This week there is a pilgrimage to one of the neighborhoods in Kaolack to celebrate the Gamou. Last year I stayed as far away from that quartier as possible but this year I decided to check it out with my friend Ndeye – she’s a mechanic. The quartier – Medina Baay, is home to a huge, Moroccan style mosque that was built by one of the Sufi Islam Brotherhoods that are centered in Senegal. This brotherhood is called the Baay Niass brotherhood, named after its founder but the unique thing about this brotherhood is that they have lots of American talibe (followers). I was told that there are several that have even moved here permanently to be close to their spiritual leader, but mostly the Americans visit Medina Baay for a couple weeks every year to partake in the pilgrimage.
So I started with dinner at Ndeye’s house (Ndeye’s family aren’t followers of Baay Niass but there is a lot of mutual respect between the brotherhoods so she wanted to take me to the festivities), after dinner, at about 10pm we took a mini-car to Medina. The roads were packed with people dressed to the nines, vendors selling just about anything you can think of including clothing and jewelry with Baay Niass’ likeness painted on it. We got out of the car and started walking and shoving our way toward the mosque which was also dressed up to the nines for the occasion – including strings of lights and a large fake palm tree perched on top of the mosque itself. We walked through the mosque, taking shoes off before we entered, where people were sitting, praying and sleeping on the carpeted floor. The walls were beautifully tiled with dozens of columns throughout the room. We stood in line to pay our respects to Baay Niass’ final resting spot and then we left to go find a host relative of mine who lives in the area, Pathe Thiam.
Well I never found Pathe but as soon as I entered the home of Imam Assane Cisse I heard “How ya doin’” – In that New York accent I haven’t heard in a year and a half. I turn around and see three Americans, dressed in their boubous, speaking Wolof to other people. We chatted and the told me that they come hear to replenish their souls every year. I was very interested in hearing their thoughts on things and unfortunately their views on polygamy and women’s rights fell right in line with those of the conservative Senegalese men I have met – Polygamy being natural and necessary because there are so many more women than men; 4:1. That and the “divine order,” – First there is God, then men and then women. Even though we didn’t see eye to eye on many things it was very interesting to meet them and I’m very glad that I made the pilgrimage this year… even if it was only to the other side of town.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Ants and Karma
The other day I was eating breakfast in my compound, sitting next to my mother. There was a slight commotion, she said something to my brother, Baba, and pointed behind where she was sitting where, I’m not sure how I didn’t notice but there were thousands of ants swarming between my steps and the entrance to the kitchen. I was about to jump up and get the insecticide I keep in my room when she explained to me that the ants were asking for a sarax, the term used for the food or money you give to people who beg. She asked Baba to give them some millet and as he scattered it on the ground I thought “Oh no, now there will be even more ants swarming.” She turned to me and said “Just watch, they’ll all be gone in 5 minutes.” And sure enough, the ants took the millet back to their nest, wherever it is, and all but a few were gone in 5 minutes and as far as I know haven’t come back.
After the ants were given their sarax my mom told me a story that she prefaced as being “a true story,” in mixed French and Wolof. According to the story there was a young pregnant woman who once encountered the same problem with swarming ants. Instead for giving them the sarax she threw boiling water on them and killed them. Later, when her baby was born, it was born deformed and would never walk. When she went to the spiritual leader to ask why that had happened to her he told her that her baby was born like that because she had been cruel to the ants.
…a very Buddhist idea for a Muslim country.
After the ants were given their sarax my mom told me a story that she prefaced as being “a true story,” in mixed French and Wolof. According to the story there was a young pregnant woman who once encountered the same problem with swarming ants. Instead for giving them the sarax she threw boiling water on them and killed them. Later, when her baby was born, it was born deformed and would never walk. When she went to the spiritual leader to ask why that had happened to her he told her that her baby was born like that because she had been cruel to the ants.
…a very Buddhist idea for a Muslim country.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Pan-Atlantic Telephonaphobia
First of all I want to preface this blog by saying that I’m really not as bitter as this may make me seem, I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad or give any kind of guilt trip and I truly do appreciate the emails that I get from people. I’m simply remarking on a behavior pattern that many PCVs have found that their friends and loved-ones have in common. Plus I have the chutzpah to post it on my blog and so the others who may not be so forward, but miss talking to their friends, will just link their blogs up to mine.
Besides fellow volunteers who had returned home or were on vacation, I have received phone calls – wait, no, one phone call from someone who was not immediate family in the past 18 months. Most volunteers, in fact, don’t get phone calls from anyone but family and possibly significant others. So, in the style of “Sex and the City,” I couldn’t help but wonder; why is it that American extended family and friends are so hesitant to call over-seas and particularly hesitant to call Africa?
Every volunteer I know has a cell phone and most actually have decent reception or a tree in their village under which reception is better. People may be freaked out by the cost, that is a valid concern, but how much does a 15-20 minute phone call to a cell phone in Senegal cost? About $4 - $5. To be fair, since we do have phones, we could be calling the states more too, the same phone call from our cell phones to the U.S. costs 4,500-5,000 CFA which is about $9-$10. Money that many volunteers don’t really have as disposable income. Now, I do realize that getting the rate mentioned above often involves buying a phone card; either a schlep to the store or buying one online (which involves a whole different phobia), but hey, aren’t there occasions when you are already going to the store, or already shopping online, heck there was probably an annoying pop-up ad trying to sell you a calling card while you were reading this entry.
Timing may be another concern. We are always one Greenwich Mean Time, always. That means 4 hrs difference from the East coast in the summer and 5 hrs in the winter, and 7 and 8 hours respectively from the West coast. So even with the maximum time difference we are probably sharing 8 of our waking hours. With the timing, you may be concerned that you would be interrupting something. You aren’t. If you haven’t caught this yet, please refer to past entries on my blog or any of the linked blogs to the right. In short PCVs have a lot of free time, not to mention that if they were doing something, they’d just answer their phone in the middle of it like every Senegalese person – we’re culturally integrated! If it makes you feel better, set up a time to call over email.
Anyway, there is a lot more that we’ve discussed in our ever-so-slight bitterness, but I’ll spare you the details. However if you take anything away from this blog it should be this: We know that you are busy but we miss you and love you and it would literally make our month if we heard from you.
Besides fellow volunteers who had returned home or were on vacation, I have received phone calls – wait, no, one phone call from someone who was not immediate family in the past 18 months. Most volunteers, in fact, don’t get phone calls from anyone but family and possibly significant others. So, in the style of “Sex and the City,” I couldn’t help but wonder; why is it that American extended family and friends are so hesitant to call over-seas and particularly hesitant to call Africa?
Every volunteer I know has a cell phone and most actually have decent reception or a tree in their village under which reception is better. People may be freaked out by the cost, that is a valid concern, but how much does a 15-20 minute phone call to a cell phone in Senegal cost? About $4 - $5. To be fair, since we do have phones, we could be calling the states more too, the same phone call from our cell phones to the U.S. costs 4,500-5,000 CFA which is about $9-$10. Money that many volunteers don’t really have as disposable income. Now, I do realize that getting the rate mentioned above often involves buying a phone card; either a schlep to the store or buying one online (which involves a whole different phobia), but hey, aren’t there occasions when you are already going to the store, or already shopping online, heck there was probably an annoying pop-up ad trying to sell you a calling card while you were reading this entry.
Timing may be another concern. We are always one Greenwich Mean Time, always. That means 4 hrs difference from the East coast in the summer and 5 hrs in the winter, and 7 and 8 hours respectively from the West coast. So even with the maximum time difference we are probably sharing 8 of our waking hours. With the timing, you may be concerned that you would be interrupting something. You aren’t. If you haven’t caught this yet, please refer to past entries on my blog or any of the linked blogs to the right. In short PCVs have a lot of free time, not to mention that if they were doing something, they’d just answer their phone in the middle of it like every Senegalese person – we’re culturally integrated! If it makes you feel better, set up a time to call over email.
Anyway, there is a lot more that we’ve discussed in our ever-so-slight bitterness, but I’ll spare you the details. However if you take anything away from this blog it should be this: We know that you are busy but we miss you and love you and it would literally make our month if we heard from you.
Update
I haven’t written in a little while probably mostly because the past 2 months have been about the busiest I’ve yet had here in Senegal. To update everyone, the predisential election passed without any trouble or any surprises – the incumbant, Abdoulaye Wade, won pretty easily. My parents also visited for 10 short, fun-filled days. I’ve asked them to write up their experiences here because I thought it would be interesting for people to read some different perspectives, so if you happen to see or talk to my folks, encourage them to type something up so I can post it soon. It was great to be able to show my parents my Senegalese life and the people they met are still talking about their visit and probably will be for the next year. They got to meet most of the people that are a part of my life here in Senegal, and though they didn’t really speak the language, communication was managed. They got to see Dakar and Kaolack (where I live) as well as some of the naturally beautiful places like the mangroves of the Siné-Saloum Delta and the largest colony of Great White Pelicans in the world at Djoudj National Bird Park.
Since they left I’ve spent a few days at the pool, forming relationships with the swimmers and the people that work there that will hopefully lead to a stroke clinic for the national team... eventually. I’ve also been starting the process for the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship that is awarded by SeneGAD to girls of middle school age who do well in school but may be at risk of dropping out of school to help their families or even be sold into early marriage because their families can’t support them to attend school.
I have chosen 5 schools since Kaolack is so large and 6 girls will be chosen to apply from each school. The process involves a short application, an essay about how they see the next 10 years of their lives panning out, an interview and before I choose who I will send on to the final selection committee, I will do some home visits. For the interviez, I ask some questions like “What do you do for fun when you don’t have work to do?” Probably about half of the girls I have posed this question to have a hard time understanding it. After some explanation (sometimes a lot of explanation) the girl usually says she hangs out with her family or with her friends, reads, watches TV or does extra studying. One reason they could be having a hard time with this question though, is that girls between the ages of 8 and whatever age at which they get married, do not have liesure time. My host family is weathly enough to have a maid so Maguette (younger sister) is lucky to not have to do all the work around the house but for families with no maid, the daughters fill that roll. They sweep and make sure breakfast is ready in the morning, during the day they cook lunch and may do the men’s laundry, then in the evening they prepare dinner. A couple of the girls in my girls club have mothers who are disabled and unable to do any of this work, the girls end up doing all this work whenever they’re not at school and I know that because of this strain, their grades have fallen since last year. Another question that these Senegalese students answer much differently than their American counterparts is the one that asks if they could travel to any city in the world, where would they go and why. About 90% of them say they would go to Paris or New York, and about 90% of them say they would go there to work – these are 14, 15, 16 year-old girls.
I’ve actually been having a really difficult time thinking about who I might choose to send on to the selection committee because of the guilt having to tell some of them that they won’t be getting the scholarship. Principals tell me that everyone in their schools could use the scholarship, everyone is in dire need. In the end I’ll just choose the students that fit the criteria best and the rest will get a pat on the back, “Keep up the good work and try again next year.” And I’ll keep my fingers crossed that their families will continue to scrounge up the money to help their daughters go to school.
Since they left I’ve spent a few days at the pool, forming relationships with the swimmers and the people that work there that will hopefully lead to a stroke clinic for the national team... eventually. I’ve also been starting the process for the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship that is awarded by SeneGAD to girls of middle school age who do well in school but may be at risk of dropping out of school to help their families or even be sold into early marriage because their families can’t support them to attend school.
I have chosen 5 schools since Kaolack is so large and 6 girls will be chosen to apply from each school. The process involves a short application, an essay about how they see the next 10 years of their lives panning out, an interview and before I choose who I will send on to the final selection committee, I will do some home visits. For the interviez, I ask some questions like “What do you do for fun when you don’t have work to do?” Probably about half of the girls I have posed this question to have a hard time understanding it. After some explanation (sometimes a lot of explanation) the girl usually says she hangs out with her family or with her friends, reads, watches TV or does extra studying. One reason they could be having a hard time with this question though, is that girls between the ages of 8 and whatever age at which they get married, do not have liesure time. My host family is weathly enough to have a maid so Maguette (younger sister) is lucky to not have to do all the work around the house but for families with no maid, the daughters fill that roll. They sweep and make sure breakfast is ready in the morning, during the day they cook lunch and may do the men’s laundry, then in the evening they prepare dinner. A couple of the girls in my girls club have mothers who are disabled and unable to do any of this work, the girls end up doing all this work whenever they’re not at school and I know that because of this strain, their grades have fallen since last year. Another question that these Senegalese students answer much differently than their American counterparts is the one that asks if they could travel to any city in the world, where would they go and why. About 90% of them say they would go to Paris or New York, and about 90% of them say they would go there to work – these are 14, 15, 16 year-old girls.
I’ve actually been having a really difficult time thinking about who I might choose to send on to the selection committee because of the guilt having to tell some of them that they won’t be getting the scholarship. Principals tell me that everyone in their schools could use the scholarship, everyone is in dire need. In the end I’ll just choose the students that fit the criteria best and the rest will get a pat on the back, “Keep up the good work and try again next year.” And I’ll keep my fingers crossed that their families will continue to scrounge up the money to help their daughters go to school.
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