From Guinea Girl to Sabar Queen

Impromptu dance lessons at Mesa's house


Well, all I can say is, it will be a long time before I'm even a Sabar princess, let alone a queen. I've been, shall we say, quite resistant to the whole shift to Sabar, even though my friends have 100% faith that I can get it! But, I do miss my Guinea dance!
Noah and I attended our first big Sabar party in Medina (Dakar) our first weekend here. It was quite a spectacle! The drumming was truly off the hook! There was both djembe and sabar drumming and dancing. There were a number of Toubabs (white folks, as the Senegalese so endearingly call us) who jumped up and danced-not me!! The next weekend there was a smaller party in our neighborhood, which was geared more for the young kids, mostly girls. Holy moly, what amazing dancers these kids are! This time it was only Sabar. I kept encouraging Noah to jump in and do a solo, but he was being shy. Because we were the only foreigners at this party, we stood out much more and the drummers weren't going to let us go without dancing for them. So as they saw us starting to leave, they continued playing and followed us. Now we were outside the circle. I certainly was not about to do a Sabar solo, since I don't know one Sabar move, but luckily Noah came through and saved us both. The crown went crazy as Noah danced. Something happened after that moment because since then, Noah hasn't stopped dancing. He did two more solos at that party and has participated fully in the two dance classes that we've had so far. Not only that, but he practices the steps constantly and remembers all the choreography!
We dance with our friend, Pap Ba, at his house in the courtyard under two huge mango trees. The trees shade us from the sun when it is hot and protect us from the water when it rains. His sisters and mother are teaching me Wolof.
He dances with a local company, whose director, Mesa, lives across the street from us. For those of you who know Papa Ladji Camara, they are contemporaries. Mesa is quite well known and an incredible drummer, as are his sons. It's great because all of the artists hang out at their house, drinking tea all night, so there are always people around. Malong Bayo is married to one of Mesa's daughters and his house is in our neighborhood as well.
Yesterday, I went to watch the repetition (rehearsal) at the cultural center, which is a ten minute walk from our house. The acoustics are terrible, it's beyond hot and they dance on a concrete floor, but they have huge smiles on their faces and they have a great time! They danced all djembe yesterday; Wollosodon, Djaa, Dundunba (with a little Sonsornet "inside"). After they all did their Dundunba solos, they grabbed me and pulled me in. This time I danced-no mini-ballet, just a couple of steps. It was fun and they were all soooooo happy to finally see me dance!

Tough Good-Byes & Warm Welcomes

Noah helping Karen unload our 800 pounds (literally) of luggage at JFK on
August 5, 2005

Upon arrival on August 6th to our new house, a traditional Senegalese breakfast of French bread and
hot milk with sugar
Grandma and Grandpa Cissokho (Fode changed the spelling of Cissokho because he thought it was easier to spell with all S's!)


Our arrival day: Noah's first kora lesson with his grandfather, Backary Cissokho

Our first day in Senegal at Noah's family's house, eating with his uncles and cousins (I ate separately with the women)

Last night I was talking with my friend/dance teacher/host/guide/body guard, Pap Ba, and he mentioned how we've been here now more than a month. I said I didn't think it was quite that long and we were both so shocked to figure out that it's only been 19 days since our arrival.
We (Noah and I) have already experienced and learned so much, it's difficult to know where to begin and even more amazing to think how much deeper we will go in the next 300 days!
Perhaps I will start from the present and move towards the past. I am presently in the midst of work week, the students arrive on Monday. Yes, I will be at school this weekend! Some things never change, even half a world away.
The school and the people here are so wonderful. I was taking a cab to work (it's a 10 minute ride with no traffic-1/2 and hour with and 700 cfa-$1.25- with good bargaining skills, which I have), but now we catch a ride with someone from school. I have a nice classroom, (of course nowhere near as nice as my room at Nueva) but it's huge and I have 15 students from all around the globe.
Fode arrived here yesterday from New York and picked up Noah from school to take him up the coast to his land. Noah was so excited to meet his horse that his dad has had for him for over a year. I spoke to him today and he said they bought a goat today for $30. I asked him what for and he said, "for fun!"
Some of our many highlights have included the moment we landed on African soil and were met at the airport by Judi, the school's director, the school truck and driver (we could barely fit all 800 pounds of luggage in the truck), Abdoulaye, our most amazing new roommate, translator, companion, brother and uncle to Noah and of course, Noah's real uncle and his friend. Keep in mind, the sun wasn't even up yet since this was at 5:45 am! It's even more amazing to have had all these people greet us now that I see the schedule of many Senegalese-up till 3 or 4 am and sleep late!!
We arrived at our new pink house, opened the gray metal gate into a wonderful outdoor walkway and a small courtyard with two very lush trees in front of the main door to the house. Inside, the floor is all tiled and there is a central area which has a huge skylight over half of the roof, completely open to the sky (no glass). When it rains, there is a drain that absorbs the water so half of the area feels like you are outside and the other half is covered by ceiling. Under the covered half is where the doors are to all of the rooms. Abdoulaye's room, Noah's room, the living room and my room (which has it's own private western toilet and shower-yippee!) are off of this central location. Down the hall is another "traditional" toilet and shower, the "kitchen," and an outdoor area where the clothes are hung to dry and we keep the garbage. No garbage in the house please, too many bugs!! The fridge is in the livingroom because the plug does not work near the kitchen for now (we are working on getting this fixed). It took 3 plumbers to fix my sink, so patience is the first lesson we have learned here for most circumstances. Being in a hurry or a rush is a very bad idea and can ruin one's day in an instant. One of the best sayings in Wolof we have learned so far is, "Danka, danka moi japa gollo seen gnyi." It literally means, "Slowly, slowly will you catch the monkeys in the forest." It means have patience and things will come. Our Wolof is coming along, I must say!
Luckily, we have a wonderful woman who comes each day to cook, clean and do laundry for us, so I have had some time to learn how to manage in the "kitchen." It takes her (and most women who cook here) most of the day to shop and prepare our main meal, which we usually eat after work around 5 or 6. Lots of rice or couscous and a variety of sauces with chicken or fish. It's really yummy! We eat traditional style, on the floor on a mat from one round metal tray. Abdoulaye and I usually eat with a spoon, but Noah has really taken to the more traditional method of eating with the right hand. He has taken to all of the traditional ways in most instances, when I will allow him. I still won't let him play soccer barefoot on the street like the other kids, however! He is beginning to understand now that they are not doing that because it is fun, they would wear shows if they had them. This is probably the one aspect of being here that is the most difficult especially for Noah. That is, seeing so many children on the streets begging for money from dawn till dusk with only the raggedy clothes on their backs. He has befriended a few of these orphan children, as well as many other more average children from our neighborhood. At any given time there are one or two soccer games and a basketball game going on our street and kids in and out of house all day long. The first week we got here Noah said, "If I had all these kids to play with all the time back home, I would never watch TV!!
The major roads here are paved, but the neighborhood streets, like ours, are sand. You basically walk in sand and rocks (and a lot of garbage on the streets, unfortunately) around the neighborhood. There are huge sand fields in every neighborhood where there are always a number of teams playing soccer. Our school (ISD) has one of two grass soccer fields in all of Senegal!! Many of the semi-professionals rent our field after hours to practice. Noah has already had a chance to "play with" and more to watch these guys. It's awesome!

We miss everyone so much and wish that everyone could come and visit to get a taste of what we are experiencing. Noah really misses his friends a lot, but has made some nice friends in the neighborhood and once school starts next week, he will meet new folks.

In the next posting I will write a bit more about me and the people I have met and about the dance scene!!
We have you all in our hearts and send lots of love! Please write! I'm on my old Nueva address: msissoko@nuevaschool.org and Noah's new address is ns.wowwow@gmail.com (Wow-Wow is the way they say yes here in Wolof!)
Legi-Legi (see you soon-talk to you soon),
Maya & Noah
For more info, maps or photos of Senegal, this is a fairly good website-http://www.au-senegal.com/