Things that make us laugh

There's no end it seems to the surprises that happen in Senegal. For example, let's just go through a few of the things that happened this week.
I've been walking around for several weeks with a dime sized hole in one of my flip-flops. Pretty much everyday all my friends point out how disgusting it is for me to be walking around like that here of all places. It wasn't that I don't agree with them about that but there isn't really a store to go to and I was afraid of buying shoes that would hurt my feet since I walk so much here. Nonetheless, my friend Sara and I were walking to Wolof class the other day when a man on the street was holding lots of shoes and trying to sell them to us. This happens a lot here with pretty much anything you can imagine. You can buy a scale or a bag of peanuts while sitting in traffic. Usually I just say Non, merci but since I actually needed shoes I bought them. I got to class and everyone started complimenting me and asking where I bought them. Uhhh, just now from some dude on the street.
Anyway, more funny things... Sunday night Alex took some friends and I to watch some soccer matches in the big ass stadium. We were definitely the only white people there and pretty much the only females so when I had to use the restroom we ran into some problems. Namely that there was no restroom for women. Thus, Alex walked me out of the stadium and across the street to a house where he asked if I could use their restroom. Of course they said yes because it's Senegal and people are so friendly. They walked me in and then there it was... a goat! right outside the bathroom door. I couldn't stop laughing as I was using the restroom and all I could hear was baaa baaaa baaa. Hil-arious. Anyway, my neighborhood's team won the game and my neighborhood in turn went nuts. Next Sunday is the final so I'm excited now about that.
Yesterday I went to work with my sister. She's a teacher at a preschool. The school was sooo adorable. Everything was bright and happy. It appeared just like a school back home would. There were three classes so everyone came in wearing there red, blue, and green smocks. In the morning they did their stretches and dances which I loved every minute of. After that they seperated into their own classrooms. Unfortunately this is where it became a little more sad. My sister's class of five year olds had 10 desks for a class of 30. The rest put their chalkboards on stools and sat in plastic chairs. The room was incredibly crowded and I was shocked at how well behaved everyone was. I feel like it might've been one of the better preschools as far as public schools go. The students were definitely better dressed than a lot of kids I pass in the streets and the school seemed to be in a more well to do area.
Also, Alex has malaria. I suppose that makes this a good time to dispell some myths about the illness. Yes, lots of people die of malaria; that is true. However, it's not really a terminal illness. People get malaria here all the time. It's basically like getting the flu for us except from the looks of it, a lot more miserable. The reason a lot of people die from it is just because they're too poor to afford the medication. If you aren't in that predicament you just take the pills or the injections and rest a few days and are well recovered. Thus, Alex has to get 12 injections over the next 3 days. Not fun but at least he's not going to die.
Sadly the man who bought me coffee last week decided to profess his love for me yesterday which really just ruins the whole experience of him buying me coffee. Sometimes you think that people are just being nice here and then you find that they had ulterior motives. Now I hate walking to my school because he blows me kisses and tells me all these mushy things despite the fact that I explained that I have a boyfriend already. Boys here are a dissappointment. Thank God for Alex because otherwise I wouldn't have any Senegalese friends. His friends are amazing and I love them all. And he's basically my favorite boy ever so that makes up for all the others.
For example, Saturday night much of the group went to a party in a nearby sicap (suburb). A party is basically just a whole bunch of people dancing in a house. They never even get started until around 2 am and then you can be out until 7. I started dancing with one guy and he was getting a kick out of spinning me around and how much I was actually responding to his dance moves. Then he started parading me around in front of everyone at the party and all the men started fighting over me. Finally my friend Sara came and pulled me away from all of them and then she spent 20 minutes literally dragging them off of me as they all tried pulling me in different directions. So, being white and female in Senegal is kind of a pain in the ass.
Last night was a giant prayer at my house. The second time this has happened. The first time Alex and I were walking down the street when we ran into Alex's brother Benj on the way back to the house. He was carrying a big wooden box and I couldn't help laughing when I asked what it was and he showed me the big shrine for Mary. Oh my. There were so many people at the house last night that I didn't really know where to go and with Alex being sick and in his room I sort of secluded myself in my own room for dinner. Later on in the night my brother Benj knocked on my door and when I opened it he stuck a beer in and popped the cap of for me. Another hilarious event at the Gomis residence.

Refreshing

Yesterday I realized why Senegal is so cool. On my way to class I stopped at the regular boutique (small stand which usually sells everything you can ever imagine) for some cafe touba. Btw, cafe touba is probably the thing I'll miss the absolute most about this country. The first time I tried it I thought hmm... this is really strange coffee but now I'm totally addicted. So, I stopped and one of the men began talking to me and said that today he was buying my coffee. I insisted that I really didn't want him to do that but he went on to talk to me for five minutes about how nice I am because I always greet everyone and smile everyday when I walk by or stop. In the end there was no arguing with him because he said I simply wasnt paying.
Would that happen at home? Would someone buy you coffee just because you smiled and said hi everyday? I guess maybe but I feel like it's a rarity. It made up for the fact that on Saturday I angered a group of people by not greeting them. Alex and I were spending the day together at his friend's place and I left to use the restroom which was seperate from the house. There was a group of people who stared at me as I gazed around so I explained to them what I was doing. They told me not very nicely where the bathroom was and as I walked away I heard them all yelling at me about not greeting them. Alex said I have to get better at greeting everyone and apparently he's right because it pays off!
That doesn't compare to the embarrassing moment last week when I felt totally defeated by a little girl. In Senegal there's a lot of poverty so on a daily basis your walking past little hands asking you for change. It's hard and you give and give to them but there are always more. So, I was sitting and reading in the "park" (or shaded area with some benches in the median of the street) ... actually, I was sitting with some chic who came up and sat with me. Alex had told me a few days earlier when we saw her there that she was crazy. Oh well, it was a little uncomfortable at first but we talked and she seemed harmless. Anyway, a little girl about the age of 8 approached me with her pretty little sister at her side. She had her hand out and said "Bonjour". I responded with the automatic, "sorry, I dont have any money" but I did not get the response I was expecting. She said, "what, I didn't say that; I was just saying hello". Talk about feeling guilty.
Korite was so great seeing all the little kids in their new attire. So stinkin' cute you could just go around pinching cheeks all day. Senegalese people are just beautiful. Our group always jokes that men are their last unexploited resource. It's true; they should really send modeling agents here. Okay, time for Wolof...

Dakar daily

Last night was awesome. I actually slept almost all night without waking up at all. Not that I don't sleep here; I sleep more than any time since I was like... well maybe since ever. The heat really just wears everyone out and by the time I get home and take a shower and have dinner I'm usually ready to pass out around 10 or 11. Pathetic, I know. Regardless, last night may have been the coolest evening since being here. Secondly, usually cool has it's downsides like when it's cool because it's really windy which also means that my mosquito net refuses to stay attached to my bed and envelopes me in it. This is enough to make a person go absolutely mad! A few times I've woken up in the middle of the night and wanted to bawl my eyes out in frustration. Once I decided screw the stupid thing and hung it up but then I couldn't sleep because I could feel little bastard mosquitoes as they made a meal of me. Therefore, I usually opt for being wrapped in the net rather than being eaten since being eaten usually leads to itching to a degree I've never known before. Itching that you can't stop scratching to the extent that you become animal-like. Anyway, there's that problem with the cool evenings or there's the cool evenings that are only cool because it's about to rain. Don't get me wrong, I totally love rain and the storms here are unbelievable. They last forever and it rains super hard and they have cloud to cloud lightning which is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in the sky. However, in my room when it rains it means I have to close my window because the rain comes in and onto my bed. This converts my tiny room into a virtual sauna which as you might imagine is not fun for sleeping. So, I am very grateful for the comfortable evening last night with no catch.

Korite = mange-ing

Today is the end of Ramadan and I don't really feel like moving much because I ate so much food. My family is Catholic so I was really shocked when they had me come downstairs for a traditional korite breakfast of millet and what they call milk. (It's actually something like powdered sugar and hot water but who really cares anyway) What seemed like just a few hours later I came down again for what seemed like a regular lunch. We had a new visitor who kept insisting that I believe in God which was really beginning to make me uncomfortable. I figure I'm not asking anyone not to believe in God so why can't they just not insist that I do? Then I was finally informed that he was my family's priest which I found mildly amusing. He's the first priest I ever told that I was atheist but I'm not ashamed of it; it's just what I believe. I wonder if my family is totally praying extra hard every night to forgive them for letting a sinning non-believer live in their house. I told them I'd go to mass, no problem and the first Sunday I was here I got all dressed for it and everything and no one even told me that it was already over. I figure maybe they're scared the church will go up in flames or something if I walk in with them. I can't blame them, they might be right.

Anyway, we ate our regular meal and the priest gave me lots of Senegalese beer (Catholics) and as usual once I had quit eating everyone insisted that I keep eating and I insisted that I could not do so. I don't know why they do this really. I am totally used to it now and just wait once I've put my spoon down to hear someone say it because it rarely ever fails. Today was not as always however because after I had stuffed myself full of couscous with sauce carrots and manioc and beef, they moved the dish and replaced it with an entirely different meal. Round 2. I knew they would never let me get away with not eating so I dug in. That was about 5 hours ago now and I can't think of food yet I know that I'll be returning soon to another meal; hopefully less filling. I suppose it's a good thing that I had just a salad last night and was actually feeling a little hungry for once. Salad is such an excitement here. It's so rare because most vegetables aren't safe. as some of our group discovered after a vegetarian dinner which had them all running to the bathroom for days. The only vegetables you can eat are apparently expensive so I cannot express my delight in getting handed a bowl of greens last night. It is my favorite food back home.
I'm really glad to be going back to class tomorrow; assuming that's what's going to happen. Senegal is such an example of disorganization. We had to wait until last night to know if we'd have class today. No one really seems able to explain why but it's something to do with seeing the moon and knowing if today was the holiday or not. And apparently about half the country got the moon all wrong in the beginning because everyone is still waiting on the president to announce if people have to work tomorrow or not. That's a pretty good example of everything here. It's no wonder the people are so patient and easygoing. They really have no choice.
I feel disgruntled that I hadn't begun keeping a travel blog sooner. I've spent most of my life being thoroughly against public journals. In keeping a journal since I was 12 I always thought it was the one thing I could have all to myself. Yet, in traveling it's a lot harder to write things with a pen and paper because it's so overwhelming you almost can't write fast enough by hand. Nothing I've ever said of any of my travels has ever done any of the experiences any justice. Not to be 15 or anything but I must admit that I still completely love John Mayer. I think he describes my feelings about traveling better than anything else I've heard in the song 3X5. http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/john+mayer/3x5_20074304.html
Particularly striking to me are the lines:Maybe I will tell you all about it when imIn the mood to lose my way with words Today I finally overcameTryin to fit the world inside a picture frame
I actually had this exact experience when I was in Bacharach, Germany. I had travelled the seven hours by train all alone and the sights of this itty little German village in the Rhine Valley were amazing. It was so much different from Leipzig where I had been living. I climbed this mountain to a castle/hostel and kept snapping photos trying desperately to capture what I was seeing for all the people I wished could've been there with me. No matter how many I took I couldn't be satisfied. The scope of my camera just wasn't capable of really seeing what I was. Finally I decided, to hell with it! I'm here! I need to be seeing this myself.
The same thing happens everytime people ask me how my travels are. I have been so many places and seen so many things and there's so much to say and yet all I ever seem able to come up with is something totally lacking like "yeah, it's great!". So, I'm hoping this blog can be an attempt at saying better the things I haven't been saying now that I'm in like my 11th country or something like that.
Anyway, I have 15 more minutes to blow before I have to register for my classes and I'm currently sitting in the computer lab at my school all by myself and it's dark and today was long and I just want to go home really so I'm just going to keep on typing until 8 pm. This is my last week of classes and next week begins my internship. I had been under the impression that we all started working November 1 but according to Alex that's the holiday for the dead or something and no one works. Oh the ambiguity.
I know that I'm going to be working in a health clinic nearby and I keep wondering how on earth I wound up saying I wanted to do that. I must've had some mental lapse and forgotten who I was or something. I have a weak stomach and know absolutely zilch about medicine. Apparently Africa is the place to learn because they don't care if you know anything- if you're white they'll just throw you in and give you a few weeks to figure things out and then call you a doctor or something! Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little but I am really thrown off by the fact that I'm apparently going to be qualified to do something actually medical at some point during the next 8 weeks. Everytime I'm with Alex he tells me "tu aime les petits" (you love kids/little people) and now I'm so mad at myself for not saying that I wanted an internship working with kids! Why did someone else have to point this fact out to me?! Regardless, I'm excited for the experience despite how completely retarded I'm most likely going to feel there. They're I'm sure going to be throwing out medical terminology in Wolof and French that I wouldn't even understand in English.
Oh Wolof... that's a funny subject too. My Wolof class is just a bit ridiculous. I'm pretty certain based on my education of teaching languages that the curriculum at my language school hasn't changed one bit since about 1970. My teacher gets a kick out of my hysterical and uncontrollable laughter at some of the flashcards we use in class. As a result of this ridiculous curriculum we do over and over again countless dialogues. We spend soooo much time doing this. It works; we totally remember them. Everyone in our group walks around saying "Laayla, tubaab bi degg na wolof!" (My God, this white person speaks Wolof) But, try having a real conversation when all you know is a memorized dialogue. You're fine until someone changes it up on you a little and then all hell breaks loose and you look like a total moron. Oh well, everyone is amused regardless that you can even say two words in their language. Plus, they're just glad you're white and you're not French. Americans are such a commodity over here; I've never felt so special in all my life! Anyway, time to register and get home for some more mange-ing (eating, with a touch of English)

Sweat and R&B

Sundays in Senegal are slowish. Regardless, things are on the up and up. I spent yesterday with Alex. I'm amazed at how incredibly nice his friend Francois is. He did so much for us! I wonder if his friends just want me to marry him and bring him to the US so they're trying to help him out. I guess maybe they're just nice.
I'm pretty sure that my family does like me now. Maybe it was just a bad week before. Today they insisted that I eat vegetables and meat during lunch. This made up for the other night when I felt like they took all the vegetables out of my section which had to be a sign of hatred. I think I'm not giving enough credit to cultural differences and misunderstandings and simply jumping the gun with the assumption that they don't like me.

It's hard to believe that our seventh week is over. No classes tomorrow for coreytee which I have no clue how to spell. I'm glad that Ramadan is over. Maybe I'm not very patient with religion. I had respect for Ramadan at first because I thought the purpose of fasting was to better understand poverty. I was really frustrated to learn that even the hungry fast during the month. I fasted two days and I did not feel like I found any new solidarity in my life; I just felt ill. It also gets really tiring when your teachers are too tired to teach because they're fasting. That would never fly at home. But maybe that's me being culturally insensitive because religion is more personal than being professional and maybe that should be more important.
It's so hot lately. I cannot wait for cooler weather. I am pretty used to sweating and it doesn't really bother me all that much anymore I guess. It'd just be nice to stop.
I have been thinking about home a little more lately. It's the halfway point when you start to think about things like that. I cried when I was with Alex yesterday about my grandma. That was the first time I really felt like I was in a safe place and had someone there who cared about me. He was really sad to see me crying but he made me walk to the telecentre later in the evening and call home. I love that he's so thoughtful. He was so surprised yesterday when I told him that I had told my family I had a boyfriend. He said he was going to write a letter to my mom. I think it's adorable.
I just looked at Benny's myspace profile and saw that his cousin passed away recently. The other day a girl in another program was sitting and chatting with us when her mom called to tell her that her father had passed away. He had been terminally ill and she was sort of expecting it but it was still such a reality check. I hadn't thought of Benny a lot lately. I miss him, though. He was so much fun this summer. I am tired of leaving people. Now I'm here and with Alex and soon I will leave him forever just like Benny. It's nice to meet so many different people but I don't like having to say goodbye all the time.
I feel like I'm finally accepting the fact that I'm actually an adult despite the fact that I don't feel smart enough or brave enough or responsible enough for that title. I still feel like a kid about to get shoved out of college in 8 months into a huge unknown. My whole life all I've done is be a student. For the first time ever I don't know where I'm going to be in a year. It's horrifying. Being an adult is stupid! I'm not finished learning, I don't feel like I could be useful in any profession yet. Why don't they just let me stay in college?!