Anecdotes, Round Two

A man rang the doorbell asking for Monsieur Badianne and, when I said he wasn’t here, he asked for Madame Badianne, and, when I said she wasn’t here, he decided that I’d do and handed me a bag of twenty whole (head, tail, eyes, and all) thawing fish.

My Wolof professor was fired from the Peace Corps (he used to be a language instructor there) for smoking pot with his students. He also played drinking games with them. That never got him fired. It did get another professor fired when, while playing ‘Never Have I Ever’, it came out that he had kissed a student.

Alice: “This morning your father was wearing a nice shiny muumuu.” Alice, there is a difference between a muumuu and a boubou.

Odd things you see here seem to go in weeklong fads. Last week was the week of public urination. This week is the week of people walking dogs on leashes. Imagine people putting leashes on dogs and taking them for walks as though they were pets or something instead of the scruffy, undernourished hounds that roam the highways, curl up on sidewalks, and probably live off trash.

This is obscenely old news, but the guy in my group who was thought to have malaria does not actually have malaria. The second hospital he went to told him that. The first gave the false positive. I love having no faith in a country’s medical system.

Speaking of which, I hate hearing ambulance sirens here, because at certain times of day there’s so much traffic that the person is virtually guaranteed to die before he or she reaches a hospital.

Some guy I was buying phone credit from the other day thought I was French. Earlier that same morning, some other guy asked if I were British. I guess the Americanized French accent is not widely recognized here.

Today my African Lit professor gave me 10,000 CFA ($20) for correctly answering a question in class.

Last Sunday I saw my six-year-old host brother completely naked as he headed to the shower. I have now officially seen my host mother topless, the maid topless, and the three-year-old and six-year-olds completely naked. The only people left are the nine-year-old and my host father. And I’ve already seen the father wearing only a towel.

Took a bus downtown last weekend and, about twenty minutes into the ride, spotted two of my friends out of the window. On the ride home, I bumped into Alice’s host mother, who was seated across the aisle. As mentioned before, there are one million people in the city. Why do I keep running into the thirty I know?

Discovered a delicious looking patisserie downtown. Tarts topped with strawberries and whipped cream cost $1.80. Must sample soon. Would have sampled then, but had just finished two scoops of amazing ice cream. I think food is probably my favorite part of most days. Or maybe catching glimpses of the ocean.

Saw a woman in a headscarf on her motorcycle. Love.

My host mother is under the impression that I don’t like milk. The only person I have ever met who does not like milk it Nitin, who thinks it smells like cows.

Fun Wolof phrase of the day: Bëgg uma joxe sama numero. I don’t want to give you my number.

Here are some pictures from a day-trip to the monastery Kër Mussa (the instrument the monk is playing is a kora) and a man-made sand dune for tourists who don't have time to visit Mali or Mauritania: