under my umbrella
So drum working has been pretty interesting. each day i go to allissan's house and he teaches me a new step and then i try to do it. example, yesterday we did drawings on all the drums...like drawing these african huts and african back scenes...(these djembes are for tourists) he showed me how he likes them done and then i did some. Today however, he tried to show me how to do the carving aspect...and well i was not very good at it apparantly =) it was funny but i tried. i can carve stuff, honest, but he just didn't want me to royally screw up these drums for practice purposes. so i watched and then we had tea.
Yesterday i was SO tired...everyday i'm tired, just from speaking and trying to understand 2 different languages (not english, just french & wolof) but yesterday i mean it was just beating on me for some reason...i just couldn't ask anymore for what something meant. when i got home though things were great and i hung out with my best friend here, djibril.
i've had some interesting conversations with different folks about stuff here...dating, marriage, "development"... it's always interesting to see how different people view development. i very much almost hate saying development b/c i feel like, as a word, it is WAY too broad to ever use in a functional sentence. NGO people say development and mean maybe changing people's view points, changing ideas, aiding them in projects, giving, taking, lots of stuff. people look at senegal and think of all the things that it needs to help it out, to "develop" it...but i mean there are people who need help and aid but don't need to be "developped" in the sense that a lot of people want to develop them. we have our ideas of what is developped and they have their ideas.
governments use the word development to mean economies, standards of living, employment rates...
a friend of mine would say developed means using toilet paper and eating from individual plates and other western ideas.
we can help people. but what means development? i mean, this has nothing to do with the PC definition or whatev. just a serious question. it takes so much understanding of a culture before you can even begin to see what kind of "development" is possible...which is why i like the peace corps idea. you stay for 2 years and it takes a long time to get in with understanding your new environment and feel out what you are capable of doing that's sustainable.
turns out the concert on june 25th is going to be: akon, snoop dogg, dr. dre & 50 cent...
Yesterday i was SO tired...everyday i'm tired, just from speaking and trying to understand 2 different languages (not english, just french & wolof) but yesterday i mean it was just beating on me for some reason...i just couldn't ask anymore for what something meant. when i got home though things were great and i hung out with my best friend here, djibril.
i've had some interesting conversations with different folks about stuff here...dating, marriage, "development"... it's always interesting to see how different people view development. i very much almost hate saying development b/c i feel like, as a word, it is WAY too broad to ever use in a functional sentence. NGO people say development and mean maybe changing people's view points, changing ideas, aiding them in projects, giving, taking, lots of stuff. people look at senegal and think of all the things that it needs to help it out, to "develop" it...but i mean there are people who need help and aid but don't need to be "developped" in the sense that a lot of people want to develop them. we have our ideas of what is developped and they have their ideas.
governments use the word development to mean economies, standards of living, employment rates...
a friend of mine would say developed means using toilet paper and eating from individual plates and other western ideas.
we can help people. but what means development? i mean, this has nothing to do with the PC definition or whatev. just a serious question. it takes so much understanding of a culture before you can even begin to see what kind of "development" is possible...which is why i like the peace corps idea. you stay for 2 years and it takes a long time to get in with understanding your new environment and feel out what you are capable of doing that's sustainable.
turns out the concert on june 25th is going to be: akon, snoop dogg, dr. dre & 50 cent...