Just Your Friendly Neighborhood Toubab

March 16, 2013

Explaining everything I have felt and experienced this last week is near to impossible. Every second is an entirely new experience, from the way my new sisters hug me by touching their cheeks to mine to eating with my hands to waking up and brushing the dead bugs off my mosquito net.

I am now starting my second home stay and I already feel so much more comfortable here. Yesterday I was actually able to joke with my family in their native language of Pulaar. Usually I barely make it through basic needs- I need to shower: mbido sokli lootade- but I had a breakthrough yesterday. My oldest sister (also my hero- I'll write more about her later) was teasing me because I was walking around the compound barefoot like a little kid and my feet were getting dirty. (Side note: my feet are always dirty here.) I was able to tease back "kono ina bati!" referring to the fact that the distance between the house and the mat I was sitting on was just a short distance (bati). It sounds like a tiny thing and maybe you had to be there, but my sister understood the significance of me participating in a conversation on the fly and teasing her back. We were both so pleased that we laughed together much harder than my small joke called for.

Learning a new language and being dropped in the middle of a very foreign culture certainly has its challenges. Sometimes I just speak English back to my host sisters with a vain hope that they will understand me. But little moments like this where I connect with people and make small steps forward make everything totally worth it.