What Happens to a Rhinoceros' Armor When it Gets Wet?

It rhinocer-rusts.

I took this photo standing about 10 yards from the subjects. Yes, standing. Outside of the Jeep! The park guide said it was safe. "They have very good hearing, but very poor eyesight," she explained. Once we were on the ground, she proceeded to talk loudly for several minutes.

I'll post more pictures of my visit to the Bandia Reserve later. This week has been (and remains) very busy, so I've had to delay updating my blog.

(Joke found on http://www.kidsjokes.co.uk/jokes/animal/kangaroo.html)

Three Smiley Middle Schoolers

Today marks one week since the arrival of an old friend from my church in the US. Beni was part of the same team I was when I first visited Senegal in 2003. She returns every couple of years to volunteer with different organizations.

This year, she's working mainly with one of several organizations that provides help for talibe [TAL-ee-bay] boys--boys whose families have given them to a marabout [MAIR-uh-boo], a regional Islamic religious/political leader, for training in the Koran. Though they do get rote Koranic training in Arabic (which is not spoken here), most become street beggars who raise money for the marabou. They are frequently underfed, underclothed, underwashed, and lacking in medical care. Many Senegalese are scandalized by this system, but marabouts are culturally, religiously, and politically entrenched.

In the next few days, I'll post an article with more details about the problem and about the organization Beni is volunteering for.

In addition to coming to volunteer, Beni generously loaded up her luggage with things I can't buy here, including oat bran, "Miracle Whip," my favorite brand of chewing gum, books and DVDs in English, and, most importantly, a lot of music for the Chamber Choir, for which we are grateful.

None of this has anything to do with the above picture, which shows three of my middle school students who just dropped by to say "Hi" and to sing silly songs to me.

Elected to a New Office

Things change often at my school. Classrooms become storage rooms, offices become kitchens, kitchens become classrooms--you name it! I have had several offices and several classrooms in my four-and-a-half years here--sometimes simultaneously. Last week, I moved to a new office in what was a classroom earlier this year, but is now half-filled with shelving where we keep infrequently used books and other teaching supplies. There's just enough room to sqeeze my 11-member chamber choir in my half of the room, so we rehearse here, as well (thus the sign on the door).








OK, so it's a low news day. You want I should make something up?

Photo Page Under Construction

This is my first attempt to create a linked page consisting only of photos and captions. It's not a particularly straightforward process. I'll post an announcement when I get it working, until then, this is a placeholder. (The photo is the elementary building and playground as seen from the third story of our new Middle School / High School academic building.)

The 12 Days of Christmas (redux)... and Beyond!

BLOG NEWS: I've published posts (below) for the final two days of my Christmas trip to the Republic of Guinea. All 12 days now have pictures and updated, proof-read copy.

GUINEAN NEWS: Political unrest erupted in Guinea over the weekend, resulting in one reported death. A national strike has been threatened for Thursday--on the one-year anniversary of the riots that left 130 dead last year. We pray for peace in Guniea, and for those of our students who are trying to return to Dakar from there.

DAKAR NEWS: There has been no further trouble in Dakar since the riots that broke out the Thanksgiving weekend, protests centered on two issues: rising food prices, and the razing of un-licensed boutiques (we would say stalls) in various markets around the city. The government relented during the holidays. The holidays are over. No news is good news?

SCHOOL NEWS: We've just kicked off the new semester with a day and a half of interesting and useful meetings (really!). Classes resume tomorrow.

SHOPPING NEWS: You're probably suprised to see shopping listed as a news item, but it's an interesting story. Dakar has a moveable market called Fëgg Jaay [FOOG-ee jie, or FOOK-ee jie]. It's mostly clothing, mostly used (perhaps including something you donated to Good Will or one of its equivalents last year), plus some new items that are often knock-offs of name brands. The city sets up two rows of booths, framed with heavy pipes, down the median of one of the city's major roads, leaving an aisle down the middle for shoppers. Each booth is about 6-ft. square. Most are covered with tarps for shade. They stay up a day or two, as people from that part of town shop, then are taken down, moved to another street, and set up again. Each Saturday morning, the Fëgg Jaay appears in all its glory on a mile-long section of a street not far from my school. On Sunday, it's gone, with piles of trash every few yards all that remains.

Fëgg jaay means "shake and sell." Some vendors have so much the clothing that, in addition to hanging it from the poles, they pile it high inside their booths. When you find something in the middle of the pile, wrinkled and dusty, the vendor pulls it out, shakes it, and tries to sell it to you for "a good price."

I went to this market last Saturday and was delighted to find a handsome windbreaker, two pair of pants my size, and two or three shirts, for the equivalent of about $20! Then, at another, permanent market in a nearby neigborhood, I bought two brand new shirts for about $3.50 each. Until now, I've done all of my clothing shopping on my visits to the States. No longer!

PHOTO NEWS: Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera along to the Fëgg Jaay. I'll try to remember to post a picture of it another time. Lacking that, I've included two pictures of boabob trees, one God-made, and one man-made--complete with hanging fruit and roosting birds. (Click on the picture for a closer look.)

Alive and well in Dakar

I've returned to Dakar from my 12 teriffic days in Guinea. I'll put the remaining "12 days of (my) Christmas" posts up as soon as I am able.

Meanwhile, I wanted to post a photo I just took of an African Grey Hornbill (relative of the red-billed hornbill in my November 7 post). Interestingly, the photo in Wikipedia's article about this species was taken just a few hundred yards from mine--in the zoo/forest park across the street from my school. Their specimen looks rather different. Mine looks more like the hand-painted illustration in the same article.

I've loaned out my fancy Nikon camera for a friend to take some portraits. This was snapped with my little Kodak.