Wrapping Up

1st of all: Happy Birthday Wanda!!!

This is my last week of work before leaving on vacation, and as such I am trying to get all of my classes to a good stopping point (it's not even worth pretending that any of my students are going to do anything while I'm away. I'm no longer that optimistic). That point is different for each class and so I am keeping myself busy adding extra classes here, going to see students there, and otherwise trying to be productive.

Spent this morning at GIPS wrapping up typing class with the womens groups that I work with. One student has finished the entire proggram, so there's something accomplished, right? I hope to get in a few lessons with Microsoft Excel so they can use it while I'm away, but yet again I am not so optimistic as to whether they actually will. I have also started teaching accounting to a local tailor and am feeling a lot of pressure to get her recordkeeping skills in shape before I leave. She has never used any type of recordkeeping system before and so we are starting from scratch here. She's actually doing really well with the first two lessons and I have learned that I really like this type of work. Teaching typing classes does not make me happy. I do it because I think that it will benefit my students. It's for their own good, if you will. Teaching accounting on the other hand makes me feel like I am really having a direct impact on this tailor's business. I don't know if that's a very good explanation, but I suppose it's that the effects of my teaching accounting to tailors is much more noticeable than teaching typing. I would like to find more people to teach accounting to during my second year here.

I have three days of classes left here in Thiès, and three days of classes in Pout, then off to Dakar.

My host mom's eldest son, who is attending college in Maryland, is here to visit this month. It's the first time he's been back to Senegal since leaving for the states 6 years ago. It's really nice to talk to a Senegalese who knows about my country (especially the fact that the streets are not paved with gold and that everyone lives exactly like Jack Bauer off of 24) and it's been a lot of fun to talk to him. He will be staying with my family for the week before visiting his dad's side of the family in the south of the country next week.

The End of English Camp

So the last day of English Camp went really well. We taught the kids how to play kickball, which was a bit harder than I orignally anticipated since they don't know the rules of baseball, and so we ended up with one kid kicking the ball into the outfield, the outfielders kicking it back, and both of them running like mad for the bases. After a few more explanations we worked out most of the kinks and the kids had fun. Then we broke off into small groups for an open discussion on whatever the kids wanted to talk about. Senegal being a muslim country, there were a lot of questions about US-Islamic relations such as:

"Why is America trying to get rid of Islam?"
"Why are you still in Iraq? When are you leaving?"
"Do you think that George Bush blew up the twin towers?"

et cetera. The discussion went really well actually, the kids were really eager to talk about the differences between our two countries and were very open with me when I asked them questions. These questions might at first glance look like the kids are anti-American, but they are just curious and I am the only American they know to ask these questions too. Most of the kids are pro-America, many want to live there and all want to know if it's really like what they see on tv. Do I really live like Jack Bauer? They were very dissapointed to find out that I do not.

Thursday night we baked the kids cookies and so Friday after the discussion we served them cookies and coke, congratulated them and sent them on their way, but not before a flurry of camera phones took pictures of us with the students and we all gave out our e-mail addresses so we could keep in touch. Just like regular summer camp as I recall.

Have done nothing of relevance this weekend besides watch movies and cook yummy food, the norm at the regional house when loads of volunteers are in town. I have put off site long enough and will leave this afternoon for home. Only two and a half more weeks of computer classes before I leave for London!!!

English Camp

Every year, the Dakar English Language Center (DELC) and the US Embassy put on week long summer camps for high school students in underprivileged areas of the city. This year, I signed up. We have been given pretty much complete freedom to do what we want, activities wise, so its up to us to show these kids a good time and help them improve their english. Me and two other peace corps volunteers have been assigned to the high school in Thiaroy, which is on the outskirts of the city. We have already done the first four days and tomorrow will be our last day. It has been so much fun.

Monday we started by doing a question and answer session on America and discussing some of the cultural differences between the USA and Senegal, which I think went a little long and we definately had some glazed over eyes. We spent the afternoon doing leadership and teambuilding activities and having small group discussions. A completely mediocre start to the week, in my opinion. Then Tuesday we started off by playing a mix of frsibee, american football and soccer, all at the same time, and everyone was running around and having a good time. Things started to liven up. We taught them some sports vocabulary like "over here!" and "I'm open!" and got to watch them run around for the next half hour screaming "me! me! I'm open!", which was really fun. Then we broke up into groups and talked about gender roles in society here and had the kids make skits about gender roles. My group definately kicked butt. Their skits were sooooo funny! One of our boys put on a purse and hat and shoved two mangoes up his shirt to play a girl, and it had everyone on the floor. U can tell my group is a little agitated about the other gender because the girls portrayed the boys as unfaithful jerks and the boys portrayed the girls as superficial golddiggers. We then had a discussion on why boys lie in relationships here, to which one replied "well if you want a girlfriend, you have to lie."

Wednesday we talked about immigration in the morning (a very important topic in a country where every young boys dream is to leave) and then played jeopardy about American culture in the afternoon, which got a little rowdy. They didn't know who invented the telephone, but boy were they on top of who sang My Heart Will Go On! Celine Dion is huge here.

Today we played kickball in the morning, the rules of which weren't understood as well as we had hoped and so they basically just ran around throwing the ball at each other for a few hours. Then we talked about democracy and development. I have been very pleased with my groups contributions. Sure, there are a few who don't participate (when I called on one girl she told me she didnt speak english. Right.) But for the mostpart they are really eager to express their ideas and I have a few who love to be controversial, which I was not expecting. I love it!

I am sitting in one of the Dakar volunteer's apartments right now and soon we will bake chocolate chip cookies as a surprise for the kids tomorrow. I am kinda sad at the thought of camp being over, I have had a lot of fun with these kids, but I am already looking forward to next year.

23 and Counting

So my 23rd birthday was a success. I was a little nervous about my first birthday abroad, but everything went so well. I spent the morning doing absolutely nothing, which I feel is an important part of any successful birthday. Watched movies, cooked up some stir-fry and otherwise pissed around. Scott called after lunch and it was good to hear his voice, although it made me sad. Scott is my twin brother, and i don't much care for celebrating our anniversary without him. Unfortunately, the stubborn bastard won't leave the states and so I may never see him again. At least not for two years.

Late afternoon some friends and I went to downtown Dakar where we bought mini ice cream cakes that are sold in a fancy patisserie. Mine was a butter-pecan ice cream with a shortbread crust. Think that sounds amazing in America? Try after 10 odd months of living on the outskirts of the sahara. That alone made the day amazing. Then we wandered over to a rooftop restaurant where they show movies. They have an outdoor screen and an indoor one, with a pretty decent DVD collection. We picked out Cassandra's Dream, which came out after I left the states so it was like watching a new movie, and they even showed the english version for us! So we sat around in an air conditioned room eating vietnamese food (caramel pork for me) on super-comfy couch. It was perfect. The dinner was a bit expensive for a peace corps volunteer, so we headed right back to the regional house after dinner to avoid spending any more money. Still, a wonderful, wonderful day.

Returned to site Wednesday morning and have gotten right back into the groove of teaching computer classes. Have one more to go today before I get to go home, and only one more day until I go to Dakar for the english camp next week. I am really looking forward to it.

Joyeux Anniversaire

As my 23rd birthday comes up tomorrow (I know, Im young) the festivities have already begun. As I mentioned in my last post, my work has fallen into a nice comfortable routine (shaken up every once in a while by a student who doesn't show up and doesn't call to tell me, argh) and so I had nothing better to do but plan myself a birthday party. Friday night some friends came over and the next day we cooked mom's potatoe salad for lunch, which I had really been craving, and then we watched some new movies (new to me, at least) that Lisa had downloaded on her computer. We watched Whatever Happens in Vegas and Definately, Maybe. Then we cooked up some tortillas and some meat and vegetables and had fajitas for dinner while hanging out on my porch. I have no oven to bake a cake at my house in Pout, so we used some marshmallows and rice krispies from the foreign import store to make a rice krispy treat cake of sorts. Then we just hung out talking. It was a nice, relaxing evening with friends, which was exactly what I wanted so I am pleased.

I came to Dakar yesterday because I had a Drs appointment this morning, this came just in time and since I'm already here, I might as well stay until tomorrow so I can celebrate Scott and my 23rd anniversary in style. Since Dakar is the best place in West Africa and you can pretty much get anything, I plan on buying an ice cream cake and hanging out at the regional house with some other volunteers. That's really what I want for my birthday, just to have a good, relaxing time with my friends. And an ice cream cake. There are a lot of volunteers in Dakar at the moment working with an english camp which I am signed up to work with next week so more details on that soon. I am really looking forward to it. All of it. Turning 23, celebrating 11 months in country soon, working with high school students in Dakar to help their english skills and teach them about American culture.

I can only stay until Wednesday morning when I have to catch a car to Thies where I have computer classes all day (every Monday and Wednesday still), but this weekend has been, and will hopefully continue to be, a much needed break from what has become my mundane, Senegalese life. Ok, its not as mundane as it could be, I know, but it's difficult after the honeymoon is over and nothing is new and exciting anymore and you get to the 'well now what?' phase of your peace corps service, which is where I am now. The positive side is that with the dullness comes understanding and I now understand what these people are saying to me and why they do (some) of the things they do, and can react accordingly. I can succesfully fend of marriage proposals (politely and offensively) in Wolof, I can have conversations with my friends, I can handle public transportation here (which is a complete mess), quite frankly I think I can handle anything.

My Life is Becoming Boring

So the problem with having been here 10 1/2 months so far is that I've now settled into a nice routine, which I find very comforting but doesn't give me anything to post on my blog about. Since my last post nothing new, and certainly not exciting has happened. I continue to work, giving computer classes, and hang out with my Senegalese friends. It rains a lot more here now. My roof has a leak. A big one. V. Unfortunate. You see how little I have to comment on? If you there is anything you want to know, ask and I will gladly answer, but if not I'm afraid I will have to wait until something new and/or exciting happens to post again.

It may be awhile, folks...

The Joys of (Not) Working in Senegal

So now that I am back from vacation its time to get back into teaching my computer classes that I teach every Monday and Wednesday in Thies. I had to buy a new cell phone and so dont have the numbers of my students anymore, so I just showed up Monday morning hoping for the best. The office where I teach my first class was locked. Knocked at the gate a few times but no answer. I guess class was cancelled. My second student was there and we picked up where we left off two weeks ago. Exactly where we left off actually, because she hadnt done any of the homework I had asked while I was gone. This is normal, but I will admit that my hopes were high. So we went through the typing lesson, and then I went home.

Spent all day yesterday at the youth library where I FINALLY finished entering all the books. Thats right, all 4100 books are save in the database. What does this mean? First off it means I am the happiest girl in the world. Secondly, it means I get to start teaching Thierno how to maintain the database and hopefully get to the point where he is completely in charge of the project. Yay!!!

So today I show back up at the office where I am supposed to be teaching only to find myself locked out and the office empty. Again. First time it didnt really bother me since Ive been living iin Senegal long enough to know that its not a big deal. Today however, I was very frustrated. Knocked on the door long enough for someone to let me in and give me Julie, one of my students, phone number, and I called and we decided to start next monday. She didnt know I had gotten back and had tried to call me while my phone was awol and figured I was still out of touch. Slightly less frustrated (but still frustrated) I made my way over to Chris's house where I am killing time until my next computer lesson starts around noon (inshallah). I realize that in the states this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable, no matter what. But here in Senegal its just kinda the way things get done, or dont get done sometimes. Calling me to tell me they had work to do outside of the office when there was a computer class scheduled probably didnt occur to my students, although I will point this out next Monday assuming I have a class to teach. Its just another one of the joys of working in a different culture. There is nothing in Senegal that cant wait. Urgency as we know it in America doesnt exist here. They say that Americans have watches but the Senegalese have time.