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It’s been a full week since I moved into chez Sene. My host family and I are still in the “cultural adjustment” phase. I live with a widow, her live-in maid, the maid’s elementary school – age daughter, and a teenage girl whom I believe is my host sister. The Senegalese are very into greetings: I received a stern warning after failing to use “Bonjour” or “Salaamaalekum!” (Borrowed from Arabic: “May peace be upon you”) when addressing my host mother. They are not, however, overly sharing with personal information such as age or relationships to each other (hence the “believe is my host sister”). When I first moved in, I was introduced to two other women and another little girl who were staying there for awhile. People just wander in during meals and start chatting without revealing their names. This chatting usually takes place in Wolof, so I can understand snippets of verbs and prepositional phrases. All of the billboards, TV programs, church services, etc. are in French, but Wolof is the language of conversation. Thus, the more Wolof I learn, the more responsive my host family becomes (I received a round of applause from the maid’s daughter when I correctly asked her if she had had a good morning). After the first night, all of the CIEE students had a downtown sortie (excursion) where we discovered 1) how large and crazy downtown Dakar is and 2) that all of the host families are addicted to well-dubbed Spanish soap operas such as “La Mujer de Lorenzo” (“Lorenzo’s Wife”). It’s a good way to practice listening comprehension and my host mother will point out gross grammatical errors. Pictures of the physical plant to follow…