Last full week

Hey everybody.

Wow, it has been a great week and, as the title suggests, this was our last full week together as a group of 10 toubabs. Next week we start dropping like flies, starting on Wednesday when Kelly heads to France (volcanos permitting).

Here's a quick break down of my week. Most of us spent a considerable amount of time writing our Continuity and Change paper (10-15 pages in French talking all about our village stays.)

Monday we had 3 hours of French and then our Wolof final class and exam. There was a written and an oral part. I think I did pretty well. I really love Wolof and try to speak it whenever I get the chance, which is often. We had 3 hours of Music class Monday evening.


Tuesday morning I slept in and recovered from a brief but nasty cold. Then we had an hour of seminar. This whole week we have been having the final class periods for most of our courses and then we'll have our exams next week for the most part.

Wendesday we had two hours of literature and 3 hours of French.

Thursday we had a very interesting AIDS in Africa session with Gary, the founder of ACI. We learned a lot about the epidemic and what is being done to combat it. We had lunch with Tricia, the director of our program and reflected a little about the classes and trips we have done with ACI. 2 hours of French to round out 8 solid hours at school. Finished up my paper just in time!

Friday we had two hours of French. Final editing of my paper. Then we had a 2 hour session for each group to present their village stays. It took us almost 3 hours, but that's Senegal. Things went very smoothly and it feels really good to have that behind me. It was our biggest project by far, with a 10-15 page paper and a 20 minute presentation per group, in French. So it is nice now, we still have 3 exams but things will come in smaller bursts now.

Saturday we had 2 hours of French and then a lazy morning with the family. I watched Marseille win a soccer match with Sean (OM is my new soccer team). They have a great Senegalese player so Sean and I both wore our Niang jerseys that we bought in Dakar. After a nice dinner at home, we went to Myshop with Leia, Rebekah and two U Penn students (Anne and Benji). We hung out for a while and then decided to go dancing at Voyageur again. Rebekah, Leia and I went with a friend of Rebekah, a girl named Aisha from Djibouti. It was pretty fun but we left after about 2 hours.

Sunday was great. It is finally a day to just relax and recuperate. We went to a beach on the east side of Dakar, hidden in an industral district, called Voile d'Or. It is a private beach (1000 F = $2 to get in) so it was a little nicer kept than other beaches. It was gorgeous. We got some sun, swam and relaxed all day long.

So, I am mentally preparing myself for the last few days of our program and then trying to figure out what I'm going to do afterward. This time next week, I will be free so the posting from here on out may get a little more sporadic. I am hoping to travel either to Eastern or Southern Senegal with Sean for a week after the program, but we'll see. I think that Senegal has helped me a lot with being a flexible traveler. I am super excited for the next stage of my adventure: travelling for 4 months all over Africa with my friend Mike. Mike gets to Dakar on May 12th, so we will spend a few days here and then head toward Mali.

Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well. Hope that the volcano isn't messing up air traffic too bad.
Peace!