Hey all! Sooooo, it has been quite the journey from November to February there is a lot so bare with me. I am going to try and summarize the best that I can, so here it goes.
Lets start off with two quotes:
There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.
Oscar Wilde
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
Mother Teresa
This week was going to be spent at my friend Mary's village, Fodebayo, which is in the Southern part of Senegal. I was excited to get out and see what Kolda was all about because I only heard stories from other volunteers of how lush and green it was. Before my big trip I had to get a few things done around my hut. First things first I cleaned my hut and started to pack. If you hate dust and dirt, well, let me tell you, I have dirt up the wazoo! (Fun Fact: Wazoo was first used in 1961) So, I did a little bit of cleaning and after waited for the mason to come and fix my door. The mason that had come was one of my fathers friends from Tambacunda. He came in early mid day and started on the door. While he worked on the door, I had noticed the man on the bike with the fish had stopped in my compound. My grandmother was talking to him and noticed that she had only bought one fish. I quickly asked her how man fish she bought for lunch and it was really just one for the whole family. I told the fish guy to wait. I went into my hut and got some money for him. I bought four fish and gave it to my grandmother. When I get back to my hut with the change my host father had given me a look like he was wondering what was in my hand. I opened my palm and showed him that I had change from buying fish. He then grabbed 200cfa from my hand and bought tea with it. At this moment I was so shocked at what happened I didn't know what to say. To me at that moment just stole money straight from my hand. I knew that he was testing me from the time that I arrived in the village because he had asked me to go and run errands for him but this was by far crossing the line. Since this was the last day that I was spending there I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it made me realize that I needed to firm up. It's like I try to do something good, by buying more fish yet there is no appreciation and respect to at least say "Thank you for the fish." or at least ask me if I could help buy tea. It was nothing like that. I would say in Mandinka "A maning baing nig, a be karing." Translating to "It is not right, and he isn't respectful."
So, after everything we had lunch and the mason had eaten with us. He finally finished up the last bit after lunch and I was getting ready to pay. I was thinking to myself wondering how much he was going to charge me. The normal price was and friendly price would be around 2,000 to 3,000cfa but the "Toubab" price I think would be around 5,000cfa. What was he going to charge me??? Not too surprised but he charged me for the "Toubab" price. Of course he would, and my father would agree to it. This was his friend and since "Toubabs" are foreigners they think we have money and will charge the highest price they can get. So, I paid him his 5,000cfa. Probably should have tried to get the price down but I just didn't. I didn't want to question the matter. (If interested an article on "Toubab" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-lau/what-the-peace-corp-taugh_b_1099202.html by a pcv:Peace Corps Volunteer)
The day went on and I was ready to leave for the language seminar in Mary's village and to explore some during the holiday. The last thing I did in village before I left was play freeze tag with the kids. They had so much fun and I gave all my brothers and my sister a hug good bye. My grandmother wasn't happy to see me leave considering that I was going to leave her there by herself for a while. She was hinting to me that she was going to be the only there to do the work and pull the water because my younger host sister was leaving the next day to another village. I felt bad leaving.
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