First Wolof Lesson

I tried to meet with the FESMAN organizer again yesterday and of course again I couldn’t ever actually reach him, despite calling at the appointed time.  I somewhat expected this, because of it being only one day after Tabaski.  I will wait until Monday, when people get back to their day-to-day lives, to call him again.  Hopefully next time I’ll have more luck… 

Meanwhile, today I had my first Wolof lesson!  One of the other Fulbrighters here, who’s been here since January, recommended him – his name is Moustapha.  He is a really great teacher – he teaches English to elementary students (although not at the moment, because he has not been paid for three months and refuses to continue teaching until he gets what he’s owed… unfortunately this is a VERY common problem in Senegal.  In his case it’s not the fault of the Senegalese government (which also often fails to pay its teachers and scholarship students), because his school is private – instead, it is the school director who has been treating the teachers poorly and not paying them).  He also teaches private French, English, and Wolof lessons to various professional businessmen, exchange students, and researchers in town. 

Everything in Dakar takes longer than it does elsewhere… so my 2 hour Wolof lesson ended up being about 5 hours when you count walking to our meeting place, then walking to his house from there (at NOON – I was boiling, and it felt like we walked for an hour, even though it was probably only 30 minutes…), then the lesson, then lunch with his family (oh my God, it was SO YUMMY!!!  Lots of veggies – squash, eggplant, potato, carrots, okra (!), … - with rice and nicely seasoned fresh fish – fish and rice is the national dish here – it’s called cebudjen (ceb (“tcheb”) = rice; djen = fish).  Then after lunch I helped with dishes and then we had tea, which is prepared here the same way that the Tuareg in Mali do it – three glasses of tea:  the first is “bitter like death,” the second is “sweet (doux) like life,” and the third is “sweet (sugary) like love.”  (“Amer comme la mort, doux comme la vie, et sucré comme l’amour”).  I love this kind of tea – they boil it, then simmer, then boil, then simmer, then boil – many times till it gets really strong and frothy – then they pour the tea back and forth and back and forth and back and forth between two cups to get it even frothier – and they always magically know just how much to pour so that it foams almost over but never overflows – and they lift the glass WAY up and yet manage not to spill a drop or splash anything anywhere.  It’s quite an art.  It takes a long time to make.  Then after this was baobab juice ice (like a popsicle, but in a plastic baggie without a stick – you just bite a hole in the corner of the baggie).  This is REALLY yummy, by the way – even yummier than the juice at room temperature.  THEN, after  this, we walked all the way back to my place so he would know where I live – we agreed that given the distance, we’d trade off having lessons at his place and my place.

So, I had planned on doing more today than just having a Wolof lesson, but that’s sort of how things go here.

Today I learned the days of the week and the times of day:

Monday:  altine

Tuesday:  talaata

Wednesday:  allarba

Thursday:  alxames

Friday:  ajjuma

Saturday:  gaawu

Sunday:  dibeer

Monday-Thursday are borrowed from Arabic (it’s Wolofized Arabic, but means 2 (Monday), 3 (Tuesday), 4 (Wednesday) and 5 (Thursday). 

The times of day are:

Dawn:  fajar

Morning:  suba

Afternoon:  ngoon

Twilight:  timis

Night:  guddi

Other things I learned:

Tomorrow:  suba (same as morning)

Today:  tey

Yesterday:  demb

I also learned that many Americans mispronounce “Yesterday” and accidentally say “ghost” instead (demeu).  It’s not good to refer to ghosts here – there is a lot of superstition about evil spirits, etc.  (for example, in villages, it’s bad luck to go out at twilight, because that’s when the evil spirits lurk about – in Dakar people don’t seem to worry about this too much – it’s definitely a city that NEVER, EVER sleeps). 

I also learned how to ask what day it is and to answer (“Tey, ban bes la?  Tey, ajjuma la”) and how to take leave of people, depend on when you’ll see them again (see you really soon, like in a few minutes or so (“legui legui”); see you later today (“ba ci kanam”); see you next time, which could be tomorrow, a year from now (“ba benen yoon”). 

So, that roughly catches you up to date.  I’ll also put up some recent photos in a new post.