This entry won’t be too long; unfortunately I don’t have anything as exciting as Tabaski to write about. I can say that the effects of Tabaski are still being felt all around Dakar. Until yesterday (almost a week after the holiday), at least one meal each day consisted of something with sheep meat. I was so excited when we finally went back to having fish with our rice for lunch. Also, a lot of the household maids around the city went back to their homes for the holiday. Ours, Aïssatou (who is 21… it’s crazy to think how different my life is from hers), stayed with us for Tabaski, but went home a few days later for some time with her family. My family here has been getting everything done that it needs to, but things like laundry and meal times have become a little more disorganized.
I have started going to RADDHO (a human rights organization based in Dakar) for my ICRP a few times a week. I’ve been reading books and news articles to get me up to date on the history of politics in Senegal and what’s been going on lately. One really interesting dynamic of the upcoming elections is the protests that occur pretty frequently. On June 23 of this year was a huge protest against Abdoulaye Wade, the current president, who is trying to run for another term. A lot of people believe it’s unconstitutional for him to run again, because he’s already filled the two term maximum, but the law that created that limit came into effect after the start of his first term, so there is a lot of debate about the issue. I think it would be ridiculous to re-elect a 90-year-old man as your president, but I guess I don’t really have much sway here.
Anyways, the point is that after the June 23rd protest, a group formed called M23 (the movement of the 23rd of June) that is a group against Wade’s candidature. It is closely connected to RADDHO, because the RADDHO president is a member of M23 (I’m fairly certain he’s the president of the movement too). On Friday while I was at RADDHO I got to sit in on the M23’s planning committee meeting. It was Tessa (another American study abroad student doing an internship there), about 20 men, 2 women, and me in attendence. They were discussing reflections on their last protest and planning for the next one. People started debating when it should be, and the discussion got really heated (as political discussions tend to do). It was really interesting and I couldn’t believe I pretty much fell into the chance to get to attend meetings of one of Senegal’s biggest, most recent political movements. After the meeting I found out one of the men there has a son who is going to Towson University, which is about 5 minutes from my house in the US…small world.
The only other really exciting thing to report is that I met up with my friend Megan who goes to Wooster this weekend. She’s studying abroad here too, and lives not too far away, but with our different schedules we hadn’t found a time to meet up yet. It was good to see a familiar face, and she introduced Grace, Ellen, and me to a bunch of her friends. It was great to hear about how their experiences have been similar and different to mine. I had a lot of fun seeing Megan and hope to get to hang out with her again soon. Who knows, maybe we’ll celebrate a Wooster Thanksgiving in Dakar together.
Next Thursday I’m going to Sokone for one of my classes. Sokone is a small town in the south of Senegal. The trip will just be through the weekend, but I’m really excited to see what it’s like in the south of the country. It’s supposed to be beautiful. I’ll let you know how that goes, and I haven’t forgotten about those River Valley pictures either, I promise, they are just so slow to load!
senegalsemester 