Pictures In my Head

The courtyar din my house is roughly a 12/12 square with an extra 4x6 rectangle added onto it. From me at 8 o'clock I have the grey concrete hallway that leads to my room and the stairs. At 10 there are the two bathrooms/showers- one for the men, and the other for the women. At 12 there is the banana tree- curved by the weight of this unfippened bananas so that it touches the boys molting white wooden bathroom door. At 1 there is the door to the room that I should have been in ( but now Ama is). I had to move because one of the biggest rainy seasons ever brought floods and water damage to almost every home- leaving dankness and mold. At 2:30 there is the kitchen, another 4x6 rectangle, filled with its counter, refrigerator, and few cabients. OUtside its door sits the gas tank with its signle burner on top, and right next ot it lies the oron charcoal holder- the two things which prepare every meal my family and I eat. And then at 6 lies the cream colorred cement wall that separates Mousa's room from the courtyard.

Okay, two things about today, wait, no fourish.

1) Wolof does not have words for: funny, kate, or sad. Just think for a mmoment about waht that means about the culture. My theories?
Funny- humor is expected from everyone, if everyone is funny, there is no reason to say it.
Late- in Senegal, your not 'late' if you arrive four hours. Need I say more?
Sad- People here dont really understand public crying, it puzzles them, and they always dont see why you would cry. For the people here, someone is always there for you, whether you like it or not. So if you have a person who you can always talk to, even when your going out of your mind, there is no real reason to be sad.

2) I roasted coffee beans tonight on our little courtyard over the charcoal. We then ground them and will have fresh coffee tomorrow morning (I'll drink it for the experiance, but seriously, its so freaking hot right now, 101 heat index with ridiculous humidity). The smell of the beans was amazing- there of course was the smell of coffee, but there was also something much sweeter, almost of cinnamon and cocao. Then we roasted peanuts in their shells.. and I just ate them. Yep, fresh hand roasted peanutes.

3) I ate two banans today, and they made my life. Anything that is not a) strait carbohydrates b) with oil makes me extremely happy. Me + Salad= would be heaven. Sadly, it is not so, as its not edible for me.

4)We bought fabric yesterday and today we brought it to the tailor (nyaokat) and will have two paris of pants and a shirt by next week.

Oh and my brothers just litened to Akons Beautiful and Sexy Girl. Its just kind of surreal. Oh, and they love jazz. And as I'm not sleeping because I'm being kept up by my neighbors... and writing this blog... I herd the neighbors play Replay. That would be for you Mini.

The heat rash is doing much better. The phamacies " milk of the .... eaufaut" (whatever that means, oh how french is confusing) did well. On the bad side, I now have a rash on part of my stomach and all my lower back. Options: a) Its just a different type of heatrash b) my clothes werent ironed right so I now have fly larvae in me, dont worry, its not dangerous, just disgusting. c) (the option im voting for) I have eaten so much freaking oil that it is litterally seeping out of me, yes that is disgusting. Dont worry, if the heat rash milk doesnt help it I'll be going to the doctor tomorrow.

Even more important than that: IN the past 2.5 days I have got to talk to Mrs. Lindquist and Adri on the phone, Mrs. Karsten through e-mail, and Zuleika, Michael, Ian, and Erin by skype/Facebook chat. Yay.

Tomorrow: French and the last day of survival wolof.

Note:Sorry the posts are so long, I know they can be tiresome to read, but its hard to do them in small enough incriments because of scheduleing conflicts. Also, after this month, its not exactly going to be a full technology time, and while I have it (which is really unexpected) I figure I might as well use it. Night, or morning to me.

With love,

Ananda