Salaamaalekum!
I realize it's been a very long time since I've posted here, and I don't have too much time to write now but I put up some new photos and many of them have fairly long descriptions. Hopefully I'll have more time to write tomorrow.
http://nyu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225135&l=3496d&id=823921
jamm ak jamm!
mercredi 26 septembre 2007
mardi 4 septembre 2007
Sénégal
Salaamaalekum!
I've been in Dakar a little over two weeks now, and it's fantastic! The first week was spent mostly in orientation, which was interesting but there's not all that much to say about it. We stayed in a nice dorm just up the street from the school (the CIEE program is affiliated with Suffolk University's Dakar campus, which is a groovy blue and yellow building right next to the ocean in a neighborhood called Mermoz) and spent most of our free time just relaxing and getting to know the other Americans on the program and exploring the areas near school. The other students are from universities all over the country which is really fun, and most of them are pretty interesting and adventurous (as I guess they’d have to be to spend a semester in Senegal…)
After a week of that we moved into our host families. I am living in a neighborhood called Ouakam (pronounced “Wakaam”) that’s mostly residential and about a half hour bus ride north of downtown Dakar. It’s right next to the airport, about a fifteen minute walk from the ocean, and just below a hill topped by an awesome old lighthouse. There are 50 students in my program and 11 of them are living in Ouakam very close to me, the rest are mostly in Mermoz or another neighborhood closer to campus called Sacre Coeur III. I take the bus (called the "Dakar Dem Dikk") to school every day, which is usually crowded and hot, but fortunately Ouakam is the last stop on the line so I usually get a seat. If you’re interested in knowing EXACTLY where I’m living, go to google earth and type in these coordinates, the x should be exactly over my house:
14°43′47.57″N, 17°29′34.71″W
My family is great. I have a host brother named Pape who just turned 19 a couple of days ago and is really into soccer and who speaks super quietly so I usually can’t hear what he’s saying so I say “what?” and then he tries to say it in English but he’s still talking really quietly and his English isn’t very good anyway so I’m not sure what’s going on about half the time. Actually that’s been my experience in the host family in general, half the time I have no idea what’s happening. But it’s fun, and Pape’s really friendly and he’s taken me to a lot of cool beaches and places he and helps me out with my Wolof and I help him with English (by which I mean I teach him things like the distinction between “beach” and “bitch” and important words like “pimp”). He was asking me about New York the other day and was very surprised to learn that the streets there are not covered in sand. He asked where the sand was and I told him there just wasn’t any, except maybe in some of the parks and at the beach.
My host mother is also very nice and hard to understand, and spends most of the day cooking or sweeping or watching TV. Although she cooks for us she never eats with us, meals are always all-male events at our house. Usually the food comes out on one huge plate that sits on the floor, and we sit in a circle around it on 8-inch high stools and eat with spoons. It was a little awkward at first but I'm getting used to it. The food itself is good but not very varied, I’ve been eating a lot of rice and fish and potatoes and oil and I haven’t seen a green vegetable since I’ve been here. However the fruit is great, and mangos are in season and they’re delicious and cheap and I buy them a lot. For breakfast I eat bread, chocolate, and instant coffee with instant milk, which seems to be the standard breakfast in these parts.
I think I also have two (or maybe three?) other brothers, Ahmed and another Pape (but with a different last name, so I guess he’s not really a brother, but he lives in the house… like I said I don't know what's going on half the time) and another guy whose name I’ve never quite figured out. The dad lives 30km east of Dakar most of the time because he’s building a school for engineers there, though he’s been home for the past few days. He used to work in power supply and is the only family member who has ever left the country. He’s been to Paris twice and I asked him what he thought of it and he said it’s beautiful but French people are so racist that he never wants to go back. Also it seems that every guy in the neighborhood between the ages of 18 and 30 hangs out either in our living room or in the photo studio that is attached to our house.
The TV is ALWAYS on, which I think is part of the reason I have trouble understanding people because they’re always talking over (or, more accurately, under) the noise of whatever dubbed Mexican soap opera or American movie is playing. The TV gets more exciting at night when we either watch bad horror movies or the 99 names of God being recited or, my favorite, relaxing images of waterfalls and flowers with a narrator repeating “Alxamdulilaay” (“thanks be to God”) over and over in a slow, deep, dramatic voice. My family is Muslim (as is 95% of the country) and Ramadan starts in less than two weeks, I’m excited to see how things change then.
Speaking of Islam, I’m taking a class here on the history of Islam in Senegal. The professor is great, very dynamic and engaging, in great contrast to my French teacher who is pretty much the opposite. I’m also taking Wolof, a class on Senegalese culture and society, and a class on colonization and decolonization, with a focus on Senegambia. All of my classes are in French, except the colonization class. Wolof is really fun, and much easier than Arabic and I think easier than French too, despite how completely different it is from any of the languages I know.
I’m settling into life here, it’s very different and challenging but really fun. I’ve already had my wallet stolen, been attacked by mosquitoes and terrible allergies and many irregular bowel movements, but I’ve also heard some great live music, spent hours body-surfing in the warm Atlantic, and watched the sun set from the absolute western-most point of the African continent. It’s beautiful and hot and dirty and the power keeps going out and I love it.
Ba beneen yoon!
P.S. I finally got picture from Paris online, here's the link:
http://nyu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2213734&l=13269&id=823921
I've been in Dakar a little over two weeks now, and it's fantastic! The first week was spent mostly in orientation, which was interesting but there's not all that much to say about it. We stayed in a nice dorm just up the street from the school (the CIEE program is affiliated with Suffolk University's Dakar campus, which is a groovy blue and yellow building right next to the ocean in a neighborhood called Mermoz) and spent most of our free time just relaxing and getting to know the other Americans on the program and exploring the areas near school. The other students are from universities all over the country which is really fun, and most of them are pretty interesting and adventurous (as I guess they’d have to be to spend a semester in Senegal…)
After a week of that we moved into our host families. I am living in a neighborhood called Ouakam (pronounced “Wakaam”) that’s mostly residential and about a half hour bus ride north of downtown Dakar. It’s right next to the airport, about a fifteen minute walk from the ocean, and just below a hill topped by an awesome old lighthouse. There are 50 students in my program and 11 of them are living in Ouakam very close to me, the rest are mostly in Mermoz or another neighborhood closer to campus called Sacre Coeur III. I take the bus (called the "Dakar Dem Dikk") to school every day, which is usually crowded and hot, but fortunately Ouakam is the last stop on the line so I usually get a seat. If you’re interested in knowing EXACTLY where I’m living, go to google earth and type in these coordinates, the x should be exactly over my house:
14°43′47.57″N, 17°29′34.71″W
My family is great. I have a host brother named Pape who just turned 19 a couple of days ago and is really into soccer and who speaks super quietly so I usually can’t hear what he’s saying so I say “what?” and then he tries to say it in English but he’s still talking really quietly and his English isn’t very good anyway so I’m not sure what’s going on about half the time. Actually that’s been my experience in the host family in general, half the time I have no idea what’s happening. But it’s fun, and Pape’s really friendly and he’s taken me to a lot of cool beaches and places he and helps me out with my Wolof and I help him with English (by which I mean I teach him things like the distinction between “beach” and “bitch” and important words like “pimp”). He was asking me about New York the other day and was very surprised to learn that the streets there are not covered in sand. He asked where the sand was and I told him there just wasn’t any, except maybe in some of the parks and at the beach.
My host mother is also very nice and hard to understand, and spends most of the day cooking or sweeping or watching TV. Although she cooks for us she never eats with us, meals are always all-male events at our house. Usually the food comes out on one huge plate that sits on the floor, and we sit in a circle around it on 8-inch high stools and eat with spoons. It was a little awkward at first but I'm getting used to it. The food itself is good but not very varied, I’ve been eating a lot of rice and fish and potatoes and oil and I haven’t seen a green vegetable since I’ve been here. However the fruit is great, and mangos are in season and they’re delicious and cheap and I buy them a lot. For breakfast I eat bread, chocolate, and instant coffee with instant milk, which seems to be the standard breakfast in these parts.
I think I also have two (or maybe three?) other brothers, Ahmed and another Pape (but with a different last name, so I guess he’s not really a brother, but he lives in the house… like I said I don't know what's going on half the time) and another guy whose name I’ve never quite figured out. The dad lives 30km east of Dakar most of the time because he’s building a school for engineers there, though he’s been home for the past few days. He used to work in power supply and is the only family member who has ever left the country. He’s been to Paris twice and I asked him what he thought of it and he said it’s beautiful but French people are so racist that he never wants to go back. Also it seems that every guy in the neighborhood between the ages of 18 and 30 hangs out either in our living room or in the photo studio that is attached to our house.
The TV is ALWAYS on, which I think is part of the reason I have trouble understanding people because they’re always talking over (or, more accurately, under) the noise of whatever dubbed Mexican soap opera or American movie is playing. The TV gets more exciting at night when we either watch bad horror movies or the 99 names of God being recited or, my favorite, relaxing images of waterfalls and flowers with a narrator repeating “Alxamdulilaay” (“thanks be to God”) over and over in a slow, deep, dramatic voice. My family is Muslim (as is 95% of the country) and Ramadan starts in less than two weeks, I’m excited to see how things change then.
Speaking of Islam, I’m taking a class here on the history of Islam in Senegal. The professor is great, very dynamic and engaging, in great contrast to my French teacher who is pretty much the opposite. I’m also taking Wolof, a class on Senegalese culture and society, and a class on colonization and decolonization, with a focus on Senegambia. All of my classes are in French, except the colonization class. Wolof is really fun, and much easier than Arabic and I think easier than French too, despite how completely different it is from any of the languages I know.
I’m settling into life here, it’s very different and challenging but really fun. I’ve already had my wallet stolen, been attacked by mosquitoes and terrible allergies and many irregular bowel movements, but I’ve also heard some great live music, spent hours body-surfing in the warm Atlantic, and watched the sun set from the absolute western-most point of the African continent. It’s beautiful and hot and dirty and the power keeps going out and I love it.
Ba beneen yoon!
P.S. I finally got picture from Paris online, here's the link:
http://nyu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2213734&l=13269&id=823921
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