parlez-vous français?

So I've been in Senegal for a week now! It's been great and I'm hoping that I will be able to establish a routine this week. I've now met all the people I'll be working with and I've got to know all of the boys a bit. I'm starting to get comfortable with the neighborhood (le quartier), the cuisine (rice, fish, carrots, more rice, cabbage, and more rice), and I'm settling into my living accomodation. As far as the language goes...it's a work in progress. Speaking French is a struggle at times (ok, most of the time) but I think I'm improving day by day. Though it's a challenge to understand others and an even greater challenge to communicate what I want to, being in this setting has taught me some things that I would not have realized without this opportunity. For example, I like to think that I'm mostly self-sufficient (though I know deep down I'm far from it). Here, I rely on others all the time - on the patience, grace, and kindness of the people I'm attempting to communicate with as the French slowly tumbles out of my mouth - the words out of order and mis-conjugated, of course. And then there's been so many times when I just take a back seat and let somebody else do the talking for me. I certainly would not be enjoying my time here if not for the patience of my new friends. I cringe to think of what my French sounds like to their ears, but I don't see any of them frantically scrambling to learn English, so I suppose it could be worse.

But it is frustrating, especially when I can't understand simple things like "How did you sleep?" and I have to have them repeat it 3 times and I still can't get the message until they make a pillow gesture with their hands. Aye yi yi. At such moments I wonder if I learned anything in all the years I studied French! Other times, though, I'm able to carry on a decent conversation. By decent I mean to an observer it looks more like two people talking to each other than a game of charades. Maybe. I must admit, due to my limited vocabulary I find myself telling a lot of half-truths. Sometimes, it's just easier to say "Je suis fatiguée" even when I might not be exhausted than to stumble over a more accurate description of my present state of mind. Uh, oh...I can just imagine anyone who kindly donated for my trip picking up their phone to demand their money back...

I like talking with the boys because I feel less self-conscious around them and they really know zero English so it's either we figure it out in French or we try morse code or something. If we're sitting around the table, I like to bring my dictionary out so I can look up words to ask questions and then understand their answers. Even with this, though, I must be careful. The other night I looked up the verb "soutenir" which means "to support" but almost used the preceding word "souteneur"...which means "pimp." Yikes.

Next time I'll write a bit about the mission of the Masion d'Espoir and what exactly I'm doing here!

Oh, and I'm not doing a very good job at taking lots of pictures...but here's one of me in front of the Presidential Palace. I promise to take more.