Hello...I don't really know where to begin. There is a lot so pls forgive me if I jump around a lot. I am staying with a very nice family; two siblings and a maman and papa. They call me Kine Faye (pronounced kee-nay faie), and tell me that I am now their family member, I am Senegalese. This may be so but I am only slowly getting used to the house as being my space; it still feels like theirs and I am not totally at home yet. But..it's coming. Language has been a big barrier in getting to know each other. At first I couldn't understand almost anything they said at all. They switch between French and Wolof (their maternal language) in the same sentence when they talk to each other. But its getting better slowly, I can distiguish when they are speaking in French and when it's in Wolof and can catch a lot more of it than I previously could. I also can speak a lot more quickly, although my grammar is terrible and I have to look up a lot of the words I want to use. But I'm learning Wolof, too, and I can pick out some words and phrases here and there. Wolof is easier to learn than French was, and it's not as different structurally as I thought it would be from Eng/French.
The sister, Adie (suma mag - my big sister) and I share a twin bed in her room, which is covered with posters of Senegalese soccer stars and Michael Jordan. The whole family loves loves loves sports. They know all the world champions and teams and everything. They couldn't believe I didn't play or watch sports. Or TV, which they watch all the time.
Mon papa watches TV and listens to this transister radio at the same time, both very loudly. I'm getting used to going to sleep with a lot of noise from these, although my neighborhood is relatively quiet in comparison to other neighborhoods in Dakar. I also am fine sleeping in the heat now. The first night I barely slept at all, soaked (I mean really) in sweat and eaten by mosquitos. Imagine the hottest night this summer and add 5 or 10 degrees and the fact that electricity is very expensive so we have no fan and the screen is ripped so the windows are kept shut in the evening to cut down on the mosquitoes, which are nonetheless plentiful. Suck. Also the first night was a Thursday, which means people pray and sing all night long into a microphone in preparation for Friday, the Muslim holy day.
But now I'm okay, and I usually only wake up like once or twice and am not very uncomfortable when I do. The most annoying thing is mosquitos foretelling the end of the world (whining) in my ear at night. I haven't put up the mosquito net and I almost never wear the DEET, nor do I spray my clothes with permethrin. I'm more afraid of DEET problems/cancer than malaria, which you can treat. I'm covered in mosquito bites but whatever. Maybe I'll get immune after a few months.
Um, lets see. I actually don't live in Dakar, I live in a sort of suburb of Dakar (these are nothing like american suburbs) called Ouakam ([oh]wahkahm). everyday I walk from my house for about 3-10 minutes, depending, to take the transportation for about 15 to 25 minutes, then walk 15 minutes to whichever center I am going to (they are equi-distant from my stop). Sometimes it's a bus, 150 CFA, or these small rejected French bus imports called either the ndiange ndiaye or car rapide, both 75 CFA. The main difference between the small buses is that when I am going to class I can take either bus but when returning to Ouakam I have to take the car rapide cuz the other one doesn't go that far back. Where they go depends on business, there are a few main stops but they sort of circulate neighborhoods looking for business so you never know exactly how long the journey will be, usually about 10 minutes plus or minus difference.
Here I am known as a tuubab (twobob)which is a name for people with European heritage, which includes Spanish, Greek, etc. They say it's not derogatory but I'm not sure. Anyway, as a tuubab I have to be careful buying things cuz people know that I might not know what things cost and can tell me a price thats higher than a Senegalese would pay. Some things you bargain for and somethings have a set price, it just depends. But it doesnt really matter when I get ripped off because I make so much more money just because it is earned in the United States. In 1992 the CFA was devalued by the IMF/World Bank in an attempt to increase the export economy here, except that there isn't much of an export economy here (peanuts and thats about it) so basically everyone just got more poor than they already were and other countries can buy shit from Senegal for even cheaper. Before the devaluation 1 USD = about 300 CFA, now it's more like 1 USD = about 700 CFA. So everything essentially doubled in cost for the Senegalese. Super, huh?
What else...um, the power goes on and off all over the city sometimes, especially when it rains. The country just doesn't have the finance to improve the infrastructure, which was built in the 1950s (before independence in 1960) by the French, who wanted Senegal to be france extended so were pouring a lot of money into building infrastructure at the time. Luckily, in my house the water always works, but in many places there just isn't the water pressure at a constant level. I have to take a shower every single day, sometimes twice a day cuz it is fucking hot, and something I didn't expect, humid as shit as well. The smell I have in the States after 2-3 days of not showering in the middle of a heat wave I have here by mid-morning. Luckily I like the way I smell and I don't have to wait for 2 days to smell that way. Heh.
My classes are taught in both English and French, depending on the professor. I have 5 classes and I am auditing a 6th. I am also looking into taking drumming and dancing lessons, but not just yet cuz im still getting used to my schedule.
Yah...I am very well fed and the food is very tasty and nutritious. I can't spell... in fact my family tries to get me to eat and eat. When I have finished i say "j'ai bien mang�" or "soor na" (I have eaten well or I'm full) and they say "manges!" and "lekkel!" (eat!) and I have to say non, non, non mer�i! They explained that they want my mother to know that I was fed well here, and I should gain weight while visiting so that she will know I was taken care of. They say that is the Senegalese way, and now I am Senegalese so that's what I must do. I haven't yet explained that in the USA bodies are looked at differently and obesity is generally a sign of bad health rather than good nutrition.
Anyway. I don't really care either way. I eat until I'm full and that's all, and I have to be careful about the meat cuz my body is still getting used to it. The meat here is not factory farm, though. Other than the beef, which takes about a million years to chew and I try to avoid, I can eat the other meat like fish and chicken and its actually really good, except this one kind of fish that I don't like much in a national dish called ceeb jen. (Pronounced cheb jen) I have no idea how much I'm eating cuz we all eat from a huge plate in the middle of a circle. We sit on the floor, on a matt, to eat. It's actually really nice. I eat three meals a day, tea every morning, and hardly anything in between. Maybe a mango, which are soo soo good here. We have a mango tree in my courtyard.
Ok....the city is a mix of whitewashed cement houses that are really nice right next to so-called shanty or squatter towns built from aluminum and other scraps. The roads are bad or just dirt. There are piles of concrete and rocks and such laying about everywhere, everything is in a constant state of construction. Goats and cats and dogs and shorn sheep and even sometimes cattle and horses wander around. Someone owns them, but they dont have to stay in their "yard" people dont really have yards here though, just sandy dirt or sometimes an enclosed courtyard.
Okey... I think that is all for now. For those of you inclined to call (like my mom) remember that Senegal is 5 hours ahead of the USA. If you call between one and five pm in us time you will be calling between 6 and 10 pm Senegalese time, which is the time I am most likely to be there.
Days are up and down but start and finish up, except for the occasional malaria pill nightmares. On the whole im doing well. Lots of love, hug and kiss each other and drink a beer for me.
kelly
