On the upswing

I still haven’t figured out to string together all the random stuff that’s been happening here, so here follows a bunch of random paragraphs about what’s been going on here.

Things have gotten significantly better in the last couple of days. I’m trying to open up more to my host family, with some degree of success. It takes a lot of effort to follow all of the conversations that are going on at once, but I feel like I’m making progress. I’ve decided to read the newspapers here as often as possible, so that I can have more in-depth and relevant discussions. My host mother returns from Paris tomorrow, so it’ll be interesting to see how that changes the family dynamics in the house. Up until now, things have been fairly modern and informal.

My change in mood has also been aided by the fact that the weather has been a bit cooler and less rainy since the deluge of earlier this week, which has been pleasant. If this is any indication of things to come, it seems that the weather here in the dry season might be rather pleasant. Alternately, it’s possible that I’m just getting used to the heat and humidity, and in reality the change hasn’t been that drastic.

We had a half day of school today, and we had originally planned to use the afternoon to go to the beach. However, after lunch, the skies seemed a little ominous. While a few people still ended up going, I joined a group in going to the Institute Francaise, which is essentially a French cultural compound in the middle of downtown Dakar. Inside, there’s a little French café, a small cinema and a museum. We went there to see a documentary called “Home,” an examination of the current environmental perils that our planet is facing. Afterwards, I decided it was time to buy some Senegalese clothes, both due to not having brought very many clothes, and due to the fact that Sunday (or possibly Monday, depending on whether or not the crescent moon is spotted tomorrow night) is the festival of Korite, the end of Ramadan, and we’re expected to dress up a little bit. I feel like I got a decent bargain (about $12) on an outfit, but I’m probably wrong.

That’s about it for now. I’ll get on uploading photos and whatnot once I take some more and get to a place where the connection is fast enough.