So, within the first hour of waking up, I saw some strange things. So I went to a quaint little restaurant near the mosque. It is smaller than a dorm room and not much nicer. the walls are merely woven bamboo, and have a few pictures of islamic figures. its my favorite restaurant. you can get an egg sandwich with tomato, onion, mayo (no cheese or bacon), and a cup of coffee for only 450 cfa (thats 90 cents). so I sit down, and without saying anything the restaurant owner (Maimona) brings me my sandwich and coffee (I didn't really want coffee today cause I found a peach drink and the foreign people store, made with real peaches, and has small pieces of peach in it, I really miss peaches. It was also in a refrigerator which made it so much better) and so I am sitting down, waiting and I notice by the door Maimona's son (who also works there he looks like he is 12) is hanging a strip of meat on a nail in the doorway. I think to myself "oh! thats a little strange I wonder what he is going to do..." so he grabs a knife, and begins to cu the meat into small pieces, and puts them all in a bowl. I just can't help but wonder, "why doesn't he use a cutting board?" it just doesn't make sense. my sandwich was delicious btw.
So, the second weird thing that happened to me today within one hour of waking up was that as I walked away from the restaurant, I was walking behind some lady with her baby strapped to her back by way of a sheet (which is very common, but probably wouldn't fly too well in the states) and the baby is like half out of the sheet crying, and so what does the mother do? she thinks to herself "what is it that my baby could possibly want at this moment, what can I do to make my child stop crying in an appropriate and healthy way?"this woman looks on the ground and sees a flattened plastic bottle she picks it up dumps the sand out of it, and hands it to the baby to play with. "WHAT!?" I thought to myself. in the end, the baby did stop crying, although I do not expect it to stay very healthy.
Speaking of babies, Shout-out to my new baby cousin Eliana. your gunna do great kid! just stay away from garbage.
-Mike
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
A Taste of Retirement...
So, It seems as though I am retired. Yes retired at the age of 23. Isn’t life wonderful? When one really thinks about it, my job is a volunteer retiree. I wake up kind of late, work in the garden, read some books, yell at kids to get out of the garden, and complain to my friends about the weather and how my parents never call. People also think I am crazy. I live on a check I get from the government once a month like social security.
-Mike
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Being a Man
So, There are times in a mans life that makes him a man. It is different depending on the culture you are in. I have become a man in many cultures. As a jew I had my bar mitzvah, as an american I turned 18 and voted, when I was in china, I climbed the great wall (Chairman Mao says that you are not a true man until you have climbed the wall). But the most gruesome and toughest thing I have ever had to do to become a man, was slaughter a chicken.
So, once a week, because I enjoy eating chicken I give my host mother 2500-3000 CFA (5-6 USD) Usually by the time I get home from my tough strenuous job (note sarcasm) the chicken is already slaughtered and stewing with some vegetables. today however this was not the case. I get back from work and during lunch my host mom says that she has bought a big chicken (and it was a big chicken compared to what I normally see here.) I say "oh good, I can't wait to eat some chicken tonight!" then she looks at me and says, "you will slaughter the chicken". I look at her and lean in and say "but i have never done that before". Then she said "you will slaughter the chicken". I say ok and get very excited and even call my dad and friends to let them know, and to see if there is a certain prayer that I should say. apparently there isn't a prayer to say before slaughtering an animal. So of course I want to get pictures of all of this, so I try to explain how to use a camera to our house maid. she is 16 and from the village and may have never held a camera before. I show her how to use the zoom, and how to take a picture. for some reason, she could not figure it out. ( it is an easy point and click digital camera too...) she practiced by trying to take a picture of my head. for some reason she was not able to get my head centered in the photograph. something was always cut off. eventually I got antsy and just forgot about it, and gave her the camera to take pictures. then there was the chicken. I took out my tactical knife, and sharpened it. then I grabbed the chicken. I asked for some instruction mostly to reassure me that what I was doing was right. and I proceeded to cut the throat but then my host mom quickly stopped me, and told me to go do it outside. she was right. and so I took it outside grabbed the head in one hand, and stepped on its feet, and with one clean stroke I slit the throat. I look up at Aisatu the maid and say "it is dead, I have slaughtered the chicken!" she looks at me and says "you have not slaughtered the chicken". I look back down at my feet, and of course to my surprise, there is the chicken still alive, and now it is bleeding all over me. I give out a little shout and the chicken starts to flop a little bit. I grab it again and slice it again, and look up all happy and say "Now I have killed the chicken!" Aisatu looks at me and then back at the chicken and says "no, you have not slaughtered the chicken" thats when I freak out. and I grab the chicken and really slice its head off. then I look at Aisatu and she looks up at me and says "there, now you have killed a chicken. you are a man". Now that I have killed a chicken, I believe that I can kill bigger things, like rabbits and goats, but I think that I will need to practice on a few more chickens before I get to a goat.
-Mike
So, once a week, because I enjoy eating chicken I give my host mother 2500-3000 CFA (5-6 USD) Usually by the time I get home from my tough strenuous job (note sarcasm) the chicken is already slaughtered and stewing with some vegetables. today however this was not the case. I get back from work and during lunch my host mom says that she has bought a big chicken (and it was a big chicken compared to what I normally see here.) I say "oh good, I can't wait to eat some chicken tonight!" then she looks at me and says, "you will slaughter the chicken". I look at her and lean in and say "but i have never done that before". Then she said "you will slaughter the chicken". I say ok and get very excited and even call my dad and friends to let them know, and to see if there is a certain prayer that I should say. apparently there isn't a prayer to say before slaughtering an animal. So of course I want to get pictures of all of this, so I try to explain how to use a camera to our house maid. she is 16 and from the village and may have never held a camera before. I show her how to use the zoom, and how to take a picture. for some reason, she could not figure it out. ( it is an easy point and click digital camera too...) she practiced by trying to take a picture of my head. for some reason she was not able to get my head centered in the photograph. something was always cut off. eventually I got antsy and just forgot about it, and gave her the camera to take pictures. then there was the chicken. I took out my tactical knife, and sharpened it. then I grabbed the chicken. I asked for some instruction mostly to reassure me that what I was doing was right. and I proceeded to cut the throat but then my host mom quickly stopped me, and told me to go do it outside. she was right. and so I took it outside grabbed the head in one hand, and stepped on its feet, and with one clean stroke I slit the throat. I look up at Aisatu the maid and say "it is dead, I have slaughtered the chicken!" she looks at me and says "you have not slaughtered the chicken". I look back down at my feet, and of course to my surprise, there is the chicken still alive, and now it is bleeding all over me. I give out a little shout and the chicken starts to flop a little bit. I grab it again and slice it again, and look up all happy and say "Now I have killed the chicken!" Aisatu looks at me and then back at the chicken and says "no, you have not slaughtered the chicken" thats when I freak out. and I grab the chicken and really slice its head off. then I look at Aisatu and she looks up at me and says "there, now you have killed a chicken. you are a man". Now that I have killed a chicken, I believe that I can kill bigger things, like rabbits and goats, but I think that I will need to practice on a few more chickens before I get to a goat.
-Mike
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Just Another Day
So, I had to go to Kolda for some birthdays, and the Playoffs. I decided to stop in Kounkane for some nourishment, and to get fitted for a storm trooper costume. I was really stupid though. it was a saturday, and not too many cars run on saturdays. So I get to the garage and wait around for 20 minutes while the converted bread truck fills with people. then we get to (pronounced Jaow-bay) Diaobe. Diaobe is a market town, every wednesday thousands and thousands of people from all over west africa flock to Diaobe. It is considered the largest open air market in all of west africa. unfortunately it was not wednesday, it was a saturday. there was no one there. and I had to wait 3 hours for my car to fill. it really sucked. but then I got to Kolda and made mac n cheese (thx mom) and cake (thx mom) and the next morning I made bacon, eggs, salami, and fried up some potatos (thx mom). I spent much of the day lounging around and then stayed up late for the playoff game which the Pittsburgh Steelers won. it was a nice weekend. When I got home I handed my host mother some bananas, and she looks up at me and in Pulaar she says "I have been constipated for 4 days". Its nice to be home.
Good News: My bank card works! (for now)
Something interesting: So being the only white person for about 15 miles in any direction give me a lot of attention. People tend to remember my name, but I do not remember their name. mostly because there are a few tens of thousands of people around me and I can't remember everyones name. people (mostly children) call out to me everywhere I go "Toubab! Toubab!" (It literally means pants or pants- wearer, they yell it at any white perosn) they shout at the top of their tiny little lungs. and I will wave back and say hello. sometimes they stop, sometimes they yell at me until I can't hear them anymore, and sometimes they will follow me until I grab a stick and threaten to beat them. At first it was just silly to me and I played along. After all the children are just excited to see a white person. now its getting annoying. I can't walk anywhere without some stupid kids screaming at me. even the neighborhood kids that see me every day scream at me as I walk by. I do not know why this behavior exists here, but it is not a good behavior. Adults usually do not scream out at me. if they want to talk to me yes they will say hey toubab come here, and I do and its not a problem. The problem arises when I am sitting in an office or at home and someone greets me and says oh whitey good day, but they certainly dont say hey blacky good day, to other senegalese. why do they have to call me whitey? I know im white. and I also have a name that you can ask me for. certainly not in America would this happen. people would get fired. could you imagine walking into the ohio department of agriculture office and say oh hey whitey to some guy that you have never met? that kind of stuff just wouldn't fly. I don't understand why people keep calling me whitey, when they don't need to call me anything at all. they could just say Bonjour, and that would be all. it is frustrating as to why they insist on calling me by my color, I am in no way offended, just confused and frustrated. and there isnt any cheese! what kind of a country that has millions of cows, has no cheese! sure there is yogurt, even banana flavored yogurt (which is extremely delicious) but no cheese. The pulaar believe that if there are two men, and one has 10,000 dollars and another has only 1 cow, the man with the one cow is thought to be richer. everyone has cows, and there is no cheese. cheese could be huge! it could make the country economically stable! there are so many cows, and cheese is so easy to make, i don't understand why there isn't any cheese!
and another thing about the food here: I went to Dakar and ate some really good chinese food. and it occurred to us sitting at the table that all of the food we were eating (minus the baby corn) is grown in senegal! so then why is it that senegalese food is so bad and tasteless? it just doesn't make any sense. the people also don't know anything about food preservation. NO FOOD PRESERVATION! what is that about? they don't ferment anything, or can stuff, no jerky (which raises questions again because of all the cows) and there is very little smoking of meat done. They do nothing and starve for 3-5 months out of the year in villages. if they knew how to properly preserve food, it may end world hunger or at least end the starving season. They don't even dry mangos! Mangos here rot in the streets because there are so many, and people don't know how to store them, or dry them. they also don't export them to the states, which could potentially create a lot of income for the country. there are so many mangos. everyone has a mango tree. I think am going to build a fruit drier.
so everything else is working out alright. the mint I planted isn't doing to great, and the herb garden I tried also isn't working out well, but I think that the soil just needs some more organic material. It also looked like when I was gone, the garden wasn't watered appropriately. it is a heavy clay soil here and so not much leaching occurs, the water just sits on top. the moringa bed just started sprouting today! and that is really great! soon I am going to plant corn and beans!
one more thing...It is funny to watch senegalese watching Avatar for their first time. they flip out.
-Mike
Good News: My bank card works! (for now)
Something interesting: So being the only white person for about 15 miles in any direction give me a lot of attention. People tend to remember my name, but I do not remember their name. mostly because there are a few tens of thousands of people around me and I can't remember everyones name. people (mostly children) call out to me everywhere I go "Toubab! Toubab!" (It literally means pants or pants- wearer, they yell it at any white perosn) they shout at the top of their tiny little lungs. and I will wave back and say hello. sometimes they stop, sometimes they yell at me until I can't hear them anymore, and sometimes they will follow me until I grab a stick and threaten to beat them. At first it was just silly to me and I played along. After all the children are just excited to see a white person. now its getting annoying. I can't walk anywhere without some stupid kids screaming at me. even the neighborhood kids that see me every day scream at me as I walk by. I do not know why this behavior exists here, but it is not a good behavior. Adults usually do not scream out at me. if they want to talk to me yes they will say hey toubab come here, and I do and its not a problem. The problem arises when I am sitting in an office or at home and someone greets me and says oh whitey good day, but they certainly dont say hey blacky good day, to other senegalese. why do they have to call me whitey? I know im white. and I also have a name that you can ask me for. certainly not in America would this happen. people would get fired. could you imagine walking into the ohio department of agriculture office and say oh hey whitey to some guy that you have never met? that kind of stuff just wouldn't fly. I don't understand why people keep calling me whitey, when they don't need to call me anything at all. they could just say Bonjour, and that would be all. it is frustrating as to why they insist on calling me by my color, I am in no way offended, just confused and frustrated. and there isnt any cheese! what kind of a country that has millions of cows, has no cheese! sure there is yogurt, even banana flavored yogurt (which is extremely delicious) but no cheese. The pulaar believe that if there are two men, and one has 10,000 dollars and another has only 1 cow, the man with the one cow is thought to be richer. everyone has cows, and there is no cheese. cheese could be huge! it could make the country economically stable! there are so many cows, and cheese is so easy to make, i don't understand why there isn't any cheese!
and another thing about the food here: I went to Dakar and ate some really good chinese food. and it occurred to us sitting at the table that all of the food we were eating (minus the baby corn) is grown in senegal! so then why is it that senegalese food is so bad and tasteless? it just doesn't make any sense. the people also don't know anything about food preservation. NO FOOD PRESERVATION! what is that about? they don't ferment anything, or can stuff, no jerky (which raises questions again because of all the cows) and there is very little smoking of meat done. They do nothing and starve for 3-5 months out of the year in villages. if they knew how to properly preserve food, it may end world hunger or at least end the starving season. They don't even dry mangos! Mangos here rot in the streets because there are so many, and people don't know how to store them, or dry them. they also don't export them to the states, which could potentially create a lot of income for the country. there are so many mangos. everyone has a mango tree. I think am going to build a fruit drier.
so everything else is working out alright. the mint I planted isn't doing to great, and the herb garden I tried also isn't working out well, but I think that the soil just needs some more organic material. It also looked like when I was gone, the garden wasn't watered appropriately. it is a heavy clay soil here and so not much leaching occurs, the water just sits on top. the moringa bed just started sprouting today! and that is really great! soon I am going to plant corn and beans!
one more thing...It is funny to watch senegalese watching Avatar for their first time. they flip out.
-Mike
Friday, January 21, 2011
It was a wild day
So, yesterday was a pretty wild day. I woke up pretty sore because of my new workout, and from digging up some dirt the day before. I had also woken up a little bit late at 8:40. I jumped out of bed and started pulling water from the well so that I could water the garden I had started. Right now there are a few tomatoes scattered here and there, a banana tree, some marigolds, a papaya, an intensive moringa bed with about 50 moringas, and some mint. I didn’t have time to shower, and I went straight to my new pulaar teacher’s house. When I get there I learn that Shades lives there too. (Shades is this weird guy, that pam and I keep seeing. Whenever one of us sees him he always asks where the other one is.) So of course he asks me where pam is and I try and explain to him that I have no idea where she is. I tell him (again) that we have different jobs, and live in different houses and that I never know where she is. He seems content with the answer and goes off into the city, I can only assume to the school he works at. I
My pulaar teacher seems like a nice guy, really close to one of the school gardens I supervise. He also teaches Unicef workers pulaar. The only problem with him is that he doesn’t speak any English. But anyways, I go there and sit down and take out my books and start going through some stuff, when this one crazy guy comes into the compound. Apparently he cannot speak or hear. I decide to watch the conversation unfold between my pulaar teacher and the deaf mute. For it being a conversation of just gestures, it goes on for a very long time. I can only assume that the deaf mute is asking for money, and my pulaar teacher keeps pointing up to the sky and making praying motions probably something about if you pray to allah good things will happen. We eventually get to study, and it was a bit difficult, mostly because he can’t speak English. Luckily I do have a French English dictionary, which is quite helpful.
I then went to the agriculture office and listened to podcasts and read about gardening and then I went home for lunch. After lunch I went to the hotel for a coke, and to check my e-mail. After a few hours I came home and I went about my business in the garden. I watered stuff, and started to make a trellis. Then I decided to sit back and hangout for a bit. My host mom decided that she needed to sell ice at the market, and she left me alone with my sisters. Lately however my sisters have been a bit rambunctious, and extremely obnoxious. I sat in a corner of the compound with my guitar and started to play. Well after about 10 minutes (without any adults besides me in my terrible pulaar) about 20 kids were in the compound all going crazy, screaming, and fighting, and trying to touch the guitar. I picked up a stick to threaten them, but they just saw it as amusing. Eventually one of the older ones were able to get most of the kids out of the compound. So then its me, my guitar, and like 7 kids. Suddenly the weirdest thing happened. One of the kids (Abdulay, he also suffers from some kind of mental illness) hits the ground head first maybe 2 inches from a rock, and begins to seizure. This scares the crap out of all the kids and they run. So then it’s me a seizing kid, and my guitar. At first I wasn’t sure what was going on, after all the kid isn’t all quite there already. Then I realized that he was having a seizure and moved things away from him and tried to protect his head. The child pissed himself mid seizure. Then suddenly he stopped seizing he sat up, realized he pissed himself looked around and bolted out the door. Maybe 30 seconds later all of the kids were back causing all sorts of trouble like crazy African children do. Finally after another 2 minutes my host mom comes back. She must have stopped and talked to the ladies down the street cause when she came into the compound she gave those kids a verbal beating like you wouldn’t believe. I am not quite sure what was said because she spoke so fast, but I can imagine.
The rest of the day was pretty good. My sisters are just out of control.
-Mike
Friday, January 7, 2011
Something Weird...
So something weird happened today. This all happened in about a span of 5 minutes, which I think adds to the weirdness. I was sitting outside the agriculture office going through notecards, when I was interrupted by a loud clanging noise. I looked up and a man about 50 meters away was striking an old fence post with a shovel. he then walked away. then a minute later a second man walked up tot he same fence post circled it twice and walked away. THen an old lady decided to sit down with me. I was in a plastice chair and there were 3 other empty plastic chairs. she decided that the best and cleanest way to sit was for her to pick up some nasty plastic off the ground and put it on a root sticking out of the ground and sit on that. It was very strange. I kept going through my notecards.
-Mike
-Mike
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Warthog
So, today was good. It started out normal, but then when I went to the pastry shop this crazy guy from cote D'voire came and started talking very loud and fast french to me. it kinda freaked me out. He was a crazy guy after all. Then I think he was asking me for money or gloves, not sure which. Then he took off his shirt to show me the huge cuts he had on his body (keep in mind that the pastry shop is on one of the biggest streets in the city). it looked nasty. he also showed me where on his foot it had been sliced open. it was really gross. afterwards he started following me and geoff around velingara. geoff asked him why he was following us (geoff speaks french) and his response was that he is walking with his brother (me). eventually we were able to get away. and away we went! Geoff introduced me to a part of velingara that I had never seen before. there were pretty nice looking houses and a couple of bars. the bar we went to was a bar-resauraunt which specializes in its warthog platters. it was delicious. fresh warthog with sauteed onion in a kind of mustard sauce and a cold beer. It was a good day.
-Mike
-Mike
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Christmas and the New Year
So, I had my first Christmas, and it was full of holiday cheer! I went down to Kolda to celebrate with my region. For dinner Christmas eve we made hamburgers, hotdogs, and frenchfries. I got to be the fry cook and I successfully fried 3 kilos of potatoes. that comes out to about 6.6 pounds of potatoes. unfortunately Christmas movies were being played on the projector the entire time. Christmas movies are just annoying to me. I did however watch Its a Wonderful Life in its entirety for my first time. it was an excellent movie. We did a white elephant gift exchange Christmas morning. I got sunglasses and a spoon. For Christmas dinner we had a smorgasbord of appetizers. I assisted with the twice baked potatoes. After Christmas I went back to site for a few days and cleaned off the area where I am going to have my garden. some weirdo came and asked if he could dispose of my trash for me, so I let him. I also threw rocks to the side. Then I tried to go on a great african new years adventure to Kedougou the land of the lions! I went with Rachel cause shes kinda sick of being in her village, and she had to bring her puppy too. when we got to Tamba we learned that the puppy has worms. So we had to take some meds, and give some meds to the pup! Then we went down to Kedougou. It finally felt like I was really in Africa! something about the setup of the town just makes it feel like real africa. there are mountains in the distance, there are a lot of trees, and a couple of monkeys here and there. Newyears was not exciting but still lots of fun. New years day Rachel and I decided to go to a waterfall. it was not a good idea. I was a little hungover, and "we" decided to leave at noon in the hot african sun. we went about 20k down the road and then took a wrong turn. after we backtrack I take out my water and realize that it has been leaking the whole time and I have half a liter left. we have to turn back we still had another 2 k to ride and then 3 k to hike after that. so we start heading back and the sun just gets hotter and hotter. I quickly am becoming dehydrated. the sweat was evaporating so fast from my face that it was leaving salt crystals. I had to get some water from some guys trying to fix a broken down taxi, and then from another nice family on the side of the road. when we got back I could barely move. I stayed for one more day to recover and then on the 3rd I came back. I came home to find that my mom sent me a package. it was filled with salami! and theres was also a lot of peanut butter. (fyi- a gallon of peanut butter here is cheaper than a liter of bottled water.) but i love my mother very much and I am going to make lots of peanut butter salami sandwiches which yes sounds gross, but also quite interesting.
So, My new project is bagels(See post "a fun week"). I gave a recipe in French to the guys at the pastry shop. they looked at it they read it and they said yes we can make you a bagel what shape is it? (the shape was in the instructions and there is a picture on the recipe too) so the next day I return and ask about the bagel. they look at me with such smiling faces and rush into the back (im getting excited) and they come back with a bagel that must be 18 inches across. my mouth drops. I immediately begin to laugh. they look at me like I am crazy (and I am crazy, I did ask africans to make me a bagel) So I touch it and check it out. They did not follow the directions. it wasn't boiled, and they covered it with sugar. I bought it off them cause it was still delicious for 60 cents USD. I thought it was a fair price for a giant not-so bagel.
I am also assisting in a health project to rasie money to fight childhood nutrition. it involves riding donkeys, falling off donkeys, and videoing the entire process. So far I have fallen off of a donkey numerous times, have not seriously injured myself, but i did rip my pants trying to mount the donkey.
-Mike
So, My new project is bagels(See post "a fun week"). I gave a recipe in French to the guys at the pastry shop. they looked at it they read it and they said yes we can make you a bagel what shape is it? (the shape was in the instructions and there is a picture on the recipe too) so the next day I return and ask about the bagel. they look at me with such smiling faces and rush into the back (im getting excited) and they come back with a bagel that must be 18 inches across. my mouth drops. I immediately begin to laugh. they look at me like I am crazy (and I am crazy, I did ask africans to make me a bagel) So I touch it and check it out. They did not follow the directions. it wasn't boiled, and they covered it with sugar. I bought it off them cause it was still delicious for 60 cents USD. I thought it was a fair price for a giant not-so bagel.
I am also assisting in a health project to rasie money to fight childhood nutrition. it involves riding donkeys, falling off donkeys, and videoing the entire process. So far I have fallen off of a donkey numerous times, have not seriously injured myself, but i did rip my pants trying to mount the donkey.
-Mike
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