A Long Overdue Update

I am currently stuck at home in bed with bronchitis, so I figured this would be a perfect time to update about the past 3 weekends of madness here in Dakar. I can't quite remember the order of what happened when, so I am just going to go through some highlights. A couple weekends ago was my friend Ana's 20th birthday. We celebrated pretty much the entire weekend. On Saturday afternoon, a bunch of CIEE girls that live in Sacre Coeur 3 came over to Ana's house for crepes, bissap (hibiscus juice), fruit, and homemade chocolate chip cookies! It was great. There is no such thing as brown sugar in Senegal, so Ana and her sister had to make due without it when making the cookies. Also, the heat in Ana's oven is on the top, so some of the cookies got a bit burnt, but they were still delicious.

That night, Ana and I took our younger siblings to Magic Land! Magic Land is, essentially, a permanent carnival in Dakar. There are a bunch of rides, mostly for small children. We had my two little brothers, who are 8 and 9, her little brother, who is 8, and her little sister, who is 15. Getting out of the house proved to be really difficult. My little brothers and I headed over to Ana's house around 8:30 for dinner. While Ana and I were in the kitchen helping cook, her brother spilled roughly 5 liters of bissap on the floor. Naturally, this being Senegal, his parents were so angry. Initially, they told him that he could no longer go with us to Magic Land and I'm pretty sure he was beaten with a belt. Corporal punishment is still really common here, even in schools. It's baffling. Then, my brothers started crying because we told them that we weren't going to Magic Land without Ana's brother. Eventually, Ana's mom convinced her dad to let her brother come with us, since his friends were already at the house. One would think that that would be the end of it and we would just eat dinner and go, but then Ana's sister, Aida, declared that she was pissed off at us and was no longer coming. So, we had to sit down and have a chat with Aida about why she was mad. She was upset that we were originally not going to go "just because an 8 year old boy couldn't go." The whole thing was ridiculous and she was being completely unreasonable. Magic Land is for kids! Obviously we wanted to take the kids.

Eventually, we convinced Aida to suck it up and come with us, ate dinner, and were out the door around 10:45 pm. We hopped in a cab and arrived at Magic Land ready to start having some fun. First, we had to buy tickets. Then, the little boys went on a ride on the train. It was so cute! Then we headed over to the haunted house ride, but everyone was too scared to go on that, so we decided to come back to it. We took the boys over to a game where they could shoot at eachother with foam balls, and the three of us went over to the pirate ship ride! It was so much fun. There were a bunch of young Moroccan kids on the ride who we started yelling matches with, and Aida was so scared. It was hillarious. Then, we went back to the haunted house. This was probably the cutest part of the night. Each little boy paired up with one of the girls. Ana and her brother went first. As soon as he was on the ride, he put his head down under the front of the car and didn't move it until the ride was over. I went on with my youngest brother, Bebecheikh, who hid his face in my side the whole time. I don't think either of them saw a thing the entire time. My brother Mohammed was supposed to go on with Aida, but when we got out we found out that he chickened out and she went on the ride with the owner's son. The whole thing was adorable.

By midnight, we decided it was time to get the kids home and put them to bed. Plus, there was a birthday party for Ana and a couple other people at Jenna's house in Ouakam that we needed to get to. So, we dropped the kids of in Sacre Coeur 3, got ready, and headed over to Ouakam. We got to Jenna's house and were greeted by delicious kebabs, chocolate cake, and gin. The night was really fun. We hung out with Jenna's brothers and a few other CIEE kids, dancing and drinking until around 4am.

We have also made somewhat of a CIEE tradition out of heading to this little hole-in-the-wall bar every Thursday night for what we like to call "j'ai soif jeudi." La Manguiline is literally a liquor store with tables, and they have the cheapest beer we've found yet in Dakar. It is in Mermoz and is within walking distance from my house. This is always lots of fun, and usually ends with us walking down to the hookah bar for a few hours.

This past weekend, the group Magic System was playing at this club called "Nirvana" on Friday night. Most of us knew their music, and those that didn't had at least heard it in the clubs, so we made a night of it. We started off at this guy named Harris's house. He lives in, by far, the nicest house I have seen in Dakar. It is absolutely amazing. His family has their own guard posted outside the house! Ana and I didn't arrive until around midnight, at which point everyone had already been seriously partying for a couple of hours. At around 1:30 we walked over to Nirvana. This club was amazing! It was beautiful and so nice. We had to pay 10,000 CFA to get in (roughly $20), which is crazy expensive, but I think it was worth it. We danced until 4:15 am, when the band finally went on. I love living in a city where it is perfectly acceptable that the band doesn't go on until after 4:00. They played all their hits (or about 5 songs) and then they were done. Even though they weren't on for long, the whole night was tons of fun and totally worth the money.

This update definitely makes it sound like all I do here is party, but that's not necessarily true. Yes, Dakar night life is crazy and I really enjoy it. But! I am also spending a lot of time hanging out with my family and in the neighborhood, meeting people and learning what is it like to live in Senegal. This weekend, on Easter, is Independence Day. It's the 50th anniversary of Senegalese independence! There is a big wrestling match that CIEE is taking us to and the whole city should just be one big celebration. I'm really excited.

In two weeks we head out into the villages for our "Rural Visits." This is where we get to spend a week with non-profits or Peace Corps volunteers living in villages and helping them with their work. I am really excited. Hopefully, I will get placed with a Peace Corps volunteer doing agroforestry work. I can't wait to get to explore rural Senegal! I'm also really hoping that I get to do something evironmentally related. I am working on getting a summer internship with a think-tank/consulting firm called EcoAgriculture Partners. They are based out of DC and run by a Wellesley alumna. Basically, they work to improve rural lifestyles through sustainable agricultural practices. It looks really interesting and I'm really hoping that this works out!