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Jan Jones
The cliche grad student volunteering in Africa to avoid the "real" world.Jan Jones
Travel Blog Posts
March 31st 2011
Dear family and friends Ahhh the last couple of weeks in Senegal have been a hell of an experience. Alas this is the last blog of mine. It is rather anti-climatic in a way. So for those of you who have not heard that is pretty much robbed blind.. So here is the blow by blow of the theft goes like this: Tuesday, March 22nd, at 8:30pm I went to my favourite bar for dinner with friends, I thought about bringing my laptop with me but thought better of it. When I returned night I went to sleep, thought to charge my cell phone. Alas my cell phone charger was missing.... fuck... So I looked for my other possession. I than noticed that my clothes were EVERYWHERE and was missing all my valuable possessions including: 1 ... read more
March 17th 2011
Dear Family and Friends 18 So i left you all in a stoned haze in Casamance. Unlike Gambia, we did not feel the need to make like a tampon; yet the sole activity of smoking as much dope as possible was quickly losing its flavor on the third day. We decided to get make like Tom and Cruise. Our next destination was Cap Skirring, the tourist mecca of Casamance. We were a little hesitant about Cap Skirring as the last African tourist mecca was a bloody hole that we barely escaped from with our wallets intact. Yet on the assurance of many locals and other travellers we decided to overcome our aversion and give it a chance by staying the night. So I believe Kololi wanted to be like Cap Skirring, but through politics, over development ... read more
March 10th 2011
Dear Family and Friends So we successfully escaped the expensive hell of Gambia and the tumultuous first couple of days of our travels. Now I should mention a couple of things about Casamance so that you get some very important back ground information that will give you the full wait and appreciation for the events that will unfold below. So Casamance is the southernmost region of Senegal, it is separated from the rest of the country by Gambia. Gambia despite its English colonists is still part of the large Wolof ethnicity, while in Casamance there are few Wolof people. The ethnic difference in Casamance, geographical distance from Dakar, and the fact that Casamance grows some of the world’s best rice has contributed to a 30 year long struggle for independence. Apparently much of the rice from ... read more
March 7th 2011
Dear Family and Friends Well in the spur of the moment I and my roommates, Dan and George, decided to go travelling for ten days down to the Gambia and Casamance by sept-place and then take a ferry back. When the big day of our departure arrived, we got up nice and god awfully early to get to our destination at a relatively decent hour. So I, being the only moderately responsible one and only one that could wake up on his own, woke the boys up. Upon last minute packing, George asks if we have you seen his camera, the virtually brand new SLR with massive, and the expensive lense on it?.... Sigh It turns out George (in his infinite forgetfulness) left his camera in its bag at the restaurant the night before after uploading ... read more
Podor, Podor, Podor, Hodar!
Published: February 14th 2011Africa » Senegal » Saint-Louis Region » Saint-Louis
February 14th 2011
Dear Friends and Family I have finally done something blog worthy. I have broken my sedentary behavior and left the confines of saint Louis for the even quieter conditions of Podor. Me and three other intrepid travellers decided that we needed to escape the monotony of Saint-Louis, which has become rather repetitive. Even in the small former colonial capital we wanted to escape the constant din of city life for something quieter and more relaxing. Podor is a sleepy town/city in one of the most northern reaches of Sénégal. Its draw and claim to fame is the French fort that rests beside the recently refurbished waterside. Thus Saturday morning I met my fellow adventurers at the main transit station, I myself was rather sleep deprived, as I thought that going to the local night club to ... read more
February 2nd 2011
Dear Family and Friends Life has truly become an pleasant monotony here. I have come to the point that I see myself as an inhabitant here. I am enjoying myself, the intern ship with Caritas is really neat, I feel like to am doing something here and that going to work is not always an exercise in patience and killing time, but like you guys, the day to day activities, as exciting as you or others may find them seem banal to post on travel blog. On this tangent of domesticity, I am going to rent an apartment for the months of February and March. This appears to put an end to my aspirations of going to Mali, the fabled city of Timbuktu that I tried to kick so many of my child hoods friends too ... read more
January 11th 2011
Dear Family and Friends Hello all, I am guilty of neglecting my blog, alas life has been a bit of a rollercoaster here. I have had clashes with personalities and Senegalese culture here, learnt some things about Sénégal and myself and that I have hopefully grown from my mistakes. I have passed the halfway mark in my trip and the balance and momentum has begun to slowly change. My perception and goals here are changing and I am realizing that before I know it I will be back in Canada unemployed without a future. Aside from my oblique references to the turbulence of my life in Sénégal things are on the rise again. My internship with Caritas is almost becoming satisfying, in the sense that they have enough work to keep my busy for half a ... read more
A plucking good Christmas Turkey Dinner extravaganza in Senegal!
Published: January 1st 2011Africa » Senegal » Saint-Louis Region » Saint-Louis
December 31st 2010
Dear Family and Friends Thank you for all the warm holiday wishes. This week I would like to recount the epic tale of Jan’s Operation Turkey Dinner Senegal 2010. This small chapter of my life that involved a grand heroic quest for a turkey began quite a while back. On one of my many random escapades into the country side I had seen a live squawking turkey with my very own eyes. The knowledge that they existed brought me hope yet no closer to my goal, as I still had no idea how to find or eat one in Saint Louis. As my last blog may have indicated I have been having a hankering for some taste of home and comfort to supplement family with a equally lonely group of strangers in a foreign land such ... read more
December 18th 2010
Dear Family and Friends As christmass is quickly approaching I am taking some time for reflection. As i talk to you people back home I realise just how fucking different Sénégal is. In Sénégal there is no snow, christmass shopping, christmass music(thank god, not sure if i could take X-mass music in these 25 degree heat), no family, and most importantly no food, well there is obviously food, but its the same shit every day, eg no cookies, stuffing, egg nog, etc. I suppose you really do not notice how much you appreciate something when you do not have it. So to give you guys an idea of how different things are ill just give you a small update for what the average daily life is like here in Saint-Louis. Now that I am becoming a ... read more
Trying to survive and thrive
Published: December 9th 2010Africa » Senegal » Saint-Louis Region » Saint-Louis
December 9th 2010
Dear Family and Friends Already last weekend I went to Dakar for a conference. I wrote most of this blog while sitting at the Open Africa unference(unconference if such a thing can exist, I suppose though when you gather a large body of social inept, but technologically inclined techies in a conference they tend to shy away from concrete plans rather starting the conference on the fly, which i find quite an ingenious (un)system. So what this (un)conference is, is a low key meeting where people show up present information on technology. This is called a barcamp, which is a cousin to foocamps, things are fairly chaotic, no set talks set, nor time tables thing more set up on the fly. Any way as i sat and watched the disorganize chaos materialize into some kind of ... read more
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