Land Ho! Jan has a desitation!

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Dear Family and Friends


So as you may have noticed from my last couple of blogs I have been on the rocks a little on trying to find my “volunteer” legs here. Things have been rather chaotic. I feel like a rowboat several kilometers off shore heaving up and down in giant rolling swell. When I can see land I have optimism atop of the crest of a wave. Alas that peak of hope quickly falls and land is obscured by a giant angry wall of sea. In this depression I feel isolated and directionless; I am unable to any land markers of reference indicating terra firma . I am lost in the trough of broiling water, waiting in agony for the minutes to pass to be pushed back up by the wave of optimism and have a moment of clarity again. Despite this bleak poetic portrayal of my experiences, the horizon does hold hope. I am belligerently heading towards shore which is now the goal, future, plan, purpose, reason d'etre etc. I can see the distant shape of shore tantalizing close yet infuriately far away. My activities alternate between frantically bailing out the leaking little dingy or paddling furiously for land. Thus my purpose is to create some kind of cohesion between the various NGO's who work with the talibé.

So pause, I am sure all of you are wondering what the hell are the talibe?

For those at home who have the attention span of a gold fish on narcotics and are used to news anchors feeding you information about immensely complex events in spoonfuls of short catchy phrases: The talibé are the throngs of urchins that ply the dusty streets if St. Louis, and other West African cities, begging for money and food.

But, I being an academic and having a passion in making simple events far more intricate and convoluted than necessary will give you a more nuanced approach to the talibé, albeit still in a basic down and dirty explanation. For the curious for more information and academically inclined there is an excellent report just recently publicly published by Matthew Wells called Off the backs of Childern The name talibé comes from Arabic, which roughly is translated into student, or candidate. They attend koranic schools called Daara's, which are led by religious teachers known as marabouts. Traditionally the young boys would end up memorizing the koran and learn lessons in humility through work, like on a farm etc., to pay for their education and live an austere life style. This long standing tradition and almost rite of passage for many in Senegal has become severely perverted in the modern context. Today, talibé are known as children of the streets because they have to earn their keep by wondering through the streets of Senegal's cities. Marabouts have taken the concept of work to their own advantage demanding that the children beg for 300 CFA (420 CFA is 1 Canadian dollar) each day and if they do not have the money their is often physical repercussions. Thus, young boys shuffle down the streets with outstretched hands or plastic/tin containers for alms. Their ratty oversized tee-shirts, make shift or nonexistent footwear, and malnourished appearances really destroys a part of my soul every time I tell them I do not have any money for them.

Now there is a small, odd and slightly bizarre narrative of how I came to this position of now attempting to wedge myself into the talibé scene. Last week being fairly put out that I had really nothing to do(It was the 14th I believe), as it was pre-farm visit, so I thought I should go just check out the beach and see what its like. While enroute I was hailed down by a local, which is common occurrence for any person who appears to be non Senegalese. Tourists are immediately befriended by utter strangers who are entrepreneurs that are attempting to fleece as much money as they can out of you. This is compounded by the fact that I have dreadlocks because it seems like any person who has slightest feeling of affiliation with reggae has the privilege of referring to me as "rasta," and to try and sell me what ever wares they have often including ganja. Thus I have unconsciously joined the ranks of prime target to hawk bubbles too in their eyes. Not wanting to ruin this image and imposed reputation I respond to calls of "Hey Rasta!" and nod my head sagely with half glazed eyes to any proposition that I am being bombarded with. Tangent aside, I am accompanied by an extremely tall local who sports short dreads and a Rasta hat. He begins to outline the pan Atlantic moral foundation of some convoluted bastardization of Rastafarianism, Islam and humanism. I diligently nod my head and add the odd interjection. After about a half hour, including a trip to the beach it comes out that this particular fellow is soliciting funds, or in my case my time for his humanity project. I, being a volunteer desperate to find some voluntary activity was all was eager to acquaint myself with this organization.


The organization is called ]http://www.talibes.atlantik.fr/ Espoir des enfants de la rue

Now this story is going somewhere. Enter the real deal. So on Sunday(the 17th) while playing some games with the kids and periodically bandaging them up my guide/colleague gets a call about someone who wants to buy a djembé, which are African drums that can produce a lot of quality noise with a pare of hands. So we rushed back to his place. My friend apparently makes and sells djembés to raise funds for talibé. A rather noble pursuit. In any event we got there and tea is being served and general chit chat is ensuing. The purchaser, unsurprisingly, is a fellow expat. Normally when in a makeshift hut with a dirt floor, drinking tea surrounded by locals conversing in their native tongue, westerners usually cling together like shipwrecked sailors to floatation devices. I resisted this urge and attempted to exude a posture of comfort that I had imbibed local culture and was now apart of it. So this guys name is Fallckolm, he is a Bulgarian that was educated and lives in Sweden, speaks fluent French, English, Swedish, and Bulgarian, has a masters in international law, has worked for the UN for a couple of years, is a co-founder of a international development website, highly intelligence and intense guy; and to top it off turns out to be a virtually walking encyclopedia on the human rights and their relations to the talibé and has been researching/working on them for the last two years. Thus when he learns that the some of the proceeds of the drum purchase go to the talibé, his attention is instantly caught and a high intensity conversation ensues regarding the quite specific details of this charity and found it somewhat lacking. In conclusion there was a lot of miscommunication, ruffled feathers, and an un-purchased drum. However, this guy was interested in passing on much of his knowledge and connections to me.

Lift off! We meet the next night, Monday (the 18th), for a drink and discuss stuff. I had talked to Jeorie who was interested in doing a website, I looking for something/anything to do, thinking this was a good place to start. I tentatively passed that by the idea of a website and some greater cohesion between the various talibé groups. Fallckolm loved this idea and has given me the pep talk that has convinced me to stick around for a while.

So with Jeorie and Fallckolm at different times in a couple of brainstorming sessions I am now purposeful. Riding the surge of optimism I feel confident that I can do this, what ever it happens to be. In the last week I have begun the slow task of trying to track down all these organizations and information on the talibé. I have gotten a hold of document that purports to claim that there about 180 Daara’s in St. Louis, alas it is private information and from 2005(a little outdated) however, my search continues!

So life is going better I suppose. Went to the farm yesterday, my hands, legs, and back hurt from working on the field. At the moment struggling with my own inertia to try and get myself out of the safe confines of my residence and continue the search for information and connections.

Hope all is well on your end.

Love

Jan

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Comments

[Mabel]

Hey Jan, Thought I'd come in to see how things are going. That was a very detailed and reflective journey and it seems to me this search for something is well worth it! You truly are exploring Senegal, although I have not heard your whole story, and it's fascinating that you are meeting all kinds of people. That's the best part of going somewhere new right? I hope everything continues to happen for a reason and you accomplish whatever you can on your end. You have so much knowledge and confidence in world studies. I'm here trying to write a conflict analysis paper on Israel/Palestine for a global studies course. Or course, I would have to teach myself every part in history to understand what is happening! Thanks again for your blog, best wishes! Mabel