Wolof word of the day: doff = crazy. It’s probably the Wolof word I hear most often around my house.
The person who taught me the word “doff” is also probably the craziest person I know. He knows everyone in the neighborhood and is a good friend of the family, and I think he’s actually living in our house right now. His name is Matar, but everyone calls him the Gambien because he has spent a lot of time in the Gambia. At first, I thought he was really exhausting because he doesn’t speak perfect French and instead tries to force me to speak Wolof, but he has grown on me quickly, and Meera and I have started to refer to him as our second father. He hangs around our shop all the time and yells at guys who pay too much attention to us or bother us. Ironically though, he loves checking out women on the street, and taught us that “jaay fonde” means a nice ass.
In addition to my family’s boutique, there is a woman who sells peanuts and fruit at a stand in front of our house, and sometimes on the weekends her little daughter is there instead of her. This daughter is the coolest person I know and my new best friend; I think she’s about 9 or 10. I don’t really know how to spell her name but the short version of it is something like Kadjat. A few days ago I introduced myself to her but she was really shy and just kept smiling at me. Then Sunday I offered to help her set up her stuff, and she gave me a bucket to sit on and showed me how to help her tie bags of peanuts. She is super adorable and I spent about 2 hours sitting with her yesterday. We played with my cell phone and she tried to braid my hair, and at one point a guy from the neighborhood came over and was kind of bothering me, so one of the other neighbors started yelling at him. My new best friend thought this was hilarious and practically fell off her seat laughing, then offered me some sage advice on how to fend off men. I was both thankful and impressed.
Another one of the new things I am experiencing here is housework! My host mom is really insistent that Meera and I keep our room spotless, but the best part is that once a week, we get to wash our own laundry, by hand! The first time it was pretty hard and we were really tired after, but each time it gets a little easier and more fun. Everyone in the house and even some who don’t live in the house think it’s exceedingly funny, and last week the Gambien came into the courtyard and said he wanted to take a picture, then offered us a glass of gin to “make us stronger”. This past Saturday, we put on music and started dancing while washing, which made our maid, Nabu, really happy. She is really sweet and fortunately gets treated very well here—she works really hard, but my most mom and sisters do a lot of the housework too, and she gets to go home every other weekend.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
look at the toubabs!
wolof word of the day: toubab. it means white person. my mom told me it's not mean or offensive, but everywhere we go we hear it. my other favorite new phrase is leegi-leegi (pronounced leggy-leggy). it means "see you later", but actually leegi means now, so when you say it it's kind of like saying i'll see you later but i wish i was seeing you right now. or something like that.
saturday we went to the pink lake, which is theoretically "near" Dakar, but because it's senegal it took us about 3 hours to get there and 4 hours to get home. It's called pink lake because there is some kind of algae in it that makes the water look pink when the sun shines on it. It's also salty, and there is a layer of salty foam over the sand around the edge which is really weird and cool. That was really fun until we got attacked by people trying to sell us crappy jewelry and sand paintings, which is what happens when white people go to tourist destinations here.
Yesterday, our program assistant Josephine invited us to a baptism at her house for her cousin's baby. We were already running about an hour late when we called her, but we met her and she said she was going to the hair salon and we could come with her. That was actually kind of fun because I like hair salons a lot, but after about an hour she said she was going to be a while and we should go ahead, and she would meet us. When we got there and met the other Americans, it was basically just a bunch of people sitting around, and a bunch of African children swarming us and touching our hair and calling us toubabs (the ones who could talk). After being covered in child germs and snot, we got to eat out of a big plate of meat and rice, with our hands! By the time we had to leave, Josephine still hadn't arrived, and when we asked her about it today, she just responded "Mais ca, c'est le Senegal". Which was my thought exactly when it took us 3 hours to get to school today. It's a 20 minute bus ride, but we managed to get lost and spend 2 hours wandering around Dakar before finding our school. Even after a week, the incredibly slow pace of life is already getting to me and I found myself wondering why I wasn't overly angry and frustrated, as I would have been if this had happened any other place.
Other recent adventures include eating a soup made from a boiled goat's head. My brother and sister were arguing about what certain pieces were because they knew the word in wolof but not french. I told them not to tell me, but at one point it was pretty obvious I was eating the tongue. Among the students on my program, we call these "chew once, then swallow" meals. Other than that, all of the weird things that happen here are pretty awesome. Life is pretty different here but I totally love it.
saturday we went to the pink lake, which is theoretically "near" Dakar, but because it's senegal it took us about 3 hours to get there and 4 hours to get home. It's called pink lake because there is some kind of algae in it that makes the water look pink when the sun shines on it. It's also salty, and there is a layer of salty foam over the sand around the edge which is really weird and cool. That was really fun until we got attacked by people trying to sell us crappy jewelry and sand paintings, which is what happens when white people go to tourist destinations here.
Yesterday, our program assistant Josephine invited us to a baptism at her house for her cousin's baby. We were already running about an hour late when we called her, but we met her and she said she was going to the hair salon and we could come with her. That was actually kind of fun because I like hair salons a lot, but after about an hour she said she was going to be a while and we should go ahead, and she would meet us. When we got there and met the other Americans, it was basically just a bunch of people sitting around, and a bunch of African children swarming us and touching our hair and calling us toubabs (the ones who could talk). After being covered in child germs and snot, we got to eat out of a big plate of meat and rice, with our hands! By the time we had to leave, Josephine still hadn't arrived, and when we asked her about it today, she just responded "Mais ca, c'est le Senegal". Which was my thought exactly when it took us 3 hours to get to school today. It's a 20 minute bus ride, but we managed to get lost and spend 2 hours wandering around Dakar before finding our school. Even after a week, the incredibly slow pace of life is already getting to me and I found myself wondering why I wasn't overly angry and frustrated, as I would have been if this had happened any other place.
Other recent adventures include eating a soup made from a boiled goat's head. My brother and sister were arguing about what certain pieces were because they knew the word in wolof but not french. I told them not to tell me, but at one point it was pretty obvious I was eating the tongue. Among the students on my program, we call these "chew once, then swallow" meals. Other than that, all of the weird things that happen here are pretty awesome. Life is pretty different here but I totally love it.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Week one: découvrir Dakar
Salaamaleikum! Bienvenue au Sénégal. It’s only been 5 days but it seems like a lot longer. It’s now my second day with my host family, the Diouf family. After talking with the other students in the program, I can see that I got pretty lucky. I am lucky to be sharing a host family with Meera, because I would be really lonely if I was here by myself, at least for the first few days, but I also got one of the most well-off families. The house is great: Meera and I share our own room and bathroom, which are across the courtyard from the kitchen, and we are the only ones with the key so no one else ever goes in our room.
The food is great here. The first day, we went to the house of a woman named Honorine, who used to run the program but now she just does the cultural orientation. We went up on her terrace for lunch and we had tiéboudienne, fish and rice, a very typical Senegalese meal. It’s a big platter full of rice with a whole fish and whole vegetables and traditionally you all sit on the floor around it and eat with your hands, picking off pieces of fish and veggies and mixing it with the rice. This is much more difficult that it seems! You’re supposed to squeeze the rice into a ball in the palm of your hand, so you can eat it without getting it all over your face. They had us eat our first meal like this in case our families did, but fortunately in my house we use spoons, still all eating off the same platter. Yesterday was the Muslim new year, so we had couscous, with chicken and meat. Another thing about the food here—“meat” can mean just about anything, and they don’t really differentiate between beef, lamb, goat, etc. It’s just meat. Anyway, our host sister Juliette told us that the legend is that the night of the new year, the angel of love comes and visits you while you’re sleeping, and if you’re light enough he’ll take you away but if you’re too heavy he will leave you in your bed, so you’re supposed to eat too much so that the angel doesn’t take you away.
Since it was the new year last night, no one works today and we have the day off from program stuff. I’m slightly disappointed because we were supposed to have our first wolof class today, but it’s ok because we get to spend time with our family and our mom made us a great lunch. I thought I would be fine here because my French is really good, and I have been perfectly able to communicate with everyone, but if I’m going to be here long, wolof is imperative. Basically, everyone talks to us in French and to each other in wolof. Even in our house, they sometimes talk to each other in French but I think it’s only for our benefit. The maid doesn’t speak any French, so she will be good to practice with while I’m learning. I’ve picked up about a dozen words and phrases, but I can’t wait to really learn. Also, our first day with the family, our host sister Sandra made fun of us for not speaking wolof, so now my competitive nature is kicking in. I’m pretty sure that just the way she is, and her teasing doesn’t mean she doesn’t like us, but when I learn enough wolof and/or French to be able to tease her back, then she’ll really like me. Other than that, the family is really great. As soon as we met “maman”, she said, I’m your mom, this is your house, you can do whatever you like. Our sister Juliette is super sweet. Sandra is kind of crazy and total drama queen, but in a good way. I think we’ll get along fine. There is also a mysterious brother, Michael, who everyone speaks of but who we haven’t actually met yet. Then there is Moussa, maman’s nephew, who also lives with the family. Then there is a random array of friends, cousins, and neighbors who wander in and out all day. There is much more community here than in America. You have to say hi to everyone you see, and people share everything, including their houses. In the front of the house there is a shop, the back of which opens into the courtyard, so people come through there and we also go through it since we don’t have a key to the front door yet. The cousin Jean-Daniel runs the shop and has a small bedroom behind it, and it’s mostly a liquor shop although they have other things. Our family is Catholic, and they apparently drink a lot and have lots of fun. Juliette goes out dancing a lot, so once we aren’t so tired, we’ll go out with her and her friends.
We’ve done a lot of stuff around the city with the program, but I’m excited to start getting to know it by walking around. I think in only a few weeks, I’ll really feel at home here.
The food is great here. The first day, we went to the house of a woman named Honorine, who used to run the program but now she just does the cultural orientation. We went up on her terrace for lunch and we had tiéboudienne, fish and rice, a very typical Senegalese meal. It’s a big platter full of rice with a whole fish and whole vegetables and traditionally you all sit on the floor around it and eat with your hands, picking off pieces of fish and veggies and mixing it with the rice. This is much more difficult that it seems! You’re supposed to squeeze the rice into a ball in the palm of your hand, so you can eat it without getting it all over your face. They had us eat our first meal like this in case our families did, but fortunately in my house we use spoons, still all eating off the same platter. Yesterday was the Muslim new year, so we had couscous, with chicken and meat. Another thing about the food here—“meat” can mean just about anything, and they don’t really differentiate between beef, lamb, goat, etc. It’s just meat. Anyway, our host sister Juliette told us that the legend is that the night of the new year, the angel of love comes and visits you while you’re sleeping, and if you’re light enough he’ll take you away but if you’re too heavy he will leave you in your bed, so you’re supposed to eat too much so that the angel doesn’t take you away.
Since it was the new year last night, no one works today and we have the day off from program stuff. I’m slightly disappointed because we were supposed to have our first wolof class today, but it’s ok because we get to spend time with our family and our mom made us a great lunch. I thought I would be fine here because my French is really good, and I have been perfectly able to communicate with everyone, but if I’m going to be here long, wolof is imperative. Basically, everyone talks to us in French and to each other in wolof. Even in our house, they sometimes talk to each other in French but I think it’s only for our benefit. The maid doesn’t speak any French, so she will be good to practice with while I’m learning. I’ve picked up about a dozen words and phrases, but I can’t wait to really learn. Also, our first day with the family, our host sister Sandra made fun of us for not speaking wolof, so now my competitive nature is kicking in. I’m pretty sure that just the way she is, and her teasing doesn’t mean she doesn’t like us, but when I learn enough wolof and/or French to be able to tease her back, then she’ll really like me. Other than that, the family is really great. As soon as we met “maman”, she said, I’m your mom, this is your house, you can do whatever you like. Our sister Juliette is super sweet. Sandra is kind of crazy and total drama queen, but in a good way. I think we’ll get along fine. There is also a mysterious brother, Michael, who everyone speaks of but who we haven’t actually met yet. Then there is Moussa, maman’s nephew, who also lives with the family. Then there is a random array of friends, cousins, and neighbors who wander in and out all day. There is much more community here than in America. You have to say hi to everyone you see, and people share everything, including their houses. In the front of the house there is a shop, the back of which opens into the courtyard, so people come through there and we also go through it since we don’t have a key to the front door yet. The cousin Jean-Daniel runs the shop and has a small bedroom behind it, and it’s mostly a liquor shop although they have other things. Our family is Catholic, and they apparently drink a lot and have lots of fun. Juliette goes out dancing a lot, so once we aren’t so tired, we’ll go out with her and her friends.
We’ve done a lot of stuff around the city with the program, but I’m excited to start getting to know it by walking around. I think in only a few weeks, I’ll really feel at home here.
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