Entry #3

March 30, 2009

Nanga def? Numu Demee? Bonjour mes amis!

Thank you to everyone who has been in contact through email/snailmail! I love hearing from you!

Hello again from Senegal, things here are all going well! The trip to Kedougou a few weeks ago went really well and was definitely an interesting and exciting experience. We all piled into the SIT tour bus for a long trip southeast across the country which probably took about 20 hours in total each way. Besides the lack of circulation in the bus, the ride there and back was actually really fun and relaxing. It was good to have time to just chat, read, write, and look out the window. Most of the landscape was pretty dry and dull but the colorful clothing and fabrics of all the men and women we passed more than made up for the lack of color in the natural landscape.

Kedougou is a pretty large town in the far south east but is fairly removed from any sort of big development and is surrounded by various rural villages of ethnic minorities. Our group of 21 kids was split up into 6 groups and sent to spend a few days living with host families in the villages. Along with two other girls on my trip, I ended up living with the Peul Fouta ethnic group, who are farmers and herders and who migrated to Senegal from Guinea in the 1930s. The village had no running water or electricity, but I would say the biggest challenge was the intense heat (around or over 100 degrees F everyday) which made everyone pretty lethargic. We spent the three days doing various activities with the people in the village- taking a tour of the village and all the compounds, traversing the Gambia river, exploring the fields and gardens, helping a bit with the cooking and laundry, playing soccer, teaching card games, entertaining the children, watching my host mother milk a cow, and of course preparing tea and chatting for hours. We also picked up a few phrases in Pulaar, which is the language spoken by all of the Peul and is similar to Wolof in the sense that both languages have Arabic roots.

I really enjoyed my time spent in the village and met a lot of really warm and welcoming people. It was great to see a different way of life and to have a change of scenery from the bustling streets of Dakar. Besides spending time in the village, the group had several days to explore the area around Kedougou together. One day we drove along a dusty dirt road in the back of a pick up truck to a beautiful waterfall two hours away. It felt like paradise swimming in the cold clear water and having a picnic with sandwiches and hibiscus and baobab juice! We went on a few hikes to different villages that were built on the top of nearby mountains and also had some time in the market to look around and buy some of the local indigo dyed fabric.

Though the trip was great, its great being back in Dakar and getting back into a routine. I missed my host family here and gave everyone a big hug when I got home! Last week we had more drumming and dance classes, and this week we had art workshops. Every afternoon I got to experiment with different Batik techniques. Batik is when hot wax is put on fabric in different designs and then dyed different colors—the final product looks a little bit like African tie dye.

This week we also got 4 new students from the SIT Madagascar program who had to be evacuated due to the political unrest. They are all really nice people, though I am sure are feeling overwhelmed about everything that has happened the past week. Overall, we’re really happy to have them, and I think they’re happy to be here finishing their semester abroad.

Not much else is new here, the semester is flying by and it’s already almost time for our independent study project. I’m definitely stressing about that a bit because I’ve changed my mind so many time sand can’t really decide on what I exactly want to study. Next week we leave for another village stay and then head up to St. Louis for some lessons in French colonial history! I’m excited for another trip and to have the opportunity to see a different part of the country.

Please write back and let me know how you all are doing! I love hearing from you and also looove getting letters…thanks for all the mail! I miss and love you and think about you all the time, and can’t wait to show you pictures and share more stories!