The AU Summit in Banjul

Greetings from Banjul. I leave early tomorrow morning, but I finally have some time to breathe and relax a bit today, so I thought I should probably get online to capture some of my expereince for you all while I'm still in the middle of it. . .

Where to start? I arrived on saturday night after a frantic day at the office and a drive to the airport where I seriously thought I was going to die. I know, sometimes people say that but are exaggerating, but I was litterally trying to remember whether my travel insurance covers sending my dead body back home(sorry mom). We were really late, so our driver was weaving in and out of traffic and driving so fast...

Anyways, when we got to the airport, we found out that our plane was delayed anyways, so my life flashed before my eyes all for nothing!

Once in Banjul, we spent all day Sunday making final preparations and then the conference we were hosting took place monday and tuesday. Like the previous conference in Bamako, it was also a logistical nightmare and I spent much of those two days going back and forth from the photocopying place to the conference and running around trying to make sure everyone had what they needed, but I'll spare you the details. In terms of substance and personal interaction, this conference was more rewarding. I feel like the participants took more of an interest in me and why I was there, which allowed me to talk to more of them and learn more about what they were doing. The conference was the 8th in a series of forums hosted by FAS to promote gender mainstreaming in the African Union (AU).

In terms of the summit itself, I haven't really had the opportunity to attend many of the other events, but it's been interesting to be in Banjul during the summit. It's by far the biggest event I think Banjul has ever had, and thery have been making a lot of changes and preparations for the conference (repqving streets, putting up signs all over with the President's name and picture welcoming people, carving statues etc).

I didn't actually get into the tozwn of Banjul itself until yesterday, when the meeting and press conference were over. And then, my trip was very short. I just went in with our chauffeur and he drove me around. Where we're staying, and where the conference is, is in Serrekundo (sp?), a town on the atlantic coast about 15km from Banjul. We're close to the beach, so I've spent a little time there as well. Today I went to a village a little ways from Serrekundo where a friend I met here grew up. He took me to meet his family and show me the town a little. At his place, his brother climbed up this huge mango tree and picked mangos for us to eat...zhich were so good.

OKay, my time is running out, so I'll write more about my experiences zhen I get back to Dakar.

Banjul, The Gambia

I leave today (any minute, really) to head to the Gambia, where I'll be attending a pre-summit consultative meeting on gender meainstreaming in the AU; THe AU summit is in Banjul at the end of this week, so were meting to report on the progress member-states have made on mainstreaming gender into their peace and security activities. Should be fascinating and exhausting... I'll try to report back to you all from there, but if you don't hear from me for a week or so, ne vous inquietez pas.

Family Life

When I got back from Mali, I fell into a bit of a funk, brought on by a combination of things…though I think mostly just that, now that I’ve been here for a month, the novelty of things here has begun to wear off. Of course, the fact that I have been spending all my waking hours at the office, severely limiting my ability to make friends here or explore the town, hasn’t helped much either. I keep reminding myself that I only have one more month here, so even if some things are hard it’s not like I’ll have to deal with them for long. Still, this week I’ve tried to do little things to make life here a little easier, including finding myself some staple foods that I’ve been craving, doing yoga in the mornings, and spending a bit more time with my host family in the evenings even though I get home late and am usually pretty tired. My host brother, Papis, makes tea in the evening and drinks it out of shot glasses, which I thought was pretty amusing until I tried the tea and realized how strong it is…I can’t imagine drinking a whole glass of it, though it is really good. Their cousin came over on Wednesday and made his own kind of tea, and it was even stronger and tasted suspiciously like tobacco. In addition to drinking tea with my family, I’ve been watching a lot of soccer with them and expanding my French vocabulary to include terms like off-sides, yellow and red card, score, goal keeper etc. Also, Mohammed, my littlest host brother, has started showing his affinity for American rap music and has taken to rapping for me in what he claims is English (and then making fun of me when I can’t understand him. I’m still not sure if it’s my limited knowledge of American rap music or his interpretation of the songs and highly accented English that is preventing me from understanding, but the song I’ve been able to understand so far is when he sang “go charmagne, it’s your birthday, gonna party like its your birthday” – which was hilarious. )

more stories from Bamako...petit à petit

When I arrived in Bamako, there was a guy waiting at the bottom of the stairs exiting the plane with a sign for FAS. Apparently there were a number of people on my flight attending the conference, several of whom were VIPs and I had no idea. When we all had gotten off the plane, he shuffled us into a van directly from the runway and brought us to a special VIP customs area, where we filled out or landing cards while sitting on plush leather couches in an air-conditioned room decorated in traditional art. Unfortunately, since I didn’t have a visa and I was the only American in the group, the VIP system didn’t work for me. I had to be escorted back to the regular customs office, where they searched for my name amid stacks of papers to verify that I was supposed to be there. It was one of the first times I felt like my American passport was more of a hindrance than a help (though I’ve never tried to go to Cuba)…Luckily they found my name eventually and let me in. I then went back to the VIP room to join my fellow African travellers and we were driven to the hotel.

On the way to the hotel, I tried to take in some of Mali and make some comparisons between it and Senegal (and Uganda, for that matter). The first thing that struck me was that the dirt was red, just like it had been in Uganda, rather than brown and sandy as it is here in Dakar. It’s kind of weird to say, since I was only in Uganda for a few weeks and I’ve been in Dakar for a month, but the red dirt kind of made me feel at home; it felt familiar. Maybe it’s because I brought so much of it home with from Uganda on my clothes and shoes!! But it is such a bright, beautiful color. My other first impression was that things seemed more orderly and a bit more developed than in either Dakar or Kampala. We drover over the newly constructed bridge, which had a separate lane for motorcycles – amazingly orderly from what I’ve seen of Africa so far!


It wasn’t until Thursday that I got out into the city again. I spent Monday through Wednesday at the hotel working at the conference. But Thursday, I went into town twice. The first time I was accompanied by the chauffeur I had befriended (he’d been driving me and all of my documents back and forth from the hotel to the conference center for the past three days - they’re only 5 minutes apart, but as I alluded to in a previous posting, walking required that I pass by the President’s house in front of several armed guards. It was also unbearably hot during the day, so for both of those reasons I chose to be driven.) He took me into town to help me purchase a new cell phone. It’s been pretty hard to adjust to the fact that to do something as simple as buy a cell phone I have to have an escort because if I don’t I’m bound to get both ripped off and lost. But, thankfully, he was willing to help me out and I got a new cell phone, which I am going to try very hard not to let out of my sight.

My second trip into town on Thursday consisted of an ill-advised trip to the market with a group of my co-workers. I say ill-advised because the chauffer I just spoke of was going to take us there but said that it was a really busy time of day and that it might be better to wait until the following morning. But when I got back to the hotel, a group was heading out and since I was pretty sure I’d have more work to do Friday before we left (which I did), I decided to go. The market was huge and exhausting, but I’m glad I went. It was interested to see the different crafts and products they sell in Mali. Soap is very big there, and apparently the dyed fabrics are of a higher quality for a much lower price there than in Dakar. According to my host mother, you can by fabric there for 30-50 dollars and sell it in Dakar for 100-150 dollars!! That may explain why the women I returned to Dakar with on Friday evening had so many heavy suitcases with them!

Conference on Gender, Peace and Security in Africa

Back in Dakar. Deep sigh of relief.

I'm struggling to find the best way to describe the conference I attended in Bamako in order to do it justice without tainting it too much with the negative aspects I witnessed as someone working behind the scenes. But I think the best thing to do is just describe it as I experienced it. I also have a lot of other stories and observations that are generally unrelated to the conference that I'd love to share, but all in good time. First, I think you all should have a picture of what went on at the conference itself. Unfortunately most of the press coverage we got is in French, but for those of you who speak french, search google news for "femmes genre Bamako" and you'll come up with some articles describing the event. But for the rest of you, my descriptions will have to do.

I arrived in Bamako Sunday night and was immediately greeted with panicked (and exhausted) co-workers, very grateful I had arrived to help. I brought with me the final document we'd had printed to be presented at the conference, the ten-year evaluation study that I had been working hard on editing and making corrections to. I hadn't yet opened the box because they delivered it to the airport just as we were leaving, but when I arrived at the hotel, that's the first thing I did. I was really looking forward to seeing all my hard work pay off in the form of a nice printed document that could be presented, used, and appreciated at the conference. Unfortunately, no such luck. Somehow, the printer had gotten a hold of the wrong version of the study (I think someone sent them an older version to give them an idea of the layout and then when we sent the final draft, somehow they mixed the two up). So, the version they had printed was wrong and couldn't be used. They also had only printed the english version instead of printing half of the copies in french and half in english. So, I spent most of that first night retreiving the latest version of the study (thankfully I had it in my e-mail) and making copies of it to be presented the next day at the conference. It's 25 pages long and we needed 150 copies, so you can imagine that it took quite awhile. And it's not like there was a Kinkos around the corner that we could use. Luckily we were staying in a 5 star hotel with a business center that had a printer and copier and a few computers. But around 1am their copier ran out of ink so we had to wait until monday to finish the copies. But on monday, plenty of other last-minute things came up that added to the demands on both the copier and on my time, so it became pretty hectic.

The opening ceremony of the conference was supposed to start at 9am on monday, but when you invite heads of state and other important people, it's never good to rely on their prompt arrival. I learned that lesson well during the 2004 election when we waited for hours for Kerry and Edwards to arrive at several of their campaign events. So, the President of Mali, accompanied by the President of Liberia and the Foreign Minister of South Africa rolled up to the conference center at about 11:30.

The ceremony itself was nice, but very formal. It was the first of many times over the week that I observed how important status and formality seem to be here. Every speech started out naming the name and title of all of the important people there (His Excellency, Her Excellency, Madame le Ministre etc..). I was in and out during the ceremony, but was able to be there to hear Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf speak, which was pretty exciting. I realized that I've heard speeches by a few former heads of state (Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev) and some current senators and potential future heads of state (John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, Hilary Clinton) but never current heads of state/presidents. So being in the presence of two at once was kind of exciting. EJS's speach was appropriately encouraging and illustrated that she hasn't forgotten her commitment to women's rights and empowerment or how instrumental the African women's movement was in getting her elected.

Amadou Toumani Touré, the president of Mali, also spoke at the event and was awarded Le Prix Tombouctou for his commitment to women's rights in Africa, but I missed both those things because I had to go prepare for the afternoon events.

After the ceremony, the conference itself began. There were supposed to be three panels Monday afternoon, but since we were so behind schedule, we only had one. I was given the role of the official notetaker at the conference, which guaranteed that I attend all of the panels rather than always being off preparing documents and dealing with logistics. But it also meant that I had to stay alert and engaged enough to take accurate notes and report back to the others on how things were going. The panels had both english and french speakers, and people were given headsets to hear translations of the speeches and questions. But I decided to challenge myself and not use the translations. It actually worked out pretty well, although I think contributed to an increased exhaustion by the end of the third day.

The first panel was mostly focused on the concepts of peace, security, development etc. and how they have evolved and what they mean for the women's peace movement in Africa. There was a recognition that the understanding of security needs to change from a military-centered approach to one that focuses on human needs. They also had an interesting discussion about Condoleeza Rice and how disappointed many of them were that an African-American woman had achieved such a high level of power but wasn't using it to change the agenda or redefine security in favor of women (or Africans, really). The second panel (tuesday morning) addressed best practices in women's peacebuilding and had speakers from the Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET), FERFAP in Burundi as well as from women's groups in Côte d'Ivoire, the DRC, and Mali.

The second panel of tuesday switched gears to focus more on gaps between policy and practice and difficulties in implementing international and regional mechanisms of gender equality. It was interesting and showed that, although a lot of great things have been achieved by these women peacebuilders, there is a lot of tension among different groups and a number of shortcomings that need to be addressed to make the movement more effective.

After lunch, the third panel of the day focused on the 10 year evaluation study. Three of the four consultants who undertook the study were there to present their initial findings, which I already knew because I had basically written the executive summaries for them. There was supposed to be a fourth panel on evaluation best practices that evening, but it was cancelled because we ran out of time...which is really unfortunate because they needed it - I mean, the evaluation had a lot of gaps and problems and I think it would have been helpful to have been able to open up more of a dialogue about the process to ensure that lessons are learned from it.

Tuesday evening was the big ceremony where awards were given out to a number of other prominent peacemakers, including Ruth Perry, the former president of the transitional government of Liberia. It was a nice evening and I was able to relax and enjoy it rather than work at it (thank goodness, because a number of things went wrong there as well). The only problem I had there was that someone stole my cell phone. Well, I guess technically I lost it - but I knew right where I left it and went back for it right away and it was already gone. Apparently my good cell phone karma doesn't extend beyond the borders of the US.

Wednesday was the General Assembly for FAS, where the members met and the board presented their annual report etc. It was the first meeting since 2000, so they had a lot of ground to cover and the meeting extended well into the afternoon and I was there for the whole thing taking notes. But the end of the day, I was exhausted and very ready to relax a bit. The closing ceremony was the final thing of that day, and it was actually really nice. The Prime Minister of Mali was tehre, along with a number of the other foreign ministers and ambassadors, and there were several really nice speeches, including one from the ED of ACCORD, a conflict resolution NGO in South Africa that partners with FAS on a lot of projects. After the ceremony, I stayed to type up the "Bamako Committment", which was the concluding document for the conference and will serve as the platform of action for FAS for the next few years. I had to translate it into english and get everyone's approval, and then distribute it to all the FAS board members etc. It was kind of an interesting process to see something like that be drafted, changed, translated etc.

So there you have it...that's the meat of the conference, at least from my angle. What made it hard for me was that there was very little communication to the staff when changes were made to the schedule or about what documents were needed for each event, so it always felt like we were playing catch-up. On top of that, the women at the conference were very demanding on the staff and were constantly asking for extra documents or information that we didn't have. I think I had expected people there to be a bit more down to earth and cooperative, but what I came to realize was that many of the women attending the conference have achieved a level of status within their comminities that allows their peacebuilding work to be more effective, but it also means that they're used to people being at their beck and call and have no qualms about asking people to constantly do things for them. That observation ties into my more general observation about status and heirarchy, which I will write moer about next time.

Hello from Bamako

I wanted to take just e brief moment to say hello from Bamako. I have so much to write about but very little time, so I promise to give a much longer and more detailed update when I get back to Dakar. But briefly, some highlights...
I heard BOTH the first female President of Liberia (Ruth Perry) and the first woman to be elected President of Liberia (EJS) speak. I didn't actually meet either of them, but I could have. I was just too busy running around making copies and distributing papers (remember, I'm still a lowly intern); I also almost got a few of us arrested by trying to walk past the Presidential Palace at night (apparently my problems with authority don't translate well into the african context, particuarly when dealing with armed presidential guards)...

Hopefully that's enough to peak your curiosity...
I'll write more soon.

Mali

I leave today for a week in Mali, where I'll rubbing elbows with the African elite (as well as a numer of really incredible women who are far from being elite but work for peace in their own communities). I probably won't be writing while I'm there, although we're staying at a swanky hotel so you never know, maybe they'll have internet. But I'll be sure to keep good notes and tell you all about the conference I'm attending when I return.

Last night, I was able to watch the Côte d'Ivoire vs. Argentina match with a bunch of Ivoirians and I can't tell you how many times I heard the phrase, "c'est pas possible!" referring to all of the missed goals. The consensus where I was was that the coach failed to put in their best players and that's why they lost...in case any of you care :) They all promised me they'd root for the US tomorrow since I cheered for their team yesterday.

I also took my first trip to Gorée yesterday, which is an island off the coast of Dakar where there used to be a very active slave trade. It's now a pretty popular tourist destination and was quite beautiful. It reminded me a little of Alcatraz, in the SF Bay, and offered a nice view of Dakar as well. I'm planning to go back because this was just a spontaneous trip because we had a couple of hours to kill before the game. So I'll write more about it later.

Okay, I'm off to Mali. A Bientôt.

Ridiculousness

So, things at work are pretty crazy because the conference we're planning in Bamako is coming up next week. There are so many documents we're preparing and having printed for the conference at the last minute that everyone is in a crunch. It doesn't help that our printer stopped working and the power has continued to go on and off (though it's been better this week than last). My major deadline was yesterday, though, so I'm in a bit of a better situation than some others here. I won't bore you all with the details of what I was working on, but I do have one pretty funny anecdote to share:

So this conference is honoring the President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, with a peace prize to recognize his commitment to democracy and gender equality. We've also invited other important African officials, including Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the new President of Liberia. Apparently, she has accepted the invitation to come, but doesn't have a way to get to the conference. Since Liberia is still such a mess and has very little infrastructure, the president doesn't have a personal plane. But neither does the President of Mali, I found out. He charters one whenever he needs to travel anywhere. But Johnson-Sirleaf can't do that either, and without transportation, she can't come to the conference. So the ED here, Mme Diop, called the Foreign Minister of South Africa, Mme Zuma, who is apparently a big supporter of FAS and is planning on coming to the conference, and asked her if she would be able to swing by Libera on her way from the DRC (where she is currently) to Mali to pick President Johnson-Sirleaf up. Is that not one of the most ridiculous things you've ever heard? Okay that might be a slight exaggeration. But really. The best part is, she said yes. Well, she has to get permission from someone, I guess President Mbeki. But it's looking likely. So, I might get to meet (or at least be in the same room with) the first woman elected to the Presidency in Africa. That'd be pretty cool, eh? But only if her friend the foreign minister can pick her up on her way :)

Pineapple Ice Cream

That's really all I have to say.

Oh, and that it was, of course, delicious.

Ngor

I went to the beach again yesterday. Seems like a good tradition to keep for the summer: Sunday = Beach day. We'll see. But this time, we were a bit more adventurous and went to a beach frequented mostly by locals, as opposed to tourists. I went with my coworker, Karina and my host brother, Papis, who showed us how to get there. We had to park on the outskirts of the village and walk through bunch of little winding corridors to get to the coast. From there, we got on a boat packed full of people to cross over the channel to the island. There had to have been at least 50 people in this tiny motorboat and we were the last to board and so were in the front, which meant that by the time we arrived on the island, we'd pretty much already been swimming because so much water had splashed in on us on the way over. But, somehow, the boat made it across with everyone in it. To their credit, they did make sure everyone had life jackets. And it wasn't a very long - it only took about 5 minutes to cross.

Anyways, the beach was pretty crowded and there were a lot of people milling around trying to sell various things, but the majority of people there were young Senegalese folks who spent most of the time playing in the water. The island itself is small and mostly populated by either wealthy Senegalese or people with time shares. The houses are pretty big and very nice, with little hidden gardens and balconies. A pretty awesome place to vacation if it weren't for the boatfulls of people who come to use the beach everyday :)

Getting back across at the end of the day was a bit more harrowing, beacuse so many people wanted to get on the boat and so we had to fight for a life jacket and a seat. And then, people were rushing to get off and I thought I was going to end up back in the water. It's weird, although the pace of life is much slower here in many ways, there are certain instances (mostly those dealing with transportation - on the boat, in cars and busses) where people seem to be in such a hurry that it becomes really dangerous and a little frightening.

La Medina

This morning, my host brother Papis took me into town on a little adventure that finally allowed me to get a little taste of the other side of Dakar...

We got on the bus near our house in Mermoz and took it down Ave Chekih Anta Diop past the University to le Medina, another neighborhood closer to downtown that is much poorer than where I'm staying. BUt before I describe the neighborhood, I should tell you what happened on the way there...*

While we were on the bus, we got stuck in really bad traffic, which isn't that unusual for Dakar. But I knew something was out of the ordinary and that it was worse than normal because everyone on the bus was standing up, looking out and trying to see what the holdup was. Then I finally saw it - apaprently just a few minutes previously, one of the men who directs traffic had been hit by a car and was lying in the middle of the road. They had covered him up and there were people gathered around him, some crying. None of them seemed to be paramedics...but it looked like they may already have decided that he was dead since he was covered up. But they hadn't moved him out of the street, so that's why the traffic was pretty much stopped. Cars had to drive around him and all the onlookers to get by. It was pretty awful. Though, the way people drive here, I guess it's not that surprising.

After getting around the accident, the traffic lightened up a bit and we arrived in Medina about 10-15 minutes later. There is a big market there where people have little stands and sell pretty much everything you could want - lots of imported stuff as well as fruits, fabric, household goods, clothes, etc. I bought a new cellphone (because the one I was using belonged to my other host brother and was really big and clunky). Then, Papis took me into the neighborhood where his girlfriend lives. She, her two sisters, their baby and young son, and their mom live together in one room, about 15' X 15', with two beds and a tv. They cook and wash etc. outside in the courtyard shared by other families that live in the same complex. They were really friendly and their baby was SO happy, the happiest baby I think I've ever encountered. He smiled the entire time I was there.

Then, after hanging out with them for awhile, we went to Papis' friend Mustaffa's house, which was a short walk away through the same neighborhood. There were people out and about everywhere we went, a lot of shoemakers sitting on the side of the road working, people doing their laundry, or just chatting. There was a lot of garbage on the side of the road (and in the road) ... I don't know if they have a garbage pickup system, but it appears not.

Mustaffa lives in a studio with his cousin. By studio, I mean, again, one room with a mattress on the floor, a dresser and a couple chairs and that's all. Oh and a stereo that plays cassette tapes. I don't actually know where (if) they cook. I assume their bathroom is in the hall and is communal. But that was unclear as well. The paint on the wall was turquoise and peeling, badly. We listened to some Reggae and just hung out for awhile. They mostly spoke in Wolof, but would switch to French when they discussed something pertinant to me...but mostly I have no idea what they were talking about (reaffirming the fact that I need to learn the language).

That was my morning. Apparently my host mother would not be please knowing that Papis took me around to his friend's houses (she's a bit overprotective of me), so I had to tell her that we just walked around downtown. But I'm glad he took me there, because it was a good chance to see a couple of houses of young Senegalese folks who live in much less luxury than where I'm staying in Mermoz and have a better sense of what life is like for the majority of people here.

La Corniche

Unfortunately, I've been doing little other than working these past few days (amazingly we had consistant electricity all day yesterday and today), but rather than tell you stories about my frustrations at the office (which are many) I will take this opportunity to tell you a little about Dakar (although I really have only been downtown twice, so I'm sure I'll have more to say in the coming weeks). As far as I know, Stephanie is the only person who is likely to be reading this who has been here before, so this might be the most interesting for you, Steph. But even if you haven't been here, it tells you something about the way things work here...

So, La Corniche is the main road that goes downtown along the coast. I'm told it was the best road inthe city, two lanes, straight and direct...and made getting downtown (relatively) easy. Last month, President Wade decided to close the road for a major construction project - to build several hotels along it in addition to overpasses and a number of other additions in preparation for some big event here next year. So, the road is closed and will remain closed indefinitely (with plans to reopen it next year, but who knows). It reminds me a lot of "the big dig" in Boston, and has made getting downtown (at least from where I live in Mermoz) pretty difficult. Because of the closure of the Corniche, the main movie theatre is closed for construction as well. My host mother was in charge of film distribution there, so she's out of a job for awhile, as is my host brother Papis, who was the projectionist. Not to mention the fact that it means that there's nowhere to go see movies in the city now. Apparently some people have makeshift movie theatres in their homes, but the movie quality isn't very good (i assume they're bootleg copies).

Besides that, I'm not sure what else to say about Dakar. Apparently there aren't any mailboxes, so I had to walk all the way back to the post office to mail post cards after walking there a few days earlier to buy stamps. It's not too far, but isn't exactly a plesant walk, so I hope you all weren't expecting too much mail from me. Actually, the city in general isn't very conducive to walking. A lot of the sidewalks are torn up or under construction and the streets are very narrow, so cars park up on the sidewalks anyways. Also, whenever I walk (I walk to and from work, it takes about 10 minutes) taxis honk at me. And there are a lot of taxis, so I feel like I'm constantly being honked at. I'm not sure if they honk at everyone to indicate that they're available, or just white people (or women). I actually have that question about a lot of things I encounter here...