Thiès

I have arrived!!! I am in Thiès, Senegal until November 9th.

I am so excited to be here. This country is absolutely fascinating. Where shall I start?

Well my first few days were probably less overwhelming for me than for others. 15 years in Asia helps a lot when adjusting to a third-world country, no matter what continent. It’s been taking me a bit to figure out what all the things I’m experiencing remind me of. It really is as if someone has taken random portions of my past and thrown them together and added a wee bit more to create the Senegal I am experiencing.

People here live in what can best be described as compounds. I live in a large house with various generations of one family. Some of the compounds are built around a courtyard, depending on the tribal group. Senegal is also a polygamous society so families really are huge. Most wives have their own house so a man could be supporting two wives and two households that could each include 3-5 children plus other relationships including grandparents (12-15 people). This can be difficult in a county that has 45% or so in the informal/unemployed sector. Technically all Muslims are polygamous because the Koran says you can have more than one wife but it also says you must treat them equally. Some Muslims take this to mean to love them equally which they know is not possible so that is why they only have one wife. However in Senegal they take that to mean that you must treat them equally financially which is fully possible to do.

The family I live with has four kids, two parents and a grandmother. My father works in the North of Senegal so he is gone for a week or two at a time and comes down some weekends. My mother works in Dakar but is here at the moment because she is a teacher and it is still holidays because it is Ramadan. Ramadan is the month of fasting for Muslims. It started September 14th and will finish on either October 13th or 14th depending on the sighting of the moon. The dates for Ramadan are set by the lunar calendar and so it moves 11 days earlier every year. I remember when we lived in Pakistan from 93-96 it was sometime between January and March. It is also the hottest time of the year in Thiès so it can be difficult for people to fast from dawn until dusk… no water or food. The really observant Muslims won’t even swallow their saliva.

Back to my Family. Well I have a 18 year old sister, a 6 year old sister and two brothers ages 3 and 1. The one year old took a couple days to get used to me but now he thinks I am very funny and laughs almost continually when he’s around me. He loves to come into my room and move all my toiletries from one side of the room to the other and see what else he can manage to carry out of my room with out being caught.