Talli bi

=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!