This weekend I moved in with my host family and it has been one big thing after another so I am going to attempt to relay all of that to you guys, but if not, then some of the stories may find their way into future emails!
My house is very nice, not an American house by any standard but two stories, eat dinner on the roof, the TV is always on, and, best of all my room all to myself has it's own bathroom!!!! So, I have a pretty extensive host family right now. I will be starting with the youngest, eight years old, and my best friend here, Bebe Cher - no, for those of you that speak French, that isn't his real name, but everyone including all of his friends call him that, still haven't quite figured out his real name. He is in love with my bear and goes through everything he can get his hands on. His older brother, Mohammed, is ten years old and is incredibly amusing. So those two guys are brothers. Then there is Baba, he's 19 and I cannot figure out his relation to anyone else. He only speaks Wolof and Arabic so we haven't bonded yet but, inshallah, we will soon! Then, there are all the women. There is Fanta, in theory, my sister, who is the mother of Bebe Cher and Mohammed. She's about 30ish and dresses incredibly well but doesn't have a lot of time for me - can't figure out where her husband (if there is one) is. My host mom, is a second wife (yes, here we are poligamy), she doesn't talk to me too much but seems nice enough. I've seen her husband twice now, very exciting! Then there is my host mom's mother, who is really great, speaks to me from time to time (sometimes even in English!) and is 87 and diabetic, so unlike the rest of the family she doesn't fast. Then there is my grandmother's sister, who seems to have a great sense of humor which I won't be able to follow until I learn Wolof because she doesn't speak a word of French but she likes to make fun of me and is very sweet. So I believe that sums up my family, now to talk about the weekend!
Bebe Cher and Mohammed
I met the family on Friday after I had been picked up by Fanta at the university. I went out soon after I got to the house and played soccer with Bebe Cher and Mohammed, the flaw with this of course is I met every member of the family while running around with a bunch of nine year olds playing soccer (I guess that is a bit of a faut-pas for girls), so not the best thing I've ever done, but sure was a good time and all the neighborhood boys love me now!!! Woohooo! Earlier in the day, during orientation, they had taught us how to eat out of communal bowls with our hands. Luckily, when I got there, my lesson on communal bowls worked but everyone (except the grandmothers) use spoons! Hurray to spoons! So after dinner, we had some time to talk and all of the women kept asking/insisting that I should fast with them to be a part of the culture and that even Bebe Cher fasts so I could do it. So after the 10th time and the fourth women, I said, OK, fine, I will fast. I go to bed, realizing that once again, orientation taught me something, there is NO toilet paper, something I need to buy ASAP, right now the university campus is the haven of toilet paper in my mind!!!
Practice eatting around the bowl
Saturday, 5AM, breakfast. Yes, an incredibly early breakfast but I have now learned that the breakfast they serve at 5am will not be the breakfast I would get at 8, so I'm sticking with the 5am food deal and just going back to bed. So, after going back to bed after breakfast I get up at 8h30 thinking I'm already behind the rest of the family and unpack all of my stuff. At 9h30, the two boys come into my room in their pjs and cuddle up in my bed with my bear and go back to sleep. I gave the boys the two puzzles that I brought with me, and let's just say that the only thing we have done since is remake and break those two puzzles over and over and over again! Well done on whoever put those in my bag! The day is pretty uneventful but a lot of lying around attempting to not think about how thirsty we all are!!! Throughout the day over thirty people have come through the house just to say hello, and they all found out that the white girl was fasting, so they would laugh and ask me how thirsty I was, so that was quite something - just think if you were hosting everyone you ever knew, crazy right? Though, the kick of the day came when the grandmother told me that my clothes are so wonderful and they look like they were all made in Senegal - who ever thought that I would get complimented on clothes! It was pretty amusing. At 5pm the boys got me outside for a game of soccer, which was great but made waiting until 7h30 to break the fast even harder, but I did it. The only flaw really with the day, is that one of the many cockroaches in my room (yes, I'm planning on buying a huge bottle of Raid - if anyone has a better/more environmental idea of how to get rid of these guys PLEASE let me know!), got into my retainer case, let's just say that it was an awful picture to have in my head as I went to bed.
The road in front of my house
Sunday, 5am again I have breakfast and start fasting. However, unlike Saturday, I was going into town with the other study abroad students and after two hours of walking (there was 3 more hours of walking) I broke my fast and bought the best big bottle of water of my life! I took my first car rapide (public transportation) which I'm sure will always be some sort of an adventure but was pretty low key since the guides were in charge of getting us to where we needed to go. A pretty uneventful day all in all.
Today, fasting again, I started classes (the university is a 30 minute walk from my house), which has been good so far. I had gender and development this morning in English followed by public health in French, all seem like they will be go pretty well, so I'm excited. I'm in my non-lunch break and then I will be heading out to my French class which should be great! The only flaw I see happening with these classes is each class is two hours long, so far everyone has given a 15 minute break in the middle but I cannot tell if that will continue after Ramadan!
Hopefully, my emails will be getting shorter after this, but you never know, you all know how much I love to talk! Please try to write back to me and let me know how you are all doing!!!
Lots of love to all of you!
Katie
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