je suis ici

First i apologize for all typos. These are French keyboards and the keys are in different places and this keyboard is marked incorrectly.

But, i am here in Senegal and all is fine.

Where to start; I cant find the question marks or apostrophes. Just like i cant find my French tongue. I stumble over every thought and its very frustrating. But things will improve.

Things are SO different than Ghana! Its nice and cool here: cant be more than 80 F. And people arent rude but they arent overly friendly either.

Sorry this will suck; its so hard to type on this ,achine. Today we went to Lac Rose; pink lake; which is pink because of saltloving algae. Waded in there and got pics; then avoided the tourist hawkers.

Tabasci will be before I leave; this is commemoration of Abrahams sacrifice so everybody has sheep in their yards which they bathe and henna to purify. then the sheep all die and we eat. Im too practical about food to be a good zealot.

The clothes here are great; cant wait to post pics .

Im staying zith the program directors family which is disappointing because other English speakrs there and around. But most people here speak more Wolof than French anyway; and I often cant tell the difference. My teacher speaks SO FAST which is payback for my teaching Im sure. Hes friendly and energetic but already annoying me with all those damn verbs.

If Ghana was Africa Light then Senegal is Africa Ultra Light. Ive only had one proposal so far and that was a Nigerian. Most children dont swarm and I can beat them off pretty easily. The airport was fine; much quicker than Accra to get through immigration and luggage. The program director wasnt there to pick me up but I had no worries. A couple guys tried to help me but I knew I could find a phone and call him; or worst case scenario find my own place. My French may suck but my survival skills are honed. He eventually showed up and I was whisked away.

We live to the north of Dakar about an hour by bus from the city center. Its Camberene a new suburb and quite nice; quite pious and calm. The family has a 3 year old who is a beast and he runs wild out in the street with no supervision but everybody looks out for everybody else. It seems a great place to be a child; but not such a great place to be a sheep. There are little shops everywhere selling all my necessities of laundry detergent and chocolate biscuits. Sometimes I hear call to prayer but not often enough. Thats one of my favorite sounds.

Well Ill try to post this and see if it takes and then go do French homework.