Good Times, Bad Times

****warning this is a long one since I had quite the eventful weekend****

It’s been a fun/weird past few days. I planned on going to Mbour for the night to hangout with a bumch of volunteers in my region, but of course this turned into me going to Dakar. Originally, I had planned on waiting another week to go, but when I found out everyone was going this weekend and there was going to be a BBQ, my hand was forced.

***I am going to give a disclaimer right now…everything I am going to say about our doings in Dakar sounds just like a weekend in America…this is true for the most part but as usual it has a Senegalese flair. I have lots of little stories from the weekend, that would probably give a better view of this, like dealing with taxi drivers, cooking makeshift American meals and many other sorta daily life occurrences. I don’t want to bore anyone though and lets be honest going to Dakar…to a PCV…is like going to Disneyland. If you want to do it, you can most likely find it there.***

Lauren and I went a head of the group hoping to beat traffic, this actually worked out quite well but I have a feeling that it was just a fluke. I was super excited that I managed the garage for us (Lauren only speaks serere which is not a widely spoken) and even got non-toubab prices. After some hassle with our taxi driver in Dakar; he didn’t know where the Atlantic club was, we made it. All of the third years were always a hour into happy hour and enjoying the pool so we wasted no time and jumped right on in. I even had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then we proceeded on our way to a local bar, where we played a fun game involving all the annoying street vendors that won’t leave us alone.

Saturday..is gameday and this time it was true. After scrounging around for food and trying to make hash browns and eggs, (honestly kinda disappointing since I didn’t have the right spices or cheese), we met with the 3rd years for softball. This was an absolute blast and total America land. I ate hotdogs and cheetohs (yes cheetohs!!!) and ran some bases. Then on to a BBQ at the 3rd years house. Us newbies really are lucky they let us hangout with them. This BBQ was so legit American it was scary. We had burgers, sausage, fruit salad, coleslaw and I even made a potato salad. With some help from Lauren and Maliek, who said I had to mix it with my hands or else it was not properly done, it was wonderful. I was told it would have made my momma proud.

Sunday we hung around, Claire made up silly games which is a secret talent of hers, and then went into downtown Dakar to explore. Ate some Chinese food in china town, yes they have on here too, and yes they only speak Chinese there. This is a funny side story, since they only spoke Chinese we fixed our ordering problem by calling a PCV who is Chinese and was nice enough to order all our food for us. I guess the 3rd years do this all the time. It was definitely a first for me, and I’m still sotra surprised they speak only Chinese. Then on to Halloween night…Mike used my sarong as a turban and read our tarot card. We also carved a melon…it was very halloweenie.


Obviously it was a great weekend, but that made it that much harder to go to site. My wolof and French seemed to have completely left me and getting back to Popenguine was dreadful. I totally understand now why they encouraged us to stay at site longer in the beginning. The next two days I literally felt like I was just getting beaten sideways at every turn. There were little miscommunications everywhere and I was in a funk of a mood. I was really having a dumpy time, as Diana can attest too, but I also new part of it was the funk I was in. My village and the people here really are great…right when I got back to the village some of the people started asking about where I’d been and said they missed me. I almost wanted to cry I was soo happy to be back home. However, the daily struggle with language and constantly feeling lost can get overwhelming. I basically let it get the best of me, feeling overwhelmed and left with entirely too much time to think.

However, I got some cheering up in the forms of Diana and Megan and then the electricity was cut so I hung out with my fam. We talked about music and I found out my sister really likes snoop doggy dog (that’s how she says it). This really made me laugh and voila I was no longer in a funk. I woke up today feeling great, had a productive day meeting with a teacher at the elementary school and the high school, worked out on the beach, talked to my ever-lovin’ mamma, learned a few new things in wolof and about to take a nap.

It still always amazes me, how things can change here on a dime. I am also starting to figure out that I feel so much happier, when I spend time with my Senegalese family and friends. I still need my alone time, but if I’m in a funk alone time with internet seems to just make it worse, because then I America stuff. (ie watch a movie, check facebook). Slowly but surely I’m getting a handle on things here.. I still feel lost a lot but that’s to be expected and everyday I do learn something new. Lets hope by the new year I’ve learned enough to have a good handle on the language.