Village Stay in Ker Sadaro

I have to say, it's a bit strange to be back in Dakar.

I know I was only gone for about 3 days but man....being in that village was such a relief from this hectic city.

Ker Sadaro is a village on the outskirts of Thies, a city just of the Dakar peninsula. It's still weird to call what I did a village stay. I mean, my compound had electricity, running water and satellite tv. Every single night we watched about 3 hours of 24- in English. But for most of the other students, that was not their experience. I did get to do some things that you could say were "village-y". My first day we were there I learned how to carry water on my head, pick bissap from the fields across the road, do laundrey and make ceebujen (which has become one of my favorite dishes)(I mean, it's the only one that has any vegetables!). So our few days there were pretty chill. If I wasn't doing some household chore, I'd sit and play with my little brothers and sisters or discuss life in America with one of my uncles or walk to another compound that was hosting an SIT student.

One thing that really stood out to me was how many kids there are in each village. Each time we'd enter a village, 20 or so kids would run up to us and want to shake our hands. I almost had a panic attack one time when I was visiting my friend Ryan, because I was closed in by a group of about 10 who wouldn't leave me alone. The entire time I was there, I only saw one very old person (I mean over the age of 70).

I really loved the family that I stayed with. When I met my mom she gave me this huge hug and smiled at me and kept telling me how pretty she thought I was. And maybe she said some other things, but she mostly speaks Wolof so it was rather difficult to understand. She was very good about introducing me to everyone in the compound (about 30 or so people) and she gave me a new Senegalese name: Aminta Thiaw. Found out later that I was named after my 9 year old sister, but apparently that's very common.

3 days was too short. I didn't get to know everyone as well as I would have liked, and didn't get to do everything that I would have liked to have done. But my yaay (mom) invited me back for tabaski ! I definitely want to come back and visit, especially if I do my ISP in Dakar. I'm going to need a village vacay.

Oh and back to the fact that my yaay was totally kickass: she gave me a boubou as a parting present! It's bright and pink and awesome. All the other students only got donuts and eggs.
When I was walking around in Thies earlier, I realized how I'm turning Senegalese. I was strolling around in a bright pink boubou, my hair in braids (courtesy of my little Thiaw sisters), henna on my hands (courtesy of my little Sow sisters), wooden bracelets and a print purse I got in Saint Louis. I felt a little funny, but everyone else kepts saying, "raffetna!" or "tu es belle!" so apparently by Senegalese standards I'm looking pretty good.