January 21

Just because I want to cause trouble, I'll start my post today with this slightly startling fact: one of the kids on my program got diagnosed with malaria today!  Word on the street is that he didn't start taking his pills before he left so they didn't take effect quickly enough;  He is getting treatment though and should be just fine, and I have not missed a pill so no worries here Mom.
Speaking of malaria pills, I noticed I had been having some really, really bizarre lucid dreams (and nightmares) lately, and so I looked it up online and as it turns out, that's one of the side effects of the weekly malaria pills!  My latest night terror featured me as Natalie Portman's character in Black Swan, but I knew I was an actress, and really wanted to win an Oscar for my role, which added a whole other level to the over-competitive motif.  Plus, it was a lucid dream, because I kept thinking to myself, yeah I'm definitely not Natalie Portman as I was dancing around and sprouting feathers.
On a completely different note, Senegal is great!  I walked into the downtown area of Dakar with a few friends (which is basically the same as everywhere else, with goats and dusty dirt roads, just with more people) and when we got slightly lost on the way back, we actually wandered into this great little market where we got custom Senegalese shirts made really cheaply.  It was a fun little diversion for the day...excpet I'm kind of over getting harassed for being white by all the merchants.  I need to tan more quicklyyyy
I have finally registered for all of my classes, and the Cheikh Anta Diop ones begin officiallt for us on Monday, so I'm excited to actually start taking classes with Senegalese students.    It would be nice to have some friends that know the area well and can show me around.
And more exciting news; yesterday I figured out how they do laundry!  Apparently Tabara, my 16 year old host cousin does the family laundry and I offered to help her, so now on every Saturday we'll do it together...which is excellent since I've just about run out of clean clothes to wear.  However, you cannot put underwear into the laundry, apparently it's unsightly or something.  You wash it yourself in the shower.  It's kind of weird but efficient I guess so it's not really a problem.  I feel like I do about 75% of my daily activities in the shower now (wash clothes, brush my teeth because there are no sinks, clean my shoes...oh yeah, and I shwer in there too).  I've been getting much closer with my host family, especially Tabara and Aminata (we all have a shared love of Indian feuilltons, or soap operas, as well as Bollywood films and clothing) and I've been helping them to run errands for the household and helping them with their English homework, and they've been doign the same for me with Wolof.
One more important discovery: a place right near WARC called My Shop, a convenience store type place that sells ice cream (thank goodness) and other toubab-friendly foods.  It's quickly becoming the hangout spot for the foreign students.
Well, that's about it for now...I likely won't have internet access until after the weekend, but I will write again when I can.  A la prochain!