We were barefoot the entire time. It was ideal beach sand, nothing to stub your toe on, yet I still managed a broken toe.
As I wrote in the blog, I didn't get dressed up for WAIST. As soon as I walked on the field though I was given one legwarmer, a headband, a noise maker, and maybe something else. I forget.
Maggie came to town to help me open my library. Here we are cataloging books donated by the International Book Project. It's a great organization worthy of your donations.
that's my friend Kristen in the background. We are all at Grenelle's, a popular Peace Corps bar in Dakar. You can't see it, but people are watching the election results on a huge projection screen they set up special for us on the big night.
I'll grudgingly add this photo of me because I don't post a lot of myself. I'm happy here because I just took a hot shower and felt clean for the first time in a long while. I look, however, like a cliche. I'm wearing a non-profit shirt and a wrap skirt with holes in it.
Maggie after the sept-place ride and cleanup. We were so dusty you could write legible words on our skin.
This is us at our home-stay in Dakar. I'm only posting this because I think it's funny how excited we all were to eat a good meal. If you look closely you'll see three other cameras in addition to mine. I can't speak for the others, but I know I've never photographed food before.
Maggie after our sept-place ride. It was a very quick drive, only about 12 hours. I've heard horror stories of the trip taking up to 36 hours.
That's Aiou on the left. She is the village fashionista. That was her second outfit of the day. She carried her tikka (head piece) in a bag and only put it on at the party. I could write a lot about Aiou and her love for fashion and design (her hut is amazing, I'll try to get a photo), but I'll save that for another day.
You want to know why I don't post pictures of myself? Because I look like this, that's why. I wear two braids like I did in 1st grade, because I don't know what else to do with my hair. Also, I don't wash it a lot because I don't want to haul the extra water. I look like a dork.
Maggie holding Kelly's puppy, Mala (means butterfly?). Another volunteer found Mala stuffed into a tomato can in the street.
This is my neene, or mom. You can pretty much call any older woman mom, so I guess I have several neenes.
Can you see the black rope she's wearing on her head? That shows she's made a pilgrimage to mecca.
