Internship!

In a few hours I'll be leaving for my internship in Keur Samba Guèye. I'll be working at a Poste de Santé which is a local health center for the next 5 and 1/2 weeks. Keur Samba Guèye is east of Toubacouta and just north of the Gambian border so I'll be able to do a lot of exciting traveling while I'm in the region. 

My internet connection will be slightly intermittent so if you don't hear from me, don't be concerned! I'll share all of my adventures as soon as possible. In the meantime I wish you all the best!

Lekkal!

     The first Wolof you learn here is indubitably the favorite phrase of Senegalese mamans: "Lekkal," the omnipresent command to eat. And woe is you if you think that is a polite invitation you can demure; it is a true imperative.

La grippe

     Being sick in an unfamiliar place is never fun but a fever of 101 degrees in Sub-Saharan Africa was really pushing it for me. As I lay in my bed sweating and aching, my malaise acted as a lightening rod for feelings of homesickness and culture shock.

The Bargain

We had a mission: obtain appropriate attire for the big soccer match between Senegal and the Ivory Coast.

And in Dakar, there's only one place to go when you need to buy, well, anything you can imagine really: Sandega Market.

Heart in Hand

     I have never thought of myself as an adventurer, and for most of my life, no one else has either.  Prone to over-analysis and exceedingly cautious by nature, I'm more surprised than anyone to wake up on a continent far away from the one I'm most used to.  The heady mix of languages that float in my window over the call to prayer finds me just as the sunlight does each morning, asking myself "How did I end up here?"