Dakar is hot. It’s hard to think of much else because it is so freaking hot. The program requires the families to give us fans in our rooms, and which is invaluable, and most of the time feels completely inadequate. I’m just starting to gear up for a full scale freak out about next week, because that is when we’re heading for a rural village, or rather several rural villages, there will be two students staying in each village. There may or may not be electricity, and because it’s inland it will be at least 20 degrees hotter (I think those degrees are Fahrenheit but I’m not even sure about that). The timing of this trip is interesting, because it’s coming when we all seem to finally be more comfortable in Dakar, but we’re also talking more and more about everything we miss at home. Our study abroad handbook talks about the first three weeks as the honeymoon stage, when everything is new and exciting and you just can’t get enough of it. We all seem to have skipped that stage, because for our first three weeks were too busy being overwhelmed and confused by how different everything was that I don’t think any of us could muster the energy to be that excited about any of it. However, after replacing the honeymoon stage with the oh-my-god-how-the-hell-does-anything-work-here stage, we seem to be right on time for the (and I’m paraphrasing here) this-is-way-too-hard-and-I-miss-macaroni-and-cheese-and-I-want-to-go-home-now stage. I don’t actually want to go home of course, but I do find myself spending a lot time missing things that I didn’t even realize I liked.

Don’t get me wrong, some things are great. This weekend several of the other K students and I went to a club, which was fantastic. We met Shani and Emily’s gorgeous Senegalese guy friends there (both of whom they met on street, yes you can do that kind of thing in Senegal) and after excitement when our taxi driver took to the opposite side of the city because he didn’t know where the club was, we had a great time, and danced until 4. The next morning I went with Shani and her friend Lea to a Senegalese gospel church, which was absolutely incredible, the singing was beautiful, and everyone seemed completely full of joy, even if they maybe did want to convert me.

I just had mafe (a peanut tomato stew dish) for lunch, which is delicious, especially when I was expecting ceebu jen (fish and rice) for the umteenth time. My family is very sweet, and I get so excited when I understand a word of Wolof in their stream of conversation.

We got more information about our village stay today. I will be from Saturday to Monday a span of time that includes my 21st birthday, which should make for some a unique story. I’ll be staying in a tiny village I can’t pronounce the name of, with the family of the President of the village, who is also the president of the River Delta Coalition. It’ll certainly be an interesting trip.

I didn’t realize until recently, but I am so much more acclimated than I was when I got here. We went on a tour de ville on Sunday, and looking out the window, I realized I was seeing the same things I saw on the ride from the airport. Everything looked so alien and dirty and crazy, and it’s a good feeling that I understand so much more now. Yes there’s trash everywhere, but it’s not a big deal, and those guys hanging out of the car rapids are not passengers and that will not happen to me if I ride one. Very slowly, it’s all starting to make more sense.