Saalamalekum Dakar!

I have made it safely to Dakar, and although I have only been here for five days, I feel so much more comfortable then I did before. The first 24 hours were pretty shocking, and I don't think any of us were quite prepared for it. We leave the plane, breeze through customs, get our bags from the only working carousel in the place and immediately are hassled by people taking our bags and asking us to take taxis. We saw our program director (Souleye), but he was very vague about where we were to go to find our bus, and we almost were dragged away by men telling us "come with us, we have taxi", but finally we met Bouna (the assistant director) and he got us safely on the bus. That was our "Bienvenue à Dakar!" Here is a photo from the bus at 6 am of the airport at Dakar. Even at that hour, it was crowded!

We have been staying at the hotel "Good Rade", from which the name "Île de Gorée" is derived (I believe "Rade" was the last name of the Purtuguese man who settled it), which is a very nice, air conditioned hotel on the outskirts of Dakar, between the airport and the city center. On our first day, three of us went on a walk around the hotel, this here is the view from an overpass of the VDN, which is the major highway connecting the airport to the rest of the city. The yellow bus in the lower corner is called a car "rapide", and is a cheap way to travel around (although none of us have tried it yet, we are all dying to jump on!)

Most of our days have been spent at the SIT headquarters, in the Sacre Coeur area. We are learning about the culture of Senegal (which we did by getting an object, and going in the streets to ask locals what it was we had!), as well as all the safety and health precautions we have to take (don't worry for those of you concerned, I know how to protect myself, and I am being safe!). This is a picture of Erica and I on the roof of the SIT building (which is still under construction, we are on the fourth floor of an empty building that has no plumbing, and VERY spotty electricity, but we have internet! Sometimes). In the background you can see a hill (here it's called a mountain, go figure) that has the statue of Ouakam. This was given to Senegal about a year ago by the North Koreans, and it is a man, woman and child pointing to Mecca. Not sure why North Korea was feeling the need to give Senegal this gift, but it's there!

Another huge aspect of the culture that I was perhaps not expecting was how much our french will not help us out. Although most people here speak french, everyone speaks Wolof, and many do not speak french. Therefore it's very important for us to learn Wolof. However, its very nice that we can speak french (at least conversational, I can hold my own) because they assume we are European, as apparently most americans don't even bother to speak french). The people here is so friendly, I don't think I have ever felt so welcomed into a culture. They willingly come up to you, even if they don't want to sell you something, sometimes they just want to give you a high five or chat. Today we went out into Downtown Dakar, on our own (in groups of three) and had to navigate different areas of Dakar. Our groups chosen area was a traditional African Market. It was very crowded, smelly, dirty and sweaty, but what an experience! There was a lot of stalls along the street, but there was a huge covered market, that used every possible available space to sell goods. There were vegetable stands, fish, chickens (cooked, uncooked, alive, you name it), spices, beans, peanuts, dried flowers for juices, and anything you can imagine! The strangest part was seeing all the cut open fish heads, with blood everywhere and flies on everything. I would post a picture from this area, but we were not allowed to photograph, and I don't think I could've gotten to my camera even if I had wanted to!

Finally, you knew it wouldn't be a blog by me if I didn't address the food! The traditional Senegalese dishes are eaten when seated on a mat (pictured here), where you take your shoes off to sit, and everyone eats with their right hand only. It is quite a fun experience to put your hand right in the food, but it takes some skill to roll it into a ball and pop it into your mouth without all of it collapsing and falling on you or the mat. Traditionally, the mom will "feed" her children by breaking up the pieces of meat, and placing it front of the children, so they have their portion. We felt like children because our professors would "feed' us in this manner, all while laughing while we struggled to eat properly! This dish here is called Cebujem ( I spelled that wrong, sorry!) and is a very spicey rice, and fish dish. We have also tried several other traditional meals this way, including Yassa poulet and a peanut sauce dish (the name escapes me). Everything is very delicious but incredibly meat dependent, which is hard to adjust to. The drinks are also great, there is gingebre (ginger juice, practically solid ginger), bissap (a hibiscus drink, very sweet) and a juice made from the fruit of the baobab tree.
So there you have it, my first week so far of life à la Sénégalese! Tomorow I go to live with my homestay family, who seem very sweet, and I will have very limited internet access from then on. I hope everyone is doing well, and I will post when I am able!