I got off the plane in Nairobi expecting to immediately hop on my flight to Dakar, which was scheduled to leave after a two-hour layover. After waiting in line for 15 minutes, I reach the transfer desk only to find out that not only had that flight been canceled, but Delta stopped that service TWO WEEKS AGO. I was like, uhhh NEWS TO ME, DELTA. Beezies never contacted me!! Luckily I’ve had enough experience with airport mess-ups that I was able to remain a pillar of Zen and simply request a flight change (to Kenya Airways, the Delta affiliate that’s still actually flying planes to Dakar) and a hotel room for the night. Which ended up being a total score because they put me up fo free in a really shwish hotel outside the airport, plus two delectable buffet meals in the hotel dining room. The next morning I left at 7am for the airport, got on my flight, and after a brief stop-over in Côte D’Ivoire, finally landed in Senegal.
Just little over 24 hours in, and Senegal is already AMAZING. Natalie, me, and one other intern are all staying at the same house. Our family is really big - there are six kids, various spouses and five grand-kids who come and go throughout the day. Everyone is SUPER friendly and the kids are adorable. The family speaks Wolof to each other and French to us, though the three boys all know English and speak it with us. Since Senegal is a Muslim country, there’s also a lot of Arabic writing around the neighborhood, and Arabic phrases and words get interjected into Wolof a lot. One of the grand-daughters, Rokhaya, is two and is visting for a few months to learn Wolof, but she was born and lives in Italy, so Natalie has been attempting to speak Italian with her. Oh, and the other intern staying here, Salah, is Moroccan-American and is going to help me with my Arabic. We’re a multi-lingual household, clearly.
Today we ate breakfast (Nutella on a baguette and coffee..MMM!!!) and headed 5 min down the road to the BEACH. The buildings here are all veyr Arab-influenced in style, and the roads are sandy, so it kind of lots like a Middle-Eastern beach town. the beaches are GORGEOUS and the water is sea-green and cool. We played football (the world kind, not the American kind) and played with the kids. It was super relaxing and I’m psyched because we get to go to the beach EVERY SINGLE DAY for the next six weeks!!!!
We start our internships tomorrow. I’m pretty excited! Hope everything is well aux États-Unis. BISOUS!!!
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