Home?

It seems fitting to have a last entry for this thing now that I'm back in the States. A synthese if you will.

After 30 hours of travel I'm back in Minnesota and I've never been so weirded out in my life. People speak English, it's freakin' cold, there's Starbucks and McDonald's, and I just put on a pair of jeans for the first time in 3.5 months. What the hell is going on?

The trip went smoothly, the group of us trying to ease each other in and give support as we left Senegal and entered Toubabland. Katie and I (sort of) made Cafe Touba in the JFK airport to make ourselves feel better. It worked.

So for a while I'm sure I'm going to be wrinkling my nose and calling most things weird. I'll also be panicking that I'm going to forget things about Senegal. That's not allowed to happen. Nor is it allowed to happen that I lose contact with my beloved friends made on the trip. Seriously. I want to fly out to New York or something ASAP.

Anyway, and so begins another journey to figure out how I am to operate here in light of my experience in Senegal. On y va!

Alxamdoulilah.

Well, I did it. My opus is complete. I'm pretty happy with how my 36-pager turned out, and can't wait to have people read and give feedback. It's kind of a big deal for me. I'm now in Mbour which is on the Petit Cote (look on a map). We're staying in a hotel right on the beautiful beach. We've been doing ISP presentations, re-entry preparation, and chilling out before we head home. I did my presentation this morning. It was mediocre, but it's done and I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It's crazy to think about the fact that I'll be back in the States in five days. It's going to be weird as hell. Sorry people, but I might just be a basket case. Expect random Wolof and funny phrases that will make no sense and tongue clicking and snapping. But also expect me to hug the washing machine and eating lots of chocolate chip cookies and lots of adventures with people I've missed a lot. It'll be a trip.
Leegi leegi.

Mungi dox, quoi. [Ca va, quoi]

Things are truckin' along here.
I'm trying to squeeze in a couple more interviews this week and start putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys). I'm not getting in as many interviews as I thought I would, but I'm getting enough quality ones that I think I'm getting good data and a good amount of it. I made a major breakthrough when I met the MBA director at IAM (Institut Africain de Management). Turns out he has a special interest in business ethics. He organized a conference at IAM on the subject two years ago, and is a case writer for the UNDP. Pretty impressive. I'll be going back there to pick his brain as well as another guy who is apparently affiliated with the Assemble National (Senegal's legislative body). Good things.

Last Saturday was pretty special because we hosted a Passover Seder (belated by a week). Marc and Hannah (the most Jewish of the group) organized everything and we spent all day cooking. Marc made an utterly delicious mazto ball chicken soup, and I cut up about 30 potatoes for potato kugel. There was a seder plate with some alterations. We substituted bitter aubergine (an essential ingredient in ceeb bu jen) for bitter herbs, and fell short on the horseradish, but we definitely had an orange for all us women of substance. About 10 or so of our friends doing their projects in Dakar showed up and we had a really pleasant time. It was fun to have guests at the apartment and it also seemed to mean a lot to those who celebrate it regularly, which made me happy.

Some random musings...

Something that I find really fascinating is how different a neighborhood can be at different times of day. For example: In Ngor the veggie lady is out in the morning but not in the evening (this can sometimes be inconvenient). When I had to go all the way back there mid-morning because I had forgotten my phone I noticed some restaurants and lunch stuff that isn't open when I'm normally in the area. That involved not only new visuals but new smells. Sounds are different at different times too. Night time is down right awesome. People are out in the streets, making music, laughing. There's also many more types of people (age groups, gender) out than at other times. It's amazing how a neighborhood can feel like a totally different place depending on when you happen to be there. I feel like I'd have to sit on the corner for a full 24 hours to really feel like I knew the place.

"Wade=baaxul!"

Link: NY Times Article

Click on the above link to read an article sent to GAC Philsophy majors by Deane Curtin about world hunger and the increased price of food. The article mentions Senegal. We've been experiencing the effects of this price increase here in Senegal. The increased price of rice and gas has been all over the news. People all over Senegal are really upset at President Wade for a variety of reasons, but this one I think has pushed many over the edge. The villagers at Keur Sadaro were especially angry at him (Wade=baaxul!). Apparently he had promised upon election that he would not increase food prices as much as he has. The current excuse for the price increase of rice is the price increase in gas. People aren't buying it, though. I don't blame them. It seems like a somewhat sketchy connection to me. Anyway, it's interesting to see a U.S. article mentioning a situation here that I've come in contact with. It's pretty cool to have experience to back up my understanding of the article and make it very real.

A cold? Really?

I think my body is playing some dumb joke on me. I'm in Africa, where there are all sorts of things waiting to bite me or be ingested or whatever, and I go and get a run of the mill COLD. I have to say I'm feeling pretty lucky, but it's annoying and just kind of bizarre.

Anyway, I just thought I would check in to say that things are going well. I'm plowing into my ISP (although not at as fast a rate as I would like). I have an advisor at ISM, a business school with campuses all over Senegal, who is interested in business ethics. I have a meeting tomorrow with the director of Forum Civil, which is an anti-corruption NGO and a branch of Transparency International. I plan to spend next week visiting as many business schools as possible and interviewing profs and students.

For clarification...Straight from my research proposal here are my main objectives for this project:

What environment are business management students being prepared for, and how are they being prepared? More specifically I want to know if this preparation incorporates or emphasizes ethics or CSR? What does this emphasis look like? What are the emphases within the discussion of ethics in Senegalese business schools? The process of answering these questions will seek to identify any cultural influences on business and business ethics. Analysis of data will suggest what the future looks like for business in Senegal.

Yeah. So that's kinda where I'm headed. We'll see how it goes. And yes, I'm a huge nerd.

Reverse Three's Company

My friends Eric and Marc and I moved into our apartment in Ngor on Friday. We joke that it's like the inverse of the quality 70's sitcom Three's Company. It's incredible. I love it. The apartment itself is beautiful. It's furnished, has a kitchen, the dining room is a terrace, and there's even art on the walls! The neighborhood is great too. We're in what people call the village part of Ngor, not to be confused with the ultra touristy toubab part of Ngor. There's always people in the "streets" (narrow sand ones), there's a mosque a stone's throw away so we hear the call to prayer (starting at 5am, but for some reason I still find it lovely when it wakes me up) and the Mourides (an Islamic brotherhood, or sect) singing and drumming (they like to do that all night long sometimes). There are little sandwich and fruit and vegetable stands everywhere. There are always people to meet and greet. I've already befriended a little girl named Ndeye Gueye who ran up and hugged me while I was waiting for the most delicious chicken sandwich I've ever eaten. It's going to be hard to leave her in this country. I might just have to take her home with me.

I have a meeting today which will hopefully result in my obtaining an advisor for my project and a plan to set in motion for research. I'm getting excited to go out and learn about stuff that I care about. With both the apartment and the project it's really nice to have some independence.

My Photos Part 6 officially on the links list.

Oh yeah, and...

Of course I forgot stuff. We also went to Touba on our way to St. Louis from Thies. Touba is like the Mecca of Senegal. There's a huge, elaborate, beautful mosque that lots and lots of people travel to every year. All the girls had to wear long sleeves, skirts, and head scarfs (see photo). It was hot (temperature wise), but we made it. Boys and girls also could touch each other. Not even a hand shake. We also got to meet a marabout (a Muslim spiritual leader/celebrity) at a koranic school and drink Cafe Touba.

We also visited the Lac Rose on our way to Thies from Dakar. It's a salt water lake that has a pinkish appearance. They pull buckets and buckets of salt out of it every day. Bouna says there will always be salt, but that seems highly unlikely. I'm pretty sure that the rate at which they're pulling it out is faster than the rate at which more salt is forming. The water is really funny because of the salt everything is super buoyant and the water feels like jello (See picture of my floating foot :) ).

Tank, loxo, nopp, bakan, bar, bett, gimen, ginaaw, bir, mbagg, bopp!

This is a really intimidating post to write because I have over a week to cover. Yikes.

We got back on Saturday from Saint Louis and before that Thies and Keur Sadaro. Keur Sadaro was our second village stay and Saint Louis was SIT's way of giving us a quasi-spring break I think.

Keur Sadaro was great and a huge contrast from the one at Kedougou. It's a Wolof village, and them people's delightfully crazy. If we didn't already have Senegalese names they gave them to us, and if we did already have Senegalese names they gave us new ones that they liked better. They were eager to teach us more Wolof, and taught us the Wolof equivalent of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," which is the title of this here blog post (approximately--Wolof is an oral language, so no one really knows how anything is spelled so I just guessed). There was a lot more going on than in my Kedougou family, and lots of small children grabbing at us and our cameras. Some of us went to school with our host-siblings, which was interesting. Their school system is modeled after the French system, and kind of drives me nuts. Repetition and memorization is the name of the game. There was also a lot of singing and dancing going on in the village and on the last night we had a "sabar" where our families dressed us up in bou-bous, gave some of the girls (including myself) African manicures with henna and showed us mbalaax dancing. We taught them Otis Day's "Shout!" and the Macarena. Hilarious.

We only spent a brief time in Thies (a day pretty much), so I didn't see much of it except the hotel and the market.

Saint Louis was really fun, but it's definitely a touristy town, which got to be irritating at times. We were often pestered by vendors who wanted to charge us ridiculous amounts for cheap souvenirs. The beach was a highlight, and swimming in the ocean was a thrilling novelty for me. EVEN BETTER was when my friend Eric and I rented horses from a hotel on the beach and went riding up and down the beach for an hour. It was magical. I got my horsey fix and had a smile on my face all day. I had also climbed on a horse in the village, but it didn't really count because we didn't really go anywhere. Apparently horses who pull carts all the time don't understand riding cues...weird (kidding Lyle and Colleen, don't freak out). There were lots of fun animals in Keur Sadaro (sorry for the brief backtrack), like baby goats and cows (which we milked...or tried...). Also, the dust and wind were so bad that the sky looked like it was about to storm. Crazy.

We did have to do a small group project while in Saint Louis to make it seem like we were still students and not lame-ass tourists. My group looked at the church that the Frenchies built when they were taking over the place. It was apparently the first Catholic church in West Africa.

I'll work on getting pictures up between writing papers, getting my apartment set up with my friends Eric and Marc, and getting an advisor for my ISP.

I should be writing an ISP proposal right now...

Happy Easter Monday everyone! Apparently it's a big enough deal that even in a country where 95% of the population is Muslim nobody works or goes to school...except us. Weird. Mostly the Senegalese look for excuses to celebrate I think, because even my totally Muslim family ate ngalaax--a traditional dish served just before Easter that is like yogurty peanut buttery goop with millet couscous in it (sounds gross but is sweet and tasty!).

FYI: Today is the official half-way point. 7.5 weeks until I come home! In that time I have to do another village stay, do some small group projects and random homework assignments, say goodbye to my host family; and propose, research, and write a huge paper. No problem...or something.

This last week involved mostly homework and stressing about my indecision regarding my ISP topic.

Saturday those of us that sculpted at Columbin the previous weekend went back to paint our work. We also ate lunch there, which was pleasant. I now have a horse and a purple elephant that I'm pretty proud of, and will carry on my lap on the plane home if I have to. I love Columbin too much not to go back a lot between now and May even just to say hi and buy some more fragile art to try to get back across the ocean.

Easter Sunday most of us went to Keur Moussa (about an hour from Dakar), which is a village with a Benedictine monastery where we attended mass. It's a beautiful place, but what was most striking was the music. They use traditional African instruments (kora, djembe, calabasses, and balaphone) for all the music and it was beautiful. They also make goat cheese and jam and cakes that they sell. Maybe, just maybe, I bought some jam to smuggle back to the U.S. ... don't tell customs.

We leave on Thursday for our second village stay and then we go on to St. Louis, the old capital, which should be a really chill and educational but fun trip. We're going to be speaking mostly Wolof in this village (Ker Sadaro), so our teachers have significantly picked up the pace in class. It's kind of intense, but now I can make people laugh by saying more than just greetings.

PS--Part 4 Photos now up.

Not a lot of talking, but a whole lot of fun!

This weekend was pretty fantastic. Friday night a bunch of us chased down a Chinese restaurant (right across from the Chinese embassy) and gorged ourselves. Yum. We also went to Just 4 U and laugh at the other toubabs dance.

Saturday morning some other girls and I made a trek to the ritzy part of town where all the rich businesspeople and ambassadors live to a patisserie we'd seen. Pain au chocolat has never tasted so good. And it was guilt-free since there was lots of walking involved!

Saturday afternoon was pretty special. We returned to a pottery shop/workshop where the artists are all handicapped that we had visited earlier in the week. They make beautiful pots, sculptures, and jewelry instead of being on the street begging and everyone is like one big welcoming family. They invited us to come and make art with them. Those with ceramics experience used the pottery wheel, and the unartistic ones like me sculpted little animals and ashtrays. Assane, a deaf-mute boy probably about 12 years old helped me make a horse and an elephant. It was an unbelievable experience. He was an exceptional communicator, an expert sculptor, and a totally joyful human being. I was amazed at how much we could communicate nonverbally, even without official sign language. I had a really great time and can't wait to go back next week when our stuff will be fired and we can paint it.

Sunday was pretty lazy. I did homework and watched TV with the fam, made ataya, and read a book. It was just what I wanted. I've become friends with my host cousin/maid. I go with her to go buy bread and stuff for dinner sometimes. She doesn't speak a whole lot of French, but I think she likes having someone who isn't barking orders at her (like the rest of the family) to hang out with. My goal is to go with her on errands a lot and make her life a little less miserable. I want to find a small gift to give her before I leave too.

This week is going to focus on getting my ISP topic nailed down and start working on my proposal. There are some other small projects to work on, which is lame since the big ISP is lurking and needing attention right now. This week we also have our visual art classes. I'm doing batik. Since I've kind of become a fabric junky while I'm here, it should be just about perfect.

PS--I finally got ALL of the Kedougou photos up (My Photos Part 2) with some captions. Enjoy.

Rawr!

Don't have a seizure because of all the posts, okay?

This is a video of my 12-year-old host-brother Omar imitating an American pro-wrestler. He's pretty much my favorite. The Senegalese have a special type of wrestling, by the way, called 'la lutte'. It's a pretty big deal here (there was a big match on Sunday). It's kind of reminiscent of Sumo wrestling, but they're not hugely fat and they're African I guess. Google it.

Islands in the Sun

It's been difficult to post the past couple days because the power keeps going out. But here it is--a jam-packed blog post.

Would it be confusing if I went out of chronological order? Because I really want to talk about Saturday. You're not writing this so I'm going do that. Hold on to your hats.

SATURDAY WAS ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE. Serious. My friends Calla and Paige and I went to Ile de la Madeleine (Trans: Madeleine Island), which is protected by the national park system and ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. You take a boat from an off the beaten trail national park office on the beach in Dakar and get dropped off with a guide. The island is made up of volcanic rock and has wicked cool rock formations. There's lots of birds and fishies in the water because no one's allowed to kill them (even though people still do...arg). There are baobab trees all over the place. The best part was the natural little pool where we could swim without being sucked into the washing machine ocean on the other side of the rocks. That was my first time swimming in the ocean. I felt like I was being baptised. We also climbed up rocks and the view was awesome. AND...I saw a PUFFER FISH! So cool. Our guide showed us around the island when we first got there and then gave us the rest of the day to swim and do whatever. We were there for about five hours. I'm in the process of posting photos from that day (My Photos Part III: The Islands) and from Friday when we went to Goree Island, which I will talk about now....

Goree Island--take off point for the slave trade and super tourist trap. Gorgeous but also super depressing and frustrating. There's a slave house where they kept all the slaves before sending them through the "Door of No Return" onto ships. I felt nauseous the whole time we were there. It's really a beautiful place, but it's also hard to enjoy when there's vendors approaching you constantly trying to get you to buy things because you're white and look like a tourist.

Schoolwork is definitely picking up. I handed in a paper about the village stay yesterday (big pain in the rear), I have a project due next week, and a proposal for my giant project due the week after that. Mix in some some French and Wolof homework and bake at 100 degrees and out pops stress-o-rific me. Luckily I've almost nailed down a topic for my big ISP (Independent Study Project) that we spend the last month working on. I think I will research and writing about ethics in business education. Are business students being taught ethics in business schools? Do they need to be? It'll be great. I hope. We'll see how it goes. There are other topic possibilities in the wings if need be.

I've now graduated from taking the big bus to school to taking the car rapides, which are junky mini-buses that cost even less and are brightly painted and kinda insane. I think the Senegalese are impressed when us toubab girls are brave enough to take them.

This week we're taking more music classes and since the kora class were filled up I'm taking more djembe class. Fine with me. Maybe I'll get good at it and be a djembe-playing fool when I get home!

Toubab! Donne-moi un cadeau!

I'm back in Dakar after an eight day trip to Kedougou! I've added a link over on the right that says My Photos Part 2 which has pictures from the trip. Overall it was a really positive experience. We started off at an auberge where we stayed in huts with electricity, air-conditioning (which came in handy because it's way hotter there than in Dakar--in the hundreds I'm sure), and running water. Then we moved to our home stays where we lived in huts with none of those things. With the group we did some pretty amazing hikes and visited some villages of the Bedik ethnic group. We got to play in a spectacular water fall and climb big rocks. I've decided that when I get home I want to be a camping person because running around in the wilderness and being without electricity and peeing in holes is definitely okay by me and pretty fantastic.

Groups of us were placed in homestays in the villages of various ethnic groups. I was in a Bassari family--a 55 year-old woman named Justine and her mother. Those staying in Bassari families weren't in a village exactly, instead we learned about the Bassari from members of the group that live close to Kedougou (the nearest village would have been 90 km away). In general, and especially in the home stay, communication was a challenge since French was often limited and Wolof hardly spoken at all. Justine spoke some French, but she's very shy and quiet and what French she does speak was often hard to understand. Her mother spoke no French at all except Bonjour. We managed to chase up some people of our generation who are the ones who speak the most French. A guy that lived near my friend Hannah and I was a good source for our research about the Bassaris and also taught us how to make Ataya (green tea Senegalese style with lost of sugar and poured over and over to build up foam--See photos). I had the most fun with my friend Joel and his host family where his brothers spoke a lot of French. They took us to check out the Gambia river, we ate warthog and wild honey from the comb (honey, shea butter, and indigo are big things in the area), drank Ataya, and chatted about Bassari culture.

The Bedik village was having a circumcision ceremony and celebration and we were able to join our friends staying there to see what the celebration was like. Lots of singing and dancing and bright colors. It was a great opportunity and a break from the pretty boring situation at my homestay. There wasn't a lot going on with my family (probably because I was living with just the two women and wasn't in a village setting), so opportunities to go places were great. I was actually very ready to go back to the hotel when the time came, but am glad to have had the experience of living with Justine.

I had a good time in Kedougou, but it's nice to be back in the city too even if it smells and there's way more people and noise. There are also less children yelling "Toubab! Donne-moi un cadeau!" (White person! Give me a present!). I have my own room now in my homestay here since my older host sister went back to Paris where she goes to school. I didn't really mind sharing, but it's nice to have a little more privacy.

I'm looking forward to a couple weeks of routine and then another awesome excursion to another part of Senegal. Friday we're taking a small field trip to Goree island off the coast of Dakar, which was a big deal pre-colonialism and during the slave trade. Should be intensely interesting.

I need a warm bath and a back massage.

After a couple days of drums and dancing lessons my body is complaining. My arms and legs feel like they might fall off. While it's a new and interesting experience, the dancing especially is really hard and painful. The teaching methods are also different and at times frustrating. Rather than verbal explanation we are shown the steps and expected to follow and repeat. They don't really slow down either. They just keep repeating until we kinda get it. It's making us realize how differently we learn (with explanation and visuals and then acting). I hate to be culturally insensitive, but really, I think our teaching style is more efficient and less painful.

We got the low-down on our village stay next week. We leave on Monday and with one stop overnight along the way we end up in Kedougou on Tuesday. We're in our village stay Thursday-Sunday. We're in small groups in various villages near Kedougou. I will be in a village with people of the Bassari ethnic group. While we're there we'll be researching the ethnic minorities we encounter and will write and present on them when we return. On the other days of the trip we'll be staying in hotels/auberges and going on hikes and seeing cool stuff. We return on Tuesday, March 4. I was kind of nervous about the trip, but now I'm super excited. We're going to see some amazing sites (for example, a national park).

Marriage Proposal Count: 2

Yesterday was delightfully absurd. The morning was pretty normal with class and such, and then after an extra long lunch break we had a gathering with the president of SIT and various other guests and friends of SIT. The following recipe is for happiness in a ball (I ate approximately eight at the party):
Melt white chocolate and mix in coconut flakes (a lot of them)
Roll into balls approximately 1 inch in diameter
Refrigerate
They'll have the consistency of marzipan
Freakin' amazing.

Anyway, after school Emma and Amber and I did our Urban Arts Exploration project. We chose to interview an artist who sells art alongside the road along our bus route. Turns out he makes art by recycling stuff he finds (trash, drift wood, etc.). It was pretty cool. We asked him all sorts of questions and let him get on his soapbox where he talked all about loving nature and peace and nice hippy stuff like that. I bought a carved elephant from him (which it turns out he didn't actually make, but whatever), and he proceeded to profess his love to me and tell me we should get married here in Senegal and give us presents (bracelets and a necklace that he made on the spot). Apparently Amber got some great photos of me and my red face. I will try to chase those down. I guess you really had to be there to fully appreciate it, but it was pretty hilarious and my weirdest experience yet. Oh, and don't worry, I let him down easy.

This afternoon there will be more dancing and drum playing, which will be awesome, although it's been getting hotter (it was about 100 degrees yesterday). I also plan to visit the tailor tonight. Yay!

Oh, also I met a girl who goes to Macalester on the bus this morning. Small world, eh?

Sianara Comfort Zone!

I both sang and danced today. I don't do that. Like, ever. That's how great this trip is for me. I'm pushing limits and going with the flow. Go me. The singing happened because we had a guy come in who's a music teacher and mixes traditional and modern instruments and music. He also teaches kids about making instruments out of recycled stuff and teaches them about being nice to the environment. He's freakin' awesome. I might work with him for my Independent Study Project (ISP), which I'm thinking about doing on Arts, Culture, and Environmental Development. That's really broad at the moment, and I'll work on making it more specific, but talking about that guy as well as Leopold Senghor and Martha Nussbaum would be RAD. This afternoon we went to the Village des Arts and got a djembe lesson and dancing lesson. I also met the little guy in that picture up there. Wanted to take him home sooooo badly. Oy, I'm such a female.

This weekend was pretty good, although speaking so much French is exhausting. We went to the jazz club Just 4 U and heard Orchestre Baobab, which was a lot of fun. The Senegalese like late nights on weekends though! The music didn't start until about midnight and didn't end until three. Totally worth the exhaustion though. On Sunday I bought two fabrics, and plan to send one to the tailor this week to have a dress made. It'll be great. I'm super sweaty and tired so it's definitely time to stink up the bus and take a shower at home. I'm a gonna sleep well tonight and be ready for another day of dancing and drumming.

Woop dee woop

Taking the bus is officially my favorite pastime. Seriously. It's hilarious. It's like a clown car. There are so many people crammed on you wonder why no one passes out. It's also super cheap compared to taxis and you don't have to bargain with the stupid drivers who try to rip you off.
Having a cell phone is nice and it's been nice to talk to people from home (thanks Mom and Dad, and thanks Anne for the 2 minute conversation of a lifetime). On the other hand, it makes me miss home a little bit. Technology and I have a serious love/hate relationship.
Last night was pretty fun, but not for any special reason. I had fun drinking ataya (green tea with loads of sugar served in double shots) with the fam and just joking around and of course watching tv. Maybe it helped that the tea made me highly caffeinated. My sisters have decided that they're going to find me a Senegalese boyfriend. I'm skeptical, but it's funny.
Today we're going to an art museum, which should be pretty cool. Saturday I plan to go buy some fabric at the market and have some clothes made and they're going to be awesome. Also optimum family bonding time (at least with the female members). Sunday is a big day because I'm going to learn how to do...LAUNDRY. By hand. Apparently it takes hours.

Bureaucrappy

Good News! After three days of dealing with Senegalese bureaucracy I now have Senegalese cell phone service! This means i pay as I go and get FREE RECEIVED CALLS! That means that you all can call me, but you'll have to pay international prices. However, if you get a sweet phone card (check out http://www.ohello.com or see if your local gas station has an Africa phone card) to get a better rate. ALSO, if you have a Skype account you can add credit to it and pay 2 cents a minute (fabulous!). With that, my phone number (including country code) is: 221-77-737-07-15.

Hello World! It's been a couple days!

So here's the reason I haven't posted in several days: my computer bit the dust. I think it may have been zapped by the difference in voltage or whatever, even though it should have been safe. Long story... anyway great things have been happening in the meantime. I've settled in with my host family and things are going pretty well there. Like most Senegalese families they watch a ridiculous amount of TV (especially music videos and soap operas), so there isn't a lot of social obligation during that time. We all just kind of chill together. They're really nice and helping me with French and Wolof. We're getting into the swing of things with classes and I'm enjoying them. Especially the language classes. Sometimes I have class in the gazebo behind the school (I uploaded a photo of it), and that's pretty great. I love having class with bird chatter in the background. I'm having to get used to the Field Study Seminar class (an anthropology type thing), because I'm not really into that kind of formal observation stuff I guess. I've started taking the bus sometimes to and/or from school, which leaves me more money to buy fun stuff (bus is about a tenth of the price of a taxi). My host mother plans to teach me to cook some Senegalese meals, which I'm pretty pumped about, and I'm thinking I'm going to do some serious market shopping this weekend to get cloth to have clothes made and fun bead jewelry. Since it's the dry season there's some wind and a lot of dust and sand going on. That, combined with the car pollution has been somewhat rough on the throat, but the weather is generally perfect. I've uploaded some more pictures with captions to come later. I miss you all, and it's been great to here from you!

Downtown Dakar

Today was intense. We had the “drop off” where we had to take taxis in groups of three to designated parts of the city and walk around for several hours. There was a sheet of questions we had to answer, but it was mainly to get used to shopping and wandering around in a new city. There were tons of people, especially people selling stuff. We had to get a gift for a random person in the group. I tried my skills at haggling and got a necklace for half the price she said originally. I was pretty proud of myself for my first time at it. Oh, and our taxi on our way to our destination got pulled over for some unknown reason and we witnessed a bribe so that the driver could get his license back. Apparently that happens sometimes. It was pretty hilarious. Tomorrow we have our first real day of classes and after that I move in with my host family! I’m looking forward to it a lot. Walking around in the sun all day got us all exhausted, but I think we learned a little about Senegalese culture and practical stuff for getting around.

"I think I heard a goat just now..."

Title=quote by me on the first morning here. Turns out it was a sheep.

I met my host mother today! She’s a primary school teacher and she’s really really nice. I’ll have three “sisters” and a “brother.” I also had my first Wolof class too. It’s a repetition style of learning and it surprisingly works really well. I’ve got some greetings down now. I was so excited after that class. I’m psyched about learning Wolof. That set me up well for meeting my host mom. I was less nervous, which was good because there’s nothing to be worried about. The homestay is going to be great.

I’ve been so rushed other times when I’ve been trying to post that I feel like there are a lot of gaps. There’s also just so much to tell! The food is great, all bodily systems: normal (we got a talk about health and safety this morning so hopefully it stays that way), and I love walking around and absorbing everything. I’m speaking a lot of French with profs, fellow students, and random Senegalese. We’re all feeling comfortable at school and learning a lot.

I want to know how everyone is at home! We’ve been getting news and stuff on TV and internet (like about Super Tuesday—C’mon Obama, you can do it, all is not lost!), but how are things at school, home, barn, etc.? Feel free to send me emails or comment on posts or something.

The Land of Teranga

Asalaamaalekum! That's Wolof for "Peace be with you" or hello. That's right, I'm learning Wolof and I'm totally pumped about it. I'm finally feeling like a real person and not a zombie today. I finally got my bags last night, and I've never been so happy to see my stuff. We visited the school for the first time today. It's really beautiful and in a nice neighborhood. You can tell it's a better off neighborhood than that of the hotel. There are more businesses, schools, better condition buildings. We had to do an activity where the profs gave us an everyday object and we had to go out and ask people what it was. I was freaked about it, but people were unbelievably friendly. They had no problem pausing to tell us that the strange green powder and clump of straw stuff were henna and a Senegalese loofa. They truly demonstrated the Senegalese value of Teranga or hospitality. I meet my homestay family tomorrow and move in on Friday I think. People are breathing down my neck for the ethernet cord in the lobby because the wireless just doesn't work in the hotel. I've uploaded some pictures. Check them out! Link is this way---->

I'm smiling!

I'm here I'm here I'm here!!! I'm barely conscious after not much sleep and severe jetlag but I'm here! We got in last night on our delayed flight from Paris at about midnight. We're at a nice, clean hotel near the airport. This is good because they can deliver easily my bags that didn't make it :-/. Fortunately I've got a nice roommate while we're here who's helping me out. It smells like ocean here and I love it. I smiled the entire drive from the airport in spite of (or maybe because of) the fact that it was dark and I couldn't really see anything. I definitely had Africa-related dreams, which is funny (Anne--there were cute kids involved of course!). I have a sneaking suspicion that this is these are the most Western accommodations we will have here. They're easing us in slowly. This is good. We start orientation today. Eep! I'm so excited!

D-Day

Today's the day I start my voyage to Senegal! I'm fully prepared in the way of material goods, but I think my head still can't believe I'm actually going. After organizing this thing for so long, today kinda snuck up on me. Saying goodbye to all my favorite folks was rough, but I'll be back in no time to share some pretty stupendous stories. So anyway I'll be taking off from Minneapolis this afternoon and arriving in New York close to dinnertime. There's another girl from Minneapolis on the trip and she'll be on my flight, which is nice. In New York we meet up with the whole group and from there fly to Paris on an overnight flight. Hopefully I sleep lots. Either that or Air France better have some pretty great French films. We have a couple hours in Paris and then it's off to Dakar. Whew. Lots of airplane. Good thing we get along okay. Wish me luck and I'll update this thing as soon as possible once I get there!

Ready...Set...

Hello!
Even though the idea of having a blog makes me snicker, it seemed to be a more convenient and less annoying way to report on my time in Senegal than mass emails. This way you don't have to feel guilty for deleting me from your inbox, and I don't have to take up precious space there in the first place. I leave in very very soon. I'm an understandable combination of nervous and excited, but I know it's going to be a pretty fabulous experience. I'll have my computer with me so email, Skype, and blog will be mostly accessible. Keep in touch everyone, just as I will be sure to do.