It has been quite a while since my last post, and I am sorry to say that this one most likely won’t be satisfactory because I need to leave soon to go to the beach!!

Since my last post I have…hung out with the English club at one of the top high schools in Dakar, gone dancing until about 6 in the morning multiple times, gone to Toubab Dialo - Toubab means white person, so basically white person heaven, not gotten nearly enough sleep, pretended to to my homework, and have been living in bliss!

I have never really been one to go out dancing, but all I have to say is that if going out in the US were anything like going out in Dakar, I would do it a whole lot more.  We don’t usually get to the house of the people we are going with until midnight or 12:30, and then from there don’t actually leave until a little after 1.  The club plays mostly pop music, a lot of which I know, some Senegalese and some French.  However, that isn’t the best part.  around 4:30 they change the music from being poppy to MBallah (spelling?) which is the traditional Senegalese music.  When this happens, the way people dance changes completely.  They go from dancing how they would in America, to this very tribal, almost ape-like dancing.  However, for some reason, I always think that this is one of the coolest things that I have ever seen.

On Sunday, I spent part of the afternoon at my Wolof Professor’s house…not to see him, but because I was invited to have attaya by his son.  Since I like attaya so much, I jumped at the opportunity, especially since I knew that I would be one step closer to learning how to make it.  However, what I thought was going to be a quick attaya break - meaning that I would have three cups in a small amount of time - soon turned into a very long attaya break.  Further, I am now getting texts and calls from him asking if we can go on walks.  Hopefully he will be able to get the message that although I think he is a nice guy, I’m not really looking to be his American wife.

Today was the first day that I have gone downtown by myself.  I went in an attempt to return two movies and then take a couple more out.  However, when I got there, the store had closed 30 minutes early, meaning I had paid the “large” cabfare of 1500 cfa for nothing.  Not wanting to loose too much more money, I decided to take a bus back to S.I.C.A.P. Baobab.  I am never going to complain about public transportation again when I get back to the US - except for the price since I am so used to only paying 30 cents to get anywhere on the bus.  I am pretty sure the busses that have been discarded by other countries, and since there are no traffic lights here, it can take quite a while to get out of downtown.  But I survived, and am now sitting safely in the Baobab center enjoying my Chinese food.

I can’t believe that I have already been here for one month.  However, no matter how fast the time seems to be passing, I am again reminded of how much more time I have here.  I am now crossing into new territory, and will have been away from my family and friends for longer than I ever have been before - which is part of the reason that I have been feeling so homesick lately.

Since getting back from the Gambia, there hasn’t been a lot going on in Senegal.  I of course made my weekly trip down town for a visit to N’Ice Cream, and spent all of yesterday at the beach (which was a much needed break from reality).  But other than that it has been a pretty dull week.  Hopefully things will start to look up or else I have a long month and a half ahead of me.

This past weekend, I was in the Gambia.  It was amazing, but I am so happy to be back in Dakar!  Here is a little synopsis of my experiences…

Thursday

Arrive at Centre Baobab bright and early to pile into the van for our drive to the small Senegalese village of Missira.  Here, we saw a gigantic Fromagier tree that was hundreds of years old.  We also took a boat to a very small island that had a single family living on it, albeit a very large family.  On this island, we ate cashew fruit (yes, the fruit of the cashew nut) to our heart’s content!

Friday

We had our first true Gambien experience on Friday.  The crew of the ferry we were taking neglected to chain down an old truck, which then proceeded to “dance” as my first Gambian friend would say.  It rocked so far that at one point the top of the truck was touching our van.  However I did acquire the address of the ferry’s captain - so we could become better friends - meaning he may be getting some angry mail in the future.  We finished off Friday with visiting a museum that recreated a true Gambian village.  It was pretty cool, and the structure reminded me a lot of other indigenous tribes.

Saturday

Today we went to Makasuto Forest.  It was so pretty, and was really nice to see a lot of green as opposed to the brown that we have all become so used to.  We started off our visit with a boat ride down the river.  I was able to paddle for a while, and it was nice to give my arms a little work out.  We then did a forest walk where we ran into a bunch of baboons.  I also got my palm read by an old medecine man.  It was pretty cool, although the fortune was a little too general for me to believe too much of it.  The walked ended in an open area where we had palm wine and watched a man climb a palm tree using an extremely thick and stiff rope that was around the tree.  I was able to try it, and it was pretty cool and a lot easier than it looked.  Our forest visit ended with lunch, where we were visited by the baboons that we saw earlier.  They cam and scared all of us while stealing food off of the table.  We were also entertained by a group of women from the tribe that lived in the forest.  They came and danced for us, and then had everyone go up and dance with them.

Sunday

Sunday was probably my favorite day in the Gambia.  We went to the market and were able to buy a lot of fabric for very cheap.  I really like bargaining with people, and I wish that I would have had more time there so I could have gotten my prices even lower.  I think that with some practice I am going to be pretty good at getting a “good deal”.  In the evening, we walked to a European grocery store, where they had AMERICAN snacks!!!  We stocked up so much, especially since the food was a lot cheaper than in Senegal!

Monday

On Monday, we had our excruciatingly long trip back to Senegal.  We left the hotel at 8 in the morning, and did not get back until 11 at night.  The majority of our time was spent waiting for the check to clear at the bank, meaning we had to sit in the van for 5 hours after taking the ferry back.  However, I did make a little friend right before we had to leave.  He saw me doing Sudoku and asked if it was math.  I then tried to teach him how to do it, leaving him with a pen, pencil and a two easy Sudoku puzzles.  I don’t know if he actually figured out how to do them, but he was very happy as we were leaving and gave me a fist pound through the window.  Right after crossing the border, we were stopped by customs, which was just a group of military guys sitting on the side of the road.  Once stopped, we were ordered out of the van and were told to take everything out so they could search us.  They took away all of the fabric that we had bought saying that it was contraban.  We were only able to get it back after showing them our American student IDs - they just needed to pretend like they were doing their job.

On Tuesday, I roasted marshmallows with two of the little kids in my family.  I never thought that I would have to go all the way to Senegal to get a perfectly golden brown marshmallow.  Sometime soon, we are going to make smores!

During my break in between classes a few days ago my housemate, Ben, and I went downtown.  As we were walking towards a restaurant, we ran into a man from Mermoz (the district in which we live).  His wife had just given birth to their first child, and he was on his way to see his father.  As it turns out, one of the traditions after having your first child is to give a gift to a stranger in honor of your child and your ancestors.  Because he had a baby girl, the gift had to be given to a female, and that female turned out to be me.  So, I now am the proud owner of a fairly large gold charm, that I have promised to never sell and only pass down or give away as gift.   Next, I was supposed to give him his first container of formula, so after receiving my gift, we went to a boutique to finish out the tradition.

Although I didn’t completely know what was going on the entire time, it is pretty cool to be a part of a little bit of Senegalese culture, and I will always have the charm he gave me as a reminder of the time that I spent here.

It is almost 1 in the morning and after returning from hanging out at a wedding reception across the street, all I want to do is go to sleep.  However, the Baay Faal’s have decided that tonight is the perfect night for them to add a speaker system to their incessant singing, so not only can all of Mermoz here them, but the rest of Dakar as well.   At least I don’t have to get up in the morning.

Per usual, we have all been sitting at the Baobab Center for the past hour waiting for our first class to begin…this isn’t too out of the ordinary for Senegal, but an hour late is a bit much.

Timeliness is one of the easiest things for me to understand here in Senegal,  it’s just a given that people are going to be late.  What I do not understand is their hierarchical system in the families.  Upon my arrival, I have quickly bonded with the 11 year old girl in the family, Mami.  However, since she is the youngest girl who is able to do work, she does everything.  It seems as though she does more than the domestiques.  Plus, if anything goes wrong, she is almost always blamed for it (or at least as far as I can tell).  It breaks my heart to see how hard her life is.  Thankfully, I am always willing to help her with her chores - yesterday I de-headed shrimp, something I would have never done in America.

I know none of this will change, and it is just something I have to get used to, but I don’t ever think I will be able to stand them screaming at her.

I have finished my first week in Senegal!!!!

Last night, Celesta; Sepi and I went to the concert of the uncle of someone in my host family.  It was quite an adventure to say the least.  The concert started 3 hours late (which is fairly normal in Senegal).  However, since it started so late, we decided to get food, and were accompanied by multiple people, who all ordered a lot of food, and who we all got to pay for!!!  On the way to get dinner, a women demanded that Celesta give her her sunglasses, and when Celesta refused, she proceeded to talk about her in Wolof, only stopping to ask Celesta if she understood any Wolof.  This was only after we spent an hour getting our photo taken with the family by a man who did not know how to make his flash work - so I can only assume that every photo turned out black.  One of the aunts however did give me a picture of the group as a present - the only problem being that no one was paying any attention when it was taken.  By the time the concert finally started, we learned that it was not actually a concert, but instead the uncle standing on stage, waving his arms above his head, and pretendiong to lipsync to the music.  So, after waiting for three hours, we left after a mere 3 songs, taking a taxi back…which we later saw broken down on the side of the road while we were walking back to our houses.  I will never be able to fully recount this eperience to anyone, I still don’t know what really happened.

This experience basically reflects every single day that I have spent in Senegal - especially those where I have gone downtown.  The first time we went, it was to get coffee with some of the UPENN people who have been here for 10 weeks.  We decided that it would be ok if we took a taxi down there by ourelves and then met them afterwards.  But, of course, we were wrong.  The taxis here are mostly held together with tape and drive without any inhibitions - always making it a fun ride.  So, the entire way downtown, we felt like the seat was going to fall out of the car.  Then, the driver did not let us off in the right place, and we were chased by one of the men from Mali until we were able to take refuge in a pharmacy where they came and found us.  Thankfully the ice cream was really good!!!

Today we had a much calmer experience, we went to Ile de Goree, wich was wher all of the slave went before they were sent off to the states.  It is one of the most beautiful islands that I have ever seen, and I could have spent hours exploring there.  Hopefully I will be able to go back!

I have been in Senegal for 5 days.  When thinking about it, it does not seem like that long, but each day feels like it goes on forever, probably because I have done so much since being here.

I have an amawing host family which as of now includes two host brothers, Junior 6 and Talisto 19, two host sisters - Mag 2 and Mami 11, and a bunch of adults (the number changes every day, so I do not really know how many live there).  I also have another Baobab student living with me which has been really nice - a life saver really.

It is getting dark, and I still have things to get done, so I will talk about my adventures down town later.

I miss everyone