Hey everyone,
This one is simple. We are home, doing fine, but we do miss a lot of things about Senegal. The adhan in the morning, our friends, some food, and the Qur'an. Now whenever we complain about the food here, my mom threatens us with fish and rice- ugh. I am starting a new blog my dad is forcing me to do so stay tuned to that one.

Bye!

Man, sometimes it gets really boring here, and this is no exception. We are all waiting for the Mauloud so that we have some Americans to talk to and get updates from. But happily I have found ways to spend my time. I have finished Juz Amma and am almost halfway done with the 29 juz. I am taking up sewing and schoolwork-ugh!- and sleeping late-when I can. Trying to make friends with the girls, with no success. And I am hoping that the next 6 months will pass quickly. Right now my dad is probably sleeping in front of a fire and I'm stuck here...grr... So anyway...
The Sheikh's mother got really sick about two weeks ago. It would not have been a problem, except that she was very old, about 80 or so. So a few days later, Auntie Ullymat comes in screaming and wailing because she died. So for the next two weeks, things are on an edge. Classes are canceled, kids go home, the school is quiet, and it seems a little weird. But it finally recovers and then, two days later, yesterday in fact, Auntie Ullymat's and Sri Musa's (our Quran teacher) sister dies during an operation. She had diabetes. So the whole family has been going through a test, and if they keep up their faith in Allah they will get through it.

And now I'm really mad cause it was snowing yesterday in Charlotte, even though it wasn't much, but there was some. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Sorry it's been a while. Haven't really had a lot of time to do this, with all the classes and such. Well...
We have been having a really hard time here. Especially my mom. She had to travel back to America twice because her mom had cancer and the second time she went my grandma died. It has been difficult for us to deal with this, and I am having a really bad problem because I didn't get to see her before she died.
The first time my mom came back, she brought back a lot of stuff. She gave the girls some jacks, and it has been a nice replacemnt to their rock game, which I have yet to actually SEE them play. They used to play it everyday. The boys are having fun with their soccer ball. (I can hear them playing with it right now.) We also got a lot of candy, chocolate bars, Wonkas, that stuff. And I got a whole bunch of 3 musketeers, which I had been craving for a REALLY long time. Man, there is no chocolate like that here.
And we have, of course, been keeping up with the worldly news. Like Saddam Hussein's death sentence. And the Democrat victory in the mid-term. And the resignation of Donald Rumsfield.
Here, I find it amazing that they actually have a DVD player. A "Senegalese" DVD player anyway. That basically means that it works, but screws up a lot. So we have taken to watching the movies on the computer. We got a lot of movies from my uncle: All 6 Star Wars episodes, all 3 LOTR, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 (man, I wish Mommy got to America after Dead Man's Chest came out on DVD), Chicken Little, Monster House (LAME movie), and Cars. So we're having fun on the weekends.
Time for me to go now, people! Sorry I can't make this longer, but there's not much else to say. (That's how boring it is here!) See ya later!

Today I think I am just going to list some of the fun things we did here.
Magicland:
A basic Senegalese theme park. It's small, but really fun. We went into a haunted house, which wasn't really scary, except for the end when something brushed your shoulder. Another ride is what I call an illegal American ride because it takes you in the air and spins you around and around with no seatbelts! They only give you some bars to hold onto. There were some go carts, which were fun, but kind of scary. It was just like a round race track, and you could drive around at 30 kph. But my favorite ride wasn't really a ride at all. There were 4 trampolines with harnesses. You put on the bungees and you could do flips, back and front. They have that at home, but we were at this place at night, so there weren't any lines. Yippee!!! I did a double backflip! After we got ice cream, we headed out. They had some basic theme park rides there too, bumper cars and kiddie merry go rounds. The whole place had plastic palm trees too.
Zoo:
It was really fun there. I saw some cool animals that I hadn't seen before. Porcupines, male lions, hyenas, and a lot of others. One of the gazelles was head-butting a tree. My dad said he was thinking: "This pen ain't big enough for the two of us!" The lions were in enclosed spaces, smaller than what the gazelles had. We saw some leopard cubs, a camel, and a huge turtle. There were also some tiny little kittens, like a week old, behind the tire of a truck. They were really cute. We went for some freeze pops, and it started raining for a long time, very heavily. When it kind of stopped, we went, walking through the drizzling rain, to the gate. On the way back, we had to drive through some flooded streets.
The Mosoleum (sp?):
Big building by the beach. The sheikh's grandfather is buried there. Outside it is nice, but inside is nicer. By the grave there is lots of dry sand. No floor. It feels so good underneath my feet. Inside it is quiet and peaceful. It's really impossible to describe.

Dakar Airport:
We entered into a hot, humid atmosphere. It was barely light outside and I could see two buses waiting. One was partly full. The other was empty. Moby and I waited at the top of the steps for the rest of the gang. Oh, by the way, have you ever tried dragging a 20 pound carry on bag AND a 15 pound laptop bag at the same time down the airplane steps??? Not cool.
Once the others got down we headed to the bus. Climbing on, I saw the crew heading for the other one. The bus drove us to the airport steps, and we piled inside. It was exactly like my trip to Morocco. There was nobody around except for the passengers. Mommy had to fill out some immigration papers, which took a while, seeing as she had to do 7, and we went through the gates. Our passports were stamped and we went to the right to the baggage claim.
After finding our 28 bags, we had to pile them onto the carts, some which had wheel problems, and then it was customs. It was basically security, except we had to do every bag, and we weren't going through. Once THAT was done we piled the bags BACK on the carts, and went outside to the now light sky dotted with gray, polluted clouds.
The sheikh escorted us to the taxis, as we tried to decide which bags would go where. We wanted to keep the valuable stuff with us, but eventually it all went in the trunks. On our way to the school, I noticed a lot of different smells. Fish, burning trash, (yes burning trash. There's no landfills,) diesel, (all the cars run on it,) and lots of food. We arrived at the school, unloaded the bags, and went to rest.
The School:
Now I am going to try to describe the school in the best way possible way. It has 3 floors and is made out of earth like all the buildings. Shiny tiles, four balconies, four student bedrooms, a dining room, courtyard, classroom, and a roof you can go up and recite Qu'ran on or something. It's awesome.
Skeeters and Flies:
I am telling you... there's too many of these insects here. Two days after we came I counted 70 mosquito bites on my body, even with a net! I'm not joking either!!! Moby had 18 on one hand! They're like vampire bugs. The flies don't bite, but they annoy you. There are these really big ones with like a blue armoured shell and HUGE red eyes. They scare me. Good thing we have fly swatters. Bugs! I hate bugs!
The Food:
Rice, rice, and more rice. Almost all the time. Sometimes we get soda, but it doesn't taste like American soda. The aftertaste is weird. They have bread and chocolate in the morning, with some sort of coffee. I am still getting used to the food. Right now I am craving Ramen Noodles. A lot! Oh well. That's one thing I will have to look forward to when I get back.
Struggles:
When I say struggles I mean things like water and power. Over here, these things shut off from time to time. It is a third world country, you know. Currently, the water is very low. But what really sucks is when the power goes off at night, because then the fans go off, and it gets HOT!!! I wake up wondering what's going on, then I see that the fan isn't working. Argh!!!
Weather:
Right now it is rainy season. We are getting quite a bit of rain actually. The thunderstorms here aren't very big, and even so, the building is made of cement. But I am grateful for this because once the rainy season ends, it will be hot, hot, hot! Back home it gets hotter than here, but you never notice it because you have an air-conditioned house to go into on those days.
Our Kitten:
My mom and dad were coming home from the bank, and along the way, a stray kitten followed them back to the school. In the morning we woke up and saw it come out of the bushes. A white kitten with a fat belly, due to not getting enough to eat. We were confused about the gender at first, thinking it was a boy, and now we think it's a girl. We had gone through a bunch of names, first Snowball, then Angel, then we finally decided on Medina, the name of a Muslim holy city. She isn't quite so fat anymore, and eventually we will take her to the vet to get her spayed and given her shots. But on top of it all, she is a stubborn kitten, always trying to get inside. We don't want her in, because she might get fleas. But on her third day here, she caught her first mouse, which increased her chance of staying. Yay!
The Classes:
My last for the night. Our classes. At 730 we wake up to get dressed and eat. at 845 we go to Qu'ran class, then we are SUPPOSED to get a 45 minute break, but the teacher keeps us late for some reason. After this break we have French class, which is really weird because all we do is write stuff down and read from a French book. At 100 we get our lunch break. Normally, this would last 3 hours, but they added an extra class, so now it's 1 1/2 hours, and lunch is always late, so we can't ever take a nap. Next is Arabic class. 2 hours. Then we would normally get off for the day, but they put in another class, which I think, is totally useless. It's another Qu'ran class, but I already know what they are teaching. And that lasts 2 1/2 hours. But I don't go to it. I do something else. After this class is over and we get off for the day. Yes!

The South African Airlines Flight:
We were escorted to our seats, while a flight attendent helped me put my carry on up in the rack. The plane arrangement was rather nice. The overhead racks were well built, there was a TV screen on the back of each seat, and an overnight kit on each seat with a pillow and blanket. We managed to switch seats around so that Daddy could sit next to me instead of a stranger. After the half hour wait, the motors of the plane started. This little 3 or 4 year old girl in the row across from me wouldn't stop crying. She hated seatbelts. It was SO annoying and she wouldn't stop! After about half an hour of the motor running, we FINALLY took off. I said good-bye to America. Turns out we were the 24th plane in line. Well, that's what happens at an international airport.
After about 5 minutes, they did the safety video thing. But I am thinking "Why bother showing it? Everyone already knows what to do." C'mon. So when that was done they finally put on the video options and came around with sodas. I got a Coke and started watching Ice Age 2. There was plenty to keep me entertained, and an hour later dinner came around. It was chicken with mineral water and chocolate pudding, along with some vegetables that look like the ones from the Chinese restaurants.
I only finished half of Ice Age because what I REALLY wanted to watch was V for Vendetta. It was pretty good. When it was done though, I started getting motion sickness. My mom gave me some medicine.
Besides this, it's really not possible to describe the trip. It's basically like any overnight trip would be like. Dinner, movies, then sleep.
At about 4 am in West Africa time, the captain woke us up to leave. Half of us were getting off. The others were going to Johannesburg, South Africa. We landed, and once again, I started feeling a bit sick through some of the curves. As everyone started leaving, it took us a while to get our bags down, seeing as the aisles were really crowded. On our way off I got a glimpse of the first class seats. They had lots of leg room, the seat folded down for a bed, and it had a nightlight next to their head. Cool.
I stepped off the plane into a hot humid atmosphere.

The European/African Terminal of JFK:
Mommy had missed the elevator so when we got to the bottom we waited for here. We had 6 hours to kill, and it wasn't nearly time for check-in, so we headed towards the chapels, and on the way we picked up some FREE baggage carts. They had a bunch of different areas, and the "Multicultural Area" is where we went, but clearly it was for Muslims.
After resting we went downstairs, and sat for half an hour, arguing about who would sit with YaSeen, chewing gum from the machines, and drinking water. When my dad got back from wherever he was we went to eat. But I was mad because they didn't even have Subway! What kind of airport is this?!
After eating at Sbarro and drinking a 3 dollar Mountain Dew, Daddy and I went walking around looking for a seat cushion to replace the one he lost. We looked in all the stores, and I even saw some iPod speaker things I hadn't seen before. We never found one. One of the shops had pretty much every magazine you could think of, and glancing at the covers, I noticed that Anne Hathaway isn't doing Princess Diaries 3! Totally off topic, but anyway...
After looking through the stores in vain, we went upstairs and saw people checking in for our flight. Quickly, we got everyone up there to check in so that would be out of the way. Then after Daddy's long discussion with the white South African guy, we went to pray. After taking a short nap and praying we went to go through security, but it was more crowded then before. On the way Mommy bought me an eight dollar Swiss chocolate bar, (Which lasted a week and a half.) We must've looked really strange. Tall white guy leading five blue-shirted kids, followed by a hijab wearing woman. Security was the same as Charlotte, except it took a lot longer, and the guard at the xray confisticated my Gerber knife, which I had forgotten was there. I was really upset because Daddy gave it to me. Oh well, it was three dollars and we had another one at home. Once I stopped freaking out Daddy told me they were going to use it to test the new workers, to see if they could find it in a crowded bag going through the xray.
We went to the gate, and seeing as it was already boarding, Daddy decided to use the bathroom until our rows were called. Again. Well, once he got back and we went through the gate, I expected to go directly on the plane, but instead we went down a sort of ramp, then our boarding passes were checked, then we stepped onto the plane.

JFK International Airport from the Plane:
Well, here we are in New York. Glancing out from the airplane window, you see the ocean surrounding an island. The Manhattan Island. I mean, it's not like you can actually see Ground Zero of the Twin Towers or anything, but the view was great! That is until the plane started curving. Makes your stomach jump. Well, we landed safely, although the whole time I felt like throwing up, and on top of it all I had a window seat! Once we landed we had to wait a while because, since we had so many people, we had to let everyone else off first. Moby and I went down the plane stairs and picked up our carry-on bags in the sixty-five degree weather. Then we had to drag them up the gangway stairs. Like twenty pounds!

The Terminal:
We stepped off the gangway into a shiny floored, glass walled room. Across the wall people were eating and drinking, chattering, the usual stuff. This airport was unique. I mean, how many airports serve oreos at the gate? Looking at the signs, I noticed we were in Terminal 3, which had Asian and US flights. We walked through the Terminal, looking for the way out, asking for directions. We got out to the parking garage. (Wouldn't this be useful in Charlotte?) We walked across the street to the "Great Glass Elevator" and climbed aboard to the 4th floor, the AirTrain, aka "Terminal Transportation." Nine or ten terminals. Three trains going around and around. We took the train to Terminal 7, talking to a lady who was meeting her boyfriend in Germany. That's weird. She met him on the Internet. Lol. We stepped off the train once we got to the right area, said bye to the "German" lady, and went down another "Great Glass Elevator."