Reaching Out..

We are trying to get more involved with the campus community here. An American professor shares our apartment with us and she said her students think we're stuck up because we don't talk to anyone. The truth is that we are shy, and though this culture is based around being extremely hospitable and welcoming.. they are not overt about it when on campus. Not that we're surprised, we're surrounded by busy college students! So thus far we have been adapting to the new culture and trying to sense when it's appropriate to greet someone and when it's not.

But we're getting better! We went to the beach a couple days ago, because that's where all the locals (and I say locals, but it's mostly men, and the only women there were fruit vendors) go to exercise. So we, the new toubabs (pronouced too-bob) in town, set up shop on the beach while trying not to get dragged into the soccer games and lutte matches. There was a rock formation about 200 meters off the shore and a few of us had the bright idea to swim out to it. We were nearly there when a Senegalese guy managed to stop us, telling us that it was covered in sea urchins. Right. No, thank you! So then there we were, treading water about 200 meters out to sea, striking up on conversation with a local. Turns out his name is Moustafa, he's from the Casamance (the area of Senegal just south of the Gambia), he served two years in the Senegalese marines, hates the French, loves Americans, and was totally prepared to tread water with us the next 1.5 hours and talk about Senegalese culture. SO COOL RIGHT? Anyway. We ended up drifting a bit father than we anticipated and had to swim really far back but it was worth it. Other Senegalese guys would periodically swim up to our group and drop into the conversation. It was from them I finally got my Senegalese name! They named me Fatou, which is the same name as one of the Senegalese students who is with our program. When I told her how I got my name she was so excited, but mostly really pleased that I chose to share her name. People call us the Fatou Twins, she's Fatou Un (1), and I'm Fatou Doux (2). It's awesome.

Our friend Awa, who is with the program, introduced us to some of her friends. They are in the English club with her here on campus. It was so much fun talking with them. Especially because their English is just a little bit worse than our French, so we had a nice conversation using English, French, and Wolof. We think we've invented a new language: Frenglof. It was really fun. Today I'm going to go to the American professor's class on civil disobedience. She was the one who said her students want to talk to us, but think we are stuck up because we won't initiate conversation. So I'm going to drop in and hang out with them, hopefully I will clear the air.

We've been able to make random acquaintances here though, and me especially. I like being able to walk around campus and be able to greet about 4 different people. None of the others are as willing to strike of a conversation when they are walking alone, so I've been able to get more names. The only problem with that is I am obligated to stop and say hi. So my walks across campus take a long time now because I know more people. But it's fun, our conversations are a struggle because they talk so fast and use a lot of slang, so we always have to go between the three languages to make ourselves understood. Again, Frenglof. It's a thing.