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.