Brain=Mush=No cool title.

So…new development on the internship front since my last post:
Literally, the day after I posted the “Senegal, a slap in the face?” blog, I went to talk to Waly about my internship to figure out the details of what exactly I was going to be doing working for l’Association Juristes Sengelaises and where it is located in the city of Dakar and all that jazz. Here’s the situation:

Waly, inside his FREEZING COLD air conditioned office typing away on his computer.

Me, *tap* *tap* *tap* on office door.
Waly: “Oui, entrez” (“yes, come on in”)
Me: So… about my internship…Where exactly is it in Dakar? Am I going to be staying with the same family?
Waly: Um…about that… you actually aren’t going to work for AJS anymore. The intern that is there now isn’t going to leave, so there isn’t a position for you anymore. I’m working on figuring something else out for you, so I’ll let you know how things end up.
Me: Oh, ok. Well I’ll talk to you soon then?
Waly: Yes, I’m working very hard to make something else happen.
Me: Thanks.
…and…… scene.

So basically what happened was I ended up having to fill out a hardcore application for this internship (in French, obviously) at ONDH (l’Organisation Nationale des Droits de l’Homme – National Organization for Human Rights) and I had an interview last week, and I started Monday. So far, it’s been paperwork and lots of reading. I had to read a few really long documents in French, and then write up small presentations on each one (in French…I’m just going to stop saying in French, and you can just assume everything is in French because it is…which is turning my brain into mush) to present on Tuesday to my supervisor. Basically my brain was exhausted by the end of the day Tuesday. It’s nice to be surrounded by French all the time though, as compared to being at WARC with a bunch of other Americans speaking English all the time (no offense guys, you know I love you). Anyhoo… I’ll keep all y’all updated on that situation.

Yesterday I worked with another intern translating English documents into French. That was pretty cool actually… it made my brain work in reverse since I’m usually always translating everything from French into English. Working with Saphie (the other intern) was super fun, we had lots of laughs and it was a great experience since she is completely fluent in French and I’m completely fluent in English, we were able to work together to make the translations a total success. COOL.

In the beginning, I was a little disappointed to find out that I’d be working in an office, when what I really wanted was to be working with a local organization interacting with local people on a day-to-day basis, whereas this is more… shall we say “corporate.” But that’s ok, I’m sure it’ll work out just fine…not to mention it’s a pretty cool resume builder. ;) And if I don’t like it, I can do something else after 6 weeks when the semester ends. I think it’s also good to experience human rights work from both sides: in the office, and doing local fieldwork…so hopefully next semester I’ll have the opportunity to do something on a more local level.

Things at home have been great! My mother's niece (Binette) who had a baby just about a month ago is staying with us with the baby (whose name is Sidy Mohammed). He's absolutely adorable and a joy to have around. Binette and all of her friends call me "tata" (which is like "auntie" in English) and is a total term of endearment. I love that! Binette will just walk into the living room and plop baby Sidy into my arms and she'll just go about doing her own business. Mothers fling their children all over the place here whereas in the U.S. babies are little delicate things that aren't to be touched by anyone but the parents or by close friends with supervision. They also hand their children off to strangers if they need to be free of them for a few minutes to perform a simple task. It's awesome! There is so much fear in the U.S... fear that bad things will happen to the ones we love most. Maybe that's what perpetuates all the bad things? Who knows. It sure is interesting to compare and contrast the two places, and I feel quite blessed to live in a society that operates more out of trust than out of fear.

I've kind of been slacking on the quote front...so here's one for today:
"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson