My host sister peed on me

Your first night staying at a new host family is always exciting and awkward for both you and your hosts. My host family here in Bayakh, Senegal includes an English teacher. This is good because we can have real conversations beyond the usual “It’s hot” or “How is your mother”. However, since my uncles speak English, I don’t speak as much French or Wolof. But I like letting people practice English with me. My 9 to 16 year-old sisters speak French well, and the women above 16 speak Wolof. This is the first time I’ve had sisters and they hit me just like my brother used to. I feel very at-home. My family has relatives in Strasbourg. The Amar’s are going to be my first of two host families. I will live with them for my first two months in country while I take Wolof classes and work at the middle school on a community garden with 10 students and 6 other PCV’s.

            One of my favorite tenets of Peace Corps is our obligation to share other cultures with people back home. Senegal is a great placement for me, because in the states there are many misconceptions about Islam and Africa. Although I may lament things about living here, my hosts are beyond generous and I hope to portray them positively.

            My host family, the Amar’s, are rich! They have two TV’s and Internet and a light bulb in every room. The “douche” (the word for shower means pit latrine in Senegal) is a constant source of confusion for me and seems to be it’s own ecosystem: lots of bugs and cats frequent the latrine. In Senegal diarrhea is one of the top five killers of children under five. I can see why since flies are prevalent and soap is not.

            Anyhoo, on my first night I was asking in broken French to hold the baby. Eventually I got the three-month old in my hands. Her name is Mbuso. We were having a grand old time when she peed all over my Theory dress. It was a lot of pee. I told my host mom that Mbuso had given me a “gift” and I got everybody to laugh about it. I forgot that in most of the world people don’t use diapers. Many things here are inconvenient for us Westerners but are positive for the environment: such as the lack of toilet paper, tampons, diapers, etc. I wish that all Westerners could come to a country like Senegal, where there is absolutely no trash collection or recycling. Seeing trash on the ground EVERYWHERE is a constant attack on the psyche, but it lets me know that when I throw something away anywhere, it doesn’t just go away.

Senegalese Food

            Meals are exciting in my house. Frequently kids from the neighborhood come over to eat with us. I’m not sure if they are cousins or not. Everyone on my block feels like part of my family. My host mom and sister are great cooks. We eat lunch and dinner with our hands, on the floor, all together from one big bowl. It is usually rice and some kind of protein with boiled vegetables and hearty helping of oil. Senegalese are not afraid of spiciness. In my travels, I’ve never seen spicy food outside of México.

            My mother would not like the way Senegalese eat because she can’t stand people who sit on the floor when they eat and who eat with their hands. I have been here for two weeks and I’ve never seen a local drinking while they eat. The only thing I have seen people drink is tea after lunch. I have never seen someone drink water.

            The issue people brought up the most when I told people I was moving to Senegal was the treatment of women. This is not the worst place to be a woman. However, the behavior of females is quite controlled.  Today I went around Bayakh with my language teacher and she introduced me to the village chief and one of the three imams of the village. When women greet people, especially men, they are supposed to bow. I promised myself that I would only do this under duress or if I really needed an important person to respect me. So today I bowed to a man for the first time. Sadly, it will not be the last time.

            Today my host father and I were talking about “rites” ceremonies amongst the different ethnic groups. Here the “Puls” or “Pulaar” give each other scars next to their eyes to set themselves apart from other groups. It looks pretty cool and it’s a quick way to see if someone is Pul. Senegalese are quick to point out that there is little to no tension between ethnic groups here (except for possibly Casamance in the South which has some separatist leanings).

I asked my host dad what the Wolofs do to adolescents during rites ceremonies, and he said they perform circumcision. “Of boys?” I wanted to clarify. He said yes, and nonchalantly added that in the East of Senegal they circumcise girls too. Before coming here I met a midwife in New York who worked in Casamance, and she said every pregnant woman she saw had been mutilated. I did not expect or want to be having a conversation with my host dad about female genital mutilation on my second day in the house, but it was interesting. According to this conversation, it’s not universal in Senegal, but I’m weary.

           

The Wolof Language

Wolof is moderately difficult. People here DO NOT like speaking French here. Even if they know that you as a foreigner and do not speak Wolof, they will speak Wolof to you instead of French. One cool thing about the language is that it is very spiritual. Wolof derives in part from Arabic. The standard greeting, “Assala malekum,” speaks of peace. “Aljumdulilay” means something like “Thanks be to God.” Also, “Inshallah” is used to say that hopefully God will make something happen. You could say, “I’ll come to your meeting on-time, Inshallah.”

            Wolof has no conjugations. The pronouns denote the tense, however, references to time are kind of an afterthought. Wolof also has a little French in it. Here the kids speak more French than the adults. I think the ability to speak French is linked directly to someone’s literacy level, since Wolof was only written down with independence and I have yet to see any text in Wolof.

            Senegal is a great place to learn a new language. Everyone greets everyone here, and everyone wants to get to know you if you are new. Another easy aspect of learning Wolof is that questions are always answered in the affirmative. When asked “Nanga Fanaane?”, the answer is always yes, I slept well. “Naka wa ker ga?” the answer is always, my family is doing well. Conversations are predictable.

Training

Many people asked me if I was scared to come live in Africa for two years. It was a little scary knowing that I’d have to learn two new languages. However my training is all-inclusive. Because of all the bad publicity that PC has gotten over their handling of rapes, we have had several hours of training on rape prevention. The advice they gave was invaluable. Having been sexually harassed in every developing country that I’ve been to, I wish I could have had this training before that.

            One underrepresented issue in Africa is their treatment of gays. In most African countries gay “behavior” is illegal. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Here in Senegal you can go to jail for five years for gay “activity” and some marabouts have been known to tell their followers to stone gays to death (although my language teacher says she’s never heard this). The word for gay man here is man-woman. Yesterday the front page of the paper threateningly said, “Wade’s party will give gays new privileges if re-elected.” As if that is a bad thing. I doubt he is even considering that. While I was in Uganda they passed the death penalty as the sentence for being gay. The reaction from the international community put a temporary stop to this, but many activists were killed.

The Clothes

            This is the first place I’ve been to where people do not wear Western clothes. The women wear beautiful African prints. They frequently wear low cut dresses but any skirt above the ankle is considered salacious. The skirts don’t seem appropriate for the heat but they are beautiful. The Senegalese always dress well! Men wear nice tunics either to their knees or ankles. Some women wear the hijab but it’s not the norm. If a woman wears a hijab it can mean that she is Salafi, and that she does not have physical contact with men. It’s cue to others that when you greet a woman in a hijab, don’t shake her hand because she will cross her arms in front of her chest to show she does not touch men. Sometimes women will wrap their hair in the same cloth as their clothes. Some men wear little round hats.

I apologize for all Typos above. I don’t like to spend a lot of time on my computer here because it takes me away from my family and work. However, I think it’s my responsibility to share my Senegalese experience to people back home because that’s why government hired me! I hope I wasn’t too negative during this post, because in truth, it’s been a breeze so far because people have been nice to me.

My sister Fada with the drooling Mombuso.

Middle School Dance