Sorry all for the lack of blogging the past few days, others have had the netbook and I have been catching up on certains stuffs.

First things first. I have decided that the real metahpor for my stay is this: bugspray & deet are my perfume. And I may have already said that, but I feel its necessary to restate it. Now to a good update of which your probably tired of the bullets.

-Grapefruit Fanta (why dont they have good flavors, ie. pomplemouse and lemon in america?? is second only to the original lemon fanta in greatness. almost the drink of the gods.

-I had a Senegalise orange for the first time. Ironically, it is green on the outside, and yellow on the inside. IT tastes like an orange, but a lot less strongly, and it has a hint of fruit punch mixed in somehow.

-I wore a dress on the 26th. And I enjoyed it.

-I'm stocking up on fabulous books to take with me so that I will have some form of english with me in the village. Plato, Carl Hiassen, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Harold Bloom, DH Lawrence, and some french guy. Maybe I'll come back super super smarty pantsy?

-I'm still amazed every day how much American music is listen to here- In the courtyard a few days ago we were all eating peanuts, and they turned on the computer speakers and it went from Akon, to Lil Wayne, to some Senegalise man, to Rihanna. And yesterday the Backstreet Boys 'I want it that way' came on, and everyone, including me, was jamming out. Music really does cross boundaries.

-We made Chebu Jen yesterday at Rachels house with the Walof teacher (as part of our Walof lesson). Yum, more fish and rice. I took some fabulous videos though, and hopefully those will get put up soon. The videos from the other day are getting up soon too, on the GCY website. I just had to send Wil the files because they were so big, so I'll past the youtube link as soon as I get it. As a side note, I think I eat less when I am eating with my hands. Or maybe I just really not a seafood person. And I am a pro at making rice balls with my hands now.

-You fry the fish in exactly 1 liter of sizling vegetable oil, then take out the fish. then you put the vegetables, water, and tomatoe paste (that is brown) in the left over oil. You steam the rice in a collander above the vegetable oil mix. We had plastic bags wrapped around the collander and pot, and underneath the collander, to stop the rice from falling out ( you are supposed to use fabric but Umul forgot it). When asked about the bags melting, the answer was nshallah- God willing. The melting was not so supreme. Then then you take out all the vegetalbes, and put all the rice into the sauce, letting it soak it all up. Divide into bowls, and put back the vegetables and fish. Enjoy making rice balls with your hands, fish (I defered the eating of it), vegetables, and massive amounts of oil that you are eating.

-We got to go to the beach right by Rachels house, and oh how amazing it was. The sand goes out forever- at least a 100 yards. So that you have waves crashing the whole length! When the tide would go back in there was a good 45 yards of damp sand, that would be quickly washed over again with a incoming wave. While it was supremely beautiful, it was another disaster. There was an amazing amount of trash- plastic bags, rags, a broken dish? And then every inch of beach was lined with thatched cabannas which are rented to people who want to leave their bags on the beach-because it is the only space that is not reached by the waves.

-Today was french class and our walof evaluation. I can honestly say that for the Walof test I knew how to answer about four questions out of the whole thing. I've just been focusing on french a lot for the whole time, so I havent really had the time to study walof. No worries though, I have six months to get better at it. And I got to talk to Mrs. Lyn on Skype, which made me super super happy!!!

-Tomorrow: french evaluation in the morning, group debriefing with Rachel, and then we are visiting an NGO.

-Saturday- In the morning Gaya and I are going to the book store. Then we have individual debriefings with Rachel to talk about everything we are about to be dropped into. Lots of packing, as its the last day with our current host families.

-Sunday we ship out to our villages. I hope to at least recap the weekend before I leave. I am super excited, and a bit nervous. I had a bad dream about the turtle poo. I also had a dream that Caroline and I were adopted together, but that is besides the point.

With love,

Ananda