2 months later, oops

So, yeah, major slacking on the postings, but the program is over and I have started my internship here, meaning I sort of have more time, but more so it means I have moved into an apartment with my friend Moutarou (he was one of our language professors on the program), renting out one of the 3 bedrooms in his 3 bedroom apartment, and the apartment has wifi! Therefore, the internet has become a lot more accessbile.

To continue the Ndar village post...I will try to recall and briefly recap that. The Ndar village stay was a lot more frustrating for me than the first village stay. Even though this village was fairly wealthy (well, espcecially when compared to the last village in Kedougou), I got asked much more often for money. I'm pretty sure this was mainly due to the fact that we were the first toubabs to stay overnight in the village, the first group of students to come and do a village stay like that. The village is used to the only white people they see being peace corps workers who come in for a day to do some project or something. This was the first time SIT has used this village for a village stay. Some students had a great time with their families, mine was just frustrating because they were constantly talking to me about money. They definitely fed me enough though! Its true what they say that the best ceebu jen is in St. Louis, mmm, it was so delicious.

On our last night in the Mouit, the village put together a Sabar for us. This is basically a huge dance circle. It was soo soo much fun. My family dressed me up in this traditional garb, big fulwar and everything (the piece of fabric women wrap around their heads) and brought me to this one big open space where we started cleaning before the party. This was the first time Ive ever raked sand. Yeah, so we raked the sand, I guess getting all the big rocks and such out of the area, then set up a bunch of chairs in a circle. I Few of the other students had come over with their families at this time as well. So, when we all finished raking, the drummers came, and the rest of the families came, bringing along their respective toubabs. Some of us talked about it later saying that it felt a little bit like they were dressing up their dolls. But, however they were looking at it, it was really funny to see all of us in our traditional garb, and even more entertainging to watch us (at least the women) try to dance in these bou bous. Once ppl started dancing it was so fun. They would just pull you in , and you had to throw any insecurity out the window. I think like half the village was there, probably about 70 or so people. I had a blast.