life is a work in progress; see it from behind the scenes

Senegal NGOs

So we finally, finally, finally got our list of NGOs that we can contact for the practicum.  Before I got the list, I knew I wanted to leave Dakar (for that week of the practicum), I want to help an organization who needs work done (rather than doing a purely self-interest project, which is an option for us), and I want to try to find someone who can speak English at least well enough to get me set up on my project and sites I want to visit.

Now, I have a list of contacts I will be calling tomorrow to start to setup my project.  Here are my top picks, in somewhat of an order of preference (highest at the top):

+AFRICARE
African-American development organization, integrated development mostly rural areas.

+APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL
Design of resource-efficient stovesm pumps and other technology, and production training.

+SOS FAIM
Today, there are 24 village shops that enable entire villages to avoid starvation, offering rice, maize, millet, peanuts, oil, sugar and flour. They provide the villagers with food products when the drought provokes a bad harvest. Besides, thanks to the shops women no longer have to walk long distances to fetch food for their families.

+HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

+OXFAM GREAT BRITAIN
development with grassroots partners

+OXFAM AMERICA

+WORLD VISION
various development-related projects, work with field office activities out of Thiès.  Emergency food aid, fighting HIV/AIDS, building wells, supplying needs

+COLOMBIN
workshops for pottery and ceramics for the deaf and mentally ill children in schools

+WINROCK
soils, seeds, training of local populatoions

+GREEN SENEGAL
regenerative agriculture

+Nigerian Refugees in Senegal
There are many Nigerians living in Senegal, and they really are the poor beggars who deserve the money people give on the streets. I have seen many people, even those without much for themselves, giving to Nigerian families here.  (and they speak English, so I could really interact with some of these people).

+RODALE INTERNATIONAL
regenerative, organic agriculture, compost, water retension systems

+UNICEF-United Nations Childrens Fund

+UNDP-United Nations Development Program

+USAID

Comments and suggestions and whims are always welcomed and really helpful...
The whole ordered by preference fell apart about half way through this list, and some of the websites are much more helpful than the others...

Anyways, happy 4th of July everyone!  I celebrated by spending the afternoon on the beach and then going to Les Ambassades (the awesome patisserie) and having a Coca Light and an incredible ice-cream thing.  I took a picture of it; you'll see it later.

host...family?

so this afternoon, we met our host families and i'll readily admit i was really really nervous.  like i've said before, french is a very hard thing to jump into at all...not quite sure what i thought a homestay would be like exactly, but needing french all the time is really really hard.  it feels like we've been here weeks.

the woman i will be living with this summer is retired, as is her husband.  she has 11 children, but none of them live at home.  she speaks french and just a word of english here and there, so it's pretty rediculously hard for me to meet her and come up with something interesting to say.  we probably spent 30 minutes together today and i think i exhausted my entire french vocabulary.  i brought out my photo book of my family and friends--the BEST thing i could have had for a time like this.  I can't thank Kim enough for that present and idea!! The good thing is that one of the women who works with the program lives next door.  it turns out she's my sister-in-law for the homestay, she's married to my homestay mother's son, i presume...Her name is Amy and she has 3 children, 6, 8, and 12 years old...I think I'll spend some time with them, ask to go to the market with them, and go out at night with some other people from the program. 

there's one other person who is also terrible with french, and i think i may have picked up a little more than her now, although i still have an incredibly hard time listening to french, and the Wolof we are all learning isn't very easy either.

Everyone on the trip has been really amazing so far and we're rediculously diverse...I already have someone lined up to read my copy of Velvet Elvis once I'm done with it; i'll probably give her Blue Like Jazz soon.

Everything is much more natural even though it's only hours between posts; it feels like we've been here weeks, and its only the second day. i guess that means progress. and each little freak out seems so much less important a day later.

tomorrow morning we have 'the drop off': we're going to be given some money and we're headed downtown in taxis on our own to explore or find something whatever.  i think once i've been downtown i'll have a much better understanding of the city and how it's layed out; it's weird though because once we live with our families we are part of the family, somewhat not supposed to go out at night ?!  anyways, i think my family will be chill about everything because some of their children live in Europe and they don't have anyone in the house that i could disturb coming in late.  It don't know what to expect about their house...some people are supposedly in really sweet places, and i do know that my family is sending a driver thursday to pick me up; i think his name is bongo or something like that.

i haven't even listened to my music the whole time i've been here.  i keep thinking i'll run down the charge on it and not be able to recharge it for when i really 'need' it, although here i sit with a computer at my feet for a while each day (at a gas station of all places!)

the taxis are really bizarre here: they all have broken meters and you have to bargain with them or get screwed...that should be interesting without speaking french...i'll be sure to get in a cab with someone with a moderate french level in the morning...*

à demain!

Mountain Dew and Dor..."turn your head and cough"

I just went in for my physical today for Africa and it brought on a flashback to early elementary school. I've never been much into sports, so the last time I had a full physical would have been for coaches' pitch or soccer or something back in the little years.

Anyways, I figured out that the day of that last physical was quite possibly the last time I ever drank Mountain Dew, by choice at least. I remember scarfing down a sandwich and a ton of Doritos with a Mountain Dew before we left for the doctor's office and the urinalaysis people telling me I needed to drink less Mountain Dew, etc. Blah, blah, blah...I listened. I moved to the brown sodas and have never enjoyed flourescent sodas since.

So, this time, I didn't think to cheat the system and drink a lot of water ahead of time; in fact I didn't eat anything all day and I can't remember what I had to drink, if anything, so when I came in the doctor's office and peed while waiting for my appointment, I didn't think at all about how I was wasting my precious sample pee. A huge glass of ice water and 20 minutes later, I finally filled the tiny cup.

(gross.)

To Market, To Market

It's official. From June 17 to July 28, 2007 I will be in Dakar, Senegal.

insert Mat Kearny line: "one foot on the water to face these fears..."

or something like that. After pushing everyone else to interest in global affairs (cough, Africa), I'm taking the first step to what I hope will be my future investment in the developing world.

I'll be studying photography. No animals, but rather documentary photography. Now if only I could find my missing Canon Digital Rebel, which was surely stolen by some toddler the Sunday after Sweetheart's Banquet.

They've asked for a photocopy of my Passport (which I'm pretty sure is completely illegal to make) and some exciting immunizations. By the way, if your stalking brings you to Senegal this summer (and not just facebook), make sure you get the right malaria medicine. At least 2 kinds are completely ineffective in the region.

This is going to be an exciting time out of the country of self discovery and an eye-opening isolation from American culture. the less you have, the better off you are. (Longbrake)

Wish me luck.

oh, and be jealous. starting now.