In Dakar!

Written 9/7/10 at 7:58pm

I am at my host family's house.  At first I was slightly horrified because I arrived as my host mom was in the middle of bathing, so she'd just thrown on some clothes and answered the door for me.  The whole time she was (very warmly)  greeting me, her shirt was trying to fall off.  It succeeded right after she showed me my room and I said I'd like to unpack a bit.  One great thing she did was to take my hand and say, "Welcome to my house.  You are now a part of my family."

She has since asked me about myself a bit, told me that I'm in my own house, and told me to ask if she says anything that I don't understand to anyone (meaning, when she speaks Wolof in front of me).  I think dinner is soon--it's Ramadan still, but it's just gotten dark out.

Aside from my host mom, there is also an older man, two grown young women, and a guy about my age.  I guess the three kids (Youssu, the guy, being the youngest) are my host mom's and then there's a young kid who belongs to the second daughter.

Later:

Dinner was cheb bu jen, a fish dish that is the signature of Senegal.  It was delicious.

Last night I slept poorly.  It was a combination of jet lag, heat, mosquito bites (5, despite my netting...which it turns out has holes in it), and needing to pee but not knowing how to get light in the bathroom.  That's the one thing that's really getting me still: the toilets here don't have seats--you're expected to squat over them.  They also tend not to have toilet paper--everyone rinses off with water from the adjoining shower instead.  Everything is working out well, though.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the next few days go.

Oh, one more thing.  The end of Ramadan is soon: either Friday or Saturday.  On that day, known as Corite (ko-ree-TEH), we have the day off to hang out with our families.  It's a fancy occasion, so we went out today to the marche (market) to buy ourselves Senegalese outfits.  Mine is yellow with white lace.  I'll try to post pictures.