Heading out to the heat

Devin's host cousin Baba makes the BEST attaayha
I came to Africa and found my sister from California


Well folks, no worries, I'm not falling off the face of the earth but I will be gone for the next week. We're heading inland, out of the city and into the real African heat to a village called Kedougou. (google map it if you so desire). We are leaving early tomorrow morning and will return to Dakar late next Saturday. Now that I feel quite settled in Dakar I'm looking forward to a bit of a change up and as always, new experiences. Expect some great stories! (and for me to complain about how hot it is..I'm sure you snowbirds won't give me any sympathy!)

Last night was a lot of laughs with Devin's host family and my cousins. We just hung out and chatted and drank tea. Oh and did I mention we laughed a lot?

Until next week,
Love ya all,
Amanda :)

Le fut, food, and a new dress!

My lunch today..a wrap of a hot dog, meat, egg, cheese, mayo and french fries. yum!
Le fut yesterday after school
The game
Oh children
My new dress! Tailor made, with my friend that has been at school teaching us batik.

In my handwriting..

Yay Coca Cola in glass bottles! (and sprite too)

Doing batik yesterday - aka wax painting with a little chunk of foam
My new shoes!


READ SECOND:READ FIRST:


Click on the two pictures of the writing to make the photos bigger and you can read a description of my morning routine here! We keep field journals and I thought instead of writing it twice I would just let you see my beautiful handwriting :)

Another gorgeous day in Africa, as always. We're learning more complicated things in Wolof now, like how to say "My dad grew up in Janesville and now he lives in Madelia." Hope you enjoy my sarcasm :)

My friend/adopted sis from California, Devin, is also keeping a blog while we're here in Senegal. She is a lit major from UC Berkley and you might enjoy her writing over mine. We compliment each other in this way, I do the visual thing, and she's better with her words. Her blog address --> inanevice.tumblr.com You'll see lots of my photos on there :)

After another afternoon of batiking, we're going to a soccer game to see a friend play. I'm excited!!!

Giraffes are really tall!

Devin, Fall, me, and Alpha on the beach on Sunday
I love beaches
Hip Hop rap off
WAVE!
Ataayah on the beach? I think yes.
Mbour beach = paradise!
Baobob tree and the hot African sun.
SAFARI!!! The wind was insane!
Check out their horns! They reminded me of unicorns!
Giraffes might possibly be my newest favorite animal

Epic lesson learned this weekend - Giraffes are REALLY tall!

We visited a wildlife animal park..basically a wide open area of naturalness that the park organizes trucks to drive people around it. (sorry no fourwheelers, disappointing). We got so close to some of the animals and yes, the giraffes are my favorite! There were so many and they were soooo tall! Just believe me on that!

After the park, we headed to a little chunk of paradise. Spent the afternoon on the beach, soaking up the sun and swimming. We also had ataayah on the beach..so good! I'm telling ya, field trips here are sooo tough! (haha)

Upon our return to Dakar, we showered all of the sand off of us and had supper with our families. Later Saturday evening Devin and I went with my cousin Alpha and one of his friends to this sweet hip hop party. There was a dj playing and we danced for awhile in this big grass hut in the middle of the place. Then everyone crowded in a circle in the big grass hut for a rap off. It was intense! Some of these guys freestyling were way good! And it was a cultural learning experience for us as well, Devin and I were the only white people there, AND the only women. We've found that the lives we lead here are much more similar to men then to women. It was so awesome to hear rap in a mix of Wolof, French, and English, all at the same time. Pretty much how our conversations usually go now.

Sunday was another good lazy day, got caught up on sleep and went to the market to buy some shoes with Alpha. He actually went to buy them, I chilled with a man selling sandals who taught me Wolof so that Alpha could get my shoes cheaper. They like to raise prices due to my white skin. Super. Then the four of us went to that glorious beach that we had voyaged to last week. Heaven. Lounged around and did some reading and soaking up more sun. The best part was when Alpha and I ran off and played some beach volleyball! Unfortunately my saraong inhibited my ability to run and screwed up a lot. But the guys just laughed so its all good.

If you think homework is tough, try doing homework in Africa sometime. Sooo hard. I just finished writing a paper and am now focusing my mind on my ISP (Independant Study Project) that will completely occupy my time for the last month I am here. I'm looking forward to doing a really awesome photography project - for a whole month! whoot!

Love comments, tell me what you wanna know, what you wanna see!

-Amanda

Happy birthday Leanna!

I was VERY excited for Coca Cola this morning :)
The power went out last night, So Fall and I studied with a flash light while he made me fried eggs for supper

Cultural Center break dance group



Yesterday afternoon after school was way sweet. Some of my classmates recently discovered this cultural center only 2 blocks at most from my house. Here all sorts of people come to sing, dance, paint, and all sorts of art forms. We just walked in the gate and a group of people started talking to us (story of our life). This is one of the coolest places I've ever been to. All sorts of people were all over the place in different sorts of groups. My favorite was a group of incredible breakdancers doing their thing. We stood there and watched them for the longest time while waiting for this show to start in the performing area nearby. These guys had so much talent! I honestly don't know how they can dance like that! One guy even had on a helmet to do headspins. After this, we went to this big performance and the guys did a big number in it, can you say breathtaking?

Man, this morning of class was sure tough. After about an hour of basically a chatting session with the entire group at SIT, we had a sort presentation on Senegalese fabrics. We then hopped in taxis and got out in the middle of a busy market (also another story of our lives here). We walked around all sorts of shops and looked at piles and piles of beautiful fabrics. Made me think of my mom lots! After we had all bought some material, we once again hopped in a clunky yellow and black taxi and got out at a tailors shop, located on the corner of what looked to be an abandoned street. Here we looked through catalogs and practiced some of our new vocabulary words as we explained to the tailor what kind of dresses or skirts we wanted made from the fabric we had just bought. Jess drew a picture of what I described, the tailor took my measurements, and we were told to come back and get our dresses next Wednesday! I'm so excited for a custom made dress out of material that I picked out myself :)

For lunch me and two friends went to this place just around the corner from school. By place, I mean what looks to be a makeshift shack on the side of a road. The usual. We had maafa, which is peanut sauce, rice, and meat. So good. And talk about atmosphere, a shack on the curb. Looking up, I saw that the roof was made out of a mix of chunks of cardboard, old books, calenders, and other misc items. A transparent cloth as a curtain separated the "kitchen" from the "eating area" which was just a table we all sat around. It was so delicious and very cheap. Our dessert was a juice that tasted like a combination of apple juice and iced tea. So good.

Now, heading out to the cultural center again today. Tomorrow our group is going out to some nature refuge. Yay for animals! I think they said we'll be taking fourwheelers around and then spending the afternoon at a beautiful beach. Whoot.

Hope you are still enjoying my random tidbits of Senegalese life! I enjoy reading all the comments!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ROOMMATE LEANNA!!!! I'm sorry I'm not there to celebrate your special day with 216+ balloons!!!

Lights, Drums, Sweat!

At Just for You
Me and my sister Bineta
HAHAHA Me and Alpha!!!
Lunch yesterday: my first time eating Ethopiean food. This is what 6 of us shared. Yum
Sweeping the floor after supper.

I've decided to stick to telling a good story or two with each blog post rather than a lame summary of my everyday. Ok? Ok!

So I can't remember if I wrote about this yet or not, but anyways, Devin stayed the weekend at my house since her homestay wasn't so awesome. Saturday morning we got out of bed and were getting ready for some showers. The light wasn't turning on in the bathroom so we decided to change the lightbulb with another one out on the deck. Just as we were finishing with this switcher-oo, my sister Bineta came up the stairs. She looked at us funny and asked what we were doing. I explained our problem, she looked at us, rolled her eyes, and said with a smirk "The power is out."

Oh. Whoops.


Last night after a supper of spaghetti noodles and lamb (DELICIOUS), Devin (who now lives across the street from me) and I went out to Just4You, a club/bar that often has large name groups perform there. We had planned on just going out and maybe playing some pool, but there was actually a group playing with a huge crowd. And it just so happened that the group is also the group that comes to our school for our drumming and dancing instruction. They rock! We walked in the door and were greeted immediately by our djembe player for our dance instruction, seated with his family. He came and sat down with us and chatted with us the rest of the night. Way awesome! The music was incredible! A mix of all sorts of African instruments: kora, djembe, sera, kerr, etc etc with singing and dancing. My favorite was probably when the guys just started jamming out on some various drums...if you've seen danceline, this was 10000000 times better! A big name rapper also did a cover and that was rockin. What a great evening.

I am currently sweating after an afternoon of hardcore drumming and dancing! Yay.

Fun fun fun

I just still cant get over the beauty of the beach on Valentines Day
Alpha and I went for a walk to drink some Coca Cola
Me and my "little" brother Papis and I watching some Senegalese wrestling on tv in the living room
My sister Bineta and our maid making pancakes for supper
Devin and I drinking ataayah (Senegalese tea) with some new friends we made down the road from school


After school yesterday was pretty awesome. Devin and I left here with the intentions of going to one of our favorite eating places for a drink and to work on some homework, practice some language skills. But go figure, we got distracted by our new Senegalese friends! Our new friends invited us to sit and chat, giving us a perfect opportunity to do our homework of practicing our new language skills! This experience just encompasses the people here as a whole. And also, one of the boys that sells phone cards knows our names! We're known on the street! So, we're walking by and they say hi (a bit of an extended greeting is the normal process here) and say hey you should stay and chat with us. So we sit down and talk about all sorts of things. Its kinda unfortunate I'm from Minnesota because no one here knows anything about the state. I explain where its at, in the center of the country, south of Canada, its cold and snowy there and the conversation just stops. Then my friend Devin mention she's from California and the conversation is endless. Anyone got some good conversation topics for me to bring up? This experience is making me realize how most of my stories are really odd, or very difficult to explain in French. Such as camp, my photographing jobs, and so many other things. Oh well, I enjoy the company of people anyways. One thing my cousin Alpha taught me is a funny thing in Wolof that means "ten hyenas in the day ten hyenas in the night" There is absolutely no meaning to it but in wolof its like a tongue twister and people just crack up at it! In wolof its "fukki bukki guddi, fukki bukki beceegg" And you know I love making people laugh :) After we were finished with only two rounds of tea (there are three total, each one getting sweeter and sweeter), we had to go. It was getting late and I don't want my family to worry!

My family is wonderful, have I mentioned that? Every day I come home from school, my brother Papis tells me how much he missed me! Even this morning, he came up to my floor before he left for school just to make sure he would get to see me today! How adorable is that! My sister Bineta practices her english with me and she helps me with my french and wolof. Alpha and Fall have me meeting all of their friends (a ton of people..and I thought I was good at remembering names!) Its really fun when I'm not with Alpha or Fall and see one of their friends on the street and I recognize them or they see me first! And last night was a milestone, Alpha's friend Ibou (it was his birthday) is sooo terribly difficult to understand and last night I understood him! Tonight probably wont be as great since I've been in "english world" all day. I also did more intense journaling in french last night and when I read it outloud to Papis, he understood it! Supper was a interesting dish.. pancakes with meat crumbles on a bed of lettuce and onion sauce with baguettes on the side. Yum!

So Devin and I are pretty much sisters..after the pelican man insisted we were as such. After her terrible homestay placement, she is moving to my aunt's house, which happens to be right across the street from mine, tonight. The best part is our Senegalese names, mine is Oumy, her's is Amy. People think its really funny when we introduce ourselves and refer to each other as sisters. (or soeurs in french)

Today was a lot of learning. The best was this morning in Wolof (which I have with Devin and Sara) when our prof was trying to explain the word which means drunk in Wolof and acted as such!!! Oh so funny! Our first day of class with him last week was really straightforward but we've definitely got him out of his shell!!

We also had drumming and dancing this afternoon. Some of the dancing i felt like I was doing the chicken dance! oh la la!

Maybe more tea tonight, after I get my sis moved into her new place! Maybe we'll make tin can telephones or send each other smoke signals!

-Amanda

Valentines

Looking down the glorious beach as the sun was starting to set
Cousin Alpha and I

I spent my Valentines Day at the beach..in Africa. How cool is that? It was a great time, running and jumping into the waves never gets old. Alpha showed us this great beach that seemed endless in either direction and we were smack dab in the middle. The sand was the softest sand I've ever had between my toes and there's nothing better than chilling with your Valentines on a mat on the sand in between grass huts while listening to the ocean waves roll in.

Tan lines not frostbite

Adopted "sis" Devin and I
During the taxi ride home
Downtown. I really don't know how the traffic works here but it just does
We're doing a research project on the jewelry at Goree island
A blog post wouldn't be complete without a little coca cola
Saturday at Goree-Devin, moi, and cousin Fall
Bahahaha
"Sisters" jumping..Devin and I always make the same faces in photos..
A soccer game
On the ferry on our way to the island
Moi
Boy do I love my reflections
Goree Island
One of the main walkways on Goree
Picturesque
There are no cars on this island..how relaxing
What a pretty view
A the Maison d'Esclaves (House of Slaves) on Goree Island



So how's everyone at home? I'm spending a little bit of my afternoon at school so that I can update everyone on my beautiful life here :) Hope you enjoy!

So Friday our SIT group traveled to Goree Island for the day. Goree (pronounced "Gor-ray") Island is a symbolic/historic sight of the African slave trade. We visited the Masion d'Esclaves and a women's history museum. We also had lunch together and had a little time to explore. The history wasn't as moving as I was anticipating, partially due to the presenter's terrible ability to tell stories in a tasteful way.

Elsewise, the island is gorgeous. A little hunk of paradise not far from Dakar. There are no cars on this island and the architecture is from colonial times. This is the most of a touristic thing we've done here so far, and it reminds me of how much I dislike being a tourist. It was a peaceful walk around the island and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to go back on Saturday to enjoy it some more! (and without our "big" school group). My nose got a bit sunburned but I also finally bought some jewelry (see first photo).

Since her homestay situation isn't the greatest, Devin spent the weekend with me and my family. Exhausted, we fell asleep on Friday night at 10:30pm. After getting up to brush our teeth and put our pjs on, my cousins and brother barged in the door as I was turning off the light and we continued to have an impromptu dance party in my room in our pjs. Gotta love these guys :) Saturday we got up and had a baguette and tea breakfast, then took a cab to the ferry with Fall. We spent the day working on our project about jewelry - basically just talking with the vendors on the island. We also had lunch on the beach but disappointly the spaghetti wasn't as awesome as it was at the place we went to on Friday with the group. We sat on a pier on the water for quite some time the afternoon, enjoying the view and the peaceful nature of the island. Devin and I even found a boat with a combo of our Senegalese names on it. Awesome!

Back on the mainland, we followed Fall around downtown squeezing between taxis, street vendors, and their items for sale. We eventually made it to a book store, one of my favorite types of stores. If you ever go abroad, they are great to check out, and books make fantastic memoirs of the places you visit, just saying. I found a few sweet photo magazines but ended up not buying anything. Maybe next time? After we made it back home eventually, we went a few separate field trips..One to the ATM for some cash and another to buy some water. It is really awesome to run into my new friends here on the street and have them recognize me. On both trips, this happened, joined by my new friends. Bocar carried my ten liters of water back to my house for me and remarked (in french of course) that chivalry is not dead. I'm glad they realize it here as well!

Today has been more of a restful day. Woke up and had some lunch and now we're at school. Hoping to spend some of my valentines at the beach, work on my tan. Its wonderful worrying about my flip flop tan line in the middle of February rather than frostbite. Just sayin'

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (a day late, but you got a call yesterday!)

Sorry I don't have any really spectacular stories for you, but maybe soon. Now we're starting to get busier with homework and limiting computer time is difficult!

Keep drinking your Coca Cola!

I hope you enjoy the photos. I've always been better with my photos than my words!