*** btw my host family did not all of a sudden pick up and move from 30 minutes away to 5 minutes away from my school. we switched families....

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 :)

hello again! day 2 is coming to a close. thank you for all the wonderful emails :) i am sorry i haven't written you back yet - i am using other girls' computers and feel bad using them for too long. supposed to be a computer lab but it is open at questionable hours and there are occasional power outages soo u know. will write back asap. please keep writing! it makes me very happy :)

took about 2 hours to fall asleep last night - unclear whether to jet lag or due to lack of air conditioning. would lay on one side and within 30 seconds my legs would be sweating and then would turn over- feel relief- and 30 seconds later hot again. i actually tried counting sheep- i got to 100 and was so pissed, i got my dorky head lamp and read my book. talked to a girl this morning and she was like yeah i couldnt sleep so i started counting sheep for the first time ever. made me laugh and it was nice to hear.

felt fine today though and we started orientation. met more people, ate more bread for breakfast and mustered eating an egg for protein, talked a lot about "culture" which was actually quite interesting, learned a few wolof greetings which i can tell will be a major struggle for me to remember, ate delicious lunch (flies enjoyed it as well), and then did much more discussion, talking about core values and realizing just how different senegalese values can be- like values of "time" and they prefer not to take risks, etc. thought the directors were good and lead good discusssion and at the end of the day, we got told where we would be living. they said there were 3 neighborhoods - one a 5 minute walk, one a "car rapide" away, and then one u have to take a taxi because its a 3o min walk. obvi living in the 30 minute walk away- its called the "sacre coeur 3" but i like a lot of the other people who will be living there. we all have to share taxis back and forth which will be hard but we walked around the area and it seemed pretty nice. find out later in the week who our families are and move in friday. gahhhh. i found walking around dakar today it already seems more pretty and appreciate it more. nervous abou t moving in w/ the families but i am feeling fairly comfortable speaking french so thats good. ok have stole this girls computer for 6 hours. love love

*** clarification: local language = wolof, colonial language = french. 

Le Premier Jour

Hey everyone! This is Hannah, updating you from Senegal. I have now been here for 4 hours and all in all, positive experience.  Flew South African Air to get here and sat next to some Senegalese family. Right off the bat, a woman in an awesome colorful long dress was sitting in my seat. So had to do the whole pleasantly get out of my seat routine. She moved over and 2 seats down was some man she was also traveling with. An hour in, I look over at the man and he secured a napkin under his glasses so it covered his mouth and nose. Senegalese tradition? Pretty soon after long colorful dress woman put the face mask provided by South African Air over her mouth. Now I was wondering if the air was infected or something. Then another woman comes over who seems to know these two people and is like I'm going to sit in the empty seat. Great! where the heck did you come from? very nice people though, heard them speaking to e/o and prayed to god it was in wolof  (local language opposed to wolof) bc i understood nothing. at one point i sneezed and they said oh you've got it too! got what? should i put a napkin over my face now? then the long dress woman gets up to go to the bathroom and decides she doesnt want to bring her glasses so hands them to me. sure, ill hold those for you. funny all these exchanges with minimal conversation. anyway, arrived at 5 am and was quickly asked by a man loading our luggage if i was married and told me he thinks he is in love with me. could he pleasssseee have my email? once we arrived the directors just kind of left us to get other people and there seems to be no plan for the day. breakfast was supposed to be at 8 or was it 8:30 or someone else heard 9? around 10 some bread arrived. :) living in dorms for the next few days and yes, the bathrooms have no toilet paper. but everyone seems very nice and have gotten to speak some french with a man who seems to be the gardener, or is he the garbage man? more soon! love, banana