'Wallace Stegner wrote forty-seven years ago that “Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed,” and something else will go out of us if the resourcefulness, rootedness, and richness of rural culture disappears.'
- Rebecca Solnit
What rural resourcefulness are you observing in Senegal? She uses rootedness in a positive light, but perhaps that's a rose-colored view on what others would describe as trapped or immoveable?

Yesterday I happened to sit next to two women who impressed me. First, a Senegalese professor of African literature who teaches and writes about women in Senegalese society. She married before she finished high school, and had her first child at 18. Her daughter is now 42, making her 60. She went to France to earn her PhD. Did she go alone, were her children grown? I didn't ask. She was careful and articulate with her words, but there were such incongruous lines of thought, I didn't know where to place her. When she started studying literature, Senegal was freshly independent from the French. There was "no" African literature, so started with French. She told me this as a fact, but didn't express judgement. She said to me: "Women and men in Senegal have equal access to opportunities, these days, there is no problem. It is only that the women have to continue with the housework, so they have less time for research and their own projects. Instead of getting married at 18, they now wait until 23 - 25. You would be shocked at the expectations that Senegalese men have for their girlfriends. But in the case of foreign women, Senegalese men understand that they have their freedoms". I wondered, do Senegalese men really understand the relative freedom of western women? Accepting without thought or consideration and understanding are two very different things. (Especially when there is monetary motivation to accept). If they could understand would they adjust their moral grounding, would they be inspired to change? If women don't have such a loud of a voice in Senegal, how can Senegalese men ever grow to understand? I had been thinking to myself that so much is based in education. Yet this educated professor choreographed a graceful distinctly non contentious dance around an inherently contentious topic, which is the focus of her professional career. Is there an intellectual dishonesty in that? Was it humbleness that prevented her from admitting the challenges she overcame? But by not giving significance to the challenges she faced, was she politely writing off huge and structural problems in Senegal? Or was it me that did not understand, perhaps the logic to her carefully structured strategy, but to what end? Second, another mother, an African American here at the language center with her daughter. They attend the same college in Massachusettes, each earning their BA. Mother in International Studies, daughter in Environmental Science. They found a way to study abroad together.

Garlic is never questionable! Always yes, always yes. Peanuts, we see, have their time and place and are not for cracking fresh orthodontia. Bay leaves and Baileys, both can be brought camping, but not used together. Cracked crab pairs with butter, but crabs make their own. Are spices good for you? I mean beyond adding to life generally? Cinnamon dresses a spicy stir fry so well. Crisp celery adds structure without flavor, but preserves well and improves its neighboring vegetables. Food is way of talking about being alive while talking about something specific.

Garlic! And what of onions? There is a national dish, Yassa, which is onions, salt pepper spices, over rice. One part onions, one part rice. When will Senegal be ready for an onion festival of such proportions? In Wolof, the word for "garlic", and "question" are the same

A trip to the dentist today, to translate for a friend. The fish tank gives me comfort, as does the stack of magazines, and dull art. I pass the time looking at light dental reading. All the teeth are numbered, but start at eleven. What happened to one through ten? I try to imagine a child with ten baby teeth, five up and five below. Ah ha, the dentist arrives and he is French. He speaks enough English to say "We glue it. Pay later". Without thinking, I offer my friend peanuts on the way home.

"When I say friends I mean friends. Not anybody and everybody can be your friend. It must be someone as close to you as your skin, someone who imparts color, drama, meaning to your life, however snug and secure it may be."
- Henry Miller

"There must be an art to sharing your neuroses with someone else without frightening them away but showing your human weakness." "I think that's love"