c'est longtemp!!!

Hi everyone!!

I’m sorry it’s been such along time since I have been able to update my blog. Don’t worry I am still alive and doing very well. I have been extremely busy but having an amazing time! I have now been pretty involved with a little program threw our school called CIPFEM it is a program that helps young girls between the ages of 9-15 to empower them and help them with tutoring and teaching them sports like soccer and football. It has been a great experience and I absolutely love it! I am in charge of organizing the students of our study abroad program to be involved with the girls with CIPFEM. I basically do almost the same thing I did when I worked at Trinity this summer, just in a different language and only with girls.

Let’s see where I left off, well I didn’t tell you about my fall vacation. While others went to Mali and Gambia and other great places in Senegal, Johanna and I decided that we would stay in Dakar and explore more around the city here. I spent many days at the beach, working on my Senegal tan! I also went to the Piscine Olympique, which is the Olympic pool that is here with 5 huge diving boards! I spent a lot of time drinking tea with my Senegalese friends and meeting more and more people! My favorite part of my vacation by far was going to the national Senegalese football (soccer) game against Gambia! I have never seen anything like it before!

Not only do they not care what you bring into the stadium; flairs, huge flags, blow horns, they also don’t care what you’re wearing! I’ll let your imagination doing the work! Ha! Unfortunately Senegal lost the game meaning that they lost the chance to get into the African Cup. This along with 3-4 hour power cuts at a time each day, were only some of the reasons why after the Senegalese game, there were ROITS across Dakar. People were lighting tires on fire, one of the students had their bag with all their credit cards and passport stolen, and the Senegalese Football Federation Building was lit on fire after destroying tons of important paper work! Luckily, I had gotten out of the stadium before any of these things started.

Another exciting event since I have last updated you was my birthday on the 14th! Wow!! The best birthday I have ever had in Africa! :D The day started off a little weird but then it got extremely better! I decided I wanted to straighten my hair with my hair straightener for the first time here in Africa, well, not a good an idea (OH! My roommate Johanna cut my hair for me! It’s now to my ears! Which is so much nicer and cooler now!). Anyways, I started to straighten my hair and I got electrocuted! Lol. I’m still alive don’t worry, but I legitimately got electrocuted! That’s only before school started. School was great that day, everyone sang happy birthday to me in Wolof, French and English!

After school I went with my friend Tiffany to the doctor because she wasn’t feeling that great. We walked there from my house since it’s not that long of a walk. Everyone was looking at us, mainly at me. This I have found very normal since we are both white girls and I was dressed really nice because it was my birthday. Well, all of sudden I looked over to Tiffany and she said, “what’s wrong with your sunglasses!?” I took them off immediately and realized that one of the lenses was missing! I wore my sunglasses all the way from my house to the doctor and I didn’t even realize that the lens was missing! We started laughing so hard, I started to cry! Haha! It was great! That night Johanna and My host mother threw me a surprise birthday party at our house with all my close friends here in Senegal! It was so nice! We had spaghetti and a delicious salad!!! I loved it!

I am learning more about Senegal and the culture. I am not as much homesick now because I have such great friends here that we have such a great time together and always have stories to tell!

My French is getting so much better! Sometimes I find myself speaking more French in the day then English. Classes are going well, lots of busy work, one of the reasons why I don’t have a lot of time to online. I have a project due next week on the “Influence of Witch Doctors in Medicine” and another on women and religion later in November.

I started running and playing soccer here. It’s different for people here to see a girl playing soccer, but I love the sport and I need the exercise with all that rice that I am eating here! (Even though I have lost weight). I play a lot with the kids here in my neighborhood; you don’t need to know French or Wolof to know how to communicate in soccer. But they play really rough here. Even those who play on real teams don’t always have cleats let alone shin guards.

I will put as many pictures up as I can and I know I will find more stories to tell soon! But until then, you will here from me soon! Thank you for reading and for your love and support!

Love,
Mariah!