Youssou

If I've told you about Youssou before I probably called him "my punk cousin," which is a description that fits him, but I'm coming to know the intricacies of Youssou. His background is a little hazy to me, to start with, he's somewhere between 8 and 12 (my ancienne said he was 12, the other day I thought he told me he was 8). The story I got from my ancienne, who didn't know him that well either, was that he's my hfdad's nephew (again, relations are really extended so who knows how far out) and he was just too wild for his mom (who I think she said lives in Dakar) to take care of so my hfdad took him in. Everyone in town likes to tell me what a bad kid he is and that he doesn't listen to anyone which is kind of true, kind of not. As the youngest member of the house and the only boy, it's his job to go get everything. If we need something from the boutique, he does it; if my hfdad needs someone to open the "garage" doors so his car can come out - Youssou, and everyday he fills up the water bottles we've used so they can be frozen for the next day. It should be noted, before I go on, that the other 3 "kids" (aka the high school girls) also have a series of chores, but back to Yousou.

At the beginning Youssou drove me crazy, he refused to speak to me in French and would resort to just yelling whatever he was saying that I wasn't understanding. I felt like he was always making fun of me or at least staring at what I was doing - he didn't understand me at all and wasn't cutting me slack. Now that I'm not so nervous about everything and my Wolof is coming along, I'm starting to realize that Youssou doesn't speak French. He's actually learning some basic phrases in school right now and I can tell because he walks around saying things like, "in the morning I get up. I shower. I go to school." When I ask him questions in Wolof he responds and gives me a long answer too. Whenever he sees me out for my runs he always calls out, but not in a mean way. He's also started asking me everyday that I don't see him while I'm running if I went for a run and then he tells me if he went for a run, played soccer, or did both (he wants to be a soccer player).

When Oliver, who has the same Senegalese name as a famous religious figure, came to visit Youssou FREAKED out and practically fell in love with Oliver. He was "helping" Oliver put air in his bike tires and trying to do everything he could for Oliver while ignoring Thomas and me.

Youssou is a little different than most Senegalese kids I've seen however, but I think he's just more independent than they are. He dances around the house all the time and is almost always yelling or dancing. I'm worried for him because I don't think he likes school which usually translates into him not doing well. (I could, and hopefully am, wrong - I've never seen his grades). Overall, I really like having Youssou around because the household is older and pretty quiet in terms of Senegalese, especially Wolof, houses and Youssou always brightens it up.

One final Youssou story: I got packages from my parents today and some Fruit by the Foot was included. I took down a roll for everyone that was here (hfmom, 3 hfsisters, and Youssou) and gave everyone their roll. Right after I gave Youssou his he had to go run some errands for my hfmom. When he got back he was really excited and told me, "Fatou, that was amazing! It was so good! Look (and held up half of it still rolled up) I saved some for tomorrow! It was so good!" Oh Youssou, you're a little punk sometimes, but nowhere near what I thought.

KO