a fancy weekend!

            Last week was only a 4 day week! Woo hoo! On Friday we had  Professional Development which consisted of meetings… but mostly pizza and pretzels and apples and oranges and ICE CREAM!!! Yippee!! But the best part of all was that after lunch, we got on buses to go to STAFF RETREAT!!! We just got back and the only bad part about it was how short it was! I would be just fine staying there for another week or so.. People there need to know about Jesus too!!!

            Anyway, it took us two short hours to get to the Neptune Hotel.  I stayed in a fancy little villa with three other girls! Super fun!  There was a nice pool and it was just a short walk to get to the beach.  The only time I was hungry the whole weekend was before we ate dinner because each meal was HUGE and DELICIOUS.  There was an appetizer, then a main course, and a desert.  For some of them, I felt like the appetizer could have been the main dish! But I don’t regret eating ANY thing. 

            It was cloudy most of the time, but I am happy it was because it was less hot that way and not as skin-cancery.

            It was so nice sleeping in an air conditioned room and actually using the covers and getting cold in the middle of the night! Quite a treat!! The only sad thing about our room was that the toilet wouldn’t flush the toilet paper : ( kinda yucky..

            On Saturday, I went to the beach and walked for a little while and then hung out by/in the pool the rest of the day.. then we had a little worship session in an AIR CONDITIONED room!! And some of the hotel workers had asked us to pray for them! How cool is that??

            Then we played some games and did this CRAZY puzzle that you had to figure out where the pieces went because they had words on them that told you where they were.. and it was just ridiculous. 

            Today we had a little church service in the same room and then I went to the beach again.  As I was sitting on the beach, looking at all the fun seashells (actually WHOLE seashells, and a lot of them!!) a cigarette man comes up and says “it is hot” in English.. usually I can just say “no francais” and they leave me alone, but when he spoke English to me I was just so shocked that I said “yes”. So, he starts telling me about how Americans talk too fast.. and how he wonders why some people are white and some are black.  “It’s just the way God made us!” I said.. he didn’t really like that answer though.  He just kind of ignored it.  Then he starts talking about music and how he wouldn’t want to live in a world without music, and starts singing a song about calling 911.  This whole time, I am just sitting there not even looking at him responding with one word answers.  Why couldn’t he get the hint that I wanted him to GO AWAY!! That is my only complaint about the beach.. people want you to take a picture with their fish they just caught.. or come to their restaurant.. or sit in their beach chair.  They can’t leave you alone.  So finally, I just stood up and said bye.. and he said he wanted my address so he could send me a postcard and I said I didn’t have an address and he said “next time you come, you eat lobster” and I said “no. goodbye”  and I was VERY upset that I had to leave that spot, cause I was finding some good shells!  Next time, I will just make sign language up and pretend I am deaf.

            So anyway, then I went back and had our last delicious meal, and I definitely won’t need to eat dinner tonight and maybe won’t even need to eat for the rest of this week because my stomach is just so full..
            Getting back to school took about double the amount of time it took us to get there due to an accident.. apparently they don't like to wait for things to clear up here, so they will go the long way even if it is double the distance, double the time... oh my. its okay though, because i was sitting next to the most knowledgable lady in the world so i learned a lot about everything! a free tour! i am just thankful that it wasn't on the way THERE, because this way, we didn't lose any valuable time at the hotel : )

            Pictures will be coming soon.. just you wait!

Thankful..

            Today, God reminded me that His timing is perfect, and I am so thankful for that truth.  I can’t share any details yet, but I am looking forward to some exciting things!  I am also SO thankful for the people that God has surrounded me and blessed me with here in Africa.  I couldn’t have asked for a more welcoming group of people!  Yesterday morning, one of my favorite ladies shared during devotions and we sung “Great is Thy Faithfulness” at the end of devotions and it was so perfect!  Just what I needed to hear/speak with my own mouth.

            I also realized today that I have been thinking about all the material things that I have been missing, and thinking of those things has distracted me from focusing on JESUS!  I can survive without all those things because no matter where I go, Jesus is with me!  And He goes before me!  The only thing I truly miss is all the people I left at home in Redding.  But, praise the Lord for Facebook and Skype!  I was reading a book earlier this week that a missionary wrote about her experiences in a VILLAGE in Africa.. no electricity among many other challenges.  I really do have it SO easy here.

            Anyway, I apologize for all the complaining I have been doing in my blog lately, I’m working on my attitude. : )

            To top it all off, I was blessed with a pair of flip flops today!  Not just any flip flops, but Teva flip flops.. lightly used, but they are sooo comfy!  

R.I.P. Fall

            Today it is more than half way through September, which means it is almost October.. I love October.  And November.  And December.  But, let’s not get too carried away here.  The point is… I’m missing Fall.  Everything about it!!  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the hot, humid weather here.  I just love how I get all sticky walking from my classroom to the office.  I love how bananas turn SO quickly here (is that because of the humidity, I don’t know!).  I love dripping sweat onto a child’s paper as I lean over to help them.  (okay that last one hasn’t happened, yet.. thanks to my trusty air conditioner!!  Which, by the way worked FABULOUSLY today.. it has its ups and downs for sure! But how scarring would that be to get your teacher’s sweat on your paper.. gross!!)  anyway, I don’t actually love those things.

            But I DO love Fall.  The pretty colors, pumpkin spice lattes, the perfect weather, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, apple hill (okay, I have only been there once.. but it was SO fun and I want to go again),  pumpkin pie ice cream, Thanksgiving, and everything pumpkin… and everything else!

            Mug and Muffin (the youth pastor’s wife has all the ladies over in the middle of the day and feeds us delicious treats and yummy drinks) was today and we had this yummy apple bread stuff with apple cinnamon cream cheesey spread.. ahhh soo good.  And she had decorated her house with all these cute fall decorations.  I had been thinking about how much I missed it already, but today really made me realize it.  So, I am already looking forward to the next Fall I will get to experience!!  And then I was thinking about people who stay here for their whole lives.. they hardly ever get to have a true Fall.. except on furloughs.. but that is a real sacrifice! 

Maybe it's Time to Get a Mosquito Net

            There were little spots of blood on my sheets this morning.. those stupid mosquitoes are not fighting fairly!!  They make me so angry!  Speaking of sheets, if you ever live in Africa, do NOT use white (or off white sheets)  I don’t know how they decided white would be good, but I have had multiple experiences which have proven they are NOT good.  One day I washed my sheets and hung them up to dry, and then when I took them down there was a streak of dirt where they were hanging on the clothesline!!! Ugh! I guess I should have wiped the clothesline off first, but who even thinks to do that?? And then, the mosquitoes being messy with their bloodsucking.. and also, sometimes on Tuesdays (before Josephine comes on Wednesday to clean) the floor is just pretty dirty and i don’t always remember to wash my feet before I jump on my bed, so I have footprints all over my sheets until I wash them again!  Big sigh.

            Although, I must say, an even bigger mistake than putting white sheets on a bed in Africa is not bringing flip flops to Africa.  This one I can’t blame on anyone but myself.   And the humidity.  It is mostly the humidity’s fault and this is why:  When I was packing, I thought to myself “I definitely need to bring flip flops” but, as my bags started filling up, the flip flops just kept getting pushed to the side because I thought “well, I’m going to be at school most of the time, and flip flops just aren’t very professional.”  Well, guess what? I don’t care anymore! I would totally wear flip flops to school every day, because right now I usually wear my goofy water shoes to school every day, and they usually don’t match and people probably think I’m kind of a weirdo.  I brought two pairs of sandals, but they just take so much work to put on!! One of them has TWO pairs of straps on each shoe, and the other one just has one.. but flip flops just sound like the best thing ever right now.  Okay, so back to the humidity.  Eventually, my bags got full and in all honesty, I probably could have fit just one little pair of flip flops in, but I just wasn’t thinking.  My hair dryer and straightener took up SO MUCH room, and I don’t even use them here!! I used them the first few days, but after about an hour, my hair just looked horrible anyway, so what’s the point??  Therefore, logically speaking, it is the humidity’s fault that I did not bring flip flops because if it wasn’t so humid, I would be able to do my hair and the blow dryer and straightener would be useful tools, but since it is humid, the blow dryer and straightener sit in a drawer in my room never being used, and the flip flops sit in my closet in a far away land.. Redding, getting no use as well. 

            So, as you can see, I have been learning a lot, and I just wanted to share my knowledge with you all.  Just in case you are ever in a situation where you need to decide between white sheets and black sheets.. choose black, 100% of the time… and when you need to decide between hair supplies and flip flops, choose flip flops always.

champion quatre (four)

            Today I took a mini vacation to a city called Dakar with the Kindergarten teacher (Patty), 1^st grade teacher (Elizabeth) and elementary principal (Barb).  We went to a hotel with a pool in it… a reasonable price to use somebody’s pool would probably be about 5 dollars-ish, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought too! But nope, it was 16 smackaroonies!  Totally worth it though!  It was right next to the ocean, so we could be in the pool and see the ocean at the same time, and we could even walk down to the beach!  It was a good Saturday indeed!

            I was so excited to wear my new wrappy skirt thing, but now at the end of the night I’m feeling like an idiot because I hadn’t washed it before wearing it, so my swim shorts got blue on them, and so did the shirt I was wearing L but, now it is soaking in some vinegar water.. because somebody told me that would set the colors.  Hopefully it works and doesn’t just SUCK the colors out.. I’m just so disappointed in myself.  And I won’t even tell you what happened when I was getting the vinegar water ready.  I want there to be some color left after I get this whole thing figured out!! I don’t want my shirt and shorts to be ruined for nothing!!  I probably should have gone to bed right when I got home from handball.. oh yeah I did that today too, I was just a busy bee today! But, back to the pool.

            We wanted to get our money’s worth seeing as how it cost 16 dollars to swim! So, we left around 9:00 this morning.  Right when we walked through the doors of the hotel, I felt like I was in a foreign land (meaning foreign to Africa). It was so fancy!  We walked over to some lounge chairs and started setting our stuff down and a big African man runs over to us with a stack of cushions for us and lays them down.  This guy was BIG.  We went in the pool and everywhere we swam he would walk on the edge of the pool following us! Creepo!  So then we got out of the pool and walked down to the beach.. on our way he yelled “CHAMPIONS!!” to us.. we were trying to decide what he meant.. did he want to sell us champagne?  Or was he talking about mushrooms?  (The French word for mushrooms is champignons).  Anyway, the tide was high so we couldn’t really access the beach at that point, so we came back up.  As we were walking back to our lounge chairs, he pointed to Patty and said “Champion number 1” then, he pointed to Elizabeth and said “Champion number 2” then he pointed to me and said “Champion number 3” (Barb didn’t come to the beach with us, so she didn’t get rated!)  anyway, I was so mad that I was last place, I made it my goal to move up the totem pole by the end of the day. okay, not really.

            After a while of feeling like a Richie rich (sitting by the pool/swimming in the pool), we went to the hotel restaurant and had a delightful lunch.  I ordered these wonderful little morsels titled “nems” it reminds me of “nums” and Elizabeth and Patty were getting them AND I just liked the name so I decided to order it.. they are kind of like little spring rolls. Yummmmmmmm were they good!   

            While we were eating our lunch we heard some thunder and I got really excited because I love being at the ocean when its raining!  Unless its pouring buckets and you aren’t prepared because your just wearing jeans but you decide to brave it anyway because you drove all that way and then you go walking out on the rocks and the tide comes in while you are on the rocks and your basically stuck out in the middle of the ocean.. but that didn’t happen today.  So usually, I like it when it rains at the ocean! 

            The sky went from blue to dark gray in about 5 minutes.. super cool! I went down to the ocean with Patty and got in the water and it started sprinkling and it was just the best!! The ocean was so warm, which I am still surprised by because the ocean at home is just soooooooo coold.  the cold rain felt so good, although I wish it would have lasted longer.  But it was like hot brownies and ice cream. The ocean was the brownies and the rain was the ice cream. Perfect combination!!

            So, the sky cleared up and we got back in the pool and took some naps..

But before that I had to find out where I ranked with champion man with barb in the rankings.. so I found him and pointed to barb and said “Champion..,,??” and he pointed to patty and said “champion one” Elizabeth: “champion two” Barb: “champion three” and me: “Champion 4”, so I had been demoted.

            Anyway, then we went home and had fish sticks and tacos and fish tacos for dinner and it tasted soo yummy, and then I realized it was 20 minutes before my handball game was started and I didn’t have any idea how to play! So I went and watched the game and kind of figured it out and got so nervous because basically the whole school was there watching, but I ended up just passing the ball a whole lot and it turned out to be pretty fun! 

            And now im here sitting by the fan eating a delicious ice cream sandwich, thinking about eating another one right after this.. after all they are labeled “mini ice cream sandwiches” so if I wanted to have a regular sized ice cream sandwich, it would be two minis?? Right? That’s how it works?

            I love the weekends!

Happy Weekend!

           Did i mention how much i LOVE the rain? As i was walking out of the school yesterday evening, a bunch of the high schoolers were playing red rover on the turf and water was splashing up everywhere. how cool are they?  I wanted to play SO badly.. and they said "Ms. Fisher! come join us!" and that made me want to play with them even more!! although, i think its kind of weird that they call me Ms. Fisher.. I wish they would just call me Lauren.. because they aren't even my students!! and im not even that old!  Darn those respectful teenagers! 

            But, that’s not the point!  I couldn’t play because I had to go home to meet the people I was going grocery shopping with!  Darn grown-up responsibilities!  I did actually stop to think for a minute if I could make it another week with the food I had.. but after remembering the rotten tomato incident, I decided I needed to go shopping. 

            As I was walking home, the fruit man who comes to our apartment on Saturday mornings was walking by and he said bonjour and then lots of French and I made the sorry face and he just said “tomorrow” and pointed in the direction of the apartment building.  I didn’t think I would be there because I had an appointment to get my medical certificate… but I just smiled and said okay!  And also did a thumbs up… I realized I have been doing that a lot lately.. and I wonder if they do that in Africa.. I don’t really think they do because no one seems to know why I’m putting my thumb up at them.  But I just do it anyway.. man, I really need to learn some French. 

            So I got home and was relieved to find that I had put away all of the papers that were on my desk beneath my bedroom window which I had left open.  Nothing was ruined…  I just had a very wet desk and floor. 

            Then we went to City Dia!  A very fancy grocery store.. fancy meaning there are FOUR whole aisles.. complete with a freezer section AND a refrigerated section.  And its always clean in there.  So we like it.  We got to drive through some pretty big water puddles!  And I learned that it’s best to drive REALLY fast through big puddles.. not just for fun but because that way your engine won’t flood.  You just have to make sure there’s no one around who you will splash.  Don’t worry, we didn’t splash anybody.

            I found these REALLY yummy ice cream bars that make up for the yucky ice cream I bought last week.. it was coffee ice cream with chocolate chunks and the package made it look SO good.  Right when I got it home, I put a huge spoonful in my mouth and it was all gritty and not creamy at all.. I was so disappointed.  Especially because ice cream is so expensive here!!  But, the good thing is I now have yummy “brownie” ice cream bars!

            All I had to do to get my medical certificate.. which I don’t even understand why I need it was weigh myself and get my blood pressure, that’s it! And I passed! Yahoo!  I went to my classroom after that to get some work done, and went back home for lunch. 

            I had some leftover Mafe (my favorite Senegalese dish so far!) which is this yummy peanut sauce with carrots and I think it usually has potatoes in it but Josephine (our house help) didn’t make it with potatoes and some kind of meat.. she put beef in it.  It is sooo yummy! And, I ran into Jon and Mary (our downstairs neighbors) on my way home for lunch and they said they made some the other night and saved some for me because they know I like it so much!  They are just too good to me!  So I will not be running out of mafe anytime soon, especially since Ruthanne doesn’t like it!  I get it allll to myself!

            Anyway, I decided I also wanted a mango (which, by the way, I was ripped off for.. I had given money to Josephine to get some mandarins and mangoes because there  is an “African” price and a “Toubab” price, AND things are supposed to be cheaper where she goes to shop anyway… so I thought if I had Josephine buy it, I would get a good deal!! Wrong, I’m pretty sure she lied about the price because it was more expensive than when I buy fruit on the street!  But, she does a good job of cleaning.. so I just won’t have her do my shopping anymore.)  So, I started cutting up a mango, but there was a bunch of black stuff in it.. so I decided to just cut around it.  By the time I had finished cutting all the black stuff out there was just a teeny tiny bit.  So I ate that, and then cut into another mango.  This one had some black stuff too, but not as much.  But THEN I noticed that the inside of it was MOVING.  There were two little worms inside!! Probably more than two actually, but I just saw two of them.  AND I had been eating little pieces while I was cutting it up.  Ugh, I wanted to barf and throw up and vomit all at the same time.  But, I still wanted a mango. So I cut into a third one, and this was finally a good one.  But I inspected each bite much more carefully than I have ever done.

            When I got back to school the fruit man was standing right in front of the gate to school.  He waved to me and I felt so guilty that I wasn’t there this morning so I went over and bought some fruit even though I didn’t need any!  But, he gave me a free mandarin right away.. so then I really felt like I had to buy a lot.  When I was safely inside school, I saw some high schoolers so I gave them some mandarins.. so now I’m all balanced out in my fruit stock again. Phew.

            Then I got to skype with Christa! And now I need to get back to work! : ) 

racking up the points!

            Today was a GOOD day.  First of all, it was Friday.. automatic point.  I am now done with my chapel speaking (hopefully for the year) and my staff devotions for the semester.  2 points.  Birthday treats in the staff lounge. 5 points.  A poem in “Hebrew” from one of my students.  1 billion points.   A picture of a giraffe playing baseball with a message in “Hebrew” from one of my other students.  Also a billion points.  Rain storm with BIG thunder (I swear.. its huge).. a lot of points.  Elementary Chapel complete with dancing and singing 5^th graders.  Mucho points there as well. Today just was GOOD.  Days like this make me think I could stay another year or two… but then I have the days that make me want to leave right away. 

            I am a little bit afraid to go back to my apartment because I left my bedroom window open this morning : ( I don’t know what was by the window.. eeks! 

Double Whammy

           Today I "got" to speak in middle school/high school chapel.  Tomorrow morning I "get" to do staff devotions.. ahh. why would they do this to a new person? craziness.  anyway, chapel was fine.  just shared some poop stories, mostly.
           I was going to make a BLT for dinner tonight but i cut into the tomato, and it was no good.  I had already started making the bacon though, so I made some eggs and toast and had an even more delicious dinner.  take that, tomato.
           I may have made one of the worst decisions ever today.. called signing up for handball.  Technically, sign ups ended on August 31 but I was talking to some girls today after school and they said that one of the teams needed another staff member.  So, I said I would do it.. because a bad player is better than no player, right?  unless i just get in the way all the time.. but who knows? maybe i will go to the olympics on a handball team! gotta keep the options open..
           Best news of the day is that we still get to go to a supposedly really cool place for our staff retreat!  There was talk of not going there due to budget stuff.. but they decided we could do it if everyone pitched in 20 dollas.. for a whole weekend at a 4/5 star hotel!! i am more than okay with that!
            After reading this again, this post has been all over the place.  and really has no useful information.. but here I go, hitting "publish" anyway.

The Night of the Lizard

            So, this one time, I was brushing my teeth and walking around the apartment, because what else is there to do besides look at yourself in the mirror and make faces?  Which is fun sometimes.. but it's more fun to look at Katie McKinley who is also brushing her teeth and pretend that she is my mirror.  but, since i didnt have Katie, i decided to get my exercise instead.
             While I was on my stroll, something caught my eye.  I thought, "thats strange, i have never noticed anything that high up on that wall before" and then... I realized what it was.  a huge, creepy looking yucky lizard!!!! I'm not talking about a tiny baby lizard, this was a big macho sized man eating lizard!! i was so shocked, all i could say through my mouth full of toothpaste was "ouhjskmsaeir" (its french for "why?").  So Ruthanne comes out of her bathroom and she says "aww how cute.. look at that!"  Really?  CUTE is what you decide to call a LIZARD in our APARTMENT on our WALL!!!  i said something like that out loud, but i dont quite remember what it was.  but, by the end of the ordeal, i guarantee she wasn't thinking it was cute..
             She starts talking to it, asking it nicely to exit the premises.  Then, it starts moving towards MY ROOM!! So, i run into my room and slam the door, and put a towel down by the door to make sure it knows it is not welcome.  Luckily, my bathroom is connected to my room, so I can spit out my toothpaste and finish getting ready to go to bed.  But Ruthanne says "you think closing your door is going to protect you?" and I say "YES IT IS!!!" and she says "nope, you have a window in your bathroom that has a hole in it."  (yes there is a window in my bathroom that goes to the inside of the house.. i have no idea why.. but it wouldnt let the lizard in)
             I finish my bedtime routine, close my bathroom door.. just in case.. and lay down in bed when I remember that I have forgotten to take my malaria medicine.  As I am wondering which is worse, malaria or sleeping with a lizard, the 15 mosquito bites on my legs start to itch, so I yell to Ruthanne (who has been throwing clothespins at the lizard for the past 10 minutes) "Where is he??" and she says "right in the corner between your door and the wall" then, SMACK, i hear another clothespin hit the wall and she says "oh, now hes on your door!"  and i can hear him moving around on there!!! so i jump up on my bed and pray that he has a heart attack and disintegrates into dust.  doesn't happen.  finally, she tells me it is clear so i open the door and look up and he is in the corner staring at me!! so after screaming at him to stay there,  i run past him, get some water and my medicine and run back and slam the door (and then put the towel back in place).
               I had nightmares all night about godzilla, but i made it through the night, except i have no idea where the creature is now... i should have sprayed him with insect killer when i had the chance! He is probably prowling around the apartment as i type... i dont like him at all! i want him to go away. forever.
              Having a cockroach as a class pet is bad enough, i don't want a lizard as a house pet... sigh. the life of an African.

chili and lasagna... mixed together.

We had to sign up for a minimum of two extra curricular activities, so of course i chose the minimum.  I went for the easy route and signed up for after school computer lab duty.. which consists of sitting in the computer lab for an hour and a half.  Last time, no students came in to use it, so i felt a little bit useless.. but was kind of okay with it because i got a lot of grades done.. today 2 different kids came in and used it!  AND i finished grading early, and got some internet time in :) im feeling pretty goood about myself! 

now it is 5:00.. and there is still a kid in here and i feel bad about kicking him out, but i also want to leave.  ohh the dilemmas i face in africa.
here is a funny story for you.  I was grading homework and here is the question they had to answer:  "Do you like pizza, lasagna, or other Italian foods?  Write a paragraph about the foods you like or dislike." (it was for spelling... lasagna was one of their spelling words)
"I don't like spicy food.  I especially don't like chili although I've never tasted it before.  I think it will burn my tongue if I put it in my lasagna!"

There are just so many good things about that answer.  I love her.  We took some class pictures today.. i will put those up on facebook so you all can see.. i learned in college it was illlegal unless you ask the parents first... but maybe in africa it's different? i dont know.. thoughts on that anyone?? will i go to jail?

also, the computer lab needs a new key. it took me 10 minutes to lock the door. and i didnt even get it locked. i gave up. hopefully no computers get stolen...

Soggy Sunday

            It seems like all the really rainy days have been on the weekend.  And this time, I got caught without an umbrella. It wasn't exactly pouring when it was time to leave for church, but it was raining pretty hard!  So, I just ran through the river to get to church and showed up drenched. classy.  but, i found a good seat underneath a fan and dried off pretty quickly.
            I had made plans with the first grade teacher to go to lunch and do some shopping at the mall after church, she asked me if i still wanted to brave it.. after having a brief flashback of last sunday's adventures in taxi land.. i said yeah i want to brave it!
            So, after church, we borrowed a huge umbrella from Patty (who was originally going to come with us.. but decided she didn't want to "brave it") and started walking in the rain, trying to find a taxi.  There weren't a lot of them out, but finally we got one to stop and he said he would take us for 5000! which is 10 dollars... the regular price is apparently 1500.. or 3 dollars! so we said no thank you and kept looking for a taxi... eventually when we were ankle deep in water, we decided to turn around and go to a different restaurant that we could just walk to.
            By the time we were finished with lunch (and ice cream!) we were all dry,and it was just lightly sprinkling!
            And now here i am at school, trying to plan the next week.. but getting distracted like usual! A pretty uneventful day, i suppose.
            Missing everyone at home!  and missing un-natural peanut butter.  all i can find here is the kind with not a lot of sugar in it.. which you have to stir.  but im kind of getting used to it, i just eat it with some honey.. which is also pretty natural.. it has little black floaties in it.. im not sure exactly what they are.. but i think i will just continue not knowing. because the honey tastes good! and thats all that matters, right??

Goree Island

I wrote this yesterday. but since the internet in my apartment is still not working, im posting it today!!

            Today, I went to Goree Island with my friend Adama and her cute little 8 year old niece!  I thought we were going to N’Gor Island, and I’m still trying to figure out why there are two islands with such close names.  Anyway, we took a taxi (I’m getting pretty good at riding in taxis!) to the place where you take the ferry.  I had to pay FIFTY TWO TIMES as much for a ferry ticket since I wasn’t a resident.. what a rip off!! For a resident, its about 20 cents, and for a non-resident, it’s a little over 10 dollars, so it wasn’t really that much.  But, the fact that they charge 52 times as much is just a little ridiculous to me.  I guess I should have waited until after I went through that whole process to go to the island, but hopefully I will be able to go some more because it is seriously the most beautiful place I have seen since I have been here.. which I guess isn’t saying much, but I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing trees and flowers everywhere I go. 

            On the ferry, I saw one of last year’s students who would be in my class this year if he wasn’t moving schools! How do I know? Because he visited on Friday and hung out with us a while!  He’s super cool, and I’m a little bit sad that he’s not with us... but I have also heard things that make me thankful he’s not in the class.  Anyway, I waved to him and he said “heyyyyyyyy! Ms. Fisher!” (he speaks a little bit like Fonzy, not kidding!) he seems WAY older than 4^th grade.  Looks wise, I would guess him as a 5^th or 6^th grader, but personality wise I would put him as a sophomore in high school.  It sounds weird, I know.. but you would just have to meet him I guess!

            Towards the end of the ferry ride, this lady came up to me and introduced herself in French and started speaking to me, and I said “sorry I don’t speak French” so she started over in English!  She told me she had a shop that she wanted me to come to and she would give me a good deal.. I do not like the shop keepers here, way too pushy.. more on that later. 

            So, we got off the ferry and this guy is following us telling us he wants to be our tour guide, and I keep telling him no because he is just SO ANNOYING. He wouldn’t stop!  He kept saying “small island, big history” over and over.  But finally, I say okay because I just want him to stop so he takes us to the police station which was first a church and it was the first building on the island, and says a bunch of other stuff I don’t even understand.  Then, we go through a really pretty garden and he says some more stuff which I didn’t understand. 

            Then, we get to the slave house and he says “this man will give you a tour” so he makes someone else do his job!  It was really depressing inside there, obviously… and I understood the man who was giving this tour SO much better.  I told Adama I couldn’t understand anything the other guy was saying and she said “oh, well we can just get rid of him then!” but I was beginning to think that he had gotten rid of us!  I was kinda relieved!  So after we finish our tour of the slave house, we walk out and mr. tour guide is nowhere to be seen.  BUT THEN, he walks around the corner!  Adama tells him to go away and I try to give him more than half of what we agreed on and he gets all mad, and won’t take the money.  He just keeps saying “let me try again, I will speak more clearly” blah blah blah.  And I am just getting so scared.  Finally, Adama takes the money from me, shoves it in his hands and we walk away.  She is so brave.

            The rest of our trip to the island was much better.  We went to the top where we could see the whole island, and then we find the lady’s shop who talked to me on the ferry. She grabs my arm and pulls me inside and starts showing me things.  She tries to sell me a wrap for 10 dollars and then I say no thank you but she won’t let me leave!  Finally, I tell her I will think about it, so we continue our walk.. but on the way back she hadn’t forgot about me!  She was so mad when I told her I wasn’t going to buy anything!  She tried to make me think I was her first customer ever.. yeah right lady! What a liar.

            So then, we went to the shore and I stuck my feet in and the water was SO warm.  I think it was my first time ever in the Atlantic Ocean! 

            We got back in the ferry and went back to Dakar.. then we decided to do some shopping at the artisan market!  I was so overwhelmed in this place. I hated it.  So much. Everybody was grabbing us trying to make us buy things from them!  I ended up buying two little wooden giraffes which I am super excited about, a pagne.. the thing they wrap around their waists so their legs don’t show.  I have been borrowing my friends, but I thought it was time to get my own. And a wall hanging thing which I’m not super excited about.. but I mostly just bought it because the man made me.  I would be okay with never going back there in my life.  But, I probably will go back.. next time, though, I will have my pepper spray ready to tell them to BACK OFF!! Why can’t they just let me shop in peace?? Ugh! 

            We just had a meeting this week about culture shock and the different stages involved.  Theres the honeymoon stage, crisis stage (or “hostility stage”), humor stage and “at home” or adaptation phase.  The counselor told us we could go through a few or all of the stages in one day, which I definitely have been through at least 2 of them today.. I will let you take a guess as to which two.  She also said we weren’t supposed to write home when we were in the crisis stage…

            Anyway, all that to say, I think I definitely had a hostility/crisis stage at the market.   BUT, overall, I had a really great day although I did get a little sunburned.. I think I missed some spots with the sunscreen.  I’m just thankful it was a little bit cloudy, or else I probably would be burned much worse!