savagebeasts

On the Streets of Dakar - Saying Goodbye

Michael's Peace Corps contract ends soon, and Rachel starts high school next year, so we're beginning our good-byes to Dakar.  We just got the definite decision about ten days ago that we'll be leaving.  We've finished telling our staff, Rachel has told her friends, and I've told Suffolk.  We'll leave with such tenderness for Senegal and all the people we've met here.  We have been so happy here.

Where are we going?

We don't know yet.  Rachel is applying to a wonderful high school in Portland, Oregon.  I am applying for jobs.  And Michael, always employable, just continues working full time, full speed with all the Peace Corps volunteers he keeps healthy and happy.

Track Meet

For the first time since I've been here, ISD has hosted track meets.  The "meets" are small:  one other school, Dakar Academy comes to run on our track.  But the kids run hard, have fun, and parents gather to watch.  Rachel has won many first places!

Catching up - Salif and Inauguration

So much has happened since my last post, but I'll try to update some important stories and enter a few more posts.  Senegalese students at ENEA (the school where Suffolk rents our space) are on strike today and have blocked the roads, so I've got an unexpected "snow day" and can catch up.

Salif.  First, the NCAA and Salif.  I learned that being an attorney who can search the internet has its benefits.  After calling and emailing the NCAA repeatedly and getting no response, I finally found an attorney in California who had brought a class action suit against the NCAA.  He graciously told me the name of defense attorneys for the NCAA who forwarded my email.

And Voila!  It was like magic.

I got to speak with two live people with authority and information.  I sent them detailed information.  We scheduled a conference call.  Unfortunately, though, they informed me that for Senegalese students the NCAA looks merely at test scores on the baccalaureate exam and not at students' four years of transcripts:  thus, Salif has a 1.8 GPA and not a 2.6 (or even higher).  Unfair, narrow -- certainly.  But I think fighting the NCAA is more challenging than city hall.  So, with a 1.8 GPA, Salif lost any opportunity to play for a Division I school. We were working frantically on this issue, down to the wire.  We were talking to the NCAA a few days before he had the scholarship offer to start school in Florida at a Division I school.  It was a big disappointment.

If he gets a 68 on the ACT, which he has not yet obtained, he will be eligible for a Division II school, but he will have to sit out his first year.  So, he applied to Morehouse, which would be a remarkable school for him, and has emailed Division II schools but has heard not a peep.  He is auditing two of my classes at Suffolk and will take the ACT again on April 4.

Enshallah, he will get the score he needs, be admitted to Morehouse, and be leaving this summer. But we're still waiting.

Other catching up...

Inauguration.  We threw an inauguration party.  Originally, there were no official parties, so we returned to our favorite place, El Toro, for a big screen viewing.  We took a gaggle of girls (pictured) who did their homework while they awaited the inauguration.  One Senegalese Club even threw a big party that night to honor our new President (their sign is pictured).  It was a huge day for the world!