Les visites rurales Deuxieme Partie

Day 2 for me began at 9:00 am when I went to the little hut outside the house where we took our meals. There was a man waiting for me there who asked me how I was doing, if I had eaten and slept well, etc. Then he explained to me that once Jake was up, we should go to the school and start working on our project before disappearing into the house. Shrouded in the haze of sleep, I had an epiphany while buttering my bread – this was our coordinator/host father! We had a purpose! After breakfast, I finished “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and was left feeling like I needed to do some serious reflection/philosophical diagramming to understand the novel. One of host brothers came over and said, “It’s time. We’re going to school.” Like I said – we may not have had a clue what was going on, but someone obviously did!
Upon arriving at the school, which had been proudly built by USAID, we were ushered into the principal’s office. He explained that we were to install Encarta Encyclopedia 2007 on the school computers, then move on to some light programming. I am quite capable at many things, one of which is NOT technology. However, I perked up at the mention of possibility of helping with an English or science class. We set to work on the new computers, and the installation process went rather smoothly once we got the password to the administrative identity from the IT guy/secretary (watch for his return). Returning home for lunch, we ate delicious ceebu yapp (rice, meat, and legumes) and drank ataaya (tea). Making ataaya is a ritual, so specific that the Wolof language has a separate verb simply to refer to this one action. One pours some tea into a glass, which one then hoists before a quick turn of the wrist pours the ataaya into a second glass. Repeat until foamy. While no more tea leaves are added to the kettle, spoonfuls of sugar are, such that by the third round you’re basically drinking sugar. We were supposed to return at 3:00, and arrived at 3:40 pm to see the principal hanging out with some friends just outside of the office. Once we got the installation routine set, we explored the playlists for jazz, classical, and rock music. When the IT guy came in to check on us, he just sat down, grooved out to our music, and rolled a cigarette. After finishing around 5:00, we were led on a tour of the school by the principal. He asked us to come in the next day at 8:00 to teach computer class, making sure to explain that if we showed up at 8:30 no one would really care. On the way home, we ran into Tessah, Amelia, and Jen, who had indeed gotten off in the right village and had just been placed with a slightly-out-of-the-loop host mother. Amelia, Jake, and I met Malang at the boutique and went off to visit his family. He has a lot of siblings, a very nice mother, and a blind father who is a Koranic teacher. It wouldn’t have been a truly Senegalese evening if the power hadn’t gone out, and we walked home in the dark with Malang. Twenty minutes later, everything sprung back to life and we sat down to dinner after refreshing bucket showers. Our host mother asked Jake if we wanted forks to eat the spaghetti with, to which he replied “No” before looking across the table to see if I wanted one. I came here for cultural immersion, right? “Cultural immersion” amounted to my host mother feeling offended that I wasn’t eating a lot of her spaghetti because I couldn’t master the art of twirling the noodles around pieces of bread. Tired from the day, I dozed off as soon as I hit the mattress.