75 and Sunny!

Hello!

There is just so much to say.  I’m still really enjoying myself here.  My family is wonderful and everyone that works at ACI is very kind.  Yesterday we went downtown in small groups.  We took these bus type things down there.  You have to flag down the bus, then the back door is opened by someone hanging out the back and you climb in and squeeze your way as far us as you can.  There were all sorts of decorations inside the bus and some beautiful Senegalese music blasting.  It was quite the experience.  The whole traffic situation here is insane.  I don’t really have the words for it.  There really don’t seem to be rules.  (Quick side note, the sheep in my house are making the weirdest noise right now! I found out today that most people keep sheep all year round to then kill for this huge Muslim holiday.  I guess we’re not going to be here for it though.  Also, the sheep look like goats, just to help you get a picture in your mind.) Back to the traffic: there are no stop lights, signs, crosswalks, lines.  It’s just a free for all.  It’s pretty wild.  You’d have to experience it yourself to really understand.  So yeah, we went downtown on these crazy buses and walked around a while.  It was very crowded.  We went into the biggest Cathedral in Dakar and it was beautiful.  Very pretty.  I wish I had pictures, but it’s easier to leave everything at ACI when we go out and about because there are pickpockets everywhere.  We also saw the white house where the president lives, which was pretty cool.  We ate lunch at a traditional Senegalese restaurant and had something called mafe (ma-fay).  It was some sort of meat with peanuty sauce over rice.  Traditionally, the Senegalese eat rice for lunch every day.  We’ll see.  We also got some juice made from the fruit of the baobab tree.  It was pretty tasty.  Kind of like candy necklaces, we decided.  Last night was nice.  I hung out with my older host brother Muhammad for a bit.  He wants me to teach him English.  He was asking me about life in the U.S.  It was fun.  Today we went downtown again and walked through a cool market.  We ate lunch at a kind of fast food restaurant, which wasn’t too bad.  We had an early lunch, 11:30 or so.  Before 1PM, there’s nowhere that sells traditional food.  We tried a new juice today called Bissap which is made from the flower of some plant.  It was pretty sweet and very flavorful.  I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like it before. 

This afternoon we had our first Wolof lesson.  Our group was split in two, so there were only four of us in my class, which is great.  It was intense though.  Lots to take in. I was glad to finally see some Wolof written down though.  I keep hearing these words said, but it’s really hard to visualize and really tell where one word stops and another starts.  We learned quite a bit actually.  This is how you greet people:

-Asalamaale’kum (Hello)

-Male’kumsalaam (Hello)

-Na nga def? (How are you?)

-Maa ngi fi rekk. (Fine.  Literally: I’m here.)

-Ana waa ker ga? (How’s the family? Literally: Where are the people who live in your house? )

-Nu nga fa. (Fine.  Literally: They’re there.)

-Alhamdulilay! (Thank God!)

And then you’re free to go about with the rest of your conversation.  Sometimes it’s shortened, sometimes it’s a little different, but I’m still trying to figure all that out. We also learned how to talk about names.  This is good because my littlest brother Musafa keeps calling me “Toubab” which means white person (it’s not rude or offensive, they just use it as a way to tell the difference between people).  But, I know he knows my name because they all say it all the time, so now I can ask him what my name is in Wolof (he doesn’t speak French, yet insists on talking to me all the time like I know what he’s saying, it’s pretty cute.)  It’s interesting here because automatically, everyone assumes you speak French mostly, but on top of that, a lot of people just speak in Wolof to me anyway.  I guess that’s cool, but really, do I look like I understand Wolof? (The answer is no).  It’s beautiful to listen to though.  It’s got a very nice rhythm to it, almost like a song. 

The boys still love “Goodnight Gorilla”.  They are literally loving it to pieces.  I came home to day and after being greeted, one of the little boys showed me the book and the spine is broken, the cover is almost off, and the pages are all brown and dirty around the edges.  It looks like it’s 20 years old!  I gave it to them two days ago haha.  I’m very happy about it though because it means they like it!

There are a couple things I want to say that I like about Senegalese culture.  One is their religious tolerance.  Everyone openly accepts all religions essentially, which I think is pretty cool.  As long as you believe in God, you’re set.  My family is Muslim and they pray a lot.  I swear the grandma is always praying under her breath.  At certain times of day, like when the father gets home, they will set up little mats and do these full body prayers, almost like yoga.  It’s really quite intense and beautiful.  Apparently though, even Muslims celebrate Christmas, and Catholics celebrate big Muslim holidays.  It’s kind of funny.  I guess the Senegalese just like excuses to dress up and party.  That being said, they have no concept of Atheism or anything like that.  It’s just not really possible for them.  So if you say you don’t believe in God, they will definitely try to convert you.  Which leads me into another thing I enjoy about Senegalese culture.  They believe firmly in the value of white lies.  They think that a lie to keep people together, is better than a truth that will tear them apart.  Now I’m not a big fan of lying myself, but I think that if it’s cultural and happily accepted, I think it’s kind of nice. 

Tomorrow we have more culture orientation and we will have a traditional Senegalese lunch at school called chebujen.  I’ll have to let you know how it goes! Enjoy the snow Seattleites!