Nanga Def? (How are You)

So it has been almost two weeks here in Dakar. I am amazed at how fast the time goes. My days are filled with French class, African dance, djembe lessons, Senegalese food, museum visits and spending time with my host family watching bizarre French soaps.

I live with a wonderful family who lives in an area of Dakar called Grand Yoff. It is a very quiet and serene neighborhood near the Stade Senghor which is the host site of the games of the national futbol team (a sport loved by all here). The narrow streets that intersect our neighborhood are filled with pick-me-up games of futbol being played by neighborhood boys and teenagers, men riding horse drawn carts called (charettes) which carry and deliver anything from a sack of potatoes to picking up your weekly trash. A few buildings down from our home we can look out of our balcony onto an arab-francophone school. Throughout the day (beginning at 4:30am) you can hear the chants of both men and children. The many brotherhoods of the Muslim faith are a very prominent part of the landscape here. But the people here are very welcoming of all regardless of ones religious background.

I live with the Diop family. There is my host mother, father, younger brother (Lamine – 8 years old…who reminds me so much of my little brother Langston), sister (Khadija – 17 years old) and cousin (Swoodoo who is 21 years old). My family is very welcoming and we spend much of our time with our sister and cousin exchanging parts of our culture with one another. The girls love to listen to my collection of American Hip Hop, watch MTV in French, practice their English and learn about my life in America while I soak up all the Wolof (the local language) I can and learn how to the Manna (a popular dance) among many other facets of life here in Dakar.

Last weekend our class traveled to Goree Isle which is the island where many African slaves were kept before they were placed on ships and sent to the America’s. It was a very surreal experience. Walking around the isle which has to date become a tourist a very popular tourist destination. One cannot deny the presence of an abundance of spirits and memories on this island. We visited the last slave house on the Isle and were shown the small rooms where people were kept, beaten and starved before being placed on ships. We saw the small punishment room where Nelson Mandela wept when he visited the isle and the “Door of No Return”. I was absolutely shaken to the core. But I know that the struggle of my people has made me the wonderfully made individual that I am today.

Tomorrow we are headed to Toubab Jelaw….I will post more soon

Blessings

Courtney
XOXOX