Another Day in Paradise

I've been without internet for about month so these are some entires i wrote and finally have a chance to post. 

01/29/11

I saw something truly horrific today.  I was having a lazy Sunday with the family, watching the Maggel (pilgrimage) to Touba on TV and playing moral support Sophie, who was getting her hair done.  This really meant I gave her fake hair every once in a while, and occasionally said, yup it looks good.  It was generally pretty nice.  I loved lazy Sundays in the US and it is good family time here, plus I’m convinced watching telemundo dubbed in French is going to help my language.  Anyways, back to the horrific thing I saw.  At the end of the hair process, which is always interesting to watch, my sister, Tita, lit a twisted napkin on fire and took the 2in flame to Sophie’s head.  This is there way of making sure the hair stays.  It looked horrible, especially when she had to do the front part and was basically burning the hair right around Sophie’s face.  This whole fire thing was really unexpected and I obviously was horrified.  Here I was thinking this looks nice. How nice of Titan to do Sophie’s hair, I think I’m going to have them do my hair with extensions sometime…that could be fun….then boom lets light hair on fire.  My mom started cracking up because I was so shocked I even jumped.  I mean I know women go thru a lot for their hair, but I had never seen the fire trick.  Boy did that make me rethink getting my hair done.  I also couldn’t help but think of “Good Hair” by Chris Rock, where was this part in his documentary? 

  

2/8/10

I’ve gotten into a nice little routine at site with my work, but also with the people I see.  Recently, I have been going straight to the reserve and working with Babacar on the Library project. Normally, I have been waiting for breakfast at the house, but this usually doesn’t happen till 9:30 or 10:00, and Babacar wants me in earlier. I bought breakfast and ate it at the campement a few days ago, which was actually pretty nice.  No waiting around to start my day. So I think this is what I’ll start to do for a while, however I am nervous to tell my mom.  This may sound silly, but it is for two reasons, I already don’t eat lunch at the house, and I would want to pay less each month since I’m buying my own food. Eating with people is a big sign of solidarity and I don’t feeling as if I am only a tenant, also I’m nervous to discuss money.  It really isn’t a big difference in money, but I find myself running out every month, so paying extra for little things hurt a little.

Anyways, I show up work till about lunch, eat at the campement with the women and reserve workers, and then work for a few more hours.  I know what you’re thinking…she sure is working a lot!!!! Who would have thought I’d have a sort of 9-5 job.  We’ll see how long this goes on for. It all depends on the library project; I’m not quite sure how much work will need to be done day to day with it.  I then come home, run a little, which my siblings (especially the 3 year old boy) are thoroughly amused by.  Samba, the boy, likes to stretch with me, and then see me off at the gate, he also is really excited when he times it right and sees me coming back. He usually runs out to meet me and “faire esport” with me for the 10 yards back to the house.  I think he is probably the highlight of my day…he’s always excited to see me, very sweet and gets bored easily, meaning he doesn’t bother me while I’m working.

I’ve even gotten into a routine with him and the other people I see every day.  With samba we stretch together and if he ever has food, I steal it and eat some. I have to thank my mom for this one, because growing up I remember her always taking a bite out of our PB&Js.  He’s always amused and enjoys hurling some insults at me, which I yell right back.  With Astou, the maid, I always ask to have something of hers, or she does that to me…it’s just a weird cultural thing.  Also if there is ever maffe (a peanut sauce dish) for lunch she tells me, and I make sure I eat at the house.  There are other little silly interactions, or preferences I claim everyday mainly because everyone enjoys it so much.  It goes into the solidarity thing, Astou knows I like Maffee so I hold to that, even though sometimes I’d rather have Ceeb u Jen. Everyone knows I like vegetables, so I make a big deal about them, especially to my siblings in hopes that they will eat more.  It’s simple and I guess could seem boring but I really enjoy having these routine interactions.  It makes me feel more like I live here and am not just a guest.  So for the next two years I will be coumba, the maffee loving vegetable eating sacckat (thief).

2/12/11

I’ve officially been pegged as a sacckat (thief)!  It started as a simple prank that Babacar played on me and now has become a running joke and a pretty amusing one at that.  I’ll start from the beginning so you can fully appreciate how none of it is my fault.  Babacar a few days ago took to stealing my breakfast and coffee. He’d wait till I left them unintended and then hide them somewhere.  However, being an admitely absent minded person, which has only become worse here, I usually think I have just left my coffee or bread somewhere else.  This obviously amusses him and everyone else in the bureau endlessly.  After about a week of this, we ran into his friend, who is the chief of the Gendarmarie (police for villages), and he proceeds to tell him that I am a great sacckat and need to be locked up.  He of course does this all in wolof so I could figure out he was relating the story and accusing me but couldn’t get much farther than that.  Well, they then make loads of jokes about locking me up in jail, to which I protest (once I figure out that that is their plan) and try to explain in my broken wolof that Babacar is the true thief.  Well obviously this story gets retold millions of times and everyone at the reserve enjoys calling me a sacckat. 

Things take a turn for the funnier when Babacar tell me he is going to tell my mother (American) about my bad deeds, and she will be so upset to hear about what I’ve become. Not wanting him to think he’s got the best of me, I explain to him and Lamine that stealing is not a new personality trait. I infact stole all the time in the states and my mom knew all about it, so it wouldn’t not come as a shock to her.  I then proceeded to explain, in a very toned down way,  the raiding my sorority did NOT do.   They thought this was hilarious. I even made jokes about how I’d have to buy more bags to fit all my loot when I go home after these 2 years.  To this they told me know fear, I could of course just steal those things too.  So there we go, I am officially considered a thief and even managed to explain raiding to my Senegalese friends.  That an example of cross-cultural exchange if I’ve ever heard of one.

PS don’t worry I do talk about more intelligent things with them too. For example the conversation then switched into a discussion about what we thought should happen in Egypt and what is gonna happen with elections here. Which as you can imagine was really interesting.