It's almost the end of the rainy season, so now would probably be a good opportunity to talk about the weather here. As I may have already mentioned, it's quite warm here. Hot, even. Horrible, dripping with sweat even right after you step out of the shower heat. The rainy season simply means that the heat comes with an enveloping humidity that makes it feel like you're wearing a fur coat. I've always hated the cold more than I've hated the heat, and after complaining for the past 20 years about my house being too cold, or my mom making me take off my sweater in the summer, I'm trying not to complain too much about the heat here. Can't be too much of a hypocrite.

One of the first nights we were here, during Orientation Week, we were at this restaurant down the street from our hotel for dinner. (We ate dinner there basically every night, it was paid for by the program. Sometimes it was great, sometimes it was so-so, but the vegetarians had a very hard time. It's basically impossible to be a vegetarian in Senegal if you don't at least eat fish.) Anyway, one night while we were eating our ceebu jen or some such, there was a sudden rainstorm. As if there's any other kind here! We haven't really had rain now for the past week, but when we first got here it was fairly predictable. It would be quite sunny all day and then pour now and then at night. Just a sudden downpour, completely drenching. I've never seen rain so intense last for so long! I tried to take some pictures at the restaurant while we were waiting for our food, in the hope of conveying the ridiculous amount of water that was pouring down into the restaurant. (We were basically covered by the mats overhead, but it came down the walls and leaked through in some places.)

There were ten days in a row that it rained at some point during the day or night, and apparently that hasn't happened in Dakar for a long time now. There was serious flooding in 'les banlieues' (suburbs, sort of) of Dakar, it's been all over the news here. And there was lots of sort of minor flooding in Dakar. Just lots of huge puddles filling in the already huge potholes. The streets aren't exactly up to New Jersey standards. We saw lots of drivers stuck in some serious water while driving around one day.

So, to apologize again for not updating more, I have to say that it's the fault of the weather! And hence why I've devoted an entire post to it. La chaleur me rend parraseuse. (The heat makes me lazy.) It's hard to do anything productive, when it involves doing anything other than sitting in front of a fan trying to not think about how much you're sweating. But it seems like I'm very behind, because there is so much here that I want to write about!

Let's consider this my test post, to see if it's possible to post movies that I take with my camera. The one I'm trying to post is of that same night in the restaurant, with the rain pouring down and all of us sitting around the table. It's not very long and it is taking FOREVER to load. But if it works than I can share with you all the videos of the religious meetings they have at my house and of the soccer game I went to last night! So let's hope it works. I'm inspired by my sister's recent video adventures. Ellen's been sending me videos using her new laptop, and it's been really nice to hear from her and my parents. Anyway, it appears to have worked but the video is very dark. :( Oh, well, there will be better ones later!!

Much love from sunny, sunny, sunny Senegal,
Robin