The characters: Marie-Hèlene, Ussman Ndiaye, Corinn, A 20-something year-old woman, an 18-ish-year old soccer enthusiast named Ahmadou, the maid, Omar, and Pàppi.

The house itself was entered via a corridor aside a barbershop, which lead to an open-air courtyard. One ascended the stairs to the house’s first floor. There was no basement. The first floor consists of a kitchen, Corinn’s bedroom (always closed), a bathroom with a showerhead and floor-toilet, and a dining room/ living room area where the meals were eaten and the family congregated. The second floor consisted of five rooms. A bathroom (showerhead, sink, and a sit-down toilet), three bedrooms (one of which was ours), and the master suite (always closed) consisting of two rooms. The third floor was the roof. Omar and Pàppi were the adorable six and four-year olds, respectively. Unfortunately Pàppi had been stricken with Meningitis and no longer had control of his motor skills or his speech. He wore a red helmet on his head and was under the constant surveillance of the younger women in the household. The house was ruled by a matriarch: Marie-Hèlene, “La Reine”, called and ordered people around to do jobs at her leisure. Typically all of the women got younger men to do their bidding, except for Ussman, who was also considered an elder. I played cards with Omar the first day and Ahmadou one night when the power was out.  Corinn could usually be found on the roof, Marie-Helene on the couch watching TV, and I rarely saw Ussman. We also experienced during our stay cold-water bucket showers, a product of the lack of running water. There are so many things I could tell about the stay with the families that I simply cannot write them all down in detail: the endless fish, the lack of garbage, the mosquito nets, keys, courtyards, barber shops, “meetings”, water, bread, chocolate, meals, friends, planes, religions, Americans, go-fish, clotheslines, cadeaux, and candy, to name a myriad of family episodes. I hope that explains my choppy writing. We stayed with the families from Monday to Thursday, then Saturday night and Sunday morning. For the first stay we spent most of the days at the school St. Marie de Hamm, and for the second stay we toured the streets of Dakar. Although only lasting a short time, the experience I have had with my families will be unforgettable and has been a very important aspect of my Senegalese experience.

-Brian

Asalaa Malekum! Hey parents, hope all is well back home. Things are running smoothly across the Atlantic Ocean besides a few protests running against the Gov’t (don’t worry, we will get back to the US…eventually). In Senegal for the past three days, we have lived in a residential with a very sweet “mama” named Aida. Every morning, we hike a mile to the ACI Baobab Center from our home before heading to start our daily routine. Recently, we have been traveling by taxi to an international private school in Mariste, St Marie de Hann, which has students from 48 different nationalities!  The school is actually quite nicely put together, the students are from fee-paying families. Spending our days at the lower, middle and upper schools really has given us a feel for the nature of Senegalese students as well as their learning system.

Charlotte and I have spent most of our time with an excitable group of girls. They were open to welcoming us into their classrooms and their smiling faces helped us feel more comfortable with our surroundings. They loved hearing about the United States, and incessantly asked to hear stories from back home. Yesterday, they searched my mobile photos and were inquisitive about every single picture. It was funny because whenever they spotted a picture of a guy on my phone, I was mobbed with girls asking, “Is this your boyfriend!? He is cute!”. The girls, I noted, were very influenced by Western music and television as well. They are crazy about the legendary Justin Beiber, Selena Gomez, Harry Potter and the Twilight series (“Charlotte looks like Taylor Swift!”).  Another story I recall exemplifying their fondness for America, which made me laugh, was when one girl told me she called a random American number and screamed into the receiver: “This is my first time calling America!”

They were so overwhelmingly friendly, always happy to chat with us. After lunch yesterday, I taught them a card game from home and they taught me a card game that they play together in Senegal. I loved meeting these girls and interacting with them (we even friended some on facebook!)

Taking a step back and looking at the school as a whole, I could point to multiple differences from the school systems we know, which is based on the French education system. For instance, the classrooms were crowded with up to 30 students!  After class, the students quickly scooted out with their bags and had a break. They showed us around their campus during this period of time; they had an infirmary building, a garden, a playground, blacktops, a stage, and even a zoo, where we saw pelicans! The school was very large, accommodating about 1,500 students every day.

Before we departed from the school for our last time, we gave a presentation to three classes about what we had learned from Senegal. We skimmed over many topics such as the cultural values, how people interacted, food, and clothing. After our presentation, there was a question and answer section. All the kids shot up their hands and asked us factual questions like they were quizzing us! “What is our president’s name?”, “When is our independence day?”, etc. It was interesting to see that they emphasize facts over analysis, which is more what we are taught to do at home.

Seeing how the kids and education are structured in Senegal give us a feel for the overlying structure of their entire lifestyle. I love the contrasting values and traditions of the culture here and hope to experience more examples during the last stretch of our wonderful journey! Liza

The first thing we saw when we approached the Lac Rose was the resort, hardly the most notable aspect, not because it was lacking in charm but rather the other things we saw were much grander. Right after arriving and settling into our modified tribal huts, we had a lunch a lunch of Yassa Poulet, chicken in spicy onion sauce and had our praises sung by a kora player. This was basically a vacation within a vacation and there was a sense of relaxation with a touch of luxury. After enjoying lunch and the general atmosphere we began an open air truck to ride around the lac rose. The lake gets its name from the color of its minerals. The lake has 10% more salt than sea water because the salt saturates the water and settles as deposits which many have chosen to harvest. These salt collectors take pirogues, small longboats, out onto the lake and use long instruments to scrape the salt from the lake bed. The result of this collection can be seen on the4 shores where enormous mounds of sand have been made by the women. We first stopped at one of these collection points to observe the lake more closely and experienced the awkwardness of being asked to buy things by women in colorful pagnes and with baskets on their head. If you take a picture of the locals and accept “free” gifts it’s sad not to oblige and have to tell them you don’t have any money on you. The women gave us their addresses to send the photos to them which made us feel suitably guilty.

We then arrived at the dunes: this was a majestic, epic experience of great beauty. The vast landscape just feels endless. It really gives you the sense of the desert and you feel one with the scenery. We stopped at an oasis and then reached the sea which was a profound experience in itself. You hear the roaring of the waves but can’t identify what it is at first until you go over the top of the dune and see the ocean. It is magnificent. Although these words might seem generic they truly describe what I felt. We stopped at the ocean and simply took in the grandeur and the beauty while listening to Riders on the Storm. Back at our resort we chilled,or read and then had dinner which consisted of poisson frites. Then Brian, me, Cole and Mme. Mapstone got the cards out and played hearts again but this time with Thomas, our fun and relaxed Wolof teacher. He had been to Vegas and there was a slight disparity between his and our skills.

The next morning we enjoyed petits pains and confiture and then set off for the beach by foot across the dunes. All the experience of the grandeur was felt ten fold more on foot than in the truck. Then we returned to Dakar and met our families with whom we were to stay for the first time. Jackson

Saturday:

Gorée is two things: an artist colony and a point from which many of the 12-15 million slaves from French West Africa were exported to America, the Caribbean and Europe. Other things have developed on the isle since such as restaurants, museums and artisan markets. But the art and the museum are the two main points of attraction.  When we disembarked from the ferry, we headed straight for the Musée des Esclaves. Fatih and Tsiaba, our guides for the day, taught us the history of the building, the treatment of its past inhabitants, including the Porte Sans Retour, through which the slaves boarded the outward-bound ships, tout en français bien sûr, After, we ate lunch while entertained by a Kora player. We then visited the Museum of Women, the History Museum and the bijouterie and got assailed by street merchants brandishing their merchandise. Jackson, Madame Mapstone and I ascended the steep hill to the artist colony while the girls, guides included, shopped in the artisan market. The sides of the streets leading to the summit are lined with brightly colored art work, multi-media pieces made from recycled materials, sparkling jewelry and enthusiastic merchants who solicit our attention; wherever we go, the merchants follow. The artist colony itself was at the top of the hill where Jackson and I met Oscar, an artist who had made his home out of an abandoned, underground colonial bunker. Oscar gave is a tour of his dwelling, introduced us to his family and invited us to tea that night, although we had to leave on the next ferry, unfortunately. This hospitality to a complete stranger, let alone a Toubab, is the embodiment of the Senegalese core value of Teranga. After capturing a lizard on film, we set off back on the next ferry to bustling Dakar. Brian

As soon as we stepped into the Centre Baobab, our first Wolof class began. Wolof is the language spoken around Dakar so it’s really helpful when speaking with the local Senegalese, who also speak French. At first we learned the long greeting ritual, later we learned more vocabulary and verbs. This was not at all boring but an exciting, helpful class. Apart from Wolof, we also learned about Senegalese culture and values. Our teacher started the class with a “cultural iceberg.” This exemplified that when you visit another country you only ever see the behavior of people: words and actions. The largest part of the iceberg which is underwater represents beliefs, values and assumptions. We don’t usually see this side when we visit other places. Fortunately we are getting to experience the underwater part of the iceberg: we are learning from the Senegalese about the different types of respect you show towards your family and elders; we learned about the importance in Senegalese society of being humble and patient. So far this has been a great trip that has taught me many things. Alhamdulillay! Charlotte

  

 

 

                                             

 

We arrived in Dakar at dawn and went to our hotel apartments in Coumba Ndao where we had breakfast which consisted of baguette from the bakery across the road, cheese, jellies, chocolate, coffee and sugar. Looking down from our balcony into the street, we see a busy store, sand, women in pagnes, often carrying heavy loads on their heads, and a relatively constant flow of cars, taxis and mopeds. After a nap we had lunch consisting of perch, spicy onion and white rice. This fish dish, Thieboudienne, is the traditional Senegalese meal and it is delicious. We then set off for the Baobab Center. The heat and the odors combined with the abundance of sand, street dogs and construction give Dakar the appearance of a Caribbean island. We had an introductory meeting to learn of all the services the center provides and then studied Wolof. Then back to dinner which was bread, spicy beef stew with potatoes and peas. Everything we’ve eaten here has been delicious and everything has been fun. Brian