Semester in Senegal!

ISP - what you've been waiting for

2010-06-01T09:39:00.001-07:00

Laundry by Awa
Phone Magasin
Hair braiding
Handshake
Tea on the side of the road
Lape Lape's every last bite
Writing the Koran
Senegal: Teranga, cafe touba, orange
Obama's eyes
Coloring
Afternoon tea
Car rapide tea
Cafe touba
Phone card seller
Talibes
Talibes
Posing with a car
At a soccer game
Talibe and tin
Long Thursday at work
5 minutes and shampoo bottles
Fishy market stares
Colobane
Colobane
Colobane
Ouakam
Ouakam

My month-long photo project was definitely a learning experience! If I didn't already explain it well enough, basically us students were given 300,000 CFA (about $900) and a month of time to do a project within certain requirements. I set off to do a photo project, with no idea what would result. My hopes were to capture Senegalese values in everyday situations. Along with the help of Matar Ndour, a professional freelance photographer, who was my advisor, over the course of the month, we decided on 3 different sets of photos for the final product. They are Les Mains (the hands), Le Foot (Soccer), and Toubab, Photo-Moi! (White person, take my picture!). The above are a few of the photos that resulted from this project, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!!

the process of leaving my new home

2010-05-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

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!

A la prochaine!

2010-05-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

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

Ice cream cone minus the cone!

2010-05-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

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!

Another paradise.

2010-05-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Comme d'habitude

2010-05-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

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!

Downtown, children, tea

2010-05-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Bleeting no more..Saturday's lunch at my brother's work party
Attaya
Lape Lape
Saturday afternoon fut
Bouba (Maafa Maafa) and I in an elevator making a delivery
The streets of downtown
Go's friend or cousin, Karim and I in Mermoz
Children
Going on a walk with Go
Posters
Downtown taxis
At the Duchess

This is my last full week in Dakar, and I'm going to spend it writing a big paper and preparing my presentation. I am now phoneless, having gotten pick pocketed at a big fete downtown last night for May Day. I cleaned my room again this morning but didn't wake up to the bleeting of muttons outside my room as I did yesterday morning. The heat is here, the sun is hot, but the absence of such is quite chilly.

A day of kids, tea, and soccer

2010-04-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

I made some new friends at the soccer game this afternoon
Loading up a whole furniture set onto a horse cart
Statue, market, soccer field
A little more soccer
Samba making tea at my house this afternoon
Me and my little sister Lape Lape

Waves of fun!

2010-04-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

A big wave came and in the process of saving my bag and clothes and journal from the water, I broke his sunglasses.
Hanging out on the beach of Ngor..right before the wave came
the beach at Ngor
Heading to the beach with a friend - Adama
Jumping for joy at a baobab
Mansour's birthday! (the son of a friend of Mamadou's)
Baptism on Saturday
Coloring with my little sisters
Me and Ibou. Opps I still have his sunglasses.

Talli bi

2010-04-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

=the road in Wakam where I hang out every night after watching tv in my sister's room
Our shadows, the wind, Dakar.
Go is the woman, I am the man (sans baby in my arm)
Flags blowing in the wind
A Korean man asked to take a photo with us..then took us inside the monument (that's not yet opened...here they are hanging up the exit signs and Pape looking at the display)
Our new Korean friend
Plaque with Wade quote
Pape and Go on the way up to the statue
Me and my fellow Minnesotan, Emilia eating some NICE CREAM in Plateu, this was reward and down time after a stressful time in the market
A Singer sewing machine like mine at home!
Me, Mamadou, and Emilia at La Duchess - went there for a water break and to say hi. love this pic!
They are always giving me things to eat and drink - maafa, ceebu jen, cafe touba, milk, etc etc etc
Dried fish at the market. Let's pretend that this ISN'T a part of ceebu jen.
Downtown
Mamadou and I in front of his friend's fruit stand, next to La Duchess
Having tea with Samba's friend on Saturday while Becca conducted an interview
More of Seye's bball game - I love telling people here how the Lakers started in Minnesota!
Tuesday French class - learn French fashion words and how to say things like "bra and underwear" from our teacher Keba. He kept having to call in Mam Bineta for all sorts of things!
Drinking some tea in the back of a broken down car rapide with Mamadou and his friends there.

Life's been dandy. Sorry for the lack of updates. Its such a conflict balancing my American life with my Senegalese life sometimes. But I know you all understand!

This lack of structure has been good and bad. I have much more time to sit back and really be immersed (and go days without seeing Americans or speaking English). And just hang with my Senegalese friends. That's my favorite. Except they make me eat so much!

Yesterday I hung out with my friend Go. We hung out at his friend's house for awhile (Pape) not far from my house. Then we took a wander around Wakam, visiting people and buying essentials like phone cards and cigarettes. Not to mention all the sand between my toes! We decided to go visit the statue as a part of our wander. Just hiked on right up to it, a national monument lacking an entry fee, a parking lot, or even garbage cans. We got up to the top of the stairs and took in the few while attempting to not get blown away in the powerful ocean wind. Walked around the whole bottom of the statue when then we were approached by a Korean man asking to take a photo with us. He did and then he took us inside the monument! (Koreans built it) He was in there helping to put up the exit signs. Funny story - the exit signs above one door were in English and the ones above the other were in French. Go and I decided that if there was an emergency everyone would go out the door they understood. Oh the disorderliness of Senegal!

After leaving, took a few more pics. Walked back to Wakam, buying more phone credit. Chilled out on the side of the road with a friend for awhile then took off on a walk along the ocean to try to find graffiti. Found some writing but not exactly what we were looking for. Made it all the way through Mermoz, the neighborhood south of Wakam. Here we visited Go's cousins who were all really nice and I had a whole coherent conversation with that family in Wolof! Whoot! After finding a little bit more graffiti, we grabbed a car rapide back to Wakam from the gas station. I returned home and made Baby Fatim giggle like always! After dinner on the floor from a big platter in the living room, Mamadou and friends came over and we watched a Texas movie dubbed in French in my sister's room. Drank some wonderful red juice, delicioius! After the movie (which I slept a bit laying on the floor) we headed down to talli bi, which is wolof for the road, a nightly tradition. Here we said hi to people hanging outside the magasin, drank steamed milk, danced, sang, learned a little wolof, shook hands, and laughed a lot. Around 1 am, Mamadou walked me home, where I fell fast asleep following writing in my journal and pausing to look up at the sky, thinking about where I am and what I'm doing.

Spending a semester here is really putting my life into perspective. I may have said that before. It is still unbelievable to me that this life has always taken place with me being completely oblivious to it. What else is going on in this world that I am unaware of?

My friends at Wartburg are all celebrating the end of finals and the start of Tour week. Some have moved out if their may terms take them elsewhere. Me, I'm still off on this adventure in Senegal. Not going to lie, seeing Facebook statuses about Midnight Breakfast made me a little nostalgic. But there will be midnight breakfasts next year!

As for my project. How I wish my camera could be invisible and ethics wouldn't be an issue! My white-skinned presence already changes things enough the way it is! I want so badly to capture everyone's personalities and little habits but those are all changed with I bring out my Canon. (whoa that makes me sound dangerous..not exactly what I was going for). At least my advisor is finally back from Nigeria and his phone number is working again! We'll see what he has to say about changing the focus of my project from working individuals to 20 something year old males, since they are the only ones who are comfortable enough with me to let me photograph whenever. Oh how I wish I wasn't white. And always viewed as a tourist.

Or that I will know Angela. She's from the states. Do you know her?

Sorry, no actually I do not know Angela.

I think I might have to clean out my room (aka bed) this weekend again, it seems that a sandcastle has developed and if I accidentally spill some water from my 1,5 liter bottle of Kirene I'll have a moat around it! And the dead cockroach that was next to my alarm clock last night can be king!

I wander what kind of French dubbed movie we shall watch tonight? And maybe instead of a pile of fish on the platter, we'll have a pile of chickens. Too bad they don't come with an ice cold glass of milk.

Happy last day at Wartburg Stephanie!
Dustin and Matej and all my MLHS-ers-hope you had a spectacular prom!
Mom, I would like to redeem that gift card I got for christmas for a whole bunch of new underwear. Also, I need a haircut :p
Dad, what do you want for a souvenir from Senegal?

Anyone else - plan my summer for me!

Basketball

2010-04-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Basketball game = magic
Hanging out at the Cheikh Anta Diop dorms with my friend from Mouit - village. bahaha

Giggles

2010-04-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

I spent Wednesday in downtown with my hilarious friend mamadou. Here is us taking jumping photos on self timer with my camera hanging out on the back of his motorcycle, on the avenue right by the ocean. I'm sporting my Senegal jersey and Senegalese all stars. This kid cracks me up!

I've spent this morning hanging out at my friend Bay's telephone repair shop. Drinking cafe touba and talking with the whole world. Really need to get putting some serious time into my photo project, but photo taking is just so extremely difficult here! I hate always being seen as a tourist..argh. However, yesterday was a promo day on phone credit, rocking because I finally have credit! (mobile to mobile minutes and texts are sooo amazing.)

After spending some time at My Shop for internet, I'm heading back to Wakam to eat some lunch with my new (and very tall) friend Seye. We're eating souloukhou for lunch, whatever that is. Hopefully NOT fish! Well, its 2 pm, I think its time for lunch!

While my ipod charges..

2010-04-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

So ISP has officially started. As a part of this, we can take optional French and Wolof courses at school which I have opted to do to continue improving my language skills further and to give this month of freedom a bit of structure and to keep me connected with everyone (I'm a bit of a loner off in Ouakam by myself). Becca and I were the only ones present in our Wolof course this morning and learned lots such as how to pose questions and how to make these questions emphasize different things (subject, object, etc). My French class following was a hoot. The four of us in class, along with our professor Keba created a story including Beyonce, Wally Seck, a magic mutton, Saint Peter, Dumbo, and Amadou (the guard at our school). Gotta love when class is actually fun and entertaining.

I did a lot of walking yesterday. Printed my ISP proposal, HSR form, and two other student's paperwork at WARC, our new favorite place to print because its only 100 CFA a page (around 20 cents). This is what I pay for my transportation to Ouakam at the end of every day. I also had lunch here at this resource center of couscous and onion sauce, and of course tea and coca cola. After I eventually finished printing 35 pages here and emailing my dad while struggling with a french keyboard, I walked to SIT, stopping at the post office to mail a postcard on the way and was reminded of how lines do not work here. At SIT I met up with Alisa and we hiked on down the road to the media center of Dakar, with no success of who we wanted to find there. So then we went to a bookstore. I of course found several wonderful photography books which were unfortunately too expensive for my budget currently. But who knows, they may find their way home with me. :) Leaving the bookstore, we parted ways as Alisa returned home and I started my 40 minute plus hike in my pink heeled barbie shoes to Emilia's apartment. I walked down the large divided road where the median serves many purposes - the usual being a place to wash your taxi! After coming to the end of this road FINALLY I turned right until I got to a roundabout and then turned left and walked up a big hill as blisters were starting to form on my sandy and sweaty feet. Eventually coming down this road I saw the school that we visited two weeks ago where one of our profs teaches English at and Emilia (another Minnesotan) on the sidewalk of the other side of the road! We continued the hike and eventually after taking several rights made it to her apartment, which looks over GREEN GRASS FIELDS. We chatted on the balcony, searched for summer internships and jobs (she has internet), made supper of scrambled eggs and spaghetti and then a few of our other friends showed up. Us girls had some good chatting and bonding time into the night. As much as I love my host family, it was nice to have some down chill time away from children. A little after midnight, we decided it was getting late, Jess and I headed off on foot. And didn't want to take a taxi since that costs money and we are all limited by our ISP budget. After wandering and then asking for directions, we made it to the VDN, pretty much like a highway equivalent. We walked and walked and walked and made it to Jess's then I somehow caught the last car rapide to Ouakam for the evening. At home, I journaled then fell asleep in my CLEAN bed. Got up and went to class this morning.

Yay Senengal.

Heading to a graffiti expo soon in downtown with my friend from the village after I finish my chocolate crepe.

Oh, I think my ipod is charged now.

I cleaned my room

2010-04-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

Baby Fatim 3 months old on Sunday!
I cleaned my room!
Little sisters (technically nieces if you think about the family tree), Dior and Khady
My eldery mother (in orange) dancing with a friend at the baptism
My dad and baby sister, Ibrahima and Khady. She looks scared and my dad looks like a creeper here! Ha.
My house
Two of the many cats that we have at our house, taking a Sunday snooze
A group of new friends at the wedding reception (I really need to invest in another dress!)
The gorgeous bride and groom
Mamadou and I at the wedding reception
Galerie Manege L'Institut Francais
Saint Louis 350 years Photo Exhibit at L'Institut Francais downtown
Carlou D at Just 4 U (Same group we saw in Saint Louis)
Becca playing some Senegalese pool
Me with Carlou D's sticks. I helped Maury fix Carlou D's THE DRUM with some rubber cement before the show
More soccer. There's lots of it here.
At Wartburg - My friend David sent me this photo, he missed me when he jumped in the fountain!

What a Week[end]!

2010-04-02T03:49:00.000-07:00

The stadium following the grand combat..insane!
The masses leaving the stadium
Yekini the champion!
My view of the stade
Supporting Yekini at the big combat - Senegalese wrestling at the national stadium. He won!
People everywhere following the parade
Firefighters - the crowd loved them a lot!
I think I saw every type of military vehicle used in Senegal
50 years of freedom
A school or neighborhood marching in the parade
Band marching towards the presidential stand
There were military EVERYWHERE
Seeing the 3rd president of Senegal - President Wade
La Statue de la Renaissance Africaine on its inaugural evening - April 3
Me on the Pont de Faidherbe
Carlou D - look at those eyes
Carlou D concert our last evening in Saint Louis..we're kinda best friends with his Kora player, Edouard
Reminiscent of its colonial past, the premiere capital of West Africa has a ton of colonial architecture
Muhamed, Michelle, me, and Khadim - the new friends we made at the market after working on our project
Looking at the Pont de Faidherbe over the Senegal River from near our hotel on the island at night
L'ecole des otages a Saint Louis - doing a school project with Phillepe and Michelle, here they are interviewing the director's sons
Pont de Faidherbe a Saint Louis
Family photo before I had to left..Ce Sil and me in the front, Back: Maimouna (my aunt/other mom), Grandma, Marie, Marie's mom (my aunt/sister), and Anta, my sister/caretaker
Shaking hands with every single child after school was dismissed
Ibrahim and Marie - little brother and sister
Making ceebu jen with my little sisters and little brother, Ce Sil, Ibrahim, and Marie (and me)
Me and my host grandma
Dance party for the American students
Jumping for joy at the birdies!
Bird counting in the Langue de la Barbarie
My sister is an eco guard and counts the birds down the river a few times a week to monitor them and the state of the environment in the park
Grand Mosque
Grand Mosque in Touba

Wow. I'm still here in Senegal, I promise. Now to catch you up on what I have been up to, and still get around to working on some homework. We left Dakar last Friday and stayed the evening at the very nice hotel in Theis. The next day, we visited the Grand Mosque in Touba on our way to Mouit, our village home for the next 3 days. I spent the next three days in Mouit with a wonderful family of grandmas, aunts, and little brothers and sisters. My oldest sister is an eco gaurd at the park so I got to go on plenty of boat rides and visit the ocean waves! The people of the village had a dance party for us on our last evening. We then spent the next 4 days in Saint Louis, a city at the northern border of Senegal, that was the first capital of West Africa. Hints of the colonized past could be seen everywhere! Still a city but a bit quieter than Dakar, nice for a change. Had to come back eventually though, and arrived back in Dakar on Saturday evening. I went on a walk with my friend Ndiarka and my sister Mata to see the Statue de la Renaissance Africaine not far from my house. Having been in the process of construction for 8 years, it was finally opened the day prior to Senegal's 50th anniversary of independance. So obviously the next day was just that, the Fourth of April, like our Fourth of July. Special though because it was a 50 year celebration!! I went to a big military and school parade in the morning, where I saw the president and so many military men! That afternoon I had lunch with my family and hung out with my mom while working on homework in the living room. Late afternoon Ndiarka and I went to the national stadium to watch La Lutte - Senegalese wrestling in person! It was crazy, my wrestler won! Returning to my neighborhood by both an ndienge ndiaye and bus, I went to a big dance party with my friend Mamadou. Finally it was time to sleep and now I have been sitting at a gas station/convience store/fast food place all day working on this blog and attempting some homework. Big prepartions are in store for me this week to get ready for my ISP!

My village stay was so incredible. My family was so welcoming and hospitable, characteristic of so many Senegalese! My sister braided my hair and took me on several tours of the park. I prepared ceebu jen with my sisters and danced my heart out at the dance party the villagers held for us. I got to take my first warm shower in two months, by way of bucket bath. I got another tattoo--henna on my left hand. I made new friends hanging out in the park and was down right very content the whole time.

4 days in Saint Louis was fun. Worked on a project with Michelle and Phillepe on a primary school that was originally to teach the sons of the chiefs French by the colonizing powers. Visited the market a lot and bought lots of gifts! Saint Louis is definitely a city but also more low key than Dakar, which I enjoyed. I love the hustle and bustle of the city but I know that I am a small town girl at heart. We stayed in a beautiful hotel on the main island in the middle of the Senegal river. One evening my friend from the village came to the city to visit and we had a great discussion about all things concerning life. Incredible. To get to the mainland, one had to cross the Pont de Faidherbe, a very old and large tressel bridge, named for the first governor of the city. Our last evening in Saint Louis, Rachel, Becca and I hiked to the other side of the island to see Carlou D. A fairly large name in Senegalese music, we know the Kora player from lessons at SIT. After a long bus ride on Saturday in a ton of traffic, we made it home to Dakar.

Sunday was Senegal's 50th Anniversary of Independance. I went to a big military and school parade, waved at the president, and passed as a professional photographer and got to stand at the road side, fairly near the presidential viewing stand for the parade. After what seemed like forever of marching and tanks and trucks, everyone scattered everywhere. Lunch and chilled at home for awhile (lunch is served very late - 3pm on Sundays) then left for the national stadium to watch some wrestling live in person. This is the biggest sport in Senegal. Sporting my Yekini t-shirt, I either got smiles or negative cries. The stadium was so energetic. So much prepartion for so little bit of fighting. Saw Akon, a national hero circle the stadium and some fireworks. As the fighting climaxed and Yekini beat his opposition Tyson to the ground, the crowd literally went wild and we went running out of the stadium! Crazy and insane, just the way I like it. Back in Wakam, I went with Mamadou to hang out and chat with his friends on the street, who are always nice and friendly. Then we went over the to big dance party that was going on and then finally I made it back home and to bed!!!

Happy 50th Anniversary Senegal!

Luxury hotel

2010-03-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

Our little funky bus we take places
Making ceebu jen (fish and rice) in the backyard of our school
Keba and I - my hilarious Wolof professor
Samba and I - he runs the boutique across the street where I buy my Coca Cola everyday
Some dancing at the baptism
Me and Joe - one of the students at the business school - he was super tall!
Visiting Bouna's school

I currently find myself in a place of luxury: a hotel in Thies called Massa-Massa. This place is gorgeous, as are all the hotels I've managed to find myself at here. I'm excited for a bathroom sink, flushing toilet, tp, shower with hot water, and furniture in the room; all things of which do not exist at my home. But this is only a little lick of this luxury, tomorrow we find ourselves headed for another village. All 14 of us will be staying in one village rather than split up as before. From the sounds of it, this stay will not be nearly as intense as Kedougou - we will all be together, there's electricity, and its close to the ocean coast meaning it will be cooler. But who knows, it could be more intense in other ways.

The last few days have be nice, normal, Senegalese days for the most part. Get up and walk down the skinny path to the main road from my house, practicing some Wolof with the woman selling cafe touba and never forgetting to say hi to the guy setting up his stand at 8 every morning. At school learn some Wolof and French, take some quizzes, discover American methods of research. We made ceebujen yesterday morning which is Senegal's national dish, fish and rice. I always find myself stuffed after meals here. I definitely ate wayyy too much for supper tonight!

I met up with two Senegalese photographers yesterday also after school which is giving me exciting prospects. One is a professional freelancer who is set to be my advisor for my ISP and the other is a friend of Wally's who does more studio and portrait type work. Both want to show me how they go about their work and have me assist, I can't wait!

The other day we visited another school of one of our professors. He teaches English at a business school so we went to meet with his students. They were super fun, full of energy and enthusiasm! We got to tour their school and then had a chance to sit and chat with them while eating some snacks (they all now know that I love to eat). I hope I can meet up with some of them again sometime - they were so nice and friendly!

Wednesday after meeting these other students, I went to watch Samba play some soccer at the field near my house and made some new friends while trying to keep sand out of my eyes. After I returned home from the game, I hurriedly got dressed up to go to a baptism of my neighbor's baby. Baptisms are big events here. We went down the road/path a little bit all in our best dresses to a huge circle of women and children, with drummers at one end. Then ensued a good hour or so of spotaneous dancing and continous energy! It was amazing! The mother of the baby was gorgeous, especially for just having had a baby a week prior (baptism take place a week following the birth). Funny thing, I never once did see the baby though!

I would love to write more but really need to catch some shut eye! Looking forward to my village stay and more adventures!

Meetin someone famous

2010-03-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

Wally and I discussing life after our lutter won the combat! (Senegalese wrestling)
Thioune Seck - Wally's dad and other members of the group on stage
me and the celeb!
The beach at Ngor Island
Gotta love the sunglasses pics - me and Samba at Ngor
Me with a chunk of a wall at Ngor
Chilling with one of Samba's friends at a nice club on Friday night
Mamadou and I - we're silly together (note the mismatched flip flops)
Learning how to make tea at Samba's with my little sister
Leftover paint at Village Des Arts
Walking down the street back to school (just ahead on the left)

What a pretty rocking weekend! I've got a lot of homework on my plate right now so I'm going to try and keep this short. I went out to clubs both Friday and Saturday night with my friend Samba. Met a bunch of his friends at this really nice club called "Diamond" (lots of more "established" places here have English names) which we somehow managed to get in without paying the equivalent of about $10. After some dancing, drinking Coca Cola, and loud music, we walked down the road to a bakery to have some donuts and steamed milk at 4 am!

Saturday night was another adventure. Samba and I took a taxi to Penc Me (pronounced like "pinch me") which was another really nice place. We paid around $11 to enter, which was pretty good considering the entertainment to be had that night. Two Senegalese singers were performing, Wally Ballago Seck and his dad, Thioune Seck, who happened to be friends of Samba's. We enjoyed the good music and dancing then left the club with Wally. We hopped in his car and drove around Dakar at 5am! Then we somehow ended up back at the same bakery for some breakfast! When we got out of the car, a bunch of people swarmed to ask him for money or autographs. Or even while we were eating, people would call their friends on their phones and have him talk to their brother or sister. It was really cool to be out with someone kind of famous! When we were done eating, we went to visit his apartment. By this point I was quite tired and soon we returned home. On Sunday, he had invited Samba and I over to his apartment once again to watch the grand combat - Senegalese wrestling - national sport. In the group of the 7 of us, Wally and I were the sole two fans for Balla Gueye, who of course ended up winning the match that took about 15 seconds! The preparations and excitement and energy put into this sport here was incredible to watch! I really wanted to go to the stadium to see it live but we were all cautioned about how dangerous it could get with riots afterwards. Instead, I watched and cheered with a Senegalese singer at his apartment. For supper we had a big platter of bbq and thiakry (yougurt with millet). It was a great evening, and a fun weekend of going out and having a Senegalese social life.

Unfortunately, my school work is pulling me back into the English world, after going the entire weekend apart from my American friends, English, Point E, and other things I am familiar with. This is the experience I am looking for, a total immersion. And a fun one at that. We leave for 9 days on Friday for Saint Louis, a city at the northern border of Senegal. We will have stops along the way and stay in another village for a few days. We are preparing for this excursion and also starting to work more detailed on our ISPs.

Until next time,
Oumy Thiam (my Senegalese name!)

Les meme choses

2010-03-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Jess working on the wheel
My friend Samba with rocking shades (he's going to teach me how to make tea)
Photo art by me
My friend Mamadou visiting from Kedougou
Ceramics workshop
Trying to make something out of clay on the wheel..concentrating really hard!

Recently things have just been the daily life here which I am thoroughly enjoying. I am getting really good at killing cockroaches and shooing away cats and rats while brushing my teeth or doing my laundry. Afternoons have been spent at the Village Des Arts where I have been taking part in making ceramics. We got to use the wheel today and I wasn't very good at it! I am succumbing to my addictions daily of coca cola, yougurt, sweet bread and chocopain, chocolate, sunshine, and life. I'm hoping to learn how to make tea tonight and possibly visit a friend who is a tailor for another skirt! Yay! Tomorrow I have plans to return once again to Goree Island for another class project with Jarvis and Phillepe. I need to buy more credit for my cell phone and work on more exercises for school. We had two quizzes today of my language classes which were tough since I went out last night in a big group of American students to celebrate St. Patrick's day. My friend Mamadou from Kedougou also came with us so it was fun to see him again.

Well, my camera battery is charged, I have a bandaid on some strange looking thing on my arm and I'm still scraping clay off my hands. My yellow capris are never going to be yellow. Off to take a car rapide for 100 CFA home (about 26 cents).

I hear that there's some flooding going on at home. Please don't let my room wash away Mom and Dad. Thanks :)

Content

2010-03-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

One of my little sisters
My friend Samba rocking his shades (you can see me in the reflection)
Marble game on the walk back to our house after visiting my sister's salon
Dino and Mamadou out dancing Saturday night!
Go to Senegal, meet Australian surfer boys making a surfing film. Check.
Andrew catching a few waves
Our hotel, viewed from the beach. Described by many as "hobit-esque" I would agree.
Friday night sunset over the ocean
Friday night as the sun was beginning to set.
Our taxi driver running down the road behind us after two chunks of something fell out of the engine

Fun weekend, like always. Friday after school finished, Devin, Phileppe and I walked with our backpacks and got a taxi to Toubab Dialaw, a town outside of Dakar on the ocean. After a bit of an adventureous drive, we arrived in this little village and walked down the sandy streets to our hotel which was absolutely incredible!!! Right on the ocean, with little garden paths, flowers, fountains, and other trinkets abounding, we were in paradise. The three of us spent some time on the gorgeous sandy beach soaking up some sun and doing some reading. After supper, took in the view as the sun went down and then had spaghetti and bissap juice for supper at little mosiac'd tables. I felt like we were living in a castle!! We met 3 Australian guys that were living in the room right across from ours who are traveling down the west African coast, making a surfing movie. It was so funny to be hanging out with Australians in Africa!!! They were really fun to chill with and let us put our stuff in their room the next day so that we could enjoy this chunk of paradise for the afternoon.

Eventually, sadly, we had to leave and head back to Dakar. Back in the city, I took a taxi to my neighborhood with a very friendly taxi driver, who taught me more Wolof. He's been driving taxi for 3 years and drives for 10 hours a day! Back at home, my family was happy to see me. I unpacked my bag and had supper in the living room! Hung out for awhile, drank some tea, then headed out with my neighbor Mamadou. We walked down the narrow paths of my neighborhood and met up with a ton of his friends. As usual, they all smiled when I introduced myself as "Oumy Thiam" which is my Senegalese name. And Mamadou loves Wolof so he kept insisting that I speak it and learn more. What great homework! After a while of walking around, meeting people, drinking tea, and chatting, we went to a club with pounding music. The girls and guys dancing to mbalax were incredible! I wish I could dance like that. After a meeting at a baobab tree and fried eggs and noodles from a street vendor at 4 am, I headed to my mattress to sleep.

Yesterday was a very content day. Sat back in the living room and wrote my village reaction paper while chatting with my mom, all my little sisters, and their friends. We visited my sister Alica's hair salon for awhile and then played a marble game on the walk back home for lunch. After lunch, Samba and I walked around to meet some of his friends, drink some tea, watched some football (soccer), colored some pictures with my little sisters, visit the ATM, and then an internet cafe. A delightful afternoon, lots of smiles and contentment.

Today has been a usual day of school, with the addition of my intestines doing cartwheels, backflips, and skateboarding at the same time. Hmm maybe the fried eggs and noodles? At least my bank card is working again! I have plans drink tea and practice my Wolof tonight with Samba and Mamadou, tough homework. On that note, however, I do need to write a few papers, some serious studying, and start working on plans for my ISP (Independent Study Project) that will occupy my last month in Senegal!

A little babbling

2010-03-12T05:04:00.000-08:00

My breakfast - Nescafe, 5 sugar cubes, powered milk, baguette, and laughing cow cheese
The board after Wolof class
Sunrise yesterday at my house
Lamine et moi
The tama players came for a jam session
Djembe workshop

C'est le weekend! Devin, Phillippe and I are heading out shortly for an adventure a bit out of the city, to a really tranquil hotel on a beach for the evening. I'm very excited!

Yesterday Devin and I had a chance to visit Cheikh Anta Diop Universite with a friend. It was such a cool experience to see such a familiar environment in such a different context! Our hands were also way swollen after a few hours of playing djembe!

Oh and my dad recently let me know I won a bunch of awards back home through the school's newspaper, sweet!

My host sister might cut my hair on Sunday..whooo!

From Kedougou to Oukam.

2010-03-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

My new abode. You can see my whole room, I took this picture from my doorway (that has a lock!)
Children at the school at the bottom of the mountain! They didn't want me to leave!
Biggest Baobab tree in Senegal with some SIT students and our new mountain children
Climbing more rocks on the top of the mountain. Haroma, one of our guides, and Assan in the background in red was our other guide.
So many cute children! (expect more pics of kids again soon)
Children at the mountain village we climbed to after our own village stays
Scariest thrill piggy back ride of my life!
My mom walking to the well and breastfeeding her baby at the same time, who had been previously tied to her back
The main cooking area of my village
Our hotel of yellow huts

So much has happened in so little time. A summary: spent a week outside of Dakar voyaging to Kedougou (a city in southeastern Senegal), stayed in a mountaintop village, had the time of my life, back in Dakar, problems with my host family which have now resulted in moving families. Life here is always full of so many ups and downs, like living on a precarious teeter toter, its either really awesome or really bad; there is no in between.

First, the week in Kedougou. The distance we covered would take around 5 hours in the US by bus, yet the drive there was over 14 hours. We stayed at a hotel which consisted of little yellow huts with air conditioners, showers, comfy beds, and even flushing toilets. We made a few excursions to the market, a big waterfall, climbed a mountain, and a few other low-key things. Then we left for our village stay! All 14 of us were split into small groups and assigned a village. Etchwar was the village for Abby and I which is on the top of one of the mountains (very large rocky steep hills) we had climbed a few days prior. Here in the village, we lived in little mud huts with grass roofs. Sounds quaint and cute, but unfortunately they turned to ovens at night, making sleep very difficult. On the other hand, sleep wasn't terribly important because I just sat around all day. Never in my life have I experienced such quiet, lazy, unstructured, tranquil days. With a large language barrier (they spoke Bedik, all the children who knew french were at school), I ended up doing a lot of observation of the way life works in my village. The women spend most of their time caring for all the children (clothing optional) and preparing meals. In many ways, my village life reminded me of camp. Down to earth and the necessities.

One of the things I found most impressive during my stay was the "baby wrap." Any child who was not yet at an age to walk was tied with a simple piece of cloth to their mother's back. How convienent, no babysitter necessary and they continue to go about their daily work. One morning when my mother and I were walking to the well (a 2 km walk), I was surprised that as she was balancing a large bucket on her head, untied her baby tied to her back and moved him to the front to breastfeed him. She did this all while I trailed behind her on the mountainy terrain. And then on the way back from the well, I carried a pail of water on my head, but lucky for me it was very small and had a lid. Yet I still managed to spill it all down my face and tank top. Well, at least it made all the old ladies in my village smile and laugh. I am good at that kind of thing!

After 3 hot days and boiling hot evenings (I dont think I've ever sweated that much) we went back to showers and AC of the hotel for a few days prior to our return to Dakar. It was terribly hot for us in the village lacking the cool ocean breeze of Dakar, but on the same hand, the villagers and citizens of Kedougou said that it was some of the hottest weather they've ever had. Glad I was there to experience it! We climbed another mountain to visit another village and many baobab trees, and then after the scariest descent of my life we visited a school at the bottom. I say the scariest descent of my life because as we were climbing down this sandy mountain side one of our guides insisted he give me a piggy back ride. As much as I tried to tell him otherwise, he wouldn't listen. And then he took off running, with me holding on tightly. What a rush, that was better than a rollercoaster. My other friends just looked at us with big eyes and open mouths, as I saw my life flash before my eyes. At the hotel, Devin and I become good friends with the cook and other guys that worked there and their friends and it was hard to leave them again!!! (maybe photos later)

Eventually we made it back to Dakar, only a 12 hour drive back. Whoo! However, this is when the problems with my host family began. I'm not going to go into too specific of details but try to explain what all happened. Back at my house, I find that my room was unlocked. Weird, I have the only key and it went with me to Kedougou. Upon entering, I find minor things not the way I had left them. A shampoo bottle on my dresser, blankets rearranged, my notebooks/pens/papers messed up on my nightstand, closet unlocked, and to top it off - a large kitchen knife next to my pillow. My mom was hanging up some laundry on the line right outside the door and when asked about these things she insisted that no one had been in my room. Later, downstairs my sister told me she had opened my door with the knife to get a paper for school while I was gone. (the room is her's before I arrived). This was just a huge trust violation. Nothing was missing, but things were definitely array.

Later, there was a huge misunderstanding about laundry. Through my program, laundry is included in the payment our families receive for hosting us. When asked when my laundry would be done, some members of my family became a bit irrate and told me it was necessary to pay to have my laundry done. Tuesday morning while I was eating breakfast, Devin was over so that we could walk to school together and my host mom blew up at us, over the laundry thing. We weren't upset about the amount of money involved (equivalent of $2) but the concept that it was our word against their's. It turned into quite the arugement and words put into our mouths and then the comparison to their last student was brought up again (like always). This is something that has bothered me throughout my stay here, their last student was completely opposite of me. My mother just kept insisting that "She was so nice, she brought us gifts, she was so nice, she was so nice." And the way my cousin was acting and yelling at us was completely out of character. Very upset, Devin and I left for school.

I was a mess. It was just one thing after another. At school, I had talked with our homestay coordinator the day prior about the situation with my room being broken into by my sister. Talking with her and more members of administration of my program here, they made the decision for me to have me move out and place me in a new homestay. Going "home" for the last time was really hard, packing up my bags. Leaving the neighborhood was even tougher than my house, I have had the opportunity to make some good friends there and everyone gave me odd looks when I left with all my bags and tears streaming down my face.

After a tough day of school, and having the chance to talk about things with my parents and brother back home in the states, I went to a new home, family, neighborhood, way of life. My new 18 yr old sister, Alicia came to pick me up around 8 pm and we took a taxi to Oukam, my new neighborhood. Vastly different from my last. In Oukam, the taxi drove down sandy "streets" between walls that the car barely fit through. I would compare it to really small alleys. Getting to my house, the front door being a gate in a wall that you probably wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it. I was immediately met by a ton of little girls who all wanted to shake my hand. (its a big thing to do here) I was shown my new room, which for lack of a better definition, all I really need. It is a room with a mattress in it. Oh and cockroaches. I took a moment to unpack my bags and organize my things. Then I sat outside and talked with all my new little friends. I met so many members of my family, I can't even remember names right now. (Remember what I said about families being ambigious) After supper from a large platter in the middle of the living room, my little 7 yr old sister and I went on a walk to visit a few different boutiques. I bought some bottled water and some credit for my phone. At another boutique, I met a lady who was really excited to find out that I am studying Wolof. She insisted that I return every night so that she can teach me more. Actually feeling a little chilly, we returned to the house. I got a bit of a tour, which included showing me the "toilet" (nonflushable), shower, and clothesline. There are a bunch of cats that wander the mosiac tiled courtyard area that get into some interesting catfights. After sitting in the living room with my mom and dad and uncle for a little bit, a family friend came over. People that love Wolof love Wolof with all their heart. He is no exception. He found out that I had Wolof homework so we went to my room and worked on possessive adjectives and numbers until bedtime. Once again, lots of laughter resulted.

This morning, after walking through a narrow path to the main road, I took a taxi to school with 3 other SIT students. We gave presentations on our village stays this morning and have been on lunch break since. this afternoon, I have drumming class again. I love learning to play djembe! And at least this afternoon my head isn't pounding.

I apologize that my sharing of my village stay experience was a bit overshadowed by my family problems in Dakar. Remember, feel free to leave comments or questions, or shoot me an email if there's something you want to know about! so many things have become commonplace that would be quite odd to anyone back at home! Hope you continue to enjoy reading!

Check out more photos on my Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057174&id=1283820009&l=3ca38ee6f4

Just pics..

2010-03-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

Heading out to the heat

2010-02-25T04:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

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..

2010-02-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

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!

Pictures

2010-02-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

Baobab tree..those things are huge!
Breakfast
Me and bro Papis trying many times at failed attempts at a sweet jumping photo. So much laughing!
Supper=done
I love it here.

Mmmm

2010-02-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

Instruments during a music presentation at school today.
School.
Lunch today..a big ol sandwhich with french fries, egg, mustard, mayo, and who knows what else. DELICIOUS
Fall et moi..we laugh alot!

Just another day at school..breakfast of tea and a baguette. French and Wolof classes this morning, a delicious lunch and walk during our break, then a music presentation in the afternoon. It was actually on the cooler side this morning, but this afternoon I was worried about heat exhuastation. (while thinking about everyone with snow days at home)

Well, heading back home now. I'm gonna try to walk home without my brothers..eek!! Its not that far, but I haven't walked myself yet!

Until next time, Amanda

Love Love Love

2010-02-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

Mmmm Coca Cola :) This is "coca cola" in Arabic.
Can you tell I like Coca Cola? :)
Oh city traffic!!! C'est bizarre!
At one point on our bus tour, we stopped by the ocean and Devin and I found a pelican and the man let us take a picture with it!
We went on a bus tour of Dakar yesterday. Here's some of the other students walking back to our goofy looking bus near the Grand Mosque.
My room!
This is my floor. I live on the brightly pink painted 3rd floor by myself. Up there is my room, a deck area with a clothesline and a chalkboard, a bathroom for me, and a closet. I love the pink!
The view from my floor/balcony at night.

What a great weekend! Everything here is just simply enjoyable because it is always sunny and warm. I am the type of person that really reflects the weather, and waking up every morning to bright sunny skies is very agreeable! I love not worrying about grabbing a coat or thinking it might rain, but instead I put on my sunscreen and grab a big bottle of water instead (we're always drinking out of water bottles, the tap water isn't good).

I'm really excited because it is Monday (never thought I'd say that) but that means its laundry day! This morning I woke up and after my shower gave a big ol pile of dirty clothes to one of our maids because she was going to do our laundry today. Yay! I'm also looking forward to (and needing to) going shopping with my sisters sometime soon!

Basically this whole weekend was spent at my house in Zone B with my family. I hang out with my siblings, Oumy 12, Bineta 17, Papis 16, and my cousins who are pretty much siblings, Alpha 24 and Fall 29 (I think). Fall and I visited some of his friends in the neighborhood on a few walks this weekend, I met so many people and tried to speak so much Wolof. Its so much fun, I love laughing with people. Its tradition here to get a Senegalese name, mine is Oumy like my sister's which can get confusing sometimes! But the best is when i introduce myself as Oumy and the other person looks at me in surprise! Or when I try to greet in Wolof - "Saalemaalekum!" "Nanga def?" People are just always so happy!

Saturday night I hung out with Fall (who looks more like he's 23 or so) at his childhood friend Jules' place, which is about 3 places down from our's. Some things don't change across cultures, we spent the evening just hanging out and talking and listening to and watching music videos. I think I have watched more music videos in my time here than I have in an entire year at home in the states. (the name of this entry is in reference to my feelings to Dakar alluding to the song Bad Romance that my brother and sister sing ALL the time!) Oh, and don't forget drinking Coca Cola! (which like Paris and pepsi throwback, its made with real sugar...wayyy good! and even better its often served in glass bottles) My new friend Eric and I talked about many "manly" things the other night..our friendship commenced as soon as I saw he was wearing camo. I told him about my brothers, we share a love of paintball, he loves that I can (and do) change my own oil of my car, among many other things. another new friend, Bocar, loved the "artwork" I made for him, as does Eric and Fall. I wish I knew more rap/hip hop., cuz its definitely popular here! (at least I know miley cyrus...)

Sorry not in order, but when I got there on Friday night within the first 5 minutes all the adults (mom dad aunt uncles, etc) arrived at the house and we prayed and then killed a goat! Wahhh! I actually handled it pretty well, at least I think I did. Meals are always so fun and delicious so much flavor. We all sit around a big bowl or plate and chow down! Sometimes we use forks or spoons but other meals we use our hands in traditional fashion. Yumm!

Saturday morning we all came back to the school and the 14 of us went on a bus tour of Dakar. It was fun to see all the different areas of the city, but I guess when I compare it to a US city its hard. I feel that in many US cities there are definite "neighborhoods" with distinct character. Here in Dakar, contrast is a good describing word. There will be a tall shiney bank with a little green grass and neat little fence in front of it, and right next door is a decrepite building with trash blowing around. Even on my street, which is paved, our sidewalk is ceramic mosaic just like at SIT, but our neighbor's sidewalk is sand.

After school my cousin Alpha came to walk me home. Our home isn't far from the school, but I still think I would get lost if I walked home by myself. To confuse matters, Fall walked me to school this morning and we took a different way! The rest of the afternoon we just hung out around the house, visited the market, visited friends, etc.

Sunday was a very lazy day. Its so nice to have a breather from my usually extremely busy american life and just sit back and relax here. The best part of sunday was helping to braid my sister's hair. They add some extensions to it when they braid it to make it quite a bit longer. Usually they keep these braids in for about a month and a half. When the braider was almost done, my sister tried to help but the braider (a family friend) said that she didn't know how to braid well. I asked if I could try and help and she let me, she said that my braiding was better than my sisters! :) Also, I found out that we had the same birthday (me and the girl who was braiding my sister's hair).

Last night, Fall and I went to visit another one of his friends, met some more people along the way. We sat down by a busy road for awhile and just chatted. It was awesome. My French is improving so much! And everyone is so encouraging, I just hope they don't give up patience, but at least I"m improving and not being stagnant. The best part of our conversation was when I said something about a noisy taxi that drove by and said it sounded like one of my brother's cars. Then only 2 seconds later it back fired and instinctly I jumped and screamed! Fall just laughed and laughed and laughed at me! Oh goodness. It was so funny! I felt so dumb but just laughed with him. It was a great conversation..talking about freedom and how birds are so free. And comparing driving a car to driving a boat and other fun things.

The eating schedule here is pretty interesting. Meals are served a lot later than I'm used to, lunch usually around 2 pm (or 14h00) and supper sometime around 9-10pm (or 21h00-22h00). And of course I have some breakfast of a baguette and tea before school! Along with my beloved coca cola, I can also get my crepes like I had in Paris here. So good!

Well, once again a bright sunny day. I wonder what my family has in store for me tonight! I really should get off my computer, my little english world and head home from school soon back to my 3rd floor painted pink! Or go to Jules and chat some more, or play hide and seek with his nephew Nicola. Dakar est tres agreable!!!

Photoso!

2010-02-08T02:15:00.000-08:00

Within the first 5 iminutes of being at my homestay, we killed a goat.
My brother Papis, me, and my cousin Alpha when we first got to the house.
Village des Arts

97 degrees

2010-02-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

in our classroom, traditional instruments and dance.

It is very hot here today and we're heading to the store to buy water and TP.

Sorry I don't have time to write more, check back later!!

Baax ne!

2010-02-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

First "real" power outage..writing by candlelight on the balcony.
Sunset prior to the power outage = spectacular
Waiting for lunch "Maafa" peanut sauce, lamb, and rice! Eaten with our hands
Some of our sidewalks at SIT are made out of seashells! Love it!
The courtyard of our school. This is where we first got to meet our host families!!
Pretty flower at school with mosaic tiled sidewalk.

Baax ne! Pronounced "bahc-nah" is my new favorite word in Wolof, which means "good." The first part is said with like a scratch in your throat, making it very unique! I love it! We had our first hour long class of Wolof today, which is an interesting experience considering we learn French along with it. As in, the class is instructed in french while we learn Wolof. Intense. But lovin' it!

Today was also significant because most of us got to meet at least a member or two of our host families for the rest of the semester! My 16 year old brother, Papis came and we laughed the entire time! Our converstaion started with "I'm really bad at speaking French" to which he responded "I'm really bad at speaking English." It was great! He knew where Minnesota is because he's a fan of the timberwolves! whoo! I am much more at ease after meeting him, I hope the rest of my family is just as funny (I've been told that they are and that I will enjoy them.)

Tonight we also had our first real power outage..only lasting around 15 minutes. Even still, our hotel man came around and gave us candles to get by seeing as the sun had set about an hour earlier. It was fun journaling by candlelight.

Once again I apologize that my English is getting pretty terrible. That's fine. Working on my French tons, even with a 20 or so minute conversation with my host brother. Crazy how it works, but its awesome.

First day of school! (kind of)

2010-02-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

In front of our hotel window. Me and Nathalie don't have a balcony like everyone else!!
This is our hotel! I'm writing this from the room off the balcony in the middle. (my friends' room, the lock on our door was getting fixed)
Sun setting over the ocean! (last night)
A thin layer of sand/dirt covers EVERYTHING. (this is out on the balcony)

To try to explain things more:
There are 14 US students in the SIT program in Senegal for this semester. Like I said, we're from all over the states, mostly from the coasts and then us 2 lucky ones from MN. Eventually we all made it here after delayed flights, closed highways, and lost luggage. We are staying in a hotel in Dakar for a few days for orientation. We've went over our program expectations, met the majority of staff, and are slowly working on cultural communication and avoiding cultural faux-pas. Our interactions with Senegalese have been limited to the hotel staff and a few experiences on the street. Our hotel is a few blocks from the ocean (which is SOO GORGEOUS!) and about a ten minute drive from our school. On Friday we will be leaving the hotel and going to our homestays, which we are all looking forward to! Our hotel has all the ammenities, for the most part within reason. Our group occupies all the rooms currently, but the small restaurant/bar is open downstairs to the public. (meaning around 2 or 3 people an evening)

I think the two biggest things so far are the food and the language. The language barrier is intense. I thought I was fairly well prepared in French, just kidding. We are also in the process of learning Wolof, a Senegalese ethnic group and native language that approx 80% of the population speak. Greetings are very important. One says "Saalemalekum" (peace be with you) and responds to this greeting "Maalekumsaalem." And it only gets better from there! I'm looking forward to a huge improvement in my conversational French and learning tons more Wolof! My English is definitely going downhill as it did in Paris, I am having some difficulties typing this, thank goodness for spell check!!

The food, oh Senegalese food. It has so much flavor! My mouth is watering thinking about supper, which we will go downstairs to eat sometime in the next half hour to an hour. Traditional meals are served in a big bowl, usually rice, meat, and vegetables, and everyone sits around, forms a little ball of the rice, etc, then eat it with your right hand. Messy, but oh so good! Our lunch today was less messy then yesterday, the rice did clump better however. We ate on mats spread out in the middle of our main classroom.

It is eye-opening to visit such a poverty-ridden country. The road (rue) that our hotel is on is just sand, uneven, no sidewalks, trash everywhere. There's so much contrast..a nice upperclass house with walls around it and a little green grass and then a pile of rubbish right next to it. The people here are so friendly!

So we live in Dakar, just south of the airport. We hear every plane that flies overhead, and its really not that often. But they fly really low and conversation has to stop momentarily whenever one flies over. I've never experienced this kind of thing before, but I think its kinda cool.

We visited our school today, went over a lot of things and took in a lot of information. Lots of french too! We also had our placement interviews, I could not remember the french words for my parent's professions (seamstress and accountant) But oh well! I need lots of work on my French anyways!

Last night a big group of us had a great experience..we went to a local bar that is popular with students from the universite. We took our first taxi ride (about ten minutes there) and used CFAs (west african currency). I also won my first game of pool ever, with the help of a very nice Senegalese man who became my self-appointed coach. It was great! Senegalese pool is a bit different from American pool, there are no stripes vs solids. There are yellow and red balls, and one black 8 ball. They are a little bit smaller, as is the table, and they don't roll as well. It was a great time though! Devin (American girl friend) thought she was going to win but I beat her! with help of course! good way to practice and learn more language skills!

Well, enough time spent on the computer, time to go eat some great food for supper! (around 8 pm!) I"m so hungry!!!

Au demain (til tomorrow!)

A few pics

2010-02-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Dakar sign not far from our orientation sight, our hotel
Saying goodbye at Minneapolis!

Finally!

2010-01-31T04:12:00.001-08:00

The day I've been waiting for is finally here...I'm in Senegal!

Before I got here though, it was quite the experience, I felt like the world was working against me..Target was out of bug spray and skirts, couldn't find my plug adapters or computer cds, and sleep was definitely in short supply! Then I got up early Saturday morning and my flight from MSP to New York was delayed because first we didn't have a plane and then we didn't have food on the plane. Eventually we made it to New York, I sat by a very nice lady on the flight and met a very nice guy getting off the flight who also happened to be going to Senegal. Thank goodness! We made our way through JFK, found our gate, then got moved to a different gate, then had an almost 3 hour delay on leave time and then still didn't leave for another hour and a half after that! Whew.

But I finally made it here. Flying in was amazing. Dakar is on a peninsula, the farthest western most point of continental Africa. The view was spectacular as the sun was rising. We got off the plane, into the humidity onto the tarmac. In the airport, there was just a cat wandering around. We met some staff people from SIT and then sat on a bus for awhile. So many people waiting outside the airport! Then met some more SIT students, took a little drive from the airport to the hotel where we are staying at the next few days for orientation. Laying down never felt so good! We ate some food and talked some and then the majority of us went for a little walk. The ocean is just marvelous! and its only a few blocks from the hotel we are at currently. We're taking a little snooze break now and then having some lunch and later watching a big football (soccer) game!

I smell, I remember what sweating is like again. I have sand in between my toes and my eyelashes. And I couldn't be happier!

All the students in our group seem pretty laid back and open minded (I mean you'd have to be on a trip like this!) We're from pretty much all over the US - Penn, Cali, Oregon, Alabama, and there's even two of us from MN! I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone in the next few months!