The one when we went to Tae Kwon Do class

From where we left off..

Two nights ago, Hati took Marissa and I to see the place where they take Tae Kwon Do class, when they're not so busy trying to finish an order. (As it was an impulse journey well after our usual outting time I was already in my brotank and neon nike shorts which for some reason doesn't feel strange until you're out on the streets...in neon clothes... and everyone else is wearing full length dresses... along with my predisposition to reflect rather than absorb the suns rays which causes my skin to be fluorescent all came together to make me stick out even more than usual... The humbling process continues.-M) We walked mostly in the dark (With the exception of the light provided by my neon outfit and legs-M) to a compound with an outside wall and dusty courtyard with a gym-like building in the center. The six young men there were dressed in white, yet dirty, robes with belts of different colors displaying their level of mastery. Their teacher would alternate showing them a maneuver on one of the boys and then allow them to turn to their partner and practice. Most of them were pretty good--says the girl who knows absolutely nothing about Tae Kwon Do. (Speaking of our mastery of the ancient art of Tae Kwon Do, after observing one of the more verbal fighter's jackets which had a sharpie drawing of a dragon and said "dragon noir" underneath it, I adopted his nickname and became "The Black Dragon." Andi looked really sad that she had not yet mastered TKD to the point of getting such an awesome nickname so I christened her "The Midnight Tigeress" She loves it so please call her that and only that from now on-M) (I won't respond to that. -A) After the class, of course the tubaars became the specticle of the evening. They crowded around shaking our hands. One of the boys spoke a little English and asked us how long we had been there and if we were going to come back. I think next week the girls are planning on going to class for real so stay tuned for that adventure of Marissa v Andi on the Tae Kwon Do floor. (Aka Black Dragon vs Midnight Tigress-M)

That evening also they taught us to play the game "Othello" that some past volunteers had brought them. (Andi's really stinkin' good at it and yet we manage to mess up the game enough that the score stands at 1-1 we'll see how long that lasts-M) We took turns playing and acting out the Kwon Do moves we witnessed earlier, falling all over ourselves laughing so hard. It was such a cool thing to see us bond over something as silly as a martial arts class. Building relationships with these wonderful girls has proved to be not as difficult as we thought; despite the language barrier, we make jokes at each other and laugh at everything we do. Them mostly making fun of the interesting things we do--like wall sits--but its laughter all the same. (The first time we did wall sits, the girls kept trying to figure out where the chair was. Seriously hilarious-M)

The past two days have gone by so quickly. We've done a few things to help Veronique and the girls get their order ready to be shipped to Connecticut. Finishing quilts, turning little purses right side out and cutting more fabric all seem pretty simple to us but Veronique told us we've saved her days of work. Just when we were questioning if the "work" we were doing was actually adding up the Lord shows us exactly how much we are helping. Thanks, God.

Last night, after a particularly cleansing bible study had left Marissa and I both drained and refreshed, Sophee and some of the other girls made probably the most amazing little things I've ever eaten. Fried little pastries resembling pop-overs with a mixture of meat, onions, potatoes, egg and I think cabbage was in there too. It was like a Senegalese egg roll. (They. Were. So. Stinkin'. Good.-M) But that wasn't dinner. Ha, they still served up some pasta with milk powder and sugar. They are NOT kidding about wanting their guests to eat all the time. Every meal time goes like this: the bowl is placed between the six of us and we sit in a circle with our spoons. Everyone eats and chats, blah blah blah and then ten seconds into the meal, one of the girls tells us to "lekilek!!" "Eat!" they say. Well I AM eating! Its hard to explain that I don't want to eat a ton of hot food in the middle of 106 degree weather so I came up with the brilliant idea to push my food around a bit to make my dent in the meal seem a bit bigger. So today at lunch, I put my idea to action and pushed some of my rice over to Sophee's side of the bowl. She said something in Wolof and looked at Leah and began to laugh. Leah translated that Sophee said to stop pushing my rice on her side to make it look like I had eaten more. Wow. Plan fail. (Bahahahahahahahahahahahahah it was even funnier because Andi and I had discussed strategies to get around the insane eating demands and she shared this one with me. I have a theory that they're fattening us up so they can eat us... Who cares if its a real theory or not-M)

We ventured out to the market today with Leah and bought a local phone so we could call the girls or Viola if need be. We wove in and out of the narrow market alleys, ducking under low hanging canopies of fabric and tarps. Every other table had mangoes or homemade brooms, cheap Made in China jewelry and plastic shoes and my personal favorite--Obama baby clothes. Yep, little tiny clothes with Obama's face on them. Can't get much better than that. We ended our market adventure with a trip to "la boutique" (Well actually we went to a "boulangerie" but we're working on the French-M) for a snack of Senegalese "cake." That's just a fancy way of saying dry pound cake, but it is tasty!

My monster of a nap this afternoon and a 40 minute phone call with Mom and Claire has certainly done me some good. I'm so glad tomorrow is Sunday! We get to hear the beautiful church choir once more before heading off to Segou next week. I'll let Marsa make her little side comments and I'm off to bed.

(I would like to add a few side stories in here and the will all have titles because I'm feeling extra generous:
1. The "monster nap"- So Andi and I have at this point become accustomed to sleeping just about anywhere we can, just about any time we can. It is so hot here that even the least amount of physical activity feels like you've run a 10K... and you sweat about the same amount. So today after I finished reading through Exodus, I've decided to read through the old testament which has proved to be really interesting but more on that some other time, I went inside to get water and found Andi... face down on the floor...mouth open...Passed.Out. I literally had to run outside to not laugh and wake her up. Hadi, the roommate who speaks absolutely NO English but is probably the sweetest person ever, made the international symbol for camera at me and then we mischeviously snapped some shots of Andi sleeping. I'll upload them tomorrow.

2. Andi and I were discussing the aforementioned nap and she brought up the time I fell asleep with a book opened on my face to keep the flies from landing on it. Apparently Hati walked by then and rolled her eyes... At least we're entertaining I suppose
3. THE SHOWER IS WORKING AGAIN!!!! I just got done and finally got my feet clean enough to see that I'm making serious progress on my Chaco tan. Lydia Lemoine, you would be so proud, although I'm not sure I'll ever live up to yours. Although I have to say that you know you're doing work for the Lord when you can't see the Chaco tan for all the dirt. TLM)




Love and miss you all dearly!

m&a