Sickness

It was inevitable -- my first batch of intense sickness. I don't know what exactly I ate, though Bashir spent at least half an hour grilling me the other day to try and find the cause, but something completely through my digestive system out of whack. On Tuesday night I couldn't even keep water down, which had me (and my mother, Faith not Abby) very worried. And being sick in the Gueye house was definitely an experience. I nearly had to cry to convince Abby and Bashir that I couldn't eat dinner; they kept telling me I had to force food down. I spent the entire night watching Euronews, until Abby told me that I was only allowed to watch programs in French or in Wolof. I decided to choose my battles wisely, and proceeded to watch Dawson's Creek dubbed in French, followed by High School Musical 2 dubbed in French. It actually might have been fun and entertaining if I hadn't felt like a mess, lying in the fetal position for hours. But don't worry! Now I am almost entirely better, except that I still have no desire to eat Senegalese food. Every dish here is drenched in oil. Meat is directly from the animal, so it's not like any of the fat is trimmed, and I eat with only a spoon and it's culturally not appropriate to trim off the fat. It is impossible to avoid grease, butter, bread (oh my gosh, I never want to see a baguette again...) I crave a salad more than anything. My saving grace has been that clementines are in season, so I eat lots of them. And the bananas are pretty fabulous as well; I buy them from a friendly vendor across the street every morning. For the past few days though I've mostly been eating the equivalent of Riz crackers, with whatever fruit or vegetable seems appealing in the moment. Last night I had mashed potatoes... Hopefully whatever is on the menu for tonight will be easy to digest as well.

Expect another post tomorrow; I ended up spending this evening talking with friends in a classroom at SIT. The people here are really fabulous -- I'm making excellent friends. So expect highlights of the week tomorrow, but for now rest easy that my stomach is feeling 90% better and I'm back to my bubbly sense. Ba beneen yoon. (Until next time.)