Well, tomorrow is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year and almost everyone is leaving Dakar. It's called Tabaski, and I know nothing about it except for the fact that it has something to do with the lunar calendar and that people eat goats to celebrate.
I'm not exactly sure how to explain this, so let me put it this way: One night I went to sleep and the next morning I awoke to the sound of a goat (which is pronounced "beggayyyy" in Frolof-french/wolof combo-kind of like how we say "moo" for a cow...). I stepped outside and began to make my way over to Liberte 6 (a section of the city of Dakar) when the sounds of goats became louder and louder. I reached the main highway and *TADA* saw lots of goats. EVERYWHERE. Goats. Goats. Goats. They were tethered to small metal hooks that had been pounded into the ground and they covered every square inch of space. I literally had to quick prance between 2 of them in order to cross the highway. This mysterious goat phenomenon has not only happened near Liberte 6, but all over the city of Dakar: at the main bus terminal, near the markets, down the street, in trunks of taxis, on push wheely carts, in the courtyards of homes... Like I said...EVERYWHERE.
So needless to say, goats and I have developed a love hate relationship. They're kind of cool looking, but smell horrendous. They're kind of funny sounding, but never SHUT UP. I hear they're kind of delicious, but do they really have to be in the city for so long before they're all slaughtered and eaten? I can't remember the exact date that they began to pop up all over the city, but it was awhile ago. I'm very excited for the silence of Thursday morning. Maybe that's kind of morbid of me...because all of the goats will be dead and eaten, but you know....that's life.
Anyhoo...moving on...
I got sick again. It was HORRIBLE and MISERABLE. But I'm all better now, so I won't really focus on that too much since ya'll heard about my sick experience last time. The thing I will say about my sickly experience: I can't believe the health care system here. Example: I went to the doctor and explained my symptoms. The doctor then took my blood pressure and weighed me and proceeded to prescribe 4 different medications to be taken over the course of 5 days. He didn't even take my temperature! Say what?! So I just took the meds and now I'm better, but seriously. I could have had malaria.
I experienced quite the bout of homesickness during my sickly days. Mostly I just wanted to get better and sleep, but according to the entire Senegalese population the cause of every illness is the "la chaleur" (the heat) and the solution to every illness is to LEKKAL BU BAAX (eat lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots...of food). That food mainly consists of onions, rice, and red meat in my household and when I'm nauseous all the time, that isn't necessarily the most appealing thing in the world. Needless to say, I miss good food. The #1 thing on the list of foods that I want (today) is a garden salad with bleu cheese dressing and french on the side from Red Lobster with a basket of those deliciously cheesy herb biscuits followed by a trip to Olive Garden for the 3 cheese manicotti drenched in alfredo sauce and topped with fresh parmesan cheese. I think I die a little inside every time I think of it. So to save my own life, I'm going to move on from the topic of food...
My internship is going pretty well. I'm learning tons and speaking French constantly which is nice, but generally I feel pretty worthless. They have me reading reports and writing reports on the reports in order to build my base of knowledge which is cool and absolutely necessary, but I'm only at this internship for 6 weeks... so it's kind of sad knowing that I may not get to actually see any action. But maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to continue with this internship and work in a small village next semester with this same organization. We'll see. I'll keep you posted as I know more. :)
Bonne journée à tout. Miss you all lots.
Peace,
Ndela
