Due to complications with my rural home stay I was able to stay in Dakar for another week. It was fine and I was willing to wait for my for home stay because I loved Dakar. Right after I got the news from Rachel I planned my week out. First thing I did was get in touch with my friend Mike, who has a program here where he brings inner city kids to Senegal. I went over his house for dinner and they invited me to the movies. I declined but he still had to pick up his family from the first showing. The theater was in a well off area. The closer we got the more affluent it became. This part of Dakar wasn’t apart of my notion Senegal yet. At the time it was hard to conceptualize Senegal without sand hugging either side of the road. Hanging and talking with Micheal gave me a unique chance to see a different side of Senegal.
For the entire month of October I had French classes and I did ok, but with an extra week of french I was sure to improve. My teacher was Oumoul Sow and I couldn’t have wished for a better teacher and I became much better. Although I still get tripped up on the grammar I can put together a sentence and get my across. She told me that out of all the Senegalese mothers I have now and will come to have are temporary and she is my real Senegalese mother. I can agree with that because it take a real mama to be that patience with me in class.
The last few days of the week were spent with my family. I loved staying with them and they gave a lot of teranga (hospiltality). I missed my family and friends in Dakar but I’m excited to be with the new ones in the village.
