Did I waste it? 13
Posted by Kari
on May 06, 2009
not so much i couldn’t taste it. life should be fragrant; rooftop to the basement.
-bono
An old book, in my old room, by the light of a kerosene lantern.
Friendships and tea are best made slowly 8
Posted by Kari
on March 14, 2009
Don’t come to Africa if you think you have nothing to learn here. Take the west with all its time saving gadgets and falsely modest claims of the workaholic and see that it is yet unsatisfied, as empty as a vacuum.
One day in my life 8
Posted by Kari
on March 12, 2009
It is pre-dawn on a chilly January morning, and the mosque speakers come alive with a hiss and crackle and the stirring call of the muezzin singing the first call to prayer.
Allaaaaah hu Akbar. (Allah is great.)
Hayya ‘ala-l-falah, hayya ‘ala-l-falah. (Hasten to real success. Come to prayer.)
Five times a day across the arm of Dakar and throughout Senegal, Muslims take down their holy beads and unroll their prayer mats toward Mecca. I awake to start my day more leisurely, getting up to heat water on the kerosene burner and sitting on the balcony with my devotional. Senegal is 94 percent Islamic and is tolerant of the remaining 6 percent, comprised mostly of tribal animists and various missionary groups. After being shocked awake by a cold shower (water heaters are an ill-afforded luxury here), I eat. Breakfast is water and powdered milk, boiled and mixed into tea, a baguette with chocolate hazelnut spread or Kiri cheese and some fruit, usually guava or oranges.
This is Saturday and my to-do list has only two errands, but in Senegal, it will take me most of the day to complete. The list reads 1) fish market 2) laundry. It’s a pace I’ve missed during my time living in Austin. Now, after more than 20 years, I’m back in Senegal, and it feels as though I’ve never left.
The street awakens in a rush of noise as the vendors set up their wares. Sheep baaa for home, sharing the road with the first of the traffic. At the port of Soumbédioune, fishing boats start to come in with the dawn, their crews tiredly triumphant, for today the market will have fish. I jostle with the crowds for a place in line as restaurant owners write up their lunch special and the days catch is made into Ceebu Jën, a delicious platter of fried rice, fish and olives, cabbage, carrots and manioc, perfected in Senegal. Ceebu Jën is served best with bissap, the red, cold national tea made from hibiscus petals and sugar.
‘Who’s gonna drown in your blue sea?’ 8
Posted by Kari
on February 23, 2009
The ocean feeds without prejudice on the corrupt and the blameless and spits out bones and shells and sea glass.
The port of Soumbédioune 3
Posted by Kari
on February 12, 2009
the fishing ships come in laden with buckets of fruits de mer and mermaid tails
The sea makes treasure hunters of us all 6
Posted by Kari
on February 07, 2009
Sometimes you scan the horizon for your vanishing point and just dream.
‘Take these hands, teach them what to carry’ 11
Posted by Kari
on February 02, 2009
i saw muslims worrying their prayer beads, lips moving soundlessly. I saw talibés with their tomato cans, mostly empty. i saw a porter carrying flats of eggs balanced impossibly atop his head. i saw women carrying babies; cats, chicken bones and i saw seagulls with silver flashing fish. and i saw a man with nothing, his arms were outstretched and empty but he carried the weight of the whole world.
The Harmattan is blowing in 17
Posted by Kari
on January 07, 2009
african dust is kicked up and blown west on the trade winds where it freezes in midair and falls on your tongue and mittens.
Ten minutes after I took this the dust rolled over us and the sky went nearly black.
In this post: Wiki about the harmattan. How snowflakes are formed.
Why I blog about Africa 8
Posted by Kari
on January 02, 2009
I blog about Africa because I was raised by one of her tribes. And because here things that are ragged are patched and cherished. Because sub Saharan thunderstorms are so deafening you have to believe in heaven. And mostly I blog about Africa because I want you to come, and fall in love.
Thanks awfully to whiteafrican for tagging me. You inspire me. Go read about all that he does for Africa.
I hereby tag Szavanna from South Africa and Esther Garvi aka Ishtar from Niger.
Kédougou Assiégée 11
Posted by Kari
on December 29, 2008
in the south of senegal standing up for a promised future gets you a complimentary headshot in the local paper. sugar, fertilizer and TNT make an explosive cocktail in the middle east. as for me this foam mattress is cheap and there is no honey for my tea and i’m counting these as blessings.
Continue reading…
Come back to life. 9
Posted by Kari
on December 16, 2008
by night you twist and turn and try not to dream and by day you haunt a house you can’t breathe in, can’t eat. but you’re changing.
