The First Day of My Internship

Disclaimer: Reader be warned, this post is very honest.  I tried not to be too negative, but I also tried not to sugar coat anything either.  I have faith that each day will be better than the last.

For my first week in Dakar I took Wolof and French courses at Centre Baobab, but my host dad and I stopped in at GEEP for lunch on the first Monday.  Therefore, I had already been to my internship site and I "knew where I was going" and I had already met a handful of people before my internship started.  My host dad told me to just get on the same bus and "go one or two stops further than Centre Baobab" and then I could find my way.  I secretly take a taxi for the first time every time he tells me something like this because buses are a lot more complicated than he makes them sound.  So I hail a taxi and he gives me a pretty good price and I always ask if they can take Avenue Bourgui Ba because that’s the only road I’m familiar with… but every single time they argue that they know a faster route to take.  I've stopped apologizing when we get lost because I don’t recognize anything ; I told them at the beginning what road to take and if they don’t want to listen that’s their fault. 

I arrived at about 9:15am on the first day of my actual internship and the only people in the building are the secretary and one of the maids.  I asked the secretary if the Director was in and she said not yet and asked if I was supposed to be working upstairs or downstairs.  I, of course, have no idea so she had the maid open up the big computer room for me to hangout in.  I pulled out some reading that I brought about GEEP and went to work trying to translate the material (just for my own comprehension).  At about 9:40am people started rolling in and saying hello and asking how my weekend was.  At about 10am Coly (one of the guys I had already met) arrived and got the wifi to work properly.  I asked him if the Director would be in today and he said that he had class this morning.  So, since I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, I just continued with my reading and then started researching some of the work that UNFPA has done in Senegal (UNFPA is one of the funders of GEEP and I did a big project on them so I knew that might be a good starting point as well). 

At around 1pm Coly left with a few guys to (I think) go eat, so I packed up my stuff and I was heading out to try and find some food.  Then I think Coly realized that he forgot about me and he came back and asked where I was going.  I told him I was going to eat and he said no I should stay and eat with the secretary.  She said it was going to be ceebu jen – fish and rice—(which I have eaten about 5 times in one week) and it would be "mille francs" --about US $2.  When the food got there, I went to the secretary’s office to eat like Coly had told me to do, and I told her I only had a bill for "5 milles francs."  Something got really complicated and she just kind of stared at me for a while, and then she gave me the change that she had in her hand the whole time.  Sometimes things are complicated here for reasons that I guess I will never understand. 

So then I went to sit and eat in her office like I had the past Monday, but she asked if maybe I wanted to go eat in the other room or upstairs.  I got the hint and I took my plate and went back to the other room I was in before.  I sat down there to eat but then Coly said that we don’t eat in there and so I had to eat on the other side of the room at a table by myself.  Again, complicated and awkward, always.  I ate as much rice as I could handle and a few bites of fish (before this trip I did not eat fish. Ever.) and then took my plate back to the secretary’s office and left it there as instructed.  I wish somebody would just tell me where to take my plate so that my coworkers didn’t have to wait on me, but again, for some reason I can’t have that information.  Then I got a bunch of questions about why I didn’t eat anything.  This is a daily occurrence, at every meal, and I know it’s just part of the culture… but it’s slightly exhausting.  I try to give a reasonable explanation in franglais, and just end up saying I cannot explain myself but it was good.

Anyways, the Director finally arrived around 2pm and introduced me to Tening, the girl who I will be working with to produce a radio show.  They said something about noon tomorrow, and I always nod my head yes and say "c’est bon."  I mean, yeah, I’ll be there all day tomorrow, so whatever they want me to do at noon is fine.  He also said something about teaching English, which makes me extremely nervous, but I guess if I’m going to be out of my comfort zone I might as well go for broke.  So they left, and I checked some email and listened in a little bit to a group of guys who I think were preparing an HIV/AIDS education skit. 

Then the power went out.

It has happened several times in the last week but usually not during the day.  That was the first time that it actually annoyed me a little because it’s slightly difficult to get work done with no power in a city that heavily relies on wireless internet.  Not that I had anything important to do, but I could have been doing something at least.  So the power went out at about 3pm and it was still out at 5pm when I left.  During that time I chatted a little bit with Coly and his cousin and we taught each other some English/Wolof vocabulary.  There’s a lot of people in and out throughout the day and I try to listen in on people’s conversations to improve my comprehension. 

And that’s about it… I left and tried to find a bus stop for the bus that takes me home.  There’s multiple different kinds of signage for the bus I take (and signage for other buses mixed in too) and I couldn’t find a sign that I recognized so I ended up walking all the way to the bus stop near Centre Baobab.  Walking is nice though compared to the packed, sweaty bus.  After the 45 minute smelly, hot bus ride, I hopped off (literally a hop, I feel like I’m being birthed from the bus every time I get off haha) and headed to my favorite little market, "Epicerie Adja."  There’s an old man who always sits by the front outside and I stop and practice my Wolof greeting with him every time.  I got a huge bottle of water (I swear huge is the only size of water they have here), a bottle of coke, some awesome chocolate chip cookies, and a strawberry yogurt (also something I didn’t eat before this trip, but it’s awesome here).  I know that this snack is going to save me from a serious stomach ache later tonight when I have to take my malaria pills.

I come home to my host dad, two of the maids, the tiny 5 month old baby, my 5 year old sister, and my older sister Coumba, who all want to know about my day.  I tell them it was pretty good or fine, etc. and now we wait for mama Aissatou to come home from the office and for dinner to be served.

Sorry if that was a little long and tedious… try living it. ;-)