Lists

If you were to go on a scavenger hunt in Dakar you would have no problem finding any of the following:

• Animals-mostly sheep, goats, cats, and dogs but sometimes chickens as well and...
• Horses pulling carts-the Senegalese equivilant of a pickup truck
• Garbage absoultely everywhere-sometimes it's being burned in huge piles which helps with finding...
• Smells of all sorts: perfume, meat, fish, smoke, incense, rot, animal, and many which I still cannot identify
• Men wanting your phone number and offering you their hand in marriage (if you're a white female) I already have about 4 Senegalese husbands and counting. It's flattering until you realize you're just a status symbol (for the most part) and baffling because a short, squat, awkward, bug-bitten whitey is nothing next to the beautiful African goddesses who also call this place home
• People selling all sorts of delicious goods such as crack peanuts (sugar-coated peanuts), fruit (so fresh and tasty), cafe touba, and bizarre sandwiches consisting of a combination of fries, mayo, msg buillon (that they use in everything), catsup, spagetti, and a fried egg(who thought of this? would you like some carbs and grease with your other carbs and grease?) or a mush of beans and spices or just spread with chocopan (Senegal's peanut equivilant of nutella)
• Track suits-when people here exercise, they take their attire seriously. Actually, they take all attire seriously and another common sighting is...
• Boubous in stunning patternes and colors, often with matching headscarves (more stylish than religious at this point)

Here are a few of my favorite wolof words/phrases-they're written phonetically so you get an idea of how much fun they are to say:

• Boogana-I want/like. The Wolof language is direct and the verb boog just makes sense: when you like something you usually want it and vise versa. This phrase can be used as a pickup line.
• Jyfunday(noun)-This word describes a plump figure, especifically a woman's rear end. It's a very good thing here. It stems from the word funday which is similar to rice pudding and the prefix of jy means someone who sells. So the jyfunday lady would eat all of her leftovers and get a little curvy and the men would love it.
• Psyy-psyy(adj)-This word is tricky because it means different things to different people(sometimes good sometimes bad). Some definitions include: player, sketchster, sneeky, bandit, spunky, confident....etc.
• Alihumdelilay-Thanks be to God. I say this everyday when crossing the busy street on the way home.

Too much to write. Too much to say. We've also been super busy with a minimum of 5hrs of class a day and planned weekend trips. Blogging is a pain especially with crappy keyboards, but I'll keep trying to keep you guys informed. Also, no spell check=your problem. Excuses excuses but, in the end, I love you all!

This post is not consistant

So, before I write another post I wanted to get you guys some photos that have been hanging out in my camera for a while.
These are all from Ile de Goree. It's an island just south of Dakar that we visited the first weekend. It's in a pretty sweet location so there were lots of battles over it resulting in some very interesting Portuguese/French architecture. It was also one of the main slave trade islands so there's a pretty sad history to go along with the beautiful little island. They say it looks like a piece of cheese, I'm not convinced.

This is my bedroom. It's cozy and I share it with numerous critters. My mosquito net keeps them off my body while I sleep as well as making me feel like a princess. Score.
ATAYA!! You have to pour it from unbelievable heights to make the prized foam that sits atop the sugar tea. I'm not good at it YET but I bought a set and am going to practice until I am a master. Be ready.
Ramadan. My hero. This man is the kindest man in all of Senegal which is really saying something because the country is all about hospitality. He sells us cafe Touba and teaches us Wolof and culture. He makes up words and songs. Example: Jeunehommnomm. He answers "tranquil" with a rolled r when you ask him how he's doing. He gave us all Senegalese names. Mine is Fatukiné. His American name is Toby. Last weekend he invited us to his house to learn how to cook traditional food with his sister (the woman making tea). I will definitely be writing more on him in the near future.

Love love.

Proof

This is the mansion I live in, unfortunately, this photo doesn't do it justice because it goes on and on to the right. I recently found out there's another story meaning it's 4 stories high. I also recently met yet another inhabitant: a guy from the Ivory Coast who is studying to be a doctor. I've recently been spending some time with him and his friends (from Chad and Morocco) who are both interesting and who speak French unlike most of the Senegalese youth who chatter away in Wolof right in front of the Toubab's (whitey's) face.

I was trying to somehow show how enormous the African Renaissance statue is. It's to the left of Sean's giant head. Lots of money was questionably spent on that bad boy (not Sean).
MAM!!! The process before taking this photo was fascinating. I motioned to her that I wanted to take a photo of her which resulted in a good 5minutes of primping and prepping. She had to rewrap her headscarf, check herself out in the mirror from all angles, and finally drape her veil just so. Then she just sat, not smiling (a shame) looking straight forward until I told her I was done. Most recent Mam story: this morning she asked me if I was coming home midday for lunch by asking "midi?" and motioning eating. I answered "waaw" (meaning yes in Wolof) at which she immediately began to enthusiastically chant/sing "midi! midi! midi!" as I ate my breakfast.
This is a "car rapide" which is essentially a short bus covered in folk art with seating in the back and a man hanging off yelling where it's headed. They're everywhere, going in all directions. Ironically, they're the opposite of "rapide" as they're mostly falling apart and much worse at weaving in and out of traffic than the numerous (also falling apart) taxis. They cost about 20cents to ride but are a bit of a gamble as it's not always clear where they're headed. I'm going to get better at riding them because they inspire joy in a way I can't explain, also because not many Toubabs will brave them.

Since Muslims are supposed to pray 5 times per day, seeing people pray on the street is not a rare event. This was special because these are three 8ish year old boys praying together-entirely unimaginable in the US. Also entirely unimaginable is being woken up every morning at 5am by the call to prayer. This morning, I woke up just before 5 and experienced hearing multiple calls to prayer from all across the city. I have come to find the call beautiful, and hearing layer upon layer of it from all over the city was incredibly powerful. Then I went back to sleep.

Rooftops of cartier Baobab, Dakar.

I have so many more photos to share but it takes FOREVER with blogspot and I don't really want to post them on the facebook. If anyone has any brilliant ideas let me know, otherwise I just keep doing it like this little by little. Also, any requests or questions are welcome...I'll see what I can do.