me & me

Dear God

I just had a conversation with my host-sister about sorcerers. Apparently there are a lot in the neighboring village, which is why she refuses to go there at night. I told her I don't believe in sorcerers and she yelled at me. 

You know what I do believe exist? Witch doctors - and they freak me out. On the BBC this morning there was a segment about albinos marching in Tanzania. Now, I had never seen an albino before coming to Africa, but we have a few in town and it’s not a big deal anymore (yeah, it’s not p.c. but I was really excited the first time I spotted an albino). 

You know what sparked the march in Tanzania? Apparently about 30 albinos have been killed there in the past year to be used in good luck potions. Witch doctors hire gangs to hunt and murder them so they can cook/sell their parts. The segment said one victim was a little girl who was dragged from her home, stabbed and dismembered.

That’s the scariest thing I’ve heard in a long, long time.

duty post

I’m exhausted from attending an all day baptism today, but I’ve been slacking off on my correspondence to no one (which is how blogging feels) so I promised myself I would write tonight. 

I know I’ve mentioned I don't really like taking pictures, but I see a lot of good shots here. I don’t take them for varying reasons. Like the naked little boys I see every morning swimming in the reservoir. That would be a great photo, but then Interpol would come after me. I tried taking photos during Korite, but it was sort of a pain and none of them came out well. 

The biggest reason was illustrated today during the baptisms where I took lots of photos, but it left me beat. Each snapshot had me swarmed by people wanting to see the image, and finally I had to claim a dead battery. These kids are a good example:

In addition to all that, I don’t know how I am going to pay to have all these images printed for people during my Christmas vacation. Sure, photos are cheaper at home but not that cheap. Offering them the digital version is not an option. 

Anyway, look at my photo album. The images are poorly composed, but they are a little bit of my life here.

Where do babies come from?

Some of my favorite times here are when I’m laying in my hut with one of my host-sisters just chatting and gossiping. I get some of my best information this way. Yesterday I was having one of these conversations with Kumba when the topic moved to white babies. It came about when we were talking again about how I’m an old unmarried lady (all of 26) who had better hurry and find a man so I can have kids before it‘s too late. 

I don’t know how long this had been on her mind, but Kumba acted really shy all of a sudden and asked me to explain how white people give birth. She also wanted to know what white babies eat. I started laughing hysterically and said something about “growing in gardens” (I don’t know the word for stork) but eventually told her the truth. She was a little disbelieving, but I think I’ve finally convinced her it’s the same process.  

I didn’t bring up La Leche League or the debate over breastfeeding versus formula or anything like that, but I did tell her that women in America go into a room to be by themselves when they feed their baby. She thought that was really strange. Of course when Kumba’s baby doesn’t nurse off of one side of her breasts she complains and makes me poke her breast so I can feel how swollen it is. The idea of breasts as private body parts is foreign to her. 

I don’t know what Kumba’s questions surprised me so much. I mean, people ask me if I there is a sun where I come from. In comparison it was a reasonable question.  

Too tiny

The twin girls I've written about are not growing like they should. Here's a photo of one at about six or seven weeks. 

She's not very big, is she? From what I understand they have been taken to the local healer, not a doctor, for treatment. I have trouble getting a straight answer, but I'm told the sisters have a common "wasting" disease that can be fatal. What does that mean?!? And what does the healer do? I thought they were just small. 

I actually had fun

So the Internet wasn't working, and I had to bike further to get to this cyber cafe that I don't like. We did a lot of work on the theater group's blog though, composing biographies and an introduction. I'm a little surprised to be saying this, but I actually had a lot of fun. Some of the kids had never seen a computer before. That got Laura and I talking about computer lab sessions as kids. She remembers an intense typing program where you had to type the letter before it bombed the city. I think I blocked that.

I'm trying to send dad a photo of a tiny baby with no luck. There's a young boy watching porn next to me. I wonder if he typed "interracial" into the search engine or just got lucky. 

Dad, the pictures aren't going through. You'll have to wait until I goto Kolda. So will everyone else, because that unsuccessful attempt took all my time.

Not much

I have a lot of blog entries I'm not posting today because I'm actually at the Internet for selfless purposes. Another volunteer, Laura, works with a youth theater group in her village and they want to learn how to use the Internet so I'm helping them build a blog. In theory the theater group members are going to post entries about performances, activities they are involved in, etc… I would post a link here but none of you speak French, so what's the point?

Last week I was a bad volunteer. I spent a lot of time in my room. I told everyone I was doing work, but really I was reading a book. I felt like I was in grade school again. I used to hide a book under my desk during class hoping the teacher wouldn't catch me. Now I'm hiding the book under my bed. Seeing as how I am in my own hut I have a little more autonomy, but my family's caught me a few times. The good news is they have no power to confiscate the book.

Anyway, even though all I really did was read I needed to get out of the village because my temper was getting dangerously short. One morning after my walk I came back and announced I was going to the city for the night. It was rushed and I had missed the car so the trip took about four hours, but still it was great. Again, was like school in the sense that I felt like I was skipping class (which I loved), but it was legitimate. I spent the night in the city, came back the next day and have been a much more productive volunteer.

School started Monday. I went by to greet everyone and noticed a few teachers sitting around, but most of them were still on vacation and I'm told students won't start trickling in until sometime next week. I'm a little confused by the whole process, to be honest, but I'll let you know how that goes.

Dance lessons

Baptisms and weddings are fun but humiliating because people are always trying to get me to dance. When I do dance they all laugh and point because I dance weird. But I can’t dance like these people! I took a small video clip so you would know what I’m up against. 

Click here

I know I said I would, but I won't

I'm not sure anyone even cares, but I am not going to do that Korite write-up before going back to the village. Fact is, I feel lousy and just want to sleep. I don't want to take a sept-place trip and deal with the thieves at the garage. I'll probably be near the internet again in 10 days or so, and I'll respond to some e-mails then. All you really need to know about Korite is that we ate a lot and I went to the mosque. That was cool.

riddle me this...

I can't help but notice my family seems to have an endless store of cooking oil supplied by the World Food Program. I'm pretty sure other people have to buy their oil.

A few months ago the Senegalese government distributed 3 kilos of rice to every compound. My compound was the distribution point because Bala is the chief. People said later that he kept sacks of rice for himself.

I'm sort of glad about the WFP oil because it comes in large cans that are in turn really good for hauling water out of the well.

KORITE

We had Korite in my village because someone saw the moon in Dakar and called us. Some villages didn't get the call and saw no moon so they waited a day. I'll post about Korite later. Right now I'm going to read a book. Here's a photo.