Recap

It has been an exhausting two days. Yesterday was my first real breakdown, with the exception of when I locked myself in the courtyard of course. Part of had to do with social stuff (but everything is fine -- nobody worry!) and a lot of it was just about letting all the little stuff I've been swallowing and trying not to let bother me come to the surface. My homestay is absolutely exhausting, I get lost with frequency which is very unusual for me... Living here is just exhausting, and it was only a matter of time before I crashed. It was okay in the end -- I went home and basically just disengaged from my family for the night. (Bashir was at his other house and Abby had to work late at her telemarketing job.) After a long night's sleep, a lot of journalling, and some for-pleasure reading (thanks Clem for Ella Minnow Pea! What a fabulous, fluffy read!) I felt much better.

Today my french class went with another french class to Isle Goree, which was a major colonial port most known for it's important role in the Senegalese/West African slave trade. Walking around the Maison des Esclaves reminded me a little of walking around a concentration camp.... About 200,000 people from Senegal and the Gambia were shipped to the United States and Western Europe during the 18th century alone. I get the impression (though our tour guide spoke in french, so I know I missed a lot) that almost all of those people at one point lived in this house. In tiny rooms with no light and often no windows, packed in like sardines. On the coast of this beautiful little island about a 20 minute ferry ride from Dakar. The building is a deep coral red, though apparently it was more of a topaz/yellow before slavery was abolished in the Francophone world. (I'll try to post some pictures soon -- early next week, ideally.) I certainly had flash backs to my visit to Majdanek in Poland, feeling the horrible juxtaposition of gas chambers and butterflies on a beautiful sunny day. It was hard to read quotations discussing the incredible devastation of what this human trafficking did to West Africa, and then spend the rest of the afternoon walking around down cute alleys with Portugeuse architecture and large art gallerys for tourists to peruse. And beautiful beaches! This country is full of just incredible beaches. The water here is so blue -- it reminds me a lot of the Pacific. But it's the Atlantic! Funny that I'm still on the Atlantic.

Tonight (assuming Bashir and Abby let me out of the house) the whole group is going to find a boite de nuit (literally translated to mean "night box" but generally meaning night club) and go dancing. We're meeting at a gas station near school (I'm totally serious) to buy some cheaper beverages and come up with a game plan. But apparently night life here doesn't really start until 1 AM, so we could be in for a late night... It should be a blast though; I'm very excited to be with my friends in a more honestly local scene than all the field trips we've been doing recently. Other plans for the weekend are mostly ambiguous... Might go to a fabric market (marche HLM) with a friend and her host mom... Who knows. Will try to catch up on the readings that I'm already behind in (aha so fast) and the field notes that I was supposed to start yesterday. Miss you all much and hope that you are well and healthy. Bon weekend!