Hey team.
Life here is back to normal. Classes have resumed until Wednesday because we will be going on vacation for 2 weeks! After tonight, I will have officially finished 2 classes for first semester. Which includes my tourism class where my professor is completely insane. For your enjoyment, I will be posting a list of true statements made by said professor. That might be tomorrow or after vacation. The other class I have finished, I still have no grade, due to the fact that the professor is extremely sick and might be taken to France for treatment.
Anyway, first semester classes should finish the week after vacation and then second semester should be done in June. According to Baydallaye, everything will be finished on or before the 15th. Therefore my mother was trying to get me to come home earlier. I still haven't decided what I am going to do. I should probably decide this week when I go back to Dakar because I would have to go to the airport to change the flight.
I'm grappling with the issue because I would love to come home earlier, but at the same time another week would give me a week dedicated to working on my research project. I will be starting more seriously on that after vacation (and during) as well. Since I'm traveling to a rather touristy area, there will be plenty of guides and people to talk to about my project.
Well, I have nothing much to talk about, but I thought I'd update for you all.
Miss you all.
See you again soon.
Showing posts with label strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strike. Show all posts
29 March 2011
14 March 2011
Pictures........!
Quick update plus pictures.
I have a new computer, alxamdulilay. Thus the update and pictures.
We are still on strike. Chalk up tally for week number 11. Oh well. I'll go back to St. Louis tomorrow, cause dadda's leaving tonight. :( But not a big deal, I"m going to get to work for real on my project this time. :)
So. An update on what we did whilst my father was here. We drove to Lac Rose, a lake that is supposed to be pink due to the high levels of salt. But alas, it was not. The rainy season was too much, so it was a slight brown color. I decided to leave the pictures out of the post. From there we continued to the Deserts of Lampoul, where we... mounted camels and took a trip. Just around the dunes, but SUPER cool. :) And yes, my father rode a camel. Can you say you've ridden camels with your father in Africa? I can!
After a night in the deserts (an extremely cold one at that), we drove up to school, where i unloaded the mother-load of food from his suitcase. I re-loaded with everyone's presents. Which I think are all bought!
Anyway, we went to a camp in between the Senegal river and the ocean. We stayed in a cabin on the river. Literally ON the river. On stilts. Our toilet and shower flushed to the river...sadly enough. Shower, not too sad... toilet. SAD.
We stayed the next night in town and went to the tailor and nothing was done. The power cuts have been so bad lately that even the university has had power cuts, which is unusual. But we've been without power rather frequently, thus why the tailor had not finished... no power, no sewing machine!
The next morning we went back to the tailor to pick up what was supposed to go home with my dad, which wasn't done yet. He finished and continued to stall... because he made my dad the cutest shirt ever as a gift! :) Ask him to see it when he gets home.
Well, we came back to Dakar in the scariest 7-place ride of my life. but we survived, only to be fought over for a taxi... literally 15-20 men yelling at each other trying to get us in their taxi. After, we had the most peaceful dinner ever.
The next afternoon, we headed to Toubab Dialao, a small village that has a nice hotel. We visited Bandia reserve, a glorified zoo, but WAYYYY better than san diego... and saw animals. Then we did a batik class the next day. Super fun. I would probably do that for relaxing time.
Anyway, we're back in Dakar, walked a lot today and yesterday. He leaves later tonight and I'll be in Saint-Louis by nightfall... incha'allah.
Wellll, here are the pictures. I hope you enjoy.
Beggue... Kate
No captions, sorry. Most creative caption wins a prize upon my return.
I have a new computer, alxamdulilay. Thus the update and pictures.
We are still on strike. Chalk up tally for week number 11. Oh well. I'll go back to St. Louis tomorrow, cause dadda's leaving tonight. :( But not a big deal, I"m going to get to work for real on my project this time. :)
So. An update on what we did whilst my father was here. We drove to Lac Rose, a lake that is supposed to be pink due to the high levels of salt. But alas, it was not. The rainy season was too much, so it was a slight brown color. I decided to leave the pictures out of the post. From there we continued to the Deserts of Lampoul, where we... mounted camels and took a trip. Just around the dunes, but SUPER cool. :) And yes, my father rode a camel. Can you say you've ridden camels with your father in Africa? I can!
After a night in the deserts (an extremely cold one at that), we drove up to school, where i unloaded the mother-load of food from his suitcase. I re-loaded with everyone's presents. Which I think are all bought!
Anyway, we went to a camp in between the Senegal river and the ocean. We stayed in a cabin on the river. Literally ON the river. On stilts. Our toilet and shower flushed to the river...sadly enough. Shower, not too sad... toilet. SAD.
We stayed the next night in town and went to the tailor and nothing was done. The power cuts have been so bad lately that even the university has had power cuts, which is unusual. But we've been without power rather frequently, thus why the tailor had not finished... no power, no sewing machine!
The next morning we went back to the tailor to pick up what was supposed to go home with my dad, which wasn't done yet. He finished and continued to stall... because he made my dad the cutest shirt ever as a gift! :) Ask him to see it when he gets home.
Well, we came back to Dakar in the scariest 7-place ride of my life. but we survived, only to be fought over for a taxi... literally 15-20 men yelling at each other trying to get us in their taxi. After, we had the most peaceful dinner ever.
The next afternoon, we headed to Toubab Dialao, a small village that has a nice hotel. We visited Bandia reserve, a glorified zoo, but WAYYYY better than san diego... and saw animals. Then we did a batik class the next day. Super fun. I would probably do that for relaxing time.
Anyway, we're back in Dakar, walked a lot today and yesterday. He leaves later tonight and I'll be in Saint-Louis by nightfall... incha'allah.
Wellll, here are the pictures. I hope you enjoy.
Beggue... Kate
No captions, sorry. Most creative caption wins a prize upon my return.
10 February 2011
Life.
Well. I'll give you one guess what's happening on campus...
GREVE! For those of you non-francophones... that means the students here are completely null and are on strike again. Okay, completely might be a bit harsh. But anyway... one more week of this and the first semester is completely canceled.
Done.
Over.
ZERO.
LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED.
4 months of my life... down the drain.
Okay, well, that's me being melodramatic. I think that's the word anyway.
I think we'll be okay. I'm almost done with one class, and what I have to do is nowhere near what the other students are doing for the class. Enchallah, we'll get credits for this semester. :)
Other than that. I'm still sick. The infection has removed itself from my lungs and installed itself (oh so nicely) into my sinus. The left lower one to be exact. My teeth hurt. But thanks to some general anti-biotics, I'm feeling a bit better.
Well, next week, whether or not the semester continues or is canceled, us Toubabs be heading to the South! Oh yes, you heard me right... down to the land of fried chicken and collard greens. Or villages and safaris. I'm not sure what all is in store for us, but I hear that this should be a good trip. And something a lot of Senegalese haven't even seen (probably because it's too touristy)
Speaking of touristy... my research is coming along slowly and not too surely. I just finished my questionnaires to hand out and ask people. I have to figure out who I have to get those to in order to have them answered. :(
Anyway, I'm going to go work on that paper that I have to write... for a class that might not count... in a semester that might not even exist.
Gotta love Africa!
GREVE! For those of you non-francophones... that means the students here are completely null and are on strike again. Okay, completely might be a bit harsh. But anyway... one more week of this and the first semester is completely canceled.
Done.
Over.
ZERO.
LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED.
4 months of my life... down the drain.
Okay, well, that's me being melodramatic. I think that's the word anyway.
I think we'll be okay. I'm almost done with one class, and what I have to do is nowhere near what the other students are doing for the class. Enchallah, we'll get credits for this semester. :)
Other than that. I'm still sick. The infection has removed itself from my lungs and installed itself (oh so nicely) into my sinus. The left lower one to be exact. My teeth hurt. But thanks to some general anti-biotics, I'm feeling a bit better.
Well, next week, whether or not the semester continues or is canceled, us Toubabs be heading to the South! Oh yes, you heard me right... down to the land of fried chicken and collard greens. Or villages and safaris. I'm not sure what all is in store for us, but I hear that this should be a good trip. And something a lot of Senegalese haven't even seen (probably because it's too touristy)
Speaking of touristy... my research is coming along slowly and not too surely. I just finished my questionnaires to hand out and ask people. I have to figure out who I have to get those to in order to have them answered. :(
Anyway, I'm going to go work on that paper that I have to write... for a class that might not count... in a semester that might not even exist.
Gotta love Africa!
15 December 2010
WhAT?!!?!
I'm not even sure if this is real life any more.
Still sick and Mama Africa is making it clear that she hates me. So uncomfortable. I haven't been able to eat much because I've been feeling like I'd throw up after I ate/when I ate, but it's better today. I'm really hungry. :) But I think the doctor is a witch and is cursing me; he asks for my symptoms and says "Are you throwing up or nauseous? and I respond "no." I leave the doctor (after taking anothhhhhhher oh so fantastic sample) and then I get nauseous! Same thing happened before too! Crazy.
On the other side of news...
I don't think you'll believe it...
but I'm telling you anyway...
THE STRIKE IS OVER!!! Now, here's what happened. If I have my story straight, this is how it goes. Let's hypothetically say that there are 100 students per class (level, like first year geography students) Now, they all get to complete their liscence while getting paid by the government. Once they reach the end of the third year, about 60 of them are invited to continue to the Master's program (while getting paid). The other 40 are done with school, and can go home. Now, Baydallaye here, created this Master's PRO program where those 40 could go to school, but would have to pay. Seems fair, right? You don't make the cut, you pay! Well, the students were striking because it wasn't fair that those students had to pay and tried to prove that it was illegal to privatize programs at a public university. Now with the strike coming up on it's one month anniversary, Baydallaye had to do something. And fast. So what does he do? ELIMINATE THE PROGRAM. (except one master Pro) Ingenious! Now you students who were fighting for your "fellow students" just cut them from school. Jerks. Oh well. But that's the news.
No class tomorrow though, because it's Tam xarit (xarit means friend in wolof, but I don't know what this holiday is about. It comes one month after Tabaski)
I'm thinking I'll go to class on Friday morning (because the only other time when I tried to go to class, the professor was at Mecca!) so I can meet the prof and get the rattrapage (all of the work from the past month that wasn't done because the students were busy screwing over their fellow students) and the books I'll have to read, then I'll take a Wolof test, and go back to Dakar.
I am officially skipping the last three/four days before Christmas. I DON'T CARE! I'm going stir-crazy in Saint-Louis. I will return to Dakar Friday and party it up with the Black World Festival (Arts goes somewhere in there...) http://blackworldfestival.com/wp/ There's concerts all the time and a lot of stuff going on. I'm hitting it up!
Love you all...
Bisou.
Kate.
Gej naa la gis. (It's been a while since I've seen you!)
Here's my usual send me things rant...
Kate Brinks
C/O Baydallaye Kane
Universite Gaston Berger saint Louis
BP 234
Saint Louis Senegal.
Especially Christmas cookies (Vaccuum packed) and goodies... like peanut butter balls and turtles (KAYTE I'm looking at you on this one!)
Still sick and Mama Africa is making it clear that she hates me. So uncomfortable. I haven't been able to eat much because I've been feeling like I'd throw up after I ate/when I ate, but it's better today. I'm really hungry. :) But I think the doctor is a witch and is cursing me; he asks for my symptoms and says "Are you throwing up or nauseous? and I respond "no." I leave the doctor (after taking anothhhhhhher oh so fantastic sample) and then I get nauseous! Same thing happened before too! Crazy.
On the other side of news...
I don't think you'll believe it...
but I'm telling you anyway...
THE STRIKE IS OVER!!! Now, here's what happened. If I have my story straight, this is how it goes. Let's hypothetically say that there are 100 students per class (level, like first year geography students) Now, they all get to complete their liscence while getting paid by the government. Once they reach the end of the third year, about 60 of them are invited to continue to the Master's program (while getting paid). The other 40 are done with school, and can go home. Now, Baydallaye here, created this Master's PRO program where those 40 could go to school, but would have to pay. Seems fair, right? You don't make the cut, you pay! Well, the students were striking because it wasn't fair that those students had to pay and tried to prove that it was illegal to privatize programs at a public university. Now with the strike coming up on it's one month anniversary, Baydallaye had to do something. And fast. So what does he do? ELIMINATE THE PROGRAM. (except one master Pro) Ingenious! Now you students who were fighting for your "fellow students" just cut them from school. Jerks. Oh well. But that's the news.
No class tomorrow though, because it's Tam xarit (xarit means friend in wolof, but I don't know what this holiday is about. It comes one month after Tabaski)
I'm thinking I'll go to class on Friday morning (because the only other time when I tried to go to class, the professor was at Mecca!) so I can meet the prof and get the rattrapage (all of the work from the past month that wasn't done because the students were busy screwing over their fellow students) and the books I'll have to read, then I'll take a Wolof test, and go back to Dakar.
I am officially skipping the last three/four days before Christmas. I DON'T CARE! I'm going stir-crazy in Saint-Louis. I will return to Dakar Friday and party it up with the Black World Festival (Arts goes somewhere in there...) http://blackworldfestival.com/wp/ There's concerts all the time and a lot of stuff going on. I'm hitting it up!
Love you all...
Bisou.
Kate.
Gej naa la gis. (It's been a while since I've seen you!)
Here's my usual send me things rant...
Kate Brinks
C/O Baydallaye Kane
Universite Gaston Berger saint Louis
BP 234
Saint Louis Senegal.
Especially Christmas cookies (Vaccuum packed) and goodies... like peanut butter balls and turtles (KAYTE I'm looking at you on this one!)
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