Bienvenue à Dakar!

I arrived to Dakar late Friday night just in time to meet with a University employee, catch a taxi to a local hotel, wake up the next morning for a quick orientation, and move in with my new host family.

My family, la famille Mbaye, is Muslim and consists of a grandmother, mother, 3 children, and a cousin (who is here until her mother returns from Haiti in March). However, the family seems much larger since there are always extended relatives over at the house. Everybody speaks French to me and says that I have a very strong French accent (something my friends in France would never agree with). Between friends and family members though, I hear a lot of Wolof. While I don't need Wolof to communicate with anyone, I'm told I will get better prices on things when I learn it... and also, it would be nice to know what others are saying! My first Wolof class is Wednesday.

I am about a 5 minute walk from the beach and 3 houses down from another American girl studying here through the same program.

In general, the streets are mostly made of dirt. The buildings tend to be very drab, light colors and almost nothing is marked. It's as though everything is a house in the entire city! Things that are marked are marked with such tiny little signs that it's not until you are right in front that you read the sign and say... "Oh. I guess that's a bank?"

What the streets lack in color, though, the people make up for. Most of the women wear beautiful long skirts or dresses in crazy and colorful patterns. Their hair is twisted into tiny, braided designs and sometimes covered with fabric wound up to form what I can only describe as a colorful turban. I've seen men carrying impossibly large bundles on the tops of their heads and many children running around in the streets.

Eating (for big meals) is done with the right hand only and out of one big, shared dish. That means rice must be squished into balls that can be popped in the mouth, fish must be deboned with the one hand, and beef must be cut with the fingers. Stop and think about the for a minute. Ripping apart a steak is hard enough with two hands and no silverware. Could you do it with just one hand???

The house is fairly large (as it must be to accomodate a big family). Although poverty is evident throughout the city, most houses seem fairly large. I do, however, share a room with my 16-year-old host sister, Aida. Also, the house is not and never was set up for hot water. Since they have hosted American students before, they were quick to offer to heat up water over a stove for me every morning so I can shower with that. This seems like a lot of trouble to me though, and in a country as hot as Senegal, I decided I could offer to take cold showers without a problem. The way I figure it, I'm just glad the family is providing toilet paper! I was told most family use water to wash/wipe with.

Tomorrow I get a city tour and will try to take some photos. Until then...

Bisibu ag jàmm! (Good night, until tomorrow - in Wolof)
Maija