Where one thing ends, another begins

I remember senior year in high school, sitting in the parking lot, probably about to grab some McDonalds before french class with Madame Touzeau. This was during that time of my life where med school was still being considered, where Doctors Without Borders was something I was still working towards, when I believed that absolute truth existed, and when I still ate at McDonalds. On that day, a friend said to me that he would rather much be a mechanic than a doctor. Unlike dotors, he said, mechanics actually knew what was wrong with their patient. Mechanics who've built their cars from scratch know the bodies of their car inside and out; doctors on the other hand, have been trying all throughout history to map out the human body only to be able to give an educated guess to the functioning or "malfunctioning" of the human body.

His words perfectly capture my adventure to the hospital on Friday. I paid 28,000 fCFA to hear a doctor tell me that my blood test came out negative for Malaria. Instead, he said, I had some sort of infection.. what it was, he did not know; he said maybe bronchitis. Then, I paid another 10,000 fCFA or so to get antibiotics and such to cure this ambiguous infection. Including cab fee, the aforementioned charges, and doctor's fee and whatever else Ive forgotten to mention, I basically paid 65,900 fCFAs total to find out that I did not have malaria.

On a completely different note, I am now no longer living in Dakar. Im in Sebi right now, at yet another internet cafe. The house that im staying at has a garden of banana, mango, lime, and guava trees. The family Im living with is astronomically larger than mine in Dakar, but equally as friendly, if not more talkative. I wont say how many family members there are because that's breaking a senegalese superstition, and even if i did try to count, I would not have a number to tell you because there are so many people that walk in and out that I dont know whos a neighbor and whos a hostsibling. Lets just say that I dont have a double digit number of siblings, but its up there.

I was the first to get dropped off of all the students, and probably the first to start work as well. No one was supposed to start at their perspective internships until tomorrow, but the minute I dropped my bag off at home, I was out the door again to the clinic to start my first day of work because thats what my supervisor requested last minute-- literally, when I got there this morning. There, I probably spoke more Wolof than Ive ever spoken in all my time at Dakar. The doctor, my supervisor, had me sit in on all his consultations and get each patients prelim info using Wolof.

I was also told that I would need to learn another language, the local dialect here is apparent neither French nor Wolof but Sereer, and more specifically the dialect of Saffe. I havent even gotten really all that far past salutations, numbers, and body parts in Wolof... I dont know how ready I am to pick up something new... but hey, im open to anything.

After lunch, we sat underneath the lime trees in the backyard. There are six lime trees. They provided a beautiful canopy of shade for what is probably going to be the beginning of another exciting adventure in Senegal.

Kids

On Sunday, I went to mass with my host family. I spent the entire time trying my hardest not to laugh. In fact, through my efforts, I think Ive officially come up with a list of topics that can distract my thoughts from almost anything. Anyways, why I was laughing: At the beginning of mass, my host brother who was sitting next to me rested his head on my shoulder and within seconds, he fell asleep. It was cute. A few minutes later, I felt Julien's head slipping, but I assumed he'd do the typical head bob bit. Instead, he continued to slump over and almost fell out of his seat. Luckily, I caught him before his head hit the ground. He did not wake up during any of this. In the process of falling, the money he was going to give for offering fell out of his pocket which I eventually slipped back in for him. He had been super excited to give money to "senor Jesus" earlier in the day, its a shame he couldn't stay awake to do so. When we got home, he woke up and asked why we weren't at mass anymore. When he finally realized that he missed on giving money to "senor Jesus", he started to cry. For the remainder of the night, the house was filled with the screams as Julien threw a tantrum over the fact that he slept through offering.

Friday night was the birthday party for the favorite son, Yves. (Yves had actually turned three on Tuesday, but we could not celebrate his birthday then because it was a school night.) When it came time to light the candles, we gathered all the children around the table. We then lit the candles and started to sing happy birthday. Yves decided to sing along as well, despite the fact that it was his birthday. Before we got to the second "joyeuse anniversaire," one of the little girls standing around the table blew out the candles. Yves didn't really notice though because he was so wrapped up in singing happy birthday to himself. One of the adults standing around the table rushed to relight the cake before the song was over, while another held the little girl back. When we finished singing, everyone started to clap and Yves blew out his three birthday candles. We cut up the cake, distributed pieces-- it was delicious. For whatever reason, one of the families who attended the party had decided to bring a cake... another one on top of what we already had. And for whatever reason, my host famil decided not to light both cakes together. Therefore, we took candles the little girl and Yves had just blown out, stuck them in the second cake, lit the candles, and started to sing happy birthday again.

As the birthday party started to wind down, Yves came over to where was I reclining on the couch. He laid on top of me, resting his head on my chest. He then proceeded to give me a hug, look up at me and smile, then give me another hug, look up at me and smile again, and so forth. After a while, as if that took all the energy out of him, his eyelids started to grow heavy and he fell asleep on my chest. It was so cute I almost died.

Before I left for a weekend trip to Toubacouta a few weeks ago, I was at my host family's house packing. I had just gotten out of the shower and walked into my room. Julien stormed in and started to stomp on my feet. I said rather loudly, "what are you doing?" in French, which caused my host parents to scream from the living room, "what is he doing, what is he doing?" Julien then stopped, looked at me, then turned his head in the direction of his parents' voices and yelled back, "why are you hitting me? why are you hitting me? youre always hitting me with your hands! dorothy's hitting me!" I have never raise a hand to him before in my life.

Random things to know about Senegal

• people drive on the right side of the road
• pedestrians do not have the right of way
• turning circles are far more frequently found than traffic lights
• iced bissap makes a good just about almost makes up for my slurpie/popsicle deprivation
  
• the official language is French
• the most commonly spoken language is Wolof
• Wolof is a spoken language, not a written (hence my difficulty in learning it)
• I have yet to find wheat bread
• the Senegalese eat a typical French breakfast of baguette, cafe au lait, and whatever spread you choose (usually either butter, chocolate, or cheese)
• Baguettes are served with just about every meal
• Vegetables are typical added into dishes when being prepared, but taken out before served
• Rice is as much of a staple to the Senegal diet as baguettes and fish
• the last school year was almost wiped out because the professors were on strike so often
• the professors went on strike last year because the government wasn't fully paying them
• the government pays for school, therefore college education is virtually free
• mango season ended in september, if not earlier
• even with mango season over, you can still find some mangos which are still delicious
• school started this week, in October.
• You must greet and shake each persons hand when entering a room
• electricity and water do not run on a regular basis
• a lot of riots have broken out recently because President Wade did not follow through with his problem to fix this electricity problem
• pointy, closed-toed shoes are very popular
• almost all jewelry that ive seen comes from China

...Will add more later, feel free to comment with additions.

Orphans, Refugees, and Riots

Yesterday I visited an orphange and refugee...place with my public health class.

The orphanage accepts children who have been abandoned or children whos parents are curently too sick to take care of them. Parents who send their children to what I felt was a fuckign nice facility (nicest thing Ive seen in Dakar thus far) pay 10,000 CFAs a month or 5,000 CFAs if they arent as financially equipped.

The refugee... facility (sorry for the lack of a proper title) that we visited takes roughly 25 kids at a time. When we visited, there were 27 kids on the housing list. The kids have arrived at the door asking for what is basically asylum for one reason or another, but for the most part they have run away from their (most likely corrupt) Marabou (Islamic teacher/caretaker).

While we were there, a riot broke out in the streets. We were taking a tour of the place and just so happened to be on the top floor by a window when chaos first started to ensue. At first, I saw a lot of men running in one direction. Then, a truck came to an abrupt stop right before our building and some men jumped out of the back bed (it was a pickup truck) while others fell out. It wasn't a gentle tumble off the pickup truck so much as them falling so fard no their sides that I gasped outloud and almost even screamed.

I dont know if the truck was shipping people to riot or if the men getting out of the truck were trying to run from the riot. All I know is that my attention was quickly diverted to the sound of rocks ebing thrown at the building two or three down from us. In the streets, fights were breaking out and an increasing amount of really, really large rocks (arguably large concrete slabs) were being thrown. People were yelling at each other while others were screaming and running in fear.

A guard came fairly quickly and took a baton and beat a man. Then more guards came and the crowd dispersed some. A lot ran down this ally-way diagonal from the building in which we were standing. A guard stood at that entrance while a continuous stream of rocks were being thrown at him. He eventually vanished nito the direction from which the rocks came from only to be replaced by an emerging white smoke.

All the bystanders beneath our building at ground level started to cough and cover their faces; I assule that that guard sprayed tear gas. Once the cloud thinned out some, all the vendors came back and started setting up shop.

Then, the rioting men came back. This time, they started throwing rocks at the building next to us. It was so close that we backed away from teh window in fear of getting hit by a stray. Then the swat team came in.

All this rioting apparently was over a community soccer game. The losing team was throwing rocks at the side of teh street of the winning team. Apparently the street divided the two rivalring quartiers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Shana and Allison, too, were caught in the middle of a riot. Theres was a bit more severe from the sounds of it. People were lighting things on fire to protest the constant power outages.

I dont have any pictures from this day, so instead, ill put up random other things.

li nga begg dafa yomb

"li nga begg dafa yomb" is a sarcastic comment that when literally translated, means what you want is easy.

This weekend I went to Toubacouta with the program; from saturday until tuesday we travelled with a group of local university students around and between villages. They, the UCAD students, were all guys. This really changed the dynamic of our group, but I liked it. Ive never been the type to hang around as many girls as I am right now with MSID. I guess guys are just more easy going.

Anyways, a melfoqine update: I took my pill Monday and it fucking drove me insane from that point on in the trip. That is actually a horrible exaggeration, but I basically was high when I didnt want to be. I was feeling especially bad that first morning which unfortunately coincided with our visit to rural villages. We were going in groups of four to six to talk with womens groups about their projects and to write grant proposals for them. I guess my eagerness to do this somehow mustered up the energy and concentration to function for a few hours... thankfully.

Jappam Ma Jaap is what theyre group name is called, which stands for solidarity between us. They are a group of forty women who work three months of the year cultivating peanuts and selling them at markets and to the government to raise money for their village, Keur Moussa Seny. Everything that is raised goes towards chairs for community meetings, towards building fortified structures (which they have exactly two of that i saw), and towards funding community events. They need more funding to more adequately or efficiently farm; unfortunately, they do not have the human resource to write out a proposal--- they speak Wolof and the official language in Senegal is French. And thats where we came in! With the help of a translator, we asked them questions that would help us write the proposal. So basically, we would ask the translator a question in French, he would ask the group that same question in Wolof, and then get a response. It was a long but, for a lack of better words, interesting process.

We also visited a lot of different resources in the community like a health clinic; we also talked to an official who administered the village's fishing industry. The man at the clinic told us about how mosquito nets have decreased the number of Malaria cases each year; this has been achieved especially so because of NGOs who help supply a great portion of the cost of each mosquito net so that the villagers can afford it. Also, to see the doctor, one has to pay what I remember to be aroudn 300 cfas, which is a little over 50 cents USD. Often, when someone doesnt have that amount of money, someone in the community will help them or the community will pool together the money.

Speaking of people helping people, apparently the Japanese do a lot to help the fishing industry over here. They provide boats and necessary machinery as well as education concerning fishing. From what I gathered, I dont think that the Japanese benefit (monetarily) much, if at all.

In our down time, we hung out with the university students and talked, made attaya, and played card games. We taught the university students how to play ERS. Every time a sandwich would come up, they'd scream out "hamburg!"

On another note, so far, a bottle of bug spray (100% deet) and a banana have exploded on my moleskin. Its not in good shape, whatsoever. The outside binding is already starting to tear apart, major league sad face.

Aside from this weekend, Ive been up to my normal routine. We have a ton of papers due in the next week or so and "exams" as well, but not enough power or internet access to prepare for them, as usual.

The other day in Wolof class, the professor was telling us about English phrases he'd learned from peace corps volunteers. One went, "Hows it hanging?" to which you respond "like a trumpet. Wanna blow it?" Oh, Americans.

In the public health class that Im taking, the professor referenced using armbands to measure children's health to see if they are malnurished. I got, of course, extremely excited when I heard this because these were the same arm bands that we (Grinnellians for Global Health) were handing out last year to promote Doctors Without Borders.

While Im throwing out random "stories"-- once again, my English vernacular has greatly diminished-- I usually fall asleep and wake up to the sound of three goats. I know that there are three because they have all very distinctive "baa"-ing sounds. After Korité (which I will update on in a later date when im feeling ambitious), I woke up by the sound of two. Major leauge sad face, number two.

Amy is awesome.