Adventures galore

So, as probably most people who read this already know, I had a little *incident* a couple of weeks ago. Got a little bit stabbed while trying to avoid football riots. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say!

The way it happened was something like this...

I’d been out to visit a family in a nearby village (well, sort of near, just over an hour’s drive on a good day) and it was wonderful! It’s the rainy season so there’s green everywhere and we had a lovely time, eating, siesta-ing, and chatting. The problems began on the way home... We knew that there was a football match that evening and actually went back a little late so that we’d avoid the crowds. That was the plan. But the best laid plans and all... What we hadn’t realised was that it was a very important football match, one of those make-or-break ones. And it was a break. We lost and that caused some, ahem, consternation! We were on a Diague Ndiaye, which is a public transport kind of like a car rapide but for longer distances (see a post aaaaages ago about transport systems). Anyway, this was fun; I was having a nice chat about how fast I can text with one hand and not looking at the phone, with the guy next to me and ignoring comments from my two companions about the destination of the afore-mentioned texts. We’d reached the outskirts of Dakar when we started to notice large crowds of people, wearing footballs shirts, pouring out of the city. This was the first sign that things might be a bit different to normal. The second sign was when traffic going in slowed to a halt and we realised that there were no vehicles coming out! The third, and arguably most worrying sign was when a couple of truckloads of riot police zoomed past us on the other side of the road and our Diague Ndiaye driver asked us all to get off as we weren’t moving and I suppose he wanted to go home! We could easily sympathise with that.

So, there we were, unsure as to how far we were from home, with no clear way of getting there. At night, with football rioters possibly heading our way. It wasn’t the best situation to find ourselves in, to say the least. We decided to get off the main road in an effort to avoid large crowds, as we’re always told to, and wandered around a bit until we were fairly sure that this wasn’t a terribly safe option either. We did meet some lovely people who told confirmed this – ‘it is not safe for you here’ is a pretty direct translation of what they said to me. So, we were very glad when a taxi appeared out of the night. We hopped in and he headed off to find a different way into the city as that one was blocked. We were rather relieved at this turn of events – heading away from the trouble and in a car rather than on foot. We all breathed a sigh of relief and turned our thoughts homewards.

Alas! We relaxed too soon. We’d just reached the other main road into the city when traffic again slowed to a standstill. This is fairly standard for trying to get into Dakar of an evening so we weren’t too worried –it was mostly cars etc now rather than crowds of disappointed football fans, what could possibly go wrong? Well, someone could yank open the back door of the taxi and try to take my friend’s handbag. And did. I looked around from the other side of the back seat and saw her pulling away from some random guy so I leaned over to help push him off, realising that he had a knife as it slid into my arm! Fortunately, our taxi driver then noticed the commotion, looked around and leapt into knight in shining armour mode! He exited the taxi in one fluid motion, grabbing the baseball bat he had concealed down the side of his seat and chased off our attacker – what a hero! We locked ourselves in (admittedly something we should have done before and normally remember) and headed home to put antiseptic on our wounds! Luckily, the knife, if it even was a real one, was terribly blunt and we each escaped with two tiny puncture wounds which we antisepticked with three different kinds of ointment and went on to eat the pizza and chocolate thoughtfully provided by our wonderful Acting Director. All’s well that ends well they say, and we have amazed and confounded many people by how remarkably unfazed we were by the whole experience. My lasting feeling is one of relief that it wasn’t worse and slight disappointment that I’m not even going to have a scar! Most people are very sympathetic about the whole thing, in a manner most amusing to us as they generally seem more traumatised than we do, but there are the odd few who see our wounds and say ‘is that it?!’ Someone described mine as ‘pathetic’. And I have to admit, I quite agree. I’ve had worse injuries from mosquitoes. As proof, here’s a little challenge for you! Which of these pictures do you think is the real stab wound...?

Okay, the bruise may have given it away. ‘Twas the second one. And this is what it SHOULD have looked like (thanks to some wonderful photoshopping from the talented Rachel).

Impressive, huh? No prizes for guessing which one I’m going to show my grandkids when I’m telling them stories of my adventurous life!

Plumbing

Most of my life I have been blessed with what my Dad calls 'brawn' in various shapes and sizes; that is, people - usually men, who come charging to my rescue whenever I'm faced with an unpleasant situation such as heavy bags and steep stairs at train stations, various DIY/house upkeep tasks, and of course car stuff such as oil and water checking. Now, to satisfy all the feminists reading this I know I can do all these things myself, but frankly I prefer not to have to. Unfortunately as most people are aware I currently live in Africa and most of the people I might usually call upon to perform such tasks are either on furlough or live on a different continent. I have previously proved my worth as a flatmate when I managed to fix our gas bottle when it wasn't sending the gas to our stove (although admittedly that was partially on the advice of a 'brawn' and the guy from the shop carried the gas bottle upstairs for us). Today was another opportunity for me to prove my previously hidden gifts for independence as I was fairly fed up with waiting three hours for the kitchen sink to empty of water. So, I rolled up my sleeves (metaphorically of course, real sleeves in this heat would be ridiculous) and took the pipe-thing out, cleaned it and fixed all our problems with just a nailfile and a roll of kitchen roll. And it worked! The water drains and everything, although the nailfile is ruined. I'm feeling very pleased with myself right now. I wonder what I'll amaze myself with next... Maybe I can make shelves or something?

Anniversaries

It has come to my attention that today is something of an anniversary: exactly one year ago today I disembarked from the Doulos and headed home (rather traumatically as anyone who's heard about my airport fiasco will know).
I can't believe it was only a year ago - it feels like another world.
I like lists so here is one of some of the things I miss about the ship:
1. My wonderful friends
2. Being rocked to sleep by the waves
3. The luuurve factory
4. Exploring all the new countries
5. Bookshop - especially after closing when we turned the music up and partied it up shift 2 style
6. Tea parties
7. 'Cat Halford, dial 9, Cat Halford, dial 9' - so much more exciting than regular phone calls
8. Carpet parties - Asian instant noodles with chopsticks, yum!
9. The Panic.
10. "Attention Ship's Company, there is now free ice cream in the coffee bar, please remember to bring your own mug". Mmmmmboy

Leaving on a jet plane...

Look, I'm posting two days in a row. I think we all know that's not going to last...
So, in 25 days I shall be leaving Senegal, on a jet plane, for England! It's nice because I'll be coming back so have no sad 'when will I see you again?' goodbyes or anything like that; just a nice uncomplicated holiday. Well, not entirely uncomplicated as I have lots of people I want to see and very little money with which to do it. Still, I'm extremely excited about it - I started a list, it got extremely long but here are the current top 5 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Ellen's wedding - the official reason for my return
2. Seeing my wonderful friends from near and far (well, everyone's far from me but some are coming further than others and I'm VERY excited)
3. British weather - rain, low humidity, what more could a girl ask for?
4. GREEN. I like Senegal, but I was not born to live in a desert city.
5. No strangers proposing to me on the street for almost four weeks. Heaven.

British food should be up there by rights but that would be a whole new list.

Most romantic song ever...

So, I have to steal the blogging of another - my wonderful ex-roomie posted this and I have to say, I could not agree more. Romance doesn't come any better than this

http://justrachet.blogspot.com/2008/08/all-you-need-to-know-about-me.html

http://justrachet.blogspot.com/2008/08/amendment-to-all-you-need-to-know-about.html

Especially for Liz...

You see, if you complain that I haven't posted for three months then you might just get a posting all to yourself. Which may or may not be a good thing. Although, sorry Liz, you only actually get a subject heading. And you may not like the content of this post...

So, what's new in Cat-land? Well, just that actually - a cat. A kitten to be more precise. She's a cat of many names, christened 'Rosabelle' by the small child that found her (two days before going on furlough, hence the game of pass-the-kitten we've been playing) this was deemed too big a name for such a small creature by the first family that took care of her in her owner's absence who proceeded to call her by the (highly imaginative) name of 'Kitty'. I was next in line to take charge of her well-being - a task some might deem me unsuitable for as I promptly renamed her 'Kebab', which is what I have been threatening to make with her if she gets annoying. However, I am fast coming to the conclusion that kebabbing is too good for the little demon. She's small, grey, stripy and demon-possessed at least 95% of the time. If L.M.Montogomery hadn't got there first (see Rilla of Ingleside) I would be calling her 'Jekyll&Hyde', heavy on the Hyde.

Now, I do not have any pictures of her in the act of attacking - I'm usually far too busy trying to get her off to find my camera but I do have a picture of her looking cute and then the damage she's done to my arm so far.




I used to have a book called '100 ways to kill a cat'. I may still have it but it'd be in England so not a whole lot of use to me. If anyone has any ideas... Or recipes...

for all you Douloi, past and present...

So, I was in Guinea-Bissau recently (that's a story for another post, or my newsletter maybe), walking down the road with a couple of friends and one of them, a Guinea-Bissau-an I might add, starting singing this song to some kids. I vaguely recognised it but wasn't sure where from until he began to put his thumbs up, pull his arms back, bend his knees... Can anyone see where I'm going with this?

He was in fact singing 'making melodies' in Kriol. I was speechless. I'm in a small town in Guinea-Bissau, with not that many evangelical Christians and I come across that song. They say it's a small world but this is taking things to extremes!

Making melodies is now firmly stuck in my head, it took months after leaving the ship to stop it from popping up every few weeks and now it's back. I can only hope I have passed this joy on to you as well.

(for those who aren't familiar with the background, 'making melodies' is a Christian kids song that gets sung more than is necessary by Doulos teams on ministry days. The kids love it but it gets very annoying if you have to sing it/listen to it on a regular basis for an entire year!)

Musicality

As a lover of musicals, I'm feeling rather disappointed in my good friends Rodgers and Hammerstein today. My flatmate and I decided we needed to watch a light, cheery sort of film the other day and I have the R&H boxset, three of which I'd never seen so we picked one of those at random on the principle that we knew of one ace song in it. South Pacific (we knew 'I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair'). We were badly let down. This film breaks all the rules! Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert on musicals but even I know that there are specific rules for musicals... There must be a majority of upbeat, slightly cheesy but wonderful songs that you can sing along to with gusto, an unequivocal happy ending and NO DEATHS. Except minor, preferably bad, characters (Nancy in Oliver is a borderline rule-breakage. They only just get away with that). They can die if necessary. But in South Pacific one half of one of the couples actually dies! No mistake, I watched right through to the end hoping it was a mistake but no. He was actually dead. Disgraceful. And the songs? Turns out there's a reason that the only one we knew was 'I'm gonna wash...' they rest are extremely sickly - think where is love from Oliver and multiply the badness and sickliness by a million and you're getting close. Ugh. And to add insult to injury, each of these songs was accompanied by scenery turned a strange colour and fog coming in; it's a good thing none of the characters had asthma is all I can say.

 

So, all in all I was disappointed (can you tell?). Maybe some of you like it and if so, good for you. I don't think I'll be watching it again any time soon but maybe sometime I'll give it another chance. Perhaps with the right company and when I'm prepared for such cheese and rule breaking. In the meantime, however, I'm going to comfort myself with one that I know keeps to the rules. Oliver, or Sound of Music? Or Maybe Oklahoma. Decisions, decisions....

Pancake Day!

I just remembered that today is Pancake Day! Or, to give it the official name 'Shrove Tuesday' <something to do with your sins being 'shriven' or confession as you're traditionally supposed to do on Ash Wednesday - the day after pancake day>. Now, this time last year I was on the Doulos and I seem to remember having some sort of pancake day party. Today I will be initiating my American flatmate into the joys... Although minus the jif lemon - I could've got a real lemon if I'd remembered in time but it was not to be. It probably won't be quite as fun as it is in England, when you know that the majority of the country is having the same for dinner as you are and the whole family gathers around the Pancake-meister of the day, waiting for their turn before turning to the tricky decision of what toppings to go for; personally I believe that you can't beat a classic sugar and lemon. There are other good combinations for the rest of the year but I'm a big fan of tradtion and you can't get much more traditional than S&L!

 

Speaking of pancakes and other toppings, I've just had a flashback to the pancake cafe in Durham... Mmmmm, now my mouth's watering... Their banana, honey and cinnamon was one of the best pancakes I ever had... But not today. The menu for tonight will probably be sugar and grapefruit juice due to the lack of lemon in the house. It's close enough and fortunately I do happen to have all the ingredients necessary for the batter!

 

Now all that remains is to think of a Lenten resolution to put into effect tomorrow...

A great relief

So, I was wise and filled with foresight for this trip abroad... having spent the majority of last year only having proper tea maybe once a week – if i was lucky – I decided to be sure to bring all the necessary supplies with me this time, even asking for a teapot set for Christmas. Alas! It was not to be – I had enough luggage allowance but no space in my bags for anything other than the tea bags themselves. Fortunately my host here is most understanding and although not optimistic she did agree to keep an eye out for a teapot for me. Unlikely, but imagine my joy when she told me last week that she'd seen one in town! Needless to say, I was champing at the bit to get down there and yesterday I finally made it and purchased not only a teapot but two teacups and a milk jug to go with it – they're made of china and everything! Now, if you'll excuse me I have a pot of tea to make...

Disorientation...

So, I've been living in Dakar, Senegal for two weeks now and I must be having fun because the time has been flying! I've been spending most of my time in 'orientation' to the country, culture and generally what life is going to be like during my year! One of the fun things on the list of stuff to figure out has been the transport system... As I don't have, or intend to acquire, my own vehicle, I have to get to grips with all the different forms of public transport of which there are three main ones; bus, taxi and car rapide. I've tried out each of these already to get to various places and found them all kind of fun, in their own special ways!

The easiest to use is the bus - it has a fixed route with clearly displayed numbers and a fixed price, which is always nice when you can't be faffed to bargain. The down side is that you need to want to go where the bus is going and you could be waiting for anything from 5 minutes to 2 hours!

Car rapides are more regular - they seem to be going all the time and they do have fixed prices and, apparently, fixed routes. The problem is that the routes aren't displayed so finding the right one can be an issue. But if you can figure out where they're going and you want to go there then you're golden. They're probably my favourite, or will be once I've worked out the routes, you feel like a proper local and less of a tourist if you use them which is lovely!

Taxis are ten-a-penny round here and good for if you want to go somewhere directly, rather than sticking to a pre-arranged route, but you do have to bargain for the price so you need to know about how much you ought to pay unless you want to be charged almost double for a trip! Also, it can be 'interesting' if you're going somewhere for the first time and aren't too sure where it is because the chances are that the driver will knwo the area but not the specifics and you could end up driving around for a while. Or course, one of the nice things about Senegal is that he'll end up just winding down the window and asking a passer-by who will invariably know and be immensly helpful! I do like taxis, although car rapide is still my favourite, but it's mainly in taxis that you get the full force of Senegalese window shopping. Not the same as window shopping in England; rather, every time the car stops or slows down <which is often in city traffic> you get many vendors at the window trying to sell you anything from underwear to car parts! So far all I've bought out of a window has been a bag of mandarin oranges but I've been offered many phone top up cards, chewing gum, cashew nuts and even light fixtures! It's a wonderful place:o)

Dull post but you asked for it...

A few well-meaning people have requested that I update my blog... Unfortunately it's one of those situations where I have been having a wonderful time but not one that's terribly interesting for others, so prepare to be bored! I had a stupendous Christmas - after my getting so over-excited in the lead-up I'm sure many people are surprised that I didn't suffer for anti-climactical trauma but it was lovely to be home. I even got to see some of my lovely friends from training over the past week as, for some reason best known to themselves, they were going through, or to, Somerset. It's not a thing that happens to me often; living in the back of beyond as I do, it's incredibly rare to have someone 'be in the area' like that.

In other news I have a new, short-lived, but no less worrying addiction. My weekend-brothers got a Wii for Christmas. Now, I've never been a fan of anything computer generated in the realm of games. Facebook, email, chat etc... all fantastic inventions but give me an x-box or playstation and I'll look down my nose and tell you how much more interesting watching paint dry is! But the Wii... I don't know what it is about it but it's a little bit fabulous. Maybe it's because you actually have to move more than just your thumbs, who knows? It's probably a good thing that I'm leaving the country, and therefore the Wii, next week, otherwise I might get some sort of RSI from the silly thing!