Why can't we all just be friends? Black and white cats are friends in Senegal!

This is our house!

A few days have passed since my last post but so much has happened that blogging might have to be a more frequent occurence, otherwise I will forget it all. A few updates...

The lake: It is under control...kind of. By under control I mean that we leave our bathroom door open and the woman who is hired to clean our house, Mami (pronounced mommy), mops it up every morning. There is a concept here called goorgoorlu, which means to make due with inadequate equipment. The Senegalese are used to it, and occasionally take pride in it, and we seem to be embracing the concept, at least mildly.

First Senegalese Meal: Two women prepared this meal for at least 6 hours and it was amazing!!!! The food was called yassa poulet (poulet is french for chicken) and was served communal style. It was mostly chicken and rice with A LOT of spices and some vegetables, but not a lot. The best part of the meal is that you have to eat it with your hands, your right hand to be precise. You grab a small handful of rice, chicken, and veggies with your hand and then squish it together to form a little ball and plop it into your mouth! I must say that my food-forming hand abilities were pretty amazing for a toubab (the Senegalese term for white person, kinda of like the word gringo). The trick is to it fast enough that the food does not have time to start running everywhere and getting out of its ball form. Nonetheless the food was amazing and I have decided that Senegalese food should be eaten whenever possible once I return home! To the left is a picture of yassa poulet, it tastes a lot better than the picture gives it credit for!

Exploring Senegal and getting aquainted with everything here has been great! The most difficult thing has been overcoming language issues. No one, and I mean no one, speaks English, not even a couple words and especially not if you are at a market and want to buy something. While everyone speaks French, their accent/dialect is extremely different and I can barely understand them and they can barely understand the French language I have been taught. Street language is also not French, but Wolof or a combination of French and Wolof in the same sentence. Which means that when people speak to us they combine two different languages but half the time you think its only one because the French dialect is so weird that in the end they could be speaking arabic because I have no clue what they are saying!

We have been immersed in French/Wolof though in our classes and because we have been given Senegalese conversation partners. These students are suppose to take us around Dakar, bascally wherever we want to go. They speak only in French and half the time get a little frustrated with us, but surrounded us with Senegal culture when they took our group to a street market! This market was the most intense/intimidating place I have ever been to! Not because it was scary but becasue there was so much hustle and bustle and EVERYONE wanted our attention because we are seen as walking wallets here! It is expected that you barter with the venders, something that is priced at 5, 00o CFAs can be lowered to 1,500 CFAs if you know what you are doing! Our conversation partner is so good at bargaining and I have been learning a lot from her...I'll have this bartering thing figured out in no time! We will be going out in Dakar again tomorrow I believe and I cannot wait to go explore some more. The city is so big and has so many amazing sites to see that you want to do everything and there just is not time! (The picture is of a housemate talking to my conversation partner, Adama.)

Today we went on our first planned trip. We went to the Ile De Goree, which is the exit point from which slaves were shipped to the Americas. It is an extremely pretty, although small, island, so much so that it is difficult to grasp all the history that took place there. For instance, one maison des esclavages "slave houses" is still remaining and I stood in the rooms where they kept the people for up to three months before shipping them out, the cramp spaces where they sent people to be punished, and the "point of no return" where they lined up slaves on two sides of a hallway and shackled them in pairs before loading them onto ships for America. It is very difficult to grasp the concept that over 20 million people passed over the island and around 6 million of them died either there or on the boat ride. A population of around 1.500 people now live on the island permanently and live via tourism and fishing. The best girls boarding school in Senegal is also on the island, each year only 25 girls from throughout the country are selected to attend the school where they will live for 7 years! Everything about the island is beautiful though! With so many adorable African children running around and munching on fruit!

Everything is going great at the house! My roommate, Erika, is funny and we get along amazingly well. Additionally, the boys we share a bathroom with are hilarious and we have begun referring to ourselves as the "Executive Suite". The married graduate student, Brian, has been given the nickname Papa Bear because he acts like we are his kids and takes on more responsibility than he should. Erika has been given the responsibility of the group cell phone and I have taken charge of morning tasks, like boiling water for coffee, because I am normally up first! The four of us, Jonathon is amazingly flamboyant and energetic, all have the same interests and travel likes and dislikes. Erika is one of the people who will be staying with me after the program is finished.

The top picture is of the "Exec Suite", Jonathon, Brian, Me, Erika...we were trying to look tough, I think. And the other picture is of a few of us at a night club listening to music at a benefit concert.

A few shoutouts before I peace out...

Mom/Bill - Shower curtains do not exist in Senegal, just like organized lines and traffic lights!

Daddy/Liz - I found out a way to eat salads...apparently the water here is fine and I can wash of any bleach taste it might have. The only problem is I have yet to see lettuce for sale!

Edith - At 6 pm each night around 1,000 Senegalese men go to the beach and do organized running/weight lifting exercises...they even bench wheels and people. I have found my workout haven!

Debi/Patty - Megan was right about the people here...that is all!

Izzy/Drea - A man walking down the street the other day started singing 50 Cent "In Da Club" to my friend and I!

Jason - You should be extremely jealous of all the amazing fruit I can get on every street corner here for like 60 cents!

I do have cell phone access here and my number is 221771588717