Asaala maalekum!  Again!  Shay here tonight with another update from the sunny city of Dakar.  Well into day 4 of our adventure and it seems so crazy how time goes by here.  I think I can speak for everyone when I say this half week has seemed like forever.

Being in the bustling city of Dakar has been a real eye-opener and a great experience overall, but getting out of the city today and onto Goree Island was a much needed break from the rush (or lack thereof) of city life in Dakar.  Goree is a small island off the coast of Dakar where Europeans brought African slaves for deportation to countries such as Brazil or France.  However, after seeing the despicable conditions of the “holding cells” and knowing what took place on the island in past centuries, the history of the island was not the most significant part of the day.

For me, the day became significant when we were allowed to interact with some of the vendors/residents of the island which we haven’t had much of a chance to do up until today.  Although we really don’t know much Wolof yet, we were able to practice our speaking skills quite a bit from simply greeting people around us to trying to barter for better prices.  Some of the vendors did speak to us in English once they realized we only knew how to greet them and ask simple questions in Wolof/French, but the excitement of using a new language was still there.  Along with showing the people we are willing to learn their language, I feel that they may have felt a bit more respect from our use of their language instead of forcing others to convert to English for our convenience.  In the end, we always resorted back to a form of English – sometimes including bits of French – to really get into a conversation.  At times we would find ourselves slipping into Spanish just because it’s a foreign language we are all somewhat comfortable with, but the laughs we shared from the slip ups have seemed to bring us all together.  Overall, having the chance to socialize with people who aren't English speakers may be one of the most eye-opening experiences thus far.

Tonight we’re staying inside the guest house for a while and taking some down time.  All the sun and fresh air today has really slowed me down personally and a night in just sounds like a great plan.  For dinner, five of us made the sandy trek a few blocks to the grocery store and bought some rather American food: ham, turkey, cheese, bagette, Coca-Cola, fried food, etc.  To top it all off, we seem to have taken a liking to Senegalese ice cream (coconut flavored).  Now as long as we can get some water pressure back so the showers work, the day will be pretty complete!

Ba suba!

Shay