Work Work Work FETE Work WEEKEND

Sup y'all.
Bzurk here giving you a little rundown since Tuesday.

First, quick question for the blogosphere. How do these women carry so much stuff on their heads? The back baby I am beginning to understand, but its the head balancing that is beyond me.

Tuesday: the anniversary of Bob Marly's death. He was a pretty great guy. Huge parties all over town. I had work but I was going to check out the beach party at night and I walked down there with a friend of mine but it was wayyy too sketchy and we got kind of freaked out and left.
Wednesday: I had a terrible day at work which was made so much better by the fact that Thursday was a random Senegalese holiday. I went to a saweet concert put on by the US embassy (random) in honor of Peace, Tolerance, and Understanding. I like all of those things and the concert was free. It was in this huge stadium and thousands of people started out in the stands and then all of a sudden somebody said something and everyone rushed the field where the stage was. We basically did a one story jump and made a mad dash with a ton of Senegalese folk. Then the dancing began! ... and didnt stop. We left at 2. It was excellently fun dancing Senegalese style and acting a fool for hours on end. The big artists: Titi, Baaba Mall, Youssou Ndour.

They had partner Senegalese concerts in New York and DC also.

Its Friday now dude
I'm ready for the weekend
Lets go to the plage

On y va!

Here we go!

Last night at my neighborhood rugby bar run by some dude from the South of France they played a bunch of music videos which is awesome because that was the first TV I have seen since I've been here. I saw Lady Gaga and Beyoncé's "Telephone"
Have you seen this craziness? Gaga is wild.

Youssou N'Dour: public health advocate, Senegalese, amazing African music. What else could you ask for in a film? Nothing: I Bring What I Love

Today human rights watch came out with a report exposing the system of exploitation and abuse in Senegal where thousands of boys, between the ages of 4 and 12, called talibés are forced by their Quranic teachers, called marabouts, to beg in the streets seven days a week.
These tiny beggers set up shop between my office and my house so I pass them often. Vraiment, they are everywhere. When I pass them they repeat "cent franc" (100 cfa, 25 cents) until I give them money or they give up. Sometimes I give, sometimes I don't. When I don't they usually follow me for about a minute, their clothes caked in dirt, their thin arms stretched out, skin scarred, and usually they are not wearing shoes on the dangerous sandy streets of Dakar. Sometimes they look so young, like babies. At that age I was a soft, naive, Woodlin Elementary School student. A completely different life. More than anything else I have seen or experienced in Senegal, the daily lives of the talibés remind me how lucky I really am. Please read the press release here.

Life continues here, nothing too major. I can't go to frisbee tonight which is lame because I have to go and get all these questionnaires done. C'est la vie. Alright, gotta go. D'accord, jusqu'à la prochaine fois.