Ups and downs

Since my last post, a French Canadian, Jean-Philippe, has started renting a room with my homestay family. He's currently visiting Dakar as a tourist, and looking at possibly getting a job here long-term. It's been nice having him around for a number of reasons, aside from some additional company. Firstly, he's much more talkative than I am, so it's really forced me to step up my level of interaction with my family. Secondly, he's allowed me to realize just how much progress I've made since coming here. I often don't feel like I've accomplished much, but the reality of the matter is that I've simply been progressing so gradually that I haven't noticed. The fact that he comes to me from time to time for advice on Wolof, places to go in Dakar, cultural differences and more has helped me realize the knowledge I've gained in the past 6 weeks.

There was also a somewhat strange moment when I showed him a photo of my family, and pointing out Ryan, told him that this was my older brother, who was 27. He seemed puzzled, asking for clarification: "He's 27, and he's older than you?"

When I told him I was 20, he was shocked. I'm fine with looking a few years older than my age, but this is getting ridiculous.

Anyway, kora lessons were this week, and it's been one of the more enjoyable parts of my time here thus far. The instrument itself is made from half of a large calabash covered in rawhide affixed with upholstery tacks. There are 21 strings, broken into a set of 10 on the left side and 11 on the right, which are attached to the neck by leather bands that are moved up and down to tune. The thumb and index finger of each hand are used to pluck strings individually or in groups. The instrument itself is tuned to the key of F major.

From what I understand, Edouard, our instructor, is one of the best Kora players in the world. He plays concerts everywhere from South Africa to Denmark to Asia. Long story short, I enjoyed the lessons so much that I ended up buying a Kora from him. I'll be getting it in about a week.

Earlier today, I was in a bit of a slump. I felt like I hadn't really accomplished as much as I'd liked to have by this point in the program in many respects. I didn't feel like I knew enough Wolof, I didn't feel like I knew my way around the city as well as I should, and I didn't feel ready to be turning in a rough draft of my ISP proposal a week from today.

However, things started looking up when we had our last Kora lesson. Though the melody we focused on this time around was a bit harder than the previous two, I still enjoyed it immensely. After school, I went back home to have one of the better evenings I've had with my host family. In short, I'm finally starting to feel at ease and I've been able to insert myself more frequently into their conversations. Over dinner this evening, my brother proposed a particular legal conundrum for my cousin, who's studying law:

A man goes into the city to buy a sheep for Tabaski (the big festival taking place on November 28th). The man discusses with a sheep vendor and the two come to an agreement on a reasonable price. At the moment that the money is being exchanged, the sheep eats the buyer's banknote. Whose property is the sheep?

The discussion became incredibly heated and spanned multiple other similar scenarios. I mostly sat listening and thinking, but eventually came to a decision and shared my conclusion:

In this situation, the two men should exchange information, and wait one day and one night. If the sheep didn't chew too much, the seller will get the banknote back, at which point he can give the sheep to the buyer.

Tomorrow, we'll be going to the tailor to get garments made from the fabrics that we bought at the market last week. I'm pretty excited for getting some awesome shirts tailored on the cheap.