New Baby in My Family!!!!

What a weekend! Saturday dawned early with Wolof class (only at 9, but still, a Saturday class). We have class for two hours at a time usually, but one thing I am learning is that it usually only ends up being 1.5 hours. At the Baobab center we always take a “short” break for coffee or tea in the middle of the two hours. All of us sit around for a while chatting and don’t end up getting back into the classroom for at least 20 minutes. We also end up getting off topic; today we talked with our teacher about why he doesn’t cook for himself…he sounded like the typical bachelor. After class on Saturday I went back home where I met my cousin, also Sally, who brought me and Sandra (another girl in the program) to the market to buy fabric for our new Korite clothing. Reflecting on my first venture into a Senegalese market, it followed all descriptions of craziness. There were thousands of people in quite a small area. What at first glance seemed to be totally haphazard stalls, really was a general conglomeration of similar products organized into different sections. So nerdy to say this, but my best description would be to compare it to my version of Diagon Alley. When we first got into the market we pushed our way in to a stall that sold fabric, looked around for a while and then all of a sudden Sally pulled me through a random little opening between two stalls and it was like appearing in the middle of a completely different place! I was surrounded by a multitude of stalls all advertising their wares with brilliantly colored cloth. It was a lot of fun to look at all of the cloth, although a little overwhelming because there were so many different kinds to choose from. I decided on what I wanted pretty quickly, although ironically it proved to be kind of hard to find. I ended up choosing medium blend cotton, teal blue, with gold threading in it. It came with a matching head wrap which I am rather pumped to wear, true Senegalese style!

Saturday night I “went out” with Douds. Because it is Ramadan things are much slower paced; most clubs and bars are closed, and everyone just “chills” as Douds likes to put it. We went to his neighborhood hangout where I met a bunch of his friends. He has known all of them since he was born; kind of cool that the “neighborhood gang” has been together for all of these years. After an hour or two Douds and I walked over to another hangout, an American fast food place called Ceasars. We just sat and talked for a couple hours while I got an ice cream, what a treat! Douds is an awesome host brother, while we hung out with his friends he would periodically stop to explain to me what was going on. The relationships they have with each other are fun to observe. They speak in a mixture of Wolof, French, and “cool/gangsta” English words. When it was just Douds and I at Ceasars, we had some really fun conversations; he taught me some “street slang” (aka somewhat bad words, hehehe) and we just joked around for a while. I surprised myself by being able to understand as well as crack jokes in French, something I’m rarely able to do in English, let alone another language. All in all, a good night.

Sunday was also an early morning, seeing as how I didn’t get to bed until 3am (and Douds even brought me home early, he went back out again after walking me home)! On Friday the entire group of girls had decided to go to l’ile de Madeleine, an island off the coast of Dakar. With Cath’s host brother leading, bright and early we set off on foot, to the departure point for the island. When we finally got there we had to take two boats as one was already partially filled with another group. It is a 40 minute round trip so I along with 5 others waited for the return boat. As I approached the island on the boat my breath was caught by the majesty of the dark rocks, jutting straight up from the ocean floor. To get onto the island the boat has to dart in between the cliffs and dock at a small rock pier. With the waves crashing against the sides of the island it looked a bit perilous, but as soon as we entered the little islet the waves calmed and I saw little pockets where the waves had carved out little pools for swimming in. There was one tree on the whole island so shade was hard to come by, but the sun felt great since I was in a swimsuit and had the ocean at my feet. Of course after about an hour, I could feel the UV rays rocking my unseasoned skin so a little late I frantically applied the SPF. The burn hasn’t been that bad because I thankfully brought aloe here, my only complaint could be the wicked suntan lines I have now acquired. I stayed later with part of the group which ended up being an excellent choice because it cooled down significantly later in the afternoon and we were able to experience the island at a more pleasant temperature. Last night I stayed up despite my sun exhaustion to watch Douds at the coiffure. Senegalese are very fastidious with their appearance, taking care to always look good. He goes to the “hairdresser” twice a week to get his head and facial hair shaved. Chalk that one up to a sweet Senegalese experience.

Today I had normal Wolof classes as well as a cultural session on the Senegalese education system. The exciting news of the day was that Sals (my older sister) just had her baby!! A little girl. She has yet to name her, but the christening will probably be next Monday. I’m so excited to be able to be a part of it all. The whole family is very happy as both the baby and Sals are healthy. Tomorrow I will get to go visit her at the clinic, I can’t wait.