My Hair is Curly

And why (almost) everything is better in Senegal….

First off my hair: Seriously, its curly. The humidity is doing wonderings for it. However I have to wash my hair twice a day other wise its a greasy mess. Soon enough I will have proof of how curly my hair is and I will show you all.

Running: I have a seemingly endless supply of running partners: the OSU cross country runner, the collegiate soccer player(s), the ultra marathoner/yogi from Colorado and thats just the beginning.

Yoga: So the yogi from Colorado has decided to “repay” my kicking her butt in some track workouts by giving me (almost) private yoga sessions. She studied yoga in India and knows just how to challenge me. Plus I seem to be more flexible in the heat.

Sleeping: Who thought I could sleep so soundly when it doesnt dip below 80 at night and the humidity feels like a soaking wet down blanket? I didnt, but as it turns out Im sleeping just fine.

Bananas: Seriously, they are better here.

My skin: Ok its not better yet. BUT we have three doctors in charge of medical here in country, one of whom is a dermatologist. And when I was getting my first shots (I have no idea what they were for, I didnt really care enough to ask questions) they said they’d look at my skin in a few weeks after its “climatized” and get me on something to help. SO THERE Dr. Tanghetti, my skin will be JUST FINE in Africa!

and now for the things that are actually worse:

How I smell: So im showering alot, but I still sweat all day. And when I was in the US eating as many fruits and vegetables as I wanted I didnt really think of how I smelled. Now Im pretty sure I smell like onions all the time. I assume Ill get used to that.

My diet: the food is actually delicious, but so far its 70% bread, rice, or couscous, and the rest meat, with a few sprigs of vegetables in it. The meal timeing is hard to get used to (7:30am bread/jam 11:15 tea/bread/jam 1:00 huge meal 7:30 an american ish dinner) and really the food here is awesome and nutritious compared to what we will likely be eating in our homestays so i cant complain.

Some less witty updates: We find out our languages tomorrow (which will give some idea to the region we will be in but not really much more than that) and then Wednesday they drop us off at our homestays (apparently by then we will know how to say “Where is the bathroom” “Im tired” “Im sick” “Im hungry” “Whats that?” plus some formal greetings and thats about it). Just for some clarification: we are put in groups of about 4 and sent out to a village with a trainer (who is a Senegal local who speaks fluent english and works for peace corps basically as a language and cultural trainer) where we all get split up into different houses to live with families and learn from them. We get together as a group about once a day for training. The first homestay is 5 days the second is 14!

[Hopefully by the next time I post I will be able to type some cute “goodbye” saying in my new language- greetings are a huge deal here so there are so many different says to say “hi, how are you, bye”]