Tonight, I'll be heading to the airport to catch a flight early Monday morning back to the US. I'm using today to visit the Ile de Goreé again with my parents and tie up whatever loose ends remain. Apologies for not writing much about ISP. I think I got to the point where I stopped seeing my time in Senegal as a trip to be documented, and started seeing it as my life. I stopped blogging and taking photos for that reason.
Thanks for the memories, Senegal. See you soon, USA.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Oh, right. I have a blog.
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Bronze Sculpture and preparations for Kedougou!
Today marked the last day of our bronze sculpture workshop at the Village Des Arts. The process of making a bronze sculpture is really quite fascinating. First, the artist makes a model out of hot beeswax, sculpting it as it cools and melting additional pieces on (it's like playing with clay that doesn't dry out your hands). Next, additional pieces of wax are added to the model to allow the bronze to flow through in the pouring phase. Then the model is dipped in a mixture of quick-dry plaster and sifted dirt, and a mold is formed around each piece. After these are dry (about 30 minutes), they are placed in the fire overnight so the wax can drip out. The next day, the bronze is prepared. Essentially, the artists had set up a blast furnace in which they melted down scrap faucets, knobs, and anything bronze they could get their hands on. The fire burned green, and watching the molten metal being poured into the molds was one of the cooler things I've seen since coming here.
Our pieces aren't quite ready yet, as the imperfections and extraneous pieces need to be ground off, but we'll have them back after we return from Kedougou. I made an attaya glass, a bracelet ($10 says I never wear it) and a Kora player that I'm pretty proud of.
We also got our clothes back from the tailor, and I'm about as happy with the results as I could possibly be. A custom-tailored shirt for $12? Yes, indeed. Pictures to come later. Maybe in the form of a Picasa web album. I don't know.
We leave bright and early tomorrow for Kedougou, and I'm super excited to do some hiking, see some waterfalls and have another awesome village experience. I got placed with Elizabeth in the village of Etchwar, which sits atop a mountain. The people living there are of the Badik ethnic minority, and they're Christian animists, which should be really interesting to see. I've been told to expect a lot of palm wine.
Also, as I've been told that Kedougou and the surrounding regions are incredibly hot, I decided to shave off my beard. It's so much cooler already.
I get back to the Dakar area on the 7th, and I won't be posting again until then.
And that post was really disorganized, and written very haphazardly.
Our pieces aren't quite ready yet, as the imperfections and extraneous pieces need to be ground off, but we'll have them back after we return from Kedougou. I made an attaya glass, a bracelet ($10 says I never wear it) and a Kora player that I'm pretty proud of.
We also got our clothes back from the tailor, and I'm about as happy with the results as I could possibly be. A custom-tailored shirt for $12? Yes, indeed. Pictures to come later. Maybe in the form of a Picasa web album. I don't know.
We leave bright and early tomorrow for Kedougou, and I'm super excited to do some hiking, see some waterfalls and have another awesome village experience. I got placed with Elizabeth in the village of Etchwar, which sits atop a mountain. The people living there are of the Badik ethnic minority, and they're Christian animists, which should be really interesting to see. I've been told to expect a lot of palm wine.
Also, as I've been told that Kedougou and the surrounding regions are incredibly hot, I decided to shave off my beard. It's so much cooler already.
I get back to the Dakar area on the 7th, and I won't be posting again until then.
And that post was really disorganized, and written very haphazardly.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
What's been up
It's been a fairly quiet week since coming back to Dakar. It turns out there's an ex-pat ultimate Frisbee group that gets together every Thursday, so I'm going to try to make it to that this week now that I have some athletic footwear (and theoretically some free time).
Last night, we decided to take our first venture into Dakar's nightlife. Coincidentally, it also poured rain for the first time this month. We ate dinner at Just4U, a restaurant/bar/club that's supposed to be "the place to go" for live music in Dakar. Around 10:30 or so, a guy started playing some mellow stuff on guitar. I wanted to stick around, but everybody else had other plans in mind. We ended up going to a place called Pharaoh's Beach (no cover charge!), which was tucked behind the artisan market that Milo and I got ripped off at earlier when doing our study on recycled art. After crossing flooded alleyways on makeshift bridges (milk crates and wooden planks), we managed to make our way into the club. It was actually quite a cool place--We were seated out on a pier overlooking the ocean. It wasn't until around 1:30 that people actually started showing up and dancing, and by the time I left (about 2:30), things were really only starting to get underway. Basically, people party really late in this city. It fascinates me that people can sleep in so late the following day, too, given the intense heat that starts once the sun comes up.
Also, the gender ratio in that club was hilariously disproportionate. There were probably 10 men to every woman.
Tomorrow, we start our music and dance workshops. I've elected to learn Kora, a harp-like instrument. I'm really looking forward to it.
Last night, we decided to take our first venture into Dakar's nightlife. Coincidentally, it also poured rain for the first time this month. We ate dinner at Just4U, a restaurant/bar/club that's supposed to be "the place to go" for live music in Dakar. Around 10:30 or so, a guy started playing some mellow stuff on guitar. I wanted to stick around, but everybody else had other plans in mind. We ended up going to a place called Pharaoh's Beach (no cover charge!), which was tucked behind the artisan market that Milo and I got ripped off at earlier when doing our study on recycled art. After crossing flooded alleyways on makeshift bridges (milk crates and wooden planks), we managed to make our way into the club. It was actually quite a cool place--We were seated out on a pier overlooking the ocean. It wasn't until around 1:30 that people actually started showing up and dancing, and by the time I left (about 2:30), things were really only starting to get underway. Basically, people party really late in this city. It fascinates me that people can sleep in so late the following day, too, given the intense heat that starts once the sun comes up.
Also, the gender ratio in that club was hilariously disproportionate. There were probably 10 men to every woman.
Tomorrow, we start our music and dance workshops. I've elected to learn Kora, a harp-like instrument. I'm really looking forward to it.
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