It's hard to believe that I've been here for 3 months today. 12 weeks today. I don't know if I feel like I just got here or like I've been here forever. I can't decide.

For the past week, life has been great. I've restarted typing something here 3 times because I don't even know where to begin! I went into work on Wednesday, grabbed some lunch, and headed down to Dakar. I was completely exhausted as I hadn't been sleeping well and I hadn't been sleping much at all. Campal picked me up and that night, I went out dancing with him and his aunt, Françoise (who's younger than he is!). It was a night to celebrate their ethnic group, the Mandingue(sp), and they are dominantly Christians... which mean they can drink. And oh, do they drink. Dancing until 6am, pouring into bed around 6h30, and sleeping all day, only getting up to eat and get some more credit to call my girls who were to arrive the next day.

On Friday, I spent the morning at Gorée because I thought it was really cool the first time around and was disappointed that I didn't get to spend much time there. It was really nice. And so calm... just really peaceful. Talked my way into free entry into the history museum. I love being able to speak Wolof. I was going to grab lunch there, but after looking at the prices (3000F for Yassa Poulet!!! [normally it's 300F]), I decided to catch the next boat back onto the mainland and head to the marché. Again, life is so much easier being able to get around in Wolof.

It's so funny. Sometimes, people will be soooo impressed with my language skills. You've only been here for 3 months? Incredible. And other times, they'll say, well, you have been here for 3 months. Why can't you say anything? Really depends on the day and on the situation. In any case, I'm getting much better through working with these kids.

On Friday night, Rita and Jess came into town. We met up with Georges and two of his friends for a delicious dinner of beef. Haha. Yeah, it's like steak... only they don't take out of any of the bones or the fat. It's really hard to eat and very grisly... and they don't give you any bread or anything. It's just a big plate of meat. Now, some of you probably don't know that I've basically become (shhh, don't tell anyone) a vegetarian from being here. The meat here makes me sick... and I'm really good at avoiding it now. So, when I'm not able to avoid it, well, let's just say it's not pretty.

On Saturday, we woke up and walked around a bit and then headed to Campal's family's house in Guediawueye. Amazing family. Some of the nicest people I'd ever met. Ever. We headed back to repose a bit and then we went out dancing. Again. We got there around 11h30, and we were planning on leaving a bit earlier than normal because we were going to get up to go to Louga, but alas, TIA. We got back and into bed around 3h30... the alarm went off at 6h30 to get a sept-places to Louga. We headed out pretty quickly, and arrived at the orphanage around noon.

Rita works at this orphanage in Louga, a smaller town that used to be thriving that now is completely desolate. There is nothing but sand and heat there. And these adorable kids without families. They /really/ only speak Wolof, so we got a lot of practice. These kids are so needy for attention because they never get any attention. It was amazing to see, but I don't know how Rita can do it for 8-10 hours a day for 2-3 days. I was exhausted. Seriously exhausted... and not just from the previous lack of sleep. These kids were amazing but just so much!

We went out with the guys Rita lives with when she's there... and we got Dibi, the beef plate, again. Thought I was going to die. We ended up getting to sleep around 12h30... and we were all sleeping in one king size bed (better than the double the three of us were sharing for the two nights prior to that one...). This wouldn't have been a big deal at all... but we still didn't sleep well because the mosquito net only covered 2/3 of the bed, so we decided not to use it. Consequently, we were bitten all over and now I look like I have leprosy on my legs. Hot, let me tell you. Hawt. I couldn't fall asleep, either. I was up walking around the house for about an hour trying to cool down and trying to escape the bugs. Finally fell asleep around 3h30. And the alarm bearly woke me up at 7h00. We were going to go to the orphanage for breakfast just to say goodbye to the kids, but when we got there, they'd already finished and were on their way to school. We grabbed some breakfast of café touba and headed out to the gare routière to get a minibus back to Saint-Louis. Once finally at home in Saint-Louis, we went to the Moroccan bakery to get pastries (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) and headed back for some nap time.

It's hard to believe that I only have 5 weeks left. I'm crushed to be leaving so soon. Guess that just means I have to come back in December. Oh, and PS. THE JAZZ FESTIVAL IS THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!! I've been waiting for this for MONTHS and it's finally here. Don't think I'll have a spot, but even to have been considered by someone who could get me up there is pretty cool. I plan on spending almost my entire weekend in town this weekend. It's going to be sooo sweet.

Classes are... kinda going. Last week, my prof for my Monday class didn't show up, and Thursday was holiday (Labor Day), and I skipped Wolof of Wednesday, so I didn't have anything. This week, hopefully everything will happen as scheduled. We shall see. I'm glad I have my internship to fill up my time... because I'm definitely not learning anything in class. A bit frustrating, but TIA, man.

I'm ecstatic to be here!