What I've been up to

One thing and another happens and then what do you know, I've gone three weeks without posting a thing! I've been here a little over a month now, and I'm doing really well! I love my routine, my classes, and goodness me, I really do love the food! Tabaski last Friday was a true feast - my host family celebrated by inviting a dozen or so of our neighbors over for a meal of freshly killed mutton and homemade potato chips, along with fresh salad and several kinds of juice. Then, we all went to two of the neighbor's houses to eat there as well! I felt a bit like Six Dinner Sid when we were finished!

I know in an earlier entry I mentioned the animals my host family kept were goats. I have since been informed that the sheep here have hair like goats rather than wool, and it is fairly common for Americans to mistake them for goats. I would now like to post a correction: my host family keeps sheep. I've learned now to recognize the differences in body type and horn so I can tell the difference between the two types of animals (sheep have curly horns and are bigger, goats have straight horns and are smaller). Not the first silly mistake I've made, and I'm sure it won't be the last either.

In the evening on Tabaski, everyone gets dressed up in their new clothes and goes visiting (or out on the town). Here's a picture of me in my lovely taibasse (two-piece, skirt and top outfit).

Last Saturday some friends and I went up to Les Almandies to stand on the Westernmost point of Africa, which was rather exciting. We got some gelato and walked along the shoreline road for a couple hours. We got to see the American embassy from the outside - I've seen a lot of embassies in the city, but none quite so grandiose as ours! Photos of its immenseness are forbidden, sadly.

This past week my classes took a few field trips around the city. On Monday, my sustainability class went to the suburb of Medina, to get a sense of how waste management and infrastructure work in less affluent areas. We also visited the offices of the company Maison de l'Artemisia, which manufactures an herbal preventative for malaria (their website doesn't seem to be working at the moment, but I linked it anyways).

Tuesday my French class went to the University of Cheikh Anta Diop, where our French instructor is an English professor. It's a sprawling campus filled with sand, palm trees, and the beige stucco buildings so common here. I have to say they make a nice break from all the brick I'm used to on American campuses!

All photo credits to Noah Nieting, who remembered his camera the day I forgot mine.

Dorms on the left, restaurants and shops on the right.

The whole class in front of the library - Professor Pame in the back, Casi, Claire, me and Noah in the middle, and Rika taking the photo!

Wednesday we piled into taxis to Yoff, to meet a Lebou priestess, as we've been learning about traditional religious practices. She talked to us about the work she does, which includes advising people about spiritual and physical ailments, as well as sacrifices of chickens and, once a year, a bull.

It's been a really great first month, and I can't wait to see what else Senegal has in store for me. I'll post some more pictures next week following our class trip to Toubacouta this weekend!