Blogs from Cape Verde Peninsula, Senegal, Africa - page 17

Hello! I seem to have accidently fallen out of my life and stepped into someone else's - I keep doing all these incredible things! For example, Saturday afternoon found me floating around in a sea kayak - since when does this Kansas girl do things like paddle around off the coast of Africa!?! It was really fun. I had never really been on the ocean before except the ferry to Goree Island which doesn't really count. So on Saturday morning I met up with my friend Shanta (another MSID student) and we went to this place on the southern coast of Dakar and rented kayaks (3000 Fcfa for an hour - about 6 dollars). I'd never been in a kayak before but maybe we acted like we knew what we were doing because the boats sure ... read more

Hi! I realize it's been awhile since I've written, but I have several good excuses. First of all, we've been keeping pretty busy visiting places and writing papers (we have ridiculous amounts of papers due, actually) and also a power plant somewhere isn't functioning or something, so there have been extended power outages every day this week (thus no computer) But to pick up where I left off last time... The American Embassy (well, actually we were at the ambassador's estate) was everything I imagined - green grass and lawn chairs, jazz music, coca cola with ice, and gentle spatterings of applause. We haven't actually had an ambassador to Senegal for some time but now they're in the process of instating someone. The point of the meeting was to give us advice such as: don't walk ... read more

hello! hope this finds you well, my life here just seems to be getting better all the time. Except for sometimes I do things and immediately afterward wonder why (for example volunteering to give a presentation in my theory of development class.) I don't know what came over me. The power goes out fairly often here, and it happened again Saturday night. Well, it was too dark to do homework so that left nothing to do but dance in the courtyard to the music on the little battery-powered radio with Anima and Valerie and the baby. And it was a good thing I got that practice in, because later I went to a soiree at this place called Restaurant Petit Dakar in my neighborhood. It started at 11 pm and I danced danced danced! non-stop all ... read more

Hello! Yesterday was my favorite day here so far. In the morning we went to an African art museum which was really neat and also a photo exhibition called "Dakar Etouffe" which means "Dakar is choking." They were photos of the city illustrating some of the problems of urbanization. Then we had lunch at the home of one of the people connected with MSID - a traditional Senegalese dish called ceeb-ou-jeen (I'm not sure of the spelling), which means fish and rice. The food here is REALLY good. After lunch we all hurried home to watch the Senegal v. Ghana match of the African Cup. Soccer is huge here, and this was an important match. Our Wolof classes were cancelled since they were at the same time as the game, and people were getting off work ... read more

Hello from Dakar! This place is fantastic and I love it. We arrived early Monday morning and stayed at the guest house of the National Olympic Pool for the night (all the hotels were booked) and then were taken to our host family houses Tuesday. My host family is Catholic, although 95% of the country is Moslem. My host parents are a young couple named Anthone and Rosa Sarr, with a 15 month old daughter Carol-Louise. Also two of Rosa's cousins, Paul and Nabou (both in their twenties or thirties I'm pretty sure) live with us, and there are two live-in maids, Anima and Valerie, as well. They are all so nice! I'd put a picture on but I forgot to bring the photo software disc with me today. I have my own room, and there ... read more