I know Michigan lost, but Senegal won!

I haven’t seen my mom since my brother went into the hospital. She has been living there for over a week now… talk about dedication. She’s amazing and I miss her. It’s bizarre for me because I’ve lived with ONLY girls all my life and now I’m the only girl technically living in the house. We have two maids (bonnes) that are girls, but they kind of stay invisible most of the time. So it’s just my pops, my two younger brothers and my American brother. It’s been good in some ways because 2 weeks ago, my brothers maybe spoke 2 words to me. Now, Moosa and I have a secret handshake and he’s agreed to a Wii competition. Tapha taught me a new card game similar to UNO and we played cards for more than 2 hours on Friday night. I was also playing in Wolof…it was so cool! Also, my dad asked me if I knew anything about American football because he doesn’t understand it and I promptly said, “YES!” He then agreed to let me explain him the rules if there’s ever a game on. I also tried to explain Fantasy Football to him… but I failed big time. Anyways, it’s forced me to form relationships with the males in my house, but I have to say… relationships with females are much more fulfilling. So, on that note, I’m craving some maternal love. Also, everything runs better with a female around. I didn’t have breakfast three mornings last week.

The electricity miraculously started working better once our president (Wade) put his son as the head of the energy department. SHOCKER. For about 2 weeks, the electricity was off more than it was on, so it was really difficult to function. Then all of a sudden, the electricity started working better. Don’t get me wrong, we have frequent outages; however, there’s a longer break between them. Basically, Wade is setting his son up to become president… It’s very conflicting for me because I do enjoy the electricity; but on the other hand, I don’t want people to start thinking he’s a worthy president because the electricity is on more now that he’s in charge. Oh mon dieu. 

I went to the Senegal vs. Mauritania soccer (futball) game this weekend and it was awesome! There were about ten of us and we took the carrapide to get there (100 cfa = 25 cents). When we got there, we gave 1000 cfa ($2.50) to Theresa’s host brother and just hung around for about 30 mins. All of a sudden, this guy comes up to us and says: “Venez! Venez!” And we followed him to the gates where we rushed in as someone shoved an already bought ticket into our hands! Crazy stuff, right?! A policewoman then felt me up pretty hardcore, which was a bit violating but I understand that she was being thorough for our safety. We ran up the stairs as Theresa’s host brother yells: “La corruption! La corruption!” Basically, we bribed someone to let us in… oh lordy… welcome to Senegal. We then got seats pretty high up, but it was a beautiful view and a gorgeous night. The stadium was packed and people were going nuts! American fans of ANY sport can’t even compare to Senegalese futball fans. Not to mention, Senegal smoked Mauritania 7-0, which made everyone even more insane (I wouldn’t want to see the alternative!). 

Well, according to the Counseling Center at Kalamazoo College, the fifth week marks the bottom of the "W" curve where I'm supposed to be all depressed and want to come home. Psh... not even close to being depressed! I'm only sad because time is going by too quickly! 
Peace and love,
Alyssa