Hit the beach yesterday with my brother after dropping by a tailor to get a dress made. I hope it turns out cute and not homely because I fear that there may have been something lost in translation when I tried to explain what I wanted. Also, she asked me to draw a picture and then drew something totally different, so I feel like maybe she's just going to make whatever she wants. At least it will probably turn out nice looking if she's made it before. Stay tuned for that! But yeah, hit the beach for awhile. Just bummed around and started working on homework (which I actually have!?!) when I returned. Found more cockroaches in my room. Hilarity ensued. I could tell the story, but cockroaches have been getting way too much press on my blog, so you'll just have to guess. I will just say this: it involved me sitting on my bed, finding a cockroach close to my head, and panicking with a spray can full of insecticide. My mother also made many comments about how silly it is that toubabs are afraid of cockroaches. She's right. Also it is sad that I pretty much just told the story. I could have made it much more dramatic, but c'est la vie.
Wolof is always one of my favorite classes. Our professor is phenomenal and it is hard for me to believe that I walked into a room less than a month ago not knowing a single word of the language! Apparently a lot of people speak Wolof at my internship site. I figure some people will speak some french, but maybe that is a bad assumption to make. It's intimidating knowing that my ability to communicate with people might be limited to a language that I have spent 50 hours learning. I guess I will be known as a really quiet girl for the first time in my life.
Speaking of my internship, in a couple of weeks I will be headed to a village called Mbam for a month and a half. I don't have a very clear idea of what I will be doing there yet, but the possibilities seem pretty endless. From what I can gather, the village has a few thousand people and is a member of Senegal's 'Eco-village' network. The people living there have quite a few grassroots projects, in various areas such as: animal biomass/renewable energy, mangrove reforestation, lifejacket fabrication, and permaculture. I think it is going to take some initiative to get involved, but if I am able to think of a cool project it could really take off. I think I will need to make the acquaintance of a well-connected polyglot. Also I won't really have internet there. Foundaigne, a town about 5 kilometers away, has internet, so I guess I can have it as often as I am willing to walk for it. Savor the blog posts now!
I don't have many deep thoughts about life in Senegal at the moment, but I figured I would give a general life update until I think of something better to write about. This weekend I am planning to go to Saint Louis, the former colonial capital, with a few of my classmates. I have no doubt that this adventure will provide ample blogging material for next week. Basically, I am telling you to wait for me to do something exciting so that I can write about it and this little info blurb is going to have to suffice for now.
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