apparently, sanguuma

this means that i dont shower.
this phrase is untrue (at least in senegal); however, sama yaay (my mom) is telling all the other host moms that i dont shower so thats cool. a few students and i have really gossipy moms who get together and talk about us. my problem is that i dont shower. i would like to explain that i shower like 75% more here than i do at home. its just that i shower when i wake up (moms asleep) and i shower when i go to bed (moms asleep). how is that a real thing to gossip about i mean come on now.

so that among other things is what i have been experiencing this past week.
i am feeling so at home here and i am so happy. i think ive said that before but i just feel so content right now. i have gotten to the point where i will be walking around ouakam or mermoz and people will say ahh sarah ca va?? its fantastic and i love my friends here.

this past friday some friends and i planned the perfect day and we called it THE PERFECT DAY OF ALL DAYS...or at least i did.
we spent the whole day at la plage verage and chilled hard on the beach, swam in the waves et les choses comme ca. we all quick went home to change and shower (notice...shower) and then we went downtown for a hip hop concert by this guy dj awadi. it was INCREDIBLE. the music was amazing, people were moving and it was glorious. awadi was wearing this bright orange tunic with jeans and i just thought how cool that this man can be one of the best rappers in senegal and be wearing a tunic and not some shiny labels. WAY TO GO SENEGAL. oh it was just so great.
after the concert there was a party at suffolk that was called "icebreaker" but we didnt play stupid name games or anything we all just hung out and talked and there was more dancing and it was great to hang out with and get to know more senegalese students. so that day was perfect.

here is a funny thing that happened (besides the fact that my uncle keeps hitting on me and gets angry/upset when i hang out with other guy friends)
my mom went to a boutique (little corner shop) and got this powder. she was mixing in a bowl with a little water and i though YES we are eating mafe for lunch. mafe is a traditional dish that is kind of like a peanut sauce over rice with some other goodies and it is my favorite. so she was mixing and mixing what looked like a peanut paste....but then she started putting it in her hair. ha whoops. i realized quickly that was not lunch. she also put it on her toenails. i didnt ask about it just in case it was a personal thing.

also one of the highlights so far...
yesterday after school some ciee students and i went to this little school for kids with disabilities. a lot of them have polio and can't walk and a few seem to have some cognitive disabilities as well. but i loved this so much because we were just there to give them some attention and i havent been around kids for a while so it was great. another reason it was great was because i could actually talk to them. all the time in mexico i say like 2 word sentences and for the most part i make no sense and cant really communicate. but here i can! whooo it was awesome. we played cache cache which is hide and go seek. we would wheel the kids to their hiding place (they all wanted to hide together) and we would spin them around on this merry go round type thing they have and everything was great and i just felt so alive when i was with them. the kicker was at the end we went over to this lime tree and picked a TON of limes and then realized that the kids make their treat by sqeezing the limes into a cup and putting about 5 sugar cubes in an inch of lime juice. here is how you know youre not in the states: one kid grabbed this huge butcher knife to start cutting the lime and we asked one of the workers if she knew the boy had the knife and she just said oh yeah its fine...........
its so cute though because all the kids know our schedule and i said see you monday! and they said no friday! so i guess i will also be there on fridays from now on : )

so life marches on here in senegal. we are about to do our rural visits and everyone is really excited for that. carlos is going to mecca for a month which is actually a huge deal. we are redoing the entire house for his return so construction is going on all the time. i love the workers though and they love saying things in wolof and hearing me answer with the right answer 87% of the time.

also i finally bought fabric and i finna make some sweet dresses.

love you all