The last few days

I have learned so much in the 3 days that I’ve been here.
I’ve seen dozens of little boys begging for money with coffee cans, wearing tattered clothes. Most of them don’t speak French, which I think they often learn school. So if they don’t have the money to go to school, perhaps they don’t learn French very well. One of the staff at the university said that some of these boys are from Muslim centers. Their parents put them under the care of marabous (Muslim religious leaders) who help them get an education and teach them the Koran. They are often very poor boys who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend school. So, they ask people for money on the streets to help pay for their schooling. Since Muslims are required to give a certain percentage of their income to charity, this is a perfect opportunity for both the boys to attend school and the local Muslims to fulfill their religious duty.
I have not yet given money to any of the boys who have asked me. At first, it was really difficult to get used to, but now “Non,désolée” and “ba baneen” (next time)have become a daily part of my vocabulary. On Fridays, the Muslim holy day, people tend to give a lot of money to beggars, so perhaps next Friday I’ll do it too. This morning my friend Peter and I bought some “papayes” and “oranges Sénégalaises”, but had no more money afterwards. But this little boy was asking for money, and was totally happy with oranges instead.
I cannot get over how beautifully the people here dress –especially the women. Today, I think we passed by a wedding or some other ceremonial celebration because there were about 100 people all hanging out together by an unnamed store on my hotel’s street. EVERYBODY was dressed in these insanely vibrant colors – oranges, golds, purples, reds, greens, yellows, blues – and they were all shimmering or glittering. And they don’t just look like this on special days. They regularly wear bright colors that shimmer, just not quite s extravagant, but still brilliant enough stand out in America. I feel like such a bum in my plaid shorts and gray tank top. I mean, people say the Senegalese dress impressively. But, I didn’t realize exactly what that meant until I saw it.
Today after lunch we went to the beach again. It was strange because, like yesterday, there were no women besides those in my group. Not even little girls. The beach was chock full of young boys and teenagers, with some adult men. Most of them were probably between 10 and 18 years old. They were all active – nobody goes to the beach to “chill.” The older men work out a lot at the beach – like running in the sand, and doing these squat things. The teenagers like to wrestle. Apparently wrestling is a big sport in Senegal – to start each match they stand face to face, and swat at each other’s arms several times, then they wrestle. They get all full of sand, so that they look like aborigines from Australia – like when they put the paint all over their bodies – and then they run into the ocean to get clean.
The university staff told us that even though women don’t show much skin in daily life, there are places like the beach and at the gym where it is totally acceptable to dress like in America and Europe. So, women can wear swimsuits at the beach. But, it was a little strange to wear nothing but a 2 piece swim suit when we hadn’t seen any Senegalese women wearing them. But, we figured, whatever, and jumped in and swam for a while. Then, we got out and sat on the sand together and some of the boys came over to talk to us. They mostly spoke Wolof, but several also spoke French, and a tiny bit of English. So, I got practice my French A LOT with them. They were pretty funny. I talked with some boys named Georges Makud and Ibrahim. It’s amazing how quickly you improve at speaking a language just by having a simple conversation for an hour. They always ask if I’m married, so I’ve just started saying I’m engaged and that usually gets me off the hook of the “do you want to marry me” question. Haha. We decided going to that beach and talking to the kids would be a good way to practice our Wolof once we start learning it. I feel like I can speak French pretty well, but I still have a hard time understanding other people. The boys kept asking for money and they totally didn’t believe we didn’t have any. And we really didn’t. This one boy wanted to see the bracelet I was wearing. It wasn’t anything special, so I let him see it even though I knew he might keep it. And, he kept it. Then he asked to see my “lunettes” (glasses). No way! I kept trying to ask them where their sisters were because I really want to know why there are never girls there. But, they kept getting distracted when I’d ask, or they’d start talking about their siblings in the US. When we left the beach, several of the boys followed us and ripped flowers off some trees to give to us. So cute. And then they blew us kisses.
At the beach, we climbed some rocks and were looking out over the bay of the beach and I thought I saw the fin of a sea turtle or something like that come out of the water. But then I saw it again and it was just a bird – like a cormorant. They swim with only their heads sticking out of the water.
Goats. Lots of goats here. Or maybe they’re sheep. You can’t really tell the difference between them here. I think goats maybe have more upright ears? I don’t know. But anyway. The first 2 nights I kept hearing them saying “baaaa baaaa baaa” and it was really loud, like close by, but I could never see them. Then, I went to the top floor of the hotel –like 5th floor – and I saw 4 little goat/sheep on someone’s roof. The houses here are like apartments or condos, and they’re usually 2-4 floors, in this neighborhood. The roofs are flat and have like 4-ft. walls, so people use them like balconies or another floor to hang laundry and do other chores, and, evidently, to keep their goatsheep.
Then, at the beach, there were 2 goatsheep just hanging out, eating some grass. One of boys was taking care of them for the day, I guess. We were swimming and then saw one of the boys walk into the water holding the goatsheep and drop it in. He scrubbed it like he was getting it clean. Then another boy came over with the other goatsheep and pretended like he was going to throw it in the water, but then just dropped it in and washed it too. I didn’t know people wash their goats or sheep, but I guess they do.
It is HOT here. Winter my ass. I can’t even imagine what it’s like when it’s summer. In the mornings and evenings it’s really nice, especially with the ocean breeze, but the last 2 days have been about 85 degrees and my hair looks all frumpy in the humidity and with all my sweat.
The food here is pretty good. I love breakfast. It’s either a baguette with nutella or a chocolate croissant. Then they have coffee, in the form of Nescafé (instant coffee packets) and milk. Fruit has been pretty rare at meals – we only had it once in the last 3 days.

And I have never eaten this much chicken in such a short time before! I got some fruit so hopefully that will make my gut start moving things around a little more :) They said we have to be careful what we put in the toilets because there isn't much water or pressure :0 But...you can't always help that....CHeck out the pictures!!!!