Use your left hand

Last day in Dakar. Too many things need to be done. I finally saw the Monument de la Renaissance. It was incredibly huge and windy.
But also I have to say goodbye to people. Which is awful. I would much rather just slip away and pretend it wasn't actually happening. But unfortunately this is rude in any culture... So when you say goodbye here, it is appropriate to shake hands with your left hand, which means you will hopefully return.
So that's what I've been doing.
Also, thank you kind people who have been humoring me and reading my blog and telling me they've been enjoying it. It's nice to know I have friends and family who will lie to me to make me feel good. Kidding. But really, thanks for reading this and I can't wait to tell stories in person.

The statue of the African Renaissance. 

A lot of money, and time, (and did I mention money?) went into this.

My attempt at being rebellious provides an idea of the scale.

Dancers came to Ndaali, our hotel on the beach in Mbour for our last night. They may have shown us a few things about dancing.  I probably would have benefited from these lessons in the beginning of the semester.

The drummers that came with the dancers, sending the rhythm in vibrations shaking my entire body.

View from leaving the hotel to trying to find a taxi outside of the nearby hospital. Alisa and I took a taxi to the Mbour market and were actually able to find the things we wanted. Usually I'm too intimidated by all the eager vendors, so I felt good about this successful trip.  I guess it's better late than never to learn how to shop in Senegal.

Sign outside of our hotel. If you're ever in the area, I give this place 5 stars. And I recommend the bissap/bouye juice combination.

Cindy. This one is for you. Abby likes to have her photo taken. I have plenty more.

View from the balcony at the hotel. Unfortunately for most of our time here the jellyfish were killer. A few girls got stung. Nothing serious, just made swimming more of an adventure than a relaxing activity.

Another view from the balcony. Excellent chairs for getting fried in the sun. So I've heard.

Fortunately, each hut/hotel room had a laundry line so I could wash enough of the essential items to allow me to make it home relatively clean.

That's all I've got. Tomorrow I'm going to HLM - the amazing fabric/shoe market and also helping a friend find hair extensions and spending some good CFA. Then going to the airport and praying all my bags make it through. So this is it.

Also, hopefully I'll get to do something like this again soon so I can make another rambling blog for my family to feel obliged to read. Inchallah.

Ndaali

I'm done?  Junior year is officially over. Gross.
Today I gave my final presentation for my ISP project.
Now I have four more days in Mbor - a coastal town about 2 hours from Dakar. We're staying in the auberge Ndaali, one step away from the beach. And this is the type of ocean that people actually swim in. Coming from Oregon - it's a weird concept.
Tough week of finals.
Last Friday my first homestay sister invited me to a Sabar for a celebration at her banking school. Although there were a lot fewer people and a lot less dancing than the Sabar in the Mouit village - it was still incredible. Somehow I stood out in the crowd (weird, right?), so was picked out by the lead drummer and asked/forced to dance.

My sisters/cousins/nieces...(never quite figured out what to call them)...Rose on the left and Ndeye Marem on the right. Fortunately Rose recorded me dancing on her cell phone so that special moment can always be remembered...
She showed it to me the next day, when she came to our final party. Ouch.
This is not the Sabar. This is the Fete Final we had on Saturday at the SIT office. All of our families, project advisors, friends and teachers were invited. Amy is leading the way - our homestay coordinator.
Souleye Diallo in the blue is our Academic Director, and resident crazy man. Honestly, he can tell the most random, pointless lies with the straightest face. He's my idol. Moutarou in the Obama t-shirt was a Wolof and French professor. He also had a vespa - was another idol of mine. Behind them was the incredible food table - nems (Senegalese Chinese rolls), pastries, cookies, veggies, pizza, the best juice that I will miss so much (bouye, bissap, gingembre).
My dance instructor - showing us what dancing really looks like. I doubt I ever looked so happy when I was dancing. Behind her are the drummers that taught us during the music workshop.
Bouna Fall. Mayor of "Bounaboro" in Brattleboro, VT, where the SIT headquarters is located.

Amadou - the SIT guard and best way to start the day with his greeting at the gate. King of ataaya.
Papis - if you were ever so kind enough to send me mail, he's the one who got it from the post office (while doing many other things to help us survive in Senegal - such as getting us cell phones and phone credit and telling us how to take a car rapide).
Homestay family members and Phoebe - a girl from the SIT group. I bet you can't guess which one is Phoebe...
Mame Bineta, Keba, Me, Moutarou, Amy

Pikine

On Sunday I went to Pikine. It's a suburb of Dakar where many commuters live...like Beaverton, but better (kidding..).  I went with Coudedie. She is one of the girls I interviewed for my project, and being like all generous Senegalese, invited me to her house on Sunday, then to the suburbs. The picture above is down the road from her house in Mamelle - not far from the Renaissance Monument and highest point in Dakar. I think you can actually see the highest point - the lighthouse - in the background.
(Coudedie and her grandmother - who told me to greet my mother, my father and Obama)
When we first got to Pikine (after taking a car rapide and a njaaga njaay [a sort of mini bus]) we walked through some markets to Coudedie's aunts house. We (about 15 of us) shared two huge bowls of rice, fish and onion sauce (yassa jen).
Then we took a car rapide to the Pikine cultural center - Africulturban. They have classes, presentations, concerts and workshops. As it was Sunday, it was quieter than usual, but there was still a sort of presentation/dance performane. But Coudedie and I were there to sit in on a Cine-Banlieu class. Her film professor from Dakar University teaches free courses on film every Sunday in Pikine, so I got to tag along.

Matador - King of Galsen. (Gal-sen, switch it around = Sen-gal....Senegal). He is le Roi of hip hop Galsen, and I was able to meet him. Actually, I hung out in his office with Coudedie while we waited for the film class to start. He says he travels all over, but for some reason the US hasn't asked for him yet. So if any of you have connections...(He didn't ask for that, that's just me asking.)
"GALSEN" and "AFRICULTURBAN" in one of the concert/performance areas.

Mangos

It's definitely getting to that time of the semester where I'm freaking out about all the things I still want to do, and all the things I'm going to miss. I still haven't gone to Magic Land. How can you not go to a place with a name like that? It's even on the Corniche! and has a ferris wheel!
Mangos - for 300 cfa, which translates into just over 1/2 a dollar - are the first things I thought of as a thing I'll miss/crave... I just had one for lunch today and it was incredible, and messy, and would not come out of my teeth.
Yesterday, because I should have been doing some transcribing of interviews, I instead followed Alisa to a cultural festival at her homestay sister's school (middle school and younger).
She wanted to film the opening ceremonies for her project. After explaining who we were to the guards at the school, one student led us right through the middle of the hundreds of students to the chairs in the front and center - reserved for the special guests and teachers. Slightly uncomfortable - as you can imagine we didn't quite fit in, and we were the first ones to be seated in that central section...

Somehow this festival made me miss Laurelhurst assemblies - like the rose festival. I honestly don't know why because I never won anything, and this one was much larger, more exciting and interesting...but it still made me wish I was 10 again. I could go for another round of "I am but a small voice..."
A choir sang the national anthem, a song from the Ivory Coast, and We are the World. Then the big finale - the crowd exploded, seriously they were loud, I don't know how many 100s of students were there - a group of little girls in the most amazing pink outfits came out and danced, accompanied by drums.

Just one small section of the students - singing along to Rihanna and Iyaz before the opening ceremonies started.
My view, right in the middle of rows and rows of students, before the other teachers and visitors arrived.
The best dinner we've made so far...courtesy of Devin and Abby. I think I stirred a few times, but Abby was just humoring me to let me feel like I contributed. She's a self-proclaimed master stir-fryer, so we let her do her thing.
Devin made the french fries. When you don't have sharp knives, the slices of potatoes come out in chunks, which makes it even easier to layer on the piment (hot sauce).
Oh, I took a bus! And was very proud of myself. Even though it wasn't going in the right direction and I ended up getting off and paying for a taxi like a true toubab...but still. I got on, and off a real city bus.
View from the bus. I took one of yellow car-rapides today. Another proud moment. On the way to an interview I took a taxi, which took about 20 minutes. On the way back I took the car rapide, which is about $2 cheaper, and three times as long. But worth it because again I could be overly proud of myself. And I got to ride next to a bucket of fish.

I got hit by a car

Technically. So I'm taking it as a sign that I have become fully accustomed to life here in Dakar. At the beginning of the semester one of the SIT staff members told us that bad things don't really happen to SIT students, until closer to the end of the semester. They say that during this time the SIT student tends to get very comfortable here, and forgets to take necessary precautions with security and safety issues. This is generally the time things get stolen...(knock on wood I still have everything I came with)...
So to get to the important point, the other day as I was walking to a library, I got hit by a taxi. Well, the car was moving, and the side-view mirror did touch my arm. In summary, I'm a real traffic accident survivor. I wasn't even texting or anything! There's just a lot of people and cars and no sidewalks, so it creates a "Frogger" like atmosphere. You know the game...you dodge through the lanes to get to the other side, and have about 3 chances. That's what I think every time I cross the street. Except for the three chances thing...
But a word of advice. If you think texting and walking/driving in the US is dangerous...well...don't try it here. Too many rocks, sand piles, vendors, people, goats and car rapides to do it. So don't worry Grandma, I only text when stationary.
This is the road right in front of my apartment. On the right, where the wall first becomes white, is my door. Fortunately, at the end of this street there is a boutique that sells hot sauce, chocopain, shaving cream, and 10 liter bottles of water, among manner other things. And if you continue directly across the street, theres a great Moroccan restaurant, La Halana - I guess we've become regulars because we now get free drinks.
Yesterday I wanted to take a car rapide downtown so I could feel real legit and comfortable with the city, but I think I took the wrong road - a road that the car rapides don't really go down - so I ended up walking about an hour and a half to the downtown (Plateau/Centre Ville). Saw some pretty cool grafitti along the Corniche.
When I got downtown I tried to by some t-shirts and jewelry, but got overwhelmed and ended up at the Institute Francais. There's a library, media center, outdoor movie theater and restaurant there. I decided I deserved lunch there, after my journey through Dakar, so I treated myself to the goat cheese, lettuce, apple and pita salad with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

This is actually not in downtown - it's in my neighborhood, Point E, just across from the University of Dakar (UCAD) on the avenue Cheikh Anta Diop. I went there the other day to talk to some students. And since I'm technically enrolled there (just for paperwork reasons, not actually taking classes there), I thought it would be appropriate to start becoming familiar with the campus.

This is the UCAD library, hidden within the endless city/campus of 60,000 students. I tried to check out books here, but was a little intimidated by all the people and books. So I just go there now to feel cool by flashing my library card at the security guard.
Since my independent study project is related to marriage, I went to a salon school near the SIT office. I came a day before they were learning marriage ceremony styles, so they invited me back the next day. This woman is in the second - and last - year of the school, showing off her style for a bride. Big, with flowers, glitter and a lot of fake hair seemed to be the preferred style.
This is just a small, small portion of a long mural of an interesting collection of world leaders and important figures. (Bin Laden is further to the right, Martin Luther King to the left, and many Bob Marleys). It's along a wall in the industrial zone of Dakar - which means it's on my way to one of the beaches I frequent in order to really learn about and appreciate the Dakarois culture. I'm pretty sure I need at least a few more trips to the beach in order to complete my comprehension...

It's ISP already?

The last month is here. Actually a week is already gone from this 4 week ISP period..which is crazy to think about. "Junior year going abroad" was always this distant, mysterious idea which I never expected to finally come.  I don't really want to be a senior yet.
Here's our family photo. Hard when the table is so low, and there was nothing else to use...so this was our best attempt. In this photo we're actually in the old apartment, before we moved in to the real one that was being occupied during a funeral.
(Part of Me, Devin, Abby and part of Jarvis)
Our real apartment - the window on the left is into my bedroom, and the window on the right is next to the door to my room. It's a half indoor/half outdoor style apartment - two bedrooms, a tv room, a huge bathroom and then a separate kitchen, another shower/hole in the ground bathroom, and an outside classy courtyard dining area.
Door to the kitchen, straight back is the front door.

This is taken looking right above the kitchen door. Our kitchen came pretty stocked - refrigerator, sink, stove top and about 30 spoons and forks...makes it less necessary that we do the dishes that often.
I went to the Goree Island again last week with Abby to visit the Musee de la Femme again, and buy some good touristy toys. When we were wandering around the island a woman told us to sit down and eat with her. She was cooking little donut balls and peanut sauce. Everyone is always demanding "lekkal" (eat!) and "toggal" (sit down). We didn't sit down, but did get a little bag of the donuts, which were incredible, and she had just made them on the side of the pathway, outside of her home, in a small grill.
This was on a toilet. It says "I love Goree" on the left - it's hard not to love it. The colors of the buildings, water and clothes are unreal.

More food...chicken crepe from the Ethiopian cafe. Makes for a nice break from bread and french fries and rice. And they have a copy of Harry Potter, and Vogue.
So theoretically I'm going to be having a lot of interviews this week for my project. My project has changed so many times, but apparently that has happened a lot in this program. There are just too many things to study, which makes choosing one topic impossible. But, as it is proposed now, I'm going to be trying to understand the ideas young women have on marriage here in Dakar - based on their religious and family background, and the influence of popular culture. I wanted to focus on polygamy, but for now that'll just be a part of the larger study. We'll see what it turns into - after I've tried to dissect the interviews in French.
I'm sitting here now almost paralyzed, thinking of all the things I want to do here before my time is up. That's probably not the best solution - doing nothing. So maybe I should stop this rambling post and go do something.