Threes

Top Three Things I Love About Senegal:

1. Bissap, Ditak, and all the other delicious juices they have here.
2. Hanging out on the beautiful beaches
3. Relaxing practically 24/7

Top Three Things I Dislike About Senegal:

1. Power-outs
2. Heat rash
3. Sweating all the time/Mosquitos

Three Things I Pass on the Way to School:

1. Sheep grazing in the grass on the street divider
2. A manhole missing its cover, marked by a large stick someone thoughtfully put it in to warn others
3. A open-air meat stand where you pick and chose your cuts and they chop it right there. No refrigeration involved

Top Three Things I Miss About Home:

1. Feeling cold
2. Fresh raspberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
3. All of you

Three Things I Did Today:

1. Bought bag yogurt as a snack in between breakfast and lunch
2. Took a tour of a school in one of the poor districts of Dakar- very moving.
3. Hung out with my host sister Mariama, and brothers Khadim and Papi

Three Words You Need To Know in Wolof:

1. Say-say (sigh-sigh): Person of questionable moral fibre or just a generally sketchy dude. Good for describing my host brother, Mohammed. Ex: Mohammed didn't come home until 3:30am. He's a say-say.
2. Asalaa Maalekum (ah-sah-LAH-mal-ee-koom): This is the general greeting used when saying hello. It literally means "Peace be with you." You reply with Maalekum salaam, which means "And also with you." This is incredibly important because you must greet everyone you know.
3. Kay lekk (kai lehk): "Come eat!" Important because you'll hear this a lot. If anyone, including yourself, is eating something, you must offer to those around you.

Three Things I Hope to do This Weekend:

1. Go to the family tailor with my mom and design my bubu for Tabaski. [Bubu: traditional skirt and top made from matching fabric (I bought my fabric at the market and it's super awesome.) Usually the tops are outrageously complicated and elegant. Skirts tend to be simpler and floor length. Tabaski: Important Muslim holiday (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha)]
2. Hopefully I'll go to Ngor beach with Andrew and Joleen, and maybe a few more of my posse. [Side note: Akon lives in Ngor.]
3. There is a soccer match between Senegal and Mauritania. It's on Sunday and i've got nothing else planned, so I'm going to try to make it to that, inshallah. (<-- word used after future plans, meaning "God willing.)

Right Meow

SALUT!

In this picture I am eating yogurt in a bag. It cost about 500cfa, which is about $1.00. Pretty cheap for the most delicious snack ever. Especially since dairy is hard to come by over here.

** Heads up: Due to the fact that I need to be constantly thinking in three different languages, my brain power has significantly decreased. My english has gone down hill, and on top of that I'm pretty tired. The heat is exhausting. So, please forgive me for all of my confusing and not well worded posts. All of us here is Dakar seem to be suffering from trilingualitus.

I went to Voile D'or yesterday because my friend Andrew competed in a swimming race from Dakar to Ile Gorée, which measured 4.6 km. It was an afternoon of lounging on white sand beaches, swimming in the ocean, and eating mangos underneath palm trees. Needless to say the sunscreen did nothing for me because I'm fried like a piece of bacon. We also were at a restaurant on the beach and Youssou N'dour, a very, very famous artist in Senegal, was at our restaurant. Very cool. That's about all for now.