My last day?!

Quick update: This might be my last blog until I come home to the States next Sunday. This weekend I was planning on going to a Senegalese wrestling match with Kiley on Sunday and Daouda, our program coordinator, told me that actually, I am going to go with them on Sunday and spend my last week with him and Kiley and do some more traveling around Senegal. This means that unfortunately, today is my last day at the VE and is also possibly my last day of Internet here. I'm not sure the Internet situation at Daouda's house so I will try to keep emailing and blogging but I just wanted to give a heads up in case. Worst off, once I come back to the states (I'll be at JFK airport at noon on August 8th!) I will post my last pictures and other updates. I will still have my cell phone so if there are any emergencies, please call (number and directions can be found on my first blog post). Hope everyone is well and wish me luck during my last week :)

Il est malade.

Bad news: My French brother, Benjamin, has malaria. He's been in the hospital this past week and although everyone here seems to think it's not that serious, it still probably sucks having malaria. Hopefully he'll get to come home today but in the meantime, I'm paying homage to his love of fast food and posting some pictures of the quasi-Western food I've found (and happily eaten) in Senegal. Pizza, chocolate chip cookies, and apple juice

Fake kit-kat bar & some salt and vinegar "pringles"

My Little Senegalese Sister

Here's some pictures of Miriam & I. Miriam is the five year old daughter of my host family (she was adopted by my family from the pouponniere where I work) and we share a room together. There was another five year old girl living with us, Maman, but I found out she was actually my host family's granddaughter and last week she went back to live with her mom so it's just Miriam and I now. She's by far my favorite person in Senegal- she always makes me laugh.

Picture Time

I didn't do a whole lot of anything this weekend besides sleep, relax, and reread a Nicholas Sparks novel, so I'll upload some recent pictures from the Unite Familiale: For some reason, the kids love to sit on your lap and lean backwards. It's a little strange but very funny.

The kids playing in the morning time. We usually have free time in the morning and the kids can run around or play with blocks or do whatever.

Le Poulet Noir

After recieving some positive feedback regarding yesterday's picture of the black chicken, I have decided to dedicate today's blog post to my friend, commonly known in Mbour as LE POULET NOIR (The Black Chicken). I met BC my first week in Senegal as he lives in the back courtyard of my host family, neighboring the family ram and sheep. Although he keeps primary residence outdoors, BC is impressively civilized. Waking up every day around 5:30 AM with the morning call to prayer, BC does his cockadoodledoo and spend the rest of the day exploring and exercising. By this, I mean he likes to run amuck in an dout of the house, sqwaking loudly and causing a commotion.

By week two, I knew I had a true friend in BC. I know, it sounds a little strange- how could I possibly conjure up a friendship out of our circumstances? At first, I took casual notive that BC liked to sit on the ourdoor window sill, looking into my room. Bit it could've just been a fluke that I was always in the room when he came to the window. Then, a few days later, I came home to find BC sleeping on my bed, seemingly waiting for me to come home, just like my pets back in the States. I had a sneaking suspicion BC wanted to be friends but up until this point, he had always seemed so shy when I tried to take pictures of him or talk to him; I couldn't figure this poulet out.

It'd been going along like this the past week or so but tonight, I got the ultimate confirmation of my budding friendship with BC. After being out most of the afternoon, the power came back to the house around 8:00 PM and I went to my room to plug in my computer, charge my ipod, that sort of thing, and as per usual, BC came to the window to hang out. No big deal but I figured I'd attempt another photo shoot with the guy. BC wasn't scared by the flash of the first photo so I decided now would be as good a time as any to make a bigger gesture. I reached out my right hand..BC remained still..and he let me pet his back and neck for minutes on end, hardly moving! With this demonstration of good faith, I realized BC finally trusted me and was ready to be the best of buds. I snapped a few more pictures and as I sit typing this post, BC is still hanging out in the same spot, chilling and listening to some music from my computer.

How happy I am to have finally found a friend in Mbour! And a good listener to boot! Luckily for BC, my host father said just this morning that he wasn't planning on eating him (at least from what I could gather) so it looks like I will be able to enjoy the company of le poulet noir for the rest of my stay here in Senegal. In the meantime, here's to my newfound friendship & countless cockadoodledoos to come!

Pictures of My Place in Mbour

The black chicken that lives with us. I think he has really taken a liking to me because he always sits outside my bedroom window and watches me and once I came home and found him sleeping on my bed, presumably waiting for me! He's a little shy when it comes to photographs though.

This is our front terrace here, where you enter the house. This is my favorite place to sit and drink my morning coffee. Here you can see my host mom reading her morning prayers. I will try to take more pictures but the tiling in this area is beautifully colorful.

This is the view when you first walk into the house. To the left, is the breakfast table and to the right are three bedrooms where the kids in the family sleep. My bedroom is pictured farthest away. And in the back you can see the stairs that lead upstairs to the Western-style toilet.

I took this picture right after we had breakfast this morning. You can see our powdered milk and coffee and some chocolate-nut spread for the bread. In the bottom plastic bin are any mugs and silverware in the house and the top bin has cubes of sugar. My Host Mom also buys butter for me every morning because I eat that on my French bread, and you can see that pictured on the little plate.

Apologies & Updates

First off, I am safe and sane and healthy! I apologize for not updating sooner but I have been using my computer to update the blog and upload pictures and since last week, there has not been internet at my house. Technically, there is internet but my host father has taken the USB cord that I use to connect the telephone (internet) and my computer to use at work. There's been a lot of miscommunication and it seems like a bit of a hassle but I don't think he is planning on bringing the cord back home anytime soon so I finally realized that while I have no internet at home, I can bring my laptop into the pouponniere and use the wifi here. So far it seems to be working quite fine and I should be able to upload some recent pictures soon & keep blogging in the weeks to come.

As for updates, I have changed my plans and decided to come back to the US on August 8 as opposed to my original schedule of September 5. Nothing is wrong and I am still enjoying my time at the pouponniere and I am absolutely getting what I had wanted out of this experience. However, I realize that I want to be back with the family and people I love sooner rather than later and the benefits to me staying here for ten weeks as opposed to six are probably minimal. It's true, there's no place like home and while I am enjoying a lot of my experience here, it's difficult and lonely and I have rearranged my flights to come home a bit earlier. There is only so much I can do for the children here at the pouponniere and with my time in Mbour but regardless, I still plan on making the most of my three weeks left and continuing the learning process here and hopefully I will still get to travel a little bit before my departure.

I'm finishing up my workday here at Vivre Ensemble but I will post some pictures right after this! Sorry for the delays this week but I will update more often now that I have found an alternative and seemingly reliable internet source.