N'Ice Cream

I had a totally productive day lined up yesterday with two classes and a meeting when Joey came into town and convinced me to leave site for the day to go to N'Ice Cream, an American style ice cream shop here in Dakar. Why would I cancel my appointments to go to Dakar for ice cream, you ask? Had you been on the outskirts of the sahara without any ice cream for the past nine months and you might understand. I had never been but everyone always talks about it and now I know why. I am in on the secret. It was wonderful!!! I had two scoops with whipped cream and sprinkles. For anyone who is thinking "but Mandi has been complaining about weight gain in Africa, why would she gorge herself on ice cream?"....fuck off. I am just trying to remain sane. And so, less than 24 hours later, my sanity restored, I am headed back to Pout to have a meeting with some potential work partners. One week left to kill until the 4th of July party down in Kedougou.

Two days ago I received a call from my first host family in Thiès, who I never really got on with, telling me that my younger host brother who was 14 drowned last weekend. I havent even seen the family in seven months out of my nine months here and now I feel horrible about it. Its so sad. I will go visit them this next week with another volunteer to give my condolences and some money to the family, which I understand is what is expected here. I also need to learn the expressions of sympathy I have scribbled somewhere in a Wolof notebook. I know that there are many Americans who think that Africans deal with so much death that surely its not the same as in America, but that's not true. When a Senegalese dies there is just as much hurt as anywhere else in the world. The only difference is the language that the mourning is done in. In nine months here this is the second person I know that has died (the first being a Peace Corps employee who died in a car accident while I was still in training). I find it horribly upsetting but am trying to deal with it in a culturally sensitive way and then move on. After all, that is what life is all about.