I just logged onto WordPress to find snow flurries on the homepage. I know cold is awaiting me, but I was trying to forget about it!
I finished my last class session ever in Senegal today. I allowed a celebration to ensue (keep in mind I am writing a paper more than 4 days before it’s due, which is a big step for the super procrastinator I am) when I ran into a few students in the nearby gas station market buying a beer and heading to the closest beach. I’m writing my papers a lot faster now that my toes are a little sandy and my nose a little rosy.
The first paper is for Gender and Development and concerns Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). There is a book available on Google commons that I would recommend browsing through if you have spare time. The topic itself is very pertinent to me and I’m happy to be researching it, but I am not adding much new material from the first version we turned in earlier this semester (had 6 pages, adding 3 with only one new source…)…all my classes are going back as pass/fail credit so I don’t have much motivation to work harder than necessary after learning about a topic.
My second paper is about the book Nervous Conditions and the use of missionary schooling in colonial Rhodesia. That’s more of a task and still have to do a lot of research. 8-10 pages.
The final is a paper on Senegalese Culture and Society, written in French, and requiring research this time. I have selected the brain drain (ou le luitte des cerveaux), but have not gone much further than declaring the topic. 6-8 pages.
Then I have one Wolof exam (not worried about this) and an oral French exam (can’t prepare for this), and I’m done with the first half of my senior year!
While working on these and after, I am hoping to get to several FESMAN events. It is really an amazing opportunity that I want to take advantage of, even if this is a reason we’ve had so many power cuts the past couple weeks.
Next week, I’m hoping to make my host family a dinner to celebrate the end of my time and my sister’s birthday. Anyone have recommendations? I have a stove and oven, but they are never used and I don’t trust them. If I could keep it to things over a gas flame, that would be ideal. Please comment and let me know! Recipes would be much appreciated.
Only 11 nights left…time is flying at a snail’s pace with all these things I’m doing, but the snow flurries I saw just now remind me of the Joyeux Noel I’ll be returning to.
