Safari

I finished my classes last week. I can hardly believe it. My time here has gone by so quickly! Last week my professor made very intense to review absolutely everything. On my last day of real class, Thursday, she brought a huge book of French exercises that covered all general grammar type things... and we went through it cover to cover! It was a bit exhausting. Then on Friday, I had an "exam." It was supposed to last 3 hours, and it took me 3 1/2 because she forgot to tell me that I didn't have to rewrite all of the exercises. Halfway through she told me that the exam didn't really matter, because she already knew what grade she was going to give me. I was certain it didn't really matter anyway, since I'm not really a student, so it's not like my university or anyone is holding me accountable for my grades. But I know that my French improved immensely, and I wanted to show that... so of course I took my time and actually took the exam.

The language school arranged for me to go to a national park this week with one of the other Rotary scholars. It was like going on our own private Safari. We left a bit late, so we ran into traffic in Dakar... so it took us way to long to get out of the city and to the park. When we arrived, we ate lunch since it was the hottest part of the day and all the animals were hiding in the shade and the water. So, we ate at the restaurant at the park while monkeys and warthogs swung and wandered past our table. It was really cool. The food was good, too. After lunch, we still have to wait another hour for the sun to go down a bit so that we could see animals. So of course, in true African fashion, there was a huge tent set up with tons of pillows and mats underneath. After our guide had said his afternoon prayers, we settled under the tent and took a nap for about an hour and a half. At 4pm, we finally got up and were ready to go our on little Safari. By that time, in true American fashion, I of course felt useless cause I had done nothing that day except for sit in a car, eat lunch, and nap.

The Safari itself was great. Tinari (the other Rotary scholar) and I were on the back of a truck with a guide. We went zipping around the park looking for animals. We saw ostriches and something else first, and then I spotted the next animal! It gave me a sense of accomplishment for the day, I had actually done something. I spotted some gazelles before the guide did. It was great. We saw all sorts of animals. Giraffes, warthogs, things I don't know the names of in English, and huge black rhinocerii. We actually stood on the ground about 20 feet from two fully grown black rhinocerii. That was definitely a highlight of the day. Those animals are absolutely massive. No elephants, no lions, no tigers, no cheetahs... sorry, we're in Senegal not Botswana. But it was wonderful nonetheless. It was even just nice to be out in the countryside on the back of a truck for two hours... fresh air, not hundreds of people everywhere, hundreds of baobab trees, animals... it was great.