Common to man...

I'm excited. I actually found a computer with a QWERTY keyboard at the West African Research Center. Blogging will be easy this time. Today was a day of school visits. We went to a private, Catholic primary school and a public middle school. The difference between the two was astounding. One thing they had in common was relatively large class size, between 40 and 60 students per class. I cannot imagine. The children at the primary school greeted us with a song as we were entering the school gates. The teachers were very gracious in allowing us to come into their classrooms mid-morning, especially considering that students are now preparing for their end-of-year exams, which I am told are very tough. Only about 30% pass to the next level on the first try.

Our next visit will be to a university later today. Some of the others are currently eating lunch. We did lunch and computer time in shifts today. (Dama xiff.) I ate, but the meal wsa grilled fish and tossed salad. Just before I was about to devour my salad, one of the program directors stopped me and warned that the salad had been washed with local water. Sigh. So I just ate my little fish and drank some bottled water. I am happy, though. One thing I have noticed is that in certain parts of Dakar, any meal is a luxury. Some people eat only one a day, while others do not always get a meal each day.

That's not to say that all of Senegal is poor. It's not. In fact, while walking through some neighborhoods today, we saw quite a few nice residences. One had a Jaguar parked outside. Another had a new Range Rover. The division of wealth here is as inequitable as it is at home. And just like at home, the price of fuel is causing chaos. Gas here is nearly $9 US per gallon. That would be catastrophic for us, and the average income per month here is a fraction of ours. Still, like usm they have managed to keep their cars on the road. There are many more vehicles here than I expected. The streets here are no different than any other larger city in the US. In fact, downtown Dakar looks a lot like some areas in New York. The market place could have easily passed for China town.

The longer we are here, the more I see how widespread the economic effects of the state of foreign affairs are. With the exception of the language being spoken, most of the conversations oveheard here are much the same as ones you would overhear at home: fuel prices, unemployment, need for education reform, the media's unhealthy influence on the nation's youth... the list goes on.

My photographs from today are probably some of the most interesting I have taken so far, not because they were of things I had never seen before, but because the sights were remarkably similar to what I would see at home. One example before I go: At the public middle school, we sat in a classroom today at desks students would normally occupy. There was carving all over the wooden desk, just like students do at home. That was to be expected. Kids are just kids everywhere. What I did not expect to see, however, were the names "G-Unit, The Game, and Young Money" right beside a carefully carved hand holding up a middle finger.

Some of the girls were eager to pose for pictures, and they were dressed no differently than any girl you might find in a US middle school, except I'm sure these girs were violating a few US dress codes. It's amazing the influence American music and hip hop culture has had even here. And most of the students don't even speak more than two words of English. They are educated in French.

My time on the computer is about up, and I think we are leaving soon for our next school visit. If I do not get the opportunity to blog again later this evening, I'm not sure if I will be in touch again for quite a few days. Tomorrow, we leave for Touba, the Holy City, and from there we go to Toubab Dialaw for the weekend. I am not sure about internet connections there. My next entry could very well be Sunday evening when we return to Dakar. If so, I should have quite a lot to tell by then.