Waking up to the sound of the rooster crowing sounds like a dream…until that rooster is crowing every morning starting at 3 am. We get up every morning to get ready for our drive into school before the sun rises, and our cultural experiences after school brings us back after the sun has set. They are full but exciting days, and that rooster is stealing my sleep…but the fresh eggs for breakfast are delicious!
I think the Senegalese people usually eat their breakfast at 9 or later, as the first morning our hotel owners were surprised when we were ready for breakfast at 7, before we left for school. Every morning, they prepare us a breakfast of 2 eggs over easy, 2 pastries, and a crepe. They have since figured out our need for an early breakfast, which we felt bad about changing their schedule! The school students and teachers eat at 10:00 at school, so I think this is their breakfast time as well. Lunch takes place after school gets out (which I think is around 2:00, but I haven’t paid attention to the end time). Today (and all Fridays), classes get out at 1:30 for Muslim prayer. I really like hearing the call to prayer- there’s something very moving about hearing thousands of people getting ready to pray!
Today is Sophie’s busy day- she teaches all 3 blocks of classes, so we got to see a lot of students! The last class of the day (the equivalent of our freshman students) had 78 students in the class! They sang songs for me (B-I-N-G-O!!!!) and I taught them “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” “Row Your Boat,” and “Days of the Week.” It was so much fun. The more advanced classes we had in the morning sang American pop songs (by Rihanna, John Legend, etc) for me when Sophie told them I was a musician.
I also got to give out the stickers the St. Bruno students created. The Diamniadio students were so excited!
I also had the opportunity to give the banner with our student signatures on it to Sophie. I had her first class of the morning sign mine and they filled up the whole thing with one class!
On Fridays at this school, students are allowed to wear whatever they would like (rather than the uniform they wear during the rest of the week). There were gorgeous fancy dresses that would fit in at any high school prom being worn. It is the opposite of a casual Friday here!
One of the girls in the middle class of the day had just gotten married last Saturday, so Sophie showed us pictures of this, as well!
If you ever want to know what it’s like to be famous, become an American teacher visiting Senegal. My traveling companions and I have been showered with gifts of bracelets and hair accessories, given written notes with phone numbers and thank you messages, and I’m pretty sure we’ve taken a selfie with every student Sophie teaches. There were two students who came to Sophie’s class today who aren’t even in her class just to see us. I haven’t had this many photos taken of me since my wedding day! I have to say that it is way more fun to see these beautiful, smiling faces shining with excitement than it is to be the center of attention! I may never get used to that!
We had a delicious lunch of Chu, which was beef, tomatoes, and onions in a spicy sauce served over rice. It was soooooo good! Good spice level that made my nose run a bit! I loved it.
After lunch, we were off for a tour of Diamniadio. As Sophie explained it, there is the ‘dream’ section of Diamniadio, which is where they are making what will be the new capital of Senegal. They are putting a United Nations headquarters for Western Africa there, along with all of the ministries, and many other important buildings. They also have colleges and expensive housing in this area. Then there is the area Sophie calls the ‘reality’ section of Diamniadio. This is the area that the school is, and where the majority of her students live. There aren’t fancy buildings and paved roads in this section! We visited the soccer stadium, international market, and the colleges in the area, while in the growing city portion of Diamniadio.
We got to tour the exposition center and the conference center, which is where the president makes addresses from. The expo center was HUGE and the conference center was gorgeous! It had a lot of beautiful artwork in it- enough so that you’d think you were at an Art museum!
We got back to the hotel a little earlier tonight, so hopefully now that my blog is done, I can get a little extra rest before that rooster decides to make his presence known…
Car Full of Harmony 
Published by