I arrived yesterday moning at 6 am. I have been slowly adjusting to my new suroundings. I don’t speak french as well as I need to. It’s coming back to me though. I am also typing on a french keyboard, so please forgive the typos and/or grammatical errors. My host family is so very nice, maman provides all the meals home cooked unless I tell her otherwise. she is not strict, which is very nice. She also speaks little french and that makes it a little difficult to communicate. But I will be learning wolof soon. The whole family is so nice. There are too many to count! There are 4 women my age and two little girls. there is one son about my age and there is a little boy. I have a room to myself but the bathroom is public. The toilet is the type you squat for, so i usually wait to go to the baobab center, where they have toilets and toilet paper.

I have acquired a fabulous American sister, jesse. I absolutely love her. We eat ou meals together and in my room since its bigger. she has introduced me to her friends but i don’t really know any of the other students yet. i wil be taugh wolof first next week and it will be one on one tutoring, so i will learn a lot and very quickly. typically, people come in groups, but since i am solo, i get the classes solo.

i still make the mistake of talking to people in English, c’est une problem, n’est-ce pas?

I went into Dakar today, wr used the public transportation system. i can honestly say i will probably never use it again. we were on the bus for about 15 minutes and I got so sick. Yep, motion sickness hit me like no other and i tried so hard to keep my stomach calm, but when it makes up its mind, it makes up his mind. Anyway, gotta go!