Journal From 2/3/07

Currently I am at my friend Cheikh’s (pronounced Chere) house in an attempt to have my computer fixed. Although it isn’t exactly broken, the fact that I am unable to connect it to the internet is causing me much grief and emotional energy…

Last night we went to a killer rap concert. Bamba manages one of the groups that performed so we hung out backstage – met all sorts of cool people. And, I finally met a tubop, he is Suisse. I am not sure yet how long he has been in Senegal but he appears to have found his way in this country. Similar to me, we are chilling like locals. We met eyes and almost humorously quick, I started up a conversation. I was relieved to find a white friend – if only someone to share my experience with....We are hanging tonight at another concert.

Nico (from Nicolie sp?) called me today, most likely to talk about tonight. Unfortunately the conversation consisted of me saying “what?, I can’t understand, what?” Talking on the phone is hilarious because I cannot understand a word that people say to me. For example, Nico speaks French and a little English. For me, visa versa. It makes for a difficult phone conversation. My new tactic is to tell people to send me a text message. Text messaging is the best invention ever for non-fluent speaking people.