Naam

For those without a facebook, here's a link to my latest pictures in Gorée, le village des arts et Ndaali Pictures Week Three

On Friday we leave Dakar to visit the grande mosque in Touba, just a little to the east. We spend the night in Thies all together and then on Saturday we drive north for our village stays. I think we'll be staying in groups of three or so in a couple different fishing villages on the ocean. I'll be with a new family there for three days. I'm so excited to get out of the city and be somewhere more rural. I don't even care what the sleeping/food situation will be like, I'm sure it will be doable. On Tuesday we'll head north against towards the border of Mauritania and Senegal, to Saint Louis. The city is supposed to be beautiful and we'll spend five days there staying in a hotel together doing different kinds of urban art exploration. One of our professors said we can have a picnic on the border even though we aren't allowed to cross because of the travel warning. Mom is really worried about this idea, but it is far more likely I will get run over by a car walking around Dakar (crossing streets is still a sprint) than hurt at the border.

I have been struggling with the food here- not because it's too weird, but because it's too meat and starch heavy. A normal dinner includes some kind of meat which may or may not be recognizable, this onion sauce which is really good but very repetitive, and at my house some kind of starch which is either rice, cous cous, chopped up spaghetti or french fries. Half of the time french fries. Always eaten with a baguette too. Weirdest foods I have eaten so far: cow tongue and sheep intestine. They are both delicacies, I couldn't say no when they were given to me. My friend Bailee describing what it's like to eat tongue: "it's pretty much just bud on bud. you can straight up feel the buds". The intestine was actually cooked much better and I swallowed fast enough that I can't comment on the taste. I haven't had the chance to eat sheep liver or fish eyeball yet, which some other friends have. Can't wait.

So a couple of my friends and I started a mini co op and have been cooking lunches this week. It's a thousand percent better than eating out and I am finally eating vegetables. (bleach soaked ones mind you, but still). We are making many bean and corn filled dishes with avocados and mangoes because they're local. Food is getting better, but I'm disappointed I'm not more in love with traditional Senegalese food. Maybe there is more to come.