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).