Naomi Wrightsenegal 2011
Senegal in Syllables
May 3, 2011
Over the past months, I’ve occasionally jotted down little haikus in my journal. Perhaps you’ll get a different perspective on my life in Senegal from these mental musings.
I have drunk friendship,
Brown-olive, thick with sweetness,
From a glass teacup
————————————————–
Sneezing and smiles:
The same in every language.
Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Eeeee!
————————————————–
Beans make sounds of rain
Tumbling into tin cans;
One kilo, cent franc.
————————————————–
Red coals burn, ash rimmed,
Spilling smoke in smudged curls
Fighting mosquitoes
————————————————–
Prayer call on Fridays
White sun heat of two o’clock
Devoted drift by
————————————————–
Sale! Phone cards! Good deal!
Cheap…
Malaria, Know More
April 25, 2011
During some of my first weeks in Senegal, when I was living in Dakar, my four-year-old host sister didn’t come down for breakfast one morning. In response to my worried inquiries, her mother shrugged and nonchalantly indicated that the girl was sick, “Elle est malade, c’est le paludisme.” Malaria.
I was shocked. Though I was on prophylaxis drugs and knew malaria was a risk one took by living in Africa, I’d thought of it more as an exotic jungle disease one caught while bush-whacking with a machete, not sitting in a well-furnished living room watching soccer. My host family’s reaction…
Fatim and Nafi (Help) Cook Lunch
April 18, 2011
Over the last six months, I’ve become well acquainted with the national dish of Senegal, “Ceebujen”. When I have a free morning, I help the women of my household cook the fish, rice, and vegetable dish for lunch. In this video, Nafi, another GCY Fellow stationed in the same village as me, help her mother Absa.…
Read the rest »Open Your Ice
April 6, 2011
My family in Senegal supplies the surrounding community—the village of Leona, about 1,000 residents—with ice during the hot months from April to November. It’s not the family’s main source of income; we only make 100CFA ($0.20) per block of ice. In fact, we probably wouldn’t sell ice at all, but we’re the only family in town that owns a freezer.
After the first few weeks, it became normal to …hack out a hunk of ice and hand it over to a two-foot high child in exchange for a few small coins. The foreignness of such a practice had melted away.
On the Road
April 5, 2011
Every morning I finish breakfast by 8:15 and change into my running clothes: a baggy t-shirt and spandex capris. My attire rides the line between cultural appropriateness and physical comfort (my knees must be covered yet I live in the hottest region in Senegal, where even early in the morning, the heat begins to waver off the sand). After slipping on my socks and running shoes, I head for the gate to my family’s compound, answering the inquisitive glances with “Mangi daaw. Bu ciikanam!” I’m going running. Be back soon!
I head for the only paved road in our village,…
Brave New World
March 24, 2011
I’ve read many books over these past few months, including Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Madeleine Balchan, another GCY Fellow, had read the same book in high school, the following is an excerpt from a discussion we had about the parallels between the book and our GCY experience.
Naomi: Brave New World is set in a futuristic London where everyone is engineered to a specific caste of intelligence which correlates with social ranking and occupation. The society appears to have achieved “happiness” and “perfection” because everyone is conditioned to… accept their lot in life and any discontentment is assuaged with
Vegetarian’s Dilemma
March 1, 2011
Among other things, I gave up vegetarianism when I made the decision to spend a bridge year in Senegal—or so I thought. Factory farming, my chief objection to meat in the States, isn’t practiced in Senegal and I didn’t want to be disrespectful to my host family’s culture or hard work to put expensive meat on the table (or in the bowl, on the ground, as it were.) If I wanted to truly integrate into Senegalese culture, meat-eating would simply have to come along with the bargain.
My logic was flawless… except that I am revolted by the taste of…