Protests in the capital

Last Thursday there were some riots in the capital outside of the National Assembly. The president of Senegal since 2000, Abdoulaye Wade who recently had his 85^th birthday – proposed a change to the constitution. Currently, to be elected president in the first round of voting, the candidate must receive at least 50% of the votes. If no candidate wins 50% then there is a second round of voting between the two candidates with the most votes.  Wade proposed that a candidate could win with only 25% of the votes and also wanted to introduce the position of Vice President who would replace the president in the case of his death or anything preventing him from performing his job. These changes would make it very easy for Wade to be reelected with his son as VP. Wade is very unpopular but since the opposition is not united it would be possible for Wade to win 25% of the vote in the first round.

In response to this proposition, a large crowd gathered downtown. It was quickly dispersed by tear gas and there was some stone throwing. I believe there were a few deaths and injuries but a couple sources have said that the protest was nonviolent until the police tried to break it up. The president withdrew his proposition that same afternoon.

I was very excited to see that the Senegalese stood up against Wade.  It was also satisfying to see how quickly he withdrew in response to the crowds. For the last 5 years there have been power cuts. Here in Thiès we lose power about three times a day and recently the water pressure has declined. We are only able to take water when we have power so we fill up large bottles every day to last us through the power outages. Other Senegalese I have talked to are also happy about the results of the protest. One of the opposition groups plans to continue until Wade steps down from power. The next elections will be held in 2012.

Senegal has a reputation for being a very stable and peaceful country and the Senegalese are proud of this fact. However, they have been letting Wade steal money from them and buy property and build houses, buy planes and put his son Karim in power without making much protest. The change Wade proposed was the last straw. I’ll certainly be following the news, especially in the upcoming year as elections draw nearer. 

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How my life has changed --- abridged version

What is normal? Normal is a relative term; Normal can be your best friend or an enemy depending on your ability to adapt to your surroundings.

Normal is not stopping the conversation when the power goes out because everyone expects it to happen.

     We lose power ~3times/day.  If I come home from work and have power, I can expect that we’ll lose it before dinnertime.

Normal is eating bread for breakfast every morning. Luckily I’ve made the switch from white “ghost” bread to millet bread – it lasts a little longer in my stomach. Too hot for tea, so I take a large glass of cold powdered milk.

Normal is slower. If I’m rushing it’ll probably take me longer to finish my task. I greet everyone at work and at the boutique, don’t ask to borrow the whiteout without asking about the person’s family, how he slept, and how work is going.

Normal is coming home from working and going straight to the mango tree. Pick a fresh mango and bite into it with your teeth. Try not to let the juice drip on your clothes because there’s no laundry machine, you may have to wait a week to have laundry done.

Normal is sweaty. Normal likes to take at least 2 showers a day.

Normal visits her friends’ Facebook pages when the power is on and she’s not exhausted and is surprised to see girls wearing shorts. Are those thighs? Normal feels exposed if she leaves the house showing her knees.

Normal has a hard time making to the gym but pays less than a dollar. Normal does not fit in at the gym but nevertheless has started lifting again and likes to wear giant red gloves on Talarta, Axames and Gawo. (Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays)

Baback

 Today I left the lab early to go to one of the villages that MIS works with. I went with Yacine who works in the MIS office. Yacine works with churches to sponsor kids in the villages. Last week the two of us met to plan out activities to do with the 15 sponsored children. The children are sponsored by partner churches in the US and MIS plans activities and helps pay for school and health needs. Maxime, a high school student was also with us; he’s spending a week of ‘job experience’ with MIS. Our plans included having the kids act out scenarios, playing with some of the instruments we found, sharing some snacks and maybe some coloring to fill up the two hours we would spend in Baback, a village about an hour outside of Thiès.

 Plans had to change pretty quickly upon arriving in Baback. We stopped at the church, a small building with a pulpit and wooden benches. Next door, some women were learning how to sew and there was a tree in the corner of the yard where we set up a few of the benches in the shade. At 16h, when we started, there were already about 15 kids that weren’t sponsored and of course we weren’t going to send them away.

 By the time all of the sponsored kids showed up and we prayed together, our number had grown to 54 kids. Since we were outside and arrived in a 4x4 we drew a lot of attention and kids came to join us from all directions. We split into groups and gave some themes such as what happens if the fence breaks and animals get into the garden or a motorbike hits a kid in the street. This was mildly successful – the kids were really shy to start but with some guidance they were able to act out the scene and we got a few laughs out of it. 

Next was a game of tag, which ended with only 2 crying children out of 70 so I’d say it went pretty well.

Before breaking out the snacks we tried to sing a couple songs with the instruments we brought but again the kids were shy. We tried to get a couple of the guys to play the tambourine as a drum but couldn’t get anything started. I ended up singing some Wolof songs I remembered from my spring break trip. This also elicited a few laughs but unfortunately did not give anyone the courage to start singing.

Next challenge, feed 115 kids some pieces of cake and 15 mangos. Maybe this is what the disciples felt like when they wanted to feed 500. Managed to prevent a giant mob from forming which is a huge accomplishment in my opinion and the mangos ended up getting passed from hand to hand, sharing at its best.

What stuck me the most was the shyness, the lack of creativity. We suggested themes and tried to encourage the kids to make up a story, what would happen? Back in Dakar, one of the CIEE students started a program for girls called CIPFEM. The organization encouraged girls to become leaders, to be more confident. Talking with her and others that volunteered for CIPFEM revealed a similar theme; the girls were often searching for the ‘right answer’ when asked to draw something or play MadLibs rather than pretending and creating. I’m not sure why this is the case, one theory is that the school system doesn’t encourage creativity or critical thinking. I see students studying which means rereading notes word-by-word trying to memorize exactly what the teacher said in class. Also there seems to be a ‘right’ way to do many tasks here, which doesn’t leave much room for trying new ideas.

This has further confirmed the notion of community involvement. Of course it makes sense, the local population should be an active participant and when possible a leader of development projects. But when you’re there, in Baback trying to entertain 115 kids with 3 people, one of which speaks Serer (the local language) you realize the gravity of the term community involvement. Someone from the region, if not the village itself would be much better suited for this job – someone who knows the language, knows the songs to sing, the way to keep the kids attention. Training is definitely necessary but train someone that lives there, who is invested in the kids lives.