Kaay Fecc

I am writing early this week since the Trainees have organized a trip to the beach this weekend, so I don't think I'll make it to an Internet Cafe then. This week has been good. We did several field trips to villages surrounding Thies, to practice Wolof and interact with the farmers. I know my language skills need a lot of practice, and despite the fact that people don't always understand me and I speak with terrible grammar, I really enjoy taking a break from the classroom to study in the real world. The big event this week was a "tam tam" dance organized by the trainers. We invited members of our family and some people dressed up in their Korite outfits (the only ones most people have, besides the clothes we brought from the US) to dance. The dancing here is hard to describe. As best I can tell, it is a group of drummers jamming, and the dancers try in effect to anticipate what the drums will do next, and match the rhythm with movement. This is not easy, as the drumbeat changes all the time! Also, I have news: the stereotype that Africans are dancing all the time is not true! The beginning of our tam tam was just as awkward as any American high-school dance, with people sitting on the sidelines staring at the empty floor. Finally, a few brave souls got it started, but we never once got everybody up to dance, and there were definitely more Americans shaking it than Senegalese. However, most of us didn't look quite as impressive as the few young women who hiked up their pagnes and danced in aerobic style. They leap up into the air, stamp their feet, wave their arms...it's really impossible to describe, but it is really intimodating to watch, because I could never move like that! One of the most striking things about the dance party were the colors. People came in a varity of clothes, but the Senegalese are not shy with colors. Some wear neon green or yellow, and look amazing in them, with the contrast of their skin. Others choose more subdued maroon or tan. Mix it all with the various shades of American - I wore red-orange, another girl green, one bright blue - and there is a complete artists' pallette, plus a few colors that never would appear in nature. I love the bold patterns of the fabrics, and the many styles of clothing. Really it can't be described, or even shown in a photo, though I took a few, which I willpost when I get the chance. And I would like to point out that I danced alot, sometimes all alone, and it was a lot of fun! In case anyone was wondering, the "electric slide" CAN work with a Senegalese drum beat, but most people were lame and didn't join in. Oh, well, I'm no stranger to being the only one having a good time on the dance floor.
Now would be a good time maybe to describe a typical evening. They are very short! I usually get home from the center by about 7pm (it takes about half an hour, since I walk) and then I greet my family, ask how their day went, and set my stuff in my room. If I have homework, that is the time to do it because there is a little light left and while we have electricity, it is not always reliable. Usually, if we're eating rice, which we often do, I help to clean it. One of my sisters does the cooking every night, but I like to help. So we sift through the rice with our hands, picking out any small bits of grit, chaff or little bugs that might be there. Meanwhile, attracted by the light, there are often dozens of grasshoppers zipping around - of all sizes and types - as well as little brown beetles that crawl all over, but are harmless. After picking out the bad bits, we wash the rice two or three times by adding water to the calabash-bowl and swishing our hand around so all the grains get scrubbed. I never rinsed rice at home, though they say you are supposed to, but here you can really see how important it is. The water is definitely not clear after the rice is washed! Sometimes we have fish and vegetables on top, other times the rice is mixed in with the sauce, and twice we had a meat stew with peas that didn't involve rice at all; we scooped it up with bread. Mostly my family eats with spoons, though sometimes the older people prefer their hand. After dinner, we head outside, where they roll out mats and nap where there is a cool breeze. This is usually around 9pm or so. Depending on how tired I am, I'll stay and talk for awhile, though it is hard to find the motiation to stay awake when everybody else is lying on the ground snoozing! Usually I am in bed by 9:30, to write or read for half an hour before going to sleep, and I start all over again at 6am the next day. My constant background noise is prayers from the many mosques, and also the sound of roosters and sheep outside the compound. On my walk in the morning, I relish the peacefulness and relative quiet, because the one thing you can't escape here is the noise. But, I'm used to that too.