And this will bring us up to the present, which means after this shorter journal entries! Although hopefully funnier because I can remember things better now�
I have a routine in place now: Get up at 6:30. Walk 2 km [conversion is .62 Km per mile, or one and a quarter miles] to the Center, stay there til 6pm and walk 2 km home again. Unless of course it�s Friday and then I don�t leave the center until 7pm�but just hold on we�re getting there! (geez you people are so impatient!) :)
We�re fully entrenched in this whole training thing and homestay thing. Things are going well. Last Saturday I went to a party at a community center. It was fun, lots of salsa dancing. And then some guy asked me to dance and asked if I was married�tip for ya: ALWAYS SAY YES to this question� And then he asked if my husband would mind if he came and visited to me for a night�I said no [I assume she means she told him no he can't visit]�and he went away. So that was the funny story of week three.
Logistically not much has happened this week. Oh duh Paige duh. Oh wait, back up here�I forgot�I have a Senegalese name: Mariame Camara. And the first person who says, �But Paige is French�� DUH! That�s what I said, but it�s pretty. [If you write to her, say Paige frequently to keep it fresh in her mind. And please do write her] Anyway, Wednesday we had a �Tam-Tam� party (those cool Africa drum things) with our host families. They dance very weird here�if Mom can figure out a way to put movies on my website�[I can if she would just send me the photos and videos!!] you�ll see for yourself eventually�So I tried to dance Senegalese style, which was fun and resulted in a quite a bit of laughter.
That brings us back to where we started, Thursday at Massa Massa. Okay so there are freakin� cliques in training. It�s highly annoying. But they�re weird cliques�it�s like everyone is very supportive of each other but not always wanting to be friends. It�s weird. We have a revolving group of people who play Hearts or Spades almost everyday. There are 4 core people but occasionally someone else will step in now and again. It�s really quite fun. We listen to Bruce Springsteen and play cards. Throw in a beer and a pizza and we�re back in America�except for the whole language thing.
It is now Friday and if you remember I don�t leave the center until 7pm today, instead of 6pm. Because a bunch of us are taking tam tam lessons! I�m learning to play the Senegalese drum. It is so much fun, so basic and yet complex at the same time. If you don�t have rhythm�you�ll never play�but luckily I have rhythm and am totally feeling wonderful about playing. Hopefully I can find someone to shoot some video of me playing the tam-tam to send home. I�m buying one soon I know it�
Okay so this concludes my mass letter. If I�ve left anything out or you want to know something additional, just e-mail me and I�ll include it next time. Until next time�OH! Next e-mail I�ll know where my site is! We find out Friday. So you�ll either get at tirade against PC or an enthusiastic ranting for PC�we�ll see. And at the time I�ll know if I can get a cell phone and then I�ll tell y�all the phone number so you can call me� :)
It�s time to go hang out with my homestay family. Until next time my darling wonderful Americans�don�t ever be anything else, because right now that�s what I love most about you! :)
Much Much Love,
Paige Redlinger (just wanted to write that cause it�s been 3 weeks since I�ve heard it
Continue to Journal Entry #3