Gotta love these power outages… it basically took it 2/3s of what I wrote for this post. Oh well, c’est la vie ici. This week started off well, I received the best package in the mail ever from my mommy. It was more than fabulous and had so many American things in it… I am accustomed to being here now but every once in a while I get a bout of homesickness. But the entire week wasn’t so good. Monday night I had just started to change out of my clothes in my room, and Samba walked in and I told him to go away in french and I’m not really sure if he understood why I told him to get out of my room, but I haven’t seen him since and I feel a little bit bad about that.
Then, I just got into a funk all week and I didn’t want to see anyone and needed some space. Of course, it’s considered incredibly rude here and my host mom got very mad at me for not acknowledging her. Then I accidentally confused my two brothers and it just hasn’t been good. I really want to move to my new apartment. Speaking of which I helped my future roommate move her stuff to our new place.
My soon-to-be apartment is absolutely gorgeous. It’s new, and it’s right on the beach. Who would have thought that it would be cheaper to live on the beach than in town?? Craziness! But it’s beautiful and will have the internet (alhumdudlilay), and I will be sharing it with another American who is absolutely fabulous. So one good thing came of this week…
Today, I went to the market to buy my clothes for Korite (the celebration of la rupture de jenne or the end of fasting). I went with another American (which wasn’t too smart because I was concerned I would get ripped off) but I ended up paying a very reasonable price. In fact, the woman I bought the first fabric from helped me find the other fabric that goes underneath the tunic. I figured she would expect payment for helping us, but she was just really kind and helpful and didn’t expect anything in return. I was so happy! But we gave her some money anyway out of respect for the teranga. Now, I have to get over to a tailor to get the rest of it done up. I was relieved to find out from my professor that the price was very much approrpriate for the material I purchased.
The markets are crazy with activity at this time of year because everyone is preparing for Korite (like our version of prepping for Christmas). And about 30% of the people who are at the market are looking to steal from other people who are there. The woman who took us to find the other material scolded me for being careless and made me rearrange my bag and hide my money so that no one could steal it. I felt like I had been adopted right there on the spot.
I have posted some pictures, but they’re not very many. I don’t like taking my gadgets out for two reasons: the first is my family inevitably asks how much it cost me and it’s painful telling them because they think it’s SO much money and it is when you compare it to here. It’s also difficult explaining the differences relative to the standard of living in french. The second is it is the end of Ramadan and the amount of crime that occurs sharply increases before the holiday and, as a tubaab (white person) I am a more likely target. So there will be more pictures when I am living in my apartment and after Ramadan. You can see the photos at photos.yahoo.com/lilcutepawz. Bon weekend, and a lundi in challa.
