Kai lek! (Come and eat!). OK, so it's not your typical greeting, but it's pretty frequently used as such here! Food and hospitality are very much part of the culture here, and absolutely everyone here tries to feed you, especially if you happen to be around at lunchtime. This is the case to such an extent that when we went to the coast last weekend, we dropped in at an art shop and weren't allowed to leave until we'd eaten lunch! We've also had the cyber cafe, street boutiques and random strangers trying to feed us - and the fact that you've already eaten/have plans to eat soon is no excuse whatsoever. It's definitely one of the things I'll miss! (Since I wrote this about 5mins ago, the guy who runs the cyber cafe has brought me over a free orange juice and ham sandwich...case in point!)

I also wanted to say something about the 'talibe' children (something I wont miss...), as this is what Rebecca's placement is mostly about and a huge problem here. The tradition of talibes started in the villages when parents would entrust their sons to the local 'marabout' - religious leader - who would give them an Islamic/anamist education in return for them helping out on his farm. The children would also go house to house reciting the Koran and be given donations by the community to help fund their schooling. However, the current form of talibe centres sees the children being sent out begging on the street - often being given a daily quota to meet or face a beating. They are usually poorly looked after, and many don't get any form of education outside a Koranic/anamist one (and some don't even get that.) Many of the children are Senegalese, whose parents cannot afford to keep them at home or believe they are sending their children to a better life in the city. However, others have been traffiked from all over west africa. Rebecca works for 'Empire des Enfants' who taken in talibe children who have escaped their marabouts (along with other 'lost' chidren) and which works with the UN to try and re-unite the boys with their families. The main problem is that all this is socially acceptable: the harsh conditions are supposed to make the children into 'strong men'; the begging teaches them humility and gives the rest of the community an opportunity to practise charity; the beatings teach them obediance. UNICEF estimats that there are about 10,000 talibechildren in Dakar and up to 100,000 across the rest of the country. The other problem is that the marabout are enormously powerful politically - everyone consults them on almost everthing from new jobs, to money problems to which way to vote. The children are seen as the property of the marabout and some charities who have tried to encourage the children to leave have been charged with kidnapping.

Religion itself is such a complicated subject here that I wont go into detail - but the country is approx 5% Christian, 90% Muslim and 5% other. However, the Islam is so mixed with traditional anamist religions and witchcraft is absolutely everywhere.

I'm running out of internet time, so I'll have to leave the rest of the cultural explanations for another time. There's so much more I could talk about - relationships here for example are fascinating. It seems though that whenever I think I have a handle on one aspect of the culture or another, I'll learn something that changes my views completely! So how accurate my observations are is anyones guess...

Apologies for a rather depressing blog entry this time round, but I really wanted to explain some of this before I get back!

Looking forward to seeing you all very very soon!

Lots of love, xxx