Today was one of my favorite days of the entire trip. Although teaching was a little difficult, spending the whole day in the village was amazing. We began the day by splitting into groups and teaching English to five classes of different age levels. Becca, Austin, and I taught the youngest and liveliest groups of children. They were very rowdy for the most part as they were always jumping out of their chairs to participate and practically jumping on top of each other in order to get our attention. Despite this madness, we managed to teach them the alphabet, the vowels, and basic greetings. Our kids now know how to say Hello, Goodbye, How are you, and I’m fine. I felt incredibly proud when I saw one of our kids later that day and he said “Hello, How are you?”. The other groups had mixed success with their children. Antoinette’s children were perfectly silent because she spent the hour holding a switch in her hand and banging it against the desks. Malaika and Sam’s children were as unruly as my own and they ended up locking the two girls into the room. But overall I think we all enjoyed the experience.
After the lesson, we all divided into 3 groups for the nest 3 hours. The first group hand washed clothes in the river, another helped school cooks prepare lunch, and the thirst shadowed girls our age. I was in the third group so I shadowed a girl named Salle. She led me to her home, which consisted of small, dark rooms; a pen filled with chickens and 2 sheep, and a large outdoor space, and introduced me to her large family. After the many introductions, Salle and I began helping her Mother and Aunt prepare lunch. We were making Chebujen (I don’t know if that’s the correct spelling) which is a traditional Senegalese dish consisting of fish and rice. Using strange Senegalese knives, Salle and I peeled and cut several types of vegetables, including carrots, lettuce, and other legumes. After the vegetables, Salle had me put tomatoes and salt into a pot of boiling water. I learned the hard way how to gently put things into a pot rather than just throw them in, because otherwise the hot water will splatter and burn you. While we waited for the mixture to cook, we did more chores, never wasting a minute of our time. Afterwards, Salle and I finished putting the vegetables in and proceeded to prepare the fish. We made a slit in two fish and then stuffed a mixture of spices that I had blended earlier into the bodies of the fish. After I placed the fish into the pot, Salle and I went to sit with her relatives next to the sheep pen.
After cooking, Salle finally asked me what my Senegalese name is. When I responded Kurra et Awa (the names of the two little girls who have claimed me), she demanded I changed my name to Salle. Not wanting to offend her, I immediately agreed. So I am now officially Salle, Kurra, et Awa.
After shadowing Salle, I returned to the group and we all ate lunch. The lunch, which Malaika, Mary, Kate, Gabi, and Kelsey had helped prepare, was delicious. They made us roasted sheep, French fries, and onions. After lunch we all enjoyed a much-needed sieste (or rest).
Following the sieste, we all changed into old clothes and walked over to the school to paint. We split up into two groups and drew sticks to decide who would work inside and who would work outside. Sam won for the inside group, and so my group took the outside and painted the entrance gates while a crowd of Senegalese children watched. The children refused to leave us alone, Ousynou, a teacher at the school and our official host, says that this is the highlight of their summer. One of my children, Kurra, gave me a lime and helped pick debris off of me as I painted. As we painted come of the little boys tried to paint for us, taking our brushes and refusing to return them until demanded that they return them. After several hours, we, the toubabs, were finished for the day but the little boys continued to paint.
After painting, we were swarmed once again by the many Senegalese children. Kurra and Awa found me immediately and refused to allow any other children to hold my hands. The two girls took me to a group of children and taught me a Senegalese dance, which I imitated quite poorly. But we all had fun despite my awful dancing. While I danced, Malaika, Kate, Mary, and Becca were all forced to sit on the ground in a circle while a mass of children surrounded them. The children only stared at the Holton students and refused to let them get up. We must seem very different from them. I found all of this incredibly amusing, and was very glad that my children didn’t make me join the staring circle.
The staring finally ended when all the kids decided we should play soccer together. It was toubabs (and a few Senegalese boys) versus an all Senegalese team. I have to say, we were pretty unevenly matched. We were not the best of soccer players and they were all amazingly talented. Luckily, we had a fantastic Senegalese goalie that stopped the many shots that got past our unskilled defense. We were the loudest people on the field, as we cheered after every time a toubab kicked the ball or our team scored. At the beginning of the game we were losing 1-0, but luckily Ousman jumped into the game in order to save us from too much embarrassment. All in all the game was the best part of the trip and we all had the time of our lives as we tried to kick the balls and missed various shots. Despite our bad playing, we ended up winning! One of the Senegalese boys on our team scored our first goal and then Malaika scored a second goal with an assist from Kelsey! After the goal we all screamed, and cheered, and chanted USA, USA. At dinner that night, we all agreed that the game was one of our favorite parts of the day and we definitely represented Holton proudly on the field.
If you want to hear the rest of the story, tune in for Sachi’s blog.
-Mackenzie
