French What?

Senegal was a French colony. Now, I don’t know about you but a big part of what I think of when I think of French culture is the wonderful food, pastries, coffee, etc. I have only been to Paris once but I remember those pain au chocolates like it was yesterday, and the coffee was heavenly. A reasonable conclusion would be that some of this would have rubbed off here during the years of occupation, ummmm that’s a negative, the only thing to be found here in Kaolack, and in towns and cities all over Senegal is this stuff that looks a lot like French bread but turns out to be what can only be described as some form of Styrofoam with a hard, crusty outside. And as for the coffee, in addition to the French influence, there are some major coffee-producing countries in this part of the world but that’s another no, unless you go to a nicer restaurant it will be Nescafe instant coffee that you are drinking. A coffee-lover’s nightmare. Leave it to a former French colony to turn me into a true, British-style, tea drinker.

My First (Senegalese) Seder

This is a little after the fact I know but I planned and hosted my first Passover Seder recently. There were 11 volunteers and guests in attendance, several first time seder-goers, and the Seder took place at the Kaolack regional house. In the days leading up to the event I was scouring the internet for Haggadah material to use since the package my parents had sent more than a month earlier, that included Haggadahs and stuff for Matzah ball soup, hadn’t shown up yet (this is not surprising, especially since we just received 5 packages for volunteers who are no longer here, they were sent a year and a half ago). This serendipity led me to the perfect Haggadah, something that was gender-neutral, in English, was inclusive of non-Jews (since I was the only one raised Jewish at my Seder) and as it happens, this Haggadah highlighted themes very pertinent to our lives as volunteers, like always asking questions, the importance of community, liberation of the mind through education and exploration and of course, striving for a time when the world is in peace (a more secular view of the Messianic era).

The day of had some very stressful moments including searching for everything I needed in the Kaolack market (see previous blog) and figuring out exactly what we were going to eat and how I was going to prepare it in the kitchen here. We had to make our own Matzah which I guess wouldn’t really be considered kosher since we just used the flour we could find. We got some help from people that had traveled to Dakar, the site of the only supermarkets in the country, as far as walnuts for the charoset. These folks also looked for horseradish, something entirely necessary in any Seder as far as I’m concerned but no luck, no horseradish in Senegal. Senegal does, however, have something that is the most bitter thing I’ve ever tasted – Kola Nut. Senegalese people eat these things to increase their energy, they are so bitter that ANYTHING you eat after a Kola Nut will taste sweet. So for a local twist we used shredded Kola Nut as our bitter herb, and it ended up tasting pretty good in the Hillel Sandwich. A shank bone was no problem with so many sheep here, and in true Passover miracle form, the package showed up just in time so we had our Matzah ball soup, which everyone was raving about if I do say so myself. Our menu included the soup, delicious potato and niçoise salads and a goulash that were contributed by other volunteers, we had a fruit salad for dessert with mangoes, oranges, bananas and apples, and of course lots of wine, boxed wine(a favorite of volunteers). This didn’t seem like it was an insane amount of food, especially compared to the Seders I remember having at my Aunt Rosalee and Uncle Herbie’s house in Milwaukee, but I, for one, was pretty full after the soup. We gave the leftovers to the guards who were much less weirded-out by the shredded Kola Nut than I thought they’d be.

I had a lot of people tell me that they really enjoyed the evening and I really enjoyed starting a new tradition here so if next year is not “in Jerusalem” it’ll be in Kaolack, Bismilah! (Welcome!)


Edited May 6th, 2006 to add:
After I typed this whole thing up I realized that I didn't note how supportive my host family, mainly my host mother, was during Passover. A few weeks ahead of time I told her that there was a Jewish holiday coming up, during which I couldn't eat bread for 8 days. She looked at me crosseyed for a second, not eating bread is not exactly normal here, but after that she didn't miss a beat, the main meal that it affected was breakfast when I usually have a bean sandwich. She said 'No problem, I'll just cook you two eggs and salad for breakfast every morning.' She was even asking if I could eat rice, a staple here, for lunch. She was willing to make me salad for lunch too, but I decided to go the Sephardic route and allow myself to eat rice but just stay away from bread. I was very touched, as I am daily, by how inviting they are.

The Wonders of RTS

I was told that I need to blog more so here goes. I watch some TV here most nights, as long as I’m at home and there is power. There is one main TV channel here - RTS1, there is also TV5, a French channel but I think you may need a special antenna to get it and it is very fuzzy at my house so I don’t watch it. The wealthy people get satellite dishes that give them access to a bunch more, mostly French channels. RTS1 has the news in French, Wolof, Pulaar, Sereer and maybe a couple other local languages during the day. The highlight for many volunteers is Muneca Brava, an Argentinean soap opera that has been dubbed in French and edited to take out the kissing scenes but not the incredibly skimpy outfits that some women wear. Like any soap opera it is completely ridiculous but it is sometimes entertaining and it’s really entertaining to witness my Senegalese family’s reactions to the on-screen antics. During the day there is a nature documentary, followed by a rerun of last night’s Muneca Brava. There are Wolof game shows with sets that look like public access hand-me-downs and there is also a Muslim game show where they have to answer questions about the Koran. For some reason this reminds me of the SNL sketch of the Japanese game show where people get fingers cut off for an incorrect response - I don’t really know why, I’ve never seen any loss of digits. On weekends there are cartoons in the mornings - Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes dubbed in French - all of which are called "Mickey" here. Weekend evenings used to be "Married With Children" most of us didn’t really appreciate that this was the image of Americans that was being shown over seas, now it’s a show with Damon Wayans, I’m not sure if the African American element is appreciated here or not. After the news is "Passions" the horrible American soap opera - it seems to be my brother Guelaye’s (the pious one) favorite, and "24" the American show which I still haven’t gotten into but I have heard is good, here its "24(vingt quatre) Heures Chrono." "The Young and the Restless" is also somewhere in the lineup but I’m not exactly sure where, it also has a different name.
It may not seem like in from my description above but news really does seem to dominate RTS. And the thing with the news here is that it is partly owned and run by the government, this makes for wonderful 10 minute long stories that show various ministers, all in their grand booboos, walking into the presidential palace. Also when Abdoulaye Wade(the president, always referred to on the news as "Son excellence, maitre Abdoulaye Wade) is out promoting himself at least half the news is devoted to him sticking out the top of his SUV shaking hands with the rowdy crowd that is only there to try to be on TV. I have a theory that this means that the bad stuff Wade does, like putting a canal through a national park to reduce floodwaters, which has now eroded away much of the park and several villages, isn’t reported. I have also heard that if you want to get something that’s not government related on the news, you must pay for it. I had to hear on the BBC that there was a conflict in the Casamance region of Senegal between rebels and troops from Guinea Bissau. In my opinion, RTS does a very poor job of informing the Senegalese people about things they should know. There is one thing that it does an ok job of and that is international news. For example, there was recently a bombing in a resort town in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, they didn’t show gratuitous blood and guts but they didn’t edit out the visual evidence that people had been injured and died there.
This is where I start comparing to news in the US. The US news is careful not to show us blood on the street after a suicide bomber attack, so people may have a glossed over idea about what the situation is really like in Iraq for example. THANK GOD the US news is not run by the government but they lead with stories of kidnapped spring breakers and missing, young, pregnant wives that some how keep the attention of the entire nations for months. They also do their best to create a fear that will keep us glued to the screen, "Something you have in your kitchen could kill you and your family and your pets, find out details at eleven." Does this sound familiar? Hmm, what is it this time, the butcher knives, the detergent, the bleach, something in the food is going to give me cancer????
I still haven’t figured out which news is worse, not sure I ever will, but I do know one thing, I am very glad that my short wave radio picks up BBC News and that I can also listen to NPR occasionally on the world space radio at the regional house.
How was that for a blog AJ?