I’m writing this on a word document because the internet is down… again. Oh yeah, and I need to be able to save what I write because the power goes out like every 10 minutes and so I need to be able to save frequently. By the end of this entry, I will have to have restarted my computer probably 3-4 times. Haha – oh, Senegal.
Last night I witnessed this really interesting religious celebration. The biayfalls of the community like to gather on Thursday nights to sing, dance, and play drums. Moussou and I went to witness this drum circle. It was really intense! There’s a guy in the middle of the circle singing into a mike (often the spiritual leader of the group). He is chanting, and everyone else is chanting back. At the same time, there are about 4 drums (tamtams, djembes) being played very loudly. Everyone is gathered around the singer in a very dense circle. At the outskirts will be dancers dancing around and around the circle. I can’t imagine being in the middle – it would be SO loud!
But it was a really cool experience. I was in a town called Patte Doix, about 15 minutes away from my home. When Moussou and I got back to Mermoz, I thought I could still hear the chanting in my head, but in reality, there was another biayfall group in Mermoz doing the exact same thing. It was cool to know that I was part of this large gathering. And even though the songs were solely about God’s greatness, it didn’t bother me in the slightest because I couldn’t understand the Wolof/Arabic they were singing.
So my family, happily, thinks I am gaining weight. And they have no problem telling me either. A few nights ago, as I was sitting around the dinner table with them after a hearty meal, they first mentioned that I was getting chubbier. I was rather insulted, and actually told them that if that was the case, I wasn’t going to eat anymore (of course I was not being serious). But then the next night, before dinner, they started puffing out their cheeks at me and rubbing their bellies… I know that to them, this is a compliment and means they’re taking good care of me, but how rude and tactless! Futhermore, it’s not even true (I’ve stared at myself in the mirror since, and actually think I am losing weight, not gaining it). But, I was so insulted that I didn’t feel like eating with them, and so I went with Moussou and bought fruit and went on a walk instead. While we were on our walk, I decided that I was really enjoying walking at night (when the temperature is actually comfortable), so I think I am going to make an effort to walk after dinner as much as possible. Plus, we eat so late that I think the walk would help me digest a little bit…
People here in general have a great hatred of the French. I think a little bit of it is unfair, but in general I understand that the Senegalese would have some sort of animosity toward their colonizers. This hatred of the French, though, contributes to their lack of desire to speak the French language, and their great excitement upon seeing a toubab (Wolof for white person) try to speak Wolof. What I don’t understand is why, with their great hatred of anything related to their colonization, they have so embraced the religions of colonization, namely, Islam and Christianity. Here, religion is so much at the center of society, yet the religions practiced are not even native to their country. Even though the Senegalese want to reject anything colonial, they are thoroughly (and willingly, since religion is something practiced by choice) products of colonialization.
I think pretty much everyone in our study abroad group has gotten sick at this point. This is perfectly normal, but what I don’t think is normal is how much ENERGY it takes to subsist here. Between the heat and the fact that we are eating nothing but simply carbohydrates, I think pretty much all of us are tired almost all the time. I still get by, but I could ALWAYS sleep, and class in really hard to sit through. Furthermore, we have to drink SO much water to stay hydrated here – I am pretty much always drinking water, and I’m still peeing a lot less than back home. African people sure have it rough.
While I’m thinking about school, I should tell you that classes here are pretty awful. I need like 2 cans of diet coke to keep me awake in class. The subject material could be interesting, but the way it is presented just sucks the life right out of it. I guess I have been spoiled at LFC… But honestly, it is going to be a rough semester academically. French is brutal. The teacher speaks so slowly and writes on the board even slower. She spends an hour explaining a 2 page text, because she defines almost every single word, as though we are learning the language for the first time. Senegalese Society and Culture has started out badly too (though not as badly), because the teacher is not an interesting lecturer, and the material is just so basic. That one, at least, has the potential for improvement. As does my politics class (but only because we’ve only had 45 minutes of class so far – but those 45 minutes were pretty brutal too). The internship is frustrating – I really don’t know if I’m going to do an environmental internship or not just because it seems that any environmental internship I would do would just be self serving because I would simply be conducting interviews and doing personal research as opposed to helping this community. I’m going to think it over for the weekend, but I may just decide to do something completely unrelated, like work at an orphanage, holding and feeding babies. At least that would feel meaningful.
So I guess the only good class is my Wolof class. At least I am learning something the whole time, and what I am learning is practical (at least for the next 4 months). Furthermore, it is interactive – we are always practicing pronunciation and conversations that we’re learning, and so it keeps us all awake and alive. Too bad that is the class that is only 1.5 hours, whereas all the others are 2 whole hours (with no break!!!!). It’s a good thing I didn’t come here for the formal education. But it makes me feel bad for Senegalese students who try to educate themselves here. No wonder so many of them fail/drop out – they probably can’t stay awake in class! It says something about the philosophy of teaching here, that’s for sure.
Biayfall chants
