Tiana: living, loving, learning

Easter was quite a big day for Senegal: a celebration and feast, a national independence celebration, and a huge and highly anticipated wrestling match all packed into one 24-hour period. My Easter started off with mass at the local church…

I arrived there with Paul and my siblings about ten minutes before mass started, and was heartened to see people pouring through the doors.  I, personally, am not Catholic, but it is always encouraging to be in the fellowship of other believers in Christ!  I took my seat on a wooden bench next to my sister, Mama, and I imagine it was quite a sight to see for anyone seated behind us.  There I was, this tall, blonde toubab, and I was sitting in a section with all of the younger kids!  It was so strange, and ever so interesting, to see and hear an Easter service in French (and, intermittently, Wolof)!  Not to mention, all of the songs were accompanied by characteristically African tunes on keyboard and the now-familiar beats of a chorus of djembes.  The service ran quite long, just over two hours, but I didn’t mind.

Mass was followed by rest and a gigantic feast for lunch.  Rice, chicken, and loads of vegetables!  I then went to buy credit for my phone at a nearby shop so that I could call Matar, my cousin from Dakar, who was in town visiting family and friends.  It turns out that he was about a block away from the shop I was at, so we met up and caught up on all things new in Dakar and in Joal.  The family in Dakar is well, and I think Maman might be visiting Joal sometime next week.  In any case, it was great to see a familiar face that afternoon.

Another epic wrestling match, similar to the one described in a previous post, took place that evening and, just a fun little note, the wrestler from Joal, named Yekini, won the match!  Everyone went nuts!

Monday was a lazy day—no work, nothing to do but relax and write a couple of papers.  I ended up taking the short walk to the beach and spending about an hour there taking pictures and collecting shells in complete serenity.  There’s nothing like some alone time, especially when the only sound surrounding you is that of waves crashing onto the beach.

I worked with the resident Social Assistant, Demba, at the center on Wednesday.  He’s quite the busy guy with quite the charged job description: providing general social services, taking on social cases, distributing antiretroviral drugs to patients affected by HIV/AIDS, regulating scholarships given to orphans and children affected by HIV/AIDS, organizing and executing activities in the community to educate and inform the population about HIV/AIDS, distributing donated food to pregnant women, patients, and families in need and the list goes on!  I had the opportunity to sit in on some counseling sessions and learned how to distribute the antiretroviral medications, then I headed to the pediatric center.

There wasn’t much to do, so I went and sat with Tata Ana, or Aunt Ana, who holds down the fort at the very front of the center, distributing consultation tickets when patients come.  Aunt Ana is an older woman, I would estimate between sixty-five and seventy years old, with one of the sweetest attitudes I have ever encountered.  She hadn’t been at work on Tuesday, and I soon found out why: sadly, her younger sister had passed away over the weekend and she had gone to Dakar for the services.  We had the opportunity to just talk for about an hour about everything and nothing.  She is the first person here in whom I feel I can really confide.  By the end of the discussion, she was telling me that I simply must visit her sometime at home because I am now her adopted daughter!

Later that evening, I decided something.  I need to work out more regularly.  Living here, I haven’t been able to eat very complete meals, not much fruit, not many vegetables, not much protein, and not many dairy products, so I knew that I’ve got to do something to maintain a decent level of health.  I’d played basketball with the kids at the middle school across the street a couple of times, but wanted to make it a habit.  So early Thursday morning, I woke up with the sun and headed to the outdoor court.  It was perfect.  The sun was rising just behind the palm trees behind the court, the air was fresh and cool, and I was totally alone.  I had forty minutes to run, shoot, and do drills to my heart’s content, and then was joined by Modou, a local guy  who came to train.  We rebounded for each other, shot some free throws, and then I headed home.

Waly and Korka, from my school in Dakar, visited on Thursday morning!  I was at work, and we had a chance to discuss a bit of what difficulties I was having, what I would like to see change, how everything in general was going, etc.  I was so happy to see them, and the day was starting off well.  Work on Thursday became tough. I wasn’t feeling very well again, as with any breath or bite of food I took, my chest hurt like crazy.  It was also busy.  Most notably, there was a young accident victim who was rushed to us and then evacuated to Thies and a young girl whose hemoglobin level was way to low because she had been eating only sand, thus requiring a transfusion.  It was a day full of observations and seeing the clinic personnel in action, and we were all exhausted by the end.  Ergo, I rested quite a bit that afternoon and woke up early Friday to hit the court again.

Friday included work, where I followed the visit of the hospitalized patients, sat in on some consultations, planned the upcoming week with Dr. Eugenie, acquired a giant Pediatrics textbook written entirely in French, and began a project that Doc has me working on that documents all of the cases of every illness that the center has seen so far this year.  As the work day ended, I went home to eat lunch with the family and then headed to the beach, soon to be joined by Mass, a local guy who I had met before at the shop down the street.  We had a great and entertaining discussion, but I soon left to go and register for fall classes: French Literature, Genetics, Human Physiology, and Introduction to Ethics.

The middle school where I registered was hosting a lutte match that evening, so I was caught up in the craziness of the set-up, having several people stop by and say hello, being surrounded on all sides by local children, etc.  But everything went smoothly, and I went home before the match began.  Dinner came and went, I went and played with the new adorable puppy next door, Massif, went to the beach with a friend to stargaze, then went home and got some rest.

Saturday, I got to sleep in!  My host dad brought me around the city to really orient me a little bit. We stopped by the Christian and Muslim cemeteries, the church, Yekini’s house (the famous Senegalese wrestler who won the big match last week), and to Senghor’s house (the first president of Senegal), which is now a charming little museum.  My favorite part of the walk was how many people I recognized in the street!  I ran into people from work and other minor acquaintances, and of course my host dad knew a ton of people.  What a cute community!

After visiting Joal, we went to a tiny nearby village, Ngasobil.  With about ten homes in the entire village, the trademark of the community is the church and the seminary school there.  I think Ngasobil might be the most tranquil place on earth!  No cars, nobody in the streets, no garbage or pollution; instead you are surrounded by nothing but trees, birds, flowers, breeze, and peace in general.  The village has been conserved to a tee!  My host dad explained that the government wants more than anything to get their hands on the land, but that it belongs to the church and can’t be touched.  Not to mention, the courtyard behind the seminary school, an absolute haven of tranquility that leads to a small cliff overlooking a beach as void of people and pollution as the village itself.  And the beach, of course, leads to ocean—the sky blue shallow water becoming deeper and deeper and accomplishing an gorgeous teal color the likes of which I’ve never seen.  What a rejuvenating afternoon!

I know I’m adapting now—I am enjoying life in Joal more and more, meeting more and more people, and just trying to seize every moment.