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