So yesterday I learned an important lesson about the Senegalese education system: people don't really ever show up when and where they're supposed to. A few of the kids on my program and I showed up to our class at the University yesterday, and the building was locked! Apparently our professor was still at Touba (a religious pilgrimage sort of thing) and decided nott o tell anyone. Oh well.
Fortunately, we're a positive bunch, and we decided to go exploring instead! We went to downtown Dakar for the second time, did a little market shopping (this oen was far more successful-we're better at bargaining now because we know some key Wolof phrases, and also this market didn't have taxis trying to run you down as you stood inside of shops), and found the best ever ice cream place...ever. It's called N'Ice cream...we don't really get the name, but since it was so good, we figured we'd let it slide. We got followed around by a giant group of vendors until we told them that we, myself and another female student, were both married to the male student with us. We concocted an elaborate story about how we were from Salt Lake, Utah, and how we felt so much more at home in Senegal because polygamy isn't so stygmatized there. Then they left us alone.
We also found out about a Youssou N'Dour concert on Friday night...he's the pride of modern Senegalese music. I can't really think of a current American equivalent, maybe the closest thing would be like a Michael Jackson comparison. Anyways he's a really big deal. We're trying to buy tickets today (they're only about 20 USD) so I'll let you know how those attempts go...it would be really cool to see him live.
That's all for now, but I'll write again soon.
Hope you get tickets to the concert. It sounds like it would be fun. I hope the rest of your professors show up for class this week!
ReplyDelete