A la prochaine!

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