World Social Forum

Since this is the first time I've been able to use Internet for any extended amout of time (1 hour), I have so much to catch you up on. Although in my last post I thought I was leaving last Sunday for Matam, I ended up not leaving until Thursday (c'est l'Afrique, non?). But those extra days spent in Dakar were jammed packed with the excitement and events of the World Social Forum (). It started last Sunday with the opening parade through downtown Dakar and l'Université à Dakar. All of the orgnizations, most of which were NGOs, marched the streets holding banners sporting which human rights issue they were fighting for, among them organizations for women's empowerment, for improvement of the lives of the handicapped, for HIV/AIDS awareness, for the betterment of Africain scool systems, for African conflict resolution, just to name a few. Organizations came from all over the world: Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire, France, Germany, the United States, Vietnam, China, and many more. At the end of the parade was a concert featuring two modern African musicians followed by a panel of enthused activists who gave their take on the world's current issues such as those in Egypt- some of what they had to say was a little extreme for me and I didn't like how they refered to Americans as all being capitalist and the negativity used towards the "Jews" occupying Palestine- but besides that I felt like I was back in the time of the 60s surrounded by others who are fighting for peace amongst all. In fact, the tagline for the World Social Forum was "Another World is Possible". If I had any doubts that fighting for the rights of others and a peaceful world for all was what I was put on this earth to do, being amongst thousands of others who have dedicated their lives towards making anoter world possible for all human beings has completely erased all those doubts.  The next day after the parade, the university was filled with stands each organization set up where you could learn each's mission, what they've accomplished, and what struggles they're having accomplishing their new tasks at hand. My favorite was walking up to a tent of women, from a variety of countries, giving their take on the women's issues that face Senegal and the rest of Africa. The entire discussion took place in French-as did all the other panels, round tables and workshops throughout the week- and while I could understand most of the aruement being made, when I couldn't I would imagine myself sitting in the exact same spot a few years down the road with a few more nothches in my education and experience belt being able to raise my hand and give my stance (all in French, naturally) on the matter at hand. Tuesday and Wednesday followed with not as much excitement as the first two days- I sat in on two panels that were given by the larger organization that Ngaari Laaw (the NGO in which I am interning) is a part of. The larger organization works to improve the non-formal education in Senegal and Mali. The panels allowed me to really pick up on the difficulties of one: pulling a country together to agree on something and two: why it is so hard in Senegal and many other African countries that were at one time colonized by Europeans to reach an outcome that all in the agree upon. When Europeans came in and colonized larger parts of Africa and constructed borders to establish what land belonged in their new country, they didn't take into account that the people were seperated already by their ethnicities. Take for example Senegal, colonized by the French. The country of Senegal is home to three main ethnicities who all speak a different language and they remain seperated like so even after years of being considered the same country. One of the problems my organization works to better is the literacy rates but how can you improve the literacy rates of a country whose people don't speak the same language.... it makes it very difficult. French is the official language but only those who have gone to school can speak it, meaning that the number of women who speak French is very minimal. This poses a critical problem for me. My first project is to work improving some of the women's  organizations in the villages surrounding Matam. I've begun work with organization in the village I am staying. Right now I can only observe, however, seeing as the women's French in the villages is mostly limited to "Bonjour, comment vas tu?". Pulaar being their first language (and now my 3rd), has made trying to communicate very difficult. I must have with me always my host brother or sister to translate. I hope that as my Pulaar improves, I can start interviewing soon- I might have to rely on my hand gestures and little drawing skills!