An update from Potou!! Finally!

April 3^rd, 2011

Well, it’s been way too long since I’ve written a blog entry, but now I actually have a usable internet connection, so I figured I should write an update. I’m in the village of Potou, near the larger town of Louga in the northwest of Senegal. My internship here is with the CEM, which is the equivalent of a middle school, except that many students are as old as 18.

I was really nervous to come here and start my internship, especially given that I didn’t have the best experience with my family in Dakar, but my family here has been really great, on the whole. I have more siblings than I can count, and I’m not really sure which child belongs to whom since there are always a bunch of people running around. This makes it a little hard for me, as an introvert, because it’s very difficult for me to find any time to be alone. I have a whole lot of sisters, and they always have friends over, so I like hanging out with them. I’ve also been helping a lot with chores around the house, especially cooking. I want to learn how to cook all the yummy Senegalese dishes!

The food here is really wonderful, and I don’t think there has been one dish that I haven’t liked. Tonight we are having fattayas, which is one of my favorites: it’s sort of like a samosa with different spices, and you dip it in an onion sauce, which is delicious. Speaking of food, I am constantly being encouraged to eat, and my family doesn’t believe me when I say that I’m full. Every meal, I have to insist “Suur naa, neex na, bari na! Lekk naa ba suur!!!” which means, “I’m full, it was good and a lot! I ate until I was full.” It’s a little exhausting, though, and I know that I am probably gaining a lot of weight (which is what my family wants). They told me that when I go back to Dakar, they will be proud of me because I’ve gained weight, which is exactly the opposite of what Americans want, usually. One odd thing about meals, though, is that often I eat lunch or dinner with just my father, which is a little uncomfortable since it’s a lot more formal than eating with my sisters, and he always tells me “Arame…añal.” Or “Arame…reeral.” Arame is my Senegalese name here, and añal and reeral mean, respectively, “eat lunch!” and “eat dinner!” I have to respond “Maangiy añ!” or “Maangiy reer!”: “I’m eating!!” We usually have a communal bowl, instead of indvidual plates like in Dakar, but that makes it a lot easier for my parents or my sisters to push food towards my side. Anyway, I much prefer eating with my sisters but sometimes they tell me that I have to eat with my father. Here, eating alone is a sign of respect, so I guess eating with my father is also a sign of respect, but it’s still a little awkward sometimes.

Another food-related update: we make attaaya (Senegalese tea), at least once, usually twice and sometimes three times a day. I love attaaya and we barely made it at all in Dakar, but it has so much sugar that I’m sure I’m getting some cavities. Also, the order that the attaaya is served in also seems to have to do with respect. My parents are always served first, then me, since I am a guest, and then my siblings, usually the older ones first. The person making the tea always drinks last. I’ve tried to make it once or twice but I always end up spilling most of the tea, since you have to pour it from a height of about a foot in order to get a good foam on the top, and I’m not very good at pouring.

My internship here hasn’t been great, mostly because there is not much for me to do. My boss, the principal, doesn’t really have his act together, and he doesn’t really know what’s going on. The first week of my internship went pretty well. I sat in on some English classes and was able to teach a little bit. It’s really difficult to teach English to non-native speakers, and the level of the students is very low. I feel like something is not right with the way that English is being taught here, because I worked with students who had been studying for three years and they had trouble forming sentences. One thing that I have noticed is that there is not much review of concepts, and so students are being introduced to complicated grammar structures when they don’t even know the basics. My students couldn’t name all the colors in English, and they had trouble with ABCs and counting.

So, the first week went pretty well, but at the end of it, my boss told me that the next week we would start a two week long vacation because of the Independence Day holidays. I was very clear with him that since I am only here for six weeks, I wanted to keep busy even when everyone else is on vacation, but he basically just told me that there is nothing to do, and I should have a nice vacation. This really frustrated me, and I tried to figure out something that I could do at the primary school, but they basically told me the same thing. On the phone, they had said that there would be work for me to do, but then when I went there to check it out, they basically told me the same thing, have a nice vacation. Culturally, I think it’s more acceptable to say yes even when there is no work for me to do. I was given the key to the office to go and “work” but no one told me what work I should do!

Anyway, the first couple of days of the break were nice, but I honestly had nothing to do at the office. There isn’t a library and there is only one computer, so I couldn’t really help there. However, with the help of Waly, our MSID staff member, and my host father, we were able to organize informal English lessons during the break. They are at my house, and we have been getting together for two hours every weekday afternoon. I like this a lot better than teaching lessons at school, when I feel like there is a very rigid structure to follow and there are so many students in each class that I don’t really know what to do with them. However, in the informal lessons, there have been only five to nine students who have shown up, so we are more able to play games without everything getting out of hand. Even nine students is a lot to control when you are trying to play a game like “Simon says.” They like playing Simon Says a lot, but they have a lot of energy!!

On Friday, I was really proud of my students because I think they started to grasp a grammar concept that had shown up on their exam, but that they had not done well on. I made them a chart for declarative, interrogative, and negative statements in the past and present tenses, and I told them that literally, you can just follow the chart when you are trying to form a sentence. Charts and tables help me a lot, and they were especially helpful for Wolof, so I thought they might like the visual help, whereas earlier they just had to memorize. Honestly, I don’t think the system of teaching English is super great, and the book, while geared towards Senegalese students, seems not to take certain things into account. For example, the students were learning the English words for badminton and hockey, when they had no idea how these sports were even played.

Another thing that has been really difficult for me here is how different the concept of ownership is, and how I do have a lot more money than anyone here. Last week, I lent my brothers my iPod, thinking that it was a nice gesture, but since then they haven’t stopped asking me for it. While I like my family on the whole, many of them have been subtly or not-so-subtly implying that when I leave, I should give them the iPod, because I have enough money to buy another one back in the US. The thing is, it’s true that I don’t really need an iPod, and I was actually thinking that it might be nice to give it to my family when I leave. However, the fact of them asking for it made me immediately not want to. I guess it’s a cultural difference: here, if you want something you make it known, while in the US, you keep your mouth shut. Also, giving after being asked for something feels more like an obligation rather than a real gift.

On the subject of ownership, things here are definitely shared more, which can be a hard thing for toubabs to deal with. For example, my sister Mounasse asked me to borrow my shoes to go to the market. After that, my shoes sort of became public property, and I have seen at least half the women in my family wearing them. If one person has something, it belongs to everyone in the family. I’m struggling with my own cultural background, too, which tells me, “Those shoes are mine!” even if it is just a $2 pair of shoes that I will probably end up giving to the family anyway. One interesting insight: in the US, it seems like one of the first words children learn is “mine” or “no,” whereas here, it seems to be “mai ma,” which means “give me” or “offer to me.”

Finally, I’ll try to give you a little portrait of my family, as best as I can. There’s my father Saer and mother Awa, who I would guess are in their 50s. My father speaks French pretty fluently, but my mother barely at all. I have a whole lot of siblings, and though they aren’t all children of my parents, it’s easier for me to think of it that way. In fact, it’s very possible that they youngest ones are the children of the oldest ones. There’s Fa-Cisse, who is 4 and is very “reew,” or impolite, according to everyone in the family. She is a little rambunctious and whenever you have food, she will drop everything she’s doing and demand “mai ma!” Baymoor is probably 8, and though he doesn’t speak any French, he always gives me a high five when I come home and I like to act a little silly with him. He’s a little shy, though. Nogoye is about 11 and is already so much more competent than I am in everything concerning housework. I often go with her to the market and we went once to the mill to grind millet, so she has been able to show me the ropes a little bit. Sokhna is probably 12 or 13, and she loves to dance. We have fun dancing the youza together and generally being silly. Arame is my homonym (we are both named Arame Gueye), is 14 or 15, and has been such a big help to me here. She and Mounasse (17) have helped me feel more at home here. Arame also is kind of my mother sometimes, in that she always makes me eat a lot, and she is always trying to make sure that I am comfortable. Mounasse, or Maimouna, also helps me out a lot, and we usually go the market together every morning. She has a lot of copains (boyfriends) and is trying to find me a Senegalese copain, despite my pleas that I’m not looking for one. Kapy is also 17, and he always makes a lot of attaaya. Arame, Mounasse and Kapy have also been coming to my English lessons! Mami is probably 20, doesn’t speak a lot of French, and often does a lot of the housework, but she is really willing to help me out, too. She jokes that I am “Baby Arame,” as opposed to my sister, the other Arame. My brother Boss is 20 as well, but I don’t feel as comfortable around him, since I feel like our only interactions consist of him asking me to give him things, or him demanding me to dance. A side note: everyone here thinks that it’s HILARIOUS when I dance, no matter what it is. I nearly caused a riot in one of my classes because they were begging me to dance the youza. Anyway, Faou is another one of my sisters, and she is probably about 22. She speaks almost no French so we have a lot of trouble communicating, but she has been really nice to me and makes sure that I speak to all of her relatives on the phone (which is another ordeal all together! I can barely speak in French on the phone, much less Wolof). I don’t know how old Misse is, but she is definitely older than Faou and may be Fa-Cisse’s mother (not sure on that). She is also usually nice to me, but always tell me that I have a lot of money, and that I need to send her money or things when I get back to the US, which makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Thiambou is another one of my siblings as well, though she is only here for the vacation. She is a teacher in Podor, in the north of Senegal, and she is the one who lent me the Internet key. She is quite loud and bossy but in a likeable way, and she has also helped me by explaining things to me, even if it’s something I already know about. In addition to all of these people, there are always others hanging around! So it’s a lot of people to know and greet every day. In Senegal, and especially in villages, if you pass someone you know on the street without greeting them, it’s considered an insult. This has been quite hard since I’ve met so many people in the last two weeks and have trouble keeping straight who I know and who I don’t know.

That’s all for now! I’ll try to write more but it’s hard to find time alone to use my computer. In any case, I’ve been keeping a pen and paper journal so maybe I can post some retroactive updates once I’m back in Dakar.