the best of 2 worlds

So last weekend was the Muslim New Year. They celebrate by eating millet and cross-dressing. The latter part of that I didn’t get to be a part of nor witness since I can’t be two places at once. I sure to try sometimes though! I initially had plans to visit a friend’s village and celebrate there but the celebration is late a night and I wanted to be in Dakar early Saturday morning for softball. I’ll visit the village some other time and the “cere” or millet was delicious, provided by the family of a friend in Dakar.

So Saturday we had our softball games with a break in the middle with plenty of time to swim some laps and lay out at the Atlantic Club. I’m so happy I brought my cap and goggles even though I thought they were just comfort items among all the necessities in my 100 pounds of luggage! Sunday we went out for a seafood dinner on the western most tip of Africa (I’m as close to you as I can get without crossing the Atlantic!). The 5 of us shared 2 huge piles of clams and I had mussels and boiled calamari. I think I splurged and spent about seven dollars! At sunset even! I do like it here!

It has occurred to me that you may not understand the difference between my two homes. I will try my best to explain… Ndem is a small village of about 500 people. It is divided into 3 areas. The first is a guarded area just off the main road. It has 12 workshops, a gallery and office, where I hang out. All the artisans have their place, for example the metal workers have a building in the front and the weavers are near the back. All the buildings are painted white and blue, as they are in the next section of the village. Outside the artisan center, there is a mosque and the entrance to the neighborhood where the Marabou lives. There are probably 10 houses of permanent residents and just that many more buildings for people who come and go like me! Animals are kept in cages and there is beautiful landscaping. On the outside of that section, there is a gathering of huts that make up the population of the village where there is a microfinance credit mutual and a health center. 350 employees work in Ndem coming from 15 villages totaling about 8,500 people. A power line goes out from Bambey so we have power in the office but not many huts have power. There are several taps through out the village but not everyone has a “robinet” as the French call it. These villages that surround depend on water they collect from wells.

Now for my explication of Bambey: it is a city of about 25,000. There is a daily market, boutiques, cybers, and hardware stores. We’ve got just about everything I need! There are animals, pigs, sheep and goats that roam, and sometimes I see chickens and turkeys (and wonder how they would taste), and donkeys and horses are tied up that eat the garbage that is blowing around. We do have a designated place on the outside of the city where garbage goes, but if people don’t bring it there, it just goes in the street. And the street! There is a blacktop road that divides the city a few ways, otherwise its just sand. But the blacktop isn’t used anymore for anyone besides pedestrians since it is so worn out that cars and horse/donkey carts cant use it and just use the sand next to it. As for security, I’ve never had any problems, but everyone keeps their compounds locked up by huge metal doors. It isn’t very welcoming but I have seen this same set up in other parts of the world, like France and Brazil. I guess it works for them, although I miss my grassy front yard!

So people here are always looking for jobs and I am trying my best to find Ndem some more clients, ahem, those in America looking for beautiful fair trade products! Help wanted signs don’t exist here since everyone wants a job. Men in their 20s are trying to attend class, find work or apply for visas, the thing is since all education here is paid for by the government, teachers strike and they usually have to go to Dakar to find work, or abroad. BRAIN DRAIN is a way of life. I can hope to help the women in my town since they all stay here. I want to teach them how to manage the money they do have since when men do send money, they need to know what to do with it. I sure have my work cut out for me, right?