Last weekend recap

It's crazy to think about but I just wrapped up my last full weekend in Dakar! It did not go as planned. One of the upstairs apartments completely flooded with sewage so we had to frantically pack everything up and move 3 more girls down to our apartment. The girls couldn't convince the landlord to help with the plumbing so we just moved everything down. We didn't know if they would be able to go back so we had everyone's belongings here. We had mattresses all over our very small apartment. Then Sunday half of the girls woke up with fevers. Our apartment only has one room with Wifi so we just kind of hung out in the living room all day. On the upside.... our apartment has dealt with so much sickness so we have an entire medicine cabinet with every kind of medicine. We also have a "sick routine" now when someone gets sick so we were very well equipped to handle it. Sunday night the girls were able to move back to their apartments so we packed everything up again. I don't really think anyone got much sleep at all this weekend, but Monday is the end of Ramadan so we have the day off and Tuesday is a workday to finalize our final papers so we luckily have 2 days to recover.

Despite all of that, I still was able to do a few things. We went to an art gallery downtown on Saturday. Coincidently the pieces were named after several books we had read in our classes so that was cool to consider in looking at the pieces.

The burden of memory

Gilded

Le devoir de violence

The most profound memory of man

The heart of darkness

Bronze sweat

After that, we walked around downtown and found the coastline. It was so pretty and quiet. Definitely more "touristy" but we soaked up some sunlight.

We also discovered the coolest soap and oil shop in one of the neighborhoods

Monday was Eid (or Korité as they call it in Senegal). It signifies the end of Ramadan. Everyone gets very dressed up to celebrate with family. It would have been fun to be in host families for this but since we had nowhere to go we got to celebrate in our pajamas. :) We did get to eat Lakh (traditionally eaten in the morning of Eid to break the final fast), a millet porridge with a sweet yogurt sauce. It was pretty good!

Then Tuesday we revisited our favorite coffee shops one last time. Saying more goodbyes