2 months down, 25 to go

It might be a bad sign that the day after I started up a blog, internet access at the PC training center was cut because of a power outage. Now I am back to the homestay village for my last week of community-based training. Hoorays! I've lost a good deal of my motivation to sit through a Wolof class now that I know my community in ML~ will speak Seereer. The lang nerd in me still wants to be fluent in both, but the paresseuse in me will be happy if I can get on a sept-places or Alham and argue my way to a reasonable fare.

Monday was Dakar Day. I had high hopes that we'd get to know the city so it wouldn't be so intimidating. Not so. We really only visited the PC headquarters, ate lunch, and drove by the American embassy (wave). Still, it was cool to see how much my emotions have changed since I last saw Dakar on August 13th, the day we flew into Senegal. Then, honestly, the only thoughts going through my head were, "What the hell did I get myself into?" and "Where the hell am I?" This time, I thought, "What the hell am I still doing here?" and "Oh, this isn't so bad. This level of economic disparity is totally normal." Maybe I'll get a chance to know Dakar as well as - if not better than - I know Paris over the next 2 years.

Finally, Alyssa and I visited my tailor-uncle to get our complets made for swearing-in. Interestingly enough, our Wolof is good enough to explain when we need them done by; it is not good enough to clarify whether they will be covered in the rhinestones he held up and started raving about. I must have missed the class on 80s fashion vocab. Oh! On the plus side, a Wolof-French hybrid and miming was more than adequate to express the idea of bling-bling.

Whatever gawdy ridiculousness we end up wearing, there will be embarassing pictures and I will share them.

PS Finally brought out the camera to take pix of my homestay family. I'll post those, too, as soon as I get back to my laptop in Thies. Some of them are worthy of submission to the Awkward Family Photos blog (google it and thank me later).

T