a couple construction and mardi gras photos

Photobucket Album

Last one for a while!

Hello and goodbye for a while!
Tomorrow (Friday) I leave for Kedougou so I decided to update before leaving. Last I updated was Sunday (which feels like yesterday) so I guess I’ll begin with Monday…

Monday: We had classes as usual, and I came home to a pretty much empty house. I’ve been seeing Moussa, my 26-year-old homestay brother, more and more often. He lives in the same house but in a different part; I was under the impression that he had a wife and some kids but apparently he is just friends with younger kids. So I talked with him a bit, it’s difficult to talk to him while Adji is around because apparently they haven’t talked in years because of some gender hierarchy difficulties. Anyway that was nice to get to know another member of the family, he’s funny and jokes around with me a lot but I think he can be really intense. So we’ll see how that goes.

Tuesday: Honestly I don’t remember. It’s the one day I didn’t write in my journal for some reason, I just don’t think anything too exciting happened. I know we had classes…but other than that I’m sad to say it’s lost to me. Oh, but it was mardi gras, and all the little kids dress up here for mardi gras: the girls dress as heavily-made-up princesses and the boys as old men. I'm posting a couple pictures my brother took and I stole from him :)

Wednesday: In the morning we learned about our Kedougou village homestays!!!
There are 6 different rural villages in which students will stay (and keep in mind that this information was told to us, some might be confused/incorrect/incomplete):
-Diakhanke: A muslim village of the Mandinka tribe, located in Samecouta, about 9 kilometers outside Kedougou, near the Gambian river. Main activities include fishing and gardening. This village isn’t as conservative as the others; the women have access to education and it’s not as traditional/primitive as some others. There is also a mosque and a primary school.
-Diallonke: Another muslim village of the Mandinka tribe, also located near the river, near the Campement in Kedougou. Only educated men and young girls speak French.
-Bedik: Two Christian/animist villages of the Sub Guinean tribe, located about 15k outside of Kedougou in Banda fassi (one at the top of a mountain (Etchwar) and one at the bottom (Indar)). It is one of the most primitive/remote/isolated villages, though we were told that there is an electricity generator (so I’m confused as to why it’s the most primitive if it’s the only one with electricity…)! Women here generally go topless and the people are very active, especially in Etchwar; every day they go up and down the mountain fetching water.
-Bassari: A Christian/animist village of the Sub-Guinean tribe located about 18 k outside of Kedougou in Ibel. All the last names in this village begin with B: Boubane, Bediar, Bienkerich, Bendia). They are known for their weavers/artisans and their homemade wine/beer. According to Bouna, they “eat everything that flies…except a kite, of course.” (P.S. I love Bouna. He’s kind of like, for those of you who know what I’m talking about, a friendlier, bubblier Mr. Cillo.)
-Peul Bande: A newer muslim village of the nomadic Poulaar tribe, located in Baindai Kodi, about 18 k outside Kedougou. They are mostly shepherds and farmers, as well as polygamists.
-Peul Fouta: A muslim village of the Poulaar group, located in Sinthiere Roudji, about 3k outside Kedougou. It’s similar to Peul Bande except more densely populated.
We picked our villages out of a hat, and I was kind of leaning towards one of them but it’s hard to decide which village to live in with this little information. Regardless, I randomly picked the one I was leaning towards: Bedik! I think I’ll choose to live at the top of the mountain in Etchwar, but either way I think I’ll have a really interesting experience. I didn’t realize, though, that this was the village with electricity, so that’s a little disappointing that it won’t be as primitive. But I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll be with one other student (I think in the same house, but if not definitely in the same village).
Anyway, after learning about our villages and seeing a few pictures we learned a bit about the Senegalese education system and had from lunch on free. Erin and I got hamburgers (my first since I’ve been here!) and then went to Ouakam to check out Atelier Columbin: a pottery studio that took in handicapped/disabled people and taught them to do ceramics. It was really cute and little and we got a demonstration from a deaf man. If I end up doing something to do with therapeutic arts for my ISP I’m definitely going to incorporate this workshop!
Afterwards we went to Marché HLM, the biggest fabric market in Dakar. I bought some pretty fabric and my homestay mom said she’d make me a dress! I drew her a picture of the basic design I want, so we’ll see what happens with that. I promise that I’ll post pictures if it actually gets made ☺. I went to bed really late because Adji left for Morocco—her plane was at 1am so I stayed up to see her off, I couldn’t believe how little time she left for going through security etc (she left at around 12:20am). It’ll certainly be different around here without her, but maybe in a good way. I feel like I’m already forced to talk more with the family, which (so far) has been great!
Thursday: Today was our last day of classes before departure for the villages so I think people were kind of restless. My Wolof teacher wasn’t there so we took our quiz and played Wolof hangman/charades. Then French class, and afterwards a couple of previous SIT students were visiting (they now live/assistant-teach in France) so they explained their ISPs and their experiences in general, and were open to questions. After classes I walked home, bought some avacados, and ran into Papa Ndaiye—the man who I met the first day of my homestay, who gave me a tour of the Ouakam Marché. I’m still not sure exactly who he is, but he’s very nice and, unlike other men, just wants to talk—not marry. So it was fun to see him again, and then I came home and packed for Kedougou!

I apologize if this all seems repetitive/unimportant; I guess I’m just not really sure what people want to hear about and what they don’t so I write about everything.

Well, that’s it for now and maybe for a while, thank you to those people who have been contacting me—it’s so great to hear from you!!! I return to Dakar March 7th, so until then, amusez-vous!

Nuyul ma waa kër ga!
(Say hello to your family for me!)
and now you say:
Ninañu ko dëgg!
(They’ll hear it!)

Man, maangi dekk ci Ouakam.

Asalaamaleekum, friends! I have been taking photos like crazy, I’m glad to be back in that habit. I also took some videos which might be posted soon, depending on my amount of free time. Here is what I’ve been up to: (to what I have been up? Shoot, preposition jar either way!)

Wednesday: The whole morning was spent giving presentations about Urban Art in Senegal. Each person (or small group) had to pick some form of Urban Art in Senegal and find out as much as possible about it by asking locals for information/opinions, observing the art, possibly trying it, researching, etc. I was with Erin and Clare and we did our project on Senegalese fabrics; they concentrated on the weavers of Senegal and I was more researching the symbolization of colors/designs and what women could wear as opposed to men. It gave everyone practice interviewing, collecting information and presenting information—everything we’re doing now is basically trying to prepare us for our Independent Study Project (which is rapidly approaching, surprisingly enough!) In the afternoon we had more dance/djembe workshops, and then a bunch of us went to a lecture at the French Cultural Center. In Senegal apparently, for each Family name, there is a little joke that goes along with it. So when someone greets a Diop, for example, they may say, “Oh, Diop, are you hungry?” Because Diops are known to eat a lot. We were under the impression that the lecture would teach us more about this practice, but the second it started everyone became extremely tired and uninterested. (The speaker just read a paper, looked up once in a very great while, and answered questions at the end.) It was just too much for a lot of us to try to comprehend. When I got home the power was out—which meant the TV didn’t work!! I thought maybe that would be a good opportunity to make conversation, without the distraction of the TV, but people seemed to just want to sit and be silent. When the power came back on around 10:15 PM dinner was prepared and I was très fatigué so I went to bed right afterwards.

Thursday: We had our last dance and djembe workshops, which was sad ☹ but I videotaped parts of both so hopefully you will get the chance to watch them and laugh at us! Of course the day I video taped dance we didn’t do the dance we already knew, but rather learned a new one in an hour and had to perform the whole thing at the end. But laugh all you want, it was FUN.
I got home pretty early and Adji said we were going to her sister’s house across town. I was excited because this was the first time we ever got to visit another house! I also learned, on our walk, how to get to Cité Avion, where a couple other students live. We walked for 20-30 minutes and arrived at what looked like a normal Senegalese house from the outside, but inside was HUGE and very fancy. I was told that there are six living rooms, and was invited anytime to go over and do my homework or hang out because they have so much extra space. They brought me up onto the terrace, where they had 6 scary huge goats with curly horns, and then they brought me up another level where you could see the city skyline and the airport. There were two little girls: Adiji (8) and Amico (10) who really loved to ask me questions, teach me Wolof and try out their little English. I think they were skeptical that I actually knew English because they kept testing me: One girl would say, “Okay, tell me what number I’m saying, in French.
Amico: [super-strong Sengalese accent, in English:] One.”
Me: “Un.”
Amico: Two.
Me: Deux.
Amico: Three.
Me: Trois.
Amico: Five.
Me: Cinq.
Really, Amico, do you think I don’t know my numbers in English? Trying to trick me by skipping four? Nice try. Anyway, they were really fun and talked SO MUCH so I got to practice my French a lot. There’s also a boy, Papado (12) who offered (well, not so much “offered,” I’ll explain in a minute*) to run to my house and walk me over to his house whenever I wanted.
*Young boys here, in training to become men, are basically bossed around and expected to do everything in a household, even if it is not their household. Whenever Popado or Badou (another 12-yr-old nephew) are here, they are running to fetch laundry, food, etc., cleaning up trash, giving up their seats to others—it’s a little hard to get used to but it’s just one of those things that I don’t really understand and it’ll take a while to accept. I know that’s the norm here and I have no right to think that American culture is doing things right while other cultures are not, some parts of this culture are just so different from what I’ve been brought up with, it’s difficult to change my values/beliefs of over 20 years in the 3 weeks that I’ve been here. Enough cultural critique, Emily. *
Anyhow we stayed at Mariam’s house (Adji is actually Adji Mariam, this sister is actually something like Moom Mariam) for dinner, we had a yummy mutton soup (I got my own plate and silverware!) and then took a taxi home on the worst road I’ve ever even considered driving on, one-lane with oncoming traffic and potholes the size of hippos. The driving here, if I’ve not already mentioned it, is TERRIFYING.

Friday: I went to L’île de Gorée, the island where the slaves were kept before being shipped to the Americas. Just after leaving the port a woman on the boat had a seizure, it was really scary and it made me think how difficult it would be to have an emergency in Senegal, not being fluent in French and not knowing medical practices here. Luckily there was a doctor there and the woman was okay, but the boat turned around and she was carried off to go to a hospital. Once we got going again the boat ride was beautiful, the ocean was very choppy so we got splashed a lot even though we were upstairs. Gorée was very, very touristy but it was so interesting to walk through the inhabited areas; it made me wonder how different life is for those Senegalese trying to live traditionally surrounded by vendors and toubabs. We went to the Maison des Esclaves (house of slaves), which was a bit disturbing. I walked through the rooms where children were separated from their parents, where people were chained, half naked and in awful conditions, only allowed to go to the toilet once a day…it was a beautiful little house but I couldn’t help thinking about what it meant to people in the past. We went to a couple more museums and ate lunch, and then had 45 minutes just to walk around. I decided to forget sunscreen on the one day we were actually going to be outside, so I was pretty red in the face by the time we left. Adji re-named me: Madame Rouge. When I got home and was thinking how disturbing the woman with the seizure was, and how disturbing the maison des esclaves was, another disturbance popped up! Kewe, my 3-yr-old niece, all of a sudden started bawling and slapping her own face, yelling, “Leave me! Leave me!” In Wolof. I was so afraid that she was having some sort of seizure as well until Adji burst out laughing and told me that Kewe had stuck a little bean up her nose and couldn’t get it out.

Saturday: What a fun-packed, tiring day!!! We rode the bus for 2+ hours to get to Bandia, a wildlife reserve that hosts only herbivores (no lions, darn). I’ll post pictures, but just to get an idea we saw red and green monkeys, giraffes, pretty birds, rhinos, gazelles, antelopes, crocodiles…it was pretty exciting. Afterwards we went to this BEAUTIFUL oasis place called Campement Ndaali, where we will end up in May doing our ISP presentations for the last 5 days of our trip (starting, I think, on my birthday!). We ate a much-needed lunch and spent a couple hours on the beach, and then headed back to SIT. The traffic was horrible but we made it on time to the Senegalese “Ballet,” which is a very long story in itself. We were told before going that this performance wasn’t a big deal, it was free and there wouldn’t be much of a crowd; upon arriving, though, we found out that it was a Gala event and many important people were there. Everyone was very dressed up (they always are here, but even more so) and before I tried to get in, some of my classmates were told they couldn’t go in because they were not dressed properly. To make a very, very long story short, we got our Djembe teacher, Mamadou Fall (who was actually in the show we were going to see) to tell the bouncers that we were welcome there, we were led to a tiny waiting room and sat with two Senegalese women for over half an hour, and then were finally let in after the show started, but made to go upstairs. That was fine with me: we got front-row balcony seats and could see very well. The show was inexplicable, very African, not a “ballet” at all. There were probably 50 different dancers in colorful African costumes, some in very traditional, tribal wear and others in more modern dress, there were djembe players and a line of 11 kora players, there was a little kid who was SO cute and had a dance solo—there’s just no way to explain what it was like, I’m sorry! At one point there were 5 male dancers on stage with big poofy pants that looked really neat when they danced, and suddenly the pants of the guy in the front of the stage were on the floor—I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. Then a couple minutes later, another guy lost his pants! It was ridiculous, but they just continued. Our whole class was going to go out dancing afterwards but everyone was way too tired, so we just went home and slept.

Sunday: Nothing really of interest; I did some more laundry, I talked a lot with Adji (who was telling me I don’t talk enough and people think I’m mad at them when I don’t talk…long story. I explained that if people don’t talk to me it’s hard to know that they want to, and when they speak Wolof all the time it seems like they might not want me to be part of the conversation, and I don’t want to interrupt a Wolof conversation to say, every other word, “What are you talking about?”, etc. She seemed to understand some of my points but wasn’t willing to agree that it was hard to start a conversation in French when everyone’s always yelling in Wolof.) Anyway we looked through her photo album and mine and talked a bunch, I learned how to make jus de buy (juice with Baobob fruit)…yup, that’s about it.

So hopefully, if anything interesting happens, I'll update before Thursday--If not, I won't be updating for quite some time because we're leaving for our first Village stay in Kedougou (the South-East corner of Senegal). It will be over 100 degrees every day, no running water or electricity...so I'll let you know how that goes!! I hope everything in the U.S. is going well!!!

Excursion to Bandia: Safari!

Photobucket Album

Photobucket Album

Senegalese Dance Demo

Kora/Djembe demonstration

Photo Update: family

Photobucket Album

Weekend Update and Music Workshops

As you may have noticed, I’m really bad at thinking of titles. It’s one of my biggest weaknesses.

 

Anyway, hello there readers of my blog! Long time no talk! Speaking of that, I apologize in advance for the amount of time that occurs between my future posts; we’re just getting busier and busier it seems, and the beginning of workshops/rural village stays/presentations/assignments is not going to aid in my ability to post blogs.

 

In other news, I left off with the beach last Wednesday. Since then much has happened, let’s put my memory to the test.

 

Thursday: After an uneventful day at school I decided to share a taxi home with some people who live near me—to cut the cost and to avoid being alone with a taxi driver (my fears of such an event finally came true, I’ll explain in the “Monday” section.) Avery was planning to get off at a university that is on the way to our houses where a friend from home is studying abroad, and Alex and I were invited to come along if we wanted. The driver decided at first not to listen to our directions at ALL and brought us to the wrong university, so we ended up paying more for him to bring us to the right place. Unfortunately, though, Avery didn’t see the university as we passed it and we ended up walking for about half an hour, backtracking to find it. Once we got there we met up with a bunch of other toubabs (white people) and played Frisbee and discussed our African adventures (they’ve been here 2 weeks longer than us so we got a few tips). We played with a couple little boys who wanted to join in our Frisbee game, so that was cute. I got home late and took some pictures of my family (or rather my sister took pictures of her family), ate dinner and went to bed.

 

Friday: Half of our class took a field trip to L’Ile de Gorée (which I’ll be doing this Friday) and my half went to the Musée l’IFAN. It was pretty interesting, it was very tiny for a museum and we only stayed for about an hour. There were a lot of mannequins displaying traditional African ceremonies/masks/costumes, those were frightfully real and were definitely my favorite part of the museum. Afterwards I went with a few girls downtown to check out the market and get lunch. Later I took a “car rapide” for the first time, which is a big van-thing (half have really intricate murals painted on them, half are white—the white ones are called “njagga njaay” but are exactly the same) PACKED with people. It costs 20 cents (American) to get from my school to my house; by taxi it’s over $2 for the 15-minute ride. The only drawback I see for the car rapide is fear of theft, so I’ll probably just put locks on my backpack and start saving some money! Everyone was supposed to go out dancing but the people with whom I was going to share a taxi all decided not to, and I was very happy to just go to bed. Oh, and I got a cold.

 

Saturday: Weekends in a Senegalese household mean a LOT of just sitting around and relaxing. I’ve been told it’s partially because it’s “winter” here and people don’t go out much when it’s “cold” (cold meaning 70s to 80s every day and always sunny), but it seems like weekends are just a time to be with family. I asked if I could help a little with the cooking and dishes and my family let me! I cooked French Fries (which are a part of almost every meal) and crushed a bunch of spices with a giant mortar and pestle. I also touched a pepper that is very very hot and was immediately told to wash my hands with soap. I’m not sure if it was because they thought it would burn my skin or because we eat with our hands and the taste would linger…but I did wash my hands and nothing eventful happened.

 

Sunday: I did my laundry!!! This was an all-day process. It began with me asking my sister to teach me, and my mother telling me to go buy a packet of soap from the boutique next door. I went to leave and my sister yelled, take Kewe with you! I thought, okay, they want the 3-year-old to get out of the house for a minute and do something exciting—but no. They wanted the 3-year-old to talk to the cashier for me and buy my soap, because I’m helpless. (I think they just figured I would get charged too much because I’m white, so I guess I’m thankful for Kewe’s help.) Anyway laundry was fun, I have blisters but at least I know how to do it now. And I smell better.

 

Monday: The day began with my taxi ride. I argued with the driver over the price (as one does every time before they get into the taxi) and it was pretty animated, but I ended up getting the price I wanted. He had no idea where he was going so I had to show him every turn and correct him when he made a guess. I thought he was really annoyed with me but he turned around after one of my corrections and said, I love you. I just kind of ignored him, so he said it again. I said thank you. He then kept saying it, and saying something about marriage—I thought he was asking if I was married, so I kept responding, yes, I’m married. I’m not sure that’s what he was actually asking though, because after I responded he’d ask again…I always feel confused here but I think it helped me in this situation because it kind of stalled him from trying to make a relationship with me. I asked him to stop when I was pretty close to the school and I got out. He told me he loved me one last time and blew me a kiss. I ignored him and handed him the money, and walked in toward the school. He followed me slowly with his car. I didn’t want him to know where I was going, so I passed the school and went to a store. Sadly it was early enough that all the stores were closed, so I just made it look like I was looking for the hours. He waited. After I ignored him long enough he blew one last kiss and drove away. I don’t want to take taxis anymore.

On a more positive note, we started our dance/djembe workshops!!! I absolutely LOVE to just be able to lose my thoughts in the music and really give myself to art. We’re being taught by very famous people who are both very unique and hilarious in their own ways. For djembe we sat in a semi-circle and practiced “domba” and “lamba,” the first two rhythms, while our teacher and another man drummed, and a man who looked and acted frightfully similar to someone I know in the U.S. just sat and gave encouraging smiles and thumbs-ups. I really enjoy playing and was encouraged when our teacher pointed me out to say I was doing things right! Dance took place in a small, very warm room with similarly hilarious/awkward drummers and our teacher, Touti, who is very intense and…I’m not sure of words to describe her. Hopefully update on that later.

 

Tuesday: I took the car rapide to school (actually I lied, it was the njagga njaay). For lunch I finally went to this place that might be called “Restaurant” or “Plat du jour” or it might not have a name. But it’s just this one table in a little hut (it seats about 12 people) and a very excited friendly man who cooks the food. He serves a different dish every day, it’s all you can eat for under $2. Today we had my FAVORITE Senegalese meal: Yaasa Poulet. We ate of big trays shared between 3 people each, it was wonderful and cheap and a really neat experience. We had our workshops again, my knuckles are bruised from djembe and my quads are sore from dance, but it’s a good, accomplished kind of pain. Afterwards I worked with my group to finish our presentation on Senegalese fabrics, which we will present Wednesday morning.

And now it is Tuesday night. I just saw the weather on TV and I have to say it was very, very weird to picture myself on that map instead of the usual map of New England.

 

Ba Beneen Yoon,

EmilyJ

Photos!

Photobucket Album

Pictures!

Helloooo everyone,

I decided it takes way too long to upload photos to the blog, so you can access them by clicking the "Photobucket Album" picture in the post above. Once there, you can click on each picture separately to see them full size, or go to "grid" in the top right, click on the first one, and then you can use the arrows on either side of the picture to shuffle through them. Let me know if it doesn't work, but if it does that's how I'll be doing it from now on.

Otherwise...today we had a free day so we all went to the beach! It was b-e-a-utiful and I'm just very tired and sunned-out. Classes started on Monday and are going well, I really like my Wolof class. It's interesting to learn a language that's so different from anything I've ever spoken or even heard. 

Last night I watched my family's cat eat a fish head, it was a little disturbing. But other than that nothing very exciting has happened. 

I am now "oriented"

I finally got my internet to work at school!! Hopefully pictures to come in the near future...

I'm beginning to realize how difficult it's going to be to maintain a blog! Let's see, what have I been up to...

Thursday we did the "drop-off," where we were put into small groups and sent to different areas of the downtown and given a list of questions that we had to ask people. We didn't concentrate so much on the questions as on our surroundings--we went to a traditional African market, which was, for lack of any way to describe the real experience, was AMAZING. Hundreds and hundreds of people selling their goods, which ranged from fabric, scarves, jewelry, shoes (soooo many shoes), and instruments to dried pounded whole fish, baobob fruit, crocodile heads, whole dead parrots, technological instruments, converters, books.....it just seemed to go on forever. I have to say that's in my top two or three favorite experiences so far!! 

Friday we started French classes and then had a demonstration of African musical instruments: the djembe, kora, and tama, and a demonstration of traditional dance by a very famous dancer here. That was really fun and interesting, I took videos so depending on internet connectivity/my free time I might post a clip or two. We then departed for the Village des Arts, where I'm really hoping to live for my ISP period!! We saw a demonstration of pottery and talked to the professors of batik, bronze sculpture and sous-verre glass painting. I'm thinking that I'll do batik for my workshop just because I could learn pottery really easily at home, but batik seems like a really fun opportunity. Friday night we went to our homestay for the first time! My sister showed me around and then everyone kind of left, and I was left alone while everyone was (I think) praying, because Friday is a holy day. A couple people came back for dinner (my mom, dad and nephew) and we ate on the floor with our hands, which was great, and then everyone left again. When they were there, they all spoke Wolof and French only when (occasionally) addressing me.

Saturday we came to school (no, we don't have school every Saturday, we were just debriefing our first homestay nights), and then after our debriefing we went on a bus tour of Dakar. We went to the beach that's the farthest point to the West (hi America! I waved, I could see Florida!), to the Mosqué de la divinité, we saw a fish market and an art market, the president's house...just a lot of things, pretty quick. From about 4-11 I played with the kids: Badou, 12 (nephew), Dior, 8 (neice), and Fallou, 5 (nephew). They go CRAZY over bubbles, and just for attention in general! Man was that tiring. That night I went out with my homestay sister, Adji, which was an interesting experience...I thought she went without me because she kept leaving with her friends, but at like 11 or 12 she came into my room and said "Okay we're going!" And I was SO tired but I figured, it's my first real weekend in Senegal, I'd like to see what Senegalese night life is like...so we went outside and the second we got to the sidewalk she went and got in some guy's car and talked to him for a while, so a couple of her friends and I just sat and waited for her. After a while she came back and we walked a little ways down the street, everyone speaking in Wolof and me just kind of tagging along. It continued like this for several hours, until around 2 when we went to the dance party. It was 2AM and nobody was there yet!!! Apparently parties start really late here. It was a really exclusive, classy dance party (oh yeah, I forgot, my sister teased me about my clothes and said "is THAT in style?" and tried to make me wear her clothes...). We danced until 4 or 5 and then, slowly but surely, after many stalls and a very scary drive, finally got home.

Sunday I slept in and then hung around the house/in the town for the day. Nothing too exciting. And today, Monday, we started classes: Field Studies Seminar, Arts and Culture Seminar (in French, a presentation in French on the history of Senegal's politics), and Wolof.

So anyway I'm tired of writing. But hopefully pictures to come!!!

Ba beneen yoon, 

Emily :)

Fish and Wolof and Homestays, oh my!

Just a taste of what our surroundings look like: 

the street where our hotel is located

the view across the street

Hello all,

So much has happened in the past couple of days, I was going to wait until the end of the week to update but I know I'll forget most of it!

So we've been doing orientation, which involves speaking/hearing a LOT of French and learning about health/safety things, homestay tips/issues, cultural norms, etc...not always through lectures, but through interacting with local people. I guess I'll do a day-by-day overview instead of a jumble of things, but this format may change as time goes on.

Monday: We started orientation, which I will not ramble about because it's nothing exciting. But during one of the breaks, a few of us went for a jog to try to find a water tower where an "aerobics class" of some sort was supposedly being held...but we never even found the water tower. (we later found out it's not a "tower," it's a water "box.") So me and a girl named Erin just kinda wandered around a bit and a kid started following us. He kicked a little rubber ball ahead of us and Erin kicked it back. It quickly turned into a big game of monkey in the middle when kids started flocking towards us, and people kind of rotated in and out as they had to leave. It was a really neat experience--so simple, yet so different from anything I've ever had happen in the U.S.  That night we went to a "jazz club," where we thought maybe sometimes there was live music; turns out we were wrong. There is never live music at the jazz club, it's just a bar that plays jazz sometimes over speakers. So we hung out there for a while.

Tuesday: We took a bus to see our school. It used to be a house so it's not your typical school building--there is one large room that we use for lectures for all 21 of us, and there are two tiny rooms that we use for the classes of around 6 people (language classes). There's a kitchen, two bathrooms, a couple offices, CLEAN WATER!!, and a really cute yard with tropical plants and a hut  :) We ate what I think will be the best meal I'll eat here: Poulet Yassa. And we ate it à la Sénégalaise: sitting on a mat in a circle with one large plate in the middle, each using only our right hand (and no utensils!). It was a lot harder than it sounds, as the food didn't stick together or anything. I will definitely be hosting dinners à la Sénégalaise when I return, so if you want to try, let me know. We also had exasperating French interviews to determine which French class we'd be in. It was difficult because we had to answer questions that we couldn't understand (I'm still getting used to the Senegalese accent) in many tenses, which I forget. Oh, and earlier that morning, to practice our French and our Wolof greetings, we did an exercise where each student was told to pick one object from a pile on the professor's desk, and to go out onto the streets and find out what the object was, why it was significant to Senegalese culture, when/how it is used, who uses it....etc. This was the first time we actually got to practice our Wolof greetings and speaking only French with no English explanations--I was really nervous at the beginning but once my partner and I talked to one person it got much easier. Everyone was very willing to answer our questions and was really friendly. The funny part was the object I picked: bin-bins. I went to an old man and asked what they were, and he said.."A necklace. A beaded necklace." And I thought oh, it must have some significance, so I asked and was told they were, "I don't know, for decoration?" We then found a couple of teen boys and asked them what they were, and they all kindof laughed at me! It turned out they were beads worn under the skirt to seduce men. Of course I'd pick the awkward object. Oh and for dinner we had whole braised fish. They had fangs.

Wednesday: Today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!! AND KYLE!!!) we talked about health and safety a lot, had our first Wolof class,  and I met my homestay sister!!! I'll tell you what I understood from our conversation: She had with her her neice, who is three, and who speaks only Wolof. She is 18 and lives with only her parents (she has a lot of siblings but most are married and one is in Italy, another in France) and has a cat that the exchange student from 2000 left there. Its name is, I think, "peau de chat," or cat skin...which she was trying to tell me was some popular American TV show and couldn't understand why I hadn't heard of it. I hope I was hearing her wrong. (I just can't believe they have a pet!!! I've read that they don't keep pets here.) Anyway her two aunts and some cousins live next door, she has a TV and a fridge and lots of appliances, they eat fish and rice a lot (à la Sénégalaise!), she likes to go out dancing (and I'm welcome to come with her and her friends), ok there was a lot! She was very nice and I think she'll be a really good resource when it comes to asking about French/Wolof or manners. 

And now I am back in my hotel room, going to bed EARLY for once (unless I get too distracted)...

I hope everything's going well in the US of A! Another update soon, I hope!

Ba beneen yoon!

The Arrival!

Hello all,

I have safely arrived in Dakar and was luckily one of the students whose baggage did NOT get lost in Paris or JFK or wherever! Everything has gone smoothly so far, it was a lot of flying/airports/unfulfilling sleep but I'm now in a cute little hotel where we started orientation this morning. I'm still getting used to hearing so much French, and my speaking, as usual, is very broken and unsure...but I think it'll improve quickly. It kind of has to. 

For those of you who know my eating habits, you will be happy to hear that today I ate almost my whole plate of ceebu jen, FISH and rice (the Senegalese national dish). A woman sat near me and asked if I liked it, and I told her "Yes, it's good. I usually don't like fish but it's good." And she said, "Oh, you're a vegetarian." and I tried to explain to her that no, I wasn't a vegetarian but just didn't really like fish...I think she just thought I didn't understand the question. Oh well. 

Not much has happened yet, everyone in my group is very nice and very different from one another so it's great to team up with so many people from different backgrounds. As far as I can tell, though, everyone's an Obama supporter, as are the Senegalese :) There are 21 of us total, with 18 girls and 3 boys. 

Oh and my room here has its own bathroom and shower, which I'm excited to use! They're providing us with clean water for the week, which was a wonderful surprise to me. 

Anyway I don't really have anything interesting to say...but yes I have arrived safely and have food and shelter and clean water so yay! More to come soon hopefully, after something has actually happened. 

Ba beneen yoon,
(Until next time)

Emily