Senegal, a slap in the face?

Wooops!

It's been SO LONG since I've last blogged. I keep putting it off, but if I put it off any longer, I'll forget all of the wonderful things that have happened.

First off: I went to Toubacouta! Toubacouta is a smaller village located just a bit north of the Gambia. Our entire group went a few weekends ago to see what life outside the city is like. So, early one Thursday morning, we all piled onto an air conditioned bus to head to Tamba (a nickname for Toubacouta). About 5 minutes into our journey (after all of our packs were loaded onto the top of the bus and 50 bajillion bottles of water were packed underneath our seats and in between our feet) we find out that we have to switch buses because ours is apparently broken... c'est la vie au Senegal. We change buses and some really nice really strong Senegalese men transported our baggage from one bus to another and we were on our way. I put my headphones in and stare out the window as we start to leave the city. I hadn't really experienced any sort of strong sense of culture shock upon my entry to Senegal, but leaving the city definitely allowed for a bit of it to settle in. Outside of Dakar, things are so much less developed. Little electricity, little huts with thatch roofs for homes, no running water... etc. I found it so ironic that we are here to learn about development from the perspective of the developing country and yet were traveling in an air conditioned bus viewing the developing country literally from behind a window. Did I mention that we also stayed in an amazingly beautiful hotel with really great food, air conditioned huts, heated water, and a pool? Hmm... not exactly what I was expecting, that's for sure. I continue to be so thankful for all the things I have at home and how I've taken so many things for granted.

Even though we lived like true Americans during our stay in Tamba, we were able to see many of the neighboring villages and certain traditional activities (such as la lutte-a very physical type of wrestling/dance display and the most popular sport in Senegal, and a traditional dance troupe). My favorite excursion was taking a little side-trip to a very small village outside of Tamba. The community was entirely composed of thatched roofed homes and had no running water or electricity (that I could see). The entire community set chairs up for our group in a circle and the elders sat on a mat on the dirt in the middle of the circle, while the children were on the periphery behind us (talking and giggling in Wolof and staring at all of us toubabs). The chief elder of the community warmly welcomed us (multiple times) and handed the floor over to the main educater of the town to talk about issues in the village and other various aspects of life in the village. He then asked us questions about our experiences. It was one of the coolest, most enriching experiences of my life and it didn't even last 2 hours. Many members of the community participated in sharing opinions (both women and men). I felt blessed to be part of something bigger than myself. At the end of the discussion, a group of women began to play their instruments (which consisted of various different sizes of plastic and metal bowls and other utensils used to beat the bowls as makeshift drumsticks) The women began dancing and pulled us all up to dance with them. It was such an amazing experience and brought tears to my eyes.

It's so cool that people can be from completely different places in completely different parts of the world, and still have some sense of mutual respect and interest in each other. BEAUTIFUL.

Alright, so you're all probably wondering about the title of this blog, right? Well here's an interesting story....

Wednesday this last week, I was walking to school. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining and I was ready for all my classes that day. I wasn't feeling my best, but wasn't feeling my worst either. I was just meandering along down one of the most busy places in Liberte 3 (a section of the city of Dakar), minding my own business thinking about how much I've come to LOATHE white bread (we eat it ALL the time) when all of a sudden **WHAM** a man had come up behind me and hit me across the right side of my face. I began to tumble to the ground, when an older man wearing all white caught me and pushed me aside. The man who physically assaulted me began to yell at me in Wolof. I immediately started balling, seeing as my face was throbbing and I had no idea why this man had hit me. The man who helped me looked at me and directed me to keep walking and go away. I zig-zagged over to a resting spot and stopped to call a friend who lives nearby. I was in a complete state of shock. For those of you who know me: you know I'm the least violent person on the planet and have never been in any kind of a fight or hit anyone out of more than jest, so you can imagine what kind of state I was in at this point. Immediately there was a huge group of Senegalese people surrounding me asking all kinds of questions, but I was on the phone trying to describe to my friend where I was. I eventually hung up the phone and the main who originally helped me came over and asked if I was ok. I was hysterical, I couldn't even get a full phrase out of my mouth. He asked me what I had done and I explained (through hiccups and very broken French) what had happened. He explained that the man was simply crazy and then proceeded to ask where I was going. The concerned group of people was still surrounding me and were all eager to help. I told him I was headed to school and almost everyone offered to accompany me there, for if I were to continue alone, the crazy man was sure to re-approach me. I told them that I was just going to wait for my friend and then take a taxi. A group of women took me and brought me to a nearby home and sat me down once inside the door. I was still crying and couldn't really talk to anyone. Then one woman sat down next to me and hugged me...which made me cry even more because it was such a nice and comforting gesture. My friend finally showed up and we headed to school.

I'm totally fine, and my face is fine as well. My eye was red for awhile and a little swollen, but nothing serious. I just never thought that anything like that could or would ever happen to me! There was absolutely nothing the police could do because there are so many crazy people here that have nowhere to go. Sometimes they are admitted to a hospital in the area, but apparently they escape a lot. I've also noticed that the police don't really have a whole lot of power here... it's so much different than the States, I don't even know how to describe it.

I've tried not to let the incident keep me from doing the things I want to do. I think the scariest part is knowing that I can't blend in. No matter what I do I will still be a white blond female in a sea of beautiful black Africans. Especially here in Dakar. I will always be a Toubab that taxis honk at and men hit on. I'm very excited to move to a village in January and be on a more personal level with more people. I'll be like a shiny new toy for about a week until everyone knows me and then I'll just be Ndela whereas here in Dakar I'm always that white Toubab who has endless amounts of money to spend on everything on the planet and wants every black man to be her husband. **oozing sarcasm**

My mother and home life have been absolutely wonderful. :) I love her more and more everyday and don't know what I'd do without her.

Classes are done next Friday and then we all start our internships! I'm very excited to not have to be at WARC all the time. It will definitely be a nice change of pace. Crazy thought: I won't have another real class until next September when I'm back at the U! How excitinggggg.

...and I don't think I've talked at all about my internship! I'll be working with the organization called l'Association Juristes Seneglaises in the branch working for women's rights! More specifically: working in a battered women's shelter helping women and their children with whatever they need. I think it'll be a heart-wrenching experience for sure, but I'm excited to work in a local shelter as well as understanding and working on the more solid written laws and rights of women.

Alright, sorry to end so soon, but gotta run.

Peace,
Ndela