Ca va

Hello again everybody!

Things had been going pretty well here since my last post. The weather here is really nice. A little chilly in the shade but definitely MUCH warmer than Philadelphia would be right now. Unfortunately, Laura (the other Penn student who is with me that I was friends with beforehand from environmental group) has been feeling a bit sick the last few days. Hopefully she will feel better soon. We are going out to eat tonight to find some good, bland, Americanish food because Senegalese food is pretty spicy and that is not helping her right now. Luckily, I haven't had any problems with my stomach...so far. My host mom is a very good cook, but I do miss pasta and salad. We don't really eat anything that is green here. And real milk. All the milk here is powdered, which is going to take some getting used to.

Back to the subject of sheep...I forgot to mention last time that there are two who live on my roof. That is pretty awesome, I think. However I have discovered a cute little mouse in my room that I sometimes chase around in an attempt to catch.

We have made a couple trips downtown since I last wrote. It is more like I imagined Dakar would be there. The markets are pretty hectic though and kind of stress me out because everyone comes up to me and my blond hair and wants me to buy things and I feel bad having to say no to everyone because I know they need the money. And I'm not very good at bargaining either. It just makes me feel bad.

We also went to Adama's women's artisan group's place with two girls who are here on a rotary scholarship and learned how to make batik. We all got to make our own and afterwards she sewed the edges and put a tie on it so we could wear it as a skirt. That was pretty exciting.

Other than that things are pretty relaxed. I still haven't really figured out what to do with my free time. Though, my host sister did give me cornrows yesterday so that is pretty interesting. Those won't last too long though. My little sister, Coumbis, also is very entertaining. She keeps asking me for my "tanga" (candy in Wolof), but I keep having to say no because they are actually cough drops, but she won't believe me when I tell her they are medicine.

I hope you all are doing well and I miss you all!
Love,
Christiana

Le voyage a commence

1/13/09

Bonjour a tous!

Today is my third day in Dakar and I thought I would start sending out updates from Senegal. If you don't want them or know someone else who would like me to email them, just send me an email.

After a series of really awful issues with planes, Laura and I made it to Dakar at 6 in the morning. We were picked up at the airport and driven to a hotel/apartment type thing (we're still not sure exactly what it was) where we had an apartment to stay in for the next two nights. Apparently that day we were supposed to rest, so we sat there with nothing to do trying not to fall asleep so we could fix our sleep schedule. Not the most exciting start and we didn't manage to stay awake. People came in our room and brought us food every so often. The first Senegalese food we had was some spicy chicken and rice which was pretty good... the weird cold pea and lamb stuff that came later was less appetizing and we wished we had saved the million loaves of bread they brought us in the morning.

The next day was our first real day. A man named Pape Samba came from the Baobab Center where we are taking classes to bring us there. It was sort of difficult for me to understand him, but by now I am doing a lot better understanding French. After a brief orientation a lady gave us a tour of the surrounding area. It is all very interesting. The city is very nice though they could do with picking up their trash. There are also lots of sheep in the streets. Our guide showed us how to eat with our fingers like real Senegalese people. Even though it had been a really long day, we went with Pape Samba to see Youssou N'Dour, the most popular musician in Senegal, at a fancy restaurant called Just4U.

Today we had our first lesson in Wolof, the other language besides French that is common in Senegal. Then we moved in with the families that we will be staying in for the rest of our three weeks in Dakar. My family is very nice. At first it was a bit awkward because they were just watching TV and speaking wolof and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, but then Alejandra, the other American who is staying with them and Coumba, the 7 year old granddaughter came in and I got to know them. Coumba is very cute and asks if she can have everything I own. I met some of Alejandra's Senegalese friends and Mohamed, Coumba's dad, showed me lots of pictures that other students who stayed with them had taken. Luckily, there is wireless somewhere around here that we can pick up to the house, so I have all the internet connection I could want. I will hopefully be in touch again soon!

I hope things are well over in les Etats Unis!
Love,
Christiana