Much relieved

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After going to Washington, D.C. July 31st through August 3rd, I am feeling much better. I met my exchange partner there, as well as the other two American Fulbrighter single women who will live in the same apartment building as I and the other two Senegalese teachers who will teach in Colorado and Boston. My exchange partner is a real delight....very funny, smart, excellent French and English. I think he'll do fine at Bullard. I've shown him around Fresno (Fig Garden, Tower District, TARGET!, Al Rico Tacos, Toledos, In-N-Out, the West Side, Fresno High area, etc.) and he'll go to the mountains w/ a colleague and see Huntington Lake this Tuesday. He loves it so far.
As for me, I really like the other women that will be on this adventure with me. The American Fulbrighter who just returned from Senegal was very reassuring about how I'd get along teaching and living in Senegal. She LOVED her year there.....great food, very very warm people, relaxed life style, had several clothes made from native cloth, vacationed in Mali, hiked on an uninhabited island right off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, etc.
But the BEST for me is that I'll live TWO BLOCKS from the beach!! that I've already been able to make jokes in Wolof (the major dialect spoken in Senegal) with the newly arrived Senegalese teachers. I realize I don't have to pack nearly as much as I thought. I'm excited about seeing the places highlighted in Ashley's photo album.
I'm STILL in Fresno (in case I confused anyone by setting up the blog early) and don't leave until August 28th. SO MUCH to do before then. Tomorrow will include helping Adama set up his banking and housing and getting his fingerprints so he can teach in the district.

Hard to believe that in 3 weeks I'll be on a plane to the huge continent of Africa creating my own new small world with new routines of carting my 5 litre jugs of water up the stairs to my 6th floor apartment, buying propane to cook with at the gas station across the street, picking out material for a tailor to make me a traditional boubou (traditional dress) out of some colorful African fabric and eating maffe (peanut sauce w/ meat over rice) and djiboujen (rice w/ fish). Adama says I am already 'very African' in my ways and that I should fit right in.

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