Malick Sy

Malick Sy
Originally uploaded by Mikey Holmes.

In a word - spunky. In three words - crazy as hell. In essence - sweet as can be. Malick Sy, the marabout of the village of Diagenne (sp?) was one of the many friends we made during our rural visit.

Marabout is an interesting word and requires a quick explanation. There are at least three different types of marabouts in senegal. First, traditional animist spiritual guides acting as a shaman for big questions and healing. Second, there are grand marabouts, which are the leaders of the spiritual brotherhoods of Islam in Senegal. And third, there's the smaller marabouts, which act as spiritual guides rooted in islam, and usually have schools to teach the koran to kids. These places are full of young boys that are forced to beg to collect money for the marabout's gain, but that's a different story altogether.

Malick was somewhere in the middle of the first and third type since he practiced traditional medicine, and led his community in their journey of faith, but he seemed to have his own creative spin on Islam - something that isn't exactly encouraged officially, but is common in rural areas. For example, when he was giving us a tour of his peanut field on our first day, he stopped to pray and came back holding out his prayer beads. He proceeded to explain "this is my portable [phone] with Allah." That much is pretty normal, but when he was showing us around his house later that night, he started going on about how Ewan and I were going to be sleeping that night but he was going to be praying. And with what we might ask? With the longest strand of prayer beads I've ever seen. He could barely hold on to the whole thing it was so huge, and he held them with a great big smile and booming pride.

When Ewan got a bit sick to the stomach, Malick prayed a number of times for his recovery. Ewan is better now, Alhumdulilahi.

So another part of village life aside from getting sick that Malick helped us with was the endless attention. It was exhausting being in the village - having to talk in Wolof, whack piles of peanuts, explain why we didn't want to give our camaras away (a surprisingly tough challenge), explain why we couldn't take anyone's baby back to the states even if we wanted to, try to stop eating after 3 rounds of ceebu jen ~ fish with rice, and trying to keep it a surprise that we were going to give them the soccer ball we brought - so tiring that when it came time to rest, it was a bit of a surprise to see the 20 kids surrounding us in a circle when we sat up. Anyway, Malick had been out working all day, and came back to find us desperately trying to rest. So, quick as a flash, he flew after the kids, elegant boubou flowing behind him, bare feet kicking up sand and yelling "demleen" ~ go! or alternatively "ashaa," which is the word they use to encourage horses and donkeys to move. He came right back to fix us Ataayah, and talk a bit about our day.

waves

waves
Originally uploaded by Mikey Holmes.

I love walking on the beach. It's got to be among my favorite things to do in the world. Just below bodysurfing and just above making my own beer.

The feeling of the sand is great - the rough and abrasive salt in the back of the throat - the occasional sting from a broken shell that wasn't apparent and my favorite - flirting with the water as it comes in and out. For the most part, it's predictable how far and quickly the water will come in. But every now and then some turn of events from the moon or the rocks just on the edge of the continental shelf or maybe chance, a big wave comes along and splashes everything. Makes it dirty, wet and knocks out any thoughts in my head just as well as it covers up those broken sea shells that come back to sting later on.

Sometimes things happen that knock expectations for a heading or direction of events way off course.

Anyway, so I've been missing my iPod for a couple of days - and given that I'm a bit absent minded, I thought I'd give it a chance to turn up. But for the same amount of time (in hindsight) I've been getting mosquito bites for the first time since I've been here.

Then on Saturday morning, I noticed that the screen on my window outside my room (looking into the open-air, second-story hallway) had been ripped from the nails securing it to the frame. I didn't think much about it, but later on that afternoon, just before we left for our weekend excursion to the Siin Saluum delta, my older brother Boga brought it up.

He asked if I had done it, which I hadn't of course, and then asked if I was missing anything. I didn't mention anything at that point. He then showed how it could be possible to slide out the panes of glass in my window, and crawl through and take a pick of whatever was in my room. Crash - wave - everything looks dirty and wet.

Still, I thought about it and decided it might be best to wait a couple of days and give the iPod another chance to show up. So I asked how someone could have gotten in, and Boga said it was possible for someone to climb in from the salon, but more likely, it could have been my younger brother Makhow. So, now that I'm back from our trip, I'm gonna get to talk about this with my family.

The worst scenario will be my family feeling guilty and ashamed and deciding to replace the iPod, when that's gonna be much more money than they can easily cough up. What's more Makhow isn't the most honest guy in the world, so there's the chance I'll never know for sure.

The best case scenario is he's just listening to it in his room or he's sold it to one of his buddies and he can get it back in a couple of days. Or I still could have misplaced it... Not likely.

Anyway, would appreciate some warm vibes for the next couple of days. We leave tomorrow for our week-long rural visits, so I'm gonna have to discuss this theft stuff tonight.

Love you all. Jamm ak xeewel ~ peace and luck

Avoiding more narcissistic pictures...

Goree Doorway
Originally uploaded by Mikey Holmes.

So I thought I'd put in a quick entry about how I'm doing since I've apparently dropped off the map for a lot of folks.

Small stuff: I've been playing a lot of guitar lately and my family has been really sweet to listen and say nice things about my songs from time to time. They compared me to Bob Dylan, a result I'm sure, of their vast experience with American folk music. On the other hand, they also told me I have too much time on my hands. Probably true...

Played the songs for a friend's host sister that asked me to write them, and her main comment was "hmm, that's not very african." no kidding, have you taken a look at me lately?

Finally got an internship. It's with a phenomenal group called AcDev - Action and Development, which does a whole host of activities centered around nutrition and lowering child mortality. So we have cooking classes to show how to make traditional foods more nutritious, lessons on what foods provide what vitamins, weigh munchkins, and give vitamin a suppliments and vaccinations to the munchkins too. It's exactly what I was looking for and I've already learned a lot in the three days I've worked there. Gonna try and volunteer with the GBGM also with a bit of the rest of the free time which I apparently have too much of.

Eating well now that Ramadan is over. Much happier with my mid-day bonbon.

Bigger stuff: not going to Ecuador next semester, gonna finish up school and work some. I spend a fair amount of time every day now day dreaming about what could happen next year. It ranges from making money next semester and going back to Ecuador on my own bill for the summer and fall, to joining up with a trappist monastary in belgium and learning how to make the world's best beer while studying for GRE/MCAT, to sending out a couple of ads and interviewing folks to try and make something out of the farm...

Who knows?

Why are you speaking wolof? Do you want to be Senegalese?

Give me money!
Originally uploaded by Mikey Holmes.

Hmmm... good question. Before I jump into another entry I should probably mention how busy I've been or some other easily forgivable excuse for why I haven't written lately. I guess I have been busy, but I've been really tired too. Lots of things have changed but most things have stayed the same. I guess that's how it usually goes huh?

So... why am i speaking wolof and do I want to be Senegalese? These were the questions these two munchkins asked beth and I when we were visiting Isle de Goree. It was a bit nutty of a time to come since it was Korite, or the festival for the end of Ramadan. Which, everyone makes a huge deal about but really it's mostly eating with their families and visiting friends to say baal ma, or excuse me. This is to ask for forgiveness for transgressions for the past year, even the ones that were too small or uncomfortable to discuss openly. It's really a fantastic day and reminds me a lot of Thanksgiving.

To prepare, I went out a bought a boubou with my brother and some of these funny pointy turkish slippers and borrowed me pop's gray fez. Pictures will come soon.

For the rest of the weekend we went to Goree like i said, and spoke with some of the Baay Fall that live there about Amadou Bamba. Will post the paper I wrote about the movement pretty soon - I keep talking about the Baay Fall and not describing them... Beth and I also visited a great beach, had some tea with Stephanie's friends and made some music on the patio on the roof as bats flew overhead.

Anyway, it was great to get to share what has been my home for the past three months with someone in person, since there's so much that can't really be communicated. Also, it was really comforting to visit with a bit of home, which Beth definitely is.

Jamm ak xeewel ~ peace and luck