Blog Update!

November 1st. Apparently today is daylights savings, but Senegal has decided it is uninterested in all this clock changing business. After some quick research, it turns out Guam, Arizona and Senegal all have this in common. The explanation? All three have too much sunlight as it is and don't need the extra hour. Amen to that.

Monday morning I leave for Kaolack, a city three hours inland from Dakar. I will be working with APROFES, a women's organization that works on a lot of issues, including microfinance (something I was looking forward to studying here). 6 other students and I spend a day getting debriefed on what they do (will probably involve a lot of tea and pretending like we understand Wolof) and then get sent off to local villages to live with families and work in our respective fields (gender, health, microfinance). It turns out I made a fabulous life decision when I picked microfinance. The 3 students who are studying microfinance get to stay in Kaolack for Tuesday night as well: essentially, our chances of watching the elections on TV just went up exponentially. I'm thrilled. A bunch of students who are going to very remote areas have been told that hopefully someone in their village will have a radio. Before I heard about my specific assignment, I had a nightmare that I couldn't find out who won for three days. The dream wrapped up with Obama paying for my laundry and buying me a meal (my roommate commented on what a romantic dream it was, I thought it was more indicative of my priorities these days- food, clean clothes, and knowing I don't have to move to Canada at the end of my study abroad expierence).

Other highlights: Went to the DESERT. Jumped in a van (ok that makes it sound more casual than anything ever is- involved about 10 calls with the driver who still brought a van that was too small) with some fellow students last Saturday morning and went 3 hours north of Dakar to the town of Lampool. When we got there, we met a woman from Dakar who was doing work in Lampool. Turns out she and the local women make jewelry, baskets, statues, etc. and use the profits to buy birth control. Found it pretty amazing in a heavily Muslim country where many believe birth control is agaisnt the teachings of Islam. More and more women are taking birth control in Lampool and yet, it is kept very quiet and none of the men have been told. While the secrecy is unfortunate and I'm sure the men wouldn't be thrilled to know they have been kept in the dark, I was impressed and bought a necklace. Then a safari-like-car came, drove us out in the middle of the nowhere for 20 minutes and all of a sudden we turn the corner and miles of sand dunes were spread out before us. After dropping our bags in the spacious Mauritianian tents we stayed in and climbing around the sand dunes for a while, we realized arriving in the desert at 10 am wasn't our smartest decision yet. As it quickly became incredibly hot, we grabbed cards, food, and laid around comatose for the next 6 hours under a big tent. Around 5 pm, 6 camels came walking across the sand dunes and we got to ride the camels (only about 15 minutes actually on the camels in comparison to the hour we spent having a photo shoot with the poor camels) .That night we danced while men who worked at the campement drummed along(included making all the women line up and shake their "jaay fondes" for all the men drumming - can we say degrading?) and enjoyed the fact that it was COLD. But, there is always a glitch and we had to laugh the next morning when the campement tried to charge us for 3 of the 9 free sodas we were guaranteed with our "all-inclusive" fee. Their reasoning? We had drank 6 of them before 5 pm, but the other 3 after 5 pm. If you have them after 5, you have to pay. If you are going to rip of the Toubabs, come up with something better than that. We said no one told us this "rule", they said who is the person who did not tell you this rule? Umm, all of you? Ridiculous.

This week it was two of my sisters' birthdays. Birthdays really are not a big deal here - especially in my family it seems- but me being me and being American can't really stand for this. So, Hanna (roommate) and I blew up some balloons and bought chocolate bars and left them outside one of the sister's doors. When we saw her in the morning, she had tears in her eyes she was so surprised and thrilled. Everyone in the family was saying "oh wonderful surprise!". It was really nice. The other sister's, Bijou, birthday was yesterday and Hanna and I embarrassed her at her work by stopping by with balloons and a little cake. Equally fulfilling because Bijou is usually a little too cool for me and Hanna and she gave us big hugs and told us we were "tres gentille" (very nice). So, feeling good about the family. We are going to try to make smores tomorrow night with them. Should be funny, especially when I burn the house down.

Off to the gym and then a Halloween party with other American and Senegalese students. My friends Leanne, Caitlin, and I are going to be the Senegalese flag. In other words, we will each wear a different color dress and can casually take off the hideous jewelry we bought if no one else is dressed up (taking this precaution after wearing a garbage bag to a "Dress Up Like Your Favorite State" WUWU-Contra Party freshman year (New Jersey = garbage state for much of America) only to find no one else was wearing a costume and I was wearing a garbage bag... ).