Happy Easter!

Today we went to Easter mass at a cathedral in Thies, and it was an experience. The church was surprisingly nice inside, with its little stained glass windows and high blue ceilings. The stations of the cross were painted on the walls, with the first 6 stations depicting a black Jesus. However, at the 7th station he miraculously morphed into a toubab (white person). They forgot to teach us about that in catholic school. The music was by far the most inspiring of any catholic mass I have ever been to-Drumming, dancing, singing. I had no idea what they were saying, but it was awesome! In the past four years alone, I have been to mass in Canada, Greece, Switzerland, France, and Senegal. And America : ) The mass did last for two hours, though, and thats too long to be standing in any building in Africa. It's been hitting the 130's lately, so...Im sure you can imagine what that was like.

On another note, when I got to my homestay last week, it was freezing cold by Senegalese standards (so, like…70 degrees) and my family looked hilarious. Normally, the Senegalese take extreme pride in appearance since it is viewed as a sign of respect for others, rather than an expression of individuality. However, cold weather clothing is wholly exempt from this train of thought. Throughout the night, they broke out the most random bits and pieces of warm clothes I’ve ever seen, and I still have no idea where they came from. One of my little brothers was wearing the hood to a puffy ski jacket velcroed upside down on his head. One of my 15 yr. old brothers was wearing a matching pink jumpsuit which said Princess on the back. A lot of people were walking around in bathrobes. My family is really funny. They're nice, but Im still not used to how differently everyone acts here. Plus the fact that I understand about 1/10th of what they're saying at any given moment.

One of the hazards of learning a new language, is that people tend to think you are practicing all the time, and therefore don’t actually answer questions or tell you things-they just smile and say “that’s right” no matter how many times you ask. Or, worse, is when you are practicing and they think you’re serious. So, for example, if you say to yourself, “Im full” and your mom thinks you mean it and gets offended because she is currently making you lunch...that’s not good. And then you dig yourself even deeper into a hole by trying to correct it by saying, “no! I am hungry!” which she takes to mean youre hungry NOW and so she gives you a HUGE bowl of noodles and oil right before making you eat an equally ginormous lunch. Or if you ask what your mom is cooking, and suddenly you are handed half a fried fish to eat. That’s fun too.

OK, my laptop is dying so I must go! Ill write more later.