Hi everyone!
I am now here in Senegal and have gone through my first day of French class successfully (and on very little sleep: I arrived on Monday at 11 pm after travelling for two days and started classes on Tuesday at 9 am). And although I definitely don’t know the neighbourhood yet, I can find my way to school and back without getting lost, so that’s a plus. My route to school is this: I wind through dirt streets, past several boutiques (small stores that look something like a newspaper stand) selling everything from toothpaste to bottled water, past a football field with no grass but plenty of boys playing football when I walk home in the late afternoon. Oh, and I also pass a stand where they were carving up half of a cow this morning, and there are random goats hanging out by the football field (I assume they belong to some of the boys).
So far things are going well. My host family is friendly, but I do have trouble communicating with them because my French is slow and they also often speak Wolof to each other, and then I’m obviously lost. But I’m hoping my French will improve quickly, as most of my class time thus far has been spent in conversation (and the class size is 1, so I get plenty of talking time). Much of my conversation has been surrounding the weather, as it’s currently about 20 C here, so everyone is shivering. Which is when I explain to them that it was -35 C only a few weeks ago where I’m from. Which is when they act horrified that people live there.
My plan as of now is to give myself a couple of weeks to settle in and understand the area. There are several other students at my school, two of them current Rotary scholars, so I hope that some of them can show me the ropes. Many of them are also involved in volunteering projects, so they’ll be a great resource once I know my way around and start to look at those opportunities.
I’ll update again as soon as I can (the internet is a bit inconsistent at my school, I couldn’t access anything yesterday). And hopefully pictures will be involved!
-Jamie
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5 comments:
20 sounds great. it's currently -22 and the forecast for thursday is -27 without wind chill. Hope you're catching up on your sleep. And I'd love to see some pictures, when you have time to take them. Maybe you next to the carved up cow? Mmmmm animalia... :)
Bon courage avec ton français! Je m'attends a ce que tu commences a ecrire tes entrees de blog dans la langue de moliere :)
H
jaynorrhea! i'm constantly thinking of you and your great african adventure in the land of francais-ness. i guess with the time difference, that means often i'm thinking of you while you slumber. creeps? um, no, i say.
i know you'll be fluent in french in no time. some key phrases for you, to tide you over: "ou est la poutine?" and "comment puis-je eviter la vache morte en marchant vers l'ecole?". i'm curious to find out more about your class. keep us posted, everyone misses you and is thinking of you!
lee
yay!! I'm glad you made it safely and have thus far safely navigated the city! I hope you're getting some rest there. enjoy conversing about the weather. and they are most certainly correct, no one in their right mind should live where the temperature gets down to -35. looking forward to pics! xoxo
Hi Jamie,
I'm a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Red Deer. I wanted to add my voice of support for your trip and experience. I'm also a bit sheepish - am I revealing my approximate age by admitting I don't know how to e-mail directly rather than commenting on your blog!
Sincerest Best Wishes,
Phil Pattison
Wow - it didn't take you long to get into the swing of things! Walking to school already - wow! I am sure the meat thing was very gross!
We have been all thinking of you and wondering how things were going.
Did you know your little brother is a celebrity? We opened up the Red Deer paper yesterday and there it was a photo of him working away at the job. The girls are going to ask him for his autograph.
Take care and we look forward to following your adventures.
Carmen
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