I'll Be Home for Christmas?

Here I am, sitting in my apartment. I should be boarding my connecting flight to Washington DC right about now, but a gas leak got in between that happy moment and me.  Brussels Airlines has officially deemed itself as a frustrating airline.  Once they lost my luggage, but found it again, once I was booked on a flight that departed the day before, but they bumped me up to first class, and now they have cancelled a flight because of technical problems...I wonder what compensation I will get...perhaps first class to the US? I can always dream.  They tend to screw up a lot, but unlike other airlines they are always very apologetic and try to make their mistake up to you.  Perhaps this is why I will probably use them again.

"Ew!" is a fitting caption.

I will indeed be home for Christmas, but what an unfortunate end to my first 4.5 months in Dakar.  At least I was not on holiday here so I could go home and sleep in my own bed.  Those that were on holiday got put up in a hotel...I was not going to miss the chance to cuddle with Rafiki for one more night :)  Too bad I had to lock him out of my room by 3 AM because he thinks that I am a piece of bacon. Stupid cat.  I may look tasty, BUT I AM NOT YOUR DINNER! I have a new year's resolution for my cat, only eat/bite things that do not like a human.  He will inevitably avoid chomping on naked mole rats and hairless cats using this rule, but it is probably for his benefit.

*Sigh* I am now going to pace my apartment for an hour and shoot over to the airport to see what is up...fingers crossed I leave this afternoon!

I want someone to haul me around the world at warp speed :(

Today is a Day for Ranting...

Calvin & Hobbes, always fitting for my mood!
 I hope I can make a snow army when I am home...

It is officially December so I feel obligated to release my inner child and skip for the next 25 days while whistling any number of Christmas songs to myself...Shortly after I accepted this unavoidable truth, I stumbled across a link about why the 90s were just so special as a child. It has everything that was near and dear to my heart listed, including something I am still bitter about, I never had a Tamagotchi.  I remember my years in first and second grade, all of my friends would whip out their keychain Tamagotchis in the hallway, at recess, in art and music, at lunch, ALL THE DAMN TIME! And I never had one...I never let my cyberpet poops itself to death. I was so deprived. And in case you read the article and are wondering who I liked better, I was a BB girl. In fact, I used to insult Justin Timberlake on the playground, ha!


While perusing Facebook for other mindless articles I stumbled across something worth while!  Mind you, I did not learn anything new or have an epiphany, but I watched a very concise and powerful speech for marriage equality.  I have nothing to say on the marriage equality "debate" because it is not even a debate in my mind. You wanna get married? Go ahead...the real debate is whether the entire institution of marriage is even worthwhile...yup, I opened up that can of worms.  What can you expect? When you have interacted with as much feminist theory as I have, you cannot turn a blind eye to an entire institution that is inegalitarian and has more benefits for men than women, I do not care what country you are in. (You can probably find a few textbook examples as counterarguments...if you do that much research to disprove me, open up some JB to really make your brain spin). Gah! Either way, here is the video...

I just have so much to say today! Today is World AIDS Day, something that I hope everyone is thinking about.  YouTube certainly was prepared for the day when I signed in to look up the video I just referenced in my last paragraph, and then ONE Campaign had to go and make me really mad.  The following video popped up on my sidebar:

Before you write me off as being crazy, watch the video.  Notice anything? Everyone is the video is AFRICAN! So if I were ignorant, as so many people are, I would assume that this is an African problem.  Thanks ONE Campaign, you really enlightened me today.  Let's not discuss that this is a growing problem in the US.  Let's just focus on a population that always takes the burden as war-stricken, the center of the AIDS epidemic, the ONE Campaign even snuck in a starving African baby. I am seriously pissed off! I am not saying to ignore problems that exist, but I am saying, show the whole picture.  If you type "AIDS a growing problem in" on your google browser, the first ten articles on google will mention five of the seven continents...the five continents that are heavily populated. I just get so frustrated with these campaigns, which in theory are great, but in practice categorize and stigmatize certain groups of people.

I also got so upset by this video because of the language it chose to use..."AIDS is preventable and treatable" (with music similar to that of a Viagra commercial in the background).  So let's say that I am one of the approximately 70% of pre-college teens that has sex.  Let's say that I have an abstinence-only sex ed program in my school that does not teach me about how serious STDs actually are, but the immorality of sex before marriage.  I am on the pill because I told my mom I have "really really bad cramps," when in reality I just do not want to get pregnant. I have a healthy relationship with a guy I like, he does not realize he may have HIV or AIDS, and I sleep with him.  Why would we use a condom? I am on the pill I cannot get pregnant.  AIDS? Well, that is not a huge deal anymore, this is not the 1980s and I am not gay. And one more thing, my new love interest is white, so he obviously would not have AIDS, I mean, that is what they always show on the TV... and if something awful were to happen, AIDS is treatable. See where I am going? Keeping the population ignorant is not going to help anything, it only makes matters worse.  Give us facts/opinions/solutions/information, or quite literally, give us death.

This is also a good time to squeeze in the link for the NYT article that came out about two weeks ago, Quaker schools represent! "Teaching Good Sex"

Inspired by David and his talk of piglets :)

After all of that ranting, this blog needs a bit of cuddliness to redeem itself :P  


To go along with the piglets I will share a link to "The 56 best/worst analogies written by high school students"...an example you say? Okay! 
"Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." <- Fun fact: I have an exquisitely refined artistic sense!


Also, I have a VISA, HOORAY!

Meet Me On The Sunny Road...

 
I have successfully failed my goal of writing on my blog in the month of November as I did during the month of October, oh well. What have I learned from this failure? Nothing. Except that I enjoy being connected to the WWW, and with the forces of my own brain and Senelec, I am just not good at it.

So why would I quote Emiliana Torrini for my blog title? I just want to share my sunshine with everyone. I know that sounds silly, but in truth, I am not lying. I am soaking up the sun everyday and as awesome and beautiful of a city as Dakar is, I sure wish I could share it with people at home.  Every evening during the week when I finish up tutoring my commute goes along the Corniche, which is right next to the ocean.  I get to see the sunset on the Atlantic Ocean four days a week...the other three it is a toss up depending on my location.  Every single day I just stare out at the ocean and I am just overwhelmed with how many mysteries lay at its bottom. What I would do to one day dive to its very depths and come across a coelacanth fish...my favorite ugly fish in the world (see pic).  They intrigue me so much because they may be one of the linking clues in evolution, they have lobbed-fins, which potentially relates them to amphibians. I learned about them on a NOVA episode once in high school and I have since been intrigued by them. In short, I named this blog as I did because I have sun and ugly fish to share with everyone, don't you feel special?

It is EXACTLY what you think!

I also had a very "sunny" day, which may not jive with the actual lyrics of the song, but whatever.  I had a decent day at school and tutoring, so nothing special there, but two good things have happened... 1) I will be getting my VISA Thursday! Hooray! I will be a legal worker in this country *snoopy dance* and now I can publicly let my parents know that I have not had a VISA since August, haha. There are somethings about working in Senegal that you have to just be here to understand, like, not having a VISA is not important... 2) I may have a job offer to be an English teacher at a small bookstore in Mamelles.  Cheikh canceled his lesson, and I have been eying Chez Alpha Books for sometime (I always am happy to explore a bookstore!), so I swung by today.  Turns out it was actually closed, but the shopkeeper was happy to let me in and let me look around.  After a few minutes we started chatting as I browsed and she told me that they have been looking for a native English speaker to teach English to beginners or tutor as a Homework Helper.  I am going to look into it in the next few days, and all I can say, is thank you for faking sick Cheikh! (Yea, he fakes sick almost every time that I come by, what a bum!)

Needless to say, I had a sunny day :)

Let's hope that luck continues in my direction for the next few days! And it may sound unreal, but I only have two full weekends left in Dakar until I am home for noël! Bientôt les E-U, et mon Dieu, j'ai envie de rentrer...

Home. Sick.

Sick days are bittersweet days for me.  On the one hand I feel guilty missing work and would like to get on with my normal routine, but let us be serious for one minute, would you not rather drink tea and watch Disney movies all day? I always have to act like a grown up when I go to school, so sick days I relish in the fact that I can pop 101 Dalmatians into my DVD drive and hum along with "Cruella DeVille."  Now, I always fear telling people that I do not feel well while I am in Senegal because people automatically think that any illness you contract anywhere in Africa must be life threatening...just give me minute to laugh at you for that assumption.

Because the didgeridoo makes me laugh too... 

Okay, I am done laughing. I just have a normal flu, not that I really know what constitutes a "normal" flu from an "abnormal" flu.  I am painfully ingesting drugs that remind me of my childhood, everything is fizzy and brightly colored!  I suppose I just lied, my cough medicine is not fizzy, but it is about as horribly pink as Peptobismol and my god! It tastes so much worse, bleh...My other medications look like the candy Bottle Caps, which I really like (I know, I am in the minority for liking Bottle Caps), but it could not taste anymore different than tasty, sugary candies.  The fever reducing medication tastes like baking soda, or what I think straight baking soda tastes like...The Vitamin C tablets are neon orange, and as much as I would like to say it tastes "just like the real thing!" it does not, womp womp.  My medication makes me feel momentarily worse as opposed to feeling better because I do not like carbonation very much.  If I drink anything with "fizziness," as I have always referred to carbonation, I have to drink it slowly.  These medications make me feel like I just funneled a beer at a frat party, and we all know how much fun that is.  I suppose the one benefit is that my medicine is at about the Coors Light level of quality on the beer scale as opposed to Keystone Light, things could be worse?

This is me going to work. Every. Single. Day.

 Before I was sick I had a very fun weekend filled with great food, good friends, salsa dancing and a less than risqué bridal shower for a co-worker.  About an hour after returning home from the bridal shower I felt temperature rise from 97.5˚ to about 100.0˚ while lying in bed.  Of course, I do not own a thermometer, so these are just estimates...my temperature always seems to hover around 97.5˚ when I am healthy.  Odd? Perhaps, but I have two theories 1) Someone in my family was blacklisted after a love affair with a big lizard, which has left me a bit cold blooded or 2) I am just nostalgic for one of my favorite pop stations when I was a teen, now it plays bad 90s soft rock...

Rafiki and I on a healthier day, how cute is he?!

Rafiki has been quite the cuddle buddy the past few days, and even though he has a tendency to viciously attack my arm, I must admit, he knows when I am not feeling 100%.  Well, it is time for my mid-afternoon viewing of The Little Mermaid and a cuddle sesh with my fluffy roommate :D

Funk Lizard

This is just a mindless blog post about my favorite lizard on YouTube.  While writing an email earlier today I remembered the brilliance of this dude, and he is just awesome. Never was there a funkier lizard that walked this earth.  If I were a chameleon, I would want to be like this guy (or lady! Who knows, it is a chameleon...)

When you are just in a groovy mood, you gotta walk it out like this cold-blooded fiend.  I have to go whip up  a salad for a bridal shower I will soon be attending and I am feeling groovy (la la la la la, etc...hum in the style of "59th Street Bridge Song", S&G)...thanks funk lizard!

I love lazy Saturdays :)

Oh man, I got the funk... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vziriyVgk24&feature=related

Why Cold Feet Can Be a Good Thing: Fluffy Slippers!

If there is one thing I have been missing recently it is fluffy slippers.  It is a remarkable feeling when you can barely feel your toes, even while sticking them under the oven that is baking cookies, and you sprint upstairs just to bury them into fluffy goodness (aka the LL Bean slippers that approximately 97% of female students attending private colleges on the East Coast own). I will be doing quite a bit just five weeks from now, but for them moment I am stuck lamenting my lack of oven, cold weather and cold toes.  The slippers came with me.  It may seem silly that I brought my slippers to a warm country like Senegal, but I am jut waiting for one particularly cool day when I can whip them out and warm up my doigts au pied :)

In the past few weeks I have explored Dakar a bit more. I went to the beach several times, I finally went to Lac Rose (I have been planning to do this for two years!), I started jogging along the Corniche as the sun is setting over the ocean and I have eaten at more hole-in-the-wall Senegalese restaurants than I can count on both of my hands. The first trimester ends Friday, which is somewhat amazing that time flies so fast, and the war against panty-eating ants is nowhere near over. Rafiki is big and healthy, tutoring is going well, and I celebrated Tabaski over a week ago with a plate of food my neighbor brought to the apartment...Overall, life is good.

I am not going to be lazy and give up on my blog, so here is the second hurrah, let's see if I can post as many times in November as I did in October! I do have one day less to make it happen, so I could be at a disadvantage :P

Two random thoughts before I call it a night:

1. This just cracks me up! If I were a bird, I would be this little guy...do not even think about stealing my food :D

2. I miss my best friend.  Although just a few moments ago I posted this on her facebook wall, I think it right to post it again.  It was, in fact, the Top 40 of 2001 that brought us together one decade ago.  How many friendships began with one person serenading another with 112? More than you even know.

*Sigh*, I feel old. I mean, who knew that Sisqo's "Thong Song" is now 11 years old! I am sure that my parents loved me growing up to Q102...I could sing you a song about the sexiness of a thong before I even saw one, let alone owned one!  I still remember when "The Bad Touch," by Bloodhound Gang was banned from the playground in 5th grade, HA! Well, I did not turn out so bad...This was all happening at a time when I would watch Making the Band at sleepovers while adding extra butter to my already buttered popcorn, ew! I guess we all used to do things (and many of us still do...whoever said I do not still add extra butter to my popcorn??) that in retrospect are nothing short of hilarious and terrifying at the same time. I cannot wait to see what I say about myself in another decade! And now to end my night dancing around my apartment to Top 40 hits of 1998-2003.  You cannot judge me for it because, let's be serious, after reading this, you are about to do the same thing!

A Reverie on Snowflakes and Squash

  I have been seeing my friends writing about snow on their facebook walls all day...I am so jealous.  If there is one thing I will miss being in Dakar, it is the changing of the seasons. I have already accepted that Autumn has passed me by.  No crisp apples off of the trees, nor red leaves lying on the ground for me to collect and press in my numerous anthologies, dictionaries and thesauri.  I was green with envy today when I read about the snow hitting the East Coast.  I am fully expecting some snow when I come home in December, even if I do freeze my butt off because it is so warm here! Unfortunately I will not get to catch any of the "good" winter snowflakes on my tongue since I will be leaving again January 1...Lucy from Peanuts warns the viewer of "Charlie Brown's Christmas" about the sub-par quality of December snowflakes, *sigh*.  And for the record, Lucy made no comment on October snowflakes, I cannot imagine she would have much to say, and if she did, it would be sassy.

 

I suppose the one benefit of living in Dakar is the ever-present array of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Soon mango season will be wrapping up, but let's be serious, I'm allergic anyway!  In place of mangoes, Senegalese oranges will flood the market and I will sit back waiting for the first mangoes to arrive from the south in May. To counterbalance the good fortune of fresh fruit all year round, I will find myself missing squash: spaghetti, butternut, acorn, buttercup, mother hubbard; you name it, I have cooked it in some form.  I stocked up on squash at the Geneva farmer's market last fall for fear that I would be broke in January and my only source of veggies would be a squash...you would imagine my surprise when after one of our band-in-basement parties my darling mother hubbard was in the rafters!  I do not know how it got there, but I guess she got her boogie on before I got my boogie on by cooking it up in a squash stew, yum!

 

 On the vein of fruits and vegetables I was reminded of this classic William Carlos Williams poem, enjoy! And remember, I will actually be able to eat ripe plums when you are pulling out the tomato sauce you canned in August and the squash you stored away in September, mwahaha!

 

William Carlos Williams

This Is Just to Say 

 

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold 


Also, if Becca reads this, I probably could have written a similar poem of apology every time I stumbled across your mother's pesto in the fridge...I just could NOT help myself, I am so weak, haha.

When Death Comes- Mary Oliver

 When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver, easily my favorite poet, has left me with a poem to ponder.  By the end of this year I expect my copy of New and Selected Poems: Volume One will be quite tattered. I do not consider myself a visitor to this world, and it was my uncle who taught me long ago the importance of a smile. Love.

Two friendly visitors at Aunt Pam and Uncle Fred's house, summer 2011

 My Uncle Fred was an avid photographer and part of the reason I ever studied photography all through high school.  Some of his old photographs on his long-since updated website: http://afoodexperience.net/Gallery/albums.php

The Layers- Stanley Kunitz

Something I have been pondering all evening...

The Layers

Stanley Kunitz

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp_sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.

Stanley Kunitz is one of my "go to" poets when my mind is heavy... an old NPR interview with Kunitz, enjoy: http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2001/mar/010330.kunitz.html

When Words Are Not Enough...

Many things in life are inexplicable, senseless and even if I sat pondering them for the remainder of my days I would never have an answer.  The sudden passing of my Uncle Fred yesterday morning is one of these events. 

A countless number of my college (and post-college) friends heard about how amazing and wonderful my Uncle Fred was before I even mentioned my parents.  Even before I could feed myself I would have proudly stated that of all my extended family members, my Uncle Fred was my favorite, no questions asked, point blank.  Thanksgiving was always a favorite time of year for me because it meant my Uncle Fred (and his dog Tasha) would be arriving, and later, once he met and married my Aunt Pam, she also became a distinguished guest at our feast. And if you want a glimpse into my Uncle Fred's humor, Thanksgiving 2010 we ended our evening watching Friday and my Uncle was just baffled my brothers and I had never seen such a clutch 90s movie...I think the best thing I chose to do was go to school only about a 30-minute drive from my Uncle Fred and Aunt Pam's house.  On the occasion I would escape the undergrad grind of work by visiting my Aunt and Uncle and eating spectacular food.

Uncle Fred could cook up some of the best dishes I have ever eaten, something my dad would probably attest to the fact that their mother was a sub-par cook...even I remember the time she screwed up Ramen noodles, ha!  This summer, post-grad, living and working in the same I area I went to school, I made sure to visit my Uncle Fred and Aunt Pam on multiple occasions.  These meals involved ice cream or cheese (I think a lemberger rosé as well) and then an assortment of delicious food and wine.  When I say my Uncle Fred knew food and wine, I think his food blog is enough proof: http://afoodexperience.net/  I could always find myself chatting about the local wine industry, travel, boys, academics, my parents for hours with my Uncle Fred.  If there was anyone who could plant a seed in my brain for me to ponder, it was him.  I suppose I have a garden (or more a field, since I have a strong preference for wildflowers) of thoughts and ideas I can attribute to him, which is certainly a comforting thing to know.  As I said in my previous blog post, when times like these come about I am much happier being older, I have so many excellent memories of my Uncle Fred and I just wish we could have both been older when he passed away.

My Uncle Fred was battling cancer for nearly a year and his body took a turn for the worst the other day.  I could sit and ponder big questions like, "why him?" or "why so young?" for days, but I find myself at ease in my heart because I know Uncle Fred was not someone to just walk through life, he seized it and made the best of it.  How many times did he assure me that he was hopeful everything would turn out alright, even while he was in pain.  One of the happiest moments from this summer was when I went over to my Aunt and Uncle' house shortly after my Uncle Fred had just received very good news about his health...we settled down on their porch overlooking Canandaigua lake and drank both the rosé I had brought and Chardonnay supplied by them.  I was so hopeful that everything was really okay.  Unfortunately, a short time later bad news arrived again, yet my Uncle Fred was ready to head it off.

He made me promise him (on more than one occasion) that I would not be at the center of any international incidents, and as my previous blog post suggests, I will never break this promise.  Keuka College posted a nice blurb about my beloved Uncle http://news.keuka.edu/featured-story/in-loving-memory-frederic-l-hoyle#comments and I can only thank those who commented for saying such kind things and sharing wonderful memories.


If there is one image I keep coming back to it is my Uncle Fred laughing and slightly shaking his head at something I have just said...I cannot fathom how much I am going to miss you in the coming weeks, months, and years. As the title to this blog post suggests, words are not enough right now...I love you.

I Will Never, Ever Break My Promise: No International Incidents

I suppose the toughest part of being away from home is when bad news hits.  Just a bit ago this very thing happened.  However, being who I am, even with tears streaming and my mind spinning, trying to grasp the sanity of life (which I often am convinced does not exist) I know I must stay positive.  There is so much to be sad about in this world; so I will respect the somber moments I live and continue to open my eyes every morning remembering all the joy that I have seen, will continue to experience and without a doubt experience once again.

I am inserting below part of Mary Oliver's "University Hospital, Boston" as I keep my family in my thoughts.  As I spoke to my mother earlier she asked me if I did not wish to be a child again when life is tough; as a child, life is just simpler.  I responded that it was, indeed, nice to be a child, but as we get older we amass a wealth of memories and moments we would never have discovered and lived through if we always stayed young. I would not give these moments up for the world. I love you.

I look into your eyes
which are sometimes green and sometimes gray,
and sometimes full of humor, but often not,
and tell myself, you are better,
because my life without you would be
a place of parched and broken trees.
Later, walking the corridors down to the street,
I turn and step inside an empty room.
Yesterday someone was here with a gasping face.
Now the bed is made all new,
The machines have been rolled away. The silence
continues, deep and neutral,
as I stand there, loving you.

What I would do to be where I want to be and where I need to be right now.

The Ants Attack! (Part Two...)

I will first acknowledge that there is no other post called "The Ants Attack!" anywhere on this blog.  Why then would I create a part two? Well, quite simply because they have now attacked twice.  Usually when you think of ants attacking it involves a picnic basket and some little black insects walking away with your veggies perched on their backs, little thieves! Believe it or not I would prefer those thieves to what I am stuck with: hungry perverts.  Sounds a bit harsh? Well what would you say if you found ants eating you underwear?! Especially the lacy, cute pairs of underwear you spent too much money on?! Ugh! I am so disgusted! Both angry and I think it is disgusting! Below you can see the damage they have done to a not cute pair of underwear, so unfortunate.

These mofos do NOT know who they are messing with!

The book in the back was necessary so you could how much of my underwear they ate...I guess American cotton tastes good, but let's be serious, these are totally imported from another country! Let's check...yes, there it is, Macau, my undies from Macau have become a much sought after dessert, or maybe dinner, I am not an ant.

I discovered this unfortunate news when I did some laundry the other day. I went to wash my underwear and low and behold some dead ants appeared in my bucket of water.  Ants do not just come out of sinks, so I knew something was up...and then I found the answer to my mystery...five tiny brown ants clinging to a pair of VS with pure fear in their eyes! I let them off with a warning, shaking them out my window, but clearly I was too kind.  They returned and this time I spared no time running to get my bottle of Yotox (a necessary weapon against all forms of squirmy, gross insects).  Hopefully now that my armoire and surrounding walls have be doused in bug poison my underwear and my mind can rest easy.

The Bagel- David Ignatow

I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as if it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete somersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.

*I stumbled across the Library of Congress website, which has a section with a poem a day for the academic year, some really good stuff! http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/062.html

Also, some info on the poet: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/777

Enjoy! And what I would do for an everything bagel right now...om nom nom

Lazy Days are Good Days

I am sitting here wanting to write an update and the stark reality hits me...my life really is not all that interesting...

Since I last updated my blog I have begun working with both the students I tutor and my work day is now 11 hours.  As long as I am not working more than 12 hours I am happy, and I really do enjoy working with both of the students.  However, I have realized through this job that I could never permanently be a teacher.  I like working with kids, they are nice, funny and do the weirdest things, but they are still draining.  It is also satisfying to see them succeed, but it is not a job that is particularly rewarding for me.  Granted, I am also the teaching assistant, which puts me in a different position, I get to grade all the homework, oof :(

Even though I have realized teaching is not a long term goal of mine, the application to be an ETA in France went up this week so I will start that!  You learn a lot from kids, so working with them for one or two more years will great and then it will be time to figure other things out...

Look at Rafiki's eyes! Pure EVIL!

Monday I had the much appreciated day off and went to explore a new beach in Dakar.  I went to Ile de Ngor with one of my co-workers, Megan and we had a fun day exploring.  Ile de Ngor is a very small island with a pretty small beach, fortunately it was not a national holiday this week, just an ISD holiday so the beach was essentially empty.  We found this "pool" on the far side of the island that is covered in rocks. At some point someone had built up a circular enclosure with cement and rocks next to the ocean so every time a wave hit some water came in through a hole and some got pulled out. It was really relaxing just to chill there. I also found an awesome shell in that pool, I do not know what it is called, but I have seen pictures of them :)

I ended Monday on the sandy beach and the scooted off to tutor my 6th grader since the rest of the Dakar still had school/work and she goes to a different international school...

Being that yesterday was Saturday I spent the day not doing much of anything, cleaning, sleeping, writing letters...but as the afternoon rolled on I had an urge just to sit on my balcony and people watch.  I am a huge fan of people watching, simply because people are ridiculous!  There was a nice breeze, it was not too hot, what a perfect afternoon to do nothing!


Time to be lazy on a Sunday, but I may stop at the African Renaissance statue on my way home from tutoring in an hour. I see it all the time, but I have never visited it, so I think it is about time! It certainly is big, so I will get a work out just from walking up and down the steps!
Well, I am off before I am late to tutor, happy Sunday!

Oh yea, check out this interesting blog I saw on my friend's facebook wall...if you are offended, sorry? This person just has it spot on! http://gurlgoestoafrica.tumblr.com/

I Think I May Have Died and Gone to Hell!

In an earlier post I bragged about not being phased by power cuts or water cuts in Dakar...any other day than today I would probably still say that, however, I felt as though Dante's Virgil sidled up beside me and brought me down to Hell today (I know, Dante's Hell was cold). I went to bed last night with no running water and almost all of my back-up water bottles empty. I had watered my plants two days ago and never refilled my plastic bottles, leaving it for the weekend. Unfortunately I missed the memo that they would be doing pipe work today and I had just enough water to keep by my toilet...for those of you unfamiliar with "How Julia lives in Senegal," I will let you in on a secret, toilet paper is not on my list of priorities. In the US, I am a huge fan of Cottonelle, but in West Africa it is impolite to use your left hand, I bet you can guess why! I am chuckling just imaging the reactions some of you are probably having right now...

Senegalese Taxi

Car Rapide

 So anyway, I had to ask my neighbors for water in my sweaty, stinky state around noon when I could no longer stand my own stench and the fact that I was, indeed, getting a shower sitting in my bedroom, I was literally bathing sweat. GROSS! But alas, it was 91˚ yet again today, and my power cut out around 9 AM so I did not even have my fan to keep me cool. My morning was filled with letter writing and reading short stories, during which I fell in love with Gabriel García Márquez's, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, yet again. If you do not know the story, it is a beautiful study of human nature, http://salvoblue.homestead.com/wings.html. When I finally did get my shower I still did not want to leave my apartment due to the awful heat and the traffic around my apartment.  The pipe work has a traffic detour passing by my apartment, which I also blame for the heat today...there were buses, car rapides and taxis going past all day spurting their diesel fumes through my windows, how rude! Oh well, by Monday traffic should be back to normal and I have the day off, so I am a happy camper :)

I am someone that can easily get carried away, but I have learned to laugh at myself during and after these wild moments of flailing arms and trying to do fifty things at once. Today was one of those days.  When my water turned back on at 7 PM I was ecstatic, I just could not control myself. I sprinted around my apartment dancing to James Brown for about five minutes, remembered how hot I was, stopped and then just stared at my spigots...when the water cuts out it is recommended that you wait about 30 minutes before using it. I did not want to risk another weird skin fungus so I grumpily sat in the heat as Rafiki jumped all over me.  After about 20 more minutes I started to greedily fill up all of my empty water bottles. In a moment of madness I somehow knocked over my 5 gallon water jug and spilled water all over my bathroom, so typical.  Fortunately, I laughed at myself and played with Rafiki in the water for a minute until he realized himself and the fact that cats are not supposed to like water.  He promptly left the bathroom. Cats are so fickle, but we had fun while it lasted...

Tomorrow I start tutoring my 6th grader, I hope that she is nice, but we all know how moody middle school girls can be...my mom is definitely laughing at that sentence and would add "high school and college girls too," HA!

Jasmeen & I Making Our Pots at Sobobade Last Weekend

I am still on the hunt for a good bottle of wine in Dakar, and I am coming to the conclusion that I will never find it...a very sad realization.  SO if you want to be bad ass and do something illegal, MAIL ME WINE! I would love you forever, although I would also love you if you did not mail me illegal things and just became my pen pal :)  That being said, if you want to mail me things, below is my address:

Julia Hoyle
s/c ISD
BP 5136
Dakar, Senegal

(There are no zip codes in Senegal, so this is, in fact, my entire address)

Mail me things! Wine, Parmesan cheese, and Reese's peanut butter cups being some favorites :D

People Say I'm Crazy, I Got Diamonds On the Soles of My Shoes...

It was a Paul Simon night, along with various camp songs for the Quaker camp I went to, Camp Onas. I just felt like skipping around my apartment this evening and Rafiki curled up in a ball, allowing me to do whatever I liked without making figure eights around my feet. I think he was just ecstatic that for the first time since I took him in I bought him dried cat food, Whiskas for my kitty! I wish they had meow mix, then I could have hummed the commercial while feeding him. I am huge believer in singing to plants and pets (go ahead, think I am crazy) if for no other reason than it releases good vibes in the air, which then lead to healthy plants and animals :)

So what song was I serenading Rafiki with this evening? Well after many bits and pieces of Alicia Keys' songs, my iTunes bumped into Paul Simon.  Paul Simon is someone whose brilliance I did not truly discover until my senior year of college! Credit to my Summer House sisters for making me fall in love with the Graceland album...so the song of the evening was "I Know What I Know," such a great song!

I just had such a wonderful day again today! And I have another student to tutor! The student is in the 6th grade at another international school in Dakar and I will be working with her five times a week.  I am so excited to work with her and there is the added benefit of my rent now being covered by my monthly pay for tutoring two students, hooray!

Now onto my "funnies" section for this blog post...given that I used to run NARAL: Pro-Choice on my Colleges' (yes, I used that apostrophe correctly!) campus as a student, the following comic should come of no surprise to any of you...now you may begin to understand my humor if it was ever lost on you....

It is becoming a bit late for this old lady now and I need to keep up with two classes of 4th graders tomorrow, so sleep is calling me. I will share one last song with you while I wrap this up, one that I learned at camp much before I ever know the original artist and I have had every word memorized since I was 10 (although, there are not too many words).
Enjoy, and sleep well in America! Be envious of my 80˚ room temperature right now, I even have humidity to go with it! Is this not the life?

*Sigh* I just love this song...

Sometimes Things Just Fall in Place...

Missing my Summer House Sisters

I never thought that I would get this into writing a blog, but I am! Even if everyone that reads it is bored to death, I am not too concerned, haha. I will have an awesome collection of thoughts and stories to look back on several months from now!

Today was a very productive day, which is apparent in not only everything that I got done, but how by awful I smell...I may have to pause this post at some point for a shower, it is that bad. I suppose that is what happens after yet another day of 90˚ heat with 80% humidity, yay hot season! As soon as I leave school I no longer have air conditioning, so my short walk home is always a stinky, sweaty, red-faced one, which usually leads to my apartment and no further.  However, today I finally decided to hunt down the whereabouts of IQRA (an Islamic school) in my neighborhood.  For a few years I kept saying that I will start learning Arabic and the time has never presented itself.  This time, however, I have plenty of time and I am living in a Muslim country, so the timing is perfect! Tomorrow I start one-on-one Arabic lessons with an older Senegalese woman at the school around 4:30pm.  I will have a full day since until 4:15 I will be volunteering at the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program where I work (look at me being pro-active post-college) and I will have to scoot off to my neighborhood to start my lessons.

I am very excited to learn how to write my name in Arabic and equally excited to have a tutoring gig of my own! I will be working with one of the 4th grade misfits that by June will easily have a spot on my list of "favorite students".  I know teachers should not have favorites, but let's be serious...He is  a student I know is smart, but he cannot stay focused on his work and no one at home is there to help him do so...now he is my task! I will make him a better student by the end of the year and I will catch him up with his peers. So not only do I get to work with a great child, but I also earn half my rent doing it (yay!) so this is certainly a cloud with a silver lining :)


Nothing else exciting happened today, just relaxed this evening and I will probably call it an early night so I have plenty of energy to take on the 4th graders tomorrow! I would like to shout out a kudos to New York Wineries everywhere, and of course, Fox Run Vineyards in particular.  The New York Times had a great article about the region, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/dining/from-the-finger-lakes-seriously-good-wines.html?_r=3&emc=eta1 what I would do for a nice glass of dry riesling right now...*sigh*...such is living in the land of 1500CFA (about $3) wine, which is not labeled with a vintage, nor region where the grapes were grown or produced.

Just substitute "New York" in place of "California" and this is me...

Why It is Good to Leave America: The Music.

I suppose this update is about how wonderful so many African artists are, yet how overlooked they are by the US in particular. Of course, if you seek out new music or "world" music you have hopefully, at the very least, heard of Youssou N'Dour.  Unfortunately,  I know that many music junkies would not even know this name, easily the most well-known of all the artists I will mention.  In the following blog I will list out my top 5 favorite (overwhelmingly West) African artists and which labels signed them. Hopefully you will find something new and your music collection with thus be expanded a few more albums...

1. Asa: She is a Nigerian singer, signed to Naïve Records (Carla Bruni and Pink Martini are signed to this label as well), which is based out of Paris. She uses both English and Yoruba in her songs and has very powerful, human messages in her music. I chose to sing her song, "Fire on the Mountain," for my senior solo in Three Miles Lost this past spring. Even though I have listened to the song what feels like a bagillion times, I still am entranced by the lyrics, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jIhNOrVG58&NR=1  Asa has released two albums, the first of which is self-named Asa and her new release Beautiful Imperfection. She has done some work with another one of my favorites Tiken Jah Fakoly, who you will read about shortly...She does not have one song that I am not in love with.

2. Salif Keïta: He is a Malian singer, signed to Universal Records.  Salif Keïta is very well-known around the world. His fame is comparable to Youssou N'Dour and he uses rhythms in his music that make me dance! Even if I wanted to sit still, it would not be possible! Two of my favorite songs are "Tekere" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eGAa-rfR_g and "Africa" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXYgCf24z5M (note: I cannot hear YouTube videos on my computer thanks to Rafiki, so I hope these links work okay!) Salif Keïta uses a mix of French, Bambara and the occaisonal English in his songs and he deserves the fame and following that he has. I also just discovered that he is a descendant of Soundjata Keïta, while writing this paragraph.  Soundjata is credited with founding the Malian Empire centuries ago and there is a book published by (maybe?) Presence Africaine that tells the story of Soundjata...there is an English translation too! Another interesting fact is that he is albino, something which was looked down upon in his culture, but look how famous he is now!

3. Wasis Diop: Is a Senegalese singer now living in France and if I am not mistaken (which I may) he is producing under the label ...ThinkZik!... He has managed to break away from the music typically produced by Senegalese artists and each of his songs reflects the art he brings to his music.  Wasis Diop's music has been used in several well-known Senegalese films and his name is known throughout Senegal. I am partiuclarly fond of waking up to "Automobile Mobile" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47ptR-yzmo and I have a soft spot for his song "Julia" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NORw0l0WpM, wonder why?! He mixes French, Wolof and English to make some beautiful music!

4. Tiken Jah Fakoly: A singer from the Ivory Coast who is the voice and brains behind many moving reggae beats.  He signed to the Barclay record label, which is a subdivision of Universal.  And I believe that he may have played in New York City late this past summer...you are SO lucky if you went...I am very jealous! My favorite song of his is the one which he collaborated with Asa on, "Political War" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6d940Couc and this is one of many songs with a strong political message.  Another song which I absolutely love is "Il Faut Se Lever" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCmY1lcPvgo&ob=av3e . I am biased when it comes to his music, and when you listen to his songs, you become aware that his lyrics are also the words of the youth in Africa right now.  For how many centuries has Africa been used for the interests of other nations? Too many...il faut se lever...it is time to rise up (not that I support violent revolutions, but I do support claiming one's country as their own, not just being an agent of someone else). He uses French, English and Dioula in his music.

5. Youssou N'Dour: An extremely famous Senegalese singer, known for mbalax (if you have ever been to Senegal you know what mbalax is...) a style of music and dance, which is often credited to Youssou N'Dour. I believe the current label he is signed to is Nonesuch, but he has been around so long I am not certain. He is easily more famous than the president and has even released a Senegalese cookbook, which it is only a matter of time before I buy, haha. He grew up in the neighborhood of Medina in Dakar, which is about 15 minutes from where I live. A favorite song of mine is from his album Dakar-Kingston, "Diarr Diarr" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0Pm7F0OnQ&feature=related Youssou N'Dour also uses French, Wolof and English in his songs.

A few more artists to check out: Amadou & Mariam, Brenda Fassi, Awadi, Toumani Diabaté, and Lucky Dube.

Aside from the long music post, my past few days were graced by a teacher's retreat to Toubab Dialaw, about one hour outside of Dakar.  I HAD HOT WATER, which means I was irresponsible by taking six showers in 48 hours, and I did not feel bad about it...I will not have hot water until I am home in December, so I was going to take advantage of the opportunity! I spent the weekend relaxing by the pool at the hotel and the beach which was directly next to our hotel. I ate some delicious food, and it was so difficult to go back to work Monday. On the positive side of things, this coming weekend will be a long weekend! I cannot complain, I just hope I stay healthy and none of the booger-y kids give me their germs, ew.

I will leave you with a map of country until next time, just in case you were wondering where in the world I am in Senegal. Please say that last sentence to the Carmen Sandiego theme song...

Let’s Throw Some Okra in That…

What does a lazy evening at my apartment mean? Well, aside from taking a nap when I come home and cuddling with my fluff, it means experimenting while cooking! Of course, there are two things holding me back: my lack of cooking equipment and my often lack of electricity.  If only my building had a generator…ah well, no harm in dreaming. When my electricity came on about an hour ago (I am now sitting in darkness writing this) I decided to experiment with the 5 pieces of okra I bought yesterday. Coming from the North East, okra is not something I grew up with, and I have a funny feeling my dad does not like it, but I could be thinking of someone else. Either way, I bought a small amount of the veggie since I know I like it in the gumbo here (called “soupekandia” in Wolof).  Now this evening was not the moment to attempt my own soupekandia, it was time to just practice cooking okra first!  I asked the woman who sold it to me in the street how to cook it…her lacking French skills and my lacking Wolof made this conversation an interesting one. In the end I deduced that I needed to boil the okra, then throw it in oil to cook it.  If this is not the “proper” way to cook okra, je m’en fou! It tasted good, and I love the goopy-ness okra gives a stew, yum! Goop!

Of course, this would not be an average experience in Senegal if something minute, but odd still happened, like losing power while cooking.  Fortunately, this was not the first time this has happened to me, a few times I have had my fingers crossed that my rice cooks thoroughly.  However, this was my first time cooking my main dish when the power cuts.  As I learned as a child growing up in a kitchen with an electric stove, electric cooking surfaces stay hot for some time, and everything from my okra, to my garlic and potatoes was cooked to perfection! I think one of those intense cooking shows should drop their chefs into kitchens in Senegal…I would love to see them flounder with no oven, minimal cooking surface, and less than adequate power/cooking supplies! The test of a truly great chef!

My rechargeable lamp for blackouts!

For anyone concerned about the discovery of my ringworm yesterday let me say two things, 1) ringworm is not a worm, just a fungus, kind of like athlete’s foot, except it is on my leg. And to my relief cannot spread to “mucus-y” areas, you know what that means…your mouth of course! 2) I have cream to get rid of it…so to my mom and dad, no worries, it should be cleared up in two weeks! Meanwhile it sounds totally gross and will not spare a chance to tell a good friend that I am infected with ringworm!

And for those of you half-informed about what I could possibly be doing in Dakar, I am a 4^th grade teaching assistant at an international school.  I realized that I never acknowledged why I was here in my first post! But, of course, if you know me well, why would you ever be surprised that I have wandered away from the US? I mean, I’ll be back, but traveling is without doubt part of what makes me Julia!

My project for the year is to create a book club for the 4^th graders.  Really, it is an excuse for me to re-read all of the books that I loved as a kid and have not read for at least ten years.  To my delight, the kids love it! Recently, I was enraptured by The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg.  I have been reminded over the past several weeks how wonderful my childhood books were and that the length, difficulty and density of a text is far from making it good.  Chester Cricket described perfectly my current emotions about missing autumn in Upstate New York, “I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish. It's getting towards Autumn now. And it's so pretty up in (New York). All the trees change color. The days get very clear--with a little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves." Even though I may be nostalgic for autumn, I remind myself that it is just one of those things that you need to miss once in awhile to realize how enchanting it is. I found an old leaf pressed in my French dictionary when I arrived here, so I guess I do have a little piece of autumn, it is hanging on my wall. And if you are interested, here is a link for a short clip from the 1970s cartoon movie, The Cricket in Times Square: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28cri_cricketmusic_shortfilms

Oh yea, fun fact: I am published along with the other amazing women in my Women’s Studies senior seminar, time to update the CV! If you are interested in reading the article along with an intro by our professor, colonel (yes, it is an inside joke…) and friend click here: http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2011fall/2011fall_students.php

Just got a skirt made with this fabric :)

If you did not follow my directions from my last blog post about drinking some red wine, I’ll forgive you, just do it tonight, okay? And I guess white is alright too, just as long as it is not Chardonnay.