Mood for Senegal
Two weeks in Brussels have passed by so quickly - it also means that already one tenth of my traineeship period at the European Commission has been completed. Have to say that I am still overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this whole machinery of European development cooperation. From next week on, I am supposed to "replace" for a month one of our office workers who is moving to a EU delegation in the Philippines. That includes functioning as the expert on conflict prevention issues: I know the basic content of SSR (security sector reform), LRRD (linking relief, rehabilitation and development), SALW (Small Arms and Light Weapons), and some other nice abbreviations I have learnt so far, but it does not make me an expert...we'll see if I need to do something else besides taking notes in meetings.
After work there is the limited amount of freetime in Brussels, which I have mostly been spending with other stagiaires. On my own I have been going to cinema, and it has lately been orientated towards Senegal in one way or another - partly by coincidence, partly because of my interest. I went to two different independent arthouse cinemas: Flagey (10 minute walk from my home) and Cinema Arenberg in the centre, near Grand Place.
In Flagey we were only an audience of dozen people in a big theater, and the film was called "Les Tremblements Lointains", directed by a Belgian, Manuel Poutte, but filmed in Senegal. It dealt with the more-than-common phenomenon of migration from Senegal to Europe, meeting of cultures, but changed in the end into a psychological/spiritual journey towards the heart of darkness, or something like that. I quite liked the film - had no expectations, really, but went to see it because of its posters all around the city.
Another film with a slight connection to Senegal was an American film called "Goodbye Solo", directed by Ramin Bahrani whose other films I definitely want to see after seeing this one. Goodbye Solo is a story about a Senegalese taxi driver who is trying to make his fortune in a small town in the US (and eventually to become a flight attendant...), and his encounter with an old, American white man. Both characters are so real, and actors simply amazing. Highly recommended. Both the action and the plot are less important than the interaction between these two men from totally different backgrounds. The film deals with life, death, suicide, American culture, immigration...very moving.
Today I was also supposed to go to a Senegalese dance (sabar) workshop, but, hmm, I slept a bit too late and will have to try again in one month when the next sabar dance class will be organized. I had an initiation to sabar in Helsinki a few months ago, and it felt really difficult compared to other types of African dances I have been doing. But having a challenge is great, so I definitely want to continue learning!
Why all this talk about Senegal? Because - if everything goes well - I will spend at least 6 months there starting from next March. I will be volunteering for an environmental project of the Finnish Scouts, implemented by an NGO under the Senegalese Scouts. This Etvo volunteer programme is administered by Kepa, the Finnish umbrella organization for NGOs working with development issues. The exact place is Mboro, some 100 kilometres from Dakar and is situated here according to the Google map. Pretty exciting, and a welcomed change after reading through all these piles of strategy papers on development cooperation projects and programmes: to actually participate in one!
One last link in the end, to a BBC article on the young Senegalese men willing to risk their lives for migrating to Europe: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8251029.stm. Quotes from the article tell why: "I used to be able to work in Italy for just one month and earn enough money to spend the rest of the year living it up in Senegal", or: "They just see people returning from a few months in Europe and then building a flash house and driving a nice car and they think: 'I had better go and check this crisis out for myself,'" Issa told me, adding that even if you worked as a civil servant for 15 years you would struggle to match that."
After work there is the limited amount of freetime in Brussels, which I have mostly been spending with other stagiaires. On my own I have been going to cinema, and it has lately been orientated towards Senegal in one way or another - partly by coincidence, partly because of my interest. I went to two different independent arthouse cinemas: Flagey (10 minute walk from my home) and Cinema Arenberg in the centre, near Grand Place.
In Flagey we were only an audience of dozen people in a big theater, and the film was called "Les Tremblements Lointains", directed by a Belgian, Manuel Poutte, but filmed in Senegal. It dealt with the more-than-common phenomenon of migration from Senegal to Europe, meeting of cultures, but changed in the end into a psychological/spiritual journey towards the heart of darkness, or something like that. I quite liked the film - had no expectations, really, but went to see it because of its posters all around the city.
Another film with a slight connection to Senegal was an American film called "Goodbye Solo", directed by Ramin Bahrani whose other films I definitely want to see after seeing this one. Goodbye Solo is a story about a Senegalese taxi driver who is trying to make his fortune in a small town in the US (and eventually to become a flight attendant...), and his encounter with an old, American white man. Both characters are so real, and actors simply amazing. Highly recommended. Both the action and the plot are less important than the interaction between these two men from totally different backgrounds. The film deals with life, death, suicide, American culture, immigration...very moving.
Today I was also supposed to go to a Senegalese dance (sabar) workshop, but, hmm, I slept a bit too late and will have to try again in one month when the next sabar dance class will be organized. I had an initiation to sabar in Helsinki a few months ago, and it felt really difficult compared to other types of African dances I have been doing. But having a challenge is great, so I definitely want to continue learning!
Why all this talk about Senegal? Because - if everything goes well - I will spend at least 6 months there starting from next March. I will be volunteering for an environmental project of the Finnish Scouts, implemented by an NGO under the Senegalese Scouts. This Etvo volunteer programme is administered by Kepa, the Finnish umbrella organization for NGOs working with development issues. The exact place is Mboro, some 100 kilometres from Dakar and is situated here according to the Google map. Pretty exciting, and a welcomed change after reading through all these piles of strategy papers on development cooperation projects and programmes: to actually participate in one!
One last link in the end, to a BBC article on the young Senegalese men willing to risk their lives for migrating to Europe: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8251029.stm. Quotes from the article tell why: "I used to be able to work in Italy for just one month and earn enough money to spend the rest of the year living it up in Senegal", or: "They just see people returning from a few months in Europe and then building a flash house and driving a nice car and they think: 'I had better go and check this crisis out for myself,'" Issa told me, adding that even if you worked as a civil servant for 15 years you would struggle to match that."
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