The home stretch

Another week already? Not too much excitement here, things are winding down which means I have tons of papers to write, no longer have class in the afternoons, and am trying to figure out the new Brown online course registration system which, being in a technology-unfriendly city, is giving me a terrible pain in the all the diodes down my left side. (Ten points to anyone who got that reference.)
So, so, so. Exciting academic events of last week: handing in three two-page papers on Islam and a really ridiculous written exam at the university involving the writing of one paragraph on pollution using five verb connectors, in order. Oh yes, we had an hour and a half to write 100 words. Good times. What's left is a 10 page history paper, a 10 page literature paper, a grammar exam, a dance and drumming spectacle in front of probably hundreds of laughing people at the university, and a written Islam test.
Mamitie was gone for the whole week, just left all us kiddies to ourselves, so we had a party. Just kidding. The kids enjoyed themselves though. Hannah and I decided to profit from her absence to go out for dinner. Thursday night I met her and Christina at Nando's where we killed time for a while and then took the bus downtown to the French Institute for an excellent dinner. There was a cover charge just to get in because there was a performance later in the evening that we weren't sure we wanted to go to, but we ended up deciding to go anyway after checking out a couple of other places. The food there is just SO good. We decided to hang out for the performace which turned out to be a bunch of high school drama groups from different parts of Dakar performing a series of short plays. We stayed for the first one which was an interpretation of "8 femmes" which was made into a French musical movie a few years ago. I really thought they did an excellent job, there were a couple of girls who were really very strong actors, and they'd sort of adapted this French script for Senegalese society - they spoke in Wolof when they were angry or when it just fit, the daughter in the play had just returned from the states, et cetera et cetera. It was a great night and we took a taxi home where the family was still eating dinner, so that was kind of awkward.
Friday afternoon after class I went to the marche HLM with a bunch of girls and we bought a lot of fabric so that we can take it collectively to a tailor and have a bunch of things made. We would all like to get tons of small bags made for our friends at home but you only need like half a meter of cloth for that and most vendors won't sell you less than 6 meters at a time. So we're going to split it. We took the car rapide both ways. That whole experience used to freak me out thoroughly every time, but now I love it. It's a very good way to just be an observer of the city streets without seeming like a tourist. I feel like I've now perfected what I like to call the "commuter's look of utter indifference" which on a good day allows me to walk and ride and sometimes even shop without too much hassling. It really is all about your attitude and body language - if you look like you are lost or nervous or hesitant, people will know and act on that. At HLM I also bought some bin-bins, which in case I haven't said before, are stretchy beads that girls wear around their waists to attract sexual attention (and which also make good bracelets and necklaces and small gifts.) I was just attacked by this group of women at a stand selling them, who kept piling them into my arms and requesting money and not giving me any change, and who shoved things back into my hands and would not let me hand back the beads to the point where I had to choose between dropping them on the ground and paying for more of them. Well, I dropped them. I was alone in the market at that point and it was just this great measure of how far I've come here because I was telling them what I wanted in Wolof, bargaining, just surrounded by people shoving things in my face and it wasn't so much "ohmigod this is insane" as "how can I calmly extract myself from the current state of affairs and still come away with what I want?" And I did, I got 5 bin-bins for 3 bucks and all is well. I also bought another mumu for wearing around the house, this time for the right price - I asked Mamie and she told me I paid way too much last time. All in all, a very pleasant shopping experience.
The weekend was completely uneventful. Hannah went to Joal and I went to dance class, read a lot, and did some work. I was invited to church and declined. Jaco slept in our room again since there was the empty bed, and I woke up to him calling my name at 4 am, just for kicks, to see how loud he needed to get to wake me up. I mean the kid is 24 years old. I think we're both (me and Hannah) sort of at a loss about what to do about him, but that's a story for another time.
Samu and his cousin asked me yesterday for some Ziplock bags for their marbles with bits of string to tie them around their necks. These of course got ripped within the hour, at which point they got mad when I wouldn't give them more plastic bags. When I gave Samu a pack of Orbit gum last week he put the entire pack in his mouth at once. I mean, an entire pack of Orbit! I brought hundreds of meters of thread to make bracelets and it all got used up in a couple of weeks. I give Fifi and Reine safety pins probably once a week and I have no idea where they put the ones I gave them the week before. I shudder to think what would happen if anyone knew how much food we eat on the sly in our room...my parents brought so much stuff for the kids that I can't even begin to give it out to them without it being a completely inappropriate display of wealth. Little things, a pack of stickers, some jelly beans, a set of jacks, more string, stuff that's no biggie in the states, is something the kids will all fight over here, and if I give one of them more than the others they take it personally. They love the jacks but when I gave them to Samu expecting him to share and had to tell him they were for everyone, he was insulted, and everyone else was sore that they weren't around when I gave
them to him. I think I'm going to give the notebooks to Becky, who works at a night school for kids who work but still want to learn to read and write and speak French. Anyway that's enough of that.
Last night we finally got up the courage to ask Mamitie if we could make dinner! Among the stuff my mom brought was some mac and cheese, so we're going to try for fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese. Maybe even some vegetables! A very American meal. As we all eat around one big bowl we're not sure how we're going to serve that quite yet, and they're used to having some kind of sauce on everything, plus we're afraid they won't like the mac and cheese. I mean, on the one hand how could you not, but on the other hand, I eat something I don't like probably six days a week at home, and which the others eat with relish. You never know. I mean, sometimes I have to convince myself I'm not going to barf before every bite, so I figure they can deal with one meal they might not like too much, if that's the case. I'll let y'all know how that goes.
Alright well thats about all for now. As things have gotten more and more normal here I seem to have less and less caraaazy stories to tell, but that's probably how it should be. 23 days left in this city and only 3 weekends, one of which will be spent relaxing somewhere in the countryside with our group of Toubabs. I'm going to spend the afternoon working on a paper. Aka playing euchre and talking about working on a paper. Peace upon all.