Strike is over!

Today classes begin...exactly a month since they were supposed to start for the first time! Hopefully this time they last a little bit longer. Although, Tabaski is coming up on the 9th of December (a big holiday where families get together and eat mouton!!) and shortly after that winter break begins. So just how much class we will have in between is a little up in the air.

In the mean time though, life outside of class just keeps getting better and better. Last week we went on a few day get away to a town East of here along the Senegal river called Podor. It was a really amazing weekend away! I am not sure how it happens but we constantly meet really great people whose hospitality is just beyond me...

The first night we were there the hostel we had called to reserve rooms in actually didn't have any rooms available because the people who were supposed to leave didn't!! So we ended up walking around Podor in the dark with this guy trying desperately to find somewhere to stay! Eventually we found rooms in a school for girls. It was just for one night though, so the guy we met (Elhadji) offered to let us stay at his place the following night!

The next day when we were visiting the fort of Podor (an old Colonial fort used for protecting the trade route along the river), we ran in to two military guys. One was the Commander of a military base and the other the captain. They told us that if we couldn't find a place to stay for that night the captain had a big house with extra rooms and we could stay with him on the base as a last resort. It was really a last resort because staying on a military base didn't necessarily seem so appealing but in the end we had to take up the offer because two more friends were coming (Luigi and Andreas) and it would have been a bit imposing to have 7 of us stay with Elhadji. And the Commander said that they had done this in the past and it was an attempt to improve their image to show that the military isn't all bad. Unfortunately their attempt wasn't quite successful because the Captain was a bit of a creep but nothing serious happened. I am just glad Luigi and Andreas were with us...although I hate the fact that we needed two guys to make us feel secure...shouldn't we be able to feel safe wherever we are, whoever we are???

Despite the little incident on the military base, the rest of the week was great!! We met a guy in Podor named Tige. A huge rasta-man who works in Podor as a tiler (as in, laying tiles). He arranged for us to take a horse cart 10 km out of town to this small village were we spent the day. We were welcomed in to the houses of the villagers and had to eat three separate meals because when someone offers you can't say no!!! Then we went for this huge walk to see were two rivers met in a series of rapids. Pretty much ALL the kids from the village walked with us the whole way (good hour long walk). Unfortunately we didn't make it all the way because there was a bad bee problem near the end of the path and we didn't want to risk the wrath of the bees.

In the end to thank the villagers for their incredible hospitality we bought two soccer balls for the kids. Tige made this big speech about how they had to share it and he staged a wrestling match between two kids to decide who was going to be the responsible one and make sure the ball was shared!!! It was incredible to see how the second Tige (a really really tall imposing man) opened his mouth all the kids stopped talking and just stared at him in wide-eyed amazement.

The kids were equally impressed by Luigi. Luigi is a doctorate student from Italy doing research here. He brought along with him a red, rubber nose (think Patch Adams). So whenever a group of kids were around him he would pop it on and make some weird noises which brought a mixture of fear and laughter from the kids! They had no idea what to make of this man but as the day went on they most have decided he was okay because they all wanted to touch the nose and try it on themselves!

There is not much better than the sound of 40 kids laughing and having fun!!!

Our last day in Podor we went on a pirogue ride (small canoe) along the river. That was pretty peaceful and if I knew more about bird species it may have been even more interesting!! As it was I just appreciated being on the water and soaking up some sun!
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Now we are back here in Saint Louis! I have a class tonight that I am desperately hoping will run!!! Although if it doesn't, I have found some neat contacts for a group that does theater-for-education here in Saint Louis around various social justice issues, primarily HIV/AIDS. They would be interesting to spend some time with. There is also an interesting Spanish organization doing some neat work around HIV in the region. We went to a show last night that these two groups put together as a part of a three day forum in anticipation of December 1st. It was a really moving performance with poetry, rap, singing, theater all around the slogan ''no to stigmatisation, no to discrimination, no to segregation''

Aside from that, Paul (a man we met in Podor who invited us to his place for dinner) has come to Saint Louis and is offering to give us Wolof lessons.

So much to do...so much to see...at least we can't say that we are bored here during the strike!!!