A busy week and a half!

Hi everyone! We will have such funny stories to tell when we return. I can't believe we're half way through our trip. Time really flies. Here are some of the highlights since 27 May.

Lab Sites

Finger Spelling Chart

Daily Calendar

All of the students have been assigned to different Lab Sites based on their research question and areas of interest. Three students have been placed at the Centre Verbo Tonal, a school for children who are Deaf, hard of hearing, and who have speech and language imapriement. Yvette is supervising the placement there. Verbo Tonal is a specific method out of France that uses body movements and hand gestures to assist children in learning to speak. The point is for the children to develop oral communication. Although this method is not one Yvette would advocate, we are learning a great deal about it, as well as the dedicated teachers who work there. The goal of the school is to integrate the students into "regular school," and for those unable to be integrated are then taught a trade. Yvette has had the opportunity to talk with the speech-language pathologist, the psychologist, and the otorhinolaryngologist who work at the center, and to observe a few assessments. She learned about the process used to identify a child's communicative and/or intervention needs. After spending two days during the first week observing and two days the second week planning a classroom activity with the teachers, the students will be ready to implement a classroom based activity next week.

Classroom 

Three students have been assigned to the Talibo Dabo center for children with physical and/or mental handicaps, under the supervision of Sarah. These students were able to jump in immediately and begin to develop some activities for the children in the classrooms.  Also, three students were assigned to Santiago and are working with research personnel at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) where they are interviewing faculty researchers, recent graduates, and graduate students who have interests similar to their own. Those include but are not limited to the Director of the Gender Studies Laboratory, a philosopher and senior faculty member from the School of Journalism, the Director of the University Consortium for Economic & Social Research  [CRES], and a recent graduate whose doctoral dissertation is about the consequences of globalization. During the last week in Dakar, this group of students will be presenting their research findings to those with whom they met.

Excursions

Stairway in the Slave House

Door of no return

We took a ferry trip to Gorée Island, which is an important site in the Atlantic Slave Trade. There is a replica of a Slave House on Gorée, which shows how Africans who were kidnapped were imprisoned before being forcefully shipped off to the Americas or the Caribbean and enslaved. Here are some pictures from the replicated slave house.

Atlantic Ocean from the House on Goree Island

Early tomorrow morning we will be traveling to Thies (pronounced chess), an important site due to the railroad worker strikes that took place there in 1936 and again in 1947. These strikes were important in the development of the labor movement and independence struggles in Senegal. There is also a world famous tapestry factory there. We will have an opportunity to see the tapestries and learn how they are made. We packed a bag lunch :) to eat on the bus.

Yvette's & Santiago's bagged lunch

When we return to the city later tomorrow afternoon, Santiago has a meeting with Samir Amin [the most important progressive economist, analyst and teacher on the continent] and some study abroad students will be there to learn from this conversation.

Next week we are also going on an excursion to Yoff, a fishing village near Dakar which is the site of the Ecological Village Network and the capital for one of the Islamic Brotherhoods here in Senegal. More news about that trip later...keep posted.

Class meetings and Lectures
Some of the lectures have included topics such as social history of literacy and language policy in Senegal; special education as a human right; excluded intellectual traditions in social science and health; arts and the critique of globalization; and gender rights. Lively discussions occurred after each presentation and the students had lots of questions. Santiago has also been teaching a graduate class on Research Procedures in the African Studies Laboratory at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop. This is part of his responsibilities as a visiting professor at UCAD, an appointment he received last year. He teaches this course regularly during the summer session at UCAD and its content is part of the Master's Program exams. The students in Dakar, LOVE him. They ask challenging questions; go up to him and thank him for the discussion after his class; and stay long after class to discuss the lecture. The students and faculty at UCAD value his ideas and input, which is quite a different reception than what he receives at WMU. On the first Wednesday, two of the study abroad students went to hear him teach; yesterday, six of the nine went to hear him speak. 
  In-Country Work Project
We started painting a classroom for a school located in the suburb (geographic area of high concentration of impoverishment) about one hour outside of Dakar. One of the students traveling with us is an artist, and she drew a mural of the woman for whom the school is named on the wall of the computer lab. It looks beautiful, and our contribution is very appreciated by the students, teachers and administrators at the school. We didn't finish painting so we will be retuning next week to complete this task. We were invited to participate in their graduation ceremony on our last day in Dakar so we are looking forward to that. This is also an opportunity to observe, and verify some of the lecture content and readings connected with the study abroad course content.

Picture of the Suburb

Language Lessons
We are learning Wolof... the local lingua franca. We've learned to better understand Senegalese culture through some of their key words (Mbokk, Teranga, Penc [pronounced like pinch], as well as how to count (you need to be good in math), how to have a conversation, order food, shop in the market, negotiate a cab. I'll expand on all of these points, as well as the definition of the key words in another post. So check back.


Food!
The food has been great - as usual. Everyone has probably gained a pound or two because we eat a lot of rice and bread, and are not getting nearly enough exercise. Santiago and Yvette just finished one of the best mangos for dinner - it is sooooo big. Take a look!

Dinner! - Yes this is only one mango!

Lunch at the Question Mark - Yassa Poisson