Waa ker gi ci Senegal

Translation: home in Senegal

I made my first female Senegalese friend! I've met several other girls here, but nothing has really come of them. Last week my friend Katy met a girl named Soda on the car rapide, who then invited us to hang out with her in my neighborhood, where she also lives - Ouakam.

So, on Friday we planned to meet Soda at the Friday market in Ouakam, which is a big tent market that takes place every Friday on the big soccer field right across from my house. People sell mostly clothing, shoes, and household stuff like dishes & books. I got engaged there. There was a man selling cheap jewelry, so I bought myself a little ring for like 25 cents and it actually works! Now guys ask if I'm married or have a boyfriend, and I just show them my left hand, and they usually believe me. Although, one guy said that it wasn't a problem since America is 2000 kilometers away.

ANyway, afterward, we met Soda and hung out at my house playing cards. The 3 of us sat down in the living room and my host mom Marianne quickly called me into the other room to tell me to go get some soda. Evidently, anytime a guest comes over, you have to offer them a drink - water isn't good enough. So I ran down to a little boutique to get a bottle of coke. Coke is a big thing here -like most of the world, I suppose. Soda usually comes in glass bottles and you have to take them back to the store when you're finished, and they send them away to be refilled.

THat night, Katy and I were planning on going to an African dance show downtown, but.....that didn't happen....and something else much better did. Soda wanted to take us to her house to meet her family. THe dance show would start at 9, and it was only 6:30pm so we figured it would be a quick visit and then we could head downtown. There is a main street in Ouakam lined with hundreds of little stores and street vendors selling everything from whole fish and freshly slaughtered goats to cement, fabric, and jewelry. It's never not busy. Soda lives on a small street just off this main street. When I say street I mean a narrow dirt path between buildings. We walked a ways down this path along which were more small vendors - women selling little sacks of peanuts and green Senegalese oranges. We turned into this courtyard which is walled off by about 10 little one-story buildings. There are a couple of shady trees in the courtyard with a couple cages of what I think are Senegalese parrots. There was a rooster running around and a hen with a bunch of chicks. Soda led us to a little door, which was the door to a bedroom, which apparently also serves as a dining room and living room. Her mom was there and her best friend Saly came over. There was also a little 5-year-old girl who I thought was Saly's daughter, but isn't. The concept of family here is different than in the US. Family doesn't just mean parents and siblings. It also includes friends, and extended family. I'm not sure whose daughter the little girl was or her little friend. They just hung out in the courtyard and the street. Everyone knew each other and watched after the little kids.

So, we met Soda's family and they showed us all their pictures - which are always pictures of people. I found out that Soda is married , but that her husband has been in New York working for6 years. She said that he can't come back because he doesn't have papers to get back. That sounds strange because usually it's difficult to get INTO the US, not out. But, then again Senegal is a big center for immigrants from West Africa, so if he's lost his Senegalese ID documents, that might be the issue. I'm not totally sure. Communication is sometimes really difficult. The preferred language is Wolof. So, although people understand and speak French, they usually speak in Wolof, which makes interaction with groups of people difficult because I only know what is going on by what people say to me in French - I can't really interact with what's going on in Wolof.

So, teranga is the Wolof word for hospitality or welcome. And, it's so true that Senegal is the land of Teranga. The moment we arrived in Soda's home, she went out and brought us fattaya. Fattaya is kind of like a fried wonton. It's dough wrapped around ground meat or fish with onions and spices and then fried in oil. Then you dip them in this amazing tomato-oil-onion sauce and another sauce that's like spicy mustard. It is amazing. Anyway, then she and Saly made Attaya, which is a sweet Senegalese mint tea. It's always made fresh, and I think it's a middle-eastern-derived thing. You usually drink rounds and you drink out of little glasses. The first is the sweetest - youdont want more than a shot glass of that. And they get gradually less sweet.

So, it just kept getting later and later and it's just really hard to communicate that you have to go, that you have to do something at a certain time. They wanted us to stay and eat dinner, but we said that we'd come back another time for dinner. So, then it was about 8;00 and we needed to start heading downtown for the show. Soda had said she wanted to come too, so we said we needed to go get a taxi, but I guess the urgency didn't get across. So we ended up staying until 9pm and then headed out. But, then Soda kept meeting friends on her street and introducing us and everyone just wanted to keep talking. So, we got to meet all her friends and then she brought us to this apartment building and we walked up 3 flights of stairs and the parts that were'nt against the wall were totally open - no rails. We followed her and her friends into a room, which was again a bedroom which was simultaneously the living room and dining room. Friends just kept coming and so we ended up in a little maybe 20ftx20ft bedroom with about 15 people hanging out together. The couple whose home we were in had just had a baby and the minute I sat down someone handed this screaming baby to me, and then I had the responsibility to make it stop. We all just hung out, talking about stuff in French, and others talking in Wolof. The doors on this apartment floor were kept open and it felt more like a college dorm where everyone is hanging out together. People just kept stopping in and hanging out. The night ended with a dinner at 12am around a big bowl with 12 people eating out of it together.

Basically, it was just awesome to finally have some good Senegalese friends. Up till now I've felt really awkward, not completely settled in. Tonight we're going to dinner with them again!