I would just like to take a moment at the beginning of this blog to express my frustration about African internet.  I renounce all my complaints about Jordanian internet; that was nothing.  The standard here is so low, I couldn’t put my finger under it.  Anyway, it’s not the worst problem in the world, but it is truly amazing how frustrating a simple thing like an internet connection can be. 

Now on to more exciting things, and some pictures provided the internet holds up okay.  (edit: the pictures won't upload at the minute, but I'll try again soon)   

First of all, let’s start with my host family.  The concept of a big family doesn’t quite capture the Senegalese family, or my Senegalese family.  Here, people refer to cousins as sisters and brothers, and that’s just the beginning of the confusion.  Living in my house are the following people: me, my host mother and father, their daughter, three cousins, one grandchild, and two maids who are like family members.  That’s on an average night when we don’t have guests.  It’s also customary to always welcome anyone who comes by to eat with you, so oftentimes there are 8-12 people eating lunch at my house.  Most often, the guests we have are host Maman and Pappa’s grandsons: Sidi, Pappi and Iba.  They are 2, 10 and 6 and I love it so much when they come over.  A lot of times, we do homework together.  Hopefully soon I will be allowed to take Iba and Pappi out for ice cream. Here’s a picture of Sedat, my host nephew (I suppose) who lives in my house:

I have my own room here (no American roommate, yay!) which is such a luxury.  I sleep on a couple of foam pads on top of a wicker bed frame, under a DEET-impregnated mosquito net which has an altogether cozy, rustic effect.  The power, which is controlled by the government, goes out for about half to three quarters of the day, so I’ve been doing homework and reading by LED lantern a lot of nights.  A lot of times, I just pretend I’m camping and then it feels like more of an adventure than an inconvenience.  

On Thursday, we didn’t have class in the afternoon, so a number of us headed off the beach near N’Gor island, to the north of Dakar.  It cost about $1.50 for the ten minute cab ride there, if you can imagine that.  It was pretty windy and cold, so I didn’t swim, but I did laze about in the sand. 

Last night, I went to see Youssou N’dour in concert.  I had been listening to his music for about a year before last night, and it was so cool to see him live with his enormous band.  I was in the standing area in front with all the kids from my programme, and for a while we were trying to dance, but the French people kept telling us to sit down.  Only the French would go to a lively Senegalese concert and demand that people sit instead of dancing.  It was slightly less than outrageous.  But, eventually people just couldn’t stand it anymore and we all had to get up and move to the music.  It was too contagious to resist.  I spent about half the concert right under Youssou’s lovely, sweaty head.  It was awesome.  Here, have some photographic depiction:

So far, one of the coolest things I’ve learned just from being here is how little water it actually takes to get thoroughly clean.  The water I use to get clean is always cold, so it’s a great incentive not to waste it, unlike hot water.  I could spend fifteen minutes in a hot shower, and I know that’s not as bad as some people.  Also, I haven’t shaved my armpits or legs in the two weeks that I’ve been here.  I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to live with this new monkey-like me, but I’m giving it a fair shot, I guess.