Intensity!

Today I tasted and smelled tear gas for the first time. It gives a weird sensation like you have inhaled a lot of pepper mixed with chemicals. Luckily it wasn’t that strong or I am sure it would have been much more unpleasant.

Last night Annie, Genet, Lenny and I went out to go dancing and to see a show of Mbalax music and dancing. The dancers we met Saturday night said that we should meet at 21h because the show started at 22h. When we got their we were told the show started at 23h, which got bumped to 24h….which got bumped to 2:30….when we left at 3:00 the show had not begun! All that to illustrate that if there is ONE thing I will learn from this trip (I think I have said this already) it will be patience and super low expectations that things will go they way they should!!

We still had fun and we hung out with two Norwegian exchange students who are really nice. They spent the month of October travelling through Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo. Actually, they have inspired us to do the same. It sounds like a fantastic route to take!

Lenny and I have a tentative plan to take off next Wednesday. Hopefully the other girls will want to come too. The chances of any serious classes between now and Christmas are slim to none and I think we would learn much more on ‘the road.’ Finish this year off with a bang and start the next one fresh and ready to go to school!!

The point of this whole story is that I was asleep in my bed when Lenny knocked on my door to say she had gotten a text from Raff saying that there was a ‘manifestation’ at the front gates and tear gas was being lobbed at the students. Lenny and I headed to the front gates to see what was going on.

I have never before seen anything like what happened. There was a huge mob of students standing in front of the gates and just outside the Gendarmerie was standing in full riot gear. There weren’t that many of them though – about 30 at the beginning and 45 by the end. We stood around watching and listening as the students were yelling, cheering and gathering rocks to throw at the Gendamerie. It was mostly just a lot of confusion and then all of a sudden the whole crowd of students was running towards us. Lenny, Raff, Aime and I hesitated a bit but then other students were shouting at us to run because the Gendamerie were coming.

We didn’t run far because the crowd soon slowed. Luigi, who had made his way to the top of a building, managed to film a bit of what happened (in secret because had he been seen the students would probably have taken his video camera…Andreas was forced to delete some pictures that he had taken)! The Gendermerie broke through the gates and threw tear gas canister at the students. They made it in a bit but then the students turned back and started pitching rocks at the Gendarmerie and they were forced to retreat!

One student got hurt. I am not sure to what extent. We just saw a group of 10 students carrying a guy and running towards the medical center. I suppose we will find out later what happened exactly.

Anyway – basically it was a lot of backing and forthing between the Genderamerie and the students. And the occasional BANG when they fired the tear gas. The Gendarmerie are allowed on campus but they are not allowed beyond a certain point (near the classrooms) so they would push forward and then fall back…then push forward…fall back….the students would turn and run and then push back…turn and run and then push back…

We basically stood at the back on the steps to the Ampitheater (where we could run into if we needed to…and close the door) and watched.

I don’t know what to think about the whole situation. I know that the throwing of rocks and intensity of the students was really frightening. I don’t handle violence all that well and I was scared, not at all for me but for the students who were bound to get hurt in all of this!

On the other hand I totally understand the frustration of the students in being promised this money and then being told no….over and over again for the past month! Clearly their actions were provoking a response and drawing attention, which was the ultimate goal I think.

The history between the Gendarmerie and the students is interesting too because there is a resentment on the part of the Gendarmerie against these ‘cushy’ students who always complain but have cheap lodging, cheap food, and cheap education!

Some of the students were the most frightening. Throughout all of this people were standing on the road in front of the gate but there were also a lot of students standing on the upper floors of the nearby buildings. At one point the core group of students leading the manifestation turned and started throwing rocks at other students who were standing on the second floor of nearby buildings. They broke some windows and hit some students – all because those students weren’t ‘participating.’ I had just suggested we go up there for a better view, am I ever glad we didn’t!

I am trying to be pretty neutral and just observe because I recognize there is a lot I don’t understand BUT I can’t help question the logic of throwing rocks at your fellow students. What does that accomplish other then divide your sense of solidarity? These students were still there watching and showing support through their presence. They just weren’t down on the street chucking rocks! Not everyone can play a direct role like that….

It struck me mostly as sad.

So eventually I guess they students struck a deal with the Gendarmerie or decided to end the blockade and everyone started to leave. They were cheering as if they had won but kept warning the Gendarmerie that they would be back the next day if the bursaries don’t come in.

Oh and yesterday there was a roadblock also. I wasn’t there but I heard afterwards that there had been rock throwing and tear gas as well. We also found out that the students turned on the Delegates of the Social Committee. The Delegates had and have been advocating negotiations above blocking the road or striking and the students (when their Bursaries didn’t come in Monday morning) got fed up and took some of the Delegates by force and held them ‘hostage.’ They broke down the door of one of our friends in searching for him. He said later that he really feared for himself because the students had said they wanted to beat-up the Delegates. I guess the Delegates that weren’t taken were able to negotiate and get the others free. But I can imagine it would have been pretty terrifying.

Reading this post over, it all sounds much scary and much more intense but in reality campus is still very calm. Walking to the gates this morning you would have no idea that there was anything going on. Yesterday, I didn’t know that our friends had been taken hostage until the afternoon when they were free again. It is the strangest, most sureal feeling seeing all this going on. Some students are just going about their normal lives and some are out there burning their eyes, noses and throats in the tear gas.

Well - it is over for today but the Delegates are in Dakar negotiating with the minister. If the bursaries don’t come in, tomorrow will be likely be a repeat of today and perhaps even worse for the Delegates. I only hope that the mob mentality doesn’t fully take over and that the students remember what they are fighting for and who they should be fighting – something that doesn’t seem like it is easy to do.