Il faut bien manger"

I moved in with my Senegalese host family on Friday around 5 o clock. Those of us in the smaller (better!) hotel got a bus ride from CIEE with all our piles of stuff to the other hotel where our families planned to meet us. We stood around outside the hotel awkwardly, waiting for Courtney or Serigne to call our names. (Courtney is the Program Assistant, Serigne is the Resident Program Director - they're both fabulous). My host mother Mbegue came to get me in a taxi - on the way home, a herd of cows passed us on the road. It was bizarre and awesome. I must have looked surprised or interested, because she and the driver started laughing at me.

When we got here, there were a ton of people chillin in the front room, which was confusing. I don't remember everyone's name, and most of them don't even live here. They are mostly adults, the people who chill around here, and only four of us actually sleep here ever: Dad (Louis, I think), Mom (Mbegue), Bineta (older sister, 24), and me! Yesterday over lunch (dejeuner) my mom and her brother (whose name, I think, is something like Mas, or Moss) gave me a Senegalese name: Khady. Its pronounced CHX ah dee. The beginning is sort of a throat clearing, hair ball sound, if you follow.

Speaking of dejeuner, the food here is AWESOME. We eat "around the bowl" which means we all eat from the same plate or bowl, sometimes with our hand (never the left hand, only your right hand!) and sometimes with a fork or spoon. Not so much fruit, but lots of rice and fish. The famous Senegalese dish is called ceebu jenn, which means rice and fish in Wolof. My sister tried to show me how to make it yesterday, which was cool.

Eating around the bowl is super cool. Everyone sits on the floor, or on small stools (in my house, only the men sit on stools) and you eat from your assumed pie slice of the bowl. At each meal so far, my father (really, everyone) keeps repeating "Il faut bien manger" and pushing more fish or meat or other heavy food into my section of the plate. I haven't really figured out the most polite way to refuse and say that I really am so full that I might barf. Maybe if I gain some weight they'll understand.

My room is lovely, the mattress is about 5 inches of foam. I don't have a mosquito net yet, but I'm not too concerned -- there haven't really been any in the house so far. I'll get one this week most likely. The other new thing is the bathroom. There isn't a toilet, as such, mostly a hole in the floor, with two raised platforms for your feet. So far, hasn't been an issue, which I'm proud of. All the squatting is going to make my thighs super strong!

I spent all day yesterday following my family around the house, which mostly meant sitting in the salon watching TV and listening to other people speak Wolof super fast. Sometime I was included in conversation, which was super exciting. They showed me a photo album that a previous student sent them after she left. It was sort of like when Udo kept talking about his previous interns on the first day of my job last summer at Meeting Ground. I have a lot to live up to.

Tomorrow is my first day of classes, can't wait to have a real schedule! A bientot!!