Second Week of Senegal River Valley

(internet does exist in Richard Toll.... at the USAID office.. if anyone was wondering)

Day 6 (Saturday) We are not in Senegal: We left at 9am for a wildlife reserve. We got to see huge tortoises, monkeys and gazelles. We then got two pirogues and went on an hour ride on the river to a private beach. And now I'm going to just show you pictures because words can't describe how beautiful it was. AND, Uncle Bob would kill these guys if he knew how many safety violations there were on the water. Also, a thanks goes out to my wonderful mom, again, for buying me the best camera in the world (in my opinion)! 

Eating crepes at a hotel with a pool and beach... yes, we live hard lives

Day 7 Le barrage: We left St. Louis today and headed back to Richard Toll. On the way back, we saw the dam the separates the ocean and the river. It controls the water level of the river. Very cool. We also got to walk into Mauritania for a short period of time. Can you imagine coming from Mexico or Canada and simply asking the US police: “Hey, can my students just hang out for a little bit and buy something in the US, just so they can say they’ve been there?” Hah! I think not. So I bought some beautiful purple (of course) fabric with Meredith from Mauritania. Awesome, right? So then we headed back to our home in Richard Toll. We had planned to just tell the family we ate already, but of course the family waited for us (it was 10pm). So our stomachs exploded, once again.

Day 8- la cremerie: Yes, we visited a creamery and a Pular village. The creamery was really interesting because they actually get milk from locals who follow free-roaming cows. Then the locals bring in the milk and they’re paid accordingly. Doesn’t this sound better than the US creameries? HECK YES!! The only problem right now is that it is hardly sustainable because the transportation costs of bringing the milk to the creamery outweigh the payment for the milk itself. So, they’re working on it. Then we went to a Pular village (My family is Pular!) in BFE. When most Americans think of Africa… this is what they imagine. Everyone was so excited to see us. The people were sooo hospitable… Teranga to the max. We had someone translate while we asked questions about village life. Really interesting. The most interesting thing for me was that the women normally collect the water and it takes two days to go to the water source and back. Such a fascinating way to live. When we got back to our house at 4pm, our papa saved, of course, a TON of food for us. Aya and I then went to the market in the evening. I went on a shopping-spree and spent about $15!! The prices here are just unfair. I got 7 scarves for $2 and three types of fabric for $13.50…. lord did I splurge. 

Quintessential Africa picture... They were still really cute.

3 days old!

Still more adventures to come from Richard Toll....

Peace and Love,

Alyssa

First Week of Senegal River Valley Course

Day 1- My brother is dead:

9 hour car ride to Richard Toll. Found out my brother, Mousa, died… wish I was home with my family. We arrived at this cute hotel with toilet paper and our own bed!

Day 2 –We are in Africa:

Woke up and didn’t want to move. Our prof said we might want to change our shoes because we’re going to walking through mud a lot. We later found out that we’d be walking 2 miles barefoot in ankle deep mud to the rice patty. Oh… and then we’d be walking another couple miles through the rice patty (many times with mud up to our knees) to see the two pumps and the house of the workers. Everything our doctors told us not to do… we did. We had no water, no sunscreen, we walked in miles of wading water, and without no shoes (many got cuts and we couldn’t wash them out). On a lighter note, it was awesome to be in the middle of nowhere and see how the Senegal River affects the farms. The life was a bit incomprehensible for us but incredibly interesting. This all was really really awesome until we started getting really dehydrated and realized we wouldn’t be having water for a couple hours. We finally told our prof that we should go back and we thought we’d never make it back. When we finally reached the van 2 hours later, we chugged.. I mean CHUGGED… tons of water and put on the AC. You would of thought we didn’t have water for days. We got back to the hotel and had to take a shower because we all had at least an inch of mud caked onto our feet.

Met the family and got food shoved down our throats. I ate 2 fish and 3 pieces of bread with onions and French fries. Oh load. Oh yeah, and my dad asked me why I didn't eat too. We sleep in their living room so it’s a bit awkward at times. We have 2 sisters and a brother. One sister is really shy and the other is a sass.

Workers at the Pump

Dancing with sis

Day 3 – Dad’s bein’ a butthead: 7am wakeup call!! Didn’t have to get up until 9:30am. Visited the Diagam (large pump) and the neighborhood surrounding it. Got to see Mauritania and the Senegal River. Went home for lunch and had lots of problems with the family. My dad started talking behind my back to Aya and my problems with not eating enough. Her and I both agreed that we eat the same and more than our dad. Then I was trying to rest, and my sister kept waking me up every 10 minutes. If anyone knows anything about me, it is that I don’t like to be woken up when I don’t have to. So I was incredibly cranky. We debriefed at the hotel with Prof. Thoup and then Aya and I were not excited to go home. Dad still was bugging me about dinner, but I just decided to be rude if he’s being rude to me. We then made attaya for the family and danced with the kids… They love Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. We also taught them some essential American dances like the Chicken Dance, Cotton Aye Joe, Macorina, Hussel, Cupid Shuffle and Thriller (I know Ariana and Pierre will be proud). We then kicked them out of their living room with the intention of going to bed, but we didn’t go to bed for a couple hours. 

Bubble blowing contest

Day 4 - SUGAR: Visited sugar factory and sugar cane fields. Got to eat real sugar cane… soooo goood. Then visited an old colonial home. We then went back to our homes for the rest of the day. We ate lunch with this kid that started crying hysterically when he saw Aya and I (Tubabs). It was really heartbreaking for us. But the lunch was good, only Aya and I made a mess. It takes skill to eat with only your right hand. We then hung around in our room (aka the living room) while our sister sat on top of us for a couple hours. We decided that we felt crowded so we met Erica and Theresa downtown. We drew sooo much attention, which was annoying, but Aya found some nice clothes and doubled her wardrobe for about 6 bucks. I found another pagne for $3… everything is sooo much cheaper outside of Dakar. We then bought some fruit for the family and some guy said it was first time seeing a white girl so he gave me his bracelet (total BS considering he then tried to get my name and digits… ah les hommes senegalais). The family was very excited about their fruit and then gave us goblets of this kinda rice pudding stuff. It was good, but I just couldn’t eat that much. Not to mention, everyone else had little cups… waaay less than what Aya and I had. Aya was a trooper and took some of my food. God love her. We then putzed around until the electricity went out. Our sister said we should sleep upstairs. We will never sleep in our room again. It was surreal. 

Day 5 – Neocolonialism!!: We spent the morning at a fish farm, which was so cool. We then had lunch at the hotel and headed to St. Louis for the weekend. On the way, we stopped at this farm owned by a jerk of a Frenchman. He had no interest in talking to us, and exports all his produce to England… while exploiting the Senegalese land and labor. Needless to say, us liberal arts students were pissed to the max when we pulled away. Even the Senegalese students in the car called it slavery. Our Prof chewed him out indirectly though, which calmed us down. We then arrived in St. Louis and our hotel is soooo cute. I’m rooming with Sarah, the girl from Bylote, and we have toilet paper and AC! We living in heaven. We then had the best dinner right on the river. Absolutely gorgeous. It is clear that this is a French tourist location, and we all going through a bit of culture shock. It helps that we have to be here for class, so we have an excuse. 

So far, there's been so much to do that I haven't been able to think about anything else but Senegal River Valley. It's mostly a good thing. 

Feeling so lucky to have this opportunity.... 

Alyssa

My brother has passed...

The weekend was going well until I found out that my "brother," Moussa, is probably doing to die. I finally found out what's going on too. It's a cerebral hemorrhage and possible embolism (I apologize to any doctors or health care lawyers reading this). We were supposed to go to St. Louis at 8am Sunday morning, but it ended up being postponed until Monday. I found out the Moussa is actually my Tonton's (uncle) son and he was the one taking us to St. Louis. Just as we were ready to leave, my mom came to my room crying and said that Moussa is too sick. I started to panic and told my friends. I tried to ask the maid what was going on, but all she did was put a scarf over her head in the salon and cry. My brother, Andrew, figured out that Moussa wasn't dead, but anything could happen. People were then sitting in my house all day praying and reading from the Koran. Everyone was incredibly stoic though. I tried to go out, but failed and decided I'd rather be at home. My mom and I sat and cried together for awhile and I bought the family some oranges. This whole time, everyone keeps saying to me: "Moussa is just tired." No one will admit that he's dying, which I understand. So I spent the day trying to help my family and mostly just holding my mom's hand.

I didn't get much sleep, but we left for St. Louis around 1pm (we were supposed to leave at 11am) with Prof Thoup, who is best friends with my Tonton. My assured me that I would be informed if anything happened. Well, about a couple hours or so into the trip, Andrew called to say that Moussa had passed. One of the worst places to be when you found out your brother died is on a bus for 9 hours. So, I missed the funeral and time with my family. I tried to go back, but our director said that would be inappropriate, which I have hard feelings about...

My brother has passed, but I still have wonderful memories with him that I'd like to share:
1. How long have you been speaking french?: This was the ice breaker between us. I asked my mom on the Saturday in Dakar if there were plugs in my room and she said: "yes!" I ended up finding them, but my mom was still concerned that I didn't know where they were. So, while I was sleeping Moussa came into my room and started speaking in French and my comprehension was next to nothing because he had woken me up. Not to mention I was in shorts, so he basically saw me naked and we were both really uncomfortable. But, he kept asking me questions in French and I kept not understanding. Finally after 5 minutes of immense awkwardness, he said: "How long have you been speaking French?" IN ENGLISH! I felt so embarrassed that I spent the day reading my French-English Dictionary and later after dinner I told him how embarrassed it made me feel. He instantly felt bad that he made me feel that way and said that it was completely normal for me to not understand him. He also apologize for walking in on me. Then we spent the night talking in the living room and it was the first time I felt at home.
2. ATTAYA (Senegalese tea... more like mostly sugar and a little tea): So everyone has host brothers close to their age that teach them how to make attaya and I find myself mooching off of everyone for Attaya. This is okay, except I never learned how to make attaya. So, the week before Moussa went in to the hospital, I asked him to teach me how to make Attaya. I kept bugging him and he finally agreed. We went up on the top terrasse, next to his room, and he had me make attaya. It was awesome because he barely helped even though I was clearly screwing up and he simply told me: "Keep going, don't worry." We then drank attaya under the stars with Andrew, Erica, Katy and Hannah, and talked until late into the night.
3. Music: Moussa is the only Senegalese who doesn't like rap/hip-hop. We spent one night listening to the blues and jazz on his computer. He has awesome taste...
4. French compliment!: One night we were talking in my courtyard, as usual, and he said that he was impressed with my French!... It was one of my best moments so far on Study Abroad. I got a compliment on my French!
5. Alyssa! I'm your brother!: There was one night where I was introducing him to a bunch of my friends and I didn't know exactly how he was related to me, so I said "And this is.... Moussa you are my...." And he replied: "Alyssa! I'm your brother!"
6. Door isn't locked!: One time I was going out with my friends and Moussa came to find me because my door wasn't locked. He made me go lock my door, which in fact it was locked. So I told him that and he said: "You have to turn the key twice, not once for it to be fully locked." WHAT? How did he know that I only turned my key once? He's always watching out for me...
7. Classes: We used to have talks when I came home from school. I would talk about what I learned in school and he'd tell me about work. One day, he told me that he didn't think the classes at the Boabab Center were worth it. I laughed and asked him: "why?" All he could say is that we should have to learn all that in a classroom and time was better spent outside the classroom. Well said.
8. TOUR!: After three weeks of being in Senegal, Moussa told me that I could bring friends into the house and hang out on the terrasse. I politely said that I hadn't gone past the first floor of the house. He was astonished and gave me a tour of the entire house. He even showed me all the bathrooms. It was hilarious.

9. Waxalay with Taxi men: So I asked Moussa how to negotiate with the taxi men. He bluntly told me to just say the price and if the taxi man doesn't agree, shoo them away. I told them that it was more difficult for Tubabs. He said: "It doesn't matter. Just say the price and that's that. If the taxi man doesn't agree with you, then he isn't a good taxi man." And that was that...
10. Disney: One night we watched the Disney Channel with our younger brothers. We finally looked at each other and could not stop laughing. Like most Disney shows, it was absolutely ridiculous and we bonded over how stupid the show was and how serious the boys were taking it.

Hope this gives you a taste of how wonderful he is and how he will be very missed. It will be hard to return to the house without him around.

Love you Moussa.
Alyssa

Culture Shock!

So last night I went bowling at the Radisson with Harris, his sister and friends. It was nicer than most bowling allies in the States.. which means major culture shock. It was $10 per person for one game, which I thought was outrageous. There was also an arcade, bar, lounge and waiters... If anyone stays at the Radisson while in Dakar, I will definitely lose some respect for you. I would rather you just stay in America... Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful and it's nice to know that I can take refuge there if I start hating Dakar (not likely); however, WHY WOULD YOU COME TO DAKAR AND STAY AT THE RADISSON?? On a lighter note, anyone who wants to feel better about their bowling skills should go bowling with inhabitants of Dakar. Most had bowled once or twice and a couple hadn't bowled at all. I didn't do so bad... until I noticed I was in second place and then it was all downhill from there. We were also a huge fan of the "granny," where you roll the bowling ball through your legs. Surprisingly, it worked every time... which was hilarious. After bowling, we went to MyShop (typical) for some snacks and Modou got some chocolate ice cream, which I gorged. It's hard to get used to people buying things for themselves and giving it to other people. People truly will not get upset when they buy something and they don't get any of it. It's almost expected. So bizarre and un-American! Anyways, awesome night with friends, but too Western for me.

When I got back from bowling, I went on a walk with Katie's host brother. While we were walking, one of Amadou's friends said : "Donne-moi une copine."(Translation: Give me a girlfriend.) My response was instantly: "Do you think I'm stupid?" 

Boy: "So you're not going to give me a girlfriend?" 

Me: "No.. you need to meet a girl on your own and like her for who she is."

Boy: "uhhhhh..."

Me: "You can't just expect me to line up my friends for you. You can't treat women like an object!"

Boy: "So you won't give me an American girlfriend?"

Me: "NO! Do you not understand what I'm saying?"

Boy: "Yes, I understand..."

Me: "No, you don't."

He leaves... and comes back.

Boy: "So you won't find me a girlfriend?"

Me: "You didn't understand me! I'm a feminist and will not do that for you..."

And he walked off... 

Let me remind you this is all in French and Amadou just sat in the background laughing.

These moments are the most frustrating for me because I can't say everything I want to say in French and I really want to yell in English... 

So, we just convinced my professor to leave class and spend time with his son who's leaving for college in Morocco at 4am. Oh yeah, and he just found out today... The scholarship program just informed the family today that his son got a scholarship and that he had a plane ticket tonight. I know my mom would be freaking out! Total Senegalese moment.... 

Still loving every moment... Alyssa

I know Michigan lost, but Senegal won!

I haven’t seen my mom since my brother went into the hospital. She has been living there for over a week now… talk about dedication. She’s amazing and I miss her. It’s bizarre for me because I’ve lived with ONLY girls all my life and now I’m the only girl technically living in the house. We have two maids (bonnes) that are girls, but they kind of stay invisible most of the time. So it’s just my pops, my two younger brothers and my American brother. It’s been good in some ways because 2 weeks ago, my brothers maybe spoke 2 words to me. Now, Moosa and I have a secret handshake and he’s agreed to a Wii competition. Tapha taught me a new card game similar to UNO and we played cards for more than 2 hours on Friday night. I was also playing in Wolof…it was so cool! Also, my dad asked me if I knew anything about American football because he doesn’t understand it and I promptly said, “YES!” He then agreed to let me explain him the rules if there’s ever a game on. I also tried to explain Fantasy Football to him… but I failed big time. Anyways, it’s forced me to form relationships with the males in my house, but I have to say… relationships with females are much more fulfilling. So, on that note, I’m craving some maternal love. Also, everything runs better with a female around. I didn’t have breakfast three mornings last week.

The electricity miraculously started working better once our president (Wade) put his son as the head of the energy department. SHOCKER. For about 2 weeks, the electricity was off more than it was on, so it was really difficult to function. Then all of a sudden, the electricity started working better. Don’t get me wrong, we have frequent outages; however, there’s a longer break between them. Basically, Wade is setting his son up to become president… It’s very conflicting for me because I do enjoy the electricity; but on the other hand, I don’t want people to start thinking he’s a worthy president because the electricity is on more now that he’s in charge. Oh mon dieu. 

I went to the Senegal vs. Mauritania soccer (futball) game this weekend and it was awesome! There were about ten of us and we took the carrapide to get there (100 cfa = 25 cents). When we got there, we gave 1000 cfa ($2.50) to Theresa’s host brother and just hung around for about 30 mins. All of a sudden, this guy comes up to us and says: “Venez! Venez!” And we followed him to the gates where we rushed in as someone shoved an already bought ticket into our hands! Crazy stuff, right?! A policewoman then felt me up pretty hardcore, which was a bit violating but I understand that she was being thorough for our safety. We ran up the stairs as Theresa’s host brother yells: “La corruption! La corruption!” Basically, we bribed someone to let us in… oh lordy… welcome to Senegal. We then got seats pretty high up, but it was a beautiful view and a gorgeous night. The stadium was packed and people were going nuts! American fans of ANY sport can’t even compare to Senegalese futball fans. Not to mention, Senegal smoked Mauritania 7-0, which made everyone even more insane (I wouldn’t want to see the alternative!). 

Well, according to the Counseling Center at Kalamazoo College, the fifth week marks the bottom of the "W" curve where I'm supposed to be all depressed and want to come home. Psh... not even close to being depressed! I'm only sad because time is going by too quickly! 
Peace and love,
Alyssa  

Bébé!!

Je suis Senegalaise!

Last weekend I went to Kaolack for a baptism! It was for Katie's mom who had a baby three weeks ago and they graciously invited Erica and I to come along. Although I was sick and I'm sure my mom wasn't happy with me going, I couldn't miss this opportunity!

Mom and Dad!

Friday: We had to skip our classes on Friday, which we felt guilty about, but in all honesty, after having 3 days of 8 hour classes, we were pretty happy for a break. So we met at 11am for a bus that was supposed to leave at 12:30pm, but ya know.... le temps senegalais! The bus didn't actually leave until 3ish. We actually had issues getting on the bus because apparently people took our seats, so there were a lot of angry Senegalese screaming and yelling in Wolof. We eventually got on and we didn't have actual seats because we were so late purchasing our tickets. They were seats that move up and down in the aisles, so we didn't have headrests and our knees were rubbing against the seats in front of us. I've never been so thankful to be short. From start to finish, the woman to the right kept hitting me with her fan and every so often she would take out her breast and massage it for awhile. We took a break at about half way and we got some fruit. I decided to take the risk and listen to my iPod.. very discretely of course. It definitely was the right thing to do, because it put me in an awesome mood where nothing could make me upset. I was loving the ride! Even when the bus looked like it was going to tip over from all the massive pot holes... I was content and taking in the atmosphere. 

Mouton!!

Okay, so the bus ride was supposed to take 3 hours.. but it was actually 5 1/2 hours. We arrived in Kaolack at about 7ish and it was just about dark. So we met a bazzillion people in the dark and I didn't remember one of them the next morning. It's really embarrassing because they always remember your name. We ended up resting upstairs and soon Ousmane brought us our "lunch." Yeah, they saved lunch for us, so not only did we have to eat that, but we had to eat dinner as well. It was a struggle. We stayed there until about 10, the electricity went out so it was hard to navigate in the dark. We ended up at some friend-of-the-family's home, where they had a bed for us. Without notice, they gave us a room to ourselves with a bed big enough for the three of us... how nice is that?! Amadou wanted to make Attaya, which was a really bad idea before bed, but he was offering. It took about 3 hours to make all three rounds, and I only survived through the first round and had lay down because I wasn't feeling well. While I was up though, we watched every Justin Bieber video EVER! Senegal has Bieber Fever HARD CORE? Who would have thunk it? Anyways, I got my next to rounds in bed... man, am I living the life? Unfortunately, this meant that it was hard to fall asleep, but it eventually happened.  

Saturday: We were SUPPOSED to be at the main house at 8am; however, Amadou and his friend just NEEDED a haircut, so by the time we got to the baptism, the name had already been chosen and the sheep had been killed. Now, I know you're asking why I'd like to see a animal slaughtered. The answer is I just wanted to live the full experience and I've never seen an animal killed before. Although, we were there to see the sheep butchered and surprisingly I wasn't grossed out at all! Definitely a learning experience I'll never forget. When we arrived everyone was so excited to see us and took us in as family. We had "Laax" for breakfast, which is like porridge with yogurt on top. We ended up going upstairs, assuming we were making attaya, but we ended up in a room with all men who liked to joke with us. One guy I met lived in the States for 9 years and the majority of them in Washington D.C.  Then we checked on Erica, who was under the weather, and ended up falling asleep for a couple of hours. We woke up for lunch and of course got yelled at for not eating enough. We then hung out with the boys and it took us awhile to realize that we were hanging out with ONLY boys. So, we went downstairs to find about 100 women sitting under a tent and yelling in Wolof. They were super nice and gave us seats right in the middle next to the action. We later found out that the women weren’t yelling at each other, but they were just saying nice things about the family. A couple women starting singing and everyone danced. One of the most moving experiences I’ve ever experienced. After awhile, we went upstairs again and hung out with about 20 young boys who were OBSESSED with taking pictures and trying to speak English. One kid didn’t believe my hair was natural so he tried to yank it from my head. It was tons of fun. 

Women cutting the mouton! So much mouton!

We then decided to take a break from the baptism and go to a "festival". Before we could go though, the women under the tent made Katie and I dance by ourselves while everyone starred at us. Very embarrassing, but I think we did pretty good for Americans.. lol.. NOT. It was then difficult to get to the concert because the roads were so flooded. We actually had to walk because the taxis couldn’t get down the road. We then paid about $1 to sit on the other side of this curtain. I’ve never had so many eyes look my way. They gave us front row…  Again, hate it when that happens! But then the announcer tried to talk to us in Wolof and we totally failed. We then saw a couple skits, which we couldn’t understand because it was in Wolof, but Katie’s host brother translated for us. They were actually really funny and very provocative. Very surprising. We had to leave early because we didn’t want miss dinner. We then had a small dinner, changed our clothes and said goodbye because we were so so so tired. We got back to the house and taught the boys some card games and then fell asleep really fast.

The women chanting under the tent.

Sunday: Woke up and went to the main house again. We had bread with SO MUCH chocolate for breakfast and then our Senegalese coffee (which actually is just ½ a cup of powdered milk and 5 sugar cubes… ssoooo tasty). Then we hung out with the family and got eaten up by bugs. One thing I learned is that women can breastfeed anywhere they want. Did you hear that boys?! Anywhere! Okay, that’s my feminist statement for the day. While we were sitting, a bunch of people thanked us for coming and couldn’t believe we traveled all that way. They said we were now apart of the family and it made me feel like crying. We then ate lunch and said our goodbyes. It was hard to leave because everyone was so welcoming and nice. We took a taxi to the bus station, but decided to take what looked like kind of a station wagon instead because we were told it was quicker. Katie, Erica and I got shoved in the back, which was clearly for very small children. Katie and Erica were in the wheel wells and the roof curved so that they couldn’t sit up straight. I’ve never been so happy to be short. Amadou sat in the row in front of us with two other randoms. I listened to music they entire time, which put me in a good mood. The car was going really fast, and it seemed like we were making good time, until we got closer to Dakar. Then we sat in traffic for forever. So, in the end, the trip took just as long as the bus did on the way to Kaolack, and we weren’t as comfortable. Surprisingly, for me, it went really fast and the confined space didn’t bother me one bit. So, we got home around 10pm and Katie’s brother cooked us dinner.

Taking Pictures

This sums up the entire weekend.

All and all… I had a wonderful time and it was hard to leave.

Cute kid.

Everyone say a prayer for my brother. He has malaria and has been in the hospital for a week and 4 days now. 

I miss you all! Stay beautiful!