Greetings

So I could write and write and write and brag and gloat for pages and pages but alas, I dont have time for that so instead I will focus on a seemingly small, but extremely important aspect of my current life here in Senegal: greetings.

You walk by a neighbor, a distant cousin, a grocer, a sister, a brother

No matter who, the same routine is repeated. Peace be with you! How are you? How is the family? How are you? How is so and so? It is the morning. What is your family name? You are sitting? And on and on. Round and round. Questions are repeated, answers are methodically stated. Even if your child died the day before your positive, answers and reassurance that everything is fine would not change.

With all of the greetings that go on it is really a miracle that anything ever gets done.

9:00am My language teacher, Aziz, who lives with the same family as I do, bid farewell to our family at about 9am. Farewell greetings are stated, assurances that we will be back soon, statements that we are leaving, and bon voyage is repeated.

9:15 am: We finally leave our compound and walk to the home that Venchelle, the other girl who is learning Mandinka is living at. Her father is the brother of my father and so we are one big happy family.

9:25 am: We arrive at the home of Venchelle's and are greeted with open arms. The greeting process is repeated.

9:55 am: Enough time has passed making it appropriate for us to leave. We bid farewell only to return back to my house so that Venchelle can greet my family as it would have been considered disrespectful for us not to do so.

10:15 am: We finally make our way to the primary school where we will be doing gardening.

10:20 am: We arrive at the school and walk through the soccer game that is occurring in the courtyard. About 30 children the ages of 7-14 are running around barefoot, viciously kicking the ball and tirelessly playing. Three teachers are standing off to the side watching while the classrooms lining the field remain empty. We greet the teachers who bring us into the Principle's office where an elderly man sits playing solitaire on an ancient computer. He happily welcomes us into his office, beaming with pride and offering us his best chairs to sit in. We accept and settle into his little office, listening to him rapidly speak to us in Wolof and French. I pick up some of what is being said but after 20 minutes of intense jabbering I zone out.

11:15 am: We bid farewell to the Principle, confirming that we will come back tomorrow, ready to garden and start a compost pile. After waving bye to the three teachers who stand watching the soccer match I curiously ask Aziz why there are no classes in session and these teachers stand around doing nothing!

He patiently explains that many schools have been on strike since December because of the election, meaning that these kids have not been in school for 3 months. Soccer and now our 'gardening' are their only activities. From there our day continues, more greetings, more shouts of 'Taobab' (white person) wherever we walk and tea is sipped under the hot, African sun.

This is a typical morning in Senegal, I wrote this after my first stay at in Mbour, a large town by the ocean in Senegal, about 40 km out of Thies where the Peace Corps Senegal Training Center is.  Since then, I returned to stay with my family in Mbour for a whole 2 weeks, which was an amazing, enjoyable experience.

Sending lots of love and pictures to be posted soon!

from your one and only,

Senabou Cissokou (aka Janet Smith)