Tabaski

Sorry, I'm getting less and less creative with these posts...So this past Tuesday we celebrated Tabaski which is the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of the hajj to pay tribute to the day that Abraham slaughtered a lamb instead of his son and to go around to friends and family and ask for forgiveness for your sins. At least this is what one of my extended family members explained to me. My family celebrated by slaughtering 8 goats on our roof. Yes, 8. We have a big family. So I got to see every step of the process from the goats wandering around on our terrace to being on my plate, that is definitely the freshest meat I will ever eat. I don't think I'm going to want to eat goat again any time in the near future, not that I particularly liked it anyway. We mostly spent the day watching the males of the family disect the goats and eating large platters of goat meat, heart, and liver. I can't fully appreciate the holiday since I'm not Muslim and it definitely left me craving some Christmas cheer, but it was nice to have the whole family at home in their new outfits. (My tailor has been backed up for weeks, it's a good thing I didn't miss the goats being slaughtered or I would really dislike this holiday.) I have some homework to finish up and then after our exams are over tomorrow we're going away for the night. This time next week I'll be on a plane to the U.S. It has flown by but I'm ready to get home and see my family and take a hot shower. Although, since I was wearing a fleece jacket in 75 degree weather yesterday I really don't think I'm prepared for the cold...

Lampoul Desert

This past weekend my friends and I decided to go to the Lampoul desert, yet another tourist attraction in Senegal that wasn’t really meant to be here but evolved out of creating real African experiences in a more convenient setting for tourists (similar to the Reserve de Bandia). I’m convinced that a few Biafals decided to take out the trees in a five kilometer squared area and create a desert as a tourist attraction. It’s about 4-5 hours away from Dakar depending on traffic and how pressed for time your sept-place drive is; the campement offers a night in a Malian tent, a camel ride, and dinner included in your stay. Even though it was a cleared out part of the Sahel it was still really cool to see since there were huge sand dunes. I came to the conclusion that after growing up right outside of a city I couldn’t handle the real desert; anyway, it was comforting to be able to see trees for at least part of our trek across the dunes. We only went for a night but getting a sept-place was difficult since Tabaski was coming up and for that holiday everyone returns to their rural villages. We also had some trouble getting back to Dakar since we called the man who drove us when we were ready to return and he informed us he was still in Dakar. We had to hire a man from the village of Lampoul to take us to the next Gare Routier and hire another sept-place from there. It all worked out in the end, even after we ran into enormous amounts of traffic coming back because everyone in Senegal was going to buy their goats to slaughter for Tabaski. We returned in time to go to a Hip Hop concert at L’Institute Francais where Awadi performed, he’s kind of a big deal here in Senegal. We also got a picture with him which was great. The highlight was when one of our friends got asked to go dance on stage since she was the only white girl dancing close to the stage, the announcer raved that he had found the next Beyoncé, good thing he didn’t hear her sing.

St. Louis: The First French Settlement in Africa (and it Shows)

This past weekend our program took us on a trip to the island of St. Louis which is about 5 hours north of Dakar depending on how many pot holes you hit and bush bathroom breaks you have to take. We left Friday afternoon and it took us about 6 hours since one of the buses got a flat tire and we were all too eager to take the bus bathroom breaks with 54 people to please. We arrived at our hotel around 8pm which was a cute place on the northern, quieter end of the island called Auberge Louisienne. We saw a hot water heater in our room and got excited, but we soon discovered that things aren’t always as they seem. We ate a late dinner at the hotel then decided to explore the going out options a bit. My friends and I were determined to find out where everyone in the program should go out the following night. We went to a place called Flamingo with live music, it was reggae that night; it was right on the river and the dance floor was an empty swimming pool. We then made a stop at the all-night patisserie, of course we have to find one everywhere we visit since we now have an addiction to late-night sweets runs. We checked out a few more clubs but made it an early night since we had an early wake up call the next morning.
Saturday morning, much to the excitement of one of the girls in our program we went to the Parc National des Oiseaux Djoudj an hour-long bus ride away. This particular student was ranked third nationally in bird watching and requested that we make a stop there. I can’t complain, though it was pretty cool to see. We took a pirogue ride along their river and spotted a few pelicans. On the way back, we stopped in the middle of nowhere to sit down to a picnic lunch packed by the hotel. Luckily they found shade in the many kilometers of desert between St. Louis and the bird park. We re-boarded the bus and returned to St. Louis where we had some free time so of course we did some shopping. Although, we found that St. Louis had most of the same souvenirs you can find in downtown Dakar only at escalated prices since it’s so touristy. They were not happy when we named the prices we would pay at Sandaga because they could easily charge more to the next unsuspecting tourist. Needless to say we didn’t buy much, but we did make another pastry stop of course. It’s a small island so it was fairly easy to conquer all of the pastry shops on the island in the span of two days. After shopping we returned to the hotel for dinner then went out. It was nice to go out with everyone in the program and each time the club got into an mbalax kick we would just move on to the next one. Since most of the clubs are free for girls and there are only 9 guys in the program we managed to smuggle everyone in for free. We of course made another stop at the patisserie, and then decided to return home and get some rest.
Sunday we woke up early to go on a walking tour of the island. The architecture is very French colonial and therefore similar to New Orleans. I’ve never been before but a lot of people on the program said it was like a smaller more decrepit version of the Big Easy. Since it lost capital status back in 1958, it’s been left to its own devices. We hit up the IFAN museum which oddly enough housed the implements most of us used on our rural visits on a daily basis. One of which was the mortar and pestle used to crush up millet into couscous. It also had pictures of the huts or compounds most of us had inhabited that week. It made me feel even more that being in rural Senegal is like stepping back in time but with cell phone service. Although, come to think of it sometimes Dakar is, too. We had ceebujen for lunch at our hotel. It was interesting to taste and see what tourists do when they eat ceebujen. The fish was of better quality and each part was divided into sauce, vegetables, rice, and fish, but the ceebujen I ate on my rural visit tasted much better. I have found that yassa poulet (chicken in an onion sauce) is much better in restaurants, because if nothing else I get my own plate so I get to eat the chicken without fighting over it with family members. We were sad to return to Dakar Sunday night, but of course it was like coming home; St. Louis was much quieter. We really enjoyed St. Louis so we might go back after exams since we have some free time before the program told us to book our flights.

Same Old, Same Old

So I haven’t written in a while due to a combination of my workload and a lack of exciting occurrences. Three months into it nothing really seems exciting enough to write about. Over the past few weeks I did do a few interesting things, though. Two weekends ago was the Gorée Diaspora Festival which took place on Gorée Island; we went to see the concert Saturday night. There was a variety of music from rap, solo artists (the African version of Gavin DeGraw singing and playing the guitar), an a cappella rendition of the Diaspora, and a woman singing along to a group of drummers. It was music from all over West Africa and they set up the stage right on the beach. It was a great night and we even managed to catch the boat back in time to go to the all-night patisserie then go out dancing. Other than that I’ve mostly been doing homework and going to the various markets to get some shopping done since I only have a month left!

This past weekend a bunch of my friends went to Fatick, an area outside Kaolack to study malnutrition for their Public Health class. They discovered that the majority of the children they tested were malnourished, but they have yet to discuss their findings. I on the other hand stayed here and went to the beach. I also went to a gathering at a friend of a friend’s apartment in downtown Dakar. He works at the Spanish embassy so it was a mixture of European and American ex-pats and locals. I was excited to finally get the chance to ask each some of the Toubabs what they’re doing here. One girl was an au pair for an Austrian family, another was a student from London, one was working for a Swedish media company, and another worked in Public Health and will be spending Thanksgiving in a remote village. The majority worked for various departments of the Spanish embassy. It was interesting to gain the perspective of some of the other people outside of our program. Most of them agreed with our disappointment that development recently has been declining rather than improving, but many appreciated that Dakar has managed to retain its culture while also developing. I was a little surprised to find that living in downtown Dakar has similar rent to a lot of European cities, especially with the cost of electricity increasing due to government mismanagement. They are lucky, however that there are very few power cuts downtown since it’s where all the government buildings are and the majority of the government officials live, including the president, Wade.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost here, considering it’s still hot enough to go to the beach and go swimming and I got a nasty sunburn on Saturday but don’t worry about me because our program has secured turkeys and some pumpkin pie.

Gestu Dekkinu Waa Senegal

(Just to warn you, this is a long one.) 'Gestu Dekkinu Waa Senegal' is a phrase in Wolof that loosely translated means a trip to discover various regions of Senegal, or something like that. This past week our program shipped us off to various areas in Senegal to expereince life outside of Dakar. I, along with seven others went to Kaolack, about 3 1/2 hours southwest of Dakar. We arrived at Gare Routiere Monday morning at 8am and tried to get a sept-place. The first one had to be pushed out of the gare and then didn't run all that well so we requested another one. After 3 1/2 hours we arrived at APOFES. I was surprised our spet-place driver was able to find seeing as road names are never used here, only land marks, and to me it all looked the same. We had some good ceebujin for lunch and then the head of the organization gave us a brief presentation. We must have looked pretty tired because after that they let us take a nap before going along with our day. We later discovered that in fact a nap was planned for every afternoon after lunch. We were grateful since it's still really hot in Kaolack. After napping, we went to visit the Mutuelle Teranga, a microfinance bank run by APOFES. They have 5431 members in the Kaolack region. We then met our host families who were to care for us for the night. My host mother's brother showed up to pick me up in a moped, it's a good thing I packed light. Since I was only staying with this host family two nights (Monday and Friday night) they treated me like a guest and I really got to see what teranga (hospitality) means. They bought me fruit and Coca-cola and gave me the mother's own bed to sleep in. In the morning I woke up to eggs, tea, and more fruit. They were shocked when I only used one sugar in my tea, they had expected me to use at least 6, no joke. I was sorry to leave this family to go out to Paoskoto, a village 50km outside of Kaolack.
After a long and dusty ride we arrived to find that the Cadre Locale de Concertation des Organisations de Producteurs (CLCOP) would take us under their wing for the next few days. We spent the day meeting the sous-pref, the cheif of the village, the head of the elementary school, the head of the health center, and the owner of a local hair salon. Each time we arrived at a new destination our tour guides (members of CLCOP) would ask if we had questions and then a discussion would begin. The most overwhelming was the elementary school because we sat outside having a round table discussion while the entire student body stood around trying to get a look at the Toubabs, they were even standing on chairs. That night after a group dinner (we ate very well all week) the family set up satellite TV so we could watch election coverage on CNN. They don't have showers or real toilets, but they do have satellite TV. Each family has one spicket for water which they then use for all of their cooking, cleaning, etc. I couldn't stay to watch all of the election coverage since I was staying with another family, which i was informed of at 11pm (This is Africa moment). I had one of my friends who was still in Dakar call me to inform me of the outcome. She called at 4am to give me the news and I am currently watching the speech on youtube so while I was a little bitter about being so far from civilization it all worked out.
Wednesday we went to a middle school, a market, and the village of Bouboudeme. Everywhere we went someone would ask us to give them money or solve their problems. It became a little irritating. We were frustrated because we couldn't immidietly give them computers or internet or access to clean water. We tried to explain that we were just students coming to learn and that maybe in the future we could help, but they were still under the impression that we could solve all of their problems, we just weren't trying hard enough. In order to get to Bouboudeme we couldn't get a car to take us so we rode a horse drawn carriage. Luckily, no one fell off and we got a nice tour of the peanut fields. Once we got there we tried to help get water from the well, but we discovered we weren't as talented as the locals. They sang and danced for us so we responded with our rendition of 'Ain't No Mountain' since we all knew it. We also got to try raw sugar cane and raw peanuts; they're better roasted. They gave us a gift of millet to eat for lunch the next day. I don't suggest you try it, I would closely compare it to eating sand.
The next day we left at 9am Senegalese time, i.e. 11am to go out to see a campment (motel) in the middle of nowhere popular among French tourists who enjoy hunting. We also had to ask the owner of the campment about his experiences as a campment owner. Interviewing got a little exhausting. Next, we went to a village to meet a group of women financed by the Mutuelle Teranga. The groupment is a group of very strong women who have used the money they get from agriculture to finance health education and health projects in their village. After talking to these women we were curious to know why the car that had driven us there left upon our arrival. Turns out the plan was to flag down a bush taxi to take us home. We had to sit out in the middle of nowhere with our trusty tour guides hoping enough bush taxis would go by to get all of us back to Paoskoto. After a few tries and an hour of quality bonding time on the side of the road we all got back safely. This was our last night of bucket showers and Turkish toilets and we returned to Kaolack the next morning.
Friday we took a driving tour of Kaolack then returned to our host families from Monday night for lunch. After lunch we went to the organization 10,000 girls (http://www.10000girls.org/) to see how some other CIEE students had been spending their week. It's a great organization started by an American woman to help girls in the Kaolack region with their education. In the Senegalese system, if a child fails a grade twice they are no longer allowed to be in school. Viola Vaughn moved to Senegal to retire but instead girls started asking her to help them with their school work so they would not fail a second time and not be able to continue their education. Since the organization had no outside fudning at first the girls also started programs to make money including soap making, a cafe, doll-making, and agricultural projects. They are going to start exporting their bissap tea to California after they get FDA approval. Viola Vaughn is up for the CNN hero of the year so vote for her at http://heroes.cnn.com/default.asp. After meeting Viola we went to the market in downtown Kaolack which is the second largest covered market in Africa. We only saw a fraction of it, but it seemed as though you could find anything, except for maybe peanut butter (I've been looking for that for a while). We spent Friday night with our host families, I got to meet a lot of my host mother's extended family and practice some of my Wolof with the small children. I also got salad for dinner, which is kind of a big deal. I always seek it out at restaurants. I was sorry to leave my host family in Kaolack especially since I only spent two nights there. I'm happy to be back in Dakar where I can find a few amenities (Kaolack was also lacking in real toilets) but being in the rural areas made me really see how kind and welcoming some Senegalese people are. Dakar feels hectic now, I can't even imagine what going back to the US is going to be like in December.

'Global' Citizenship

Yesterday I tried to pretend it was my birthday since tomorrow I'm going to be in a sept-place for 4-5 hours (I think, it depends on the conditions of the roads, sing along anyone?) on my way to Kaolack, more on that later. We went out to lunch with some friends in downtown Dakar and it felt as though we were stepping into a French diner. On our way there we saw a parade for Obama, apparently they are more excited for our elections than they were for their own. Once people find out you're American they immediately ask if we're voting for Obama, not sure what they would do if we answered no. Everyone here seems to think that if Obama is elected that means more hope for Senegal and Africa in general; they are under the impression that any president of the US will do more for Senegal than their own president ever could. (Not that Wade is really even trying at this point..) That just goes to show that no matter what we say about America losing its global influence, our elections are still more important to most foreigners than their own; even in a place such as Senegal where democracy is a term used lightly. It should be interesting to see how Obama balances this pressure of pleasing Americans and being beloved internationally at the same time.
Last night we went to an outdoor club that only happens the first Saturday of every month, per usual there were at least twice as many men as there were women since most Senegalese teen-aged girls don't go out. Luckily, our Senegalese friends were helpful in fending off unwanted dance partners. There were also a lot of foreigners, it seems to be a popular place among the ex-pat community. Recently we've been talking about how difficult it is to live here and not live like an ex-pat. We joined the nice gym and seek out expensive imported food in order to feel a little more at home. I'm sure these temptations only get stronger if you live here for a prolonged period of time.
Tomorrow we leave for our visits to other locations in Senegal outside Dakar. I'm going to work with an organization called Association pour la Promotion de la Femme Sénégalaise in Kaolack, a town southeast of Dakar. The organization works for promoting women's rights and fighting poverty so I'm going to get to do some work in microfinance. Their website is
http://courantsdefemmes.free.fr/Assoces/Senegal/APROFES/aprofes.html (but it's in French). I'll be returning Saturday so more on my rural adventures coming soon.

Rhinos, Zebras, and Giraffes, oh my!

On Thursday afternoon we renewed our adventurous spirit and went to the Village des Arts in Yoff, the northern side of the Dakar peninsula. We had been slacking a bit with sight-seeing since we’ve had more homework recently. Village des Arts was started during Leopold Senghor’s presidency as a community for artists. We toured through a gallery then walked thorough the surrounding studios talking to the artists who displayed their work in the gallery. They were all very interesting, some were self-taught but many had gone to the art school in Dakar. It was mostly modern-style art in all forms, paintings, bronze statues, limestone, and a giant sculpture made of magazine pages. One of the highlights was the little boy who lived there who took us to feed the resident goat. A lot of people pay good money to feed them at petting zoos in the US, I considered myself lucky.

This past weekend we went to Popenguine, a picturesque town south of Dakar on the ocean. A few French people own vacation homes there, the president Abdoulaye Wade has one there, too. We got there in a sept-place, a station wagon with a hired driver. There are a few gare routiers in Dakar where you can just walk in and ask someone to take you anywhere in the country. You have to know the price though, or you’ll get ripped off, just like every other situation, since most anything can be negotiated. We stayed in a house right on the gorgeous beach. We cooked all of our own meals since we had a fully equipped kitchen we were very excited for. We even pulled together grilled cheese for lunch one day, I had missed that terribly. Once we got there we dropped off our belongings and went to the Reserve de Bandia. We had to hire a 4x4 and a guide to take us through, but it was amazing. We saw rhinos, giraffes, impalas, zebras, ostriches and a huge turtle. Since most of the animals are not native to Senegal, but instead they are imported, we first compared it to Disney world, but that’s where the similarity stopped. For one, they have no idea where the animals will be so you drive around until the guide gets a sense and steers the driver through brush to get the intended animal sighting. Also, since there are very few enforced laws and rules in this country we got to get out of the 4x4 and get just a few meters away from the giraffes and the rhino. Even on safaris in southern Africa they only let you look from a great distance. It was a great experience, but it just reinforced how uncomfortable we feel as tourists in this country now. Each time we return back to Dakar from our weekend excursions it feels more and more like home.

It's mid-October, let's hit up the beach?!

This past week was pretty normal by African standards. We went to another gallery opening in hopes of free food, but weren’t completely satisfied so we went to a restaurant. The artwork was great, though, an artist did some abstract interpretations of places and things around Senegal and painted on traditional African fabric. The restaurant, called Chez Louca that advertised African and European food. While it wasn’t quite what we were expecting they had a great spaghetti dish with a curry tomato sauce, peas, carrots, and tuna. It was delicious, I promise. We also went to a reggae club on Thursday night called Pen Art, a local hang out, with a few of our Senegalese friends. We had to leave early, i.e. 3am because a few people have internships on Fridays. I have discovered that despite my limited dance skills I can still dance to reggae music since it only requires moving back and forth.
Saturday we went out to Ile de N’Gor which is off the northern coast of the Dakar peninsula and rented a house for the night with some of our Senegalese friends from the night before. They aren’t in school yet so they wanted to celebrate their last few weeks of vacation with a house party Senegalese style. The next morning we went in search of breakfast and went to both beaches on the island before finding a restaurant with both egg and bread to make us egg sandwiches. Finding a restaurant with everything on the menu is quite a commodity here. We spent some time soaking up the sun on the beach since rumor on the street is that the middle of October gets cooler. Yesterday, when the temperature dropped to 85, I started to believe these rumors. When we returned to Dakar via pirogue and taxi we took a much-needed nap since we had plans to go out Saturday night as well. The party didn’t start until 1am and I’m not really sure when it ended, although it was long after 5:30am when the last of our friends left. We’re going to have to better prepare for such events in the future.
Yesterday, I interviewed with Aid Transparency for an internship. It’s an organization run by Habib Sy, the former Minister of the Interior and a lot of its work relates to government budget transparency in Africa. He has a conference for the next two weeks so I’m not starting until he gets back. Just like any Senegalese person, he isn’t all too anxious to get things going.
In other news, our family has scolded Cecilia and me for not being able to speak Wolof after two months of residing here and all utensils at meals have completely disappeared. The grace period is over.

No Problems in the Gambia

We embarked on our vacation dreaming of drinkable tap water and air conditioning, but we had a few obstacles to overcome before checking into our ‘five star’ luxury resort in Kololi on the Atlantic coast of the Gambia. After pulling an all-nighter since I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go out with some locals on the first weekend after Ramdan we embarked on a bus trip of unknown duration. Usually when you begin a journey you have a general idea of what time you’re going to arrive in your destination. Due to the nature of the roads between Dakar and Barra we didn’t want to even try to speculate our estimated time of arrival. The bus trip that should take only 3-4 hours took 7 hours, but the view out the window was pretty amazing. One of my fellow travelers referred to it as driving through the lion king; only the wildlife we saw was limited to donkeys, goats, horses, and cows. After the bus ride we took a ferry from Barra to Banjul and then got in a cab to take us to the Kairaba hotel, our final destination where we would remain for the next 8 days. So this was enough African adventure for us and it saved us a boatload of money considering it cost each of us about $12 to get there. The rest of our vacation mostly involved us sitting by the pool trying to escape Africa, but we soon discovered that even while staying in a five star resort locals still hassle you and the power still goes out every once in a while. It's just something we're going to have to come to terms with. We did thoroughly enjoy the free breakfast buffet and tea time. We ate dinner on the Senegambia strip every night and despite choosing a different restaurant each night we had the same options available at every one. Each menu had pizza, pasta, Lebanese food, and local dishes (which of course we avoided since we get enough of that at home). We became convinced that all of the restaurants shared a kitchen at the end of the strip.

As a group of young American students we were an oddity in the Gambia. Most of the tourists are European middle-aged men or women seeking out prostitutes. We were usually mistaken for Peace Corps volunteers. It was interesting because we are so jaded from our time in Dakar that we feel as though anyone trying to help us is also trying to take advantage of us. While this is still true in the Gambia most tourists don't have the same negative attitude so a few of the locals were very turned off by our chilly demeanor. One even said "White monkeys go back to your country." Funny how you pick up on all the insults when it's in your first language. So you can understand our reluctance to leave the resort. We did go to the market in Banjul and to the Katchikally Crocodile Pond to take some pictures. According to legend anyone who takes a picture of the crocs in this sacred pond faces imminent death..we took our chances. The Lonely Planet guide claimed there were over 80 crocodiles but since it was the rainy season there were about three and a baby. We've come to learn that tourist attractions aren't always what they seem in Africa. We've become grateful for the experiences we have in Dakar since the Gambia is so centered on tourism it's true African-ness is almost lost. We had a great break (in the true sense of the word) and I'm reluctant to return to classes tomorrow.

Korite

Yesterday was the holiday marking the end of Ramadan which, from what I gathered mostly centered around food and new clothes. It seems that the central focus was celebrating the end of a month of sacrifice, that I had not partaken in anyway, but I still got to reap the benefits. The date of Korite depends on the moon so we had to wait until 10pm on Tuesday to find out that the Muslism brotherhoods in Senegal declared yesterday to be Korite or not. To add to the confusion the brotherhoods sometimes decide that Ramadan will end on different days. The Senegalese pay little attention to the Muslim world and instead focus on their brotherhoods and the Muslim culture within Senegal. We didn't eat rice or fish all day, in a pleasant turn of events. Aside from the good food we had some delicious fruit juices and bonded with the little kids in our family. A lot of children get dressed in nice clothing and go around asking for money Hallmoween-style, but the children in my family are too wealthy to partake in this tradition. Family members from all over Dakar stopped in to say hi and at night everyone went out to hang out with their friends and drink for the first time in a month. Drinking alcohol is still frowned upon in the Muslim religion, but the Senegalese don't seem to pay much attention to this. (We're anxious to see what going out is going to be like post-Ramadan; not having the whole club or bar to ourselves.) From a Western part of view this holiday is very difficult to describe; we attempted by comparing it to New Year's, Christmas, and Thanksgiving combined. I'm not sure if that gives you a decent picture, but I lived through it and I'm still a bit confused. Well I take off for the Gambia tomorrow morning so I'll update you on my travels when I get back!

Africa Fun

Africa Fun n 1. Africa’s version of orange-flavored Fanta that has a flavor ten times more intense than Fanta with ten times the amount of sugar. 2. The random stuff that happens when you try to take a weekend trip to a lake in the middle of nowhere Senegal.

Power, water, and internet have been hard to come by recently. They’ve even had trouble with the generator at school in addition to problems with internet at home, so again, sorry for the delay and the length. So this weekend a group of us decided to go on a trip to Lac Rose, which is a big tourist site because it’s sometimes pink because of the algae and it’s the finish line for the Paris-Dakar rally. It’s pink if the wind comes and the sun is at an angle and it hasn’t rained a lot. So really it should just be called the sometimes-pinkish/actually more red dirt colored lake. But all the same it was a great weekend. We started out doubting our choice since there was a huge rain storm Saturday morning and after going out the night before none of us were too eager to wake up bright and early. The roads wash out when it rains a lot here so we thought it may be rather difficult to get there, but the DimmDekk was running so we hopped on. We took the bus to Malika, only 20km away, but it took an hour to get there, an hour and a half for the return trip. Most of the roads aren’t paved and those that are have giant pot holes that fill with water and form large lakes in the road. Luckily, the Senegalese don’t let a little rain stop them, they trudge right through. We walked for a while to try to find our hotel in what seemed like a ghost town. The sometimes paved streets were lined with foundations yet to be completed with no real appearances of getting there in the near future. While walking, two little boys decided to try to scare Jess by shoving a live chicken in her face, it worked. She recoiled and ran for about 15 yards before turning around to see all of us laughing and the boys with huge smiles on their faces. They got exactly what they were looking for. We’re not really sure why Jess was so scared of the chicken. After walking for twenty minutes we found the beach and our hotel, the only finished building on the beach other than a house. The area is beautiful but underdeveloped because the water is so dangerous you can’t swim and the beach is eroding so a lot of the buildings on the beach have been overtaken by sand. Nonetheless, our hotel was nice by African standards and one of the beds even came equipped with a mosquito net. After checking in and telling them what we wanted for dinner (anything but rice of course) we started the trek to Lac Rose which involved taking a car rapide to the next town over, Keur Massar then negotiating a cab from there. We stopped in Keur Massar at a fast food restaurant after attempting to eat at a restaurant in Malika that only had chicken, nothing else. Senegalese fast food is delicious, on every menu there is a hamburger complet which comes with a fried egg, mustard, ketchup (sweeter than ours), piments (spicy peppers), and French fries all piled on top; they don’t really understand the concept of a side dish. I tend to get the hamburger, but chwarma is also quite good here, random, I know.

After satiating ourselves we argued with a few cab drivers and were on our way along some bumpy terrain to reach the lake. Once we got there we took a pirogue ride out on the lake then walked over to the deserted beach which was gorgeous. We also saw the salt-collecting. According to our pirogue guide there is 1.5 meters of salt on the floor of Lac Rose. Getting back to our hotel was quite a hassle since everyone was trying to over charge us for a taxi, so we rented out our own car rapide instead that we convinced to take us directly to our hotel. We had asked for dinner at eight, but of course upon our return they started cooking and we ate around nine. It was well worth the wait since we had pasta, onion sauce, potatoes, and fish. Pasta is hard to come by here and is usually pretty expensive. After dinner, we wanted to get away from the drum session that had started at our hotel and went down to the beach.

After a decent night’s sleep, considering we stuffed four people in each king-sized bed we awoke pretty early and went in search of breakfast which ended up being baguettes with Chocoleca (the chocolate peanut butter spread); I’ve gotten quite used to it. We spent the morning at the beach near our hotel then returned to centre-ville for lunch, more fast food since on Sundays a lot seems to be closed as far as restaurants go. We haven’t determined when the Senegalese actually take their day of rest since for Muslims it’s Fridays and Christians it’s Sunday; so they aren’t very productive from Thursday to Sunday, clearly a factor in my recent experiences with decrepit infrastructure and lack of power. We're hoping for increased effort towards restaurant management and productivity in general post-Ramadan.

Toubab Dialaw

Since we haven’t had power and water for any reasonable length of time since last Wednesday, this post is a bit late and a bit long I have recently discovered that the blackouts are due to the government not paying the electric companies so they ration out the power that the government has paid for. I’m not just saying this…our section of our neighborhood seems to be the worst hit. Although, we had water pretty consistently up until last week which was apparently a common problem amongst other households. I haven’t figured that one out…or the internet ‘blackouts’. Despite the lack of basic amenities, I had a great weekend (partially because I just escaped). Thursday afternoon, a few of us, Kat, Liz, and James, we went to Les Marmelles, a light house not too far from our neighborhood. There were great views of the water and the city (you can’t see the trash piles from that far up).

On Friday, we re-grouped and went to our gym for breakfast…because our gym is actually a country club with a nice pool with a small restaurant that serves salads, crepes, and croque-monsieurs (French ham and cheese). Clearly made for the French diplomat’s wives, but we ate it up. Of course the ham was still beef ham considering the large Muslim population in general. Afterwards we went to Ile de Madeline, the smallest national park in the world. A guide showed us around the island and told us a bit of history. We also got to climb around in a baobab tree. Afterwards, our guide left us to sit on the beach that was deserted. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. In December, when it’s colder in Europe a ton of birds come down so we’ll have to return.

This weekend our program sponsored a trip for everyone to Toubab Dialaw. First of all, the food was amazing because we got salad, pasta, cake, real milk, and fruit salad…and the bread was toasted in the morning. Other than eating we batiked (which is painting a cloth and dying it) and danced at night. The West African dancing is amazing, they move their feet ridiculously fast. I don’t think I’ll quite get to that level after just four months of dance class. It was a great break from the usual grind in Dakar and we were all sad to leave. To be honest, I think we really just miss the food and the beach that had less trash than usual.

Last night, our assistant director informed us of an exhibit opening at the IFAN museum in downtown Dakar. A group of Spanish photographers traveled around Senegal and South Africa and took some amazing pictures. The opening had a bunch of free appetizers, drinks, and a mildly functional air conditioner that we stationed ourselves next to after viewing the photos. I am very grateful to the Spanish embassy for my great dinner that involved no rice at all and even had puffed pastry with cheese. Dairy products are hard to come by in the normal Senegalese diet. We then walked over to l’Institute Francais for more of an escape and to celebrate Liz’s birthday with some French desserts. Sometimes we feel like all we do is try to escape Dakar, but it seems that most of the ex-patriots do the same. At least we get some sense of French culture in these escapist moments.

La Poste

My parents were nice enough to send me two packages with various things I've been wanting, including maps, a watch, a book (in English, very hard to find here), an adapter (since I brought the one for former British colonies, unknowingly) and googles since we finally worked out our gym membership and it has a pool! Getting this package took 2 hours total (in true Senegalese fashion). I started at the post office that my package slip came from, just a 20 minute walk from my house and school, but soon discovered that my package wasn't actually at this post office but instead another one. I asked the post office attendant if I could take the Dimm Dekk and he told me not to be ridiculous the car rapide is cheaper, so I sucked it up and hailed down a decrepid car rapide. He told me exactly where to go so I didn't think I would have much trouble...I arrived at post office #2 which was conveniently located right where the car rapides stop and turn around in Medina (an area just North of Downtown Dakar) and discovered that my package was not at this post office either. The guard gave me directions to the next one in fast-paced French so obviously I ended up walking in a circle and had to ask someone else for directions again. Of course being the only white person within 10 miles I'm sure the people sitting on the side of the road were snickering as I walked by a second time, but at least I gave them something to watch. When I finally arrived at Post Office #3 where I went to three different windows, paying money and getting my package slips stamped. I saw a total of four people, two of them twice. So 2 hours and 7,800 CFA (about US$15) later..I reclaimed what was rightfully mine in the first place. I don't even want to know where that money goes (apparently it's customs and holding charges) but it certainly isn't going to trash collection considering the large piles of trash all around the city. I then decided it was time to treat myself to a pastery at the Medina patisserie and returned home on the car rapide. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of their ridiculous public transportation, despite fighting with the car rapide assistant and telling him that he was over-charging me because I'm white. He didn't appreciate that very much, but it was true.
Last night we found 'La Fiesta', a bar in Mermoz with air conditioning, needless to say I think we'll be spending a lot of time there. They laughed at us for being so excited over air conditioning and cold drinks, but we couldn't really contain our excitement.
I've decided to go to the Gambia for fall break so I'm trying to make those plans this week since it's fast-approaching.

Sun, Sand, and Surf

Tuesday we had out first African dance lesson which was a lot of fun despite my lack of rhythm. We had live drumming to dance to which is amazing to watch since their hands move so fast and they are able to sync their rhythm so easily. I’m going to keep going every week and we have a concert at the end so hopefully I will improve throughout the semester. Our program set up the dance lessons and in the future we’re going to get to try batiking (weaving cloth) and drumming.
Thursday after classes we went to Marché HLM; there were numerous stalls with beautiful fabrics, clothes and accessories. We’re all very excited to get clothes tailored to fit since it’s so inexpensive here and the country is known for it. It’s so hard to choose what to get when the possibilities are endless.
We were so excited to find l’Institute Francais downtown on Friday. It was like an oasis in downtown Dakar, no flies, no pushy vendors and clean vegetables. Needless to say we all had cheeseburgers (or one of their fancy French takes on cheeseburgers) and sat for a few hours basking in our serene environment. L’Institut has a lot of musical performances and movies throughout the year so we’ll definitely be making it down there again. At night we went back downtown to Le Mex; a discothèque/Mexican restaurant. We were less than excited to discover that blenders are few and far between in this country so there were no frozen marguerites on the menu. It was nice to hear some outdated American music with a techno twist although I was less than enthused by the Spanish music to be honest. Even though it’s Ramadan this place was fairly crowded by French military men, Peace Corps volunteers, and U.S. marines which was pleasantly surprising. We headed out early though because we wanted to be well rested for our surf lesson the next afternoon. Surfing wasn't much of a success, I wasn’t able to get up past my knees but I’m excited to try again. I’m blaming it on the fact that our lesson was in French but I really think that had very little to do with it. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting. I’m glad we found this beach because it was calmer than the others we’ve been going to, but I did get quite sun burnt despite re-applying sun lotion many times and spending my non-water time under an umbrella. The sun here is way too intense for my Scandinavian skin, I’m hoping I’ll adapt throughout the semester because if not I’m going to have to spend an awful lot of money on Aloe lotion.

You Know You're in Senegal When...

1. You put on bug spray to go out at night instead of perfume. The mosquitoes that carry malaria bite at night, but the Dengue fever ones bite in the afternoon so it’s really more advantageous to wear it at all times. (This is also related to becoming rather fond of your bed enclosed by a mosquito net, it could even be considered ‘cozy’ at this point.)

2. The price of ANYTHING can be negotiated as long as it's not written down, even club cover charges. If you can’t get your desired price the line ‘My friend got it for that much down the street’ usually works…unless you name a ridiculously low price for something legitimate…which we’ve found is a good way to get the vendors off our backs.

3. You no longer give a second thought to goats wandering through the streets and in fact will probably be eating one of them for dinner in the near future.

4. Toilet paper and a toilet seat are conspicuously absent from most bathrooms and replaced by a small teapot looking thing with water in it….not sure how that works yet. It is also not uncommon to carry around rolls of toilet paper in your purse. It reminds me of freshman year at the lodges when we used to bring toilet paper in our pockets in case it ran out.

5. A surprisingly large number of your conversations have to do with your chosen brand of malaria medication and the side effects you are currently experiencing as a result. The ones I have heard thus far include increased severity of hang-overs, hair loss, and vivid, bizarre dreams. (Luckily I haven’t experienced any of these…yet.)

6. You spend 1500 CFA (approx. US$3) on a ‘milk shake’ at Ceasar’s just to sit in air conditioning for an hour or so. Yes, 1500 francs is expensive, full meals are no more than 3500 CFA (approx. US$7) at most nice restaurants.

7. Even if you can’t find anything else in your small living space it is imperative to keep a flashlight handy at all times in case of an unexpected, frequent power outage that may last anywhere from 2 hours to 12 hours. (Even the cell phones come with flashlights as an ‘extra.’)

8. The noise you hear when the plastic breaks on a bottle is like music to your ears because you know the restaurant hasn’t just re-filled the bottle with their un-potable tap water. (At the sketchier places, you stick to Perrier because bubbles are an indication of being bottled at the source.)

9. Greeting someone with Salaamalekum invites the person to begin a Wolof lesson when they realize you’re actually just full of crap and that’s the only word you know. This results in tardiness to class because they are determined to teach you at least a few useful phrases before letting you go on your way. (My walk would take about 10 minutes if not for this, now I leave 20 minutes before class and just stick to greetings.)

10. Eating thieboudienne for one more meal is the equivalent of feeling like you’ve just finished the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest on the 4^th of July and someone has told you that you must eat five more hot dogs.

Let's Just Pretend we're not in Africa

Since we don't have classes on Friday a bunch of us decided to go up to the posh neighborhood of Les Almandies. It is the most Western tip of Africa, but that's not it's only draw. It has a number of resorts and a nice, small beach. We were able to buy lunch at a restaurant and swim in their pool all afternoon. We found it to be a pleasant break from getting hassled to buy goods from locals. We didn't even have to leave someone with our bags because we were the only people at the pool, it was quite refreshing. Not only that, we were able to eat salads because we were sure they bleached the vegetables since it's a restaurant for mostly French tourists. For a few hours, we forgot that we were in Africa.
Saturday, our program arranged for us to go to Ile de Goree; the last stop for many slaves leaving for Europe and the Americas from Western Africa. It was a gorgeous island with a great beach, much calmer than the ones we've been going to thus far. We visited the Maison des Esclaves, the building where slaves were kept before boarding ships and a history museum. Despite the picturesque surroundings, we couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy while touring the island due to its disturbing history. After leaving, one of the local guides who helps out with our program invited a few of us, Jenna, Cecilia, and I back to his house to break the fast with his 'brother' at sundown (we discovered that it was really his cousin, but in Africa people don't often distinguish between the two terms.) On the way we got pulled over..for no reason. It's pretty ridiculous, the police can pull you over and ask for identification even if you haven't violated any traffic laws, its the same if you're just walking down the street. If you don't have proper ID, the corrupt officers will ask you for a bribe. As an American citizen, I can threaten to call the embassy, but Senegalese people don't have the same luxury. We stopped at La Galette to pick up some French pastries, they were delicious and cheap. We got two chocolate croissants, a roll, and two donuts for Cecilia and I for only 2000 Francs, a little under US$4. He also stopped by the Marche HLM, which is like their fabric district and took us in the back where the clothing and fabric was made to meet his brother who works as a tailor. When it was finally time to 'break the fast' we ate our weight in French pastries because Oumar and his brother/cousin insisted that we keep eating, or they would be insulted. This was despite the fact that we hadn't fasted and they had. They insisted that since we were guests we were to make ourselves at home and eat as much as we would like. We spoiled our dinner, but it was worth it. We also tried the local tea, kinkiliba, which tasted a little like Chai tea; I'll definitely be having that again.

Public Transportation, Africa-style

Ramadan has begun, but since I chose not to fast I haven't really felt the affects. (I'm sure we will when we try to go out this weekend, though...) A few other students chose to, even if they don't practice Islam. The thought of going without food or drink from sunup to sundown for an entire month seems less than appealing, especially in this heat. I also thought that it would mean less to me because I'm not Muslim. I am starting to see that this time is not one of deprivation, but instead a reaffirmation of faith and a time when one can truly reflect on religion, even if not a practicing Muslim. This lasts for a whole month, so I'm going to have to start to appreciate the 'cultural' experience.
Today I had my afternoon free so I went downtown with a small group of fellow CIEE students and one Suffolk student from Burkina Faso. This downtown adventure was just that, an adventure. The museum is called the IFAN Museum, but there is also an IFAN Research center. The first bus we took told us to get off at the research center and I made our friend from Burkina Faso ask around to figure out where we were; he discovered we were miles from our desired destination so we had to get back on the bus and continue downtown. At least it only costs a flat fee of 150 CFA Francs per ride, the equivalent of about 20 cents, which allows for mistakes. When we finally got there we discovered that we were the only people at the museum and the guard had to turn the lights on for us. It was every stereotypical African artifact you can think of and more. I'm pretty sure some of the designers from Pier 1 Imports have come here before. We took the bus back around 6:30pm...bad idea. This is the time when Muslims break the fast because the sun sets around 7pm. It was remarkable how many people they fit into the bus, it was standing room only and I almost couldn't reach a pole to hold on. Since everyone has witnessed my inability to balance, I'm sure you can imagine that would've been ugly. Add to that the lack of air conditioning and it was pretty much like being in a club late at night after everyone's been sweating all night...yuck. It almost makes me lose motivation to learn the bus system, which of course has no real set schedule or available maps, a real let down for touristy people such as myself. I'm really not sure how they all figure it out. At least the five people with me were the only other white people on the bus and thus easy to find when we needed to get off. Since we have mastered the more conventional buses, called the Dem Dikk we are thinking about moving onto the Car Rapides which are colorful small buses that are old and super-cheap (about 15 cents a ride). They're trying to phase them out, but they are a national symbol so we'll have to try the experience on our own at least once. These are even more ambiguous as to their route (at least the Dem Dikk have numbers, which I'm sure mean something...) so I think we'll have to be more familiar with the city before trying this mode of public transportation.

Honeymoon, Hostility, Humor, Home

The CIEE program cites these three stages as normal for students studying abroad in Dakar. The honeymoon phase should really be re-labeled orientation because it's really just hanging out with all of the other American students. I am currently in the hostility phase...while maintaining my sense of humor. Before continuing I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm ridiculously glad that I came here and would not even consider choosing another experience for a second. BUT, I have become a bit hostile towards some of the locals. We went downtown on Sunday and even though it wasn't very crowded and we were traveling with only 4 Americans and a Senegalese student we were still harassed by vendors constantly and if we stood still for more than 5 seconds we were enclosed by people trying to sell us something. It feels as though every person you walk by wants something from you and they aren't afraid to ask. They are either begging for money, even if they are well off because they know you have money to spare or want you to buy something from them. Some of the children are exploited by the imams and sent out to beg and return and give all of the money to the imam. We went to the beach yesterday and made the mistake of having the ratio of one male for 10 females. We get constant stares and jeers. To make it all better, the noise they use to get your attention is something like a 'pssst' sound. In this culture you are supposed to greet everyone you pass on the street, but that just leads to some offering marriage proposals within a few seconds. They entirely skip the flirting phase and move right onto 'I love you.' The 5 males in our program pretend to practice polygamy on a daily basis in order to keep the proposals to a minimum. Add to that that every taxi beeps when they go by because they assume white people don't want to walk any where. On a better note, dinner last night was great; we had fish, spicy home-made mayonnaise, french fries, and lettuce and tomatoes (washed with bleach of course). This was all topped off with some bissap juice..yumm. I'm really going to miss that when I return to the states. I was also able to get a SIM card today for my cell phone so it's functioning now...in true Senegalese fashion it took all afternoon. Sorry that I haven't been posting pictures, the internet here just can't handle it.

Teranga

(I wrote this a few days ago but haven't been able to post due to constant blackouts.) Teranga means hospitality, but it’s so much more than that. Senegal is the land of teranga. Here, some families leave a portion of their meal aside in case of an unexpected visitor. The guest is given the best of everything, no matter how minimal it may be. In the afternoon after our host mother picked my roommate Cecilia and I up from the dorms we had been living in we sat and talked to her in the ‘salon’ (living room) for a while and she asked us what we like for breakfast. We mentioned that we like tea so she went out that night and bought us a box of tea. My host family is exactly what I wanted it to be when I filled out the questionnaire back in the spring. There are three families under one roof and a grandmother on the first floor. There are at least eight children (that I’ve met/seen) under the age of eight. This is great because they speak French and they’ll sit and talk to my roommate Cecilia and I for hours at a time. They also try to teach us Wolof…rather unsuccessfully. I’m still trying to figure out who belongs to who and what their names are. I don’t feel very guilty about the name part because ‘Brooke’ seems incredibly hard for them to grasp so a few of the children ask me my name every time they see me. Our house is nice by Senegalese standards, but very minimal by American standards. We aren’t having too much trouble adjusting to the physical space, more the lifestyle. As Americans, we get antsy when we just sit around the house but here it’s common for people to just stay indoors during the day, even during the day-long power outages. Some students have said they are planned by the government to reduce energy-usage and are on a rotating neighborhood by neighborhood basis…I have my doubts because it seems inconsistent. The Senegalese have an attitude that when anything happens, such as a power outage or the public transportation being completely off schedule it’s best to just laugh and move on. While this is completely necessary for living in the country (we’re all still adjusting) it also seems that there is no real motivation to fix anything. Cecilia equated the Senegalese lifestyle to smoking weed, you lack motivation and just become indifferent and lazy. I think it’s mostly due to the intense heat. One thing I have not really enjoyed about living with my host family is the rooster they have on the roof. If the call to prayer doesn’t wake me at 5:00am then the rooster will. I told Cecilia that I hoped we would eat it for dinner rather soon. Instead, we have mostly been eating goat meat. This family has had a lot of students before so they’re great about letting us go out and do what we want while still taking an interest and being there if we have any questions or concerns. I’m excited about learning from out host mother, Aby, because she is an anthropology professor and does a lot of work with the stigma that Africans have about AIDs. She’s smart and easy to talk to and helps us with our French when we get stuck. She’s so eager to please us, she has shown us what they really mean by the word teranga.

Ku Munn, Muun

In Wolof, loosely translated this means ‘Laugh it off’ or ‘He who accepts will smile.’ This phrase describes this country perfectly. Now that I’ve had time to spend time with my family I’ve realized how important this is. More on this later…On Thursday night we went to Just 4 U for the first time. It was a local band playing traditional Senegalese music, which I really enjoyed. The drinks have European prices since it’s a tourist attraction so we weren’t too tempted to go overboard. We spent a few hours dancing and listening to music, but it was an early night because we’re so exhausted from orientation and had our cultural orientation the next day. This was great because we got to learn about a lot of the important practices before meeting our host families. We had traditional thieboudienne (rice and fish) for lunch that we ate sitting on the floor with our hands. It is much more than just rice and fish, it has a variety of spices, cassava root, bitter tomatoes, and carrots. We also tried a bunch of the juices they make here, including bissap, baobab, and ginger. Bissap juice is made from sugar, hibiscus, and water and has a deep purple color. It has a minty-fruity taste, but it’s unlike anything I’ve tasted before. We learned more about the Senegalese lifestyle, as well. It’s so hard for us to understand and adapt to right now. They are very laid back. We moved in with our host family and began to better understand this. For the past two days with our families we have mostly witnessed them sitting around, but it’s not really out of laziness it’s really just a slower pace of life. They are on vacation right now because they are teachers and Ramadan starts today. All of us were a bit surprised to find that our host families had not planned to take us around and show us the neighborhood or any other activities for our first day so we mostly just explored our neighborhoods. Since none of us have cell phones we were happy to stumble across each other while we were walking around our respective neighborhoods. We also went to Just 4 U again (I’m spending most of my ‘food’ stipend there intended to round out our diets with some fruits and vegetables. But no worries, fruit is dirt cheap at the road stands and bananas have a thick skin so they’re safe.) The Orchestra Baobab was playing and they’re going on world tour after this weekend. We were lucky to catch them; the music is hard to describe since I know very little about music but we enjoyed ourselves. It’s available in the states if you want to take a listen.

Downtown Dakar

Since I don't have any school work and I'm really enjoying that the power has been working so well the past few days I thought I would post again...Yesterday night we were all able to hang out as a group in the off-campus dorm and try some Senegalese beer. It's nothing special...but it's cheaper since it's local. It was nice to get everyone together to hang out on our roof until we decided we were being too loud and went inside. Today we were able to go into downtown Dakar for the first time. We tried to bargain with the cab driver in Wolof but really just stood and said numbers in French until we were satisfied with the outcome. If one doesn't accept our price there are many more taxis willing to pull over. We went to the Sandaga Market which has everything from boxers and bras to q-tips. We were swarmed wherever we went since we were a group of Americans but we were lucky in that no one was pickpocketed. We later read in the Lonely Planet Guide that this is the biggest market and most overwhelming. We aren't really sure how reliable this guide is since it's a bit outdated, but it's the only one on Senegal. We also went to N'ice Cream which is apparently the best place to get ice cream in Dakar; it's really more like gelati. It wasn't as good as ice cream in America but I'm sure we'll get used to it. We chose our classes today too and I'm going to be taking all of my classes in French except Wolof so hopefully I'll make some progress with my French skills...We're going to the cross-cultural orientation tomorrow and we get to meet our host families!

Aslaamalekum!

That is 'hello' in Wolof, more accurately peace be with you...I think. We had our first Wolof class yesterday so we've been trying to practice by greeting the people on our walking route on the way to the university. One fellow student has taken to talking to a man who charges people to take pictures of his monkey. We found this out after someone tried to take a picture and he popped out demanding money. Since we hadn't been to the bank, we didn't have any local currency and now he's forgiven us. He gives the monkey oranges so you can take action photos of it eating. I'm pretty sure that's his entire job...We also went to the beach and the water was warm. The beach was a little rocky but that's because it wasn't one of the more popular resort beaches, it's just very close to Suffolk University; which is where we take our classes. The food is amazing! It's very flavorful and a little spicy. The other day we even had french fries. All of the students from our program have devoured the few jars of the Senegalese version of Nutella the cafeteria managed to get us. There's always plenty of bread readily available. Today we learned about our host family. I'm staying with another girl from our program in a large family with a lot of small children, I'm really looking forward to moving in with them on Friday. I haven't taken too many pictures, but I'll post some when I do.

I made it!

I arrived here Sunday afternoon and I was dropped off at off-campus housing for Suffolk University. I couldn't get wireless and the power is very tempermental, so I haven't really been able to get online. The accomodations are no where close to the five start hotels I was staying in in Irleland, but that's to be expected. We were all pleasantly surprised that they gave us toilet paper and large bottles of water. The shower is not so much a shower as trickling cold water, but it's so hot that's all you really need. We've all come to the realization that we're going to be sweaty the whole time we're here. I've come to the realization that I'm going to have a constant layer of suncreen, sweat, and bug reppelent on my skin. Yesterday, we started orientation and just learned some basics about differenent cultural values, etc. The most exciting part was finding out where we're living. Some local Senegalese students took us on a tour of our respective neighborhoods, mine is called Mermoz and it's within walking distance of campus. There's a cute little bakery, a mosque, and a school. It's close to a bank, and Ceasar's restaurant, too. The Assistant Director of our program said her favorite tailor is there, too so I'm excited to get some authentic clothing made. Our guides put a large emphasis on land marks because even though the streets are numbered no one knows which streets are which so they use landmarks to indentify locations as opposed to street numbers. They showed us the gym too...everyone was very excited; it has a lot of equipment, tennis courts, and a pool...and it's full of Europeans. We sat around playing cards in the dark last night because our generator ran out of gas, but being in the dark just made it more interesting. We talked about the reactions we got when we told people we were coming here. Most people got "Where is that?" and "Why?" It's nice to be around 50some people who actually understand why you wanted to come here. (I'm not saying that in a negative way, it's just nice to have it in common and we all understand each other to a certain extent even before we begin talking.) Everyone in the program is great and I cannot wait to move in with my host family on Friday...maybe they'll have a more reliable generator.