Tobab Dialow and a little bit touti

Yaangi ci jamm?

I hope that you are all doing well. I've been having a crazy week, mainly wonderful but like always, a few stranger things too!

This past weekend I went to Tobab Dialow, three hours south of Dakar. It was a wonderful time. We were on the beach and stayed in a very quirky fun hotel. There we had a very relaxing weekend where we could get down to the beach, do a little body surfing and have a nice time. Had I known how relaxing it was supposed to be I would have brought a book, so instead I spent a lot of time talking, shocking, I know. I ended up taking a batik lesson while I was there and we had a big dance event which included doing the limbo and attempting the splits. I actually ended up doing pretty well in both! So it was great and hopefully my fall break will be just as interesting as this weekend was!

So talking about my fall break, last week I sent out an email to some of you saying that we were going to be staying in this great house and how excited I was about it. Well, we had also invited a bunch of other CIEE students and some of them decided, because their trip to the Casamance (very dangerous, in the south) was canceled, they would rent out the house for themselves. So, that was a bumber because we were going to share the house with some of my friends' host brothers and they can't afford to stay any where than there (they were going to stay for free since they knew the owner). Anyways, so we have been scrambling around this week trying to find a place that will take four tobabs (white/foreigners) for a good price and will be accessible to get to. We seem to have a place but we won't know anything about it really until we get there! Next week will just be a surprise!

Another 'excursion' type thing I did this past week was I went to the post office in town to pick up a package from mom! This trip should not have been exciting. I went with my friend Matt (who will also be on my trip for fall break) and we got a taxi for a decent price and went on our way. Of course, when you get there you have to talk to fifteen different people, have to pay to different 'officials', they open your package, filled out a few more pieces of paper, and we were on our merry way. Well, not so fast, we had to get the taxi back to school. We finally got a taxi to pull over to let us in, while he was pulling over he was able to bump into a motorbike, we negotiated a price and got in. He backed out and hit another taxi. We were in the taxi for only a minute when he pulled over and jumped out with a water bottle. Saying something in Wolof he left. He ran to the other side of the road and, didn't pee onto the wall but into the bottle. (Since then I have realized that this is normal procedure for taxi men) and we continued on our way. We drove for 15 minutes and then I realized he was taking us to the wrong part of town. This time, using our wonderfully atrocious Wolof skills, we named many more landmarks and we finally made our way to the campus with twenty minutes left before class! Gosh, the things I will do to get a terrific package!

So a few general things I have noted since I have come here but have forgotten (or have not had the time) to share! The first one is a little out of the ordinary and something that everyone on this trip has noticed. So, people in Senegal burp, spit, cough, pick their nose and women will put their hands in their shirts and fix up their boobs. No one sees any of these things as gross or abnormal to do anywhere and over anyone. However, the few times that someone lets a little toot out I have never seen people here laugh so hard and they make fun of the tooter for about ten minutes. It really cracks me up and people of all ages have been on both sides which is pretty amusing.

Another thing that I have noticed is the many ways that I have caused cancer to me since I have gotten here. The biggest one is plastic. So everyone in the USA now knows the harmful effects of BPA. BPA is even worse if you put hot things in your plastic. Well, every morning and some nights I will have my tea from my five year old plastic mug. There are two ceramic mugs in our house but those are left for special occasions and special people - I got to use on the first few days I was around!

Dakar, for being a Muslim country, has a lot of dogs all over the street. There are dogs everywhere you could ever look. I don't think of myself as someone that is scared of dogs, but street dogs have always scared me. The way I walk to school there are quite a few dogs that always look a little menacing but they never really move very much so I try to keep myself together. However, the other day I was going on my early morning run with Elizabeth, and we got on a side road where there were about five dogs and no people. I have us start walking to not bother them and to not draw too much attention to us. One of the dogs though comes toward us and luckily, thank you Tanzania; I picked up four rocks at my feet and threw one his direction. He left us alone. Let's just say from now on I'm staying on the busy roads for running and not doing the pretty streets!

A few Saturdays ago I went out. Yes, it was my first, and really only, time out since I have been here. I went out for a wonderful dinner with a few friends. The whole time while we were walking to the restaurant I was saying how excited I was that I would be getting food without bones! (I spend a lot of time here pulling fish, chicken, and anything else I eat bones out of my mouth and food) I received my delicious plate of coconut chick. I had probably the best coconut sauce I've ever had. I took my first bit of chicken. Boom. Bone. The whole thing was full of bones. I guess people here need the bones. Note: to those of you who want to make me food when I get home, please, no ribs for a couple weeks!! After the classy dinner, we went to a tiny shack bar where we got the cheapest beer I've seen since I've been here. It was a nice place to meet up and hang out with a larger group of people before figuring out where we wanted to go dancing. At midnight, the little bar closed and we all went on our separate ways. I went over to a friend's house where I was told we were going to make a quick turnaround go out to a club in the main part of the city. Two hours later, we are still hanging out at her place with no sign of us leaving. Finally, at 2:30 am, we head out to the club. We get there and the four of us CIEE girls decide now we can finally get our groove on! So we get out there and after about five minutes of crazy, fun dancing. We were swarmed by about 20 Senegalese men that would not go away. As I described this last bit to mom I believe my phrase was 'like flies around poop' she thought that was pretty gross. But let's just say the whole thing was pretty gross.

A few host family stories to end this off. Mom wanted a family tree, so this is my basic drawing for the time being. The reason for the wacky placement of Baba is I'm not sure his relation to the family still!

So my friend Elizabeth has a wonderful and very dynamic family. Last week she wanted to show her love for them and decided to make brownies to get some brownie points with them. So, silly her, invited me to help. Well, I was useless until we got to eat them. Everyone decided that they loved her ten times more than they already did and now I wish I could cook! The funny thing will Elizabeth, and many other students' families is that the boys that are about the same age as us always just walk around in their towels. Elizabeth, gets flustered very easily, and one time her brother came into the living room with her there in only his little boxers and asked her why she was so red in the face. She didn't catch on but asked me if she was burnt later, I told her she may want to work on blushing around handsome men! They are a kick and even speak great English.

I have still been letting my brothers play games on my phone while I'm around and supervising. Bebe Cher has a good time at it but Mohammed is very intense and does incredibly well in the games. Finally, when Mohammed got 100 points in the game instead of just running around my room and saying how awesome he is, he ran around my room praising god. All I heard for the next five minutes was Alhamdulillah and other phrases of thank you God for the wonderful score I just got on this game. Cracked me up a little bit but interesting to know how much he cares about his god.

A not so good Mohammed story is about us going out. So, we usually go out every other night and visit someone other student and their family. And when I say this I mean I go visit the family and this is the time where the boys go out into the public garden and have fun. That night, Bebe Cher actually came over to the house with me and Mohammed went out by himself. At the time we had decided to go home, Bebe Cher and I go out and try to find him. We try calling his phone, nothing. After about ten minutes of looking around the area and not finding him Bebe Cher says that we may as well go home. So we do. Fanta looks annoyed when I went to bed but it wasn't until I fall asleep that Mohammed came home. All I heard for the next few minutes was his crying and his mom yelling and hitting him with her belt. As Bebe Cher described it to me yesterday "elle a frappe bien" - those of you that don't speak French, literally she beat him well. Hopefully he will always come home on time now.

The next story actually mostly takes place at school but is my little brothers’ fault. They have, on a few occasions, run around my room yelling 'data koi' and they would not tell me what it means other than it is a joke. A few days later, I asked my Wolof professor what it means and as soon as I said it she gave the look that kids get right before the belt comes out. I explained that it was my two little brothers (she is starting to realize how crazy those two are) and she just shook her head and told me that I should beat them. She then told me that it means 'a woman's sexual organs' interesting and I called them out yesterday when they tried to use it. I think they are realizing I might be a little smarter than they give me credit for.

At home I have been watching a lot of the soccer matches with my brothers and Baba. Baba, who I am bonding with a lot more these days, turned and asked me where the label 'Heineken' originates from. I said I believe it is from German and he looked confused that it wasn't from the USA. When he didn't ask any more questions I asked him if he knew it was for beer. He looked shocked and after a few minutes he asked if I had ever drank, I responded honestly and said yes. He said that he heard they taste good but that he could never have one because he is Muslim. The interesting part was right after that Bebe Cher turned around and asked me if I was converting to Islam, I believe I said no a little too quickly.

The last story I have for today is from the women in my family. The women in my family continue to tell me that I am becoming more 'touti', which means thinner in some translation or another - which is supposed to be a very bad thing. So when my mom saw me running one time she rolled her eyes and told me that I need to watch out because if I keep getting smaller it will look like the cooking in the house isn't good. We will see, supposedly this trip is supposed to add five to ten pounds on girls, hopefully that won't include me!

Well, I best be off to get some homework done. Lots of love and please keep me up to date with all of your lives. I miss you all!

Yendul ak jamm,
Katie

Cockroaches and running

Yaangi noos!

I have a couple good stories for the week, and a couple that I keep putting off, so hopefully I will make sure that this time I get the stories in here!

The first theme of this is going to be cockroaches. For the past two weeks I have been finding that my cockroach number has actually been increasing - I know, not a good thing - so I have been spraying Raid in my room like it is my job. However, the flaw with Raid is that I believe I am semi allergic to it, who would think, poison causes bad reactions... So, I have been sporting my glasses since my eyes are not enjoying the spray. I'm also wondering if it may have something to do with the crazy cough I get now and then. I'm trying to get better about not spraying quite as much and not right before bed.

Story two, probably a week ago I was sleeping, I woke up at 6am to something crawling across my stomach. I touch it and it moves. Aggravated I flick it off me onto the bed. Jump across the room and turn on the light to see what could possibly wake me up from my slumber. Of course, not surprising to many of you, it was a decent sized cockroach. I quickly equipped myself with my bottle of raid and flung it to the floor. I hope that the rest of his friends realized that it was a stupid decision to mess with the Katie!

The other night at dinner I was minding my own business around the bowl (note, this is on the floor) and one of those awfully disgusting critters did a sprint around the bowl. No one in the family seemed to care, which only shocks me a little bit. When it came around for it's victory lap it decided to go for my white bread. I quickly moved my bread (quick movements are not a part of dinner at the Wade house) everyone looked at me like I was just that crazy American but luckily when the cockroach passed Fanta she gave it a nice swat - but didn't seem scared or want it dead.

Some good TV stories now: The normal thing to watch here is Latina and Bollywood soap operas. Also, I just watched Heros the other day - I was very confused. However, every occasionally I will see a crazy show like the ones I'm about to talk about. I have watched traditional wrestling a couple times now (for those of you who don't know Senegal that well their national sport is not soccer, it is wrestling, don't worry, I was surprised too) and my brothers started naming off the wrestlers as they were meeting with their Imams and their witch doctors. Right before the game they all do their dance (dance more like New Zealand sports teams - really cool but very scary) as this was going on I looked at Bebe Cher and Mohammed next to me and they knew all the guys moves! I was very impressed to say the least! I've had them do it a couple times since then, it was very fun.

My other story actually happened last night. I was sitting around with the family and we watched some TV. The TV all of a sudden burst into color and I was seeing the pictures on the screen. A guy then walked down the stairs with a screwdriver the size of me and realized they had finally gotten their TV fixed - up from two channels to six! Good day in the Wade house! After dinner I then watched some TV with Baba, Bebe Cher, and Mohammed and we were watching something with a witch doctor putting snakes around young boys necks - which I was curious to figure out what exactly was going on and then one by one the boys were brought into a room and undressed. Then I realized what was about to happen. Male circumcision. The boys were tough. Didn't cry until it was all over. Looked horrific. A nice picture to have as I fell asleep.

Now some stories with Bebe Cher and Mohammed. I was trying to explain to them that Shep is my boyfriend and so I used the Wolof word 'far'. As soon as I said it they both looked at me and said, "Wow, you are getting married" of course my, very American independent woman, came out and told them that I most definitely was not getting married any time soon because I'm in college and my education is much too important for anything like that. It was quite funny. I found out that, it does just mean boyfriend and that they just wanted that reaction from me. Good for me for falling for an eight year olds tricks!

Every other American that lives in Sacre Coeur has met Bebe Cher in some way shape or form and once they realize that he is my brother they tell me how lucky I am to have this little angel. He is one for sure and he sure does crack me up. However, on Sunday he was most definitely trying to pull a few moves on me - hopefully that doesn't continue too much longer. I have now been getting him to read picture books for me in French, which is a great time and I think might actually be helping my French!

I have slowly been realizing a couple things about the maids that work at the house. First thing is that the doorbell to the house is always ringing. I was amazed by the number of people that came in but it didn't seem to equal the number of rings to the door. So keeping my eyes and ears out I realized that Mama Rama has another doorbell ringer in her room! She doesn't have to leave her little ACed paradise to get Satu and Awa to literally be at her fingertips. It was quite a discovery for me!

Also, I realized that Satu actually has a second job on weekend nights. I actually don't think I've told any Satu stories up until this point so quick overview, in a family where no one has ever shown calves or shoulders she is able to where her push up bra so much so that her boobs come up and out of her little tops. She puts on her wig and her flashy clothes and hits the town to make a few bucks. She is quite different from the rest of the family's very conservative outlook on life to say the least!

School is starting to pick up, I have a test today in Wolof and a paper due in Senegalese Society and Culture and have a much bigger paper that I am working on for Gender and Development. So work is happening - even if it doesn't feel quite like the insane work I'm used to doing at William and Mary (there are no complaints though!). It is wonderful to feel busy and productive though!

Also, I have been running once a day. Saturday I ran for over an hour and then power walked on the beach for two. So I'm feeling good about everything. However, after an insane amount of rain yesterday I skipped last night and went this morning. I got out with Elizabeth at 6h30 in the morning and it looked like night. After hitting the Corniche (the nicest road that is also on the beach) it started pouring. This was like a monsoon plus an extra side of rain. The short of it, is that after two hours of being dry I still feel pretty pruny. Pretty gross. Most worried that my shoes will come through and dry out by this evening so I can get a real run in.

Anyways, I should probably stop procrastinating and write my papers and study for my test a little bit more. Love to you all and hope all is well with you!

Leegi leegi,
Katie

Korete and Rain

Numu deme!

Last Friday was Korete, the party for being allowed to eat food again. I began to realize that it is celebrated very much like Easter in the USA. Instead of going around for chocolate and bunnies the kids run around to all the houses of friends and family and are given a ton of money. Instead of watching 'The Ten Commandments' (1956, DeMille) everyone watches the parallel, still four hour version on the prophet Mohammed (let me tell you that you never see him, get's very challenging to figure out why there is a gap in the crowd the first couple times). But best of all, everyone gets incredibly dressed up and lots (too much) of good food. Maybe it is more like our Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving all on the same day!

Saturday, I decided to go meet up with a couple of friends to go into town and the beach, but sadily the rain god disagreed with our plans. So I spent 20 minutes walking through almost hurricane like conditions where I finally ended up hitting Noah's (Ark) flood so I ended up taking cover with some nice Senegalesse women in an abanded house for a couple hours! So much for plans. Luckily, it was still a good time and one of the ladies owns a vegetable stand, so I got an in with the veggie lady, Awa! I've been eatting tomatoes like apples almost every day since.

Sunday was probably the longest day of my life. I sat around, watched TV, napped not once but twice, read an entire book. The book was amazing. It is called 'So Long a Letter' and written by a Senegalese woman in the 70s/80s and discussing polygamy, family life, and everything else. I loved it and you should all read it, if you haven't already. What was very interesting about it is that my host mom is a second wife (and the husband lives with us most of the time) and my host sister, 35ish and has two kids, is I believe a first wife but her husband lives in the USA with his second wife and other son. So brought up a lot of things that seemed parallel to my life here.

My room, where even Katie, can read a whole book!

Classes are still going really well, so that has been good. I have a couple papers coming up and more and more homework so I'm finding things to do with my time. Public health is still my favorite and everything else is most definately getting better! I did just get a field trip canceled and our rural visits have gotten pushed back a week. Though neither of those things are all that shocking.

Now for a few stories of life with the Wade family! A story I forgot to tell, so I have been telling you all about how Bebe Cher and Mohammed enjoy going through all my stuff, well, sometimes they find things they shouldn't be finding - like tampons. Tampons. That thing you aren't supposed to talk to eight to ten year old boys about. So Bebe Cher pulls it out and starts asking about it, "What is this? What do you use it for?" And the girl that I'm teaching English to started dying in laughter but she told me to not explain it to them. So, after asking a few more times and after they got used to the response of "go ask you mom" Bebe Cher finally just looked at me and goes, do you stick it up your butt?!? Well, let's just say I died in laughter and they haven't bothered me about it again.

Bebe Cher, up close

And now onto the family and food story! Now that Ramadan is over lunch is the biggest meal of the day so they have chebugen (fish and rice) and all the other crazy rice meals, without me. Dinner is much smaller. There is either yogurt and millet, peas and meat, pasta and chicken - and always lots and lots of white bread! So, I believe that my crazy food stories may be coming to an end... The other big thing about all these meals is you are not allowed to drink while you are eatting, you can have your water only once you are totally done with your meal. Let's just say I have not gotten used to that addition yet.

Bonus of breakfast and dinner: Sit on the roof

Ba ci kanam,

Katie

Senegal with a side of school

This week has seemed a little more normal, so I guess my emails may start to come a little less frequently now, but, of course, I have a few stories to amuse you all.

Goree Island is beautiful, but it is terribly small and without much beach, which was a bumber since I was very excited about jumping in the water since it is always oh so very hot here! Silly me thought it would resemble Zanzibar to some extent but not quite so much. I do feel like it was a great event since we went to three different museums, all very interesting, one on the slave trade through Goree, another one on women, and just an overall museum - which was actually by far the most interesting (and is where the picture attached was taken). The only major flaw was that it rained a large portion of the time we were there (which I guess makes up for not having a beach) but the rain has most definitely proved itself in the last week that I am, in fact, here during rainy season!

Group shot!

So a couple of family stories from the past week!
Sunday was the football match between Senegal and DRCongo (yes, we won 4-2) and so I decided to invite a couple of people over to watch the match. By the way, when I say watch the match I mean stare at a tiny TV screen and most of the time not being able to see anything because of the static (though I'm getting better and seeing things in static now!) I bought some juice and soda and we just had a good time. Bebe Cher and Mohammed were pumped about having all these tobabs over that liked watching some footie but all the women would not respond to any greetings or anything anyone of my friends said to them. It was pretty strange, but hey, family always is! Though, the great part of the story is that hopefully from now on one student will host us at their family's house and hang out on Sundays.

The living room

As I think I've told you, Mohammed and Bebe Cher go through everything I own. So, while I was taking a nap one day, Mohammed went through my bag and found my phone. They are very competitive about some of the phone games so Mohammed woke me up asking to play some, I said sure but a limit of five or so, well after half an hour he is still messing with it and my phone is making a lot more noise that it makes when just playing, I tell him it’s time to stop and he gets out. A few seconds later, I get a text from Mom. I check my phone and he had made over fifteen calls to friends, family, and texted numerous people. When I talked to him about it he denied it. Let's just say someone lost phone privileges until they apologize - he would rather get hit with the belt then say I'm sorry. So, we will see what happens...

Mohammed

Korete, the party end of Ramadan, (which I just called Karate for the first few times because I couldn't remember the name) should be taking place either on Friday or Saturday (depending on the moon) and everyone already seems excited! My family most definitely practiced their Korete dinner last night and I am loving it! I'm not quite sure how much of the festivities I will be invited to, my family told me to not get an outfit made and reminded me that I was Christian and that this is not my holiday. So, hopefully they were just messing with me, but if they lock me in my room for the day I wouldn't be too surprised.

And some dinner stories... So, to start this off, I just realized I never quite explained how dinners work in Senegal. So you eat around a bowl - does this sound like a social affair to you, well it did to me, but no - you sit in silence, eat as fast as you can and as soon as you finish you leave the area. Let's just say, quite a change from dinner at the Gehron house! So last night I actually had an amazing dinner and found myself too full to sleep for an hour or so, first time I have felt even close to that way since I got here (and I ate with all men so there were jokes and smiles around the bowl)! The other night though (or maybe twice this week) we had something with intestines, again, but then when I thought the pain was done they would bring something out (goat?) with the jaw as the centerpiece of meat. You know what I don't like doing, touching teeth when I'm trying to get my protein! Hopefully, soon enough, I will become numb to bones and intestines, but for now, just not tough enough.

Suffolk University Campus

Mom implied that she was worried that I might not be studying in this study abroad program, so just wanted to talk a little about classes. So now after almost two weeks of classes I feel like I have a better idea about what I think about them! Classes shouldn't be quite as challenging as back at William and Mary but there is still a lot of reading but, major bonus, there are field trips! I have a field trip for some class or another every two or three weeks which will be a great addition and will make the classes literally come to life, so I'm looking forward to that! So my public health class, in French, is by far my favorite class. We had a guest speaker today come in and he talked about HIV/AIDS which was interesting but I think the real focus of the class is going to be community health which should be really cool. Really pumped about it and the professor has worked for a long time in each part of the field.

My class on Senegalese Society and Culture has been alright, each day we have a different person speak which is cool but since it is in English it is usually pretty broken English. The man that led it on Tuesday though was amazing. He talked about the caste system that used to be in place in Senegal which was very interesting but his dynamic nature really added to the class. He was making a point about the way people title themselves and was trying to tie it back to something we understood and said 'People are proud to be New Yorkers but who says "I'm a native Alabamian" that is just not done...' We all cracked up - in short, Luke, I miss you!

Class with Kate and Monica (yes, I'm sporting my glasses more often than not now!)

The class I'm taking for Wolof (the local language) is interesting. It is really tough but at the same time the professor is really good at making sure we understand what we are saying in Wolof (an important addition in my personal opinion) so that has been nice. Also, this is the class where if we have 'culture questions' we are supposed to throw them out there, so I asked sometime last week if I'm supposed to do like Bebe Cher does and point with things with either a nod or (more often) my tongue, since in Madagascar I remembered there being something about not pointing at graves, etc (yes, I said all of that en francais) but she just laughed and said 'no we just call that a bad habit'. So much for being culturally sensitive! The other nice thing about it is the class is maxed out to five people! So there is most definitely a lot of one on one time with Prof Mam Binta Fall!

The Gender and Development class is really interesting but the there doesn't really seem to be any structure to the class, so luckily there is a lot of reading, so I'm able to feel like I'm really learning something. She seems to go on numerous rants and doesn't quite know how to get us back on topic. This is one of the classes with a lot of field trips so I'm sure that will make up for some of the problems...

So my biggest worries right now are making my fall break plans (I have a week and a half of free time and haven't confirmed anything yet!) and, thanks to mom, already stressed about Christmas presents!
Ba Suba,

Katie

I'm cool!

Lu bees! - this means what's up, I'm finally going to be cool in Dakar!

I was planning on not sending out an email until Monday but I am all inspired (and have a lot of notes on things I have to tell all of you) so I'm doing it today! I've now gone through a week of classes, best part no classes on Fridays, and I have now had a full week in my host family's house. Tomorrow, we head out to our first time out of Dakar, to Goree Island - it is supposed to be wonderful and will do some good museums and hopefully hit up a beach or two!

I know you all have been thinking for the past week: did she get some toilet paper? I did, don't worry, and I'm loving every square of it! And the bigger question, what is going on with those darn cockroaches? Well, not quite as an inspiring response but they are slowly but surely dying off. I bought some African Raid and every time I killed some it looked really good, until right before bed, then hundreds would find their way into my room, so my independence of killing my own cockroaches, utter fail. However, the other day the family realized the problem and has been putting poison in the corners of the room so now they are steadily dying off! So, all is getting better in that regard! The only big flaw with that is now Bebe Cher and Mohammed aren't allowed to throw my teddy bear, Julius, around because I don't want to sleep with something that might have been in cockroach poison - I know, smart thinking, but they sure think I'm boring now!

So to do the not so great bits now there have been two problems so far for people in my study abroad group. There is, first, Luke from New Hampshire, after a few days of being here he got these incredibly large blisters all over his upper body. After a lot of pain, he went to see a doctor who diagnosed him with shingles! You know where I would not want to deal with a new case of shingles, Dakar! He's doing better but he is sure having a tougher time than the rest of us. The second case, is a girl - no joke - named Katherine C Getz, yes, almost the same name and she goes by Kate and we have roomed together and have all but one class together, well, anyways, Kate lives a neighborhood a little further away than mine so she has to take the car rapide (public transportation) and on Wednesday people forgot to wait for her so she had to go home alone. At the final stop, where she lives, she was about to get out of the bus when a guy jumped between her and the back and wouldn't let her out, after a bit of yelling he finally let her out. It was only then that some older women, who were worried about her, noticed that her bag was open and the guy behind her had stolen her stuff. Let's just say everyone is finding a walking buddy now!

Part of my walk to school

Host family stuff has been going pretty well though I do have a few amusing stories. One of the maids' friends is really interested in learning English so I teach her English and in return she teaches me Wolof, it has been really fun so far and she is really smart. I do not know her name though and I think she is here only for a month before she goes back to her village but, until then, we are great study buddies!

Food stories from the family: Breakfast (when I got up at 5am) was wonderful, some porridge stuff, some tea just absolutely wonderful. However, there before fast meal and after fast meal does consist of the same thing (and you better have all of it) white bread smeared in chocolate sauce (not nutella) and tea with three cubes of sugar (each time I think of it I want to make a Three Cups of Tea reference). Every family has this same tradition it seems but sure makes you wonder how healthy they all are! Dinners continue to be interesting with many of the dishes being the national dish of fish and rice, which is pretty good however we have had two pretty different meals this week as well! The first one, I had a really tough time with, everything looked, felt, and tasted like liver, intestines, and brain!!!! Ahh, Baba cracked up at one point because he saw that I was having trouble swallowing but when my host mom asked what he was laughing about he was very nice and said nothing. Hopefully I don't get that meal too often. The other meal was (make sure you are picturing this) a salad - greens, cucumbers, tomatoes - covered in french fries and grilled chicken and the whole thing was drenched in ketchup and mustard. It was a fun meal for sure but sure makes you wonder, do they ever just eat a salad?

The kitchen on the roof where all food comes from!

The big one is that the boys, Bebe Cher and Mohammed, have been using me to go out every night. So we head out to Beth (another study abroad girl) that lives one street over and hang out there - though recently they have been disappearing and not coming back until close to midnight, more to that when I figure that out - and I am loving her family! She has a sister, Aida who is 15, who just loves to talk and keeps me very active in listening and talking in French so she is great, loves to talk about all the boys that she knows, and she really wants to braid my hair, so we will see if that happens. She also has a younger brother, Mohamed (are you seeing a trend?), who is a kick, he really gets along with me well and thinks I'm the funniest thing that has ever exited - still can't tell if that is a good or bad thing yet! There family though doesn't usually have dinner until midnight so I hang out there until then and Beth just realized that her mother is one of three wives, the next question is what number is she, let's just say for a girl from Wisconsin i think that was a pretty big shock for her!

Overall, everything has been going really well! The classes are interesting, the profs seem pretty good (though I have to say the English classes are pretty slow) but still very enjoyable. We also seem to have a lot of field trips for all of our classes so I'm excited about that, each class seems to have at least two field trips this semester - so stay tuned for more on that! I still cannot believe how well people dress, even in the middle of a down pour. They would rather be covered in mud in their best clothes than to be seen wearing something subpar - this is going to be a challenge for me to even look decent! Though, on the subject of clothes, I have never seen so many boobs in my life, for a city that you cannot show your legs there sure is a lot of boobs popping out from every direction, bottom of the shirt, through the arm pit, everywhere (I have never loved my bras so much!).

Another long email, hopefully some of it is interesting! I hope all is going well with all of you. Please keep in touch with me! I don't get internet on weekends but I check my email most weekdays!

Yendul ak jamm,

Katie