Yesterday Run and I attended our first US Embassy event.  It was a little soiree at the ambassador's house in the fancy Alamides neighborhood.  I couldn't get a complete sense of just how posh the area was because it was nighttime, but I understand it's supposed to be pretty nice.  The ambassador lives in a beautiful mansion, complete with the one cat in town who is actually well-fed and loved.

I met 3 other Fulbrighters - one looks like Angelique Kidjo, one is a mom who brought her high-school-aged daughter along for the year, and the 3rd is the one I talked to the most - he's a UC Davis history PhD candidate.  I recognized him from when I visited the archives in May.  He has invited me to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant tomorrow with another Fulbright girl - I'm excited to have Ethiopian food!
The party featured a "preview" concert by the Dev Philips Jazz Quartet - originally from New Orleans but now based in Portland, Oregon.  They are here for the Dakar Jazz Festival which is happening this weekend.  There was also a screening of a documentary film called "This is Us" - a young American filmmaker collaborated with a school teacher in a tiny village in the Senegalese countryside to give students the opportunity to make their own mini films.  So each student got his/her own portable camcorder and filmed a little "day-in-the-life" kind of thing, complete with their own narration.  The American filmmaker only helped a bit with the technical aspects of editing, but all filming, narration, etc.  was done completely by the students.  Two girls chose to make their films about early marriage - for girls who don't have the privilege of going to school, their prospects are to get married sometime between 9-12 years old (this is illegal in Senegal but not exactly easy to enforce).  They start having kids around 14-15.  The two girls' friends, who were 17 and 18, already had about 3 kids each, and looked old beyond their years.  The problem is that big families tend not to be able to afford to send all kids to school, and unfortunately the prevailing attitude is often still that it makes more sense to send a son than a daughter.  However, since a school was built in this village 10 years ago, an increasing number of girls have begun going to school, so that actually now more than half of the students are girls! 

For those of you who are interested, here is the website for this film project:   http://www.projectthisisus.org/

Here are a few pictures of Run enjoying the Embassy party...:

Here he is watching "This is Us":

Here he's trying to sneak a pic with the Ambassador, but it didn't turn out very well...

Enjoying the open bar...

And making friends with the bartender - always a good idea...

His new music partner-in-crime, the saxophonist Dev Philips:

Here's Dev in action - the woman was singing Summertime:

Here's the Ambassador:

Sorry - I haven't figured out yet how to rotate the pictures...

Here's a link to Devin Phillips' website, in case you're interested:  http://devinphillips.com/

One thing I forgot to mention - I tried a new drink, not alcoholic - BAOBAB JUICE!!  Seriously!  It's made from the fruit of the baobab tree and is supposed to have many medicinal properties.  It looks somewhat like horchata - cloudy, beige - and it has a slightly gingery flavor.  I quite liked it.

Today was relatively uneventful.  Walking an hour to find an ATM which worked pretty much sucked the life out of me - it was 90+ degrees outside.  Then I took refuge in a supermarket ("Casino") because it was air conditioned, and took advantage of being there, with newly acquired cash, to buy some cheap Spanish box wine. 

Tomorrow...  dinner w/ fellow Fulbrighters, and hopefully more progress on getting access to the Embassy bank...