Whirlwind!

Salaamaalekum! (Peace be upon you!)

Hi everybody!

So far things are going quite well. Power blackouts are common in Dakar (I’m already becoming very skilled at getting dressed in the dark) and hot showers tend to be hit or miss. The weather is beautiful and even windy days are comfortable. The evenings do get a bit chilly but certainly better than what we have at home right now! Suffolk University Dakar is quite small, essentially a courtyard and the surrounding building. Yesterday I bought a cell phone.

This week has been all orientation things. Yesterday was the first day of “Survival Wolof” which wasn’t too difficult to learn though I am far from being a pro! Tomorrow we have another crash course and that is the last session of orientation week. But I will be taking basic Wolof as one of my required language courses. I’ll also be taking a French class. Beyond that I don’t know what classes I’ll be allowed to take because I’m waiting on the results of my placement exam.

Today we watched a film called Democracy In Dakar, a film that was filmed by a former CIEE student. It examines the youth role in politics through the eyes of hiphop, particularly during the 2007 elections. It was a great film and gave me a lot to think about in terms of my thesis.

The most exciting part of today thus far has certainly been finding out a bit more about my host family. I will be living in the Sacre-coeur 3 district. My host mom is the widow of a minister of the republic who has children that live abroad. Apparently her home is large and she shares it only with her niece who helps take care of the house.

Well, I’m off for now. I’ll take pictures at some point and post them (either here or on fb).

Ba beneen yoon! (Until next time!) <3

MB