On Monday, it was back to class, and back to paper-writing and presentation mode for school. The class schedule is getting to be normal now, as are trips to the Parcours store or fruit stand at lunch time. I’ve been missing friends and family lately (although I'm still happy and excited to be in Senegal), but also starting to get concerned as time ticks away. A part of American culture that I believe will always stick with me is the constant doubt whether I’ve been using time wisely as I could be. While I’m in Dakar, I want to have time for the small moments, like hanging out at a restaurant with friends, spending time with my host family, going to the market, etc. but it’s also important for me to do make some concrete career building steps to go along with the personal development.
Yesterday before class, I went for a walk to marché guele tapée (which I found by myself) and since I didn’t find too much there, I took a city bus to the Sandaga market downtown and actually succeeded in buying something (and letting the salesperson assume I was Canadian, as I thought the French and Americans would probably get worse prices) Everyone in my host family is doing well, elementary school teaching starts next week for Maman, high school for Theirno, and college for Amadou. Lately, I’ve been getting “cooking lessons” from Fatimata on how to operate the gas tank heating element. The first time around didn’t go so well, although I didn’t get burned. I guess I was unintentionally entertaining enough to make Thierno laugh so he had to restart the prayers he was in the middle of saying. This is probably just as entertaining as the dancing lessons during commercials courtesy of Khady, but it’s all in good fun. Gorgui, my oldest host brother who business travels, came back yesterday, which makes the mini soap opera that is my host family more interesting. Even though a lot of the conversation in Wolof (and all host family members enjoy poking fun at me for the ridiculously small amount of Wolof phrases I can say), they are always happy to backtrack and explain things, making them my go-to resource for any random questions I have about Senegal.
This week, I’m hoping to catch up on my Skype (sorry to everyone I missed due to the last minute desert excursion) and on the blog posts (food and walking around Dakar could go on forever, so I’m trying to write them neatly, not in my normal rambling story-telling style). We are also taking a field trip to Dakar’s Chinatown today, which I think will be fascinating.
Since class is about to start, I’ll sign off now. Thinking about you all!
Ciao
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