Tick-tock, tick-tock

It's so hard to believe that today is November 17 and I'm leaving Senegal in exactly one month. I'm not really looking forward to it. In all my travels I've never become more attached to a place than here. I've never felt so changed by an experience abroad. I am so calm and content here. Sure, there are things I miss and things that sometimes drive me wild but at the same time- this place has such character. In the US everything is like it's under Big Brother. Here, people are free. You hardly ever see policemen, there aren't speed limits (or traffic laws for that matter), there aren't rules about how to raise children or about how to live your life. People don't have much but they're happy. They have less to give but they give more. There's hardly any crime, there's never been a coup d'etat or a civil war or anything truly violent. People call their neighbors aunts and uncles and cousins. It's like they don't even know the difference.
There is no such thing is the concept of imposition. If you walk by people eating the automatic first thing they say to you is "kaye, lekk" (come eat). This includes absolute strangers. If someone buys a piece of bread or a soda they don't then sit and eat or drink it themselves, they divide it equally among everyone present.
People here help me cross the street. If I get cheated out of money they help me get it back. They ask about all your friends who they've only met one time or sometimes never at all. They call you sister, daughter, suma xarit (my friend). Everyday I get talked to by strangers who want to know where I'm from and how I like Senegal. Sometimes they want to say also that they're in love with you but they're usually not mal-intentioned. You can't blame them for wanting a different life.
Everything here has its ups with its downs. This week I've started working in Family Planning. There're a lot of personnel in the room so I basically just treat it as a research project. I suppose I could do some gyno exams if I asked to but my heart's not going to be broken if I don't get to look into any vaginas. So I've seen a lot of really sad things in the past four days. A lot of women who haven't even earned the right to be called women yet except that they're mothers. They're kids with kids. Girls who haven't even had time to love themselves yet and are now toting around 1 or more children. I saw a 16 year old in her fourth pregnancy. You do the math. There's also always the question "how many kids do you have?" followed by "how many kids deceased?" and it's not uncommon at all for women to have lost at least 1 child.
Then there's the talibe. These are boys that come to Dakar to go to Koranic school; something considered obligatory in Islam. The catch is that most Muslims know that a Koranic education is useless in life and send their kids to an actual school. The exception to this is people who have too many children and can't afford the burden. These families send their kids to the schools to live with marabouts (almost the equivalent of a Catholic priest except it's obtained divinely). The kids are essentially orphaned and spend most of their time begging in the streets for the marabout. If they don't get the amount of money they're required to each day they are beaten. It's incredibly sad and a huge problem because you see the boys anywhere you go. You give and give and you can't do otherwise because you know that they without a doubt are going to use that quarter a lot better than you would've. But, there're always more grungy hands than there are coins in your pocket and you still feel horribly guilty to walk away with any amount of money knowing the need for them is so much greater than it is for you.

There are so many problems here- like Alex, for instance. Alex has a job he goes to five days a week. He fixes computers. He's 28. He's worked there since April getting up every morning at 6 for no pay. This is incredibly common here. Before you can make money you have to put in your time as an apprentice, an intern. It's supposed to be a learning period but Alex used to have his own business. He's knows how to do things that other people at his work don't. People are taken advantage of. They live with their parents until they're married because they have no other choice. Young people have no place to work.
Anyway, I have to go meet a friend and I could go on about the problems here forever. I'll save it for next time.