So I didn't have the most thrilling weekend of my life ever, but lots of funny little mildly entertaining things happened so I suppose I'll post about them today.
First things first; had a Very Senegalese Easter this weekend. Which consisted of eating couscous with raisins, vegetables, and chicken, salad, and ngalax (the awesome peanut butter lax that only get served on special occasions) until I wanted to die. And drinking bissap/pain de singe (baobab fruit) juice, which apparently is the world's best alcohol mixer...because I didn't even realize that all the old, large Senegalese ladies in their boubous were boozing until, at the end of the day/meal, they tried to stand up and were just tottering about the courtyard and slurring their wolof. Non-Muslim Senegalese are all about partying apparently.
After I got back to my own host family that night, I got to do the one thing I've always, always wanted to do, but have never had the opportunity for: to be a sweet older sister. Tabara, my 17 year old host sister, had a secret date with a boy at the Renaissance Monument, but she couldn't tell the fam or they wouldn't let her go. So naturally, I step in and say I want to go for a walk, and bring Aminata and Tabara along. So Aminata and I leave Tabara with her boy for roughly an hour and we just hang out around all the other couples at the statue (sooo out of place, being loud and just generally disturbing the romantic mood around us) before we retrieve her to go home. I'm really going to miss those two the most, they've really made me feel like a part of the family...even if it's just taking advantage of my presence and using me as an excuse to do rebellious things.
Yesterday, we had Easter Monday off (because of the hangovers) and so did a beach day...and on the way, we saw a cab pull over to drop off its passenger, and when he got out, he went to the trunk, presumably to retrieve his baggage...which turned out to be a bound and gagged live goat. Locked up in the trunk of a taxi cab. Coming from lord knows where. And the most bizarre part of the incident was that neither I nor the three friends I was with realized that that is, in fact, not a normal thing until about 5 minutes later. Yikes. I'm starting to think I'm becoming a terrible person and might do things that are WILDLY inappropriate when I get home. Like stuff living beings in the trunks of cars. Or dangle my children over the fire. No big deal.
Anyways, the beach was fantastic...it's in Mamelles, where lots of toubabs live, and is a little more hidden (you have to walk past several trash dumps to get to the ocean), but once there, you're practically harassment free...and the French Air Force likes to hang out there and play sports, so it's really a win-win.
While laying on the sand, we noticed that there were some cool-looking caves up on the hillside in the rocks by the water...and a few of the more daring went off to explore. Clearly I stayed behind. They came back very quickly though, and when we asked why, they explained to us that, while they were climbing, some Senegalese men they had met before told them to turn back, because the caves were a really sweet spot, so great in fact that the drug dealers of West Africa have been using them as their storage places for several years! Mostly heroine, but apparently some other stuff too...making it probably not the best idea ever to go up there. So because of their thwarted plans, to deal with their boredom, hey threw me in the freezing cold ocean water instead. Stupid drug dealers.
That's about all I've got...Passover ends tonight so my family can finally start giving me breakfast again (Alhamdilulahi) tomorrow. Ba beneen yoon.
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