Ocean View

The first three weeks of my program were in the center of Dakar, where we took wolof courses and had cultural orientation sessions. Now, for the next 4 weeks we are in Yoff, which is only about 20 minutes outside of Dakar, but which has a much different feel. The program here is with CRESP, which is an organization started by an American woman that works with sustainable development in this area, and in educating people from all over about sustainable development.

Dakar is crazy. It's busy like any large city, and there are people everywhere, like most big cities I think. The main difference that is visible, is that there are goats everywhere and there aren't that many tall buildings. There is a lot of dirt, so much so that when I come back from going anywhere, I like to wash my feet and lower legs.

Some things I really like are how the babies are carried on their mother's backs with a cloth. Sometimes it's a special one made especially for babies, other times it's just a big piece of cloth. Like in the past 2 days I have seen women carrying babies with cloth that matches their outfit. They are so classy in so many ways! I'll put up pictures soon, I promise. I also love that people are very relaxed here. Things move slower, and you can feel the relaxed-ness in the air almost. People are busy, but not too busy to stop and talk to someone. Or they just aren't at all busy. It's interesting to know how that feels, since I am so used to going going going all the time. Or at least feeling like I should be going going going.

Here in Yoff, I have a room on the roof with a view of the ocean. The room isn't great, but the view is wonderful. I also started fasting with my family for Ramadan. They started a while ago and I've had a cold, and I just got hungry, so I haven't started until now. That means that I got up at 5 to have a breakfast of mostly chocolate products and went back to sleep until 9. We get to eat again when the sun goes down. They have a tradition of breaking the fast with a hot drink, like tea or coffee, and dates and maybe some bread. Then they pray, and we eat dinner. Every family is a little different, but in general it goes like that. The extent to which their religion plays a part in their lives is really cool to see, especially since 95 per cent of the country is Muslim.

This is getting long, like I promised myself I wouldn't do, but I hope it's interesting to you all. I could write about a lot of things, so let me know if you want to know about something in particular.

Hope all is well!!