I am finally here! Things have been pretty nuts here. Trying to speak French and adjust to life at my host family's house has been challenging. I am often sort of mute as I sit around trying to figure out exactly what is going on and trying really hard not to put my foot in my mouth. My family is really hospitable and it seems as though they have hosted students before. Luckily, most members of the household speak a bit of English. This comes in handy often. Usually my host mother will ask me something in French and she will occasionally follow it up with English to make sure that I actually know what is going on. School hasn't really started yet, so I don't know what it will be like, but so far all of the staff at WARC and the other students are great. We visited Goree Island yesterday, a major slave trading post. Thousands of people were trafficked through this port. It was humbling, and also very sad, to see the last place that most slaves saw before being sent to North America. Nowadays it is sort of an artisan commune. About 1800 people live there trying to sell crafts to tourists (mostly toubabs---foreigners). It is a UNESCO world heritage site. I wonder what it would be like to live on an island like that.
My host family is really nice. I live with a host mother, two brothers and one of my brother's wives. Getting used to life in another family's home is interesting, but I have enjoyed it so far. I will write again soon about the family.
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