Joyeux Fete de 4 de Juillet

Oh hello all, I wish I was home to enjoy all of the 4th of july patriotism. Naw actually the patriotism makes me nautious but I really do get a kick out the fireworks and the warm fuzzy feeling that I get from the holiday and being with friends and family :) Im sure Ill find some lovely way to celebrate here. Call me and tell me how much fun youre having!

Anywho here is a continuation of my trip to Linguere. I will keep it rather brief because it was rather uneventfuly. Esssentially I met with two dentists from the area and interviewed them and arranged to tour their dental clinics. I also determined that I want to spend as little time in linguere as possible because it is desolate and hottt. There are two paved roads in a town of 15000 if that gives you any idea of the situation. actually the heat didnt bother me that much because I was in the house all day every day. But it is so hot there that you dont even get refreshment from a shower because the "cold water" is hot when it comes out of the tap. I dont think that there is one place in the whole town that has ac so one has to be content with fans. LUckily it gets cool at night. But I also figured out where I will sample my population and where i will live while Im there so thats wonderful. For food and lodging with a family it costs 25000 cfa (50 dollars) per month as compared to here in Dakar where it costs 25000 cfa for a week! nuts huh! They are both ridiculously cheap though!

One of the highlights of the trip was going to the Lutheran/Catholic church (im not quite clear on what it actually was). It was interesting because the space in which it was held was essentially the front corridor of this tiny building. There were about 6 two person benches on each side of an aisle and a few chairs. The space was about 8 feet by 30 feet. All together there were about 25 people there and they didnt even have a pastor. But they were still there worshipping God (and doing it very well i must say). Their choir which consisted of about 10 teenagers was really excellent and they sang some really amazing African praise songs in Wolof. Cool stuff.

Thats all I really want to say about Linguere. I have a couple comments about people here. It is very very very hard to read people here and I find myself often getting frustrated. It is hard to know peoples intentions. I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are tlaking to me for the pleasure of talking to me but unfortunately i have found out that (in my experience) 75 percent of the people always want something from you and I find that to be very disheartening. I have had and heard of many experiences already of developing different sorts of relationships with people only for them to eventually bring up the topic of what the American can do for them. For example, the all wolof speaking ladies that I attempt to converse with. After a few days of chatting with them, a few of them have started asking me for money and unfortunately this completely disappoints me adn almost makes me not want to interact with them anymore because it puts me in an uncomfortable situation. I dont know if this is selfish of me to say or what because clearly I am far better off than so many people here but I just wish i wasnt a dollar sign to so many people.

Another example is my friend here from Texas who went out with a guy last night. He is a friend of her host familys so she assumed it would be ok. Her number one mistake, in my opinion, is the fact that she drank a lot of alcohol when she was out wiht him. At one point, she was going tot he bathroom and was going to take her purse, and he said oh dont worry you can leave it with me, itll be fine. and of course she had no reason to believe anything bad would come of it (once again trying to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that not everyone is out there to screw you or rip you off or steal from you). In the end he ended up taking money from her purse and then when she couldnt pay for the alcohol he told her it cost like 100 dollars but paid for it. He then proceeded to ask if they could use her credit card for the cover into some sort of music event which ended up costing 100! How was she to know? She assumed that because he was a friend of the familys and that he was an educated/intellectual person that he could be trusted.

I find this to be really scary. At home, we have agood feeling usually about who strikes us as creepy because of our ability to read body language, what people say, how theyd ress, etc. But here because everything is so foreign it is almost impossible at points to read people.

Thus I have found my attitude changing (not necessarily to the negative side) about people. I am just becoming more and more wary of everyone (not that i wasnt before) and I dont like having to feel that way but I think it is necessary to protecting yourself. Its a crappy way to have to live but, constantly being on your guard, but it is necessary to look out for #1.

But this isnt everyone by any means. There are many redeeming relationships. I am starting to like my family more and more and have a really good time with my neighbors. And Im getting a new housemate tomorrow. Another American willl be moving into the room next to me! Its rather exciting!