Trip posted!!

Finally....the write up has been posted!!

It is a bit confusing because it is posted in 3 parts. So to read in chronological order read the one title Part 1 - Morocco first...then Part 2 - Mauritania and then Travel Morals!!

Very complicated...I know! Sorry for the length (eeek)



One of the most important lessons of this trip...I can already predict...will be patience! Today marks out one week anniversary in Senegal and as of yet we have not started classes, we do not have residence and we are not even registered!

The residence issue will hopefully sort itself out tomorrow (inshallah) but I am not holding my breath! We are actually having a bit of a party tonight in our villa to celebrate our last night so we may end up looking a little silly when we stay another week :(

The most frustrating part of this whole thing is not the waiting or the university here, it is the University of Ottawa. We found out today that we are expected to pay a tuition fee here in order to register for the program. The fee is very very little (university in Senegal is highly subsidized) but given that we have already paid our 5,000 plus CAD for our tuition back home it seems a little ludicrous to also pay tuition here!!!!

Essentially what it boils down to is that the University of Ottawa is making an almost 25,000 profit of us 5 students while not paying a single cent to UGB to compensate for our tuition here!! We are really hoping this is all a misunderstanding because this program is fairly new and all the little details have not yet been worked out! Until we figure that out though we are not going to be able to register here...

The good thing is we can still attend classes and those should all have gotten underway today! As of yet I don't know which courses I will take but by next week I will have tried out all the ones that look interesting in Sociology and Economics and then all that is left are the Political Science courses which begin on Nov.6!

I am really looking forward to being back in class and to be learning. We have now had our fun travels...had our relaxing settling in period...now the work needs to begin!!!

Ligeey Ligeey!!