Multi-cultural day

I volunteered to help out with a multi-cultural day that ISDD (the law school we share a building with) was hosting. Normally the ISDD students from abroad will give speeches and prepare activities representing their country, so this year they decided to invite an American student from CIEE to participate. To be honest it was a lot more work than I had hoped for, especially because my partner got sick and I had to plan it on my own. In the end though it was a really fun day. 

For my speech I had planned a nice little cultural blurb about the States and pop culture and the media, only to find out that every other country had just prepared a list of statistics about the countries geography and political system. They liked my speech anyway though. The activity I planned was bingo, and it was pretty hilarious because everyone got super into it. I started withe rule where you only had to get a row of words to win. They seemed to get that but then I switched to saying that you had to get the whole board to win, but they kept shouting bingo after only getting a row and running up to me yelling "i want a fish!" (the prize for the winner was a fish - not my idea). 

The best part of the night though was the Sabar. I had already been to one sabar and knew that it was an intense circle of drumming and dancing. I also knew that they were gonna make me dance. So before the Sabar me and a friend went to get smoothies before the inevitable humiliation. I came back with the full anticipation of a huge party of dancing, only to walk into a room of 5 Senegalese students playing scrabble. Probably the last thing on earth I would have expected, but I was quite pleased I didn't have to dance. When I asked about the Sabar he said "oh well start setting up soon." A perfect example of Senegalese time - it was 7:30 and the Sabar was supposed to start at 6:00. 

Second to the left is Danny, the ISDD president who planned the event and who I collaborated with.