Hotel la Brazzerade Dakar

... the relative familiarity of Europe.<br><br>Unfortunately, this is my introduction to Senegal.<br><br>It gets better. Julie and Kareem met me at the gate, and I was too overwhelmed by the heat, my exhaustion, and my empty backpack pockets to give them a proper hello. But as we headed to their apartment, it settled in that after 3 months of meeting people for a few days at a time, I was finally able to spend time with friends who have known me for ...

... We had three softball teams intent on competing in the West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST).  I don't really know who organizes the tournament, but teams from various Peace Corps countries, as well as teams from the UN and Senegal competed.  The Mauritanian Pirated won, of course, so it made the trip that much better.    I pretty much just spent my mornings by the pool with all the other layabouts ...

... to reexamine a waiver proposed by California to allow them to enact standards for greenhouse gas emissions and fuel efficiency. If the waiver passes a number of other states want to also change their environmental restrictions. After class, I ended up spending a lot of the afternoon hanging out on deck seven again. The weather is so humid though! I feel like I am back in South Carolina during the dead of summer! Its so sticky feeling! I had to attend a ...

... do take pride in their work, as well as show how much they are thankful for the work they have (Unlike us bratty Americans that complain like no other). Now at the hotel, I have no idea if they were just taking extra special care of me(since I'm American), or if they just liked me, OR if they were scamming me(I have no idea how, but the fact they were coming in and out of my room made me uneasy). It all started when I asked ...

... et le Sénat (c'est vraie, ils ont les deux à la fois, ce qui a déclenché d'ailleurs un grand débat national). Après en tournant à gauche on rentre sur l'Av. Léopold Senghor, premier président suite à l'indépendance et plus aimé des français que des sénégalais que j'ai connus (à l'exception de Tata Annette). On arrive au parc de l'indépendance avec sa jolie pelouse et quelques bancs à l'abri de la chaleur et si on descend un peu plus on retrouve le port, la station ...

Hello everyone!!! I hope everything is going well for all of you! I don't have mush time to write but I wanted to get out one last email from Dakar before I leave for Saint Louis on Wednesday where I'm not sure whether or not I'll have the same access to internet. It has been another interesting week here in Africa. As usual, I have managed to find myself in some slightly interesting situations-though at least this week ...

... there. I had a really hard time prioritizing myself. There were like 5 babies crying, but which one do I pick up?? I am so used to the American way of prioritizing, and that is not how things opporate here. You just pick up a baby and go with it until the next one catches your eye. There was that one though that just attached to me. She didn't want to let go, and the feeling of being needed was overwhelming. I seriously fell in love with her, she was beautiful.

... student card gets me loads of money off everywhere. Saved 3.500 CFA on the bopat to goree because of it! Today my senegalise mama ann marie was my 'guide' for the day. She took me to Catholic Church which I did not understand one bit! And when they sing they dont give you any words so I had no idea what was going on!!! They had a BBQ afters which I assumed was lunch but it was just a snack!!! We went home and had lunch too. They ...

... drink with team. i took my team (plus some kids and partners) out for an after-work drink, just to a local bar near the office, to start the weekend. We had a good time and they are an excellent bunch - i think i've said before what a very internationally mixed team it is, and a hard core of four of us stayed until late ... talking together. Sam is from Sierra Leone .... he's my sort of age, and one of the senior foursome. He's worked with Action Aid for many years b4 joining us ...

... the kindness of strangers. Times like these are when you do that long-postponed fast, when you finally shut off the caffeine to your free-wifi-with-coffee-addled brain and concentrate simply on being and nothingness, staying awake, thinking outwardly, no internal dialog, pure perception without the curse of consciousness that language brings in its wake. There were some magic moments, too, like when the whole car breaks into ...