Transportation doesnt get much better than this

A note: there was some confusion as to what my cell phone number is here, mostly dueto my poor typing skills. It is: 011 221 673 3933. And if you call and I dont answer feel free to leave a message even if you dont understand what the French message says to you.

And now for your reading pleasure, a replication of the journal entry that I composed en route to Linguere. But first a little background: I went to Linguere this weekend from saturday morning to Monday afternoon to scout out the situation for my project there.

Heres the journal entry, I hope that it feels like you were almost there with me! I believe that this is a cross between the bus trips between NYC and DC and the trip to SD in August without ac because rural Africa is almost as desolate and reminiscent of southern Minnesota and South Dakota.

Tranpsortation in Senegal (and Im assuming other parts of West Africa) is quite an experience. To me it seems like there is no organization whatsoever but it all works in the end. Essentially, this "station" was a tiny space in this industrial neighorhood across the street from where they sell the sheep where they line up all of these cars and buses bound for numerous destinations in Senegal. And essentially once you find a car bound for your destination you must wait until it fills up. This could take hours (or it could not fill up at all and you wont be traveling, nothing is certain)

My first thought was how many people do youthink fit in a "Mini Car"? Well I guess I would guess 4 or 5 because a normal car holds 5 or 6. No try 19 people (including a baby on a lap). This "mini car'' was only slightly bigger than a VW van. There were three people in the front seat, and four in each of the 4 bench seats (and the baby). From my estimation these bench seats should hold, 2, 2, 3, and 3 people respectively. These senegalese really know how to get the most bang for their buck. The initial plan was for me to ride in a glorified grocery getter (station wagon) called the "Sept placé" (seven seats). Unfortunately by the time I arrived at the "station" they had all filled and left for Linguere, thus I had the luck of being able to ride in the ol Mini Car.

As I was waiting for the bus, van whatever, to fill up I watched as they piled more and more cargo on the top of the bus. At one point they put a whole steering column on the roof and the guy next to me and I look at each other and laugh and he says "c'est afrique" Thus I am in a van which to my estimation should actually hold 12 people. This van is ingeniously rigged with a jump seat in each row next to the sliding door so that 4 people instead of 3 can sit in each row.

Top 5 tips for transports out of Dakar
1) The most ingenious idea, I think, when they try to stick you in the back seat where there is next to no air flow (in a vehicle which to my estimation gotup to about 90 degrees) tell them that you get sick riding in the back. I tried this and automatically got a side seat next to the door!
2) similar to tip 1, if they try to make you ride bitch (ie the middle of the seat also with no airflow) tell them you get claustrophic.
3) get to the station early enough to take the 7 placé. The advantage is clear, 7 people, not 19.
4) bring a handkerchief for nasty smells/dust
5) dont wear nice clothes. You will never be more dirty after a trip

I met a kindly guy named Sidy. He told me all about the towns that we were driving through and he kindly put my backpack on the floor in front of him so that I wouldnt have to strap it to the top of the roof. I would have sooner sat on it for 6 hours than strap it to the top of that hoopty. We even got close enough for him to start spouting sexual inuendo. I guess you know that your language skills are improving when you can pick up on these things. The vendors were selling cashews and he said (translate) "these are good for men. For the puissance (power)". you know the PUISSANCE. I said "how about for women?" and he laughed and I promptly said "Sci sci" which essentially means flirt in Wolof. But rest assured, he was married and I was as well (atleast as far as he was concerned). i made up an elaborate story about my husband, its become my standard story now actually.

Positive (and negative) points about the trip:
1) the road is paved (mostly)
2)window seat
3) there is a child next to me (and not a 300 pound woman) because even if there were 3 300 pound women in the row, we must fit 4 people per row.
4) theres a space next to the sliding door where i cans tretch my legs (although there is also a hole in the floor here through rich rocks fly and smack my legs)
5) im not the guy in front of me who is sitting on the broken jump seat and is tilted at a very uncomfortable angle. Also the old owman next to him is scooting closer and closer to him thus he is occupying about a one foot space. This same old woman also just leaned over him to spit out the window. IM just thankful that she had good trajectory and it didnt come into mine.

I am also in the processs of searching for potential escape routes should the situation arise. But I have reassured myself that the other people in the car seem relatively unworried and that they value their lifej ust as much as I value mine and certainly wouldnt ride in a death trap... Oh my the thought just occurred to me that I should be worried about cankeles; especially since I barely have any space for my legs; I have started my heel and toe raises.

Another positive aspect about this trip is that when we stop for the "controle" the police which check drivers licenses I dont even have to move and these women run to the windows to sell food. I got these fabulous little cakes with frosting on top which taste like cornbread for only 100 cfa (about 20 cents) Talk about service. MY friend Sidy takes good care of me. When I took a bag of Madelines (the cakes) from the vendor he gave it back and made sure that I had the bigger ones. How sweet!

We almost hit a child.

Also a funny thought. I had brought my neck pillow. There is no way on gods green earth that I could ever sleep on this thing. Its comical that I ever thought that I could. My expectation of this ride was clearly alllll wrong.

Sign that says "Bienvenue (welcome) Chez Ass" (sorry thats immature of me)

And I just saw a mans such and such who just felt like peeing in open sight on the road... aint a thing.
Everyoneo n the bus now knows that I have a "jekker" (a husband in wolof) who lives in the US. But the woman next to me doesnt believe me because im not wearing earrings and apparently all married American women wear earrings. This is the baby of the woman who doesnt believe me. She was exceedingly well behaved.

Dead horse on the side of the road.

Dead horse #2

The people Im with are either camels or are dehydrated because no one has yet gone to the bathroom. Made the mistake of drinking water on my trip because I was just forced to use the single nastiest bathroom yet of the trip which was located in a market where we stopped to by mangos.

As we get further and further into the bush, the roads are getting worse and worse. Its a good thing that there is relatively little traffic because we are swerving to miss "mini car" sized potholes in the road. I really do get seriously worried however when we swerve onto the side of the road and are driving half on the road and half on the shoulder because this sucker is top heavy. I just keep trying to reassure myself by saying that the chauffeur knows what hes doing! And as we are going on about 3 hours on the road my water is as hot as hot tap water after sitting on the floor of the vehicle. Just did some heel and toe raises to prevent Cankles.

As we are getting closer to the destination my patience is wearing thin. IN these areas everyone knows everyone and at one point we stop and the driver disappears for about 15 minutes and returns with a car part. I jsut pray its not for our bus. can you imagine that happening in the US? Taking a greyhound to madison for example and the driver stops for a few minutes in Eau Clair to do his shopping at Walmart.

I was also the last person to get off the bus because they made many stops to drop off and pick up random people within the last hour of the trip.

Return trip: Most memorable note from the return trip. I saw my first goat being strapped to the top of the van. Here he is after being bound being hoisted to the roof. He was making a lot of noise as he clearly didnt like what was going on. It wasnt my transport unfortunately.

More about my stay in Linguere and my trip to Goree Island to come.

In Love

So I think I fell in love with Senegal after last night, atleast fell in love with their folk music. Stephanie (a grad student here from Texas) and I went to a bar/club called Pen N Ink and had a drink before listening to some music that we heard was supposed to be very good. Turns out this music was amazing! It totally blew me away. I cannot really explain it very well but the group included two acoustic guitars/vocalists and 4 bongo sort of drums. It was really really cool. But I must say that I am a sucker for any man who can sing and play the guitar :) We happened to meet one of the group members on the way out and Im meeting up with him today to buy his cd. I wish I had the capacity to put a clip on here because it is so unique and cool. maybe I could get it onto MySpace, Ill try.

This morning has been very productive, mostly because Ive cleaned my room and finished my laundry. There is still nothing more satisfying to me than a clean room. I may have had a minor ant problem on my desk space. And it really was minor, I had never counted any more than ten ants at a time. That'll teach me to eat in my room. And I also have a new found appreciation for washing machines as i had to wash all my "petite linge" by hand today (which is my underwear and socks). These are the only things that our maid doesnt wash. so they are currently hangin off of my mosquito net in my room.

And yesterday I had my interview with the head of the oral surgery department at the main university here in Senegal and it was exceedingly helpful. Not only do I have a good amount of information for my paper but I now know exactly where I need to go in order to access key dental journals that I can only access there for my literature review.

In other interesting cultural notes, I had a language issue the other night. I really wanted ice cream (glace, en francais) and so i told my house sister. She said they sold "glace" at her familys house across the street but they didnt have any more. So I went down to the street and was chatting with her family who was sitting outside who told me that they did in fact have "glace" left. But it took them a really long time to get it for me, probably 20 minutes. But when they did come out they came out with a huge block of ice. I immediately realized my mistake because "glace" means ice cream and ice... It was a humorous mistake. I didnt get any ice cream that night.

But I did get some 2 days ago. I felt very at home after eating 4 servings of ice cream in one day. After the 3rd and 4th at the gas station I had eaten myself sick, something which i had yet to do here and it brought back good memories, or not such good memories from home :)

Tomorrow Im off to linguere which is 5 to 6 hours northeast of Dakar. I have been told by EVERY SINGLE PERSON that Ive met and told that it is reallly really hot there. No joke, eveyr person informs me about this. My host brother actually called it "infernal." Thats not good for anyone but Im looking forward to a change of scenery.

I am currently feeling very motivated to improve my wolof and french and be productive on my projects but infortunately am realiwing at the same time that I dont have enough time here to do all that i want!

Al Hamdulilaay

Me and Bebe Dabah when she was visiting me in my room.
Turns out my house mother is a wealth of information! She took me to the dental school today to meet with a professor whom she knows. He has kindly agreed to show me around the dental school and is going to spend all morning with me on Thursday. Also, the Minister of Dentistry is located in the dental school building and I can meet with him. And the publication, Dakar Medicale, the only one that I couldnt access from the US and which contains probably 50 percent of the articles that will help me, is also housed in the medical faculty. Al Hamdulilay (praise to God)! Ive got a lot of work to get done before Thursday morning then in preparation because I will be able to get a good portion of my information in that amount of time.

I really think that I function much better when I have many things that need to be getting done. I am also needing to prepare for my visit to linguere this weekend. This is a town 5-6 hours northeast of Dakar where I will be staying for the month of August (yay my most favorite bachata song is playing on Batanga "Quién eres tu" sorry for the sidenote, just thought id share my elation). Im just going there to get the lay of the land and meet with the dentists that I will work with.

This outfit was a big hit. Never before have I recieved so many compliments on a piece of clothing. I received atleast 5 marriage proposals or offers to find me a senegalese husband. Unfortunately, I dont think Im in the mareket for one right now... I was referred to as the Petite Senegalaise and the women commented on my butt patting it approvingly and saying that I have un bon plafond. I was a bit worried about how to wear this. It is essentially two pieces. The bottom is called a pagne and is a skirt which wraps and ties in the back. The top is very light because as you can see there isnothing to it. I was worried about the fact that it is seethrough but apparently this isnt a concern. its just how the young people wear it. I find this to be sort of a contradiction. In general it is frowned upon (but taken as typical for Westerners) to wear spaghetti strap sort of tank tops. However the fact that you could see everything up top in this outfit

Warning!!

I am going to get a cell phone tomorrow (Monday). Thus if you are wanting to talk to me Id love to hear from you. The biggest plus about the cell phones here is that you don’t have to pay for incoming calls = saves me money! I won’t have it until the afternoon probably so if you are dying to call me wait until Tuesday and keep in mind that I am 5 hours ahead. You dial 011 221 673 3933 . While I don’t expect many to take me up on my offer (but there are some who I would anticipate/expect to do so) you can get really cheap phone cards for calling Africa. For those who live with me or near me you can you to a business across Como from Muddsuckers. I cant remember the name of the joint but it is in the same block as the Como Grill and the convenience store/drug dealing joint (I’m sure they deal drugs from there) and it isn’t the hardware store but I believe it is under the big sign that says something about nursing services. There should be a Western Union sign in the window. You can get African calling cards for 5 dollars for like 60 minutes and this is infinitely cheaper than it would be for me to call home!

Clearly the first picture is of me leaving from the Mpls airport. It doesnt exactly fit in the whole timeline of things but I like it and wanted to post it! the next is a picture of me and some of my group members having lunch at their apartment. The next one is entitled "wah happen??" and it is hannah and me in the cab attempting to find their house. We had to stop 3 times and ask people before we found it. Typical cab experience. The next is a picture of the baby that I live with who htey call Bebe Dabah but Im not quite clear on what her real name is...

Warning! It’s a long one I got carried away! I think I have really started to discover the essence of what Senegal is all about: that is the beautiful interaction between people. I know that one could say that you could have these same interactions in the US or that it is just my immersion where I am always taking advantage of opportunities to practice French or Wolof, but I don’t really think so. For example, to walk home from the Baobab Centre (the place where I take my Wolof class) it takes me 10 minutes with no stops. Today it took me about 30 minutes because I had 3 conversations with different people along the way. Yes, one could argue that this could happen but we are just so wrapped up in our own cramped schedules to stop and make connections with people. This is how I was even here and it was an important realization for me to make as people aren’t received as well when they don’t take time for proper greetings and conversation, especially in my neighborhood and places that I frequent often. Voila, the reason (at least one of them) for African time I believe (at least in Senegal).

Another example is my almost daily conversation with this group of women that sit on the corner near the cybercafé. I’m not certain what the deal is with these women because it is usually the same group of 5-15 women who sit under a tree and cook, braid hair, and do other various things. I think that they are vendors of some sort but I have yet to see them sell anything! But what is interesting about these women is that they don’t speak any French at all. Thus we are limited to my EXTREMELY basic Wolof and pantomime… it’s difficult to say the least but an enjoyable thing because they continue to be interested in talking to me even though we never get any real information across to each other. I believe that they have invited me to eat with them and have complemented my skirt and are very concerned about me learning Wolof and are very intent on trying to teach me! Every time Im done talking with them Im inspired to go home and practice! Maybe I will ask if I can take a picture of them for you to have a better idea.

And then I was just leaving the house for a little snack from the corner boutique and I began talking with my neighbor who was sitting on the stoop outside of my house. At night there are always tons of people just sitting outside of their house chatting with one another and passersby (I should take a picture of this too) This neighbor and I ended up talking for about an hour about everything and anything but mostly Africa and the problem of its waste disposal and how the lack thereof perpetuates the spread of disease. I must say that it was probably one of the most meaningful conversations that I have had since I’ve been here. It was lovely!

Oh lots more events to speak of… last night I almost salsa’d! I was oh so close to it! I told my host brother that I love latin music and dance and he said that his friend Macodou (who is also a friend of mine) knew some singers and a good place to go. So Macodou called me up last night and invited me out. I am not yet accustomed to the nightlife around here and assumed that I would be meeting him at the salsa club. However the cab took me to a bar where he was with a few friends at about 10 and turns out the salsa music didn’t even start until 1:00! While I knew that clubs didn’t start to get hoppin until 1 or 2 I didn’t really expect this to be the same for some reason. Thus by the time we got to the club at 12:30 I was too tired to really even carry on a decent conversation much less really enjoy myself for another few hours. To prepare for a night of salsa beginning at 1 I definitely need a nap beforehand! So we got a cab back to my house. Que lastima!

Also yesterday I had an interesting experience with Moustapha, one of the children in the house (age 10 or so). The American neighbor exchange student who has been here for 9 months, Rianna, told me that she had gone running before with him and just that he is really fast. Rianna is a very interesting person in that she knows my family rather well and has known the students living here before me but she never quite tells me the whole story but lets me experience for myself. Anyway Tapha (short for Moustapha) and I had scheduled a running date for 6 pm. And I was all dressed and ready to go and was told that he was out alongside the house playing soccer with the other boys. I finally found him and he was with this whole posse of other little boys. So we start running, not just him and me of course, but him and me, and the rest of the little boys. So funny enough for people to observe the Tubaab (Wolof name for white person) running around with the little boys. But its funnier when the little boys are attempting to outrun the Tubaab. I am used to running routes, running straight down streets or paths. Oh no this was not that sort of run. He was definitely all over the place; we ran between the goats, down alleys, dodged cars etc. We eventually lost all but one other little boy. And all to the great amusement of the people lounging in the streets outside of their homes. It turns out that he is very fast but doesn’t have a great amount of endurance and in the end I was not left behind. It was funny because it struck me as something that my own brother would do to me. I don’t know why I thought he would be any different.

And today we went to the beach again! It was fantastic!! We went to a different beach this time and it was much further away. To begin we had a decision to make about transportation as we had about 20 people who needed to get to the beach which was a 15 minute drive (and when I say we I mean everyone else who talked about the options in Wolof while I attempted to pick up words here and there). In the end we did, what seemed to me to be, a curious thing. One main form of transport is the Car Rapide which is a dilapidated mini bus which has established routes but essentially stops anywhere, which is clear from this example. We were standing on the street when a Car Rapide came by, going in the opposite direction that we needed, and everyone signaled to him what appeared to be turn around. I thought, oh no this cant be, buses on a route don’t just stop and turn around especially when they already have passengers on them. Turns out they do. I don’t know how the preexisting passengers felt about us commandeering their bus but they obediently got off and Im sure took the next Car which came 30 seconds later (PS I think this system would be useful in Mpls then I wouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes for a bus that is supposed to come every 5-10 minutes).

So we arrived at the beach which was a very bustling place. Essentially it was tons and tons of young people going to a beach which was actually on an island very close to the mainland. The only way to reach this island was by pirogue (a long, deep boat surprisingly only powered by a 40 hp motor which in the end seated about 60 people maybe (you can sort of see the pirogues in the background of this picture). This was another very interesting form of transportation. The scene looked to me to be very very chaotic with hundreds of people needing to be transported to the island. In the end it turned out to be very organized actually. Not gonna lie, I was slightly worried about the boats carrying capacity but was reassured that they never sink. But we had our life jackets on just for good measure.

We arrived safely at L’Isle de Ngor which turned out to be really a great time. This beach, compared to the one we visited last Sunday, had pretty tame waves and people were able to pretty much float or stand in one place rather close to shore. There were also umbrellas and mats and food for sale there. It was a really interesting dynamic (think bar/nightclub atmosphere but in the water, and with some children here and there). Men would offer rides on their little floating boards or would attempt to lure you out to deeper water where they could engage in deeper conversation without all the interruption of the rest of the crowd… right… I don’t know what their real intentions were because I always resisted their attempts to take me away.

After a couple of lovely hours at the beach we started the trip back. Another pirogue ride and then attempting to get a bus or something like that for 20 people. This was about 7:30 and the majority of people were leaving at this time. Thus there were a lot of transportation options yet there was a lot of jostling for each bus. This is where I had my first theft scare. I was carrying one of the little kids piggy back and also had the little coin purse of one of my companions in my hand (which actually didn’t have much money in it) and there was a lot of jostling to get onto this one bus that we didn’t want but had to pass the crowd. As I was passing through I was just intent on not losing the rest of our group and not being caught up in the crowd when I felt a really strong rip on the coin purse I was carrying. I kind of yelled out and instinctively pulled harder and the thief didn’t get it but it was a good wakeup call for me because Im not used to being in situations like that where things can easily get stolen.

PROJECT UPDATE: Look at me being studious! I talked with my house mom today and is she ever a wealth of information. 1) she said it wont be a problem at all for me to go around our neighborhood to interview people and use my neighborhood as my urban population. She also said that people are used to students coming around to interview so it wont be a bit weird. 2) she knows the wife of a dental school professor at the main university here in Dakar (a place where I don’t yet have solid contacts) and will put me in touch with him 3) she is going to look into putting me in touch with a marabout (one who deals in traditional healing, among other things). Yay!!

Interesting night life

Asaalam maalikum! (The standard greeting around here) Wow i cant believe Ive only been here for 1 and a half weeks. Its pretty crazy! Happily I think my bad bout of culture shock is kinda going away! I dont want to sleep as much (i actually dont have time to sleep during the day) and i dont cry as much (hardly at all actually :) I am starting to get into a routine here. I have Wolof class every day from 1-3 and then 5-7 and in theory, in the morning, I am working on my research. I hope next week will be better because it will be a normal week. This week we took a tour by van of Dakar which was soooo helpful because I had absolutely no idea where I was in relation to other places and I feel more comfortable now. And yesterday we had cultural orientation to Senegalese values which was so so valuable. I didnt remembe to bring my book where I took all of my notes but next time I will give provide a condensed cultural orientation here, which Im sure you cant wait for!

Things with my family are going better. They are really encouraging me to learn my Wolof better which I have to do. I must admit htat I havent been a very responsible student lately but I promise that next week I will be! But I have to try really hard to engage witht he family. I really love their kids. They are pretty shy but once you get them going theyre impossible to stop. The two boys Moustapha and Mamousa are maybe 7 and 11 Im guessing. But the other night I was their entraineur (trainer) and counted while they did various calisthenic exercises such as lying upside down on the couch to see who could hold out for 80 seconds... Im actually going running wiht Moustapha tonight which will be fab seeing how i havent really exercised in weeks!

But I guess the highlight of yesterday was when I went out downtown. It was a bit strange but a good time! I wentwith my two neighbors and Daouda (david) who is in my group, and Stephanie from texas. (Dont worry mama, I was with atleast 2 people from the moment I stepped out my door until I returned) First we went to this bar in downtown dakar on the 16th floor which was open and you cold see all of Dakar. I hope to go back during the daylight to get some pictures. but alas we were the only people there and they were closing right after we arrived. So we walked onto the next place with a little detour at the ice cream shop hmmm. We arrived at Le Mex and I heard them playing reggaeton inside so I thought that it would be afab place. When we went in the only women and Senegalese to be seen were the bartenders. It was really strange! So we got a drink (they had the standard drinks along with the Johnny WALKED... must have been a typo). And then we hitthe dance floor. It was rather small and came complete witha pole and mirrors. The only people dancing were these men who appeared to be having a very very good time. After observing for a while we determined that we must be in a gay bar because these guys were not afraid to dance, nor grind on the pole... after inquiring I found out that they were not in fact gay but members ofthe French military... hehe!! But they were having a good ole time. Ihave never seen men dance like that with each other before. Obviously they were building ummm, comraderie, maybe.

Anywho we danced a bit but it turned out to be a lot of techno Boo. But a good time was had by all and not a bad first nightlife experience.

Lots of fun future plans: leaving now to go to the HLM market where one buys fabrics mostly, and then tomorrow Im going to church downtown with my advisor. I have also planned an excursion to Linguere Senegal which is a village where I am working with lutheran missionaries on part of my project. That will be an adventure where I take a 7 place grocery getter (station wagon) for 6 hours northeast of Dakar. Guess how much that costs 3500-4000 cfa (7 to 8 dolllars) unbelievable!

Ill try to get more pics on here very soon! Ciao ciao mes amis

I need to dance

I think the cure to all of my problems is dancing and I believe that I will be going out to do that tomorrow at a club, I hope I hope I hope. I think that I will also be going to the market on Saturdy (no thanks to my host family) and then on Sunday will be going to church with my professor and then hanging out downtown. So I am looking forward to a busy fun-filled weekend.
Last night we had the first rain of the season and it hadnt rained here since October!! I couldnt believe it! The Americans next door and I took advantage of the cool rain (and extreme sand-blowing wind) to go get ice cream at the Mobil station a few blocks away and was that ever fabulous. Huge variety I must say! I would have gotten two but had just eaten dinner a half hour before.
Also started the Wolof yesterday and was severely overwhelmed. Also feel as though I am regressing in my French language skills oddly enough. But I often feel like that when Im learning something and am confident that this will change.
I think that I had the biggest realization of my American ways and I now understand why it takes people so long to get anywhere. I am used to the American way of passing and saying hello or how are you and hurrying off to wherever i need to be but not even stopping to pay attention to the conversation, greetings are not something that are terribly valued but here they are sooo important. I need to be more intentional about stopping in order to have these conversations and not being in such a rush because lets be honest, what do i really have to do? not much. Also, people are constantly asking my name and telling me theirs and Im used to America where i dont even hardly talk to my neighbors much less know their name. These human interactions are essential and I have to work harder at spending more time withthem.
Sorry i feel like all Ive been doing in my blogs is kind of complaining and pointing out differences. Am trying to develop a more positive attitude. I blame it on the Culture Shock!! Ciao ciao

Nacho Libre me manque

I want to see Nacho Libre!!!!!!

OK anyway today was a hot one. I finally was liberated from the house (it sounds like theyve got me under lock and key ay, they really dont). I went to the Centre Baobob which is the organization which arranges language classes home stays etc. and met up with my group. I was really so so so happy to see them. I am loving my timehere but it is nice tohave something familiar thats for sure. So we hung out at the Centre for a while and discussed our plan of attack for Wolof class (i begin tomorrow with four hours of instruction per day for 2 1/2 weeks).

Then we spread our wings and explored a little bit. I defnitely see why things move slowly around here and have learned a couple of lessons on how to best get buy... ask ask ask. We sat at the bank for an hour because a couple of my group members needed to change money and not one person was helped. It wasnt until I asked the man sitting next to me what was going on that we found out that the computer system was "en panne" (not working).
IN our explorations (which occurred from about noon to 3) we walked all over the place and I got so so hot and i have discovered why all Africans go so slowly (everything goes slow except the traffic) and that is for the obvious reason that its too hot to move quickly. I had to be back to my home at a specific time and was late and consequently arrived very very sweaty. But I was very proud of myself for not having gotten lost on my way between home and the Baobab center :)
We also learned the importance of landmarks. We took a taxi from the bank to the hotel the people in my group are staying in. We didnt find it until after we had asked 5 different people and called the hotel. Addresses are basically nonexistent. Essentially I am completely out of whack wiht my sense of direction here: I need a map like its nobodys business.

Then I made my first trip to the Université Cheikh Anta Diop which was somewhat bizzarre with my neighbor from Michigan who has been here for 9 months. I guess when I think university i think of the U of M which is genearlly impeccable. This place was not so much. Its so hard for me to explain. Yes there were students and classes but it was huge and I dont know how anyone who doesnt go there finds places. nothing is marked (much like the rest of the city).
It was really great being with the girl from michigan because she knows the ropes. We have plans to go the market and out to the club which I am greatly looking forward to at the end of the week.
I have also gotten excited about my research again after talking with my group about plans. I think I am just becoming more confident in my abilities. Sometimes this confidence is affirmed such as when a guy at the cafe at the university asked if I was french because I had a good accent and spoke well. But sometimes this confidence is shot down like when my host sister (i think) says that i dont really speak french (only "un peu") a little bit. i certainly hope that my french is better than her english because her english is not so good. What does she know anyway!
Hilight of the day was playing soccerin our courtyard with all the little boys. And yes of course my team won even though the older boys stuck me with the 5-8 year olds. Im not gonna lie and be modest and say that I didnt carry the team to victory, but i really did. Ive still got the skills (even in a skirt)
One other interesting reality that i encountered here but would most likely never encounter chez moi, that of water shortage. Thewaterhas been turned off in our neighborhood all afternoon because we havent had rain for so long. Dont worry Im in no danger of dying of thirst but life just becomes a bit more difficult for everything mostly bathing and cooking.
My curfew is 8, must run. Youd be happy mom they keep a good eye on me around here. They say here that "les sentiments changent"(feelings change) after 8 oclock and women must not be out alone after this time.
Im going to journal tonight so I can come up with something more profound to write here next time. ciao ciao

I will not eat an entire tub of Chocaleca in 1 week

Chocaleca = Nutella and Nutella = choco nutty goodnesss that you spread on a baguette or on just a knife when you're bored in your room... and I will not eat the whole thing in 1 week. That would be shameful! And I am curretnly roasting in the cybercafe because the ac isnt on and every other airway is closed off. I really think they are trying toget us all outofhere.

Yesterday was pretty fabulous. I went tot he beach with my family. Essentially I had no idea where I was in comparison to anything and we are just 5 minutes from the beach! It was fab. We went at qbout 4 so it wasnt terribly hot but hot enough. I guess I hadnt been to the Atlantic ocean for about 16 years and I loved it!Icould have played in thewaves all day long. They were huge and only got bigger the longer we stayed. we stayed about 3 hours Ihtink and I was in the water the entire time. There were some young men sitting on the rocks and playing the drums and men exercising, wrestling, doing pushups and alls ortsof calistetics all overthe place. And the children that I live with are so fun. They took a while towarm up tome but we had so muchfun at the beach. They call me "Tati" which is Auntie in Wolof and it is what they call all adults.

Besides the beach I qm still doing a lot of nothing. We watch a lot of music videos (mostly American) unfortunatley. They have a lot of commericals adverstidsing really ugly, gaudy furniture which I find to be reathe ramusing. And of course Coupe du Monde footbol. 3 games a day baby!

I am very excited for tomorrow. I begin my Wolof class tomorrow with the other SPAN students and my professor and am very excited to see them!It will be nice tohave some familiar faces around and get away from the house. I must say that Im going a bit stir crazy but that trip to the beachyesterday was just what i needed.

And my research... it is such a weird feeling being here and knowing thatI need to begin but honestly Im terrified to begin.I feel really really incompetent about my ability to carry it out in terms of language capability (both French and obviously Wolof) also in my cultural capabilities because interactions are clearly so different here. Im content to just keep on keeping on the way i am now and never begin my project... I suppose I doalso have a lot o freading material that I could be looking through but I gust cant bring myself to do it unfortunately.

To answer a couple other questions: how hot is hot? i dont ever really know the temp but id guess 80s and 90s during the day and maybe low 70s at night. There is usually a breeze, especially at night.

I am drinking water from the tap that I have treeated wiht iodine tablets. Thankfully I dont mind the taste of iodine. I buy a 1.5 L bottle of water once in a while though.

I haveno idea what the children outside my window were singing. I guess I didnt even pay attention to whether or not it was french orwolof.

Ididnt get to church yesterday because Iforgot to ask until Sqturday late night and thought that they wouldnt know even because they are Muslim and chruches are not common. I would like togo soon though.

While I would like to sound brave and say that I did, and contrary topopular belief, I did not eat the whole fish including the eyes. I barely ate all of the meat because I was slightly grossed out.

Correction: Patito (little duck) died not Pepito... what an embarrasing error! Youd never believe I got an A in Spanish making an error like that.

I probably wont be updating and emailing as often as previously becaus I actually start to work tomorrow... yay for work, boo for decreased communication

Ciao ciao (this is what they say to babies but I like it so I will say it to you all)
Moi

Mourning Pepito

In case you havent heard the news, Pepito (the baby duckling that Elizabeth found) has moved on to a better place. This is almost as tragic as karlas news that her ballet class has been cancelled and she will have to pursue her dream through a geriatric community class. All this is much more exciting than anything I have to say, so Ill stop...

I heard that groan. Ok ok Ill keep writing. I am currently listening to Batanga latin radios Bachata stream. i really shouldnt do this because on one hand it makes me so happy but then again on the other hand makes me terribly sad and missing home and dancing. im not sure if my attachment to latin dancing is healthy. I went to work with my host mom at a human rights organization and the man whose office I was sitting in was actually listening to african salsa and told me that there are places to go around inDakar but its more popular with the older crowd. I WILL find one ofthese places.

I have also been asked forthe weather report. i report that it has been nothing but sunshine since ive been here. It will be this way until july when rainy season stqrts. And rainy season only has a couple of days of rain a week and no tempests as many may believe. It is about ashot here as it is in Minneapolis but less humid and withmor breeze generally. So oftentimes it is quite miserable but most times very very beautiful.

Todays blog will be dedicated to my new home. I just arrived there yesterday afternoon just in time for the meal with the flies (as mentioned yesterday). Todays noon meal was better with much fewer flies but i must report that I had my first cockroach (cafard) spotting last night during dinner unfortunately. i think i handled it pretty well. I only screamed a little. JK i only commented on its presence and the brother/nephew (not sure what he is) looked like he was about tokill it whichi thought would have been exceedingly nastier.

Anyway the place Im staying in is really very unique actually. I live on the rez de chaussez which is the ground floor in my own room with a fan on the ceiling (very luxurious), a closet, and a couple of shelves, and a mosquito net. I hold the only key for the room and lock up every time i leave because there is a constant stream of random people through our courtyard. There is a mango tree right outside my door which is pretty neat.

The bathroom is two doors down from me and does not have a sit down toilet which was highly disappointing to me. I guess I will just have thighs of steel from squatting over that hole all summer :( Below are pics of my room which is the door on the very far left blocked by the pole with the mango tree in the foreground and the stairs up tothe kitchen and the family room in the background. The bathroom door is the far one. The other picture is clearly one of my dear little bathroom. It does however have a shower head. There is no warm running water but I have actually come to really love cold water showers as they are oh so refreshing when you are so hot and sweaty.

I am not completely clear on the family structure of my home yet. What is clear is that there are 2 parents who I believe are just aunts and uncles. There is a male cousin a few years older than me, a female cousin with a small child, and two young boys and im not certaint o whom they belong...

The best feature of thehome however is the terrace on the 2nd floor (which is actually the 3rdfloor) of the home. I sat up there last night and there was a beautiful breeze (which kept te bugs away) and it wouldhave been perfect except forthe faint garbage smellc oming from the next house over and the planes which fly directly overhead :)

There is another intersting feature tothis house. ONe doesntneed a rooster to signal when its time to wake up because hte mosque is 2 blocks away. They kindly broadcast the entire service over a loudspeaker at 5 or so int he morning and then there are 3 or 4 more services during the rest of hte day I believe. I amsure I will know exactly when they are by the time Im done here :) See picture ofthe mosque from my roof to the left.

And it turns out Im a footbol (soccer) freak! I am rather addicted to the Coupe du Monde (world cup) of which all hte games are broadcasted here. I spent 4 hours watching yesterday and was particularly happy to see that Ecuateur (ecuador) won! I am rooting for "les pays tiers-mondials" (third world countries) but am partial to Ecuador and Mexico in solidarity with my Latino amigos. Looking forward to the Mexico game tomorrow.

Otay y'all must run now. I thinkthat I may be going into thecity tonight (im essentially in a suburb right now) which should be fabulous!!! Im excited to get out ofthehouse, which i havent been able to do much yet as they are afraid ill get lost which is a distinct possibility. Ithink that I will get a pain au chocolate (chocolate croissant) tomorrow. can you believe that i havent gone togetone yet.

Merci mille fois to my loyal readers. Je vous aime!

Why is it that so many of my comments are about food?

bonjour encore tout le monde... voila the view from the bathroom window of my first residence...
I really enjoyed the three days that I spent there. I was taken directly there from the airport on Wednesday morning. I guess I had no real expectations as to what to expect but was I ever blown away. When it is said thqt these countries are developing, they arent kidding. Everywhere there are buildings which are half built, there are actually horse drawn carts, which was something that I never expected. It was early morning when I arrived and there were people everywhere. There were women carrying buckets of water or food on their head and babies on their back. I guess for some reason Ithought that in urban areas one wouldnt see this but this was everywhere. I am not doing the scene in the streets justice unfortunately.

My ride from the airport was also interesting. it was a situqtion where it seemed as if I should be frightened but surprisingly wasnt. Essentially I have no right to ever complain about any American traffic or the quality of roads again! Cars come so close to each other and I have no idea how it is decided who has the right of way. And lane markers seem to be nonexistent. It appears that there are 3 lanes and the middle lane is simply used for whoever wants to pass on whichever side at whatever timethey want. But I have yet to see an accident and my driver said that he had never been in an accident; so I was reassured.

I arrived with my first family. There was Fatou, André the parents and the children Phillipe, a daugher zhos name I cant remember, Ahmed, and Papi. (See Papi and the girl daugher below). He was my little buddy there. I loved him. The first day essentially I slept all day long and he slept withme for quite a long time :) I thinkt hat this heat isreally making me tired because I want to sleep all the time.

The biggest breakthrough for me has been in eating. There have been a couple of new developments. Really I have tons that I could say about eating. I have successfullly eaten all of my candy and only today opened my Maria Galletas and from the looks of the food situation in my current home may need a truckload of Marias. If I was picky about what I ate and about cleanliness before that is going tohave togo right out the window if I expectnourishment forthe rest of my time here. The first breakthrough was the fact that I ate a fish. This wasnt just any fish. This was a whole fish eyes scales everything. However if I hid it inside of my baguette it was just fine. Next interesting point, apparently I, not as good of an eater as I had once believed. I went out to lunch in this room which was called a restaurant. Essentially they offered one dish of cut rice, a piece offish (which I decided not to eat) and random veggies. This was a ginormous plate of food and I could eonly eat half ofit. However my two eating buddies ate all of it.I was ashamed! They claimed I would be eating these portions in a months time as well.

Another intersting food note aboutthe place Iam staying now. If I had a problem with flies on my food before Im going to have to getover that because as 7 of us squatted around a large metal bowl eatingrice, veggies (and yes anotherhunk of fish) theflies were essentially everywhere. And there was no bread. I can only pray that the next meal will include bread!

Sorry to worry you mom but everything that I eat is hot so dont worry the germs are all gone!!

Another fabulous experience was riding on the Car Rapide. It was surreal actually. I went to work with the first woman that I stayedwith. There are 4 modes of transportation here: foot, taxi, Car Rapide, and Bus. Essentially the bus has predetermined stops and the car rapide doesnt. The Car Rapide is this dilapidated bus usually festively decorated and sporting the ever popular "al hamdililah" (thanks be to Allah). You must signal to it and it will stop to pick you up anywhere along its route. It was really quite fun as you essentially have to crawl over people to get to your seat at times andthen pass your money through the bus to the two boys who hang off the back and signal the driver to stop.

And now for an American Express commercial: transportation forthe day on the Car Rapide 300 cfa (60 cents), 1.5 liter water 400 cfa (80 cents), huge lunch that I couldnt finisheating 500 cfa (1 dollar), internet use for an hour 300 cfa (60 cents), unforgettable cultural experience priceless

Sorry! had to do it

Love you all, write to me, I may be lonely (alright I am, I admit it! :)

Je suis arrivée

Bonjour a tout le monde (hello everyone), You will be happy to know that I have arrived safely in Sénégal and have yet to be bitten by anything nor get travelers diarrhea (and even if I do I most likely willnot share that here). I am now writing to you from a cybercafé, one of which you can find on nearly every other corner thankfully and trying to get used to this dang keyboard!

I guess I can start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). My travels were surprisingly and happily uneventful. After a sleepless night and pretty sad (yet beautiful) sendoff by my lovely Mommy, Emm, Karla, and Elizabeth, I was bummed. I felt badly because shouldnt I have been comletely ecstatic to leave, I felt really ungrateful to be feeling that way but oh well, I couldnt help it. Flight from Mpls to NYC was uneventful, slept the whole way and woke up still feeling rather crappy. But happily I was saved: by a Dove Dark Chocolate. It is rare that enjoy a chocolate for zhat it should be, a highly satisfying and gratifying treat. Literally, I instantly felt better. Thanks to my fab roomies for that!


While in the JFK airport I had only 7 hours to kill before my next flight. I paced the halls and spent a good amount of time in the duty free store smelling men's cologne and daydreaming. I also perused my new reading material courtesy of K Grande and Eli. Just as I was about to write the Nickelodeon magawine off as a complete waste of time (sorry ladies) I came across the June/July calender updated with some very important events: not only did I cauge out loud q couple of times, I am now completely informed. A couple of exerpts for your reading pleasure: June 17th Run for the Butter (sounds like something Karla would do); June 18th Karlas nursery duty at church; June 8th Eli sees Al Franken (how jealous am i); and July 4th nauseating patriotism (i will miss the fireworks).

OK moving on, flight from JFK directly to Dakar was actually faboulsou despite some nauseating turbulence. I am so easily amused, first the flight crew passed out this little kit which included an eyemask, toothbrush and toothpaste, and these horribly ugly socks which turned out to be highly useful when my feet were frozen.

Anyway, all of that must have been rather boring: onto the good stuff.

Africa is AMAZING! I guess I really had no expectations as to what this would be like but it is almost indescribable. But I will try my hardest! I don't have much time remaining here but I will continue more later. I will leave you with atop 4 lists.

Top 4 best things you hear out the window:
1) Kids singing: you know you hear it inthose sappy commercials but it happens all the time
2) Horse-drawn carts: I guess this was something that I never expected but horsedrawn carts travel along the roads right along side cars
3) Goats: apparently goats are domestic here and live with people in their homes (not mine thankfully)
4) Incomprehensible languages but Im learning. French gets easier every day
Top 4 things im thankful for:
1) toilet paper
2) sidewalks
3) lane markers for cars: the trqffic... unspeakably horrible
4) hand sanitizer