MILLE PARDONS.
It has been much longer than usual since my last post and I don’t even have a convenient and/or plausible excuse! So apologies, all, for my laziness.
What I have been up to:
1) Trying (and failing) to get to Nouackchott, Mauritania. Last weekend, our lovely guide, Mme Bao (sp?), Josh & Chris’ host mom, had to cancel on us, and this morning after riding out at the crack of dawn to get to the border by 8am, we were told that purchasing a visa at the border town of Rosso, SN is no longer possible. We could have gotten across just the same (not surprisingly, a few thousand CFA could get us over the river w/o problems) but Mme Bao’s contacts in Mauritania told her that they have stepped up road blocks recently between Rosso and Nouackchott, and not having an official visa from the embassy in Dakar would, at that point, have been a major issue. So no Mauritania for now, although the ride to and from Rosso (2/3hrs each way in a sept-place) was actually rather interesting. Passed the major sugar refinery in our region of SN as well as a tomato-canning factory, several smaller towns and a few peul villages. Also passed through a huge Red Cross encampment that was set up a few Km from Rosso for Mauritanian immigrants—really interesting set up, wish we had had time to stop and take a look around. Might try for Mauritania again next weekend, but if I have to go to Dakar to get a visa, I might just chalk this one up for a failed adventure—Im only here for two and a half more weeks (!!) so cant waste time travelling two and from Dakar…
2) WORKING. We’ve been doing an awful lot at the Talibe center these days. We’ve had your typical gale outbreaks that I’ve already talked about, a few minor traumas, a couple of human bites (one kid tried to pull a Mike Tyson on another talibe…), several burns, a few fistulas and then one kid who just looked miserably ill with a tongue that was turning white and disintegrating…not sure what was up with that, but waiting to see what the doctors at the hospital have to say. The kid with the fistula on his thumb is looking much, much better which is really great to see, as is the kid with the fistula in his lower abdomen. Other than that, life at the talibe center has proceeded as usual with two exceptions—last friday at the goute, we had some local musicians come in and play music for the talibe which was phenomenally fun & on monday we had a red cross surgeon come in to perform 24 circumcisions on talibes from the dara de mouches. The kids (aged 7-12) spent the night at the center and then were woken up for showers at 5am (Josh & I volunteered to come in early to help out…), were shaved and then, one by one, circumcised. We had local anesthetic which was great but the kids were, understandably, pretty petrified… I helped assist with the surgeries, placing and holding clamps, cleaning blood, and once actually cutting the foreskin (which was a really odd feeling). The kids afterwards were dressed in their ceremonial robes and then fed a huge meal of rice and goat meat. We’ve seen them a few times since to change their dressings and most of them are looking like they are healing really well.
Oh, and for some really interesting information about the talibe situation in Senegal, check out this article from the NYT.
3) Cooking Gumbo! To thank Mme Bao for (trying) to take us to Mauritania, Josh, Chris and I made dinner the other night. From haggling for fresh shrimp to navigating our way through the sea of people in the Sor marketplace, the whole experience was a really interesting introduction to a facet of life that dominates the time of most people here in SN—food preparation. I think the whole process took us about 4 hours total for a really simple dish (And here I had thought my host mother was exaggerating when she said that most of a woman’s life here was spent preparing for the next meal…) Mom (and Gammy if you are reading this!), I made the gumbo in your standard fashion—a nice brown roux, onions, bellpeppers etc—but had a whole frozen chicken to deal with (feet still on!), a kilo of fresh shrimp and a half kilo of okra (which I’ve never cooked with fresh before—got some good advice and boiled them separately first to get rid of the slime, is this what we usually do too? haha Im so spoiled with my frozen, precut veggies…) Also, couldnt use sausage sadly, or find celery, but all in all I think it turned out ok! At least, Mme Bao and her brother ate it and I’m hoping they werent just being polite!
4) Working on my bar chords by learning Creep…this bullet point is pretty self-explanatory…haha
Other random things that have happened recently: Ran after a taxi (again!) because a 10,000CFA bill fell out of my bag in the backseat and I didnt realize before it rode off…dont worry, I caught it! I have found that while horribly out of shape in general, given the proper motivation, I will happily destroy my hamstrings sprinting over sand. haha. Also, had an awesome day at Mermoz last weekend playing beach volleyball. One of the guys at the center plays for the St. Louis male volleyball team so he was an awesome teammate to rely on…
Next week:
Still working at the center (although I’m technically within my two-week vacation period at this point). Also, the International Rap Festival of St. Louis is starting next Tuesday, so Im looking forward to some awesome concerts.
**Sorry no pictures in this post—Im going to try to upload a video of the party on friday in a second…
