several more days of insanity

First of all, thanks guys for your comments and emails et cetera. It's really a huge comfort to hear from home! Ive got a lot to write this time as some crazy stuff happened in the last several days.
This morning I performed a feat I did not think possible - I walked the half hour to school WITHOUT GETTING ANY SAND IN MY SANDALS. I don't think you realize how huge of a deal this is, so I put it in caps. I might remind you that the streets and sidewalks, where they arent crumbly pavement, are MADE OF SAND.
So lets see, where to begin? Saturday morning I went to the beach with my friends from the program. I had to ask the night before and my family is not too keen on me going places, it seems, or else Maman Amitie is just very overprotective. But I went and met a friend and we walked probably a good hour to get to this big traffic circle and bus stop where we were to meet everyone else, only everyone else had been out late or was on Dakar time (aka late all the time )and so everyone didnt end up together until about an hour and a half after we'd been sitting there in the sun. It was really a sketchy place to be and there are nice people who want to talk to you but also very creepy people who want to talk to you. So you take your chances insulting people and just sort of semi-ignore everybody. Anyways, we bargained for taxis (we still paid way too much, but it was like a dollar a person for a 20 minute cab ride) and got to this beautiful beach where we sat around and just dipped our legs into an extraordinarily dangerous undertow, and ate senegalese pizza. There was nobody there because it's winter and only like 80 degrees. We went back in taxis and hung out with our families for the evening. When I say "hung out" I mean, sat on the couch and watched tv.
Sunday the whole Toubab group (we are now about 20) got together and took a giant bus to a beautiful monastery up north, where we sat in on a mass and ate lunch all together in a beautiful outdoor area - chicken and lots of fruit (!!!!!) and onions and couscous. Oh I forgot to say that one the way up there, the bus broke down so after an hour spent changing buses and waiting around, we were super late and missed the first mass so we got to see the second one and it was just us and the monks, very cool. Im going to try and put pictures up on facebook soon so I can get out of describing everything about the place...
So after a long lunch and a repose and some very intense conversation about organized religion over mango juice and rum, we got back on the bus and drove to Lac Rose (pink lake) which in fact is very pink and salty and at which we got accosted by tons of vendors, mostly women who really wanted to see photos of themselves and who are experts at giving people small gifts in a seemingly nice manner and then later running after tourists who accept them and calling them liars. The idea of lying in traditional Senegalese native culture is in some ways completely different from that of American culture in that a lie is anything that does not protect or maintain the common good of a group of people. This idea seems to have stuck around even in modern times and probably the worst way you can insult someone is by saying "tu mentes" which means "youre lying." The other night all the kids in my family were all joking around and Samu said that at one point to his older cousin, and everyone got totally silent and dispersed soon after. Whoa. So anyway we were warned against accepting gifts from these women and one girl gave me a bracelet after i had shown her the photo id taken and I tried to give it back but she wouldnt take it. It turned out she was actually just being really nice and I didnt get followed or screamed at but a couple of people did.
Okay, now for the big event of the week: the deces. One year after the death of someone, they hold a mass in church, very ceremonial, and then have a GIANT party. My host grandmother is in fact widowed and not divorced like Id been told. Since Wednesday night was one year, I dressed up and went with them to the mass which was beautiful with a little chorale singing up in the balcony behind, and birds just flying all over the chapel, and a hundred people singing, and the priests all decked out since it was a special occasion. After the service they handed out little snacks and in the churchyard I was introduced to everyone. They then had about 80 people over at the house, most of them cousins and a few neighbors. They were cooking for days in giant pots that are about two feet in diameter and come up to my waist! There was maize, which is like a kind of chili with beans and corn, and pork and beef and goat and mutton and so much beer and boxed wine that I was a bit shaky on my feet Thursday morning. They rented about 50 chairs and a huge tent to put out in the street and people stayed until midnight and just sat and ate and talked and drank. I finally met my host brother's friends who were all really funny but couldnt understand why I dont want a Senegalese boyfriend.

I'm thinking about making this list of random facts on every blog, so:
1) Biggest faut-pas of the week: whistling. Girls are not supposed to whistle. I did it in my room, and Reine came in to tell me girls dont do that so I better not again.
2) Oranges here are the size of US clementines, and much better. I have decided to buy one every day on my way home. One costs 25 CFA, or about 5 cents. Score!
3) All of the dogs here are the same, I swear. Light brown mutts chewing on goat limbs roam the streets with not a care in the world. Disgusting.
4) That huge race from France to Dakar ends this weekend! At Lac Rose, which I just told you about. Everyone in my family has apologized to me about all the dust in the air here by blaming it on that race. Look up Dakar Rally on google if you want to know more. The Canadians, who are also at WARC on a different program and are also kind of insane, are all going to take the 2=hour bus ride and then sleep on the beach at Lac Rose (they cant find a hotel thats free) so they can see the rally drivers come in during the afternoon. This is A) a bad plan and B) a really friggin bad plan. Like I said, theyre insane.
5) Here, "Je suis si excitee" does NOT mean "I'm so excited." It means "I'm so horny." No joke. I, thankfully, did not learn that the hard way, but some people here did. No pun intended.

More later! Time to go downtown and get malaria pills!