Delta Lam ( ΔΛΦ) bda Phi

A few pics from pledging DLP so far . . .


I have just about memorized the Greek Alphabet ;-)

Dan and I

Brotherzzz!!

Nothing for a LONG time . . .

SO, I have not posted on this for a VERY LONG TIME . . . basically it is a Senegal blog. BUT, here are some pictures of me in fabulously ugly / gem-i-fied sweaters!! Maybe I will add something else again soon . . . who knows.

My tail's lookin fat 'n furry!!

All right so I will cut through the suspense. It has become startlingly clear. You have all, over the past six months, been dying to know-- and the waiting is over, so take a deep breath -- that my True Squirrel Name is none other than Commander Furryface.

Thanks to the wonderful, bright, talented, hilarious, Ms. Cordula Maia Jeszke, we can all get in touch -- in mere seconds -- with our "inner squirrel." Cora shot me a link to the Cheeky Squirrel Network in an ecard today, a glorious website where services such as squirrel name inquiries come free of charge.

I was sitting here, stroking my tail, when I got suddenly very nostalgic and had to pull out my old family photo album. There are very few squirrels in Sénégal, though I have run across two hedgehogs, or hérissons, in my willage à la cité; hence, my feelings of bitter lonelyness, anxiety, and so on about grappling to define my inner squirrel in a West African context. You may remember the photo below from when Dan and I were still young, happy, and nut-loving. Oh how time flies.

My fur is softer. And at home I am older. But here I am younger. It is hard to be a twin squirrel in Sénégal.

More to come soon on selfless gifts to humanity such as squirrel names. Post me your business and spread the word!! Love, your good friend, Mr. Furryface. Squeek-squeek-squeekèn. Peace to my people.

A trip to dee bish!!

We went to the beach yesterday, one of my xarit yu yankee, Skye, our friend Biteye, and a bunch of folks from Sanar Peulh and Lahmsar, the two villages across the way from campus. The beach at Cap Ndar is like au moins 3 fois plus beautiful even the beaches of the Casamance, which are such a huge tourist draw. I cannot believe that I had not been there the whole time that I have been in St. Louis. We made lunch, went swimming, played soccer on the beach, drank some tea and juice, and ate some mangoes....altogether a wonderful day ;-)

More pictures up on Flikr!!

Senegal's only LGBT advocacy org forced to close

And Ligeey, which translates from Wolof as "Let's work together," Senegal's only LGBT advocacy organization, was forced to close last year by the federal government.

This story was reported on Behind the Mask shortly after the announcement of possible aid for the LGBT community in Senegal in its fight against AIDS from the Conseil National de Lutte contre le SIDA (CNLS), or National AIDS Commission.

Those caught having same-sex sexual relations in Senegal face enprisonment of one to five years and a fine of 100,000 to 1,500,000 francs CFA, approximately $180 to $2,700 US dating from the colonial penal code under the French.

All of this means that as of March 2005, there has been NOT ONE official, on-the-books organisation in Senegal working formitably against homophobia and heterosexism and helping gay men, especially those living with HIV and AIDS, to seek medical treatment free from discrimination, harrassment, violence, and death.

Geo paper done!!

SOOOO..... GREAT news -- I finished my my geography paper today!! I am pretty excited. More later. LOVE, Matt

I woke up at 3am this morning to a pretty substantial rainstorm -- the first that I have really witnessed since I have been here. I had to close my window for the first time since arriving in this country. Vive la saison des pluies!!

Ces putains de yo gonna need to die soon !!

Our computer lab is like this Matt's blood wonderland for St. Louis's yoyee, also known as birds of death, or mosquitos, right now. Strangely enough I am wearing bug repellent for like the second time officially since I arrived here so that is basically saving me from chicken pox number two!!In other news, I may actually start writing my final geography paper tomorrow--I know, exciting--and otherwise, I will just be waiting for the mango that I bought today to ripen so that I might devour it. It cost me a whole eight cents!! Things are gettin steep ;-)

I hope that doesn't sound wildly pathetic. Today I read two books and ate Honey Bunches of Oats with water (still delicious) and popcorn with sugar. Oh and I drank rooibus tea that mama sent with the razor blades and Easter card.

In other news, it is frigging hot these days, like a constant 90 deg F in my room all day long and getting more n more humid every day. Time to go to the beach!! Alright wish me luck on my paper I am outta here. G'night!

Gij naa write something on here! # Links

So it has been a remarkably longtime since I wrote anything on my blog. I think I just got bored with the whole process, which, however unfortunate that may be, continues more or less to be the case. I have been posting pictures on Flikr much more frequently, though! So....basically I will link here to some hilarious things and some websites that have been sustaining me on my stay here in St. Louis. Nice, cool, sweet, waaye!

http://www.ilga.org -The International Lesbian and Gay Association is a world-wide network of national and local groups dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people everywhere.
Dan's Soft Drink map - a breakdown of familiar words for soft drinks by region / US.
www.americablog.com - Progressive US news blog.
www.gpac.org - National organization advocating against gender-based discrimination and racism.
Cheeky Squirrel Network - Get in touch with your inner-squirrel. More here.
www.mask.org.za - Behind The Mask – a non-profit media organisation publishing a news website intended for gay and lesbian affairs in Africa.
http://www.keithboykin.com/ - Keith Boykin is a television host, activist, author, professor with a great blog.
http://mntwospirits.20m.com - Minnesota LGBT/Two Spirit community website.

Umm I will add more links later. Look at my photos!! OK I am going to bed maybe more soon? Night.

Getting fat in the dessert

Turkish snack mogul Ülker has blessed Afrique de l'Ouest with the confectionary miracle of our young lives: Biskrèm. More than just a cookie, it is light, crumbly, filled with chocolate, and laced with coconunt and crack or SOMETHING because we eat them like MAD here. Thought I would share. Here's to addictions. Yum.


PS: we are vacationing this week in the Casamance and I took a WARM shower yesterday. Life is good.

Just call me Pape

The Adventures continue...

For a reason yet unknown to me, the Sénégalese overwhelmingly agree that I bear a striking resemblance to their 81-year-old President M. Abdoulaye WADE.

Maybe it's the shaved head alone, or our EYEDENTICAL complexions, or the leathery, gaunt face stretched over shoulderblade cheekbones that does it. Or it might just be our freakish, skeletal physiques. It is like we are twins separated at birth and the whole Dan thing is just a ruse. He may have a few years on me, but you'd never know.

It all started one day a couple weeks ago. I was walking in the door of the cafeteria to eat lunch when the woman at the front table let out a wild guffaw. She ripped my meal ticket, handed half of it to her neighbor, mumbled "Abdoulaye Wade" between bouts of laughter, and slapped her head with her hand, repeating the president's name in my direction as if to say "Nice, buddy, very classy."

Let's not talk about the 200,000 Sénégalese men of all ages and sizes with bald, shiny, naked heads, probably many of them with the same name. Abdoulaye, or its diminuitive Pape Laye, is an incredibly common Sénégalese name. I would understand, had it been an isolated incident -- but the same comment was repeated twice more that day and several times that weekend.

AND the trend continues, as mysteriously as it began. See for yourself! Make the comparison ... and just call me Pape.

La Fête du Grand Magal 2006

SOO, I just got back from the Magal, which proved to be quite an experience. More or less it is a mini-hajj; that is to say, Cheikh Amadou Bamba, also known as Serigne Touba, is the founder of the Mourides sect of Islam, those who "perform miracles" loosely translated from Arabic. Bamba pondered what Muhammed called the "second great war" of Islam and decided that the only way to defeat the enemy was through peaceful means, doing no wrong to another human being, and ultimately following te path of Islam that would lead him and his followers closest to God.

More info on Touba and Mouridism can be found here:
http://members.chello.se/kinti/bayefall/mourid.htm

The 18th of Safar on the Arab calendar, or the 19th of March, is the commoration of his exile to the Gabon, and all Mourides make the trek to Touba (check it on the map) to the Great Mosque that is the symbol of Mouridism. I went with my American friends and a group of Mouride students from the University caravan style in a big spicy-warm bus and we ate lunch when we got there (men and women are separated, so I didn't see any of my friends for meals, but it was fine.) I chatted with a lot of the guys there, learned about Mouridism and the Magal, went to the mosque a couple of times with Anna and Assimilik (good Am friend and her boyfriend -- if I may be so bold -- from campus who was there with us), and generally had a very nice time. All of the Mouride guys on campus are really sweet and they were really welcoming. The whole weekend trip cost us $8 US for everything, food, lodging, transport, etc. The guys also get together every Friday, and all night long during the Magal, to chant the works of Serigne Touba in Arabic, which is really amazing.

We slept on mats outside, which was interesting, because it was chaleureusely hot during the days and chilly-butt cold at night with a nice breeze, lots of dust, and the highest human density I have ever experienced in my lifetime. I got called to defend my religious beliefs quite a few times (Anna and I were the only non-Muslims in the group), became quite famous with a group of women who we might visit later who want to take Anna out to get her made-up (mixture of "fun girl time" and "wow honey you need some work" hehe). Anna didn't quite know how to respond when one woman offered to go with her and get her eyebrows waxed. Hmmm so never a dull moment.

I collapsed on the ground last night to sleep without remembering to put my cellphone in the interior/secure pocket of my bubu pants, and thus I am now in the market to find a new one of those. They also took my Biscremes (a coveted coconut-flavored chocolate-filled favorite snack item of Anna and mine) and the pen in my pocket. People are like crazy about pens here. Go figure.

They call them bics here, like we call tissues Kleenex, and my favorite is when little kids think that white people exist to give them gifts and/or money. They start chanting "Tubaab, tubaab" (Originally Arab for Doctor, now Wolof for White foreigner) and giggling (it is a fun word to say), and hold out their hands saying things like "Donne-moi un cadeau," "Donne-moi l'argent," "Donne-moi cent francs," or "Donne-moi le bic." It is exciting. Nowadays we usually beat them to the chase and ask THEM for 100 francs, and I am working on responses to Tubaab like "young girl" "silly child" and "are you kidding?" Are you kidding is for the remote few University students who like to toss the word around. Walking by a group of twenty-somethings who blurt out Tubaab and giggle is at times more amusing for us than I think they realize ;-) My giggle is also getting stronger every day as I continue to perfect it.

SOO! Adventures abound. I got a rug for my room and last Wednesday was sheet day, so I finally got some of those. My faucet still doesn't turn off, but at least that way I know when the water is on. It is feeling more and more like home.

No signs of cholera as of yet!!

FIND PHOTOS HERE

So Blogger is annoying for photos...go here instead. Link on the side as well...

Hippos, lecture, and laax - bu baax!!

So...since I last posted I have been on a trip through the south to the border with Guinea with four ladies who go to school in the Philly area, both at Penn State and Brynnemar (sp?), Professor Barry, and our driver M. Fall.


See the map of Senegal for reference points. I am going to school in St. Louis, in the north on the Atlantic coast and the mouth of the Senegal river. We drove from there down through Touba to Tambacounda and then to Simenti and saw hippos, crocs, babboons, many relatives of the deer family, various birds, and lots of warthogs and bread-hungry monkeys.

From there we went down to Kédougou and saw an amazing waterfall on the Gambia River just outside of Guinea-Bissau...where we met a group of students from an SIT program based at the Baobab Center in Dakar.

The mosque at Touba is absolutely amazing. It is the religious center of the Senegalese Mourides sect of Islam, and we will be going back there again this weekend to attend the Magaal, their biggest celebration of the year. It is going to be completely packed, but it should be awesome.

Wish me luck on not getting cholera!!

Classes have started now and they are almost solely dictated (the profs ARE the authoritative texts, and they read their notes to be copied to the letter)...but I am mostly in lit classes, so I will have some structure on which to critique african francophone authors and their works...still very cool.

I am also taking courses in Wolof hardcore to catch up to the othe r American students, which my host family in Ngalelle is also helping me with.


I've included a pic of my host brothers and sisters: Binta, Babucar, and Mami. My sis Aida is not in the photo, nor are my host parents. Their family name is FALL and I will be chez eux every weekend.

I ate ceebu-jen, the national dish of fish and rice, for the first time there on Sunday (with my hands around one big bowl, selon la tradition) and another dish called laax which is like oatmeal made from millet with heavy cream sauce.

More pics at FLICKR.COM from the trip!!
I will post most all images there now...

Still alive and well!!

No worries all,

I am still alive despite the little contact I have kept with folks thus far. The net connection here is not too speedy, and I just got enrolled with a student card and everything and signed up for an account in the fancy comp lab here at Gaston Berger, SO -- voilà!! Here I am.

So far things are going well here despite student strikes, and I've had a few great trips, one cross-country -- and i have a few stories and pics to share.

Above, first of all, is a little collage from my first week here in Dakar, the capital, and the drive to St. Louis, where I am going to school at l'Université Gaston Berger.

A tout a l'heure!!

This blog is 100% George-Bush-certified Ad-Free!!
"My views are one that speaks to freedom." - George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004

Sarah and I ready to hit the town on Halloween! 

MPLS Gothic: The gang poses in front of a cherished landmark . . . 

A Raw Vegan enters the Sahara . . .

This site has some awesome raw food recipes . . . when I get back we are having a raw food FEAST! AND I will make some Senegalese dishes as well. Perhaps we can render them raw-it has happened before! Love to my vegans ;-)www.living-foods.com

The BrotherShip Cometh !! The always lovely Danno-nator 

My twin brother Dan and I . . . Coffee News Cafe, San Paulo, fall '05 

My first Blog is born !

Hello all,

(Basically myself at this point - how exciting!) This is my first-ever Blog, and hopefully it will serve my purposes well. Mainly, this is a place to show all of the wonderful things that I am doing in Saint Louis, Senegal while I am there studying this spring, but who knows - maybe it will take off.

More later!
Love,
Matto