I love this whole Teranga thing

Here are some pictures of what I have been doing lately! :)



I had my friend stand in this picture so it didn't look like I was just taking a picture of the street, but that was indeed my intention with this photo! This is a typical street scene in the neighborhood near Suffolk University. If you look closely you can see the fruit stands and boutiques on the other side of the street, and a more American-looking building in the background. You can see how there are no paved sidewalks-- this one is made of sand but others are more rocky or stony.

Here are some pictures of Suffolk-- this is the "quad" where a lot of us hang out in between classes. I think I will get used to the palm trees very soon... :)

Here is the view from my seat in my classroom.

The blue on the horizon is what you think it is-- the Atlantic Ocean!

I am doing very well in my host family's house right now, I truly cannot think of a better family to have, I am so lucky! I have gotten close to Mimi, my sister, she took me to her high school last saturday and it was interesting to see a private high school here in Senegal. I will talk more later about comparing it with my American high school experience, there are so many similarities it is just crazy. But more about my family: Rose and Dam are so sweet, they teach me a lot of Wolof-- I think they like playing teacher for someone that is older than them! We have Wolof versions of "head shoulders knees and toes" and count numbers together, we like to race and see who can do it fastest! My brothers Habib and Issa are great too, they are your typical protective brothers which is awesome. One night at dinner the issue of Senegalese guys asking for my phone number came up (which is typical in Senegal, don't worry, every girl in our group has already had to deal with this), Habib piped up that I should definitely not give my number out to one of Mimi's friends that wanted it. He's a good brother with good advice!

Since polygamy is present here in Senegal to an extent, I think I am going to break the norm. I have decided that my excuse for not giving out my phone number is that I have multiple husbands at home in the US. :)

I have also gotten to know Sallie, one of the maids, pretty well, she is teaching me some of the Serer language, which is her ethnic group. My mother, Mama, is very sweet as well, she and everyone in the household are so incredibly thoughtful and embody "teranga" to the extreme. "Teranga" is the Wolof word for hospitality and care for others. It is a giving mindset that doesn't expect anything in return, and it is a prized personal quality here in Senegal that I have seen in a lot of my encounters with the Senegalese already. It is based on an assumption that parents will take strangers in and care for them as they would want their children to be taken in in a similar situation elsewhere. It is based on a trust that you take care of others when you can, and others will take care of you when you need it. I love teranga and want to embody that kind of hospitality myself!

The Sows (pronounced like "so" in English) are there for my every need and are very relaxed about having a foreign exchange student in their house.

Language, however, is still an issue. My entire family speaks Wolof so I can't contribute to the conversation at meals-- at least not yet! I know someone is speaking to me when they speak in French. Even when I speak French, it is still at times very frustrating. Especially up until a few days ago, I was feeling how incredibly hard it is to speak when I talk to someone and they have this confused, blank look on their face before I even finish the sentence. Thankfully this has gotten better, but wow I realize that language is so important. When you can't speak with someone it is SOOO frustrating, I feel like I can't fully be myself or connect with my family since I can't fully express myself. Not only is a new language hard, but there is also the Senegalese accent that I am not fully used to, whick makes it hard. My difficulties, though, motivate me to work hard, and I am determined to get better!

I need to go to anthropology class now, ba beneen yoon! (Until next time!) :)

Life!

Whew! It seems like a long time since I have written on here, so much has happened and there is no way I can talk about it in just one post!

My most recent activity has been moving in with my family. I really like them a lot, our interactions have been going very well and I think will only continue to get better. Guess how many people are living in their house? 12! And I am number 13! It is crazy having so many people around (especially when memorizing names), but I love it at the same time. "Mama" and "Pape" are mom and dad, and here is everyone else in the nuclear family: Mimi, my 17 year-old sister; Rose, my 8 year-old sister; Abib, my 19 year-old brother; and Issa, the 21 year-old brother. Then my mother's sister is living with us, along with her son (my cousin), Dam, who is 11. There is another girl, Mama, and I am not sure exactly how she is related, she might be a cousin?? Then there is Bijou, my 22 year old cousin, who studies at the big university in Dakar. Then there are also 2 maids that live in our house. That makes 13!

I need to go to class, I will really try to upload pictures next time!

Ma premiere adventure Africain!

Now all of the students on my program have arrived and it has been a lot of fun meeting them, all of them go to American colleges. We are all living together in a hotel right now but will be moving in with host families on friday. I am both scared and excited!!

Yesterday we had some time to explore Dakar a bit, and I would definitely not hesitate to call it an adventure. I was in a group with my friends from my program: Seth, Cameron, and Anish, and we decided to wander around and visit Dakar's biggest university-- Universite Cheikh Anta Diop. (We won't be having classes there, when we have class we will be joining the students at Suffolk University which I learned today is the only private American college in all of West Africa.) At any rate, as we were walking to the university, Seth needed a bottle of water. So we went into this gas station and the security guard came up to us. I thought he thought we were stealing something, but no, he just wanted to talk with us! His name was Bouba and he ended up talking with us for maybe 45 minutes, right there in the middle of the food aisles in the convenience store, it was awesome! He taught us some Wolof (or at least tried to, actually it was hilarious for both him and us when we struggled with pronounciation). He also christened us with Senegalese names (unfortunately I don't have much of an ear yet for Senegalese names so I don't remember mine). We also talked about Acon and some other famous Senegalese artists and athletes which was interesting. By this time some of his friends had already entered the store and he introduced us to them as well. By the end, he had given us his work schedule, given us his number, and had suggested that we all go dancing mbalax together. (Mbalax, pronounced "mblaK" is THE dance of Senegal). Not to worry-- we won't be calling him or getting together with him, but if we ever come back to that gas station we have a friend!!

So we continued to walk to the big university, and when we got there we watched part of a soccer game. It is interesting-- there were no other women in the stadium that we could identify except for Cameron and me. Wow. As we approached the stadium, apparently we caught someone's eye because the entire row of people watching the game turned around to look at us, and we were still a long way behind them and hadn't made any noise to attract attention. It will be interesting as I am here for the semester to learn exactly how much we stand out to other people. I feel that my western clothes stand out a lot, as well as my skin color and gender-- but I don't know how that is coming off to others.

I need to go, next time I will try to add pictures because I know those are interesting.

Ba beneen yoon! ("until next time" in Wolof)

So this is what it's like to have jet lag

Salut! Ca va?
I am here in Senegal now! My arrival was great, I chatted with people from South Africa on both of my flights and in the Atlanta airport I met a family from Dakar. The family from Dakar taught me some more Wolof, too!

When I arrived in Dakar, I was able to speak English with the program directors and very much enjoyed watching people from my hotel window, I sat there for about an hour! I arrived on friday, which is the Muslim holy day, so everyone was incredibly dressed up in boubous-- gorgeous brightly-colored outfits! At that time, I was pretty much loving Senegal and was so incredibly glad to be here.

But... now that I have actually been walking around on the streets with Sarah and Seth (the other students that have arrived so far), my presence as a foreigner is definitely weighing on me. Sarah, Seth and I have been speaking French as we walk around on the street. Even speaking with them I get so frustrated with my French. I really want to speak better! Last night Sarah and I were directed to dinner, and I could not understand the man who was walking us to dinner, and I felt horrible asking him to repeat several times. The accent that the Senegalese have is also really hard to understand, although it isn't impossible. As for my Wolof-- I know pat phrases but I don't know exactly how to use them in conversation. Classroom and textbook knowledge only goes so far and is making me really frustrated right now. Here I can't be polite and respectful to people because I don't know how to be polite and that is really hard for me. I am also really scared to make mistakes when speaking. But, I keep telling myself that if I didn't have difficulties here in the beginning of the program, I wouldn't be able to see a change in myself by the end of the semester. I will become more comfortable as I spend more time here.

Here I am on my first day, here I am on the roof of the hotel (it is common for people to go on the roof, especially for drying laundry). YAY for being in Senegal!!!!



I really like Sarah and Seth-- Sarah is from St. Olaf and grew up in Tanzania and Seth is from Washington. See below our three-person family. This is what it is like to have jet lag! I was wide awake this afternoon, but as you can see I was the only one feeling this way!


We were up on the roof of our hotel looking at the view. Here are some children that let me take their picture! They look sweet now but earlier they were tackling each other.

Here is another funny view from the roof, exercise equipment!
And here is the mosque, we can hear the call to prayer from our room!

I have so much more to write about, I will write next time I can get to a computer!

If you could go anywhere in Africa, where would you go?

I think you know where in Africa I would choose :) 

I leave for Senegal in about a week! Here are some facts about this fine country in West Africa:

Capital: Dakar, Senegal (metro area pop.: 2.5 million)

Population of the country: 12.4 million

Languages: French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, Mandinka

Voting: Everyone over the age of 18 can vote

Religions: Muslim 94%, Christian 5%, indigenous beliefs 1%

Main exports: fish, peanuts, petroleum products, phosphates, cotton

My brief summary of their political history: 

Senegal achieved independence from France on April 4, 1960 (they were previously a French colony). Leopold Senghor becomes the country's first president at this time. In 1981, Abdou Diouf succeeds him-- both of these presidents were part of a socialist party. Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's current president, gained power in 2000. He began the Senegalese Democratic Party. The BBC states that "Senegal has been held up as one of Africa's model democracies."

Since AIDS in Africa is something of interest here are some stats. Thankfully Senegal's numbers are extremely low:

-According to USAID, about 0.7% of the Senegalese population (children and adults) were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in Senegal at the end of 2003.

-To compare, the CDC says that about 0.4% of the United States population (children and adults) were living with HIV/AIDS  at the end of 2003 (CDC and US census).

-1.5% was the adult HIV prevalence rate in Senegal (end of 2003) (USAID).

(Information collected from BBC site, CIA site, Wikipedia, USAID, CDC, US census, and my percentage calculations based on their data.)

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I will be staying with a host family in Dakar, which is right on the coast! Here is a better picture of the country: