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Published: December 4th 2008
Herdsman
Cattle herds crossing the flats is a common sight.The People
Unlike the previous living situation in Thiafaithe the people here were less prepped to my arrival. I have the feeling many learned of my presence for the first time when they saw me this week walking through the village. This is a little surprising as most decisions made here, like inviting a foreigner, are usually made communally. My assumption is that some of the village autonomy was circumnavigated by government officials charged with administrating the area. Either way the first awkward interactions between the villagers and myself are starting to reside and now we can move on to the new awkward interactions of having nominal communication modes between us. The village speaks a combination of Serer, the local language for the cultural group in the area and French which is taught in school system. My French at this point is not quite effective and proper grammar seems to evade me during the impromptu nature of a conversation. As far as this specific form of Serer, my first exposure with the language came when I arrived and to this point I’m pretty good at the first two of four or five salutations that accompany each greeting. There is a
Bush Transport
Charets are a key transportation mode throughout Senegal. huge respect for foreigners who understand the local language and I hope my skills advance quickly. At the moment I’ve been focusing mainly on French as I already have a knowledge base and most of the population although not their first language, speak it fluently.
Being proactive in my learning my first attempt at taking classes was to sit in with the with the local primary school. Unfortunatley I don’t this is going to work out as the pace is too slow and at the end of the day I am mobbed by small children tugging on my clothes from every direction. I think I could handle the slow pace and the tugging but for some reason my presence is the source of conflict as the children, conglomerate around me then commence to beat on each other relentlessly. Whether they do this even when I’m not around, I don’t know but I’d rather not take part. All is well.
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