Adjusting to 'La vie Senegalese'

After being in Dakar for just over a week, I have decided to start a blog so I can more easily keep everyone updated. This way I can also start to share some photos. Lauren, the student from the College of Wooster who is studying through Kalamazoo's program, takes amazing pictures!

Here's a short recap of my first week:
Upon arrival we were picked up by two ACI (African Consultants International) staff members and dropped of at an apartment to relax and clean up before attending our first orientation session. We spent the first night at the apartment and moved in with our host families Tuesday afternoon. My host family consists of a retired couple and their two daughter, a son and his children who will return from vacation in another week, and another American student, Ann, who is here until November. We live in the Mermoz district right next door to Lauren.

We have had 2 Wolof lessons during which we have learned the traditional greetings and a few phrases to help us get by on the streets and at the markets. Actual classes don't start until this Thursday so most of our time at school had been seminars on things such as safety, health, Senegalese culture, and gender issues. Thaiba-our guide-showed us around the neighborhoods near our school and took us to downtown Dakar a few time. She is teaching us how to bargain in the markets-we were able to get our first purchase, 6 meters of fabric which made each of us a skirt, for only 12,000 CFA=$24 by telling the vendor it was Lauren's birthday. That was the first time, and definitely not the last, that someone asked if we were all twins! Apparently we look alike the Senegalese and nobody seems to knows the english word for triplets so we are just three toubab twins.

Saturday we went to Goree, an island off the coast of downtown Dakar, which was the first French settlement and used as a trading post for slaves. We visited a museum known as the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves). The rooms around the main courtyard on the first floor were about 8x10 and held anywhere from 10-25 slaves at a time. At the rear of the house is a door that opens to the coast know as the 'door of no return' through which slaves boarded ships heading to Europe and the Americas. The island is a popular tourist attraction and the vendors have adapted. When Coco, one of the Goree vendors, approached us while waiting for the ferry we thought she was just a friendly vendor who happened to spot a toubab that might want to come by her shop. Then we met Veronique, Yasmine, and a number of other women. When we entered the market that afternoon they all called out, "Oh my American friends, remember me from the boat?" "You say you come to my shop first, be my first customer of the day!" "Help me feed my family." After an hour or so we were completely wiped out and took a quick swim in the beautifully clear cool water to relax be making the trip home.

Saturday night was a different type of experience altogether. Lauren and I went out to a club with Grace and her host brother. First thing you should know is that clubs don't really get going till about 2 am! So, a little tired from our long day and still getting used to the language we ventured into Dakar's nightlife. Needless to say we already stand out in a crowd just being toubabs, but our dancing did nothing to help. All Senegalese people can dance, seriously ALL of them. Then there come the songs with synchronized dance moves, a few of which Cisco (Grace's brother) taught us. We left the club around 3:30, way too early according to all the people we met on streets. Even having left early, I spent most of Sunday just hanging with my fam. Although in the afternoon Lauren's host brothers took us to the Mermoz beach, a 15 minute walk from home, and we tried our first Senegalese ice cream!

Three tubaabs heading to the beach with Lauren's brother Talisto

That's all for now. Hopefully I can keep on top of my entries so they are a little less lengthy and more detailed.

Love to you all,
Ellen