La vie Dakaroise

It's funny how differently kids are treated here in west africa. raising kids is a communal activity and anyone can discipline them and I mean anyone, and kids have to respect what elders tell them no matter who they are. Kids are always getting threatened with beatings (and many times receive them) for bad behavior. Today I was at the bank and I saw the guardian actually threaten a misbehaving kid (probably 3 years old)with his gun! He didn't pull it out or anything but he pointed to it and told the kid to keep it down, or something to that effect. And it was ok. I know he didn't really mean he would use the gun, but I just thought it was something funny that you would never see in America. Just thought I'd share that with you.

It's hard changing African languages. Before coming back to Senegal I had replaced all of my Wolof with Bambara, but as the time passes here I'm picking it back up. I can understand what's being said around me but I keep wanting to reply in Bambara...

I've been having a great time in Dakar, living it up if you will. My host family has been great. Last weekend two of the kids in my host family were baptized and the evening after there was a HUGE party. It was lots of fun and I'll post some pics when I get back.

I've only been to the beach once but i plan to go again before I leave. It's funny how I missed it so much but haven't really enjoyed it since I've been here. But this could be due to several factors, including the difficulty of finding someone to go with and the problem that it's a whole day thing because you gotta get out of the city to enjoy the nicer beaches.

anyway that's all for now.