Christmas in Dakar

Merry Christmas everyone!

I had a great Christmas Eve and am having a great Christmas Day so far. I hope that is the case for you as well!

Friday Brenna and I both found ourselves with the afternoon off (yay for early start to the vacation!). When she asked me if there was anything I particularly wanted to do, I said that I wanted to make a snowman… but there isn’t any snow around here. All my friends and family in Bend, Oregon were posting their snow pictures and I was feeling a bit left out. We don’t have any snow here, so we decided that we would try with sand. Brenna met me at the beach and we got started. Sand isn’t as easy to use as snow, so it took us a few different approaches to figure out what would work.

We realized that a tall sandman wasn’t in the cards, so we went with a shorter one. It might have taken us a few tries, but we were very happy with our results! “Sandy” as we named our sand-person, helped us find the Christmas Spirit we had been missing! Sometimes it’s hard to get into the Christmas Spirit when it’s in the 80s outside and you’re far away from your loved ones, so we were in a good mood!

Saturday we decided we’d start the day out at Parc Hann, which is a large park here in Dakar. Originally we were going because there was supposed to be a composting activity that Brenna was going to attend, but in the end it got cancelled and we decided just to go see the park. I had been wanting to go because that is where the local equestrian center is located. We started off our time at the zoo, which was a mistake because it was pretty depressing. The animals were in small cages and the tiger was literally crying loudly, which made us want to leave. I did yell at some Chinese tourists who were feeding one of the larger chimps something. The enclosures were pretty small and not exactly well set up, meaning that it was pretty easy for someone to lean over the rail and feed an animal through their cage (including the lions). So we left pretty quickly and walked through the nice forest towards the equestrian center.

"Coco" on the right is ALL MINE starting in January

Even though it was Christmas Eve there were normal Saturday morning lessons going on, so there were a ton of cute kids running around with cute little ponies. We finally found an office and I asked about riding, to which the man responded that they’d just had an owner put their horse up for lease, if I was interested. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I basically got myself a beautiful white Spanish Warmblood for Christmas!!! I am leasing “Coco” until I leave in July, with unlimited access to him and the park trails.  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!

On our way home, we stopped at the fabric market (Marché HLM) and got some more fabric to have stuff tailored (most people have their nicer clothes tailored here instead of buying finished products). I got 3 different types of fabric for some skirts and dresses to be made. Then I stopped by the tailor because I had ordered some dresses and skirts last week.

My Christmas Dress

Arame (my host family’s house maid who lives there) is also a December baby with her birthday on the 30^th, so we decided to get some matching things made that I offered to her as a birthday present. The tailor had said he’d finish everything by the 24^th, but my host mom was very skeptical, especially because he asked me to stop by on Thursday and show him the patterns again (meaning he hadn’t started). I wasn’t worried so much about all of it being done, I just wanted to wear the Christmas dress to church! So I stopped by at about 2:30, just to see if he wanted me to come by around 5pm, and it was ALL done! Turned out very nice too!

Brenna and I had decided to find a church that was having a Christmas Eve service, since my church wasn’t. I put a call out on Craigslist Dakar and found an Assemblies of God church within walking distance. Brenna came over for dinner with my host family (really just my host mom) before church and we had a very nice dinner of salad and fish. The service was scheduled to go from 8pm to 10pm, and ended up going until more like 10:30pm. It was a very interesting cultural experience, and not what I was expecting, mostly because it wasn’t very Christmas-y. There were some elements, such as the youth performances, that were sort of Christmas themed, so that was nice. It was more like a normal Sunday morning service that happened to be on Christmas Eve. We were both pretty tired, so ended up leaving at 10:30pm (the service wasn’t finished by then) but decided that we were both glad that we had gone.

Christmas Morning we all (myself, Brenna, Colleen, and her friend Liana visiting from the US) decided that we needed something fun to do on Christmas morning when it was still the middle of the night back home, but when we would all be wishing we were home, so we planned a trip out to the Bandia Reserve for a morning safari. We rented a car and driver and left at 8am.

We arrived about 9:15 and happened to be there just as a family with 5 children was looking for a group who would be willing to share the safari truck with them, so we decided to split it with them. It’s always fun to have children with on adventures like this! We got our guide, piled into the safari truck and headed out. The first thing we sighted was a hyena, who is one of the only animals in the park that is actually kept in an enclosure (too mean to be let out amongst the other animals) and a couple of large land turtles that didn’t seem quite awake yet.
Then we went out into the actual reserve, coming first across some buffalo, who the guide told us were not very happy with us being the first to pass by, so we didn’t linger. Then we saw the most adorable baby giraffes! SO stinking CUTE!!!

BABIES!!!!

The parents weren’t too far away. The mother was lighter colored, but the males are very dark (and HUGE!). We were all pretty excited to get to see them out and about. We would soon find out that giraffes would be all over the place! Ostriches as well, although we did get to see one male do a mating dance because there was a female nearby. Some monkeys that are hard to get pictures of, but are super cute, entertained us, and then we turned the corner to zebras!!! Then lots of antelope, of two different varieties. More giraffes… lots of giraffes!

See the elephant?

They don’t have elephants here, but we did see the “Baobab Elephant” which really does look like one!
There was another Baobab that had been a burial site for the local griots (the history keepers/storytellers of African tradition), with bones visible still! Lots more ostriches and giraffes, then a family of warthogs, which were cool to see but too far to photograph. Then we cross another safari truck whose guide tells our guide something in Wolof and the only word I understood was “rhinoceros” and our driver picks up some speed. We come around a corner and see a couple of other trucks stopped and then we see TWO rhinos fighting! Right in front of us! Apparently these are the crown jewels of the reserve, they only have those two (a male and female) and most people who do the safari don’t even get to see one of them.

Apparently they’ve been there for 15 years, but the female doesn’t like the male, so she refuses to mate with him (hence the fighting). We watched for a while and one of the little kids wanted to get closer, not understanding why it wouldn’t be a very good idea… We were very happy with our luck! We then saw a bunch of crocodiles and some more monkeys, much closer this time, to finish our safari. We saw everything we had hoped for, and more! It was a great way to start Christmas!

Just Chillin'

Now I am in a café, enjoying an espresso and writing this blog before I head over to Colleen’s, where we’ve all decided to make one dish for everyone. Liana is Jewish, and Hanukkah started last night, so they’re making latkes, Brenna is making sweet potato and carrot soup while I have decided that I am NOT missing out on Huevos this year, so I’m making my own batch and sharing it with my friends. Since California is about 8 hours behind us, I’ll be having them about that same time, or just after, everyone at Grandma Mert’s.

Thanksgiving in Dakar

From the 18^th to the 28^th of November I was house/pet sitting for a woman who works at the US Embassy. There were some major upsides to this, but also some downsides, notably when it came to location. I was living in a completely different part of town. My host family is located in Mermoz, which is pretty much right in the middle along the coast from where the US Embassy is located (in Almadies/Ngor) and downtown (Dakar/Plateau).

The downside to this was I was no longer within walking distance of FASTEF, so it called for a much earlier departure in the morning in order to arrive on time for my 8am classes (which I have 4 days a week). It also meant having to take a taxi anywhere I needed to go, which is a minor annoyance mostly because taxi drivers think they can charge 2-3 times what they should just because of the color of my skin, so the haggling is a bit annoying, especially at 7:15 in the morning!  On the other hand, I was staying in a large house that had not only hot running water (yay for a break from cold showers!), an American washer and drier, but also a fully equipped American style kitchen (which my host family does not have).

I invited Brenna and Colleen over for a Western meal on Friday, to give everyone a break from traditional Senegalese food. Not that it isn’t good, but it’s a bit harder for Colleen and Brenna, who both have dietary restrictions (Colleen is vegetarian, Brenna is gluten-free). We decided to each choose a recipe for something they were craving from home and we’d all make our own dish and share it with everyone. In the end we had a cabbage salad, a caprese salad, macaroni and cheese (but nachos for Brenna), and pumpkin soup… not to mention some wine and hard-cider. We spent a small fortune, but it was worth it! The little dogs were also happy to have more people to love on them, so everyone was happy!

Some Western comfort food!

The kitchen helped a lot when it came to Thanksgiving the next week as well. The Ambassador usually invites the American community (those who work at the Embassy or are connected to the Embassy somehow, such as the Fulbrighters managed by the Public Affairs Section) for Thanksgiving dinner at his house. Colleen and I had RSVP’d and everyone was asked to bring our favorite dish. I had also invited Emily, the other American student being hosted by my host family. I asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving dish was and she said it was stuffing, so that’s what I told them I would bring. Colleen had said she’d bring apple pie. It was a good thing I was house sitting because Colleen realized that her host family doesn’t have an oven either!

We decided to start cooking on Wednesday after we both got done with work, and finish on Thursday before the 4pm dinner start-time. Since we had some leftover pumpkin from the soup we had made Friday, I decided to throw a pumpkin pie into the mix. Last year Anna shared with me her Thanksgiving cooking wisdom/recipes while I helped her make most of her Thanksgiving dinner for 20+ people, and most all of it from scratch, so I was confident in my ability to make the stuffing and pies. Our first challenge was finding all the ingredients. Bread for the stuffing was no problem, but sage was much harder to find, and I completely struck out on the celery front, so I had to switch to mushroom stuffing. For the pies, we found the basic ingredients easy enough (flour, apples, cinnamon, etc.) but I had to phone a friend when brown sugar was nowhere to be found (not even at the American Store!). I called Anna and learned that the sugar-in-the-raw that I had would work, so I was set to go for the pumpkin pie. Pie tins are also not to be found here, and they had requested that everything be brought in disposable containers, so we decided that our pies would just have to be rectangular J

Our pumpkin pie pumpkin

Wednesday I cut up the bread and left it to dry until the next day, and then Colleen and I started with the pie filling. She peeled apples as I cut pumpkin (a small green pumpkin just like the one Anna and I used from her farm last year!). Once we got the two different fillings made, I set out to make the three crusts (two apple pies and one pumpkin). That’s when we realized there was no rolling pin in the kitchen… but we had a wine bottle! That worked just fine J We filled our pies and set them in the fridge for baking the next day. It was now almost 11pm and I had an 8am class the next morning, so Colleen headed home and I went to bed, happy with our progress.

Wine bottles work as rolling pins!

Thanksgiving Day I taught from 8am until 1pm, then met with Colleen in order to head over and finish everything for dinner! Emily ended up not being able to come to dinner because it was too early, so it was just myself and Colleen finishing the pies and stuffing for dinner. We had a very specific game plan in order to get everything done in the time we had (isn’t half of cooking for Thanksgiving time management?). We pre-heated the oven and put the pies in ASAP. While they were baking we prepared the stuffing for its turn in the oven. In the end, everything came out just as we planned and I felt I had done Anna’s Thanksgiving cooking legacy proud! Colleen and I were very happy with what we had to contribute to the Thanksgiving feast.

Our contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner

Dinner at Ambassador Zumwalt’s was very nice. Colleen and I arrived at 3:55 for a 4pm start time and were, of course, the first ones there. It’s hard to get out of the American habit of showing up for things on time! There were maybe 75-100 people there for dinner, and the weather was nice so the tables were set up outside. There were a bunch of round tables set up, each of them sat 8 people, so it wasn’t too overwhelming. The Ambassador provided the turkey, but most everything else was provided by the other guests. One guest (Senegalese-American) even brought roasted lamb (like, brought in 2 actual spits with the lambs on them!) and that was super good! The people at our table had some of what we had brought and said it was good. I also tried our stuffing and pies thought they weren’t half bad!

Although Colleen and some of the other Fulbrighters were there, I decided I wouldn’t sit with any of them and explained that I didn’t want to be rude, but just wanted to meet people I didn’t know. I chose a table that had a spot open and met some other Embassy employees. Ambassador Zumwalt had each table go around and say what they were thankful for throughout the year, as is tradition in his family.

I thought back on the year that I’ve had and was overwhelmed with my blessing for the year. I started out this year in Martinique, then spent the spring studying like a crazy person for my Masters comprehensive exam in French literature, which I passed thanks in large part to a few key people God blessed me with who supported and helped me (Anna, Alyssa & Bailey!). Then I found out I’d been accepted by Fulbright and would be going to Senegal! I graduated with my Masters degree surrounded by friends and family, including my amazing Great-Grandmother who at 91-years old traveled all the way across the country (with the help of my mother) to see me graduate. I then spent a challenging but good summer mentally/emotionally/psychologically preparing myself for Africa, while working with Africans in my final months at the University of Delaware.
An epic family-themed cross-country American Road Trip with two of my favorite people, Morgan and Steven, crowned my summer. I spent some time on the West Coast visiting as much family and friends as possible. 10 days in my beloved Bend, visiting family and staying with the two people who started this all 15 years ago by taking me under their wings and mentoring me, my “Godparents” Carmelo and Marlena, was amazing! I was able to meet the newest addition to our family born in July, Kinsley Jo, while simultaneously spending more time with Great-Grandma Mert. 3 weeks at Aunts Marci and Alice’s Rancho Alimar, one of my favorite places on earth, ended my time in the US, for now. And now, I am in this beautiful country, having amazing, life-changing experiences, doing what I love, and having already met some amazing people that I can tell will probably end up being life-long friends.

Of course, I couldn’t say all that at the Thanksgiving round-table, so I stuck to some of the biggest highlights of the year as we went around. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and we even had a commemorative picture taken with the Fulbrighters present and Ambassador Zumwalt! It will definitely go down in history as one of my favorite Thanksgivings. I know this is a couple of weeks after the fact, but I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that your holiday season has gotten off to a good start!

A Fulbright Thanksgiving:

Myself, Colleen, Ambassador Zumwalt, Kyla & Ryan

Actually Working

So my second week of work included much more actual work, which was great!

I teach 7, 2-hour classes per week, not counting the discussion and film club at the US Embassy.

On Mondays I just have the class with the three gentlemen I had on Friday. The topic that dominated the conversation was, of course, the election that was going to take place the next day. I had found a lesson plan on C-SPAN Classroom.org about how the Electoral College works, so I modified it for their level and we worked through that. I also found a simple video that explained it in simple terms and used that as well. It is not an easy system to explain! But it generated a lot of conversation, which is great. We’re working on fluency with them, so the more interested they are and the more they talk, the better. After I finished with them, I sat in on Mr. Thiam’s “Issues in ELT” course for the higher-level students.

Bottom 3 are LOTS, top 3 are HOTS

We talked about Bloom’s Taxonomy and the difference between Low Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The idea he is trying to get across is that true communication only happens at the HOTS level, everything else is just repetition and memorization, so unless the teacher creates activities that require HOTS, the classroom is not very communicative. He reminds me a lot of Dr. Cubillos J

Tuesday I meet with the two advanced level classes (B1 and B2 who are working towards the high school level certification). Both of these classes were dominated by explaining the Electoral College and the logistics of an American election. The students were very active and participating in the discussion, so I considered the classes a success.

I spent election night at the US Embassy’s event, which was held at Ambassador Zumwalt’s home. The Embassy decided to invite young Senegalese adults who are interested in the US and how things work there. They had asked for volunteers who could man the different booths they had set up for the evening. When the Senegalese came in, they were to pick up a voter card and a ‘passport’ that would be stamped at each station. There were 4 stations: Two on election-specific content (U.S. electoral process and diverse voters), one on studying in the United States (EducationUSA) and one for mock voting. There was also one where those who had gone to each of the stations would collect a small prize. This was an informational evening for young Senegalese, and because it was an Embassy event, personal political opinions were not to be shared. It was very interesting to see what kinds of questions everyone had, and I found that they mirrored questions I had been fielding all day from my students. I ended up working the prize booth, but even then people asked for more information about the process.

I did get to see one of our UD Mandela Washington Fellows, Aminata! I hadn’t seen her since she had been at UD for the summer of 2015, so that was fun! I was able to send a ‘neener-neener’ picture to my friend Susan who had also worked with Aminata. She had posted a picture of herself with Vice-President Biden who had stopped for some pictures after voting on the UD campus, so I figured I’d send her a picture of me with someone cool too! It was fun to see her.

Aminata, from UD to Dakar!

Wednesday I was at the US Embassy for conversation club and the Meet Me in the US film club. We were still on the subject of Education (because that’s of course what everyone wanted to discuss the day after the election?!?!) so we had an article about how many international students the US hosts at university campuses around the country, and then we watched the movie Finding Forrester. It was nice to not be talking about the results of the election for a couple of hours at least, since I had been fielding questions all day from my Senegalese friends on the surprising results of the American elections. Afterwards, I met with a woman who works in the consular section of the Embassy so I could see her house and meet her dogs before I started house-sitting for her. She was going out of town for Thanksgiving, so I was going to watch her place and the puppies for 10 days. The topic of conversation was, of course, the result of the election. Many of those who work abroad for the diplomatic corps are extremely worried by our President-elect’s complete lack of diplomatic experience (or any experience pertinent to the position, for that matter). I think many Americans, especially those with little-to-no international experience, underestimate the impact that America and its leaders have on the rest of the world. Everyone follows what is happening, everyone is worried by these results. Many people believe that the American election is about America, and that those outside of the US don’t matter, but the US actively sought out being a world leader, and with that position comes responsibilities. You cannot wish to be a world power without being accountable to the world. As an American here on a high-profile program such as Fulbright, and in a visible position such as teaching at a local university, I was getting a lot of questions about how this happened and what might happen next. Especially from my students.

Explaining the system

Thursday & Friday: I had class with my B1 students as well as with the C1 student, who is at the lowest level offered at FASTEF, on Thursday, and then with my B2 and C2 students on Friday. Of course, the election results dominated the conversation. While I may have had other plans, I felt it was important to answer their questions. Our conversation ranged from more questions about the Electoral College, how one can win the election but lose the popular vote and so-called ‘faithless voters’, to gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act. Many of them expressed their surprise at how the US system worked and noted that if such practices were used in an African country’s election, the rest of the world would call it out as an unfair, if not rigged, system… With the US probably leading the pack. When you look at how the Voting Rights Act was gutted and the resulting inability of thousands of eligible voters to be able to vote, I have to admit that they kind of have a point there…

Saturday

Ngor island benches for enjoying the view!

After the week we were having, Colleen, Brenna, and I decided to get some beach time. We wanted to check out Ngor island, just off the coast of the Yoff area of Dakar.

There’s not much to the island except a little bit of beach and some restaurants that cater to tourists, but it was worth getting some sun and beach time! We met up with a friend of Brenna’s, Blair, and took a little pirogue (small boat) out to the island. We decided to explore the island a bit before we stopped for lunch. There were some beautiful views from different parts of the island. After wandering around, we decided to have lunch at an Italian restaurant where we thoroughly enjoyed our meal before spending some time on the beach. It was a great way to recharge our batteries after a very long week!

We all needed some Vitamin 'Sea'

Colleen and I decided that the best thing we can do as Fulbrighters is to represent the United States as best we can to our international friends, many of whom have had no previous interactions with Americans. I, as a teacher, a Fulbrighter, and an American, will not shy away from the hard discussions, nor turn a blind eye to our weaknesses and mistakes, nor the large amount of work we still have to do as a young and growing country. We are dedicated to showing them that no matter who our president is, or what he says, we as Americans and as Fulbrighters will continue to uphold the ideals of the open-mindedness and big-heartedness that launched the Fulbright program in 1946. We will show that the person in the White House does not have the power to change who we are as Americans at our core. We will continue to act in a manner that shows our commitment to the tradition of tolerance, freedom, free expression, and inclusivity that has made the United States an example to people all over the world.

An Open Letter from 1,500+ Fulbrighters Regarding the Election