Insights through a Facebook Convo with my Sis

This is an ongoing conversation I've been having with my sister, Maryellen, on facebook. I thought some of you might be interested in my responses to her questions. I love you MaryEllen!

Maryellen: (asks me about school)

Me: My school is actually really easy. Sure, its in French, but I can speak French pretty easily now and I don't have to write too much. Writing in Fench is definitely more work. But they purposefully don't give us very much homework so that we can do a lot of learning outside of the classroom -on the street with the people. They know that we want to have time to learn about Senegalese culture. :-)

Maryellen: Thats good, whats the other launage your learning????

Me: Wolof. That's the language I'm learning. For a long time nobody ever wrote in Wolof. They only ever spoke it, but in the last couple hundred years it has been turned into a written language also. Its fun because its completely different from english, spanish, and french, which all have latin roots. Wolof uses some french words and some arabic words, but otherwise it has African roots. :-) I like it.

Maryellen: Thats cool :D does it sound really different? You'll have to speak it for me! I wanna hear it now. [...] So how are you? Like how is it when your just at home with your family?

Me: Well, I'm doing pretty well. At home with my host family, I'm constantly having to be careful not to do something that will offend them. Like, when they're eating around the communal bowl, I can't lean over to check and see if there is meat in the dish to see if I'm supposed to join them or if I should wait for another plate to be brought out for me that is vegetarian. Its hard figuring out what is expected and what is inappropriate, but when I remember to laugh at myself and joke along with the others, its a lot of fun. My host brother, LouLou, likes to tease me and joke around. Since I had a run-in with my family on Thursday about food and I mentioned that I was just checking to see if the communal bowl had protein, he will joke to me every meal, "so, is there enough protein on your plate?" or, "ooh, yum! look, its protein!" They just don't understand why I would be vegetarian, but I laugh with them because I understand that they're just playing. My host mom is nice, but when she gives suggestions it sounds like she's angry and yelling at you, so I have to remind myself every time she gets like that that she's not mad -its just her way of talking. A lot of the host mom's are like that here; its the culture. There are two two-year-olds who are constantly playing and laughing and crying and getting into trouble. I love them so much! We play all sorts of games together. There's also another host student here, Britta, from the US and she's really sweet, but we both do our own thing. Its good because that way we don't spend all our time talking in english together at home and, instead, are able to practice our French with the family. But she has a lot of fun playing with the kids, too. There are always a lot of people around. There are about 10 people currently living in our house and we'll usually have a few guests drop by for every meal. Sometimes, there'll be 15 of us eating together, and that's not weird here. Family is very important here, so my host mom lives with her grown children and their kids, the two-year-olds, and a couple of maids who do a lot of cleaning and make the meals with my host mom and sister. But my cousin Assane is my favorite because he helped me put up a mosquito net over my bed and laughs with me and is easier to talk to.

Maryellen: So your family seems nice! :D I wish I could meet them sometime. Why arent you supposed to lean over and see what if the dish has meat or not? So how much time do you spend at home and at school? Do all the kids and teens go to school everyday? And is there anyone my age in your host family? Do most people in Senegal go to college? What does your family do for a living? Do you have to do chores and what do you guys do for fun? -- Haha, that was a lot of questions :D

Me: I'm not supposed to lean over the dish because its considered rude. They expect me to wait until I'm called to eat and not be nosy about what everybody else is eating.

I spend a couple hours every morning at school before coming come for lunch for an hour or so. Then I go back to school again until 4:30 or 6:30 pm, depending on the day. I usually stay at school later to do homework and take advantage of the internet connection. Then I get home in time for dinner at 8:30. On the weekends, I go out and do different activities, but I hang out at home sometimes, either playing with the kids or talking with my family or doing homework. So, I spend a lot more time a school than at home.

Most all kids and teenagers go to school monday through friday, but there is a whole bunch of kids who live on the streets. They are called talibe and they beg because they have no parents taking care of them. Its complicated, but basically there is a fake religious leader called a marabout who is supposed to be taking care of them and teaching them the Coran, but instead of having the kids beg only around meal times and then calling them back to study, like they would have done in the villages in the past, he just takes advantage of the kids by making them bring back money to him in the evening. And they don't learn about their religion. Its sad. As for other kids, some of them work instead of going to school and even those who do go to school are sometimes in classes with 100 students for one teacher. The education system here is in a really bad state.

Nope, there is nobody your age in my family.

No, very few people are able to go to college. And even if they do go to college, the education is not as good as ours because the professors keep on going on strike because the government doesn't pay them regularly like its supposed to. The government doesn't work very well because it's corrupt. The politicians are greedy and the president is constantly changing the constitution so that he can have more power.

My host mom is retired. My host brother works at a bank and my host sisters stay at home and raise the kids. My host cousin is out of work, but that's pretty normal. 50% of the population here has no formal job. Many of those people work "informally" by selling fruit or books or towels or just about anything on the street, but a lot of those people just have no job. Its really troubling.

I don't have any chores because they kinda think of me as a guest and we have two maids. I take my clothes downstairs every wednesday so that the maids can handwash it all, hang it up to dry on the clothes lines to dry, and iron it before giving it back. My host mom will start cooking lunch at 10am in order to serve it at 1:30pm and the second maid is constantly sweeping with this little hand-held broom made of long, whispy bristles and scrubbing. So, there's a lot to be done, but I just keep my own room clean and, lately, have started washing my own bowl and spoon on the tub. The maids laughed when they saw me doing that for the first time, but I do it anyway because I know they like it and it makes me feel better.

For fun, I go surfing, talk to mom and dad on skype, go to the market with my friends, hang out and talk with my senegalese friend, make little trips out of the city, run errands, go to the beach... But my host brother and most other people go out clubbing on the weekends. We also go to concerts and other cultural events sometimes.

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