Love for Sebi

This is why i choose to study abroad; this is the experience i thought i was going to get and the experience that i wanted.

I am not saying that i didnt enjoy myself in Dakar, its just that being with sixteen other american students in another country was not what i wanted out of a study abroad program. Now that there are really no other people for me to speak English with, i am happily on my way in improving my French, learning wolof, and also sereer-- the local dialet of the area. ive even started to learn arabic, too, so now that im a bit ahead of myself in my life plans, i guess you could say that im in heaven.

there are so many trees here, the village is truly a fruit lovers paradise; animals of all sorts including goats, chickens, lizards, pigs, etc. walk along side me as i walk to work each day at the health clinic. At the clinic is probably where i am learning the most wolof. i play the role of the nurse who takes down everyones information, who asks what is wrong, asks the follow up questions, and takes their tempertature. i know how to say all this in wolof now, and thankfully, due to the rampant use of exaggerative gestures in senegalese culture, i also understand for the most part what my patients say back to me. i now know how to say "take your top off and mount" in wolof--- in context with my own gestures, the patients understads that i mean "take your shirt off so i can take your temperature and get up on the table so we can examine you".

i diagnosed my first case of malaria on wednesday; it was a 28 year old woman. After her, i diagnosed two children, both under five also with palu; that was somehow more unsettling. the rapid tests here are funded by usaid and free for the patients; theyre really easy to use and are used really often.

thats about all i do in the clinic, get prelim information, tell patients to strip and mount, take their temperature, and administer malaria tests. the actual nurse plays the part of doctor by finishing the checkup and writing out perscriptions. oh, except for fridays; on fridays, i stay longer to assist with baby vaccinations. i got peed on by two babies yesterday. i dont like fridays.

at home, i speak in french with my host siblings and am in the process of learning sereer and arabic. they always have friends over which is a ton of fun. we have attaya two times a day, every day. i cook with my sisters and we talk about cultural differenes. late at night, i stay up talking politics with my brothers and occassionally walk around town with them as well.

im out of minutes at the cyber cafe now, ill update more later;