17.10.07

well so today was a good day. good and hot...to say the least. 32 degrees celcius. i went into town with 5 of the other gals to get fabric. we went to the marché sandaga right downtown and i bargained down from 14,000 CFA/6 yards ($28/6 yards) to 9,000 CFA/6 yards. i thought i did a really great job bargaining but i guess i wasn't really supposed to pay more than 6,000 CFA/6 yards. but i figure the price i got came out to $18 total and that is only $3 a yard. is that good in the US? in any case, i got two kinds of beautiful REAL african fabric and tomorrow i am off to the tailleuse (taylor) to get some nice outfits made. i will hopefully feel less like a toubab (white person) when i have some senegalese clothes. i guess toubabs in senegalese garb are more respected. other than that i forgot to tell about my first experience out dancing. we went to a club called "Melissa" around 1am...i guess clubs and concerts etc. don't even get going until around 2. only toubabs show up earlier. i swear i have NEVER sweat so much in my life. my entire head was sweaty and i was sporting the signature jenny-vulpas-red-face...thanks mom. my glasses wouldn't even stay on my face, they kept slipping off! the men are naughty dancers, a little too close for comfort, thank you...but honestly, it is true, white people cannot, CANNOT dance...or at least xonq ñopps can't (xonq ñopp=toubab but literally, "red ear" and that is what they call you in wolof when they don't want you to know they're talking about you). i didn't dance much with the fellas seeing as i was disgusting and they were too but it was fun and the tunes were easy to sway to. the best part was the strobe light and mirrored wall because the strobe light makes EVERYONE look like they're a star dancer...but then it stops. no good. and the mirror, i felt like a total flailing toubab! that was all saturday, it was the party at the end of ramadan so everyone was out. the holiday in french/wolof (not sure which) is called korite. everyone gets REALLY tack-tastic (as in tacky) with really glittery tafetta outfits and then they walk around giving people millet and lait caillé, "sour milk," which might just mean yogurt and they appologize for anything they may have ever done to bother that person. it's a nice thing to do. and at night the ladies go out to show off their fancy toubab fake hair-dos and their fancy make-up (which they don't wear during ramadan) and...the absolute BEST PART...they shave their eyebrows only to draw them on again long and skinny! hahahahaha...i'm sorry i am not as into it or as admiring as they are, but WOAH they kind of look like the 3am prostiutes you find lolly-gagging in paris when everyone is partied out and heading home with tipsy legs. naka nga def? = how's it going...mangi fii rekk= i'm here only (question and response, must know it if you ever plan on walking down a street in senegal because you'll hear it alot.) PS. g's in wolof are pronounced like the g's in "game" or "guy."