fish and rice

So, before I tell you what i've been up to the last few days, I have a confession to make.  After close to two weeks of being in Senegal, I've realized that the Senegalese diet is largely composed of fish and rice.  Actually, when i say largely, I mean 90% of meals are fish and rice, and I may or may not have gotten a bit tired of the fish and rice extravaganza.  Hence, yesterday, the other girls on the study abroad program and I went out to a Lebanese restaurant and had a fairly un Senegalese meal = hamburgers and crepes with ice cream. In all fairness, the hamburger had fries, eggs, mayonaise?, and some other ingredients that I'm not sure of inside it, so it was by no means a normal American meal either.  That was my splurge for the week because as expected, I'm dealing with a bit of culture shock and homesickness.

Before our feast yesterday, we got a tour of academic resources for research here in Dakar.  We went to an awesome bookstore, and I felt like a total nerd there because they had to force me to leave.  Obviously, most of the books are in French, which is cool, and I just love books in general so I plan on returning! After the bookstore, we went to the University of Dakar.  Over 60,000 students are enrolled at the University, so you can imagine that it is a bit overpopulated.  I think I only saw a small portion of the University though, but to paint a picture for you, the building for languages was about the size of a middle school and looked like it dropped right out of the sixties.   Classrooms were a normal high school classroom size and they had tables and benches.  It seems like a nice place and it felt really good to be back in academia for a few minutes, which makes me excited to get off to school.  After the University we visited the center for West African Research, which seems like it could be a useful resource for my field work project.  

Touring academic resources in Dakar was great, I got to see parts of Dakar that I haven't yet seen, and they were more up and coming areas, which is encouraging to see.  Last night at home was more fun than it was the rest of the week because I somehow managed to keep my host sister away from the tv for a while.  That was fun because she told me a little about herself, and I had a shocking revelation.  These last two weeks I've been thinking to myself, I like Nathalie because she's a little different than everyone else here.  Consequently, when she informed me last night that she is not Senegalese but from Cameroun I was disappointed in the fact that I still don't have any good Senegalese friends.  But, I thought it was quite funny and she and I had a good time talking about Senegalese culture and things that we find bizarre.  Another funny event of the night was when I learned that my two year old host brother Isaa is afraid of the stuffed crocodile that I brought with me.  This can be hilarious because he runs away and hides when he sees the crocodile, but this has also become a source of punishment when he's being naughty from his parents.  I feel a little guilty, but it is quite entertaining.

Today we had a gender orientation with a professor from the U.S. It was really good, and she gave us some helpful advice on dealing with cultural differences, awkward situations, and reminding us that we don't need to put up with inappropriate behavior.  Each day seems to become increasingly bizarre in the manner that Senegalese men treat me.  Random people tell me they want to marry me or that I should go to the beach with them and it gets old really quickly.  So I'm glad we talked to her.  Besides that, I'm just getting through the week and attempting to learn Wolof.  Saturday we are going to the beach again so that will hopefully be nice!

Hope all is well back in the states!