I am...

home.

What a month under a mango tree can get you:

It's finally here! A record of everything I've been doing for the past month (okay, there's a paper as well, but it really lacks the appeal that the sculptures have. If you want to read it, let me know and I'll scoff at you). My first two scuptures are like to one below--they are in the style of my teacher, Serigne Mor Gueye,and are approximately a foot tall.

The following two are large, maybe two feet tall, and very heavy. I am going to bring home one of them (haven't chosen yet) because two would earn me a $150 overweight bag fee.

This is my final sculpture. It's four or five feet tall, very twisty, and weights a TON. It is definitely my favorite but unfortunately must stay here. I believe it will live in the SIT courtyard for future students to see.

Mouton Slaughterfest

Yep, here it is. I watched a lot of mouton die on Wednesday. But, I also ate a ton of tasty meat.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cschuele/MoutonSlaughterfest?authkey=Gv1sRgCMPdnLTqp7z4hgE#

Also, there are some photos of the sculptures I've been making, but they're far less interesting than the gory pictures of Tabaski...

First week in Village des Arts

Hello all:

I've been a bit removed from technology for the past week, so I haven't been able to chat with anyone about what's been going on. In the past week, my life has changed quite drastically. On Saturday, I moved into a workshop at the Village des Arts with two friends. We have this box of a room and we are practically camping...There are a lot of bugs, a lot of sunshine, and a lot of wood carving.

My typical days starts around 8:30. I walk a ways down the road to the little boutique by the high school where I buy a plastic baggy of juice and baguette for breakfast. I return to our little house where we make eggs and eat out baguette with Nutella. At 10 or 10:30, I walk over to the tree where my advisor works carving wood. I spend the rest of the day there, sanding, rasping, carving drinking tea, trying to speak Wolof, speaking broken French, and making wood sculptures. It is a little tolling on the body, but only because I spend the entire day on a little wooden stool.

At 2 or 2:30, the wife of the security guard brings me my lunch. This is by far the most looked-forward-to part of my day. Normally, it's delicious fish and vegetables with rice and in giant portions. And the best part is, it costs me $1.20.

After lunch, I keep working, normally until 5 or 6 in the evening. Elsa, Alexa and I leave the village again and hunt for something we could make for dinner. By the time we finish cooking and cleaning up, it's time to go to bed.

There have been a few bizarre happenings though: every weekend night, there is a concert just outside our door at the restaurant. They blast heavy bass until 5 am. We don't sleep a lot. Another favorite was the disposal of the enormous pile of trash by our house. We were in our workshop when we heard an enormous bang. It continued, and we looked outside to see what it was. The restaurant owner assured us they were just burning the trash that was there. We watched as spray paint cans engulfed in flames and the fire violently kicked garbage in our direction.

The most bizarre part of where we live, however, is the fact that next week is Tabaski, the largest holiday here in Senegal. This means that each family buys at least three giant sheep and slaughters them in the street. Currently, vendors are in the process of selling the sheep.There are giant fenced-in cages of moutons running a mile down our road.

There are plenty more things to write about, but they I would have any good stories to tell when I got home. Hope all is well in what I hope is becoming winter wonderland....

The inside of our atelier

Our essential mosquito net

Our front yard

Our pet kitty, who I haven't named yet. He is very cute and actually clean, so I kind of want to pet him.

Our front yard

Almost there...

Bonjour tout le monde:

Things have been slowing down here, but at the same time, speeding up: next week, we begin the independent study project on our subject of choice. What my subject of choice? Living in a small studio in an art commune with two other girls and no amenities apart from a toilet while I carve wood with a man who only uses one tool to make beautiful abstractions of the human body out of a piece of wood normally used for making a fire to cook over. That's my topic.

But in a more academic setting, I describe my project a little differently. I am going to practice with this man, Serigne Mor Gueye, for three weeks. I hope to make a new sculpture each week. Before I make each sculpture, I am going to interview an artist at the Village des Arts. From the information I gather in these interviews, I hope to understand a little bit about why they are making art, why they've chosen the subject matter and technique they've chosen, and how they see their art practices. From here, I will start my sculpture, keeping in mind that particular artist's way of seeing their art practice. Hopefully, my carving will reflect their view of art-marking. Top it all off with a little exhibition at the end of the month, and I will be a very busy girl.

My hope is to be able to take (and I suppose, therefore, post) process photos and video, if the Internet complies. I will only be around a computer with connection to the tubes once a week, probably during the weekends. So, posts may be a little scarce (not that they haven't been already). Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving (too early?), and keep an eye out on this page every weekend.

I forgot to say...

I ate this:

Sometimes this place surprises me with beauty

Two striking things I saw today:

The first: a tri-color printer smashed to bits by Senegalese, soccer-playing youth. The bright magenta, cyan and yellow were smeared like sugar all over the red rocks and grey concrete.

The other: at dusk I saw a Sedan rolling slowly towards me on a road of sand--it was silent and moved like a ghost towards me under yellow street lamps. Like a movie with no sound.

Stuff

Here they are. They don't have captions yet...they may never have captions. But all you need to know is this: The huts are where I spent three days, the kitten is named Henri and he is, unfortunately, not with us anymore, and the mountains were very cool, especially when we were standing on top of the giant rock formation.

I had a lovely time and have now turned my attention to writing the proposal for my independent project which will include an entire month of carving wood....

http://picasaweb.google.com/cschuele/KedougouAndEtchwar?authkey=Gv1sRgCOeRjon5hZPOOg#

Villages

Hey all,

It's been a while since I've written anything here, but I just thought I'd throw out a little update.

I got back from the village of Mouit on the 2nd (?) of October. We spend 3 days in the village in a homestay family and then spent 3 days in beautiful, air-conditioned hotel rooms in Saint-Louis. Needless to say, the drastic switch-over was a little unsettling.

Mouit was wonderful though. It is a concrete-constructed village--I had my own room with a nice comfy bed, we at bread and butter from breakfast, and people had cell phones. However, things were far different than in Dakar. I showered from a bucket, I walked to my host dad's boat to retrieve fish, and I offended people if my knees showed when I sat down. The people in the village were very, very welcoming. They held us toubabs a sabar dance, which means we all dressed up and danced around like fools, and then our host sister and mother took the floor and showed us up. YouTube search "guana dance" and that's what we tried to look like.

Saint-Louis was, like I said, very different. It felt much more like a vacation--we had chocolate croissants for breakfast, delicious vegetable-filled dinners, and all the air-conditioning we could dream of. We looked at some historic sites, but mostly did a lot of vacationing...

Tomorrow, I am off on another "excursion". We are driving all day long to reach the town of Kedougou in southeastern Senegal. The town is nearly in Guinea. There, we are staying in a campment and hiking to some cool waterfalls and up some mountains. Or so we were told they were mountains. After a few days in Kedougou, we are headed off to our respective villages. Me and a classmate will be in the Bedik village of Etchwar. It will literally be grass huts, porridge, and workin' in the fields: http://www.google.sn/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/3002686659_38cf1cd3db_m.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/32097021%40N03/&usg=__hgDiUiuBRrXLYDNgQmKPRwvQccw=&h=180&w=240&sz=22&hl=fr&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=gvahxaFOKBKrbM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Detchwar,%2Bsenegal%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dfr%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D485%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=705&vpy=213&dur=650&hovh=144&hovw=192&tx=117&ty=110&ei=R762TOulBcb84AaYpdiwCQ&oei=R762TOulBcb84AaYpdiwCQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0

I will be out of Internet range, so check back in about 10 days, and hopefully there will be a load of interesting photos!

TMI

When I take a shower, the color of the water running down into the drain is always, always brown.

Photos from: Mouit, Saint-Louis, Thies, and Mauritania

I've been quite busy with schoolwork (what?) and traveling and such, so here is a bit of a filler for writing--pictures! They're got some commentary, and make sure there are no young children watching when you look at the last two pictures, they might have nightmares.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cschuele/SaintLouisMouit?authkey=Gv1sRgCPyD25iu5IPzMw#

Lunch

After deciding we were fed up with fried falafel, pizza, schwarma, and paninis (not what you think: more like cheeeeeeez inside of a large pressed, heated baguette), we (a number of us: okay, half the group, which is six people) decided that we refused to eat fast food for lunch everyday and that we were going to make fresh food for lunch each lunch hour.

We have lunch from 12:30 until 2:30 (very traditionally Senegalese. They like their food. And their rest. And their ataya. And they're...doing nothing) so we are planning to spend every Saturday in Casino Sahm, the local (and only?) supermarket in our region of Dakar. It's a bit like Shopko, but also a bit like Fred Meyers. It's also a bit Senegalese. For example, there are around 9 different varieties of Nutella like products to choose from. There is Nutella, of course. But then there is Chocopain, Choco-lion, Choco Mousse (that what we have at my house. The logo is a insane rabbit wearing a cape), Choco King, and of course the store brand Casino-Sahm version. The Senegalese love the stuff. Understandably so.

Last Sunday we made the Casino tour and bought a number of different things. We bought some pasta, some beans, corn, veggies (some...), salad dressing, olives, etc. But the store is missing a number of things that are assumed to be in grocery stores in the US. For example, Casino Sahm does not sell sliced bread. There is no such thing as whole wheat here (tragically), they do not sell plain yogurt, flip flops (okay, this one might be a stretch, but remember when I said this place was like Fred Meyers? They sell bras, backpacks, highlighters, and toilet plungers, but NO FLIP FLOPS), cinnamon, chocolate chips, solid cheeses, or milk.

No milk. No milk that comes from cows, that is. What is powdered milk, anyway?

So, this past week we have crafted some lovingly-made home-cooked meals and manged them on the sunny patio. We don't have to wade through taxis, we don't have to pump exhaust through our lungs as we march towards the fast food place. Instead, we just eat egg scramble and fruit salad with (sugary) yogurt and sip at our bissap juice.

I don't think we'll ever go back to fast food. Unless its two-for-one-pizza Tuesdays...

A Little Day Trip

Today we took the ferry to L'Ile de Goree. I took more pictures than normal, as it is a tourist destination and your don't stand out if you have your camera in your hand. They're posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cschuele/LIleDeGoree?authkey=Gv1sRgCNulgK3a79KTWQ#

And they have captions to go along with them, so be sure to do some reading!

La Korite

Yesterday was the celebration of the end of Ramadan which means, apparently, that all we did was eat and nap. When we were debriefed on the subject and the "fete" (party) which was supposed to happen, we were told that we would be encountering tons and tons of people, cook all day long, and be fussed about by our host sisters so that we would look wonderful in our Korite dress.

None of these things really happened. Instead, I woke up at 10, ate baguette and Nutella (standard breakfast fare) and drew pictures with Kadijah. Naomi (my host aunt) let me borrow a dress of hers. Immediately, the house was laughing and commenting how jolie I was looking. See the picture, it could have been worse...

After dressing up, we ate some delicious lamb, French fries, and the first fresh vegetable I have seen in Senegal (carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce!) After that, I napped for three hours. For the rest of the day, we did nothing. Kadijah and Amadou climbed all over me. I read about 1/3 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Finally, the sun set and we walked around the neighborhood, Kadijah and Amadou in their sparkling new outfits. Total, we left the house for 20 minutes. When we returned, I ate some more delicious rice/millet pudding stuff and went to bed. What a very uneventful holiday...

Best part of the day: Letting Kadijah get a hold of my camera and take about 10 pictures of her fingers.

Ca c'est ma famille. Kadijah, Naomi, et le bebe, Maimouna? (I think there's one more syllable in there...

Photos

Here are a few photos I've taken, if you can't access them, let me know.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cschuele/DakarI?authkey=Gv1sRgCIbM6aXXuIubDA#

Kadija

Hello all,

It's about time that I sent out another one of these... In most recent news, I moved in with my host family this past Friday night. The first two days were a bit distressful as there were probably 20 unknown faces meandering about inside the house for my new baby host brother's baptism. My family consists of my father Pape, his wife/my host mother Soucane, my little sister Kadija (4), my b(r)other Amadou (2) and the new baby whose name I have completely forgotten. There is also a maid named Marim and another woman who might be a maid, but also might be an aunt or a sister...I have NO idea.

This little anecdote will be about Kadija as so far, she is my favorite family member. She is 4 years old and has little beads in her hair and wears blue jeans. I would otherwise be able to understand her simple French were she not a human flute. Her speech is sooooo fast and sooooo high pitched that I am better off guessing what she is saying that listening...

Last night, she spent the entire evening in my lap, poking my skin and freckles. She asked if they were Henne (Henna tattoos) and I told her no, they were natural and the sun made them. Of course, this made her jaw drop. She was also enthralled with my slight sunburn and my blue eyes.

Later, she tinkered with my watch and its light-up and beep functions. My Clown Tent bracelet was also a hit, but was taken away when she yanked on it on my wrist.

Essentially, Kadija played with every single thing I was wearing. I was a veritable toy. We watched about 2 hours worth of TV, talked about bug spray, tied ribbons around our fingers, and kicked her little brother off the couch.

Little kids are the same everywhere...

Sweat

Bonjour tout le monde:

I have arrived in Dakar! We came in at 5:30 this morning (Sunday) and it was still dark out. I expected to go to sleep immediately and for it to get dark many hours later, but nonetheless the sun popped right out of the ocean and into the sky. I slept from 8 am until about 1, had curry for breakfast (lunch) then ventured out into the muggy heat for about twenty minutes.

The walk from our auberge (hostel) to the Atlantic Ocean took about...5 minutes. Twenty minutes later we were hot, drenched in sweat, and sleepy again and returned to our rooms.

There are kitties everywhere! Although for some reason I have been advised not to touch them... :/

Tomorrow we begin orientation/actually doing things. I hope to take my camera around with me, so hope for some picture some time soon!

And......this is slowly becoming and art blog.

Meowr

Louis, the fine, lovable pet of one C. Nortron.

Art Work Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/schristinaueler/

By popular demand.

I will post all my photos of artwork here so that you may enjoy them at you own whim...

This is why we can't have nice things...for dinner

Artists: ages 6-21

An update about life before Africa:

Things I've seen or made or played or eaten or drank or done or bought or been asked or found:

Birds and bugs in Eugene. Bicycle rides that last for hours. Cajun tots and a Ruby. 7-pages papers about kitchen rags. Disposable camera. Climbing the columns. Nagging Jess. Stalling the Subaru. Baking every-berry-you-can-think-of pie.

Scolding misbehaving 12-year-olds. Cutting up toilet paper rolls late into the night. Children who make papier mache gas masks. The game of tag for the first time in 10 years. What color is a cantaloupe? 6-year-olds are artists, too.

Shots in the arm. A bright yellow visa stamp. Donated my hair. Longer skirts. J'ai besoin de practiquer mon francais! Malaria prophylaxis. Travel-sized computer. God's Bits of Wood. One very long airplane ticket.

(Pictures of meat screenprints can be found above.)