Well, so much for keeping up with this. I guess now that ISP is underway, I've gotten used to having evenings free and I haven't really had a specific desire to sit down and type out what I've been doing, especially since I'll have to do that again in a more formal fashion in about two weeks.
We celebrated Thanksgiving as a group at the girls' apartment in Point E, dining on chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, apple cake and ice cream. It was quite nice.
As for ISP, I don't feel that I have a lot to talk about. It's been going quite well, and it's looking like this next week is going to be my last official week of training at the foundry. Issa was nice enough to give me the option of coming back if there's anything I need to finish up, but it's looking like I'm more or less on track to get all of my work done by this coming Saturday.
So far, I've produced three sculptures of medium to small size. The first was a Talibe, one of the young religious disciples wandering the streets of Dakar, begging for alms, that I encounter on a daily basis. The next was a more abstract piece intended to represent tradition and modernity in Senegal. It's a baobab with small huts at its roots, and several hands among its branches grasping things such as books, airplanes, cell phones and car rapides. The third sculpture is a lion, which is the national symbol of Senegal. All of these sculptures are in the finishing stages, with just a little bit more grinding and polishing, followed by the patina, to be complete. I'm also working on a fourth as a gift for some friends (which is still in the wax model stage), followed by possibly a sixth for my homestay family as a parting gift if I have time. It's been a lot of fun, but it's been a struggle on a few occasions, particularly given my vocabulary of artistic terms and names for tools is pretty limited.
Originally, I was worried that my project was going to be horrifically expensive (almost $1000, with SIT only providing $600). However, I've found a couple of ways to cut down on expenses. Firstly, lunch is served at the foundry every day, which means that between that and my homestay, I'm not really paying for food anymore except on special occasions. Beyond that, whereas I used to take a taxi to and from the Village Des Arts every day, spending about $3 each way, I was pointed to a car rapide (a beat-up, colorfully painted old mini bus) that stops just a few hundred feet from the back entrance to the foundry. The cost? About 30 cents.
Also, Tabaski was yesterday. Where do I begin?
The festival of Tabaski is the biggest holiday of the year. Following the morning prayer at the mosque, the family gets together to slaughter sheep as a commemoration of God providing a ram to Abraham to sacrifice in place of Ishmael (Muslims believe that it was Ishmael that Abraham was asked to sacrifice rather than Isaac). Each man in the family with a job and the means to acquire a sheep (ranging from $80 to $2000) is expected to do so. These days, some women also buy sheep. For my family, this translated to a slaughtering of seven sheep in total. I was apprehensive, not having seen the killing of an animal before. However, I thought it would be a good experience to have.
Ultimately, it was, though it was easily the most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Each sheep had its throat slit and its blood spilled into a pit that we had dug outside the house. I watched the first slaughtering, though I started to get lightheaded during the second, particularly when the first started frantically kicking its legs as it bled to death on the sidewalk, so I stayed inside for the rest. Afterwards, the sheep were all brought into the garage and butchered, and cooked and eaten as they became available. I forced myself to watch the butchering, and I actually ended up eating lunch right next to the butchers.
I got some pictures. I don't think I'll post them on Facebook, as I'm not sure to what extent that might violate the terms of service.
What else? I had hot wings and a milkshake for lunch today and, my parents will be here in two weeks, which is crazy to think about. That's about it.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
America Night and ISP
Yesterday, we celebrated America night, and I think it's safe to say that it was a success. Since we had Friday afternoon off, we headed to the supermarket (Casino) to pick up our supplies. I had signed up to make macaroni and cheese, but I ended up going on a bit of a shopping spree, picking up tabasco sauce, brownies, frosted flakes, Doritos and just about anything else American I could get my hands on. I ended up spending upwards of $60, but it was definitely worth it. Afterwards, we headed back to school to cook everything up and celebrate.
Between all the group members, we had macaroni and cheese (myself), baked beans (Milo), grilled cheese (Elizabeth), pizza bread (A'Daris), peanut butter cookies (Karen), pineapple upside-down cake (Megan), marinated chicken (Sonya and Alicia), fresh vegetables (Jeannie) and some good ol' fashioned American soda (Allie). After eating, we watched a number of Pixar short films followed by one of my favorite films of all time, Casablanca. Despite the fact that I suffered from some pretty serious indigestion the next morning, I was very happy.
ISP starts Tuesday, and I've settled definitively on bronze sculpture. In some ways, it sort of feels like a cop-out compared to some of the more "serious" research that other people are doing, but I'm thinking I'll be able to get art credit for it (Inshalla), which will be nice. I'll be working with Issa Diop, a well-known Senegalese sculptor, and one of the more interesting people I've met in a long time (he lived in LA for five crazy \years in the 1970s... But that's a story best saved for a later post).
We also took our second language placement tests this morning. In French, I scored advanced-mid, which is one level above what I scored at the beginning of the program. In Wolof, I scored intermediate mid, which I don't feel that I deserved, as I really struggled through the test, largely due to my inadequate vocabulary (didn't know the words for beach, country, etc.). I talked myself into corners a couple of times, forcing myself to use the third person plural future pronouns that I didn't really remember. I guess I got points for effort or something.
Finally, I feel it bears mentioning some of the crazy things that have been going on in my homestay lately. Aida, the three-year-old daughter of my host brother, has been toeing the line between adorable and demon-spawn quite well the past couple of weeks. She's recently taking to critiquing everything I do, and she seems to only speak in the negative, even when I'm in the midst of doing the very thing she's referring to (e.g. (while pointing at my shoes) you don't have shoes! (while I'm eating chicken) you don't eat chicken! you don't know me! etc.).
Most recently, I overheard a discussion in Wolof between my brother and my mom about Gaspard, the disgusting old cat that belongs to our family (who I affectionately dubbed Mickey Rourke cat based on his appearance). Based on the very little that I understood, I gathered that Gaspard might be on his last legs. When I asked Aida what had happened to Gaspard, she replied (in French)"I put him in a bag and threw him in the trash because he couldn't walk anymore."
I didn't really know whether to believe this or not, but I found out the next day that although this was an exaggeration, Gaspard had indeed been sent away for good. On a similar note, my family has spent the last few nights trying to capture another one of the cats in the house and put her in a bag. The reason they gave for doing this was that they were going to "put her up for adoption," though I'm not sure to what extent this is a euphemism. So far, the cat has comically eluded capture.
Between all the group members, we had macaroni and cheese (myself), baked beans (Milo), grilled cheese (Elizabeth), pizza bread (A'Daris), peanut butter cookies (Karen), pineapple upside-down cake (Megan), marinated chicken (Sonya and Alicia), fresh vegetables (Jeannie) and some good ol' fashioned American soda (Allie). After eating, we watched a number of Pixar short films followed by one of my favorite films of all time, Casablanca. Despite the fact that I suffered from some pretty serious indigestion the next morning, I was very happy.
ISP starts Tuesday, and I've settled definitively on bronze sculpture. In some ways, it sort of feels like a cop-out compared to some of the more "serious" research that other people are doing, but I'm thinking I'll be able to get art credit for it (Inshalla), which will be nice. I'll be working with Issa Diop, a well-known Senegalese sculptor, and one of the more interesting people I've met in a long time (he lived in LA for five crazy \years in the 1970s... But that's a story best saved for a later post).
We also took our second language placement tests this morning. In French, I scored advanced-mid, which is one level above what I scored at the beginning of the program. In Wolof, I scored intermediate mid, which I don't feel that I deserved, as I really struggled through the test, largely due to my inadequate vocabulary (didn't know the words for beach, country, etc.). I talked myself into corners a couple of times, forcing myself to use the third person plural future pronouns that I didn't really remember. I guess I got points for effort or something.
Finally, I feel it bears mentioning some of the crazy things that have been going on in my homestay lately. Aida, the three-year-old daughter of my host brother, has been toeing the line between adorable and demon-spawn quite well the past couple of weeks. She's recently taking to critiquing everything I do, and she seems to only speak in the negative, even when I'm in the midst of doing the very thing she's referring to (e.g. (while pointing at my shoes) you don't have shoes! (while I'm eating chicken) you don't eat chicken! you don't know me! etc.).
Most recently, I overheard a discussion in Wolof between my brother and my mom about Gaspard, the disgusting old cat that belongs to our family (who I affectionately dubbed Mickey Rourke cat based on his appearance). Based on the very little that I understood, I gathered that Gaspard might be on his last legs. When I asked Aida what had happened to Gaspard, she replied (in French)"I put him in a bag and threw him in the trash because he couldn't walk anymore."
I didn't really know whether to believe this or not, but I found out the next day that although this was an exaggeration, Gaspard had indeed been sent away for good. On a similar note, my family has spent the last few nights trying to capture another one of the cats in the house and put her in a bag. The reason they gave for doing this was that they were going to "put her up for adoption," though I'm not sure to what extent this is a euphemism. So far, the cat has comically eluded capture.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Back from Kedougou, approaching ISP
We got back from Kedougou last night, and I ended up going straight to sleep after dinner due to the 3 hours of sleep I got the night before.
It's difficult to summarize my experience in Kedougou, since I feel like I did so much in the short time I was there, but I'll give it a shot.
The trip to Kedougou took about 12 hours over both paved and unpaved roads. I was dumb enough to pick the back of the bus, so I got to experience every bump and pothole to its fullest. Fortunately, there was air conditioning, so it was more comfortable than it could have been. I tried to use the time to do some reading--I checked out a copy of Walden from Dr. Drame--But that made me a little carsick. I spent some time thinking about what I might do for my Independent Study Project, but didn't really reach any final decisions.
Once we got to Kedougou, we lodged up in a sort of hotel comprised of two-person air conditioned huts.
On our first full day (Saturday), we took a hike as a group up to Etchwar, the Bedik village where Elizabeth and I would be staying for our village homestay. Upon arriving at the top, I was pleased to find that all of my unreasonable hopes and expectations were fulfilled. We climbed up some rocks to get a view of the surrounding landscape, and it was breathtaking. I felt very lucky.
The next day, we took a two hour drive in four-by-fours over what I hesitate to even call roads in order to get to a waterfall. The trip was unpleasant, but ended up being completely worth it in the end. The waterfall was quite a sight--it was easily 100 feet tall, cascading over very geometric rocks into a clear pool at the bottom. Best of all, the water was frigid, and I was glad to be truly cold for the first time in nearly two months.
On Monday, we headed out in groups for our village stays. I got put with the Keita Family, and Elizabeth got put with the Camara family. These were the only two families in the village, which consists of about 50 people in total. Rather than recount every single detail, I'll hit some of the highlights:
We spent most of every day in the fields atop the mountain, doing a variety of jobs including cultivating peanuts and other crops and separating peanuts from their stems. The head of my family, Samuel, would go hunting during the day, and on the eve of my departure, he shot a meerkat (I think) that we ate for dinner.
We got to see both the sunrise and sunset from the top of the rocks that we had climbed up earlier as a group, and it was easily the most spectacular thing I've seen since coming here, possibly in all my life. On one trip up, there was a four to five foot python sitting on the path that Bernard, my host father, killed without hesitation.
On Tuesday, Bernard took me down to Indar, the village below where Lisa and Sonya were staying, in order to "taste" some palm wine. What I didn't realize was that tasting actually meant drinking about a liter and a half to two liters. It didn't taste particularly great, but it got the job done (and apparently only takes a couple of hours to ferment). While I was still pretty under the influence, we hiked back up to Etchwar, which was surprisingly easier.
The next day, we headed back down to have a look at the chapel where the two villages attend church (they're mostly catholic). This visit unexpectedly included more palm wine, and I ended up taking another inebriated hike back up to the top.
Overall, I loved the experience that I had with the Bediks. Everything about it was different from what I've experienced in Senegal thus far: Different religion, different social habits, different food, different music. It was incredibly refreshing, and I was sad to leave.
Friday morning, following our return to our "hotel" in Kedougou, we took a rather difficult hike up to Iwol, another Bedik village where we saw what is alleged to be the largest baobab in the world (in terms of trunk circumference).
That afternoon, a series of events transpired (including me cutting my head open one one of the bamboo poles coming off of the roof of our hut) that lead to me feeling as bad as I've felt since coming to Senegal. For the first time, I really started to miss my family and everything back home, and I would have loved nothing more than to have gotten on a plane and left. The bus ride back to Dakar was miserable, and neither the Kora that I bought nor the bronze sculptures I did were back at SIT like I thought they'd be when we returned.
I'm currently trying to work my way out of this slump.
Also, our ISP proposals are due at the end of this week, and I haven't decided on a topic. I'm so far behind the rest of the group. I feel unproductive and incompetent.
We're planning on having America night as a group sometime this week, which means American movies and food. It couldn't have come at a better time.
It's difficult to summarize my experience in Kedougou, since I feel like I did so much in the short time I was there, but I'll give it a shot.
The trip to Kedougou took about 12 hours over both paved and unpaved roads. I was dumb enough to pick the back of the bus, so I got to experience every bump and pothole to its fullest. Fortunately, there was air conditioning, so it was more comfortable than it could have been. I tried to use the time to do some reading--I checked out a copy of Walden from Dr. Drame--But that made me a little carsick. I spent some time thinking about what I might do for my Independent Study Project, but didn't really reach any final decisions.
Once we got to Kedougou, we lodged up in a sort of hotel comprised of two-person air conditioned huts.
On our first full day (Saturday), we took a hike as a group up to Etchwar, the Bedik village where Elizabeth and I would be staying for our village homestay. Upon arriving at the top, I was pleased to find that all of my unreasonable hopes and expectations were fulfilled. We climbed up some rocks to get a view of the surrounding landscape, and it was breathtaking. I felt very lucky.
The next day, we took a two hour drive in four-by-fours over what I hesitate to even call roads in order to get to a waterfall. The trip was unpleasant, but ended up being completely worth it in the end. The waterfall was quite a sight--it was easily 100 feet tall, cascading over very geometric rocks into a clear pool at the bottom. Best of all, the water was frigid, and I was glad to be truly cold for the first time in nearly two months.
On Monday, we headed out in groups for our village stays. I got put with the Keita Family, and Elizabeth got put with the Camara family. These were the only two families in the village, which consists of about 50 people in total. Rather than recount every single detail, I'll hit some of the highlights:
We spent most of every day in the fields atop the mountain, doing a variety of jobs including cultivating peanuts and other crops and separating peanuts from their stems. The head of my family, Samuel, would go hunting during the day, and on the eve of my departure, he shot a meerkat (I think) that we ate for dinner.
We got to see both the sunrise and sunset from the top of the rocks that we had climbed up earlier as a group, and it was easily the most spectacular thing I've seen since coming here, possibly in all my life. On one trip up, there was a four to five foot python sitting on the path that Bernard, my host father, killed without hesitation.
On Tuesday, Bernard took me down to Indar, the village below where Lisa and Sonya were staying, in order to "taste" some palm wine. What I didn't realize was that tasting actually meant drinking about a liter and a half to two liters. It didn't taste particularly great, but it got the job done (and apparently only takes a couple of hours to ferment). While I was still pretty under the influence, we hiked back up to Etchwar, which was surprisingly easier.
The next day, we headed back down to have a look at the chapel where the two villages attend church (they're mostly catholic). This visit unexpectedly included more palm wine, and I ended up taking another inebriated hike back up to the top.
Overall, I loved the experience that I had with the Bediks. Everything about it was different from what I've experienced in Senegal thus far: Different religion, different social habits, different food, different music. It was incredibly refreshing, and I was sad to leave.
Friday morning, following our return to our "hotel" in Kedougou, we took a rather difficult hike up to Iwol, another Bedik village where we saw what is alleged to be the largest baobab in the world (in terms of trunk circumference).
That afternoon, a series of events transpired (including me cutting my head open one one of the bamboo poles coming off of the roof of our hut) that lead to me feeling as bad as I've felt since coming to Senegal. For the first time, I really started to miss my family and everything back home, and I would have loved nothing more than to have gotten on a plane and left. The bus ride back to Dakar was miserable, and neither the Kora that I bought nor the bronze sculptures I did were back at SIT like I thought they'd be when we returned.
I'm currently trying to work my way out of this slump.
Also, our ISP proposals are due at the end of this week, and I haven't decided on a topic. I'm so far behind the rest of the group. I feel unproductive and incompetent.
We're planning on having America night as a group sometime this week, which means American movies and food. It couldn't have come at a better time.
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