The average Peace Corps volunteer is a avid reader. on the low end of the spectrum you may have a few volunteers who, read 2 books. On the higher end, over 100. Me I made it to 42 books, in my service. Here is the list and ones I liked will have a *. Ones that i didn't like will have a x.
Order read
2007
"Orphans of the Sky" Heinlein *
"A coffin for Dimirius" x
"The Count of Monte Cristo" Dumass *
"Captain Courageous" x
"The Chosen" Potok *
"A Million little Pieces" Fraye *
"The Book of Guys" Keillor
"The Discomfort Zone" Franzen x
"The Fountainhead" Rand **
2008
"Puppet Masters" Heinlein *
"Into the Wild" Krakauer *
"The Metamorphosis" Kafka
"The Agony and the Ecstasy" Irvingstone *
"A Confederacy of Dunces" Tode *
"Life of Pi" Martel*
"Exodus" Uris *
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" Twain **
"A Farewell to Arms" Hemingway **
"The Three Musketeers" Dumass **
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" Chabon **
"Fahrenheit 451" Bradburry
"Blood Meridian" McCarthy*
"Catch 22" Heller *
"Grapes of Wrath" Steinbeck *
"East of Eden" Steinbeck
"Rant" Palahniuk x
"Naked" Sedaris **
"Kite Runner" Hosseini
"Barrel Fever" Sedaris
"Motherless Brooklyn" Lothem
"The Last of the Just" Schwatz-Bart *
"The Mysteries of Pittsburg" Chabon
2009
"The Final Solution" Chabon *
"Deep Survival" Gonzales
"Old Man and the Sea" Hemingway *
"The Devil in a White City" Larson **
"His Excellency" Ellis *
"The Alchemist" Coelho
"A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" Smith x
"Dress your Family in Quadaroy" Sedaris
"American Pastoral" Roth *
"The Things they carried" Obrien *
"Everyman" Roth
I am currently reading "Shogun' and I wont be done any time soon.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Good Versus Evil
Here is my question too you. What makes a person good as opposed to evil, or not good? Is it a clear straightforward answer, a set of guidelines that we all need to follow in order to be considered good people? For instance, should we all be people who live peacefully and not fight? Should we love our entire family unconditionally? Should we love our spouse and none other? I guess what I am saying is this has been a question for me the last two years. What makes a good person?
In the eyes of my community people are very religious and follow the five pillars of faith. Along with doing this they pray daily (for the most part) and they also give charity everyday. Does this all make them good people, or does the fact that the men can have multiple wives and as many girlfriends as they want contradict that point? What is the difference between culture and deviance? I try to help people every day, I try to treat everyone with respect, but i don't pray, so I am a sinner. I am a good person, but bad at the same time.
I guess what I think is that it is cultural and all we have is our morals and our beliefs. I know a man in my community that has helped countless people in the xommunity. He gives money, time, and food to all who needs it. Recently he was deffected to another town to be a schools principle and several of the town citizens petitioned him leaving, saying it would be a hardship for the community. Is he a good person, even though he only does these things to raise his status in the community? He uses people with more money to get his status up. So on one hand he is a hero in the community but he tries to manipulate people to get more than he needs. Where does he fall? To the poor he is a good person and to the rich he is a pain who sleeps with 14 year old girls.
If i'm not being clear, I am going to lay it on the line. For you, who believe in Heaven, what makes you a good person to get into heaven? Is it your personal values or is there a higher rule of values and morals. Second, if you don't believe in Heaven, what qualifies a good person, is it a set of cultural standards, or is it a set of Universal standards we can on live by?
Don't worry about me, I know what I, but what are you?
In the eyes of my community people are very religious and follow the five pillars of faith. Along with doing this they pray daily (for the most part) and they also give charity everyday. Does this all make them good people, or does the fact that the men can have multiple wives and as many girlfriends as they want contradict that point? What is the difference between culture and deviance? I try to help people every day, I try to treat everyone with respect, but i don't pray, so I am a sinner. I am a good person, but bad at the same time.
I guess what I think is that it is cultural and all we have is our morals and our beliefs. I know a man in my community that has helped countless people in the xommunity. He gives money, time, and food to all who needs it. Recently he was deffected to another town to be a schools principle and several of the town citizens petitioned him leaving, saying it would be a hardship for the community. Is he a good person, even though he only does these things to raise his status in the community? He uses people with more money to get his status up. So on one hand he is a hero in the community but he tries to manipulate people to get more than he needs. Where does he fall? To the poor he is a good person and to the rich he is a pain who sleeps with 14 year old girls.
If i'm not being clear, I am going to lay it on the line. For you, who believe in Heaven, what makes you a good person to get into heaven? Is it your personal values or is there a higher rule of values and morals. Second, if you don't believe in Heaven, what qualifies a good person, is it a set of cultural standards, or is it a set of Universal standards we can on live by?
Don't worry about me, I know what I, but what are you?
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Ohhh no
I was returning home, after my sunset run when I noticed three of my Talibe friends wearing a special outfit. They were all wearing a white robe with a pointed hood. As Americans, we know what this looks like to us, but to the Senegalese it means something completely different. These three boys are going to be circumcised within the next week. I went over to speak to the boys and asked what they were up too. The smallest of the group made a hand gesture, that they were about to cut his penis off. After the hand gesture I covered my mouth and made a gasping sound. All the boys were laughing, including the children in the white robes. Well, in about a week, they wont be laughing anymore. By the way, the children in the robes were from 4 years of age to 10. I would imagine, if you are 10, this will probably stick with you the rest of your life and make you want to have your children cut at a much younger age.
Djiby over and out.
Djiby over and out.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Education
Today I was speaking with my good friend, Elhadj Samb. I asked him how far did he go in school. He told me how he took the baccalaureate test twice and failed both times, so he was unable to go to University. Even though he didn't go to University that hasn't stopped him from becoming proficient in English, French, and math. What is even more interesting is that Samb's best friend in the community is the Principal of one of the Elementary schools in my town. Every day the principal comes over and Samb explains to him how he needs to do the grading and what to look for in the papers. I just thought it was interesting, how a guy who didn't finish high school is helping run a school and the guy who runs the school and went to University is unable to do the work. What does it say about the system? On the other hand, maybe it says something about Samb as a human and maturing. I don't know, it just was interesting to me.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Education
I will start this long overdue blog with a quick update. Early is still alive and well. His wounds have healed and he is now obsessed with me more than ever. He comes by the house everyday at 7 to see what I am doing and makes sure to stop by after lunch. It has been a little tiring now, but it does make me happy to see him. He also has been giving me several hugs everyday.
I am officially registered for classes at the University of Maryland and I have an orientation starting on the 26th of August, which puts a heavy restriction on my time line to leave Senegal, since the first date possible is the 12th of August. Overall I am very excited to have classes and look forward to the next challenge.
I wanted to spend this blog talking about education and some of the problems that is being faced. The other day, two students came up to me and asked I could give them some help with their math homework. I accepted and that night we sat down to solve a few problems. To start with, this kids didn't show up with pens, or paper, so I had to give them some supplies to borrow. The first question reads as follows. A man buys 7 meters of fabric at 5,000cfa and he sells one meter at 1200cfa. What will be his profit he sells all seven meters?
I start by just telling the kid to do the problem. He isn't sure how to do it and I can understand for a 13 year old, word problems in your 3rd language can be difficult. We go step by step and I ask him to do the division to find out how much one meter of fabric cost. They are unable to do the math so I help them out then ask them to subtract the cost of one meter and the amount sold for. This is the part I start to get really concerned. He is trying to do the math, but is having problems, with carrying the one. I explain how to do the subtraction and they still can't get it. So I just set up a simple subtraction problem and 7-2 and they gave me the wrong answer. I just begin to look at the kid and I have no idea how I am able to help these kids with their homework. I had to turn the kid away and say I am unable to help. I felt as if I would just be doing the homework and he would learn nothing.
Here there seems to be a cycle of kids not getting help with school so they fail. Once they fail, they feel as if they aren't any good and act out. An advantage we have in the United States is that we help our children learn, and if we don't sometimes there are other places for them to go to. That is not an option for these children. The other main problem is the kids in my area speak a different language than most of their teachers. So when they are learning they aren't able to pick up routine lessons at a young age and they fall back.
I am officially registered for classes at the University of Maryland and I have an orientation starting on the 26th of August, which puts a heavy restriction on my time line to leave Senegal, since the first date possible is the 12th of August. Overall I am very excited to have classes and look forward to the next challenge.
I wanted to spend this blog talking about education and some of the problems that is being faced. The other day, two students came up to me and asked I could give them some help with their math homework. I accepted and that night we sat down to solve a few problems. To start with, this kids didn't show up with pens, or paper, so I had to give them some supplies to borrow. The first question reads as follows. A man buys 7 meters of fabric at 5,000cfa and he sells one meter at 1200cfa. What will be his profit he sells all seven meters?
I start by just telling the kid to do the problem. He isn't sure how to do it and I can understand for a 13 year old, word problems in your 3rd language can be difficult. We go step by step and I ask him to do the division to find out how much one meter of fabric cost. They are unable to do the math so I help them out then ask them to subtract the cost of one meter and the amount sold for. This is the part I start to get really concerned. He is trying to do the math, but is having problems, with carrying the one. I explain how to do the subtraction and they still can't get it. So I just set up a simple subtraction problem and 7-2 and they gave me the wrong answer. I just begin to look at the kid and I have no idea how I am able to help these kids with their homework. I had to turn the kid away and say I am unable to help. I felt as if I would just be doing the homework and he would learn nothing.
Here there seems to be a cycle of kids not getting help with school so they fail. Once they fail, they feel as if they aren't any good and act out. An advantage we have in the United States is that we help our children learn, and if we don't sometimes there are other places for them to go to. That is not an option for these children. The other main problem is the kids in my area speak a different language than most of their teachers. So when they are learning they aren't able to pick up routine lessons at a young age and they fall back.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Hospital
Hey, I hope everyone is doing well and the weather isn't getting anyone down. The heat has started here and we are now getting days in the 100s. I am not a fan of the extreme heat so I have decided to take a vacation to Belgium to stay cool.
Any who, I wanted to tell you guys about how the health system works here and how treat medical problems. I know my intro is a little vague but I will try to go in depth about the situation I found myself in.
About three days ago, Early walks up to me and is limping bad. I ask him what has happened and he pulls up his left pant leg to show me. That morning he had fallen into a fire and lost about a hamburger buns amount of skin. It was blistered all around and was in very bad shape. I asked him, if his mom was going to take him to the doctor? He naturally said no. I took the initiative and tried to get some supplies to fix his burn up, until he could get to the doctor. Unfortunately he had a fit and ran away. I decided it wasn't for me to chase him down and force him to go to the hospital. I found the house he was hiding in and told the three women standing there what happened. They all freaked out when they saw what had happened, but they decided to let him leave and take care of it on his own.
Three days later, today, Early walks up to me wants to talk. I ask to see his leg, by this time it is turning white, green, and yellow, around the burn. I decided action had to be taken because obviously his mom wasn't going to handle this. I tried at first to bribe him with soda so we could get to the doctor. He said yes he would take a soda then go to the doctor. I went inside to get dressed and when I came out he was gone. I acted fast and found the house he was hiding in, I told the first lady I saw that, he had to go to the doctor and I would pay. With money as no option she grabbed Early by the arm and dragged him a few feet before he decided to go in silence.
Hospitals in Senegal aren't as bad as one may think, they are just very inefficient. To get in I payed the guard 100 cfa. After that we waited in a two hour line to see the only doctor available. When we walked into the room, the doctor asked several questions.
Q: How old is the kid?
A: 5 years old. (This was clearly wrong so I had to explain to the doctor that he is 8 and isn't in any school.)
Q: When did this happen?
A: Just this morning. (Once again the doctor saw through the lie and said that the leg wouldn't look like this if it happened this morning.)
Q: Are you the mother?
A: NO
By look at these questions and answers we can tell two things. One it was important for this lady to save the Early's mother from the embarrassment of being a bad mother. She claimed she was the big sister and was taking care of him. None of which is true. Second, culturally people are willing to say anything about important things such as age, in order to just have an answer. There is a difference in the amount of medicine you give to a 5 year old and an 8 year old. The girl who came was willing to say anything so she would look like the sister.
After our two minuets in the office, we get a prescription and have to go to the secretary. She writes out a receipt and I pay for the medicine. After I pay I go to the pharmacy, get the medicine and head back to the secretary so she can mark down all the info. Next we walk into the nurses office so he can bandage Early's leg up. We walk in and he says, "You have to go into town and get these other medicines so I can treat him." I leave, get my bike, ride the two K. Get the medicine, come back and see the nurse again.
The nurse bandages Early up, and we go home. On the way back we stop and get a soda. Unfortunately, they didn't give me instructions on the medicine and so I had to look in my book to find the prescription doses. After all of this, Early's mom walks in and says, sorry, she hadn't been at the house, which was a lie. Because the day before she sent a 7 year old to find me to come to the house and clean the wound. Either way I didn't care, I told here when he needs to take the medicine and I was Happy.
Afterwards, Early thanked me and that is all I wanted. He even got a soda out of it, so in the end, we all were happy.
Any who, I wanted to tell you guys about how the health system works here and how treat medical problems. I know my intro is a little vague but I will try to go in depth about the situation I found myself in.
About three days ago, Early walks up to me and is limping bad. I ask him what has happened and he pulls up his left pant leg to show me. That morning he had fallen into a fire and lost about a hamburger buns amount of skin. It was blistered all around and was in very bad shape. I asked him, if his mom was going to take him to the doctor? He naturally said no. I took the initiative and tried to get some supplies to fix his burn up, until he could get to the doctor. Unfortunately he had a fit and ran away. I decided it wasn't for me to chase him down and force him to go to the hospital. I found the house he was hiding in and told the three women standing there what happened. They all freaked out when they saw what had happened, but they decided to let him leave and take care of it on his own.
Three days later, today, Early walks up to me wants to talk. I ask to see his leg, by this time it is turning white, green, and yellow, around the burn. I decided action had to be taken because obviously his mom wasn't going to handle this. I tried at first to bribe him with soda so we could get to the doctor. He said yes he would take a soda then go to the doctor. I went inside to get dressed and when I came out he was gone. I acted fast and found the house he was hiding in, I told the first lady I saw that, he had to go to the doctor and I would pay. With money as no option she grabbed Early by the arm and dragged him a few feet before he decided to go in silence.
Hospitals in Senegal aren't as bad as one may think, they are just very inefficient. To get in I payed the guard 100 cfa. After that we waited in a two hour line to see the only doctor available. When we walked into the room, the doctor asked several questions.
Q: How old is the kid?
A: 5 years old. (This was clearly wrong so I had to explain to the doctor that he is 8 and isn't in any school.)
Q: When did this happen?
A: Just this morning. (Once again the doctor saw through the lie and said that the leg wouldn't look like this if it happened this morning.)
Q: Are you the mother?
A: NO
By look at these questions and answers we can tell two things. One it was important for this lady to save the Early's mother from the embarrassment of being a bad mother. She claimed she was the big sister and was taking care of him. None of which is true. Second, culturally people are willing to say anything about important things such as age, in order to just have an answer. There is a difference in the amount of medicine you give to a 5 year old and an 8 year old. The girl who came was willing to say anything so she would look like the sister.
After our two minuets in the office, we get a prescription and have to go to the secretary. She writes out a receipt and I pay for the medicine. After I pay I go to the pharmacy, get the medicine and head back to the secretary so she can mark down all the info. Next we walk into the nurses office so he can bandage Early's leg up. We walk in and he says, "You have to go into town and get these other medicines so I can treat him." I leave, get my bike, ride the two K. Get the medicine, come back and see the nurse again.
The nurse bandages Early up, and we go home. On the way back we stop and get a soda. Unfortunately, they didn't give me instructions on the medicine and so I had to look in my book to find the prescription doses. After all of this, Early's mom walks in and says, sorry, she hadn't been at the house, which was a lie. Because the day before she sent a 7 year old to find me to come to the house and clean the wound. Either way I didn't care, I told here when he needs to take the medicine and I was Happy.
Afterwards, Early thanked me and that is all I wanted. He even got a soda out of it, so in the end, we all were happy.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The value of saving
Saving is a principal some of us learn as a youth, others wish we had learned it as a youth, because now we are broke. A few days ago I was with Early and Adama, two 7 year old in my neighborhood. I was heading on out to meet my counterpart when Early reached in his pocket and showed me his 25cfa he just received. As soon as he held the piece up he demanded that I take him to the Maison Communal to play video games. Each game cost only 25cfa, which would alot him 3 minuets of fun. I explained I had to work first, but after we could go and play a game. On the long walk to my counterpart's house, Early pulled my hand and told me to stop. "I want to buy a candy Djiby." I tried to explain to him that if he bought candy now, he wouldn't have any money to play video games with. He looked at me and started chanting the word for video game. We continued until we got to another corner with a different store. Once again, "Djiby, stop, I want a candy." We went over the reason he should save his money once again and we continued on. After the fourth time, we finally go to the house, I had my meet and greet and my counterpart walked me out of her house. The first thing she said too me was, "Where are their shoes?" On the walk back all Early could talk about was playing video games and the different ones he would play. On the way back he ran into a store and to my surprise he came out not with candy, but another 25 piece. Early was working his young entrepreneurial skills to make some money for the video games. We finally got to the video game room and Early chose to play a Tekken fighting game. The only button on the machine that worked was the kick. Early quickly lost out to the computer, which had the capability to duck under the kick. After the two minuets Early looked a little sad and moved on to use his second 25cfa. It was a shooting game, with two pistols. M. Zeff let the other boy play also even without paying. The boys took the guns out of the holsters and started shooting at the targets. None of the boys hit one target and the game ended within a minuet. The kids just looked at each other in pure disappointment, but then I yelled shoot, shoot. The demo had come on and every single target got shot and then the next demo came on and so on. I watched the kids shoot at the demo for a good 10 minuets. They had the time of their lives and just wanted to keep on playing. Even though they weren't actually playing they had a great time and afterward all they would do was talk about who won the match.
So to get to the point, teach the value of saving, because in the end they will realize that they can eat candy for a second or they can parle that money to do something they have never done before. None of these kids have ever played video games, because they always spend their money right away. Also maybe these kids will grow up and have children, when they do they might even save enough money to but their kids shoes, instead of spending it right away on useless stuff.
So to get to the point, teach the value of saving, because in the end they will realize that they can eat candy for a second or they can parle that money to do something they have never done before. None of these kids have ever played video games, because they always spend their money right away. Also maybe these kids will grow up and have children, when they do they might even save enough money to but their kids shoes, instead of spending it right away on useless stuff.
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