Book: Still on “The Fountainhead” by far one of the best books I have ever read. If you have read it you know what I am talking about.
Song:
So this is a special report about my Tabaski. Since most people don’t know about it I figured I will tell you about my day. It started at 10 when my father and brothers got back from the mosque. They took about 7 knives and dug a whole in the ground. We got the family together and put the got onto the ground next to the whole. I was watching and then they told me to come over because I needed to help. At this point I felt as if I just wanted to watch and not really take part of the Tabaski sacrifice. I knelt down at the rear of the goat and put all of my weight down on the struggling animal. I looked up at the animal struggling and looked back down at the goats torso and saw it urinating all over the ground in front of me. Then I looked up and blood was flowing from the neck. My stomach felt like a hollow well. After the throat was slit I had to hang on because the body was twitching and I could feel every single breath rumbling out of the body. I would hqve to put this up with one of the most intense moments of my life.
After the animal was done twitching I was able to get up and then they skinned and dissected the animal. After we cut the animal up we started a BBQ and ate some good meat. After the BBQ we had breakfast which was meat with onions and mustard. A few hours later we ate boiled, deep fried goat with bread. Then for dinner we ate more boiled sheep. For breakfast the next day we ate a oil based soup with the brains, intestines, heart, and the stomach lining. It didn’t taste to bad, but I didn’t eat much since I was able to identify each part of the insides.
After we ate lunch we hung around and got our outfits on and went to other people’s houses. I visited my counterparts house and ate fried goat which was a little furry and dry. I had orange soda with it, which made it all the better. After that I went back home and made my first pot of tea ever. I didn it and the first round wasn’t very good but the second round was excellent. For those of you who don’t know about Senegales tea, it is a long process which takes along time to make the tea. There is a special pouring technique thqt is necesairy to get a special formation of foam on the top of the glass. I spilled all over my self but now can make a descent glass. All of my hard work has paid off. That was a quick view of my Tabaski. I also went to a few dances at night in Dagana, but didn’t have too much fun. Every one was starring at me and pointing and laughing so that didn’t make me to happy. I still busted a move on the dance floor and my bollacast dancing is getting better. My brothers have been home a lot also so I am starting tio get to know a lot of the people who live in Dagana and I can’t leave the house without someone calling me over to speak to them. I never know who they are but they tell me that they know me and we meet the other day. It is hard to remember everyones name when you meet atleast 15 new people a day. Any who just wanted to say hi and hope everyone has a merry Xmas.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Longest day yet
Book: Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Song: The Way I Are by Timberland. Senegalese people love it, and I brought it.
5 ways I get woken up every day.
1: My alarm clock (Lame)
2: Children beating against my window yelling at me.
3: Goats, sheep, donkeys, and Roosters.
4: Some one banging the broom against my door while they sweep.
5: Host mom having long conversations at 6 am outside my window.
Any who, life is going here. I just recently had the busiest day ever in Senegal. I woke up at 9, which is kind of late for me, but I find it to be perfect. Woke up ate some bread with mustard on it. Had a quick little work out then showered. I was out of my house by 9:45 to go to the center of formation for women. I got their a little early greeted everyone there than realized the guy I was supposed to meet up with was probably still sleeping even though we made plans to meet at 10. It happened to me the day before also so it wasn’t a big surprise. I decided to walk back home when I ran into my cousin who was on her way to the market to buy lunch and dinner. I decided to join her on the walk that was over a k away. We went to the market, but before we could buy anything we had to return her hair extensions, which was impossible because, there are no recites and she went into every store asking that they take them back and give her the money back. Here are a few reasons no one gave her a refund. She tried returning it to stores she didn’t buy them from. She said she didn’t know which store she had bought it from. Second of all she just asks for money back and she comes up with an arbitrary number. Third no one is going to give you money three days before the big holiday in Senegal. Tabaski you buy new clothes for the family, kill a goat for dinner, and the whole family gets together. No one is going to give you money back. So after a half hour of wondering we go to the market and buy vegetables and fish for dinner. A quick description of the market; hundreds of women pushing to get to the vendors. It is like a farmers market in the US with everyone sitting on the floor and everything is sandy. So as I was getting pushed around a lady grabbed my arm, so I turn around like what the, and it was my counterpart. So she drags me away from the crowd and tells me to go find her house. She lives near the pharmacy and just ask there for her house. So after that brief interaction where she would only speak English because she wants to improve her English. (I only understood half of it.) I turn around and realize I can’t see my cousin anywhere. I go back into the market and finally find her at s stand buying beesap. We grab the basket and on the way back she stops in each store to sell back her extensions. At the end of the market we jump into a taxi, which consists of a two-wheel cart and an emaciated horse on the end of it. So we get a ride home, but I hate ridding in these taxis because the horses get beaten pretty good and for some reason the guy said he wanted to impress the American by beating the horse to a full gallop. Any who we get home and I walk straight back to the Center to meet my friend. We meet up and I use the free internet. Yes I said that. Free internet. When he finished his work we went to his house around 12. He lives past the marche (market) so it was a long walk. After we arrive we sat in his room from 12 to 3 just looking at photographs and discussing various things. That is what you do in Senegal. You put in your time and relax and that is how you build relationships. Every Senegalese person has a packet of photographs they will bring out when someone visits. Photos here are like gold and every house I go to people show me pictures. And the pictures are generally people standing straight not smiling. It is great. Donc at three we ate lunch, which was awkward because the uncle stared at me the whole time, which made me really uncomfortable. After lunch I hung out until 4 then went home took a shower left by 4:30 walked to my counterparts house where the family mostly only speaks Wolof. I spoke to my counterpart while she died her fingers and feet red. Kind of weird. We decided that tomorrow I would come by for a big lunch and spend the day together. She also told me that when people ask who my mother is that I say she was my mother. Kind of weird, but hey I can dig all of the love, only a foreigner can get. So I get home at 6:30 and just relax. I went to bed at 9:30 and am now typing this message. So that was Djiby’s day of craziness.
Song: The Way I Are by Timberland. Senegalese people love it, and I brought it.
5 ways I get woken up every day.
1: My alarm clock (Lame)
2: Children beating against my window yelling at me.
3: Goats, sheep, donkeys, and Roosters.
4: Some one banging the broom against my door while they sweep.
5: Host mom having long conversations at 6 am outside my window.
Any who, life is going here. I just recently had the busiest day ever in Senegal. I woke up at 9, which is kind of late for me, but I find it to be perfect. Woke up ate some bread with mustard on it. Had a quick little work out then showered. I was out of my house by 9:45 to go to the center of formation for women. I got their a little early greeted everyone there than realized the guy I was supposed to meet up with was probably still sleeping even though we made plans to meet at 10. It happened to me the day before also so it wasn’t a big surprise. I decided to walk back home when I ran into my cousin who was on her way to the market to buy lunch and dinner. I decided to join her on the walk that was over a k away. We went to the market, but before we could buy anything we had to return her hair extensions, which was impossible because, there are no recites and she went into every store asking that they take them back and give her the money back. Here are a few reasons no one gave her a refund. She tried returning it to stores she didn’t buy them from. She said she didn’t know which store she had bought it from. Second of all she just asks for money back and she comes up with an arbitrary number. Third no one is going to give you money three days before the big holiday in Senegal. Tabaski you buy new clothes for the family, kill a goat for dinner, and the whole family gets together. No one is going to give you money back. So after a half hour of wondering we go to the market and buy vegetables and fish for dinner. A quick description of the market; hundreds of women pushing to get to the vendors. It is like a farmers market in the US with everyone sitting on the floor and everything is sandy. So as I was getting pushed around a lady grabbed my arm, so I turn around like what the, and it was my counterpart. So she drags me away from the crowd and tells me to go find her house. She lives near the pharmacy and just ask there for her house. So after that brief interaction where she would only speak English because she wants to improve her English. (I only understood half of it.) I turn around and realize I can’t see my cousin anywhere. I go back into the market and finally find her at s stand buying beesap. We grab the basket and on the way back she stops in each store to sell back her extensions. At the end of the market we jump into a taxi, which consists of a two-wheel cart and an emaciated horse on the end of it. So we get a ride home, but I hate ridding in these taxis because the horses get beaten pretty good and for some reason the guy said he wanted to impress the American by beating the horse to a full gallop. Any who we get home and I walk straight back to the Center to meet my friend. We meet up and I use the free internet. Yes I said that. Free internet. When he finished his work we went to his house around 12. He lives past the marche (market) so it was a long walk. After we arrive we sat in his room from 12 to 3 just looking at photographs and discussing various things. That is what you do in Senegal. You put in your time and relax and that is how you build relationships. Every Senegalese person has a packet of photographs they will bring out when someone visits. Photos here are like gold and every house I go to people show me pictures. And the pictures are generally people standing straight not smiling. It is great. Donc at three we ate lunch, which was awkward because the uncle stared at me the whole time, which made me really uncomfortable. After lunch I hung out until 4 then went home took a shower left by 4:30 walked to my counterparts house where the family mostly only speaks Wolof. I spoke to my counterpart while she died her fingers and feet red. Kind of weird. We decided that tomorrow I would come by for a big lunch and spend the day together. She also told me that when people ask who my mother is that I say she was my mother. Kind of weird, but hey I can dig all of the love, only a foreigner can get. So I get home at 6:30 and just relax. I went to bed at 9:30 and am now typing this message. So that was Djiby’s day of craziness.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Dagana oh Dagana
Book: The Chosen by Chaim Potok,
A Million Little Pieces,
The Book of Guys,
The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen
and my French book is Ma Babouche Pour Toujours. (Don’t ask me what that means. I still need a dictioinary.) Alisa I think that you would really like “The Chosen” if you haven’t read it and Lea you will also like it, but only if you follow through with Birth Right.
Song: Since Your Gone, Josh Ritter. It makes me laugh. Thanks Katie!
Ten ways you know you are in Senegal.
10: You feel like you have accomplished something if you leave the house and have a conversation.
9: You see a concave of trucks everyday with loud speakers cruising the streets. Sometimes they yell about the President, play music, or promote a phone company.
8: You only have the option to buy one product because there is only one company that makes the product.
7: You pay the hotel by the hour. (Hotels are popular in factory towns.)
6: You know you really shouldn’t jump in the river and swim because of shisto, but decide to do it anyways.
5: You see a large truck where the entire side is open and has pictures of soup cubes and there are over a hundred women with their yellow buckets clapping to the music waqiting for free soup cubes.
4: You hear someone say that Djiby is a good dancer. He dance Senegalese.
3: You get a thorn stuck in your foot every other step.
2: You walk into all the women in the family sitting in a semi circle two feet away from the TV watching Spanish soap operas and yelling at the TV.
1: You get to sit on the same stage as the presidents wife just because you wonder on it and no one says anything to you. Yeah I’m a celebrity in Senegal. On the news and everything.
Which is a good intro to my story. We will call it Djibi’s crazy day in Richard Toll. So a few days ago I get a text message from my neighbor to the West to come to Toll and meet the President’s wife. She will be talking about AIDs and prevention. I say well I will think about it and see what I have planned on that day. Two days later I get another text saying, “Djiby, I got us an invite to a BBQ with the UN.” They work for the United Nations refugee program. When I hear this I say well I guess I can make an effort to come into town and do this. I get up at seven in the morning, make myself an omelet sandwich get on my bike by seven thirty and head on down the road. I get to Toll Just as Bryn is leaving and we immediately head to the site where the First Lady will be speaking. Once we get their we find her supervisor who is also the assistant mayor. He grabs us puts us in the truck with him and we go run some errands. It is interesting to note that this guy will most likely be the next mayor of Richard Toll, and he was picking up tee shirts, delivering ribbons for decorations and picked up the podium. In the US a person would be hired on to do all of these smaller jobs, but not here. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off and finally arrived at the spot where she was going to speak. The supervisor tells us to go to the stage and sit. So we find a good spot in the middle, two rows behind where the First Lady will sit and we wait. After everything fills up they start to add some extra chairs to the stage because they were a few short. Then finally she arrives and we are two rows behind her for the entire time. Oh yeah, the two white people behind her on the news, one of them was me. People told me they saw me. I am special. After the speech she takes off and we head back to the apartment to hang out before the dinner.
The dinner was great, they cooked a lamb on a grill, and a chicken. We also had onions as our side dish. Yes you heard me right, the dinner was meat and onion sauce. No salad, no fries, but it was very American style since we all got our own plates and a knife. There really is a technique to eating with a hand and a knife. For dessert we had watermelon. I can’t even explain how much watermelon I have been eating. It is less than a dollar for an entire melon so I have been buying them for gifts and eating it for breakfast.
As far as work goes I have been going to the Center of Formation for the Femme, which means they teach English, French, Accounting, Management, and some other professional things. The Senegalese government and the Luxembourg government run it. The problem is that they are out of funding to run the program so maybe in a few months I can try to help get funding or help make them self funded which has been a big crutch from them so far.
That is all form the other side of the Atlantic. By the way, please send me mail, it makes my day.
I decided to add this on at the end because this is all fresh information. I had one of my best moments and one of my worst moments all in the same day. Today I decided to make a way to hold my mosquito net up. I went and found used tomato cans, thrown away bed frame, and cement to build my apparatus. The reason I am so proud of this was that I have never mixed concert before and the entire time I was I had a group of workers who at the same time were using concrete, just watching me. They spoke under their breath and laughed at what I was doing. The great thing was when I finished one guy came over took a look pointed one thing out to me and told me I did a good job. Now for the worst time, I had to pay rent to my host dad for the month. I knew I was going to be out of town for a few days so I decided I tried to explain I would pay a little less for the days I was going to miss. Rather than discussing it he yelled, brought everyone in the family into my room, told me we were family and I should pay the money I need to. This isn’t a hotel I don’t just pay for the meals. So after getting yelled at for by my host mom and host dad, I realized they had all of this work done on the house and couldn’t pay it until I gave them all the money. I’m just writing this to get it of my chest. I love it here in Senegal and when I notice my language improves or I get invited to peoples house to eat and drink tea. I know that it is worth being here and it is going to be rough at times.
Love
Josh (Djiby)
A Million Little Pieces,
The Book of Guys,
The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen
and my French book is Ma Babouche Pour Toujours. (Don’t ask me what that means. I still need a dictioinary.) Alisa I think that you would really like “The Chosen” if you haven’t read it and Lea you will also like it, but only if you follow through with Birth Right.
Song: Since Your Gone, Josh Ritter. It makes me laugh. Thanks Katie!
Ten ways you know you are in Senegal.
10: You feel like you have accomplished something if you leave the house and have a conversation.
9: You see a concave of trucks everyday with loud speakers cruising the streets. Sometimes they yell about the President, play music, or promote a phone company.
8: You only have the option to buy one product because there is only one company that makes the product.
7: You pay the hotel by the hour. (Hotels are popular in factory towns.)
6: You know you really shouldn’t jump in the river and swim because of shisto, but decide to do it anyways.
5: You see a large truck where the entire side is open and has pictures of soup cubes and there are over a hundred women with their yellow buckets clapping to the music waqiting for free soup cubes.
4: You hear someone say that Djiby is a good dancer. He dance Senegalese.
3: You get a thorn stuck in your foot every other step.
2: You walk into all the women in the family sitting in a semi circle two feet away from the TV watching Spanish soap operas and yelling at the TV.
1: You get to sit on the same stage as the presidents wife just because you wonder on it and no one says anything to you. Yeah I’m a celebrity in Senegal. On the news and everything.
Which is a good intro to my story. We will call it Djibi’s crazy day in Richard Toll. So a few days ago I get a text message from my neighbor to the West to come to Toll and meet the President’s wife. She will be talking about AIDs and prevention. I say well I will think about it and see what I have planned on that day. Two days later I get another text saying, “Djiby, I got us an invite to a BBQ with the UN.” They work for the United Nations refugee program. When I hear this I say well I guess I can make an effort to come into town and do this. I get up at seven in the morning, make myself an omelet sandwich get on my bike by seven thirty and head on down the road. I get to Toll Just as Bryn is leaving and we immediately head to the site where the First Lady will be speaking. Once we get their we find her supervisor who is also the assistant mayor. He grabs us puts us in the truck with him and we go run some errands. It is interesting to note that this guy will most likely be the next mayor of Richard Toll, and he was picking up tee shirts, delivering ribbons for decorations and picked up the podium. In the US a person would be hired on to do all of these smaller jobs, but not here. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off and finally arrived at the spot where she was going to speak. The supervisor tells us to go to the stage and sit. So we find a good spot in the middle, two rows behind where the First Lady will sit and we wait. After everything fills up they start to add some extra chairs to the stage because they were a few short. Then finally she arrives and we are two rows behind her for the entire time. Oh yeah, the two white people behind her on the news, one of them was me. People told me they saw me. I am special. After the speech she takes off and we head back to the apartment to hang out before the dinner.
The dinner was great, they cooked a lamb on a grill, and a chicken. We also had onions as our side dish. Yes you heard me right, the dinner was meat and onion sauce. No salad, no fries, but it was very American style since we all got our own plates and a knife. There really is a technique to eating with a hand and a knife. For dessert we had watermelon. I can’t even explain how much watermelon I have been eating. It is less than a dollar for an entire melon so I have been buying them for gifts and eating it for breakfast.
As far as work goes I have been going to the Center of Formation for the Femme, which means they teach English, French, Accounting, Management, and some other professional things. The Senegalese government and the Luxembourg government run it. The problem is that they are out of funding to run the program so maybe in a few months I can try to help get funding or help make them self funded which has been a big crutch from them so far.
That is all form the other side of the Atlantic. By the way, please send me mail, it makes my day.
I decided to add this on at the end because this is all fresh information. I had one of my best moments and one of my worst moments all in the same day. Today I decided to make a way to hold my mosquito net up. I went and found used tomato cans, thrown away bed frame, and cement to build my apparatus. The reason I am so proud of this was that I have never mixed concert before and the entire time I was I had a group of workers who at the same time were using concrete, just watching me. They spoke under their breath and laughed at what I was doing. The great thing was when I finished one guy came over took a look pointed one thing out to me and told me I did a good job. Now for the worst time, I had to pay rent to my host dad for the month. I knew I was going to be out of town for a few days so I decided I tried to explain I would pay a little less for the days I was going to miss. Rather than discussing it he yelled, brought everyone in the family into my room, told me we were family and I should pay the money I need to. This isn’t a hotel I don’t just pay for the meals. So after getting yelled at for by my host mom and host dad, I realized they had all of this work done on the house and couldn’t pay it until I gave them all the money. I’m just writing this to get it of my chest. I love it here in Senegal and when I notice my language improves or I get invited to peoples house to eat and drink tea. I know that it is worth being here and it is going to be rough at times.
Love
Josh (Djiby)
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Funny story?
Book: Captain Courageous, and Robin Hood (in French) Bon Chance
Song: House of the Rising Sun, The Animals That is the first song I am learning on the guitar
Ok, I had to write again because I have a funny story. A few nights ago after dinner, my sister asked me to go on a walk a little ways. She said she had to go run an errand. I figure what could you possibly have to go do at nine besides run to a corner store and pick something up. So we start to walk a little ways and about half of a k I ask, “where are we going?”
She responds it is pretty far where were going, so at this point I know I am in for a nice surprise. With this new info I ask where are we going. She says that we are going to visit the Marabou (a religious leader). Ok why are we going to visit him.
She says “I have a headache.”
“Have you ever tried Advil?”
“It is not that type of headache. I have to get the evil spirits out of me.”
At this point I am thinking, what did I get myself into?
We arrive at the house after a nice long walk and we greet the women outside and she enters into a room in the compound, which I was not aloud to enter. I go and greet some more women who are sitting on the floor, but they only spoke Wolof so the conversation was very short. After a few minuets I hear a kid call my name and invite me into the room, and naturally I figure, better than standing outside. Who knows how long it will take for her to get the demons out. So I enter a room that is about the size of a small bedroom and there are over 20 kids sitting all over the ground. I get invited to sit next to the two older kids who were making tea at the time and we had a conversation and drank tea while I hade kids climbing on me. The most difficult thing was that one of the kids didn’t speak French so it was a short conversation. Most of the time was spent asking me if I had four wives.
After a brief talk, my sister came and got me, I drank some tea, shook 50 hands and went on my way.
Just thought that it was a little different story and something entertaining that has happened to me recently.
Song: House of the Rising Sun, The Animals That is the first song I am learning on the guitar
Ok, I had to write again because I have a funny story. A few nights ago after dinner, my sister asked me to go on a walk a little ways. She said she had to go run an errand. I figure what could you possibly have to go do at nine besides run to a corner store and pick something up. So we start to walk a little ways and about half of a k I ask, “where are we going?”
She responds it is pretty far where were going, so at this point I know I am in for a nice surprise. With this new info I ask where are we going. She says that we are going to visit the Marabou (a religious leader). Ok why are we going to visit him.
She says “I have a headache.”
“Have you ever tried Advil?”
“It is not that type of headache. I have to get the evil spirits out of me.”
At this point I am thinking, what did I get myself into?
We arrive at the house after a nice long walk and we greet the women outside and she enters into a room in the compound, which I was not aloud to enter. I go and greet some more women who are sitting on the floor, but they only spoke Wolof so the conversation was very short. After a few minuets I hear a kid call my name and invite me into the room, and naturally I figure, better than standing outside. Who knows how long it will take for her to get the demons out. So I enter a room that is about the size of a small bedroom and there are over 20 kids sitting all over the ground. I get invited to sit next to the two older kids who were making tea at the time and we had a conversation and drank tea while I hade kids climbing on me. The most difficult thing was that one of the kids didn’t speak French so it was a short conversation. Most of the time was spent asking me if I had four wives.
After a brief talk, my sister came and got me, I drank some tea, shook 50 hands and went on my way.
Just thought that it was a little different story and something entertaining that has happened to me recently.
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