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This was on May 15..the day I had to leave Senegal and come back to the *cold* midwest! First thing I did in the airport was chug down a bottle of ice cold chocolate milk. It was delicious!
Back in Minneapolis where this adventure all started, I was greeted by my family of my parents, my two younger brothers, and my aunt and uncle, who created this wonderful sign for me! Thank goodness for the pronunciation key under the words! She even tried to write some Wolof on the back :) Thank you family!!!
Ousmane and me, the last Senegalese friend I made on the bus over the tarmac to the plane. During our flight I translated things from English to Wolof for him, he was also quite entertaining. He was on his way to visit his oldest son who lives in Atlanta.
Me and Sadic, probably one of the most hilarious kids I ever met, on the flight from Dakar to New York. "I ain't paying no $7 for jelly beans!!!"
My best friends who took me to the airport..Mamadou, Baye, and Go. Baye's sister, Fatim, worked at the airport so I was able to leave to say goodbye after I got my bags checked. Then since there were long lines, she helped me get through quicker.
My Papa, Ibrahima, et moi with our rocking pants! (he was out on a walk when we took the family photo)
Family picture! (with almost my whole family!) Back row: Ndeye (wife of Demba, sister in law to me) with Khady, Mbow (my mom), Faatu Moody (my sister), Dou Dou (brother) with Baby Fatim, Ndeye (wife of Dou Dou, sister in law). Front row: Demba (brother), Dior (daughter of Ndeye and Demba, technically my niece), Maty (daughter of my brother and sister in law who live in Spain, niece), Lape Lape (daughter of Ndeye and Demba, neice), ME - OUMY THIAM!
Mamadou, me and Lamine
Me and Mousa, trying not to cry
Love our shirts together.. at Lamine's and mousa's jean stand!
Writing down phone numbers, emails, and notes in my notebook
Last time at La Duchess, with new and old friends.
Before leaving our hut, Becca and I decided to climb into everyone of our cubby holes (we were sad without Emilia there). hope you like my outfit as much as I do!
Our gorgeous hut. (I'm sitting in that chair right now to type this, but its nighttime now)
Drummers and dancers as another surprise tonight
Jelly fish sting (and rocking flip flop tan line). I got stung as I was thinking about diving into the waves, right after saying "but I'm afraid of getting stung!"
We raced crabs. 
The beautiful beach area that we can lay in the sun and not be bothered by children saying "Toubab, donne-moi cadeau!" (white person, give me a gift)I can't believe my words as I type this that this is the last "Real" night for me in Senegal...for now. I packed my suitcase here in my hut at the hotel, after a bit of a drumming and dancing performance for our program. After spending several glorious days here relaxing in the sun following our presentations, we head back to Dakar in the morning, for our final afternoon to say goodbye and then most of us head out shortly after midnight.
Today's adventure: going to the market. 5 of us headed out and walked down to the ATM. After a bit of a trouble finding a taxi, Jarvis decided to walk, and we got a ride to the market a bit of a ways away. Immediately after arriving at the market and looking at bracelets, Abby, Devin, Phileppe, and I gained a following of male guides, typical. After a few small purchases, we were led back into the market area not along the street, to see our new friends' mother's stand. Here, I found some cool things, spoke a lot of Wolof and got the good price I wanted (I reasoned with him that I wasn't a tourist and kept telling him that every price he was giving only a dumb person would pay). After we were finished here, our growing crowd of guides led us a little down the walkway to another stand, where I bought some AMAZING patchwork pants, once again spewing out numbers and prices and questions and any bit of Wolof I know to get a good price. And got a very decent price. And gained, yet another, lover. After being led to a jewelry store when we wanted to buy wrestler tshirts, we decided we had enough, grabbed a taxi and headed back to our hotel for lunch of ceebu jen.
The rest of the afternoon I enjoyed by sitting in the almost sun on the beach, writing in my journal and thinking about life. Following a run turned walk down the beach with Becca and Devin, we showered and enjoyed a delicious cous-cous chicken supper and then coconut, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream for dessert. Our surprises kept coming, space was then cleared for a set of drummers and three beautiful dancers. They were so talented! And then decided to get us involved too, grabbing each one of our hands one at a time to go up and learn a dance move. Trust me this sounds harmless but oh so embarassing! Good thing we've really learned to know eachother in countless ways while on this adventure in Senegal.
That would probably be one of the biggest lessons we've all learned - to be comfortable. I know that one of the reasons I came on this adventure of a lifetime was to try to push my comfort zone. It has been pushed, a little.
Tomorrow is going to be a terribly hard day for me. We'll be back in Dakar, I plan on heading downtown for the afternoon to hang out at La Duchess one last time and to go around to visit all my vendor friends, exchange phone numbers and emails, and no doubt cry. Then I'll head back to Wakam for the last time, spend some time at the phone magasin, say bye to my friends there. Go to my home for one last time and pack all my bags up there in my room. I'm planning on having one last dinner with my family, and then have to leave them, no doubt also in tears. My friends Mamadou and Bouga are going to accompany me to the airport and spend the last precious moments of my time in this beautiful country of Senegal with me, once again, most likely in tears. It is just going to be so hard to try to explain in words how much these family and friends mean to me and how much I am going to miss their smiles and support in my everyday lives. Not long ago, we were complete strangers, separated by so many differences (language, skin color, religion, food preferences, names) but now none of that matters. I hope I can help them understand how important they are to me and how I hope to see them once again someday soon!
Will be back in the states soon, maybe in tears over missing Senegal. If you remember, greet me with a "Asaalemalekum! Ca va? Nanga def?" and that might just make my day.
Flying out a little after midnight (around 2:40am on Saturday) to New York and then onwards to Minneapolis.
Love, Amanda
This is the two-story hut Emilia (the other minnesotan), Becca (jellyfish victim), and I are staying in. The bathroom alone is much larger than my room in Dakar. Emilia and I decided it reminds us of a nice Minnesota cabin, due to the wooden railings. It has all sorts of little stairs and ledges and cubbies, and a little courtyard of shells outside. Spectacular!Unfortunately our internet has been super slow. But the sun has been hot and warm! Today started out with the last four students giving their presentations and now we're all FREE! I attempted to go swimming this afternoon, but got a nice jellyfish sting on my leg. At least I knew how to care for myself this time!! Lunch was fish meatballs and rice, the sauce and veggies were delicious but I couldn't choke down the fish. Of course, it was accompanied by an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola!! After lunch, laid in the sun and wrote a column for The Trumpet, then Emilia and I went on a walk to get some ice cream. I got a magical ice cream cone, one of those pre-wrapped things, with ice cream and chocolate, MINUS the ice cream cone. On our walk back i attempted to slurp it up while succeding in getting it all over my hands, face, and even my feet (dont ask how) Back here, sitting in the hut a little longer so that I can update this, Congrats to Abbie and Caleb on their engagement!
Think I'm going to head back to the sun, work on my tan a little bit more and more than likely get hasseled by little children asking us for money (i'm wearing nothing but a swim suit, where do you expect me to be hiding money?) Baay-ma!
So unfortunately I am unable to upload photos here right now from paradise. You'll just have to believe me that I am currently staying at a beautiful on the beach hotel, sleeping in a two story hut and getting served great meals!
I'm DONE DONE DONE with all of my project! I presented right away Monday morning, wasn't the best presentation ever but I just wanted to get it done so that I could really take the time to relax. Since I presented in a garden like terrace area, I spent the afternoon in the sun on the beach, soaking up the rays while journaling, reading, and other writing. Then jumped in the waves a bit. Then back in our beautiful hut, Becca was getting ready for a beach run, so I decided to join her. We ran down the beach as the tide was coming in and the sun was setting. After a fairly tough 30 minute jog (dodging garbage, rocks, fish, and annoying vendors), we finished our run and jumped in the waves a bit. We found Rachel, and they decided to swim out in the waves a way. Then Becca got stung by a jellyfish, and unfortunately I did not have to pee. I broke out my first aid skills and took care of her, using freshly picked aloe from the path by our hut. She's better today. After another delicious meal, just chilled out in our hut a bit, enjoying some real relaxing down time.
This morning we had more presentations. I got to sit back and enjoy, and help try to figure out our very finicky projector to computer connection. After a walk to a boutique, and lunch, Emilia, Becca, and I passed out in our hut, a nice sweaty sleep, due to our delicious lunch of maffe. (peanut sauce, rice, meat) Woke up just in time to catch the bus to an island town south of here with our program. We visited a Catholic church and artisinal shops and even a Muslim/Catholic mixed cemetery. We had an amazing supper of spaghetti, salad, and garlic buttery green beans and have just been chilling out basically since then.
We will be here til Friday morning when we head back to Dakar. Following a little running around the city, one more supper with my family, and the hardest goodbyes of my life, I will have to board a plane and leave this new place I call home.
Until then, I will be relaxing, thinking about life, living in a luxurious hut, washing some clothes by hand, and thinking about life.
This post is hereby dedicated to my Christmas present from Santa Claus - my flash drive. I almost didn't bring this little baby with me to Senegal, but I have to say it is probably one of the most useful things that was in my suitcase. Every student of my program has definitely put it to use countless times and sharing photos is a lot more easier via USB than trying over the slow, unreliable internet. So thank you Santa Claus, love me and the other SIT students.
Mmmm misquitos, I wish you didn't find me tasty.
Little sister Khady and friend Bouga. His favorite saying is the title of this post - like usual.
The boys, hanging out in Faatu's room, watching terrible french television, the usual.
My baye fall friend and me, now a yaay fall. Dreureujef Lamp Fall!
Mot and moi - my favorite neighbor boy, we have a secret handshake just a quick note to let the world know I'm still alive here in Senegal. The last week found me busy working 24 hours a day on writing my paper for my final project. I got all 22 pages of it done! whoo!! We had our fete finale (final party) here at school tonight. Some of my siblings and friends came which was really awesome. I also saw two friends from my neighborhood (one being my cousin Alpha) for the first time since I left my family there. It was a shock to see him, juxtaposition to see him sitting next to my little sister, then terribly hard to say goodbye. I've already started shedding many many tears that I know are inevitable. Unfortunately for the last three days, I have been overtired as a result of my project work and now as a result of this, have come down with a terrible cough, which is not conducive to sleep. Which leads me to.. I hope that I get better soon so that laying out on the beach is actually enjoyable. We leave tomorrow morning for Mbour, a nice hotel of little huts, right on the ocean. We will give our final presentations here and hopefully soak up some rays! The plan is to return to Dakar on Friday afternoon, giving us just a few short hours to run around and say goodbyes. My flight leaves just after midnight on the 15, my friend Mamadou told me yesterday that he has a friend that works at the airport and is going to come with me and spend every last second I have in Senegal with me. But I don't want to leave! I don't know how, but I'm going to find a way to come back here. My choked up goodbyes have all been "see you next time" 's and not goodbye. I've already decided that. I also need to find a good way to call Senegal from the states, my Wolof isnt going to get better speaking English you know! I went shopping for some things downtown yesterday, my friend Madot took it upon himself to be my guide, which I was super thankful for.! The vendors see the color of my skin and give me outrageous prices, thinking I wont understand. However, I'm a smart Toubab. I use as much wolof as I can. And joke around. One guy kept speaking to me in English (which drives me NUTS here!) and I kept answering him in Wolof. Which was entertaining. The best part though was that he kept insisting that I've studied Wolof for a long time, because I guess my wolof was really good. That was a great compliment!! I was disappointed though because they had this NBA mural painted on the ceiling, but alas, no Timberwolves. Lakers were there though, so almost!Alright, well I think I'm going to head home from school, I dont at all like that the end is coming. I will most likely cry myself to sleep tonight (if I can sleep, this cough is insane). Some presentations in the morning and then off to paradise. a tout a l'heure!
Back in Minneapolis where this adventure all started, I was greeted by my family of my parents, my two younger brothers, and my aunt and uncle, who created this wonderful sign for me! Thank goodness for the pronunciation key under the words! She even tried to write some Wolof on the back :) Thank you family!!!
Ousmane and me, the last Senegalese friend I made on the bus over the tarmac to the plane. During our flight I translated things from English to Wolof for him, he was also quite entertaining. He was on his way to visit his oldest son who lives in Atlanta.
Me and Sadic, probably one of the most hilarious kids I ever met, on the flight from Dakar to New York. "I ain't paying no $7 for jelly beans!!!"
My best friends who took me to the airport..Mamadou, Baye, and Go. Baye's sister, Fatim, worked at the airport so I was able to leave to say goodbye after I got my bags checked. Then since there were long lines, she helped me get through quicker.
My Papa, Ibrahima, et moi with our rocking pants! (he was out on a walk when we took the family photo)
Family picture! (with almost my whole family!) Back row: Ndeye (wife of Demba, sister in law to me) with Khady, Mbow (my mom), Faatu Moody (my sister), Dou Dou (brother) with Baby Fatim, Ndeye (wife of Dou Dou, sister in law). Front row: Demba (brother), Dior (daughter of Ndeye and Demba, technically my niece), Maty (daughter of my brother and sister in law who live in Spain, niece), Lape Lape (daughter of Ndeye and Demba, neice), ME - OUMY THIAM!
Mamadou, me and Lamine
Me and Mousa, trying not to cry
Love our shirts together.. at Lamine's and mousa's jean stand!
Writing down phone numbers, emails, and notes in my notebook
Last time at La Duchess, with new and old friends.
Before leaving our hut, Becca and I decided to climb into everyone of our cubby holes (we were sad without Emilia there). hope you like my outfit as much as I do!
