Happy Valentine's Day

(it is celebrated here, in case you were wondering)

This picture is not the best...but I wanted to show the "club" we went to Friday night. The entrance is on the right, past the crumbling wall and piles of rocks. I walked past it the first time, and had to be called back by a friend. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I'm still stuck with my American images of clubs. I don't know when I'm going to learn to get rid of these expectations, but they're definitely always wrong.
This "boit" was called something like Timbuktu. I've learned that the Senegalese have a similar saying to the one we have - "I'm going all the way to Timbuktu." Instead of Timbuktu, they say Santa Barbara. Pretty comparable.

Saturday night my 10 year old cousin had a birthday party, just around the corner from my home. This sent me right back to the US - Chris Brown, Pitbull, Rihanna, Lil Wayne...all the great American artists were playing.

Moussa (9) on the left, Cherif (7) to his right, with their sister Khrady Aita, all dressed up before the party - before the pizza and cookies and quiche found their way all over Khrady Aita's skirt, and well before the ties were taken off to play soccer.

This last picture is just something I saw on my walk to the SIT office this morning. Can't disagree really.

Now I'm about to go find some lunch (hopefully some more grapefruit, it's been a few days, I'm getting antsy...) and then I'm doing an "urban arts exploration." Going to go interview some men who make rugs and scarves. I'll try to elevate my mind as much as possible.