Sitting in the computer lab with every article of clothing sticking to my body it is soooo hot and humid. It is air-conditioned in this room though and inchalla (a little wolof/arabic for you right there- it means god-willing), the power will not go out. Just made my first adventure into the busy downtown of Dakar with 9 other girls from my program. First we tried to waxaale (bargain) with taxi drivers in wolof - they immediately spoke to us in french but i think we got a pretty good price- about $3 for a 15 minute ride, = 1500 cfa (currency here). Our teachers warn us of getting ripped off because we are toubabs (white people). When we arrived we got some "nicecream" aka ice cream/gelato = delicious. then we found ourselves in one of dakar's biggest markets- sandaga market. it is like chinatown in new york except all the stand owners are much more aggressive and some followed us around for about 20 minutes. all of us were too overwhelmed to even buy anything and just walked around, clutching our purses to us (learned later from our handy guidebook that sandage market is one of the prime locations for pick-pockets- but we managed to hold on to our stuff!). at some points the carts are so close together people surround you on all sides and one man actually pinched my friend's arm and then licked his fingers and unable to get out of the way, he pinched me too. mmm you know that white sweat - deliciousssss. collapsed on the steps of some church and contemplated dressing like nuns in the future. was really glad we experience it though- where we live is a little ways from downtown and looks much less city like- turns out dakar is a def a decent size and we even passed "magicland" on the way....

about to go to a housing orientation. tomorrow we move in with our host families - i am living with a family nearby to our school. another girl also named hannah is living with me (i think the directors thought it was funny or something). anyway, apparently we will each get our own senegalese names and that should mitigate confusion. we are also supposed to call our senegalese parents mom and dad...that seemed weird. we will see about that. anyway my family is made up of a very maternal warm mother, a father who always smiles (just quoting what they told me here), 2 sisters and 1 brother my age, and then an older sister who is a widow who is back living at home with her 6 and 4 year old. sounds like party central :)