When I started at the preschool, the kids were told to call me "Tata Fatou." I'm having a hard time defining "Tata" but it kind of means any woman who's in charge of you. Typically, it means "aunt" but it's also what kids call their dad's wives who aren't their mother. For example, I call my host mom here "sama yaya" ("my mom" in wolof), if I were to ever meet my dad's second wife I would call her "Tata whatever her name is." It can, however, also be used in place of "miss" or "ms." for young kids.
Even though I'm not going to the pre-school as regularly now, my original goal is being met. Now instead of getting "TOUBAB TOUBAB" when I walk down the street, young kids (even those not in the preschool) call me Tata Fatou (they heard kids in my class doing it). The older kids, those too old to use "tata" just call me Fatou. Even though it's weird to walk down the street and have choruses of kids singing my name, it's way better than Toubab.
The other day I was sitting with my host sisters and hfmom. We were sitting on the mat just hanging out and I happened to be sitting in eyesight of the door. All of the sudden my chorus started up "Fatou!!" "Bonjour Fatou!" "Fatou ca va?" Even though I was a little embarrassed my hfmom and sisters got a KICK out of it. After letting it go on for a little bit, my hfmom got up and said something to them in Wolof and they left. This isn't the first time it's happened, but usually Youssou's home to chase the kids away (I told you he's a punk).
Otherwise, things in Bambey are pretty normal. I got exciting mail today including letters from my grandma, letters and a magazine from Amy, my Illinois primary ballot, and a HUGE pack of letters from a French class in California that I'm corresponding with and they're also writing to a French class here.
The rest of the week is pretty uneventful, just getting ready to go to IST and wrapping up loose ends here/trying to secure projects for when I get back.
KO
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The start of week two!
I'm a day into week two (I'm predicting it takes util about week 20 for me to stop counting) and everything's coming along. Yesterday was all about installing my modem so I could actually, finally, get the internet. I also went to the market and bought some margarine, two eggs, and something I think (and hope) is flour. I had the eggs for breakfast this morning and I'm still trying to clean the dirty pot - I think I'll be sticking to hard boiled for a while.
After the scrambled/burned eggs this morning (I'm still getting used to cooking on a gas flame... I make killer hot water though, you should try it if you're in the neighborhood), I sucked it up and did my laundry. Laundry is never a pleasant task if you don't have a washing machine (and sometimes even then it isn't fun), but here laundry is more of a spectacle... at least me doing laundry was a spectacle. When I told everyone last night that I was doing laundry today, they all got excited, I'm sure they said something like - oh this'll be good... she's going to make a fool of herself! Unfortunately, this was something like the tenth time I've done laundry in Senegal so it was quite a disappointment for my host family. Never fear, they still managed to critic it (your clothes aren't clean.) but as far as I'm concerned water and soap = clean.
I also found a boutique that sells Biskrem (see previous blog) in 10/11 packs. Briefly, Biskrem come in 2 sizes of packs: 4X4's (which only have 4 cookies and are actually called 2x2s but I called it the wrong name and have kept it) and 10/11 packs. My friends and I aren't exactly sure how many come in a 10/11 pack. I understand the solution seems simple, count the biskrems idiots, but each time I count, I forget. And I've stopped caring! All I know is that 4 Biskrems is never enough and 10/11 Biskrems is perfect! I had only seen 4x4s sold in Bambey but today I found a place to buy 10/11 packs! (Listen, yesterday I watched a goat jump on rocks for an hour, wandering around boutiques is quite an improvement.)
After doing laundry I went to find the woman I was suggested be my tutor. When I say find, I mean literally, walk down the street, stop, greet the first person, ask "where is Awa?" and continue from person to person getting a little closer each time until I'm at the right place. The tutor lives close so today it only took me 2 people! I'm going to start with 2 hours every Tuesday and see how it goes before increasing the hours of Wolof lessons. My Wolof is coming along, I still can't have a conversation with anyone and sometimes can't even respond to the standard questions. I'm getting good at recognizing words but sometimes it takes a little prompting before I remember what the word means and can form a response. Luckily for me the Senegalese are great at helping with gestures:
Senegalese woman: wolof wolof wolof wolof wolof doum?
KO: (thinking) crap... doum... I know that word... they're asking something about me.. but what is it.. jekker is husband... so that's not it...
Senegalese woman: (grabs her breast and shakes it at me) doum! am nga doum?
KO: Deedeet! amuma doum! (Thinking) that's right, doum, kids! of course!
Honestly that exact interaction has happened at least once the last 3 days... you would think I would remember the word but I have a lot of words to remember and "children" isn't on the top of my list.
Today, however, after much flipping through my vocab notebook, I was able to say to my host mom: Think you that if I go mayor office there, madame the mayor, be located she office there? Now?
Part of horrible state of those questions is because Wolof is structured, sometimes, to have the subject after the verb, but still, my Wolof is pretty much non-existent. Hopefully that changes soon!
As I would say in Wolof: I go sit my family now. After I dinner. After I regard tv. Tomorrow. God willing!
(I'm going to go sit with my family now then have dinner and watch tv, I'll blog again tomorrow, god willing).
KO
After the scrambled/burned eggs this morning (I'm still getting used to cooking on a gas flame... I make killer hot water though, you should try it if you're in the neighborhood), I sucked it up and did my laundry. Laundry is never a pleasant task if you don't have a washing machine (and sometimes even then it isn't fun), but here laundry is more of a spectacle... at least me doing laundry was a spectacle. When I told everyone last night that I was doing laundry today, they all got excited, I'm sure they said something like - oh this'll be good... she's going to make a fool of herself! Unfortunately, this was something like the tenth time I've done laundry in Senegal so it was quite a disappointment for my host family. Never fear, they still managed to critic it (your clothes aren't clean.) but as far as I'm concerned water and soap = clean.
I also found a boutique that sells Biskrem (see previous blog) in 10/11 packs. Briefly, Biskrem come in 2 sizes of packs: 4X4's (which only have 4 cookies and are actually called 2x2s but I called it the wrong name and have kept it) and 10/11 packs. My friends and I aren't exactly sure how many come in a 10/11 pack. I understand the solution seems simple, count the biskrems idiots, but each time I count, I forget. And I've stopped caring! All I know is that 4 Biskrems is never enough and 10/11 Biskrems is perfect! I had only seen 4x4s sold in Bambey but today I found a place to buy 10/11 packs! (Listen, yesterday I watched a goat jump on rocks for an hour, wandering around boutiques is quite an improvement.)
After doing laundry I went to find the woman I was suggested be my tutor. When I say find, I mean literally, walk down the street, stop, greet the first person, ask "where is Awa?" and continue from person to person getting a little closer each time until I'm at the right place. The tutor lives close so today it only took me 2 people! I'm going to start with 2 hours every Tuesday and see how it goes before increasing the hours of Wolof lessons. My Wolof is coming along, I still can't have a conversation with anyone and sometimes can't even respond to the standard questions. I'm getting good at recognizing words but sometimes it takes a little prompting before I remember what the word means and can form a response. Luckily for me the Senegalese are great at helping with gestures:
Senegalese woman: wolof wolof wolof wolof wolof doum?
KO: (thinking) crap... doum... I know that word... they're asking something about me.. but what is it.. jekker is husband... so that's not it...
Senegalese woman: (grabs her breast and shakes it at me) doum! am nga doum?
KO: Deedeet! amuma doum! (Thinking) that's right, doum, kids! of course!
Honestly that exact interaction has happened at least once the last 3 days... you would think I would remember the word but I have a lot of words to remember and "children" isn't on the top of my list.
Today, however, after much flipping through my vocab notebook, I was able to say to my host mom: Think you that if I go mayor office there, madame the mayor, be located she office there? Now?
Part of horrible state of those questions is because Wolof is structured, sometimes, to have the subject after the verb, but still, my Wolof is pretty much non-existent. Hopefully that changes soon!
As I would say in Wolof: I go sit my family now. After I dinner. After I regard tv. Tomorrow. God willing!
(I'm going to go sit with my family now then have dinner and watch tv, I'll blog again tomorrow, god willing).
KO
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