so yesterday, with a nervous stomach and an anxious feeling, i moved into my host home. they are a catholic family- an aunt who is a french teacher and her niece- Cynthia who is 12 and her nephew- Remy who is 10. another aunt lives in the house and i think is some sort of maid because she makes the meals and cleans and everything.

as soon as i got there my maman told me to go talk to the kids and i was thinking okay yeah- ill go meet them. turns out, i spent the entire night with them, using my terrible french- playing card games and trying so hard to understand them. luckily, they speak perfect french and are helping me learn and have become my private language tutors. i feel extremely stupid trying to talk to them and they often receive a blank stare.




so the toilet makes me really anxious. its basically a porcelain bowl which when you have finished your business- you must pour water from a bucket until your remains disappear. i have yet to go “number 2” because i am really anxious about it. although i have my own room, i share a bathroom with the rest of the members of the household. i can just imagine leaving little bits on the side of the bowl. oh yeah, did i mention there is no toilet paper but i ,ust take water in my hand and rinse myself? i am terrified of the day that i cannot manage some toilet paper or be successful at keeping it in. for now, i have gone bathroom bathroom at the baobab (study) center.




last night i ate dinner with the children only (and the maid?) and maman did not eat with us but i dont know why. perhaps tonight. honestly, she scares me. her french is hard to understand and she seems really frustrated with my poor french that has resulted from lack of practice speaking it.
tomorrow i may go to a protestant church as maman told me that there i one nearby and since the children go to mass at 6 am- yes am! they can show me where the protestant church is. however, i have NO idea what this church entails, ay ay ay.

today we broke into small groups and took a tour of downtown to familiarize ourselves with it. it was quite interesting but frustrating bc the girl who was my guide speaks very fast french and in my group i was definitely the slow one who didnt understand what she was saying.

however, inspired by one of the guys in my group who talked and was nice to all the vendors i started thinking about and wondering what may be a way to talk to the people who are usually shoved aside and spoken rudely to. granted, they are crazy and follow you everywhere, but i would like to find a way to talk to them and love them without being forced or nagged to buy something. i dont know, just something i was thinking about today as every minute i was bombarded by a new person au cause de ma peau blanche.

this is all for now because my hour has run out and i should return to my family. something that makes me nervous everytime because i am so anxious about my french.

thanks for all the comments on my last post.

oh. one last thing- there are all these senegalese values that they have that i really want to embody, i am worried they wont like me- especially my family.