Université Gaston Berger

The full adventure blog is on its way! I just want the girls here to read it over for their additional comments...

So we are finally settled in at the campus and starting to feel a bit more oriented. The first two days or so we had a really nice guy named Joel showing us around - which was wonderful but also made it a little hard to know where things were. We are getting better!

We are currently staying in a villa on campus where the professors live or where guest professors are housed! It is pretty awesome because it means we have our own house....own shower...own kitchen BUT we have to pay for it and it is a bit far from campus and other students!

The reason we are there is that as international students there is a fee we have to pay for residence but the professor coordinating our exchange is trying to get us out of paying that fee beause it is much higher than what Senegalese students pay and technically under our university's agreement with UGB we should be treated just like Senegalese students! So...for now we are waiting it out and hoping to be moved in to res.

In the mean time we have made lots of new friends! Joel invited us to his res room our first day for tea.

Side note - in Senegal you drink tea everyday. Very strong! Very sugary tea!

So at that point we met a bunch of his friends! They are all delegates in the Social committee on campus. That is the committee that protects students interests on campus. There is a very strong active student body that will take action if they feel there needs to be changes! Better food, better transportation, better access to internet and books....

So we have definitely fallen in with the right crowd!

They have been showing us around campus and on Saturday night they took us out to Saint Louis to teach us how to dance Mbalax! A Senegalese dance requiring lots of leg muscles and really smooth dancing skills. Unfortunately I posses neither of those things!!! But we had a great time anyway. It was amazing to see that on the dance floor there were majoritarily men! That is one of the many differences between here and home!!

Here are some more:

There is no grass on campus. Lots of trees!! But the ground is all sand.
There are goats wandering around on campus EVERYWHERE
All bugs here are at least 3 times bigger than back home and like to fly at your feet when you are walking at night. I dont think I have ever seen so many praying mantises.
You always have to bring your own toilet paper to the bathroom...finding a bathroom supplied with TP can brighten your entire day!!!
Between 12 and 3 you have to try not to move around too much or you will instantly be covered in sweat and exhausted by the heat.
You have to learn the times of the day that there is water in the taps and shower then! Water is not a guarantee from one minute to the next.
Everyone says Bonjour and ça va...even strangers


The list goes on...

Oh and classes dont necessarily start when they are supposed to. Today for example is the first day of classes for sociology and economics but there is a strike so they are postponed until further notice...

The courses look like they will be fantastic though!!

For now, we are off to try to get residence!

Ligeey Ligeey
(à bientot in Wolof)