Senegal, Land of Dreams?

The Runs! 1-1

Presenting at All-Vol

I just got back from Senegal where I attended an “All-Vol”, ostensibly a conference where volunteers from all over West Africa exchange ideas and WAIST, the West African International Softball Tournament.

Still in Guinea, we drove our car on to this hand crank operated ferry.

Guinea volunteers talk about Dakar (the capital of Senegal) as if it were the Emerald City, Atlantis, and Paris all wrapped in one. I have a secret for you. We are not exaggerating. Senegal is Guinea’s neighbor to the north sharing a border with a small part of the northern Basse-Cote and the entire northern border of the Fouta Djallon. In terms of distance, it’s less than 10 hours from the regional capital of Labe to the border, but it terms of development it is light-years away. As you approach the border, the road becomes smooth and paved with a dotted line down the middle. Taxis that hold 9 in Guinea, by law hold 7 people. That is to say one person per seat. When we pulled into the first small town, I saw signs for “Espresso” everywhere. I was excited. I love coffee and didn’t know that the coffee shop was an integral part of Senegalese culture. I was wrong and the answer was even more exciting. Espresso is an Internet provider. Running water (potable in Dakar), electricity and Internet are ubiquitous in Senegal. When we got to the training center in Thies, a city like Kindia in that it is the closest large city to the capital, we were cautioned that every once in a while there would be a short black out and to not be alarmed. I couldn’t help but laughing. If we were in Kindia, I would be warning, “Every once in a while, we will have a short period of electricity. Don’t be alarmed.” In Thies, you could go eat at one of many air conditioned cafes that served everything from penne with shrimp to four cheese panninis to ice cream and pizza while providing free high speed wifi. Dakar was even better. I drank tap water! I drank draft beer! There is a real mix of cultures in Dakar. You can see the diversity of the city just walking down the street. A survey of our group would reveal that we collectively ate Ethiopian, French, Lebanese, Thai, Senegalese, American, and Koren Food. Also, we ate more ice cream than a person should in a week. Don’t even get me started on the grocery stores.

That's a real Aldo across the street from our hostel. Walking in is just like going in the one on M street.

The super market...in a shopping mall. They have their own line of store brand organic products

I scream, you scream, we all scream for N'ice Cream!

It’s easy to go on and on about Dakar. We decided that we needed to be careful, as Guinea volunteers, not to point out constantly to the Senegal volunteers how much harder we have it. Every once in a while, something would slip out (OH MY GOSH! Grass! They have grass fields!), but the more time we spent in Senegal, the more we realized how easy we have it in Guinea. Yes, they can ride a Ferris Wheel, or take hot showers, or buy American clothes in a shopping mall, but they are also constantly harassed and treated like tourists. Guineans are warm and welcoming. They treat you like family and know that you are in their country to get a job done and so give you respect. At the first leg of my trip I ended up in Labe, alone, after dark, with no phone. Apparently, there were bandits eyeing my bag and offering me rides just so they could steal all my things. What happened? The driver put my bag and me in his taxi and locked the doors. The woman who was riding next to me got in and offered to take me to her house so I could charge my phone and eat dinner until I figured out how to get to the Peace Corps house. The driver took me all the way to the Peace Corps transit house for free.  In Senegal I felt constantly affronted, harassed, swindled and ripped off. When buying something in the market, I kept my ears open for Guinean last names and would buy from these friendly vendors. Peace Corps Guinea is like one big family. I know everyone’s names, their siblings names, where in Guinea and America they live, and their favorite food. Seasoned Senegalese volunteers kept asking us if we were from the new stage and the new ones kept asking us where in Senegal we served. So even though in Guinea I can’t eat a bagel and drink iced coffee while watching Youtube videos, I feel blessed to have ended up in Guinea, the land of one million smiles and one kind of paved road.

Madeline Island, a completely deserted island paradise

Hey Baby, I Think I Want to Marry You

In November I hit my one-year in country mark. In January, I got to the halfway point and now today, I have officially one year left. That though is not the point of this post. While a lot has changed in the year I have been here- both personally and in Guinea generally, one thing has remained a constant. The marriage proposals never stop. The other day, I was facilitating a workshop and a participant came over before I had even started and said in English, “I want to marry you now”. I said that was fine by me as long as he was comfortable with being my 6^th husband (as in polygamy) and that my bride price was a car, 100 cows, and a house with a pool. He said he would build a compound for me with a pool and a house for each of my husbands on the condition that I never leave the compound. It didn’t work out.

Last year, I spent 9 weeks living in a host family in Dubreka during my training. I had a 15 year old brother, Ishmael who acted as a surrogate mother, father, brother, and sister. He was the one charged with taking care of me and so we spent a lot of time together. Last year for Christmas he bought me a stack of 100 puppy stickers, a glow in the dark rosary and a ring. He knows I am obsessed with dogs because one of the first things I did was show him pictures of Leo. He knows I am Catholic because that is a the reason I give for not going to the mosque. The ring was supposed to keep me safe. It was a very thoughtful gift. This year, when I told him I was coming back to Dubreka for training he was excited. He had bought me a gift and didn’t know when he would be able to give it to me. So one night after training, I walked over to their house to say hello and get my gift. It started off with 5,000 GNF phone credit- a nice gesture since he calls me everyday and sometimes when the call drops I call him back. Then he put a rubber “Sylli de Guinee” bracelet on my wrist. Think Livestrong bracelet but twice as thick and the colors of the Guinean flag. Then he slipped a sweat band (also in the colors of the flag) on my other wrist except this one can with the decoration of a marijuana leaf and he had added “Grace a Maman” in pen. Then he handed me a opaque black plastic bag and told me to open the rest at home. Inside the bag was a packaged wrapped in cellophane gift wrap (Which can only be bought at a gas station and so is a luxury item). Inside this wrapping was a box, inside this box was a bag, inside this bag was a box. This time the box was clear and said, “I heart you”. Inside this box was a fake rose ring box open with a ring inside and a pack of mints. It may be hard to picture so when I get to a better internet connection I will add some photos. The package contained many other smaller gifts such as a change purse within a change purse with one of each type of American coin, some euro coins, and religious medals inside. A sheet that used to contain heart stickers with one letter of “Bonne Annee MC” written one letter inside each empty heart. A free bank wallet with 300 GNF (approximately 4 cents) in it. A illustrated card with some lovely stickers on it including one of a glittery squirrel. A certificate saying he had donated 5000GNF in my name (which he thinks is Meghan Cormick) to development funds. A nice gesture although I highly doubt those funds are going towards developing anything. A mardi gras mask and a paper asking me “In your opinion, what most quickly kills a friendship”. He then had 35 responses for me to choose from including not being yourself, marriage, and bad breath.

The gift was wonderful and strange. Opening it gave me quite the entertaining evening. My reaction was, “Oh isn’t this sweet”, but it was apparent to the other volunteers that I was with that this was a proposal. In this uncertain and instable world, it is nice to know that at least some things never change.