Thursday, May 22

ahhh... nothing like a good shower to feel all better! haha.. I think blogging about showering will be a prominent theme in my writing.. it's THAT important here. By the end of the day, I have a sticky layer of dirt, sweat, and mosquito repellent, and when it is washed off, I feel like a fresh baby. But then I slap on some more mosquito lotion and the process starts all over again! hah! so much for that... but it's nice while it lasts. I shower at night so that I can wake up, eat breakfast, and go. And, it's gross to go to bed all sticky and stuff.

Today, we woke up at 8:30, had breakfast (again, baguettes and nutella, jam, etc.), and then we walked to the Baobob Center to begin our next set of neighborhood tours, except that today, we walked over to the neighborhood in which our permanent apartments are (it's called, Sacre Coeur, or 'sacred heart'). The Sacre Coeur neighborhood is much nicer than the neighborhood we were in for our first night. It's much more residential. And, the apartment is also better. Two of the boys in our group went to their family stays today, and the rest of us (me, Yemi, Armin, and Vicki) are sharing this new apartment. It's on the 4th floor, which is also the top floor, and it has a beautiful open balcony from which we can see the skyline of downtown Dakar. It's really beautiful. I wish you could all be here to enjoy this with me. When there's a breeze, and there are many up there, it's exquisite; a respite from the exhausting heat. I'll return to this later, after I describe the remainder of the day.

After our neighborhood tours--which, by the way, are really helping to gain a sense of direction here and familiarity in general--we returned to the Baobob center for our first Wolof language session. This was FUN! We will have 50 hours of training total over the next three weeks. They say that by the end of this time, we will speak better Wolof than many Senegalese! We'll see about that. It's an easier language to learn, supposedly. But, because it is so different, it's going to require a lot of rote memorization, and I gave that up years ago. So, I'm going to have to really work at this if I'm to learn it. Part of this is also learning a bit of Arabic, because this is mixed in to some of the greetings. For example, Asaala Malekum (peace be with you), is simply beautiful, I think. The greetings take 5 minutes in themselves.. they are very elaborate. First you wish them peace, then you ask how they are, then you ask how their family is, and then you thank god! And apparently that is just the beginning- there's much more that we haven't yet learned. I like the idea of this, but it would never swing in America, where 'time is money.' Too bad, though. It obviously facilitates a sense of community, and I think we yearn for that whether we're aware of it or not. Anyway, so after our Wolof lessons, we came back to the temporary apartment and had lunch. It was the Senegalese national dish ''cebu jen", which consists of fish, cous-cous, and various vegetables cooked with the fish. I wanted to try it, but it looked and smelled gross, so I didn't. But later, for dinner we had another kind of fish and it was prepared differently, so it neither looked or smelled gross- I ate that!!!!! and I enjoyed it!!!! Mom, aren't you proud? I ate every little last piece!

To answer some questions asked by my sister, Rachel: After lunch, we went back to the Baobob center and had a cultural values session. it was helpful. we'll have more of this tomorrow, along with more language lessons. In general though, not knowing Wolof hasn't hindered us. Most people do speak French, and I feel very comfortable with that right now. Rachel also asked about our cook, whose name is Sera. She was great- dinner was delicious tonight (a certain fish called "capitain"- it's unique to this region) and the dessert was so tasty.. fresh cut fruit salad (mango, apple, orange, papaya, melon... mmmmmm all sooooo fresh and yummy). Sera will cook for us at a small fee- for dinner, tonight, it was 3,200 CFA's (or, $8), but this included an appetizer, the main course (the fish was expensive because it's no longer as accessible- the Koreans and Chinese have been overfishing the Senegalese fishing spots for a few years, and because of this there is a shortage of fish), and dessert. Plus, she brought all the utensils, cleaned it all up when we were finished, and took her things home with her. I couldn't believe it. We also have a cleaning-woman, Nafi, who will come every two days to dust, etc. She will do our laundry once/week.

I think that is it for now. I'm getting sleepy. I wish I could write more about what I'm feeling right now, but all I feel capable of is descriptive recounting. I think things are just too new to report on. Suffice it to say, hopefully, that I'm very happy. And, things are going smoothly.

Please continue to send me your questions! My sister started this, and I liked getting them. It was a way for me to make a more direct connection with someone, and this is very good for me right now.

Love,
Ryan