Wake up. Shower. Get dressed. eat and AMAZING croissant. Drink my nescafé. The whole group met up at ~8:30 to head to SIT together. Bouna hailed us three cabs (an easy task they are more cabs than mosquitoes) and we were off. The ride for four people cost 1000 CFA which is about two dollars. A CAB RIDE FOR TWO DOLLARS!!??!
Anyway we arrive at SIT and orientation commences. Almost immediately dive into wolof phrases. Mostly to deal with the formality of meeting people “asalaamalekum” “malekum salaam” everytime.
We discussed some cultural differences too: It is impolite to look an elder in the eye, it is considered bad luck to say that a baby is cute, pregnancy is hidden/secret as well as others.
We rolled out some mats, took off our shoes and settled onto the floor for lunch. As in every culture there are certain guidelines for etiquette.
-never use your left hand EVER
-don’t reach across the communal serving platter
-only eat off of the section of platter that is in front of you
-let the woman who prepared the meal distribute the meat
-with your right hand form a ball of rice, sauce and meat
The balling up of the food was hard but I caught on quickly (even faster than one of the directors who has been here for 8 years
After lunch we were all given an object and sent out into the neighborhood to discover what it was. (the girl with the sticks learned that they are used instead of toothbrushes, and they work WELL) Alicia and I both failed to get the biggest significance of our objects but what did we get instead? Invited to stay with “Dose” (the Moroccan guy we met) at his house by the beach in Morocco.
It was different to be ‘desired’ and told how beautiful I am. Even if it was just the “loose” reputation of American women that preceded me.
For dinner we had fish. AND I ATE IT. The fish itself was fine. I have always known that if I need to I can eat fish, I just prefer not to. As an adult it’s my prerogative to choose what I eat. I knew that there’d be a lot of fish here and that I’d have to eat it. No problem. Only thing is, is that the whole fish comes, tail, bones, head, eyes. You get the idea. I had hoped I’d have more time to prepare myself but nope. First dinner in Sénégal: Yassa Poisson. I didn’t let it get the best of me!
