One week down

Well its hard to believe I've been here a little over a week already. The first couple of days were really hard but I'm quickly learning to take things a day, even an hour at a time, and ask tons of stupid questions. Course registration has been ridiculous yet surprisingly not too frustrating because it seems everyone's attitude is "it will get done in good time." (God's time, I think.)
So it goes like this, in a run-on sentence: We sat around for hours on Tuesday hearing from all the professors on their courses; Wednesday were given registration forms, then the times were all changed, so we chose some classes, but nobody can figure out how many credits each class is, so we all picked about seven, then we went to the local university to have a tour which didnt even happen, then they collected registration forms for the classes at WARC (the West African Research Center which is sort of our home base), then they told us we needed to put that info on a different form, but we no longer had the list of when all the classes met, so we asked for the previous forms back, but they couldnt find them, so we're basically doing yesterday over again today. Its nearly impossible to get into any classes at the local university since there are like 60,000 people who go there, so I may opt to take most everything at WARC. So far Ive signed up for History of Senegambia (which I missed the first class of today because nobody told us there was class), Islam in West Africa, an oral French recitation class (at least thats what I think it is) given at the university, West African Literature, Wolof, and an Art and Dance class. Of course that will most probably all change, plsu some of them conflict, yet Ive been told that it doesnt matter because if I come half an hour late it probably wont have started yet. My goodness this place moves slowly.
The other night I went out with my host brother and almost everyone on my program, and I swear every Toubab in the city was at at this club listening to live Reggae. It was awesome music but I was sort of torn between French and English and was trying to keep my brother feeling comfortable among all the Americans, and it didn't really work out. I had a great time but was exhausted. We left around 1 am, which is mad early for here (people tend to go out around midnight and come home around 5 or 6 am). But dammit it was a Wednesday night and I was tired! We woke up my host grandma to let us in. Thats another thing about everyone Ive met here - they sleep whenever they feel like it and nobody seems to mind being woken up. I mean JB (host bro) was saying it was no big deal, he does it all the time when he comes home, and I was trying to explain that people in the US often get really pissed off about being woken up and he thought that was weird.
Yesterday we sat in on a round table discussion about Senghor (he was the first president of Senegal, and a poet and writer and just generally an amazing man.) People IDOLIZE him here. The 'discussion' lasted about three hours and was mostly people telling anecdotes about the kindness and generosity of Senghor and how he inspired them. It was supposed to be about his relation to and place in the world of African literature. There was one dude who knew him personally even, and another sort of famous dude who had set his poetry to music and sang a bit while we all clapped. It was very nice but rather brutally lengthy and the whole audience was nodding off. There were of course a lot of good comments about his political work and his shortcomings and how the modern Senegal can continue to follow his example socially and politically. All the people who spoke were pretty well respected, but this means here that they require very long introductions praising their lives and work. This sometimes takes 5 or 10 minutes - in the states you can say stuff like "he's the president of so-and-so" and "he went to Yale" and "he has is pHD in this" or "he is working on that" but here if you introduce someone to a group as a speaker, you list about everything he's ever done and even talk about his family and connections. The speeches and discussions lasted until dark so I walked home in a group instead of on my own.
We had to take a French placement test the other day and I did very well in general except on the oral section but I think this had to do with the fact that I was completely uninterested in all fo the questions the dude asked me, such as: "describe the town you live in," " do you like American politics?" and "what was the flight like to get here?" I mean, come on, thats Ossining, George Bush, and twelve hours of French cartoons. Anyways I did really well comparative to a lot of people but I feel kind of awful about that because they literally presented us with one sheet in the order of how well we did, points on all the sections and all, numbered 1-15. Most everyone is in the same level of classes so its fine, I suppose.

Laundry day is wet and messy. The maids really just do most of it for us in my house. They use huge buckets in the courtyard and afterwards sweep up all the water with a bucket. Water dries up in about ten minutes outside and inside so there isnt really the same mindset about cleanliness. At dinner, we throw bones and stuff on the floor and wipe the table onto the floor, then just clean up the floor. Anyway, I have no idea how much it is appropriate to put in the laundry, but I put in some shirts and everything came back all clean and ironed. I also finally know exactly what to do with the toilet, but yesterday a new problem arose: when one uses the shower, water comes out the bidet and slops all over the floor unless you slow the shower to a tiny trickle. I have been told to empty the bidet with a bucket as I go. Cold trickly showers are an excellent way to start the morning.

The little girl Sowane who lives in the house is infinitely cute. There is about nothing cuter than a tiny person speaking mumbly baby French. She knows me now and runs to hug my legs when I come in. I make faces at her and let her draw in my notebook but she doesn't like to be picked up or tickled, and the only times she ever cries are when her cousins scare the crap out of her, which they do a lot, and when her aunt does her hair in little tiny bunches all over her head, which looks a lot like it hurts. Speaking of that, Reine and Fifi got their hair done in braids the other day and it's beautiful. I'm getting along better with the French and talking to the girls a bit more now. Last night I taught Samu, Reine, Fifi, and Jean-Paul how to make some origami things (they LOVE it) at which point Sosou squashed everything. Rach gave me a terrible romance novel before which I of course am devouring and Fifi and Reine like to pick it up and read in English even though they have no clue what it says. That's probably a good thing. I try to avoid explaining anything they hear in music videos that is really overtly and obviously sexual but they ask a lot. They also have all this American clothing or stuff with English on it, but they dont know what it means so I tell them and sometimes theyre really surprised to know that their shirt says "God at the movies" or "Sleepy fairy!" on it.

Okay, time for some random observations.
1) Latest girly fad: colored eyebrows. People pluck them out and redraw. In reddish-purple, mostly. Also for older women, little bunches of hair all over the head, dyed reddish purple.
2) The Wolof women tie their to their backs with a piece of cloth that acts as a little carrier. There's apparently a special way to tie it so the baby doesn't fall out, but I cannot at this moment figure out how it works. Is there a pocket? This is a mystery.
3) Everyone wants to marry/date you if you are American. I mean, I got asked to be the girlfriend of a 35-year-old, had a marriage proposal, and got two I-love-yous in Wolof in the space of forty minutes on the way to school this morning. People are mostly joking around and aren't terribly agressive, just really friendly...you just have to very directly indicate youre not interested. The whole "Im married" or "I have a boyfriend" excuse seems to just make them ask again.
Okay well thats all for now. Out to lunch with Andre for his last day here, after which we're on our own. Keep writing to me! If you want my address here send me an email. Kiss kiss!
Lili