On the Corniche

On the Corniche

Sunday, April 18, 2010

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.

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