19 April 2007

This morning, I went with Anne and Bamba to the village where I will start teaching to meet some people and see the school. The school is only six years old and before that, there wasn't any form of education at all. It's a pretty small village, and it seems that most people have the same last name, Ndieye. We were going to take the 9 am bus this morning, but when we show up at 8 :40, it had already left. Bamba and Anne indicated that if the bus is full, it just leaves. So weended up taking a taxi there, which was fine. Even though it was onlya 15 minute ride to the village, life seems quite a bit more rural there. Things are slower and my foreigness is even lore of an attraction. Anne introduced me to a few people, but they didnt speak any french at all because they hadnt gone to school. Woah. Theyseemed nice anyway. The buliding was fairly new and it had a Senecorps sign because Senecorps helped build the school. I met one of the other teachers and introduced myself to some of his students.They looked pretty dumbfounded. Mr. Anne's classroom has more stuff than I expected. I guess they just got a donation, so the kids have workbooks that they keep in their desks. The desks are woodednand the floor is concrete. They mostly use chalk and the semi oldlooking board. There's also a bureau in the back where I can keep all the supplies I brought. Eventually, we decided to walk towards thebus to see if it was coming, and we were in luck, it was just passing by. The bus was awesome and intense. I definitely felt like a major "tubaab" with my cluelessness about where to sit and how to pay, but Bamba and Anne had me covered. This one brightly dressed woman on the bus was started talking really loudly to me and Bamba in Wolof andBamba started laughing. I guess Bill Clinton came to this village like 10 years ago, and this woman sang to him when he was here, so she really wanted me to know that she sang for one of my presidents. Awesome. We came back here and I had lunch with Mame Fatou, Cheikh and Awa ( who helps cook and clean for Mame Fatou). Mame Fatou said this was the Senegalese plat nationale, it was full of new flavors and pretty tasty. Lots of fresh veggies, rice and fish. When I was walking back from the internet place this afternoon, I was walking with Awa and some little kids were yelling 'tubaab ! !' I waved to them and laughed. Because I'm white, they actually think I'm French , so they come up to me and say 'Bonjour !' Then this one tiny little girl ran up to me from behind and kissed the back of my arm , I laughed and turned around and saw a gang of little kids cheering asshe ran back to them. Hilarious.