Monday, January 29, 2007

Fried Chicken

well and so it has come. the first major milestone as a volunteer. i have achieved, survived, struggled, and/or stumbled through my first 9 weeks of life in the village. i think it has been 9 weeks. someone do the math for me... i got there on Nov.23 and i am heading to thies on wed. figured it out? no? good, neither did i. doesn't matter does it. in fact that's something my father, in America, and i were talking about last night. i often have no idea what day of the week it is and i rarely if ever know the actual day of the month. it just doesn't matter anymore. the only time markers i have, for all practical purposes, is sunrise, sundown, and Friday afternoon... the holy day of the week. Friday lunch is always the best meal of the entire week, the reason i love Friday above all other days. i guess i need to know when wed. is because i need to take my malaria medication on that day, religiously. you don't mess around with the malaria medication. it might give me intense vivid dreams, which i personally enjoy, and could possibly effect my mental state and moods... regardless, i don't play around with that. oh and back on subject....
Well so I'm headed back to thies, to the training center, for the next three weeks. Going to do alittle studying, alittle catching up with friends, alittle bit of this and that. not being in my village being the most significant. you know oddly enough i felt alittle sad leaving my village the other day... but not enough to give it too much thought. as i told a friend in an email yesterday, my host family in my village has for all practical purposes become my family. they take care of my needs, they provide a roof over my head, they cook for me, they make me laugh, and they sure make me crazy. like all family, sometimes you just need to get away from them. the ones who make you laugh the hardest are also the ones who drive you the most insane. so yes, I'm sad not to see them for three weeks, but not enough to give it too much thought. besides i will be back living there for 2 years... we can do with three weeks apart. and I'm glad that i was leaving feeling slightly sad, better than dreading the idea of returning. but yea i don't really want to talk about thies.... I'm sure i will talk about it at other times. so... uh...
\nthat's it. \nI know that i often don't talk about important things. but i don't know what to write about. so if you have questions email them to me and i will try to answer them... or even ideas about what you would like to read about. i have all sorts of ideas in my head that I'm sure i pass over because i don't want to think about them... which probably are the most interesting to you. i know there is some disagreement as to what makes for interesting reading. honestly i would like nothing better than to write about how i just ate a chicken pizza, drank two beers, watched a bob Dylan movie last night, and engaged in a number of other americanesque activities in the last 24 hours. to me... that is exciting. come on... i just ate chicken. That is huge! chicken... ahhhh. \n\n here is alittle insight into how i, and many peace corps volunteers think. so we were watching sex in the city on dvd yesterday. yea don't laugh... we have limited choices. so here we are, maybe 5 or 6 volunteers, watching carrie eat Kentucky fried chicken with her boyfriend. they begin a food fight throwing chicken at each other and spraying water on each other with a hose. the point being carrie and her boyfriend were acting like teenagers. All we peace corps volunteers could think and talk about, and almost in unison, was our horror that such good fried chicken was being wasted by these reckless individuals.\n\n \n \n\n",0]
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that's it.
I know that i often don't talk about important things. but i don't know what to write about. so if you have questions email them to me and i will try to answer them... or even ideas about what you would like to read about. i have all sorts of ideas in my head that I'm sure i pass over because i don't want to think about them... which probably are the most interesting to you. i know there is some disagreement as to what makes for interesting reading. honestly i would like nothing better than to write about how i just ate a chicken pizza, drank two beers, watched a bob Dylan movie last night, and engaged in a number of other americanesque activities in the last 24 hours. to me... that is exciting. come on... i just ate chicken. That is huge! chicken... ahhhh.
here is alittle insight into how i, and many peace corps volunteers think. so we were watching sex in the city on dvd yesterday. yea don't laugh... we have limited choices. so here we are, maybe 5 or 6 volunteers, watching carrie eat Kentucky fried chicken with her boyfriend. they begin a food fight throwing chicken at each other and spraying water on each other with a hose. the point being carrie and her boyfriend were acting like teenagers. All we peace corps volunteers could think and talk about, and almost in unison, was our horror that such good fried chicken was being wasted by these reckless individuals.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

BBC stories

Here are a couple links to some stories I found today on the BBCs website. I wasnt even looking for stories about Senegalese immigration to Spain but this is what i found just reading about the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6213495.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6286285.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6109736.stm

Brad

Random Notes

Well so the Colts did it, didn't they. They went off and decided to play in the Superbowl the year that i have been only able to watch 3 games. That's right. I will watch the Superbowl, oh yes, that i can promise you. But come on... Come on... really? Make the Superbowl? See i bet few of you actually would have called them going to the Superbowl this year. That's right. I'm calling out you ney-sayers. I for one had a sneaking suspicion all along that they would do it. Don't doubt me here. Its true. Ask my father. Many a times during the last 3 or 4 months Ive mentioned to him that this year they would make a run for it all. Is it because they were not the favorite and the pressure was off a bit? Maybe. Was it because Peyton Manning rocks and the stars just needed to align themselves correctly? Probably that had something to do with it. But I know the real reason and it overrides all the previous statements and makes them insignificant details to the one obvious conclusion. I'm not in the States. They couldn't deal with my pressure i psychologically threw to them from half way across the country in Colorado. Nor could they overcome the football gods smiting them because of all the trash i talked to every fan of every other team in the NFL for the last 5 years. And i had a good time doing it too, and i still hate the Broncos. But... I leave the country and here is what happens. They just needed alittle distance from me. Well Colts fans, you're welcome. And if not... Ha!
Well so life in the village is what it is. I had a visit from my boss, coordinator of agriculture volunteers in Senegal, and he seems to think I'm doing well. My family said good things about me, embellished alittle, and said that my Pulaar is coming along well. They also told Massaly, my boss, that they often say words to me that they know i don't understand just to see if i will ask what it is or if i pretend to understand. Yea, they have fun at my expense. Which i already knew they did but now it has been confirmed. Which is fine, because now i know that they know i will often just act like i understand to get out of an awkward conversation.
But i guess life in the village is normal for the most part. Many of the men and boys have left the village to go back to school or to work in a city. In fact most of my friends, the boys around my age, have up and left for a few months to go work on the fishing boats along the Atlantic shore or to work construction in one of the many tourist cities that stretch along the western seaboard. The men and boys will return just before the rainy season with pockets full of cash for the families, new clothes, and the latest American hip-hop cassettes. Maybe the can get the new Game tape? Or possibly some good ol 50cent. They love 50cent. Work doesn't exactly pay American wages. For construction, it is roughly 5 American dollars per day. Hrm... nothing too exciting. I don't know how much they make on the fishing boats. But that is the way of the village. They basically our subsistence farmers with little cash coming from selling small amounts of vegetables or staple crops, the rest coming from family members working outside the village. Either in the cities or in Europe. Spain and France being the popular destinations of work. In fact most of the boys talk about trying to get to Spain. Work for 5-10 years and than come back to the village to live as wealthy patrons. Its the Senegalese dream. The only problem is that most of them will not be able to do it legally, so they will risk their lives in boats filled well past their capacity that set sail for the Canary Islands hoping to be granted asylum or whatever. Every month you hear about a boat full of people from Western Africa dying trying to reach Europe. Sometimes 300-400 people in a month will die. Its awful. But it pays well if it works out. There is no denying that the money they can make in Europe can more than pay for their families here. Sounds similar to a relationship that we have in North America, huh?

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Cruel fate

No the end is not here or near, i hope, but it seems to me that cruel a joke might be in the process of being played out on me. The Colts are in the AFC championship game against the Pats, and I am in Senegal. Yes, where i get no american tv, no electricity for that matter. Could they really make it to the SuperBowl with me half a world away? A friend just told me that if they Colts win the SuperBowl Im not ever allowed to return home so that Indy can thrive from all the championships their teams will win. Im sorry there is going to be nothing about Senegal today. Im busy reading in anticipation for that game i will never see. I tell you i willl be excited, if not alittle sad if they go to the SB. It would be like that BoSox fan falling into a coma only to awaken after they won the world series and missing the entire ride. But lets not get ahead of ourselves, they need to win tomorrow. Good Luck Colts.
Oh and what is this Im reading about the Pacers? Sounds good, except getting rid of Baby Al doesnt make me too excited. Someone send me an email explaining what is going on here. Im so completely lost. Word.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Ushering in 2007

Well i really didn't want to write this email. sometimes the thought of it is overbearing and i feel like i have nothing to talk about. well i haven't really done much of anything lately. which is true, but since i last wrote an email i have done many things... it is just that time has passed and I've moved on. so lets try something, a blitz of the many things i have done since Christmas.
I spent Christmas on the beach in a beautiful hotel located on some cliffs with about 15 or so other volunteers. We ate yassa poulet for Christmas eve dinner, a delicious traditional Senegalese treat, and sang Christmas caroles around a campfire on the beach with some curious Senegalese onlookers trying to join in on our fun not really understanding but following the tunes and chiming in when they felt it appropriate. i was much amused. they too enjoyed themselves.
a few days later was the biggest holiday of the year, tabaski, which commemorates when Abraham took Issac to the mountain and was going to sacrifice him at Gods command but than didn't, slaughtered a goat instead. remember that story from the bible? well it is huge in Senegal. but like all Senegalese holidays it was a bit anticlimactic. in the morning we put on our best new clothes, the men and i went out into a field, faced east, and began an hour long prayer session. i was asked, and i did, participate in the prayer session with the men which included the traditional prayer routine that they do 5 times a day. After that, the men all came to our compound where my father, the spiritual leader and chief of the village, slaughtered the first goat. each man than went back to his own house and slaughtered a goat. I spent the next 6 hours shuffling from compound to compound eating fried potatoes and ribs first, and than later the main course; a concoction of macaroni noodles, fried potatoes, goat, peas, and enough grease to stop the heart of a 2ton elephant, and bread for dipping. it was amazing. i stuffed myself until i nearly passed out. that day happened to be new years eve so my NYE festivities concluded with me taking two pebto bismol tablets and in bed and asleep by 10:30. and in came 2007.
The next three days were filled with me sitting around trying to talk with all the family that came to the village for the holidays who live primarily in the big cities of Senegal. we played soccer, drank tea, and slept. at night our village put on a huge wrestling tournament that brought in villagers from many miles away to watch big beautiful men wrestle in essentially what is tighty-whiteys, briefs. underwear. it was festive. there was a generator to supply lights and a sound system, a drum troupe came in to supply the beats of the night, and two women sang a repeated monotonous and very tiring chorus for three straight nights, 8 hours a night. the highlight is most definitely the wrestlers dancing around prepping themselves for the upcoming battle. generally they prep for 45minutes, dancing around strutting their bodies across the middle of the complex, going through premeditated pre-game rituals... all for a a match that takes anywhere from 20seconds to 10minutes. for the most part there were three to four matches going on simultaneously.
well i don't want to be too long winded. some other highlights of2007 as of now: i woke up in the night to a cockroach crawling around the inside of my mosquito net freaking me out. i also almost killed a chicken. so this is humorous. i was walking into my garden where i noticed a chicken chillin out underneath the shade of my fence. if i had been in a better mood it wouldn't have bothered me, but because the chickens have previously eaten many of my seeds, i decided to shoo him away. so i picked up a chunk of dirt and hurled it at the chicken hoping to frighten him and send him off on his way. miraculously... from 20yards away... i hit the chicken square on the side of the head, shattering the clump of dirt into millions of pieces. the chicken promptly made some noises and than closed his eyes and fell lifelessly to the ground. i thought i killed him. i walked over with a terrible feeling of regret and remorse wondering what i do now. my thoughts raced from who do i tell, who's chicken did i just kill, will they be mad at me, do we now get to eat the chicken (a rare, rare delicacy i would have enjoyed immensely). i decided i would walk away, not say anything, and come back in 5minutes pretending to find a dead chicken in my garden and offer to cook it. sounded brilliant. well i returned 5minutes later, poked him with a stake, and much to my surprise, and slight disappointment because now i had been savoring the thought of chicken, he awoke, stumbled around drunkenly, and wandered off out of my garden. the lost chicken. so close.
anyways that's all. I'm just going to end like that because well, i can.
brad