#6 Turning 21 in Africa, and Warthogs.

All of a sudden, the fact that the time on cell phones here isn't synchronized became something other than annoying for once. For five minutes, I went from phone to phone and got to celebrate my 21st birthday multiple times, as midnight just kept on coming.

"It's my birthday! ....it's my birthday again! ........hey, you! ....did you hear it's my biiiiirthdaaaaay?"

We were out at a low-key bar, sitting around a table, drinking Gazelles. A mix of students from all the different programs were there, as Alex's birthday was the day before, so it was a 2 for 1 kind of deal.

So after going to bed and waking up, I did what anybody else would do on their 21st. I spent a good 4 or 5 hours checking the last of the homework for my internship, finished up my lesson plan, and proceeded to the Université Cheikh Anta Diop to teach a class of 250 people by myself. The professor thought that TA-ing two classes was enough for me to get a feel of how to teach the class, and consequently I spent the better part of the last week preparing for it, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed that process. I took that as a good sign. Now there was just the actually doing it part left.

As soon as I was standing by myself in front of everyone, I was rather aware of my old, brown sandals that seemed to mock my attempt at looking semi-professional, but when you walk an hour to and from school each day, you tend to not care so much about shoes "going" with an outfit anymore. It should have been the least of my worries, but all of a sudden I wondered if they'd take me seriously or not because my shoes were pretty ugly.

Turns out I didn't need to worry, I don't think they've even gotten over my blonde hair yet. They seemed rather intrigued to have me teaching the class, and I even got a round of applause when Professor Ngom announced that it was my birthday. So far so good.

Another welcomed surprise was the fact that my heart didn't race the entire time, it was simply the first few moments and that was that. I was also able to control my fidgeting much better than I thought, as well as speak in a clear, loud enough voice that hardly shook. Everything was going much smoother than I had anticipated. In addition, Professor Ngom sat off to the side and occasionally threw out something to add on to what we were doing and it really added to the experience, like I was finally full-out teaching and yet still learning about what I was teaching. I've never experienced anything quite like that.

It was so reassuring, too, because everything that I'm studying and working toward is to eventually one day do something like this- teaching and working with students- and today felt like the ultimate test to see how I'd do on my own (though it was less "on my own" than I thought with the professor helping here and there, but still!) and it went so well. It was so encouraging to realize I don't flop in front of large groups, that I can keep my head on straight and do alright without much help.

And also, throughout this entire process, I've really been challenged in learning all the "whys" behind everything that I already know. Students generally want to know the "why," and so knowing I had to teach, it forced me to look at everything in a different light. Checking all of their papers I saw so many mistakes, knew what it should be right away, but how to explain it? Why this and not that? It was definitely good for me to go through that process, as I was able to have many explanations already thought about and planned in my head, anticipating their questions.

And after the class was over, I even got a marriage proposal. Must've been a better lesson than I thought. Oh no wait I'm just in Senegal...

Anyway, last weekend we went to St. Louis, the former capital of the French colony of Senegal. It was about a 5 hour bus ride to get there, which I thoroughly enjoyed because of the awesome scenery that we passed and not because of all the air conditioning heads that kept falling on people.

At some points it felt like a safari. I saw warthogs galore, even babies, as well as a couple boa constrictors on the side of the road hidden in the grass, a few monkeys ran across the road a few times, we passed some camels on the way back, saw a few donkeys, and don't forget the ever-present cows and goats.

We went on a tour of the city in horse-drawn buggies; we couldn't have been any more of a spectacle. The town was cool though, very colorful- a nice change from the sandy brown Dakar.

We had a "cultural night" that evening. We went to somebody's home and a ton of people were there to dance, sing and play music for us. We were all exhausted but that didn't stop them all from pulling us up to dance against our will. We bobbed around awkwardly and it wasn't that bad, especially if you somehow escaped the pulling hands and could just enjoy everyone else's awkwardness.

But my favorite part was the bird sanctuary. We got in boats and toured around in a river, watching thousands of birds frolic about as we got sunburnt. We saw a couple of crocodiles and even a kimono dragon, and I enjoyed the flock of flamingos that flew over us at once point.

And now, another week has gone by at an alarmingly fast pace and I'm starting to get a little anxious about it. What happened to ndank ndank?