Marsa and Andi Go To Senegal: The one with the daily routine

Just so you get a general impression of an average day in the life of the Marsa/Andi duo here is the schedule:

5:00am- Obnoxious call to prayer guy sings the goodmorning prayer song. Feel like singing along? It goes a little something like this "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA YAH YAH YAH YEEEEEAHHHHHHHHH..........................................................long enough silence for you to think he's done then HEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA OOOOOOEEEEEHAYAHAYYYAAAAAA"

6:45-7:15am- Vero, Sophie, and Hati get up and begin cleaning and working. Marissa wakes up at the slightest sign of movement and immediately feels guilty for still being asleep while the girls are working and sits up and laughs as she glances over to see Andi with her earplugs in and mouth wide open still down for the count. She proceeds to shake her and then they sit for a little while realizing that they are, in fact, in Africa.

7:15-7:45am- Marissa recounts her most recent, anti-malarial induced, stinkin' weird dream and boy are they vivid. So far I watched a killer whale morph into Nolan Gore, watched Will Harris get into a fist fight with someone I'm pretty sure he doesn't know while on a yacht, and had a conversation with the Loerke's about why they were in Senegal seeing as I don't actually know them and I'm pretty sure they live in Dallas. I mean, it's nice not having malaria, but the dreams are really really weird. (For those of you really counting, it does in fact take 30 minutes for her to recount all that these outlandish dreams entail. -A)

7:45-9:00am- A series of putting our foam "beds" and mosquito nets and cardboard away -We've been sleeping outside so that we can hang up the mosquito nets-, changing into our Islam appropriate clothing, brushing our teeth with our water bottle which I used to make fun of Sarah Thompson for doing, I like the sense of humor God, and boiling water for our morning meal of instant coffee and bread (and cocopain! its like Nutella essentially so you KNOW its awesome. -A).

9:00-2:00pm- Here a number of things can happen.
A) When Marissa is having a particularly hive-a-licious or botox lip-ish day she'll take a benadryl in the morning and pass out on her face-Andi style- for a few hours
B) Andi will pass out on her face. No medicine. Just sheer exhaustion. This is usually followed by Marissa mischeviously taking pictures. (For the record, it is incredibly hot here. I don't think me falling asleep on face really needs a reason other than the fact that I need to cool the heck down. -A)
C) Marsa and Andi will turn whatever menial sewing task we're given into a competition with all the smack talk and showboating you could imagine. (Don't let Marissa tell you she's not competitive. CLEARLY she is or she wouldn't keep bringing this up.. -A)
D) Marsa and Andi will interact with the wildlife such as lizards, goats, and sheep that happen to have ambled into the gate.
E) Actual work from Viola. Emails/Design/Marketing work.
F) Reading... So. Much. Reading.....

2:00-2:45pm- Lunch. To give you a more accurate depiction I will give an example of the dialogue from my understanding of it. (*Wolof is the language not an attempt at typing out the noises made when eating)
Vero: wolofwolofwolofwolof*
Bernadette: bahahaha wolofwolofwolofwolof girls wolofwolofwolof
all eyes turn towards Andi and Marsa
V,B,S,&H: BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
S: wolofwolofwolof LEKI LEK
Andi: I AM EATING
Marissa: Don't even look at me, I've eaten like half of my plate and you haven't even made a dent in yours
V,B,S,&H: wolofwolofwolofhahahahahawolofwolofwolof
Every.Single.Time.

2:45-4:00pm-Another number of things happen during this time
A) Wolof lessons with Vero as she works on her quilt
B) Laundry complete with our next door neighbors peaking over the fence to watch-I don't know if you watched Home Improvement back in the day but it reminds me of Wilson.
C) Marsa and Andi venture out to take a walk and have the Taliba or "students" who are taught to immitate the life of Mohammed by begging yell TOUBAAAAAAR at us on our way to the corner store.
D) More reading.

4:00-5:00pm- Marsa and Andi's individual quiet times. Awesome.

5:00-9:30pm- Marsa and Andi's study of the book of James/ exchanging of prayer requests/ Testimonies/ Praying together. God shows up and wrecks shop during this time. I wish I could describe it but it is awesome. (Words really cannot do this time enough justice. The amount of unloading the Lord does for us and how much closer we're growing as a small community of two is indescribable. The Lord is so transparent to us in this place--its astounding. -A)

9:30-10:00pm-Dinner. Exactly like lunch most times. Details on the times like yesterday and today when it's been different later

10:00-12:00pm ish- Our favorite Indian soap opera/ blog writting/ enjoying the access to internet in communicating with you lovely folks

Sleep.

I'll keep the rest short since I seem to have already written quite a bit.We started off by going to church again with Sophee and Vero which was just as awesome the second time as the first. I wish I could understand what was being said but regardless it's an awesome experience, and we had a guest appearance in our pew by Tony!!! Our little friend from the other night. He's stinking cute. My favorite part however was as we were walking out of the service a tiny little boy walked right up to me and latched himself in the cutest hug I have ever been given. I had no idea who he was, but I can tell you it was love at first sight. Turned out he was Bernadette's younger brother. Sweetheart. It took us about an hour and a half to get home from the service because we've decided that every man in that church is in love with Vero and Sophee, and with good reason, they are gorgeous and so kind. We proceeded to harass them about their "boyfriends" for the rest of the day. Apparently being embarrassed about attention from guys is international. And so funny. The rest of the things that I remember about yesterday mostly involve food. Andi and I about 1pm when it's been a crazy long time since breakfast and were really hungry started talking about how my birthday was coming up which lead to talking about cake which lead to talking about how long it had been since we had fresh vegetables and dairy. This became what I like to call the "Imaginary Salad". We started saying all the things we would put in a salad if we could have one right now, like avacado and ripe cherry tomatoes and then immediately stopped because it was making us even more hungry. The other food incident happened at night when we were given my absolute least favorite meal thusfar, a peanut butter/chocolate/millet/and some sort of bitter root soup. Sick out. Seriously. (And I'm usually a good sport about eating interesting things but this was crossing the line. -A) We also listened to a podcast of Ben Stuart's on James. It was so great.

Today I woke up and my lips were swollen again so I took a Benadryl and slept through most of the morning so I'll let Andi tell you about that (Vero had me make price tags for all the products they're getting ready to send of to Connecticut. Nothing fancy but it was nice to have a project to keep me busy longer than thirty minutes! -A) but we did laundry and went for a walk around town after lunch which was so nice, apart from the fact that everyone we passed either a) stared intently at us b)started trying to have an in depth conversation in wolof with us c) wanted us to take their picture (and then ran away when I tried to do so.. -A) d) wanted us to give them money and stated their desire by yelling toubar at us and holding their hand out at us. That's about all I got folks. I'm going to eat some fresh mango while Andi puts in her two cents.

(After bible study, I got to talk to my wonderful Daddio on the phone for about thirty minutes! I am seriously so blessed to have a dad that has so much faith in me and supports even my most crazy ideas. Love you, Pop! -A)

#loveyoumeanit
A&M

Some pictures of about the town..