French Things

Unlike the American revolution, when Senegal kicked out its colonizers it kept the bureaucratic system in place. I can understand their logic, it's 1960 and you just became a country, why start from scratch? But now that I've lived in this system for about 8 months WHY KEEP EVERYTHING IN PLACE?! Let's just say the French system of things needing to be official mixed with the Senegalese need to take their time has driven me crazy all week. I've been trying to find out how much it will cost per meal per person for this girls camp. If this was America I would probably call the campus food provider (probably Aramark) and get an answer within, I have to believe, 30 minutes. Or at least be able to schedule a meeting with someone; bring in a list of questions and leave with a list of answers. But no. Three days ago I visited the guy in charge of food etc. he said he couldn't help me without a formal request to use the campus. When I explained to him that the request was written, submitted, AND approved by the head of the University - he shut down and shut me out. I called the head of the campus (secretary general) the next day and explained to him, to which he responded, "well, you probably should write a letter of request then." Giving in to the inefficient system I wrote my letter requesting the prices of things (because, at this point, I've already been approved to use rooms, I just needed prices to write the grant)... but the guy was busy and didn't have time for a meeting with me yesterday. Today I went to the cyber cafe to print off the letter (I don't have a printer, obviously) and the power was out. I came back when the power came back on and the printer was broken. So, on my bike ride to the University I figured out how to say "I was trying to save paper, yesterday was Earth Day you know, here I have it on this USB Key" in French.

After a slight detour (some kids called me "red ears" and I swerved off the road and screamed at them in English, French, and Wolof WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME? DID YOU JUST CALL ME RED EARS?) I arrived at 3:30. Of course even though he told me he would be there until 4pm he had already left. When I tried to explain to his secretary what I wanted "can you email a document on this key to him" she said no, but if I wanted I could email it to her and she could email it to him....

Maybe I should entirely blame the "French system," there is a lot of Senegaleseness about this whole situation as well. Honestly, I think I'm getting tired of always sticking out and my frustrations are being aimed at the ridiculously inefficient way of doing (or not doing) things.

Tomorrow there's a "party" at the middle school to "open the new foyer." I have no idea what I'm getting myself into but we'll see!

Ba suba,
KO