so. im in dakar again, and, inchallah (godwilling) that is where i will be for the rest of the year. let me explain. my internship in kerr momar sarr (kms) lasted a little short of 4 weeks. kms is very hot (as in about 100 degrees daily, although it cools to about 70 at night) and very dry (basically desert)and because there is a river-fed artificial lake (complete with reeds and tall white water birds, a landscape i found very odd in contrast with the sand and thorny treesshrubthings everywhere else) there it is very mosquito-y. there are about 1200 people there, this includes all the little villages in the area. its interesting because the area was heavily manipulated and hundreds of kilometers of piping were laid in order to provide running water for the cities of dakar and st. louis, and also in order to start the experimental drip irrigation farm (i'll get into that in a minute) yet the people that live there have no running water. its actually not really that big of a deal, we could still get clean and shit and cook and do all the things that you do with running water. i've read about this sort of thing (landscapes being manipulated in a way that doesnt at all help the people that actually live there) a lot, it was interesting living in it. there was electricity, which i suppose is cheaper and of higher importance to set up than plumbing. most houses didnt have phones (mine didnt); but that didnt matter that much because the telephone lines dont work very often anyway. there were telecenters, but definitely no cybercafes, and no post office. i think people have to drive or hitch to louga, a town about 70 km away, to get mail.
i stayed with a nice young couple who had two children, both very young. a little boy, jibi, just turned 3 this past week; and a little girl, mami, 6 years old, with whom i shared a bed. the house had 2 bedrooms, a living/dining room, a teeny kitchen and a teenier "bathroom" (really just for washing up). the yard, like everywhere, was sand. there was a chicken shed (i ended up sleeping in it the last couple of days, i'll get to that in a minute as well, a sheep pen, and an outhouse in the yard.
the village was very community-like. by this i mean that there were people that ate with us and chilled with us every night but were not part of the family, and people would come and get food from the house every night and in the morning children would come and eat whatever hadnt been eaten the night before. any extra food, bread, or cardboard was fed to the sheep; like a compost heap that you can later kill and eat in a more direct sense. we also made attaya (a tea that is popular here) every night and sent fresh cups of it to neighbors who also sent us fresh cups of what they made.
the population was odd. kerr momar sarr seemed to consist entirely of 30 something people, chilren, and elderly. i saw hardly anyone who was likely between 15 and 25 and hardly anyone between 40 and 60. there werent very many elderly; either - probably due to the difficulty of life and lack of medical infrastructure/personal finance. this meant that i didnt really have anyone to relate to in the specific way that one relates to people your own age group; never having been in a situation where i didnt, i didnt realize until now that this is important to me. basically everyone was at least ten years older or younger than i was; which meant i either had to keep distance and show respect or watch over someone.
...yikes. i am really tired so i am going to leave this cafe. ( i was up dancing until like 6 am last night and only slept until about 11 this morning and its about 11pm now) i will finish this mess in a few days
