stay in our room. i don't think we've had a conversation in about 2 weeks. i was mad at her before because her husband came on a monday night (i was then sexiled) and stayed until saturday morning. FIVE nights. i felt homeless. finally one afternoon she left me naked in the shower while her husband's cousin was visiting in the room and that is when i was really pushed over the edge...i don't know him, or his cousin. they could be rapists and i wouldn't know. since then i don't know if we're friends anymore or just clenching our teeth until i leave...it sure doesn't seem like she gives two flying fucks about me. i am sad about it but i can't compromise myself anymore. it is like living in a maternity ward. my roommate with her big belly and the girl next door with her baby and baby-sitter (who is also married and has a daughter of her own in Thiès) our two rooms are cut off from the rest of the floor by the bathroom. i was in natalie's room the other night and i was just realizing that not all senegalese people are as maternal and authoritative as chez moi in the maternity ward. it is alot more fun not being married. or pregnant for that matter. i don't even feel comfortable in my own room. maybe she'll pop kid sooner than planned and go home. well, meeting with baydallaye...ba ci kanam.
...here's my attempt.
i have a plane ticket home for the 13th of june which is earlier than i wanted...and planned on of course. there are days when i cannot wait to stop standing out toubab-style. but there are also other days where i panic when i think about coming back to the US and what it is going to be like to shop for food at the...'super'market? and i sometimes get anxiety thinking about the fact that i probably won't be able to find bouye (baobab fruit) to suck on when i am hungry between meals. the other night i was realizing that there is so much to learn...i was talking to two travellers from england and scotland who asked me what i was studying at the university and when i said african literature one of them asked if i'd read A---- someone i've never heard of and i laughed and said "i don't really know that much about anything" and the more i think about it, the more i realize i don't. there are people who haven't even been to elementary school here who know more about practical life things than i will ever figure out and i am supposed to be graduating from college in a year? i think travelling is a good way to learn but i can't help but smirk when the new kids (toubabs) on campus think they've got something figured out...i still don't think i know anything about anything here. this continent has more secrets than people can ever imagine...i have a friend who lives in a village and some of the girls from the program went to visit and on their way back they were waiting by the side of the road for a taxi when mansour's dad (my senegalese pal from campus) came up and asked if he should call a taxi...they said sure and he then threw three stones in the road, after 45 minutes of waiting without a single car going by, an empty taxi showed up. i don't know if it is a coincidence but weird things happen like that all the time here. one of my best friends i made here, paco, just left for italy without really telling anyone...he just called last thursday and told us he was in italy for 5 years. i guess it is superstition that if you talk about leaving/travelling you won't ever go. it is hard to see his other friends suffer...it is like he just got promised a life and they are still stuck here living off less than $2/day. but then again it is always hard to see grown men cry.
...on a less spiritual note...
i think my roommate has forgotten about me. she uses everything i own and sleeps on my bed when she invites her friends to stay in our room. i don't think we've had a conversation in about 2 weeks. i was mad at her before because her husband came on a monday night (i was then sexiled) and stayed until saturday morning. FIVE nights. i felt homeless. finally one afternoon she left me naked in the shower while her husband's cousin was visiting in the room and that is when i was really pushed over the edge...i don't know him, or his cousin. they could be rapists and i wouldn't know. since then i don't know if we're friends anymore or just clenching our teeth until i leave...it sure doesn't seem like she gives two flying fucks about me. i am sad about it but i can't compromise myself anymore. it is like living in a maternity ward. my roommate with her big belly and the girl next door with her baby and baby-sitter (who is also married and has a daughter of her own in Thiès) our two rooms are cut off from the rest of the floor by the bathroom. i was in natalie's room the other night and i was just realizing that not all senegalese people are as maternal and authoritative as chez moi in the maternity ward. it is alot more fun not being married. or pregnant for that matter. i don't even feel comfortable in my own room. maybe she'll pop kid sooner than planned and go home. well, meeting with baydallaye...ba ci kanam.
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