A four year old and some highlighters

So since there is no power, I’ll write about my awesome weekend and what’s up this week in my world. Friday night I don’t recall doing anything spectacular. I’m pretty sure I just came home. But Saturday night! Whew now that was fun. First, we had a special dinner with Professor Siamundele because his flight was leaving at 1am but let me just say pepperoni pizza is not pizza with lots of olives and the occasional pepperoni. I was not okay with that. After pizza, we got explore Hannah’s house in Liberté 3. She lives with a cool Christian family with a dog! I was so excited she had a dog but said dog ended up being old and mean anyways so I didn’t touch him/her/it. Anyways, a group of us walked back to the houses to get ready for the night and it was fun to meet Hannah’s family and her family of spiders. You’ll have to check out her blog for those details but it’s essentially a mommy and daddy spider. Ick. Then we returned to My Shop and took over a corner for our massive group of people. Around midnight we decided to go to a club in Les Almadies called Diamonds. It’s a total toubab place but Karla’s friend got us in for free so it was really cool. This was like my first weekend to test my boundaries with the family about staying out. I stayed out too late and my host mom gave me a little speech, but it’s all good. It’s not like I’m the clubbing partying type anyways. It was just fun once. Although there is a concert that many of the students bought tickets for. It’s Friday at 9. Youssou Ndour is his name and apparently he is a huge star around here. I’m excited to see some live music. I saw a little bit of live music today on the street with Jess walking home. There was a group playing the drums and some women dancing. It looked really fun.

Now to continue with my story about Saturday, I almost forgot the amazing beach we found in Mamelles…I think that’s how you spell it. Either way, Jess Alison and I walked up to the light house and passed the Statue de Renaissance on the way. It’s a really nice place just North of Ouakam. Low and behold we found a beach at the end of a creepy, pee-scented goat path! The waves were a bit strong, but it was a beautiful hot day and there was hardly any trash on the beach. I hadn’t been to the beach yet besides Ile de Goree (where I refused to swim in trash) so it was an awesome first experience…besides the tidbit of sunburn. My ears peeled…how gross is that? But I bet it’s not as bad as Rachael’s sunburn will be from her trip with Ryan to Florida. J

Sunday was an entirely different day compared to all the others. Apparently, de temps en temps, Muhammad, a rowdy 4 year old from Jess’s home, likes to stay with other people on the weekends. This weekend was our weekend. Hence how my status on Facebook ended up being what it was. I found out how hard it is to entertain a four year old without TV or any sports equipment (such as a soccer ball). Instead, he ended up smelling like every scent I own - lotion and sprays and deodorant (yep he put deodorant under his arms but not under his shirt…I hope it didn’t do any harm to his clothing). He then found the two writing utensils I own that are colorful, my green and blue highlighters. The next problem was what to write on. For that I used some course descriptions and my schedule. He didn’t want a nap in the middle of the day but I sure did. So when he wasn’t sleeping, I kicked him out of my room. I felt bad but we had some communication problems because he only speaks Wolof and I speak French. And if you remember, it’s hard enough to understand a four year old in your first language. It’s 10x harder when you barely know any Wolof and he understands nothing in French. Despite the brick wall of language, it was pretty entertaining and it reminds me not to take life too seriously when I take out my schedule and read it through green scribbles.

This past week hasn’t been the best. Two days in a row I was terrified my wireless was broken on my laptop but it turns out we just have really shitty wireless at WARC because of the power outages. I was almost in tears twice because I just wanted to be home. Turns out Dad had the same problem in good ol’ Vermont. I’m just upset because I couldn’t Skype with Kaylin or my mom or anyone really. Dad called me on my cell phone which really made my day just to hear someone from home. So thanks Dad! However, a solid good note in my week would be the food I discovered on the University campus. There is this amazing thing called a Fautai…(pronounced FuuThai…thai like the food/country). It’s this amazing triangle bread (sometimes other bread) with meat, onions, lettuce, egg if I want, ketchup and French fries. I wasn’t so sure about these sandwiches but they are amazing and only 400 CFA which is less than a dollar for those of you trying to translate in your head. 500 CFA is a dollar. This sandwich even costs as much or less than a soda. It’s amazing.

I’m still trying to nail down my classes so this week wasn’t the best. I did join Professor Sène’s African Lit class which will be a lot of fun I believe. Unfortunately, it’s my only class on Thursdays from 4-6pm…lame to have to travel to WARC just for that. At least on Tuesdays I have class prior to African Lit. I also want to try and get an internship. The folks at WARC are apparently very helpful and since there are so many embassies around I’m hoping I could work with an embassy or even just an NGO. It would be awesome to have that experience. I though an internship might be a lot but I have a lot of free time so far and classes don’t seem as difficult as Wells classes. The French part makes me tired, translating all day, but I think an internship where I speak French all day would be helpful working on my fluidity.

Today was my worst encounter with a Senegalese man to date. So the long story starts this morning. Remember those tickets for Youssou Ndour? Yea well Zoey and Andrea worked hard yesterday on tracking down the tickets for like 8 or 9 of us. This morning when Zoey handed me my ticket I realized the date was for Thursday not Friday. This was a problem for me. I had tested my limits this weekend with showing up late and although I was extraordinarily late on Saturday I wasn’t going to show up home at midnight on a weeknight either. I also have some classes Friday I think… I’ve had a hankering to go downtown all week and I decided since I was done at 11 today and have no class that I should go. This was perfect because I could exchange all the tickets. I recruited Abbey for moral support because going downtown alone is intimidating. It’s not dangerous in the day but definitely intimidating since I hadn’t been. I thought I might buy a little change purse thing that can hold my money and cell phone and perhaps some clothes.

Instead, after a bit of waiting at l’Institut Francais for our tickets, Abbey and I were followed by a strange old man trying to lead us to a factory. Now he spoke English and clearly wanted some practice with the Americans. I wish Abbey hadn’t shook his hand because otherwise I would have just ignored him and walked buy. So…we kinda try to dodge him a bit and Abbey spots some really nice change purse type things. He follows us and tells me that I’m getting a good price which I know it wasn’t but I wasn’t about to bargain with this asshole over my shoulder. And Abbey was trying to tell me not to show him how much money I had but I had to break a 10000 CFA. We finally decide we are tired and this guy is being creepy and I wasn’t going to find any fabric or clothing here. As we try and leave he starts whining which then progressed to yelling. Earlier, he had given me a small necklace as a present or good luck charm or whatever. I didn’t expect it for free but I also didn’t expect him to wait about half an hour to start freaking out about it. So I tried to give him some money because “Hey what the heck I can give it to someone when I return home”. I gave him 250 CFA and then he says 1000 and that’s bullshit. That’s $2 US for a shitty necklace a Muhammad could have made. So I handed him back the necklace. He continues yelling like a dumbass and this is why I don’t talk to people in Senegal. Its people like him that ruin what could be nice daily conversations with folks around here because despite my lack of stories about the nice conversations I have with random people it does happen a lot here. It kinda ruined my day because I slept like shit last night and this was on top of an already difficult day with the wireless. If I had had pepper spray, I probably would have just sprayed him because he was an asshole. Thank God no one gave me pepper spray.

Yesterday also stunk because Hannah left for the U.S. I figured I’d add that note last because it’s important. It’s hard to be part of such a small group in a new country because you get to know people and when someone leaves it feels very strange. But! It was best for her to go home so I hope she is enjoying her real mattress, warm showers, and electricity. Also, if Hannah reads this, pet your horse for me. I’m jealous lol.

As a grand finale, I will say despite my bad day I have high hopes for the rest of the week. I figured out how to have my laundry washed, I found good cheap food at the University, and I’m almost done deciding classes. I miss home but each day is a new adventure here whether it be good or bad. Hopefully I sleep better tonight…without strange dreams and waking up at 6am.

A marketplace and some other stuff...

Wednesday everyone started feeling as sick as I felt a while ago. I think it’s finally hitting everyone that we are eating all new foods and stuff. Despite how some of us were feeling, a group of us ventured out to Marché H.L.M. This is a market place that has everything from Tupperware to fabric to shoes. It was crazy busy though. There were taxis driving through these teeny tiny roads with booths on both sides and throngs of people walking through them. Any time the group of “toubabs” (the Senegalese word for foreigner, i.e. our group) we got flocked, literally surrounded, by people selling things. It was a bit overwhelming honestly. I don’t know what I’m doing there and I’m not very good at bargaining mainly because they say numbers way too fast. Jess wanted some fabric so she could have something made for her to wear. I want to do the same thing but maybe I’ll buy fabric somewhere a bit more calm! Turned out today when her and Hannah went downtown they bought fabric from a woman who hooked them up with someone to make their shirts. It seems really cool.

 I had my Gender and Development class Wednesday and it was kinda boring. We spent the whole 2 ½ hours discussing the difference between gender and sex and discussing feminism. Not that these things aren’t important but I feel like they think we don’t understand anything in French. It’s nice to go slow but it was a bit too slow. I’m really sick of trying to figure out classes. The University is the most  unorganized place I’ve had to deal with. We think the Federal Government in the U.S. is a shit show you should try taking some classes in Dakar. I think I’m just going to take classes at IFEE (Instruction Francais pour les Etudiants Etranger) French classes for foreign students. At least I know what time those classes are and where they are. I just hate that Wells College decided to demolish their language programs because what I wanted to take at UCAD was a class that would count for my FREN 300 level class. I wanted to take African Lit but now I guess I’m taking that at WARC. Oh well…it was just really frustrating today. But hey we get stipends for lunch for the month! That made my day a bit better.

I bought a subscription to skype to call landlines which I would suggest for any student abroad. That or the MagicJack phone someone has here. It’s awesome. It was nice to hear my Dad’s voice today though even though it was a short call. He figured out how to call my cell phone here in Senegal! Congrats!

Today I went with Alison, Imani, and Marshall to meet Alison’s family and friends in the area. She lives really close to me so that’s cool. I have a partner in crime so to speak. The baby of her host family really does hate her. I witnesses it lol. I took my first Car Rapide today! Yay me! It was a little packed but I was traveling at a weird time of day so it wasn’t too bad. I found another way through my neighborhood to the main road with less people clicking/hissing/honking at me or calling me a “toubab”. It was a better walk I think. It also seems to be getting a bit hotter again  here and I don’t like it! I feel so yucky with all the sand and grit and sweat. You know what else is yucky? Biggest blister ever on my foot. Korka (one of our assistants with the program) helped me pop it and doctor it up. She’s a life saver. It’s still kinda yucky though. I also had pizza last night for dinner so I’d have to say so far it’s going okay. I found my way around My Shop. It’s really nice and I found BEN & JERRYS! Whoda thunk it!?!?!

Well the power is out and that’s all I have for news now. Killed a big cockroach today. Dang they are big here. That’s it. Good night…

The end of the first week...

Where did I leave off last? Ah yes. My host family is really nice. There is my host Mom, Madame Ndiaye, and my host Father, Papa Ndiaye (sounds like Jai just fyi), and the sister Aïssatou, and the housekeeper. Madame Ndiaye works at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in the registration office of Faculte des Lettres so she is super busy until the end of the month when registration is over. She doesn’t get home until 8pm. Aïssatou comes and goes around the same times. She is in her 5^th year of medical school and wants to do pediatrics or work with mothers (so an OB/GYN type deal maybe). My host Dad is very quite but I believe he is a retired civil servant from the info I got from Wells. He kind of reminds me of both my grandfathers: keeps to himself and says what needs to be said. He is nice though! Not quite as intimidating as that comparison may lead my family members to believe. Oh and I got to talk to their son on skype because he lives in New York and speaks English. He was pretty could too…I think you spell his name Ousseynou but don’t quote me on that.

Thursday came and went without much fanfare mainly because I was superdy duper tired and the next day…BAM like Emeril…our first test. I was for sure I failed this French efficiency test mainly because I haven’t had to write anything in French for a seriously long time so grammar is not my strong suite, then again neither was speaking French until I got here. So we did that at the University and dang is that place big with lots of people. WAY bigger than Wells folks. We’re talking like a city within a city it seems to me and there is construction everywhere…so I don’t really know how to get to anywhere besides Faculte des Lettres and the library. Two solid places to know I suppose. Online registration with the embassy blah blah blah….

Back to the fun stuff! Our first Wolof class. For those of you who missed this piece of info, Wolof is the local language. And our Wolof teacher is probably the most fun to learn from haha. He’s a riot he likes to joke around and he’s really good at making us stay alert. He wants to make sure we pronounce everything right because if you mess up you probably say something dirty…oops.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE…….TA DA!!! I got my luggage Friday night! Oh man was that the highlight of my day. I felt bad because Jess’s family is my family really so I had to make my host Mom’s brother wait to take me home until I got my bag. His name is Issakha. He was a good sport about it though. No one is ever really in a hurry here…I think it makes them live longer honestly. It’s a very nice atmosphere. I met my host Mom’s sister’s family…I guess the family of my host Aunt. It’s a BUSY house over there. Lots of kids and such running around the house but they are really cute and funny.

Now see, I was excited to get my luggage Friday so I could have some nice new clothes for our visit to Île de Gorée. This was a fun day. I have lots of pictures to put up soon, but in short we got a grand tour and it was beautiful there. I could have done without the vendors. They were really persistent and annoying. I know it’s just them trying to get a bit of money but jeez man talk about a buzz kill. Oh and we saw this really cool sand art stuff being made. It’s really cool. They use all different shades of sand to make these really cool pictures. We had a really great lunch and enjoyed some witty banter with the men sitting at the table near the bathroom. One asked to marry Jess. It was interesting that’s for sure. The House of Slaves was definitely the highlight though. It has a sad history but it is an amazing place.

I believe it was either Saturday or Sunday night I had this awful encounter with a quick ass worm. Sooooo story goes I was just trying to plug in my fan and of course instead of turning on the big overhead light I just tried to use my led flashlight block that I use for the power outages (yep Dad you did your research…crap ton of time with zip zero nada for power). Anywho…I see something squirming. Of course, I freak out a bit but try to remain calm. I figured it was probably harmless but I really wasn’t going to plug in my fan if that thing was going to land on my hand. HECK NO! My next option was to kill the little sucker. I thought “oh yea I can take you worm”. Wrong idea. I tried my toilet paper method. Toilet paper + pinch = dead. Little did I know that Senegalese worms are FAST MUTHF******S. I knocked it to the ground and it wiggled EVERYWHERE. Ew. So I called for my host Mom. She asked me what was wrong and of course I had to think about how to phrase this…worm/baby snake? She had me sit in the couch…and what am I wearing? Preeettyyy much nothing. I mean my shorter shorts and a little tank top sans bra. I felt so awkward but to sleep around here I had to sleep in very little at first because it was so hot for me. It ended like this: My host Dad came in and killed it with a broom after tearing my whole room apart. They continued to spray my room with a crap ton of bug spray…so I had to sit in my embarrassing outfit until my room aired out. I’m appreciative for the help though…that was one quick worm. I haven’t had many bug problems besides that... there was this one time I saw a roach/grasshopper type deal in the shower area while I was peeing, but he didn’t try to attack. I let him live in peace…that might not have been the best idea but I haven’t seen him since.

Sunday was probably one of the yuckiest days for me. My room was sweltering yucky hot and I was super lethargic. I think I got dehydrated but who know. I just slept like 12 hours my family must have though I hated them. It wasn’t true. I just couldn’t get the energy to do anything. What I really wanted to do was join Jess and her host sister to the Statue de Renaissance I think it is. It’s a cool statue close to our house and it’s HUGE! It looks really cool. I still have 3 and a half months to get there though so I’m not worried. For a while I was really sick. I couldn’t eat anything and even the smells of food just made my stomach turn. I hope I didn’t offend my family by not eating but it was really tough for a few days. Instead of just letting my body try and fend it off I took my antibiotics for Travelers’ Diarrhea and they seemed to have helped because I totally have my appetite back.

Monday we had a presentation by all the professors about our classes that we could take at WARC. It’s a bit tough though because there are classes we can take at three places. WARC, IFEE, and the University. We didn’t know our placement test levels for IFEE and we still don’t have the schedule of the UCAD courses. I think everyone is a little frustrated but the staff is great so it should work itself out in a few days. Too bad I can’t just ask my host Mom since she works in registration haha. Then after trying to pick classes we walked around the University. I was going to buy a notebook but they have funky French imported notebooks that look like graph paper. I said screw this and I really shouldn’t have because I tried to find it again Tuesday on campus and totally failed after I decided I really needed one even if it was just paper without any lines at all (which they do have).

Then Jess, Jen and I walked all the way up La Corniche to Mermoz and that felt like a long ass walk to start with. Then Jess and I had to finish the walk all the way to Ouakame. That was a really far walk. Then I had to walk the last 20 minutes all alone, but low and behold I found an admirer. A guy about my age maybe a little older started talking to me a bit and in all fairness they are nice people here no just creepers. So, since I usually avoid eye contact and ignore people, I decided to be nice this time because he was so nice. He joked around a bit and introduced himself and his quiet friend (not going to lie his friend was a bit strange). He tried to ask me how I was in Wolof and I explained how I had just started but I was really proud of myself for understanding what he asked. I was able to answer too! That was cool. So I started to get a little lost and at this point I had had to use a bathroom since Mermoz (remember this has been a while since then) and I think he realized I was a little worried. So he asked where I lived and tried to help. I found the place myself and walked up to the door. We said our “it was nice to meet you”s and he turned around. Now if he had left it there I would have though “oh what a nice guy” but nope he had to turn around and ask the creepy question. He asked when I leave the house in the morning. He seemed a bit like he could be my protection detail but it was more creepy than not. It’s nice to be admired but luckily I haven’t seen him since.

I think Tuesday night was my scariest walk home yet. Exactly a week after leaving home here I am walking home in the semi-dark. Allison, Jess and I decided we wanted to know where each other lives. So after scarfing down a sandwich (found an awesome deli yay!) and talking to the love of my life Kara Rublee on skype, we took the shady bus home. Oh btw this is the same type of white bus I saw ass of tea kettle in the ditch this morning in front of the big blue bank. I don’t know how exactly this bus managed this because by all means the pile of dirt is a pretty good barrier…I know you don’t believe me but if you saw it you’d understand. It looked like a freshman shoved in the trashcan. Butt end way out in the air. I only wish I had had my camera. I tried not to laugh as I walked by because I bet they didn’t think it was funny. Anyways…that was a side story. Us girls took the bus home to Ouakame and hey it turns out we all live really close. Allison and I walked to Jess’s house and then when we got to the gas station we went our separate ways. It was a little after 7 at this point. Sun sets at 7:30 sharp folks. So it was dark by the time I arrived home. I though about taking a taxi but by that time I was already so close…turns out I’m here just fine. I didn’t die! YAY! Or get robbed! Double YAY! Haha.

So there it is. My first week in Dakar. Whew. Seriously a solid milestone for me. The first week was rough and I haven’t ventured much but I can’t wait to go out and see lots more of the city! Until next time…

My first blog from Senegal...here we go!

Here's my story so far...

So I finally arrived Wednesday at 6:10am and it was already nice and toast warm here. Of course I was the one kid in the group who didn’t get all my luggage. They had lost my piece of luggage with all my clothing in it. Some really tall army looking guy pointed down this shady little hallway for Baggage Claims…and I don’t mean shady as in it had no sun. It was a super creepy hallway which led to a similarly creepy tiled room with a LOT of lost bags. It’s like a luggage graveyard. Prof Siamundele talked to the lone woman at the desk. She said it’d be here in the morning. My trip was off to a shitty start. Already I kinda felt like crying. I don’t know why because I’m not a person who is quick to cry. I just felt like it could only go downhill from there. And it kinda did for the day.

We arrived in the morning so lucky us with no sleep we got to have a WHOLLEEE day to do stuff. We ate breakfast at the hotel and they serve nice big trays with bread and coffee. Of course, the serving ladies were so busy I think they forgot they hadn’t served me. It wasn’t their fault because hey we are a huge group but it made me sad all over again. So I went to my room all upset and pissy only to find I needed to move back down a floor. Yup they had put me in the wrong room. No elevator folks. Lots of stairs, but I was glad it was just one floor down. After a shower, a bit of my own food and a nap I felt a bit better. At least I got the piece of luggage with all my nice smelling stuff. It’s freakin hot here though. Like 80 degrees all the time…

The first day was a nice orientation at what I think was Professor Sène’s house on his roof. We learned the traditional dress a bit and got to eating. Again here’s the shocker folks… no utensils! We ate with our hands. It was a bit tough at first and we made a total mess but it wasn’t bad. We discussed the handbook which contains a lot of Dos and DONTs for the area. Things like don’t use your left hand; that hand is reserved for body excrement. Yea that’s our replacement for toilet paper by the way. Your hand and a bucket of water is totally more sanitary than some good ol’ toilet paper.  They have someone to wash your clothes but it’s not really acceptable to put your underwear in your laundry. HUGE insult to the poor woman who has to clean them. Instead you wash them in the shower, like when you were a teenage washing your first thong in the shower so your Mom wouldn’t see it and freak out. Just like that. There’s probably some other stuff in there but moving on….Oh! I almost forgot! We got to go to a nice beach… nice in the sense that it had the nice waves going and it was warm but breezy. The trash however was shocking. The trash is just unbelievable here. Just everywhere. It makes me realize how nice the places I live are.

Day two was supposed to start by me having my luggage. Awa called the airport and nope my luggage wasn’t to get here until that night…I was getting kinda worried that every time we called they would be like nope tomorrow day after day. I forgot at the time that the east coast in the U.S. was getting like a shit ton of snow so flights were delayed. So with the fear of having no clothing at the back of my mind, we packed up our stuff in the hotel and shipped out!

We got on the bus and made our way around the city. It was a quick tour of all the snazzy places. The President’s Palace, the Independence Place (city square type deal), a couple other cool places. We also exchanged our money at the bank. We needed our passports which was the strangest thing. I was afraid to carry my wallet without any backpack to the bank, but I was more afraid of losing my passport out of my backpack so I didn’t bring it with me. We had lunch at WARC (The West African Research Center), where I’ll be taking most of my classes. Then we were off to meet our host families. I was the 4^th person of the bus I believe and I arrived to a quiet house in Ouakam residence of Dakar. The sister and the housekeeper greeted me and since I didn’t have anything to unpack, I promptly took a nap.

Okay I’ll update more later but that’s a lot for now. Wait until you hear about my experience with the speedy worm. Gross.