Day 100 in Africa

Today marks the 100th day I've been in Senegal. Time has truly flown by. Everything that has happened here since September 11th has been a complete blur. I keep having to remind myself to slow down and appreciate things out here because I'm sure that before I know it, I'll be flying back home. I went to Dakar last weekend to get my fix of Americana (softball games, volleyball games, and beer by the pool...how difficult a life I lead). Since then, it's been a fairly slow week. I've been going to a local shoemaker and helping them account for the sales they made during an exposition to Dakar a few weeks ago. They'll be going to another artisan exposition in Dakar in January, and they've asked me to tag along, which I will gladly do. Since there's not too much going on in my life here, I figured I'd give everyone a glimpse into my daily activites out here:
8:30AM- Get up, eat breakfast with family (bread with butter and coffee while the 1 year old drools all over me or tries to walk between my legs)
10AM- Go to either Maire's office to study Wolof or shoemaker's workshop to help with accounting.
12:30PM- return to house, relax until lunch
1:45PM- Lunch
2PM- Relax, nap, free time...
3:30/4PM- Go to Maire's office for Wolof lessons... where I am usually stood up (more on this later)
5PM- Usually work out around this time. Running through sand is ridiculously tiring...
8:45PM- Dinner with family.
9-15PM- Hang out with host siblings/Go for walk with host siblings/watch movie with said company (we watched Hotel Rwanda last night and Hitman 47 tonight...)
11:30PM- Retire my room. Use the internet for a bit and then off to bed.

As you can see it's a pretty laid back day overall. Not only is time flying by, but I find myself very happy here. The little work that I've done thus far (more will come soon, which I'm looking forward to) has been very enjoyable and my work partners (the shoemakers) are great. I'll probably start working with the basket weavers in the near future which should also be a great experience since it will have me going out to the villages and trying to coordinate orders for thousands of baskets.
I would say my only truly negative experience here has been with my Wolof tutor. I was assigned to him on the first day I got here, so I had little choice in the matter. Simply put: He's awful. In my 3 lessons thus far, we've spent 1 hour on the days of the week and the months of the year, 1 hour on VOWELS (are you serious?!?), and 1 hour learning that just like in French and English, sentences in Wolof begin with a capital letter! Not only is he a terrible teacher, he is also fairly disrespectful. He's stood me up 75% of the time, and has cut class short the other times. Hence, today, while listening to vowels in Wolof (guess what...vowels in Wolof are: a, e, i, o, and u...strange isn't it?), I had an epiphany. I decided that I'm going to stop trying with this gypsy and get another tutor. There are hundreds of friendlier, more qualified people in this town that would kill to get 15,000 CFA a month to speak Wolof with me. I'm done ranting about this, but once I get back from Christmas and New Years, finding a new tutor will be my 1st priority.
Speaking of Christmas. I will be leaving on Tuesday to go to Saly, a town right next to Mbour. It is on the ocean, and a group of about 20 of us have 3 apartments rented out. We'll be there for 4 days, at which point I will come back to Ngaye. As for New Years, not quite sure yet, although I'm leaning towards going to St. Louis. Anyways, I'm off to bed, but I hope everyone back home is enjoying the cold weather and holiday season. A plus tard!
P.S Picture is of my house from down the street.