Reached my goal of 35 interviews before X-Mass!! :-)

I can't believe it is almost the end of the year!! Wearing my summer clothes every day, I still have the feeling that it is August!I The climate (27 degrees during the day and 22 during the night) does not contribute to my Christmas feeling. ;-) But it is really true, tomorrow afternoon I will pick Erik up from the airport and we will celebrate Christmas and New Year's together in the upcoming two weeks!!!!!! Hmmm, I really can't wait! I am here now for three months and it is not always easy to be so far away from each other. I missed him a lot. 

The past two weeks I conducted interesting interviews. I spoke with two persons working for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, a gynecologist, a doctor who does surgical repair of FGM/C, someone working for UNFPA and many persons working for NGOs. The interviews were very interesting and I hear less and less new things, so that's a good sign! ;-) My goal was to conduct 35 interviews before X-Mass, and I am more than happy to tell you that I conducted today interview no. 36 and no. 37!! :-) My goal of 50 interviews in those four months is getting into sight! 

Here are a few pictures I took during my taxi rides on my way to interviews, that gives you an idea of how Dakar looks like. 

Sunday last week I went with Marieke, one of my Dutch friends in Dakar, to the HLM Market to buy some more beautiful African fabrics to make some dresses. Yesterday I picked them up and I really like them! The tailor is amazing. For the price of an H&M dress, you'll have a custom made dress! :-) 

Enjoying the sunset after shopping at the HLM Market.

The sunset at one of Dakar's beaches.

Last Friday I went with some colleagues of the Embassy to a nice concert of the Alibeta Nomads Band. Of course it started 1,5 hour too late (welcome in Senegal!), but we really enjoyed ourselves. I took a short movie to give you an impression, you can find it below. 

Last Saturday, I went out for dinner in a very nice Lebanese restaurant with three Dutch girls. We had a great time! During the dinner, I really had to think a lot about my 6 months internship at the Embassy in Israel, the food tasted just like the shabbat dinners of safta (my Israeli grandmother)! Miiiiizooooooo, I miss you!!!!!!!

Last Sunday, I received a phone call from Molly Melching. She is the director of Tostan, one of the biggest NGOs working in the field of FGM/C. She asked me if I would be interested in joining her and Julia of the Orchid Project on Monday to a village. I was extremely excited and so thankful for this invitation! 

So last Monday, I woke up very early in the morning, packed my bag, and went to the Tostan office. It was an amazing day and surely one of the highlights of my fieldwork so far. We went first to a village called Keur Simbara where we spoke for about 3 hours with an interesting man, called Demba. He is over 80 years old, and has so much experience. He told us that he visited 347 villages to share why they stopped FGM/C in his community. Demba says he remembers the last girl in every village who was cut. In his village of Keur Simbara, it was his granddaughter. He says that there are always some whose "minds walk before them on the road" and that we must be those people. Julia and I could ask all the questions we had and Molly translated from Wolof to English. It was so interesting!!! 

In the book, However Long the Night, Molly writes about Demba. He was one of the people who protested at the Parliament in 1999 against the adoption of the law. According to him, the country was not ready for a law and could, according to him, even work counterproductive. But surprisingly enough, now he said that they have done enough sensibilisation and awareness raising. He said: "Now it's time to really start prosecute people." He was the last person I would expect saying that!!! Afterwards we went to the Tostan office in Thies and we discussed about all the Tostan projects. 

Demba, Julia, Molly & me.

Khalidou, Molly and me in the office in Thies

Last week, I also managed to extend my visa. I am so glad it is done!! I started to become quite nervous since it would expire the 27th of December. It took me the past two weeks a lot of time, money and energy to get the extension done. I had a letter from the university explaining why I need four months for my research, but this was not enough unfortunately. I went to the police station many times and every time there was something wrong. Luckily enough the Ambassador intervened and wrote a letter for me, which helped in the end a lot! :-) I was so glad that I walked out of the police station yesterday with a new visa in my passport! 

This blog gives an insight in my life in Senegal. Some people might have the idea that my research goes very smoothly and that it all goes by itself. But: to be honest, it has not always been easy in the past few weeks and it proves to be quite challenging to work in Africa. I knew it beforehand, and I was prepared for it, but nevertheless it is sometimes quite frustrating. It takes a lot of time to schedule meetings for the interviews and it is not always easy to be so dependent on someone - for example my interpreter. She has some personal problems and therefore she is not always available when the people I want to interview are available. That makes it sometimes quite difficult for me... On top of that, the Senegalese people often do not respect the time. I spend hours and hours waiting for them. 

Although these things are sometimes very frustrating, of course I do not give up and I carry on! But you can imagine, it takes a lot of energy to get the interviews done. I also started to look for another interpreter, to make sure I can conduct all the interviews I want, also when my interpreter is not available. I thought it would be hard, but luckily enough I found another one this week (for a reasonable price!). :-) Today I conducted the first two interviews with her and I was very satisfied. She lived in the US for 4 years and her English is perfect. She also has a lot of experience in translating so I am glad I have a back-up plan for the month of January. 

I look forward to the next two weeks: just relax, and take some time off. I feel I need to rest and take it easy. I might have asked a little bit too much from myself the past weeks to get the interviews done. I have lost a few pounds and I am quite tired. 

Therefore, it's time to turn off my laptop and enjoy a two-week vacation with my love! I can't wait and I am so looking forward! We'll go surfing in Dakar, visit the Lompoul desert, as well as Saint Louis, a historic town in the Northern part of Senegal. 

I wish you all a merry Christmas and all the best for the new year!! 

Lots of love from Dakar,

Annemarie

Many interviews, Sinterklaas, Béjart Ballet & Panel Discussion!

In the past days I received from quite some friends an e-mail saying: "We are waiting for your new blog, when will you update us about your new adventures? It has been a while!" When I just coincidentally came across my statistics, I was quite overwhelmed: my blog has been viewed more than 2800 times! Indeed, it had been two weeks since my last blog and a lot happened. So this morning I decided to make a cup of coffee, upload my new pictures and start writing. ;-)

Let me start by saying that I have been quite sick for a few days and that is also a reason why my blog post took a while. Of course I knew that one time it would happen sometime during my stay in Senegal. I am quite often invited at Senegalese families and of course I don't know where they bought their meat and whether their fridge is working. I am always very careful, but last week I ate something wrong and I felt terrible. I spent two days at the toilet, I could not eat and I felt very weak. At these moments you feel quite lonely and you realize you are in Africa, far away from home, far away from all the people you love, just by yourself. I was glad I did not have fever, so I was not seriously ill, but it was 'only' my stomach which was protesting. I think I have lost a few pounds, but luckily enough I recovered and I feel much better now!

In the second place, I was very busy the past two weeks with my interviews. It seemed that all people I contacted in the last months were all of a sudden available! I conducted 13 interviews since my last blog. I am happy that it seems that my ambitious goal of 35 interviews before X-Mass starts to become realistic. :) 

The interviews I conducted were very interesting, especially because I had a wide variety of people in front of me: for example a parliamentarian, an imam, a social worker, a professor, a lawyer, a gynecologist (working for the WHO), employees of USAID and UN Women and members of local NGOs (for example ASBEF and COSEPRAT). 

I also managed to schedule a meeting with Molly Melching, the director and founder of Tostan. Tostan is one of the biggest NGOs working in the field of FGM/C. She was actually the person that was no. 1 on my list of persons I wanted to interview. It really took some effort and time to reach her, but I felt very honored that she wanted to meet me. A few days before the interview I even received an e-mail from her saying: "I am looking forward to speaking to you." I was excited that she made time for me in her busy schedule. Our meeting was rescheduled more than 5 times, but it finally took place last week. She was so nice and had so much knowledge! She said that she was impressed by the rigor of my research and my knowledge about FGM/C. That was such a big complement, especially because I really look up to her. She was so kind and gave me a ride home and we'll meet again next week for the second part of the interview. Me = happy!!!! 

Last week I also had a meeting with the vice-president of Senegal's human rights committee. It was very difficult to schedule a meeting with him, because he is always traveling and extremely busy. Bijou and I managed to meet him two days ago and I had 15 minutes to ask my questions. Again, I felt so honored, especially when his secretary knocked on the door after 15 minutes to tell that his next appointment arrived: the President of Senegal, Macky Sall!! OMG! 

And when you tell others that you had appointments with this and this person, they say: "Oh really? You spoke to him/her? Then you should also talk to this person!" Hihi, now I am at the point that people take you very seriously and they really want to help you to reach to other 'important' persons. While at the beginning most people see you as 'disturbing', taking an hour of their time while they are already extremely busy. But now they want to help me to make my research a success and make sure that I speak to everybody who is important in the field! 

I still can't believe it, but I even have an appointment now with the Prime Minister! She has spent her life working as a human rights and women's rights activist, in Senegal and around the world. She worked before at the Senegalese NGO ASBEF and in New York for the UNFPA. Afterwards, she became Senegal's Justice Minister and is now the Prime Minister. She has a lot of knowledge about FGM/C and I can't wait to meet her! 

Two days ago I was invited by a Senegalese doctor who does surgical repair for women who have undergone FGM/C to come to a panel discussion on FGM/C at the International Fair. I went there last Friday and it was so interesting to be there. The first part was an anatomy lecture about the female genitals - for me also very interesting and I learned a lot! ;-) The second part was a debate between a sexologist and the doctor about the (sexual) consequences of FGM/C. Especially the questions of the people attending the conference were interesting. I sat there, with my notebook, just observing and making notes of what was happening. So interesting!! 

Announcement

Translation: Conference: Public (in French) about the reparations of Female Genital Mutilation by Doctor Abdoul Aziz Kasse, on Friday 6 December 2013 at 17h at the house of the Press, next to the stand of Prevenir-Listab. 

The stand of Organization Prevenir.

Lecture of the sexologist.

The Panel Discussion officially started at 5pm, but of course... it started an hour late and also lasted three hours instead of one. Nevertheless, I found it very interesting and I would not have want to miss it! And, because it started too late, I had the chance to walk around and see all the other nice stands at the fair.  

Regional products from Kedougou. 

The fair was so big!

Apart from running from one interview to the other and do things related to work and my research, I also took some time to relax. Last weekend we celebrated Sinterklaas at the Residence of the Dutch Ambassador with the Dutch community in Senegal. In the morning, I helped with the preparations. After all the debates in the Netherlands the past months, the Embassy decided to have 1 black Piet, one green and one orange - taking into account the slave history of Senegal. 

Preparations for the Sinterklaas celebration! :-) 

They even arranged a horse for the Sint!

The Sint arrives at the Residence.

All children received a present from the Pieten!

I am very happy Dakar offers a wide variety of concerts and performances. I just love the theater and when I found out that the Béjart Ballet Lausanne came to Dakar, I made sure I did not miss that Ballet performance!! I bought a ticket a few weeks ago and last weekend I went to the National Theater with two colleagues of the Embassy. To be honest, it was one of the best ballet performances I have ever seen. It was really amazing. They will perform from 13-16 March in Carré in the Netherlands. If you have the chance, you should go there! ;-) 

Grand Theatre national.

It was amazing!

Yesterday we celebrated Sinterklaas with a few Dutch girls (the ones who were the Pieten last weekend). We wrote poems for each other and bought a small present. We had a lot of fun! Today I will go with Marieke, another Dutch girl, to the HLM market. We really liked the dresses the tailor made for us and therefore it is time to buy some more fabrics. :-)

I keep you updated! 

Lots of love,

Annemarie