Dear Mrs. Robinson, unfortunately that would take up too much of my precious time… but thanks for the request. Maybe one day… when I’m not paying obscene amts of money for time on the internet in internet cafes I will be able to do that. Until then, seeing the pictures should be enough. You would be excited to know that I have a gazillion more pics and I will post them as soon as I have access to my stuff again.
And now I have that song stuck in my head.
This week has been crazy!! We had three days off - Tuesday was All Saints Day… apparently they celebrate it in Canada. Who knew? They should have had it on Halloween. Wednesday was officially my worst day here… It started off in the morning, when I woke up to go take a shower, my sisters were in there cleaning. They took so long (and they know I wake up at the same time every morning - without fail) I wasn’t able to get a shower. Then, Jesse decided to just take breakfast without asking - Momma ALWAYS serves it- and boy did that piss momma off. She went off on Jesse about that and about the fact that she had a boy in her room until 12:30/1 am. Nevermind that they were just watching a movie… Of course while all of this was going on, I’m tapping my foot waiting for breakfast, and trying to figure out why I have to suffer through the whole thing when I didn’t do anything. So Jesse gets off on time for class and I’m stuck there, waiting for breakfast, while momma lets of more steam to me about how Jesse shouldn’t have done what she did. Sooo fifteen minutes later, I get to class and being the only student in my class makes it a little more obvious that I’m late. Add to that that I’m very sick with some kind of flu that’s been going around. Fabulous.
As if I thought it couldn’t get any worse, a sister came and asked me for some money. This really made me feel incredibly awkward and I have felt awkward seeing her since then. She told me it was for medication, and that she was sick, but instinct told me it was most likely for Korite. In Senegal, when you “lend” someone money, it is often interpreted as a gift not to be returned. So I went back and spoke with my teacher about it, and she advised me on how to deal with the situation. When I returned to tell her that I didn’t have the money, I found out momma had given my lunch to Jesse and I had to wait another thirty minutes or so for lunch, and of course you can guess that I was late again for class. It was incredibly stressful.
Korite was fabulous, I have never seen so many people dressed up in colorful outfits, and they were all so beautiful. I had an outfit made for me, it was a light green (kinda like the color of my room) with a silver pattern on it. Since I didn’t have time (or the energy, being sick sucks!) to buy shoes, momma lent me some shoes to wear with my outfit since all I had were my flip flops. It was one of the kindest gestures I have been shown here.
Eating was misery particularly on Korite. On any given day, I get the “lekki bu baax” lecture at least twice - usually from a sibling and from a parent. This is wolof for eat more food. The day of Korite, I got it all day. In the morning, when I was served the equivalent of porridge - and I was feeling awful. In the afternoon, when I ate two lunches, in the evening when I ate dinner, and at night when I ate a second dinner. Why all the food? It’s because Korite is the celebration of the rupture of fasting and to forgive all those who have trespassed against you and vice versa. Since I didn’t fast, I really didn’t need the extra food. I don’t think I will ever forget the phrase lekki bu baax after this day.
It was really neat though, we celebrated Korite at my house, and then at my sister’s house next door. Then a huge group of us went to Samba’s, where we all ate our first dinner. Then everyone came back to my place where my momma fed all of us a second dinner. I was really surprised (and grateful!) everyone came over and ate at my place… it meant I could eat less. But the teranga is quite evident in that momma didn’t mind me having so many guests. She treated all of us so well, and she is always so generous to me and my friends. Of course there was also no short supply of food either…
Friday, I spent moving out. I wish I was officially moved out, but unfortunately, momma sat me down to have a talk about when I was moving out. I told her I would move out Friday and she insisted that I stay until Monday. It’s hard for me to say no, but even harder to figure out if I should accept because that’s the Teranga way or not so much… it can be a little tricky. Although I agreed to stay through the weekend, I have been gone almost the entire time. Last night I spent going out with some Senegalese guys and my two friends, Nicole and Sarah. It’s hard to avoid getting hit on there, but Sarah had agreed to go and we didn’t want her to go alone. I had a pretty good time, but if I had to do it over, I probably would have stayed home. My stomach has been doing cartwheels all week and the night of Korite it just had had enough. It’s still sensitive but not as much any more.
On top of that I have been trying to rid myself of this cold that I caught last weekend, and it’s been so stubborn. I’m still congested and it’s been an entire week! I think the more embarrassing thing about getting sick is not the getting sick part but the fact that everyone can hear as you’re throwing up due to the fact that the restroom is a public toilet within the household. Of course, I was dreading trying to make it to the toilet in the first place because everyone sleeps outside and I knew I would wake someone up and they would inquire about what I was doing up in the night. Well that someone turned out to be Momma, and I didn’t want to respond to her inquiries as I was afraid I might not make it to the restroom… of course at the same time I’m getting inquiries from Momma, my brother comes home and starts asking… I mean it’s like 4 in the morning and I’m getting the Spanish inquisition… well Senegalese inquisition…and hoping to God that I don’t puke in the middle of the interrogation.
Now I did anticipate all of this, before I even got out of bed. I anticipated many times actually. You see, on mefloquine you get these lucid dreams… and being that I was sick and all I dreamed of throwing up many times (and in many different bathrooms) but I also dreamed of having to fend off every family member on the way to the toilet. I prolly dreamed about vomiting somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty or fourty times. Ahh the African life…
Not to end on a bad note, I am now at Kevin and Jane’s… they are absolutely some of the most fabulous people on this Earth. I look forward in earnest to every Tuesday and every Sunday where I will be in air conditioning for an extended period of time taking care of the most darling children. Tonight, Tanner woke up from a nightmare crying to beat the band. I wasn’t sure how he would react to having me come and comfort him because I’m still relatively new and I’m usually not here at night time. But I went into his bedroom and scooped him up in a big hug, explaining that it was me and that he needed cuddles. He quickly stopped crying, rested a bit in my arms and then went back to bed. It’s so funny how sometimes all we need is a big, reassuring hug to feel better.
