Book: The Ecstasy and the Agony By Irving Stone. (Great book if you want to go to Italy or have been.)
Song: The Other Side By Josh Ritter
Quote: “My best interest can only be my best work.” Irving Stone “The Ecstasy and the Agony”
So it was a bi day in Senegal yesterday. It was the last of the big holidays until Ramadan in August. It was Tamkharite, the New Year. So naturally I have no clue what is going on. I just know that we eat a lot of millet and the whole family gets together to celebrate. I wake up just like any other day and get ready to go out for the day. I decided I want to read a little and do a tour of town to see if I can maybe discover a few new things. So I walk past the market, find a nice spot along the river, read a few pages, or closer to 50 and get ready to go on home. (Don’t worry mom, they caught the terrorist in Guinea-Bissau so it is safe to be back on the river.) So I head home and eat the usual for lunch, fish and rice. Then my cousin tells me I am going to help prepare lunch. By help she means I will sit and watch her cook. Every time over the next few hours I would try to get up she would say Foo Dem? Where go? Then she would yell at me to sit. So I got to watch her cook, by the way I must of eaten at least 5 handfuls of salt last night for dinner. For the fete you eat a lot of millet with beef, vegetables, and a tomato oil based sauce. So we sit down for dinner and eating a meal like that with your hands is not easy. You can only take food with your right hand so when you dig into the bowl to take meat, the person next to you help by grabbing the other end and pulling it apart. So it was a fun and messy experience. For dessert we they cleaned the beef and vegetables out of the bowl and added milk. So we ate a millet, tomato, milk mix. It wasn’t the best thing in the world, but I do recommend it, without the tomato paste. It is called Lakk, Millet balls with milk. All milk here is powdered with sugar added, even though we have a lot of cows. So I figure at this point it is time to relax and take a load off. I’m minding my own business reading a little of my novel when I get called into my brothers room. Here put this on, UHHHHH. Apparently it is tradition for men to dress like women and the opposite. So I put on this dress made to fit a tiny human being. My brother and our friend do the same and we went around the house dancing. You can check out the pictures online. I made a pretty girl, and I wore the dress with confidence. Or as they tell me, Tu ne parles pas Francais et Wolof, mais tu intergres tres bien. So I can’t speak but am well integrated into society. Half of the battle is has been won. Hopefully this formation in Thies will help me with solving the second half of the equation for me. Any who, until next time.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Been a while
Books: “The Fountainhead”, “Puppet Masters”, “Into the Wild”, and “Metamorphosis” by Kofka, "The Agony and the Ectasy" Irving Stone
Song: Boom Boom by the Animals
Quote: “Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think. Thinking is something one doesn’t borrow or pawn.” Ayn Rand
In the Peace Corps one feels many highs and many lows sometimes within a few days time. I recently had a feeling of stagnation, which was eating away the pit of my stomach. I decided to go out and try to make some progress in my relations and the work I am doing. I started out by going to my friend’s house and speaking to the grandpa who invited me over for lunch the next day. By the way my friend is a 10-year-old girl so I’m not the social butterfly I was hoping to be but what can you do. So after the brief meeting I headed over to my counterparts house so I could set up a time to go to the mayor’s office and meet some of the big wigs in the town. After a nice 30 min walk I reached my counterparts house only to discover she wasn’t there. I did make another discovery however at that time. My counterpart’s house contains 4 wives and 16 children. The father died a few years ago, so now it is starting to all come together why there is so many people hanging around the house all the time. I couldn’t ever figure it out but I finally put it all together after getting confused on everyone’s name. So after I set up another time to come back and try to set up another appointment to go to the mayor’s office I decided to walk home. So I set up a time to return to make an appointment. I love Senegal for that very reason. Any who I was walking home and I discover a large building that looks like a hotel. Well next thing I know I am lost walking down random roads, I find a street of barber shops, a bus depot with direct routes to Dakar, a water tower, a beautiful missionary, and met a new friend on the walk home. So I finally felt productive after having a few low days at sight.
I also have been going to a management class and afterwards consulting with the teacher to make the class a little better. Teachers tend to teach straight out of a book and not use any real life experience, which is a problem I think when trying to teach people who have no clue what is going on. I made a few suggestions to try to get the students to interview business owners and ask relevant questions. He seems enthusiastic, but has not actually done anything to change the class so that I guess that might be that. We will see in the upcoming days. I am also teaching him how to use search engines so he can teach others but it just turns into him wanting me to look stuff up online for him so that is getting a little aggravating. I did however help an artisan who sells to French tourist. I gave him some advice about presentation and hopefully we can start asking the French tourist what they think about the setup and maybe take a quick survey to improve business. Outside of the business sector I have been taking these two kids to the library which has become a difficult task in itself. It is good to get them familiar with the library, but the two kids are on two totally different levels. One of the kids doesn’t speak any French so that is a little struggle. I am going to start making lesson plans so I can keep them working and be productive. I just need to figure out what to do. I put up a picture of the two kids for you to check out. Their names are Fatou and Demba Aziz. Brother and sister. They are great kids and really respectful of me which isn’t always the case in my neighborhood.
I have just posted a bunch of pictures and movies on my picture page. So you should check it out. It is my most honest photographs that I have taken up to date. It is what I experience every day and puts a smile on my face. The funny looking little dude in the white outfit is one of my favorites. His name is Vieux, which means old. It is a fitting name. Every day when he sees me he runs across the field and gives me our handshake. He is a good kid who doesn’t speak French or Wolof so it makes it a little harder. He is a cool one who makes me laugh.
On a more serious note, over a thousand people have been killed in Kenya because of the elections. If anyone was thinking on sending me a package, I would rather have you donate $20 to a fund in Kenya. I live well and eat well, and the situation is a lot worse over there so please don’t send me anything except for letters and emails.
Song: Boom Boom by the Animals
Quote: “Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think. Thinking is something one doesn’t borrow or pawn.” Ayn Rand
In the Peace Corps one feels many highs and many lows sometimes within a few days time. I recently had a feeling of stagnation, which was eating away the pit of my stomach. I decided to go out and try to make some progress in my relations and the work I am doing. I started out by going to my friend’s house and speaking to the grandpa who invited me over for lunch the next day. By the way my friend is a 10-year-old girl so I’m not the social butterfly I was hoping to be but what can you do. So after the brief meeting I headed over to my counterparts house so I could set up a time to go to the mayor’s office and meet some of the big wigs in the town. After a nice 30 min walk I reached my counterparts house only to discover she wasn’t there. I did make another discovery however at that time. My counterpart’s house contains 4 wives and 16 children. The father died a few years ago, so now it is starting to all come together why there is so many people hanging around the house all the time. I couldn’t ever figure it out but I finally put it all together after getting confused on everyone’s name. So after I set up another time to come back and try to set up another appointment to go to the mayor’s office I decided to walk home. So I set up a time to return to make an appointment. I love Senegal for that very reason. Any who I was walking home and I discover a large building that looks like a hotel. Well next thing I know I am lost walking down random roads, I find a street of barber shops, a bus depot with direct routes to Dakar, a water tower, a beautiful missionary, and met a new friend on the walk home. So I finally felt productive after having a few low days at sight.
I also have been going to a management class and afterwards consulting with the teacher to make the class a little better. Teachers tend to teach straight out of a book and not use any real life experience, which is a problem I think when trying to teach people who have no clue what is going on. I made a few suggestions to try to get the students to interview business owners and ask relevant questions. He seems enthusiastic, but has not actually done anything to change the class so that I guess that might be that. We will see in the upcoming days. I am also teaching him how to use search engines so he can teach others but it just turns into him wanting me to look stuff up online for him so that is getting a little aggravating. I did however help an artisan who sells to French tourist. I gave him some advice about presentation and hopefully we can start asking the French tourist what they think about the setup and maybe take a quick survey to improve business. Outside of the business sector I have been taking these two kids to the library which has become a difficult task in itself. It is good to get them familiar with the library, but the two kids are on two totally different levels. One of the kids doesn’t speak any French so that is a little struggle. I am going to start making lesson plans so I can keep them working and be productive. I just need to figure out what to do. I put up a picture of the two kids for you to check out. Their names are Fatou and Demba Aziz. Brother and sister. They are great kids and really respectful of me which isn’t always the case in my neighborhood.
I have just posted a bunch of pictures and movies on my picture page. So you should check it out. It is my most honest photographs that I have taken up to date. It is what I experience every day and puts a smile on my face. The funny looking little dude in the white outfit is one of my favorites. His name is Vieux, which means old. It is a fitting name. Every day when he sees me he runs across the field and gives me our handshake. He is a good kid who doesn’t speak French or Wolof so it makes it a little harder. He is a cool one who makes me laugh.
On a more serious note, over a thousand people have been killed in Kenya because of the elections. If anyone was thinking on sending me a package, I would rather have you donate $20 to a fund in Kenya. I live well and eat well, and the situation is a lot worse over there so please don’t send me anything except for letters and emails.
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