Mouit: nekk na bu ba

My happiest three days in Senegal were spent in the fishing village Mouit, about thirty minutes outside of Saint Louis.

When we arrived we all sat on giant mats in the middle of a circle while the village elders greeted us. The chief and the imam both welcomed us in wolof while our professor translated to french. Then one by one our names were called and our new moms walked us back to our new houses.

My mom's name was Mame Rama Diangne. She is absolutely the most joyous woman I have ever met. Even though we could barely communicate, we loved each other immediately because we both laugh and smile so much.  She's on the far right in the yellow in this picture. The other women are some of her neighbors. This was taken about two hours after I arrived.

In Mouit I had four little sisters and a little brother. I was overjoyed to have a full household, to put it lightly. I felt immediately welcomed by my family in a way I did not in Dakar. My sisters were Ami, 11, Rama 12, Sofi 14 and Hadi 19. My little brother was Mouta and he was 7. I also had a half sister named Falou who is my age and we've been keeping in touch since I left.

Communication was challenging but incredibly fun. Most people in the village only spoke wolof, but my two oldest sisters spoke comparable french to me which was really nice. I picked up a ton of new vocabulary mostly centered around eating and I got a lot better at listening to wolof even if I didn't know how to respond. In general I just laughed and was laughed at a lot.

We were prepped for "rouging it" and some girls were worried about it, but it was very, very easy and comfortable. My family had a small concrete house within a pretty large sandy courtyard. They had an outdoor kitchen and a pick pen of goats and sheep outside. I slept in a room with my oldest sister on a mattress and although it was hot, it wasn't nearly the stifling heat of Pikine. The toliet was just a hole in ground, NBD, just like Pikine as well. The only discomfort of the weekend really was that I was dirty a lot and got eaten alive by mosquitos. Both totally manageable. We were also prepared to eat bizarre foods, but I ate the best I have since I have gotten here. I got to help prepare ceebu jen, the most popular dish in senegal, which involved learning how to gut fish and cook rice. I went to the market in the morning with my mom and we got all of the ingredients for it right there. (the market in Mouit is nothing like a market in the city. It's all of the women in the village gossiping and trading together under two giant baobabs). So I had amazing ceebu jen a couple times. This yougurt millet dish called larr all of the time...maybe too much because I always chose to eat what they gave me over being impolite. I got to drink cafe touba for breakfast every morning, which is REAL coffee with a ton of sugar and spices in it.

One day I watched two sheep get their throats slit and then I ate one of their stomachs, but the rest of that dish was really wonderful, so it was fine.

I need to sleep. To be continued.