Point E

Homestay: I live in Point E in Dakar, very close to my school. SIT has a building with a view classrooms, both indoor and outdoor, a kitchen, a bathroom and a few offices. We spend a lot of time there. 8:30-5 classes and also the only place we have internet. The ceiling leaks quite a bit and we lose power a lot, but it's mostly really nice and it's good to have a home base. I play frisbee here, take naps on mats in the gazebo, shower after runs, etc.

So my homestay mom is currently in Mecca leading a trip. She'll be home in a week and a half. She runs a small health clinic that is on the bottom floor of my house. So to get inside I walk through the maze of the clinic, up an open staircase, through a couple of open air corridors and then into the house on the top floor. Everything is white stone and white tile. There are a few bedrooms, an open kitchen, a living room, and a table for eating. All the doors stay closed all the time which is kind of weird. My bedroom is very, very nice compared to most of my other friends here. I have my own space, a place to put my clothes and a fan on the wall. (very big deal). My host family also supplied me with a mosquito net which I'm getting used to sleeping under. My thermometer tells me that it ranges from 86-90 degrees inside at night. Seriously.

Right now my host brother Babacar is home. He's a student on break from univesite though, so he mostly sleeps, even though he's very friendly. All of our families have maids here, and I mostly hang out with my family's maid. Her named is Nogaye, she's 21 and so sweet to me. We talk about things such as: boys, facebook, clothes, Rihanna, MTV, dancing, family, universite, Usher, America....she's very interested in what American teenagers do. She's very patient with my french and waits for me to use my dictionary when I need to use it. Just the two of us eat dinner together every night, so it's kind of like living with a roommate. She took my friend Bailee and I to get our nails henna tattooed the other day in a crazy packed market.

I have to run home to get my pants tailored for Korité tomorrow (the end of Ramadan) but I will write more soon!