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Published: October 2nd 2005
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infrastructure at its best
though seemingly quiet when photographed, this crossroads is quite the hub in my old village of N'gor - taxis, cars, 'car rapides' and 'sept-places', horse-drawn carts and people alike dart across everywhichway...not that i've seen the stop & yield signs being taken so literally yet...but they're slowing folks down a bit...and clearly marking right-of-way, something usually unclear here... apparently, Senegal doesn’t take its status as a ‘developing’ nation lightly. while i'm sure a nyc street offers just as many changes over 9 months, well - signs of development are just more evident, shocking and formidable here.
so, as a way of reorienting everyone - I thought I’d share a few things that haven’t changed - and then some that have.
THINGS THAT HAVEN’T CHANGED:
- even though radios are blasting in the village until the wee hours, and the mosque blaring prayers through a crackling megaphone…the women still rise before sunset to prepare for the day, I hear them clanging around the pans, then sweeping the sand. I feel slightly akin to them this time becos i’ve been getting up at 6:30, and my first chore is to sweep my patio…where it’s snowing paintchips from our roof due to the heavy humidity in the air from the deluge of rain this season (the most rain in 20 years!). so, as I sweep my patio with my western-style broom, I hear their swishes on the sand outside my door, using their African-style, back-breaking strawlike hand ‘broom’. many also use a sifter i would liken to those used
by the american pioneers who ran west searching the rivers for gold…i wish for the senegalese they’d find some treasure one morning…
- everyone still wants to marry me.
- and if they’re not interested in me, they still want to come to america. (although, i’m gratefully finding more people this time who understand bush is an idiot - mostly they focus their disgust on the katrina mess, and the ongoing iraq mess)
- the hospitality and kindness of the people. don’t get me wrong - it’s not that conditions here aren’t rough for most: poverty, poor health, poor prospects…but on the whole, people greet you with a smile - and at the very least, greet you still!…unlike another small European country I was living in….
- being on survival mode most of the time. i forgot how long everything takes. and how much physical and mental energy is spent on accomplishing the most mundane, daily chores. but i’ve refound a zen groove in scrubbing my clothes, and i smile and strike up conversations when in the midst of a tough negotiation for a taxi or a kilo of bananas. and don’t even get me started
some improvement
while sweeping sand with a broom is still no easy task, i was happy to see this girl using a more ergonomic western broom rather than being bent in half raking with the traditional hand brooms... on what you need to open a bank account…ah, Senegal. always deciding to actually apply the rules when they’re the most inconvenient for me!
- the nonchalantness of the major music scene. this past friday, i saw one of my favorite, all-time bands, ‘Orchestra Baobab’. they’re world-famous. it was a small club, with a small crowd…maybe about 50 people. i was about 2 feet away, dancing like crazy (a white woman is never in need of a dance partner in a Senegalese dance club!)…and couldn’t wipe the smile from my face, nor stifle the pounding of my heart nor the crazed elvis-fan feeling inside me. meanwhile, all the Senegalese were just doing their thang’, barely acknowledging the band’s presence save some clapping (i couldn’t keep my eyes off the vocalists rising chests under their ‘boubous’ , the guitar’s nimble fingers, the saxophonist’s sultry swagger). i had to remind myself how to breathe i was so excited. but the atmosphere was as always with ‘celebrity’ musicians, there’s just no sense of YOU-THEM…it was everyone having a good time.
THINGS THAT HAVE CHANGED:
- in my old village - they’ve put up a STOP sign - and a YIELD sign to boot! And people are actually obeying them, too!
- police have begun stopping people who are driving while talking on their cell phones! (of course, this is just another opportunity for bribes…but all the same, it’s helping road safety…I think)
- my digs. i’m living a few kilometers down the road from where i was last time - still in a traditional village (as traditional as a ‘suburban’ village can be). i fell into a great situation, living in a friend’s old apartment, with another american who’s here for her third time living in Senegal. i’ve got to say, it’s nice coming home to another native english speaker to shoot the shit with…and an american, and a new jersian to top it! the family whose compound we live in is great - the oldest daughter befriended me instantly - as we both knew lots about the other through my friend already who’s now back in the states.
- feeling closer to the people this time. maybe it’s my attitude and my confidence in returning here with such intention on my own. maybe it’s me pushing myself to be social without angelo here. maybe it’s the overwhelming reception i received from all of my ‘friends’ in my old village - some even hugged me! i also took my first real meal with a Senegalese family - something which feels ridiculous as being a virgin occurrence when i’d lived here for so long…but, that’s the way I’m falling into things this time - or driving myself there. i find myself spending more time just sitting and talking with folks than last. i cherish it.
- my ambition to get digital photos to accompany these rambles! i’m working on borrowing a friend’s camera so i can bring this world a little closer to all of you. (at least i'm now on an offical travelblog site, eh?!)
all for now…
stay well.
and as always, you’re most invited…
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