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