some one else's life

---

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 didn't come with any instructions or "this side up" stickers - the guy just gave us the paddles and waved adieu. (Luckily it wasn't hard to figure out.) The wind was really strong and so we headed out into the wind in order to have an easy return trip, but then we took a little rest and just floated for awhile, not noticing that the wind was blowing us way back past where we started from! So not only did we have to work hard to fight the wind on the way back, we were also lost! It was so funny. We returned about 20 minutes late but I got the impression we could've stayed out a couple more hours and it wouldn't really have mattered to the guy working there. In other news, for Mardi Gras my family made crepes and chocolate chip cookies and they were unbelievably delicious, and then I went to a costume party at the parish that night. I didn't have a disguise but I went to go see the others and take some pictures. There were quite a few guys with make up and high heels! Last Wednesday I went to watch a soccer game (the Senegal Lions vs Norway) which was really cool (Senegal won 2-0), and after the game there was this huge benefit concert for PLAN which is a project for the youth of Africa. There was Youssou Ndour, Vivienne Ndour, Lauren Hill, some random Norwegian rock stars, the lady who sings that song "because the night belongs to lovers, because the night belongs to love!"(or however it goes - she wasn't too popular with the Senegalese audience) and a reggae group, and more. The best part was Angelique Kidjo, who completely ROCKED, although she only sang a few songs. And, as usual in Senegal, it didn't get started until long after dark and continued to the wee hours! The next day we took a group field trip to Touba, which is the holy city of the Mouride Brotherhood, the largest and most powerful Moslem brotherhood in Senegal. The mosque was incredibly beautiful. We all had to wear head coverings and long skirts and long sleeves, but we were allowed in the mosque despite being infidels. I took a lot of pictures.
On Saturday morning I was without inspiration regarding a couple papers I had to write so I installed myself in the kitchen where Valerie and Amina were making ceebujen (the famed Senegalese dish of rice and fish) and so I now have a faint idea of how to go about making it. Only some of the ingredients I only know the Wolof names for, and am not sure of their availability in the US, so that might pose some difficulties. It was really fun though. I also had some good bonding time with them and Nabou on Friday night, when I was going to go out dancing but had horrible hair. I asked them if they could do anything with it and the result was a ton of hair oil and bobby pins and laughing. Yesterday was Nabou's birthday but she wouldn't tell me how old she was! It's hard to guess ages here. It turns out Antonin (my host dad whose name I have been misspelling for a month) is 36 although I thought he was maybe 25 when I first met him. So Nabou might be 20 or 25 or 30 or so.
Anyway, I hope you are all doing well, life is good here! Have a good Lent and write me if you have time, I love mail!
peace out
Nina

---

Comments

[Heidi]

Wow
Sounds like a tons of fun!!! Keep on immeresing yourself then the language will come even better? you improving on you French? Hope you keep on having fun and being safe. heidi

[Emily]

kayaks
what!?!? You're telling me this beats Dillon Nature Camp? come on christina... ahaha just kidding

[Jeremy Davis]

Good stuff
I am sitting here with the geek squad (Meyer,Clayton and me) and I was just telling them how I can read your journal entries and it brightens my day! Keep the entries up!

[hannah gross]

Hi Christina!
Sounds amazing in the life of the senegal girl missing in Achi-action! Rafting and Mardi Gras and all sounds amazing, much better than what Levin told me about the bugs (lol)! I miss you alot and pray you have an amazing lent! Run once for me!