tea, baobob juice, and eating with your hands

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To my last reviewer-- I checked out your blog but I don't understand French-- is there any English page I could read? or Russian? or even maybe Spanish?

To anyone who doesn't know-- apparently you can subscribe to this to get emails when I update.

Also, hi to Mom and Poppy-- love you!

Today I had my first lessons in Wolof. I can now have the most basic of conversations in Wolof. I shall share this knowledge at the end of the post.

We also had our homestay orientation today. Tomorrow I will be moving in with the family. Senegalese family relationships are really the most important part of Senegalese life. If this is what 'tribalism' constitutes, we in the west may wish to regress. Basically, in the words of a Wolof proverb: 'Nit, nitay garabam'-- A person is another person's remedy/medicine. As Aby, a woman who talked with and guided my small group said, Senegalese have a view in which people need people, no one is left alone. She believes this is why Senegal has low rates of depression, suicide and divorce, because there are so many people always looking out for others. Good friends are considered family. When someone is dear to you, you would give them an appellation that reflects this closeness, thus many cousins and friends are called brother or sister although they are not of direct blood relationship.

The Senegalese have a sene of responsibility to other people. Learning more and more about it, it seems very odd that this is called 'clannish' or 'tribalism,' although I know there are more extreme cases of it in some parts. One looks out for neighbors, who will always know where someone is and how they are, if you see children you know on the street misbehaving, you could tell them to stop and they'll do it because you know their parents/elders and so are in their family group. It will be really interesting to see how these family ties work firsthand in family life. As part of the family I am staying with, I will address the mother and father as mother and father, and will be part of their family as a guest.

Senegalese believe that guests really do grace them with their presence. As Aby said, the guest could go anywhere, but chose their home. Although hospitality has become more difficult with financial strain as times change, it is still an important Senegalese value. Thus guests are welcomed into the family wholeheartedly and treated very warmly.

I will also have to get used to long goodbyes. I have been told to budget atleast half an hour extra into my morning walk to classes (which is longer than the walk itself). People don't like to seem to sever ties with a quick goodbye-- one should act like it is difficult to leave (which I'm sure it will be-- after all, I know I'll be deathly afraid of offending someone).

So, today, I learned to forget every rule of table etiquette I've ever known with the exception of washing hands before eating. One of the host parents two students are staying with leaves a bowl of food out for her grandchildren and their friends so anyone can eat at any time. If anyone is over when there is food out, they are invited to join in. What do they join? A family gathered around a bowl of food. Now, this was an entirely new experience, one not many of us get to have, so I'm going to go in for all the nitty gritty details on this one.

First, you wash your hands. At the Baobab center where they taught us, they had this nifty set-up with a tea kettle and a bowl that had a convex semisphere inside with holes (for the dirtied water to go through) as well as a little soap dish build into it.

For women, if not in conservative enough dress or even if they just want one was a clothing protector of sorts, there are pangue, which is basically a piece of fabric used similarly to a syrong but with the idea of covering the legs. All of us ladies got to try these today.

As you enter, you must remove your shoes before stepping on the mat. On the mat were little cushions. In in the center of the cushions was a big bowl, which reminds me of the big metal bowls we use for popcorn at home-- except this was bigger.

There is a definite right way and a definite wrong way to eat from a common bowl. The section in front of you is yours. The center is common. However, one should go first for the rice, which is near the edge. You use only your right hand-- the left may be used for individual food, such as holding bread, but if you want to dip the bread in sauce, you must tear a piece off and dip with your right hand. Thus anything that is common is touched only by the right hand (same with handshakes, except when adding a second with elders). The lady of the house distributes some pieces of the center things-- vegetables and fish or meat. (On a side note, I ate the fish, which I wouldn't normally, and since it didn't smell fishy it was okay. On another side note, especially for those of you who have read of my great dislike of caviar, there's some weird kind here that's tolerable). So, you've just sat down, you're grabbing some rice with your right hand. It's brown (yummy whole grain) and wet and kind of reddish, and it's tiny little grains and you have your hand-- how do you eat this? Well, grab a small handful, and hold it in a fist with your fingers facing upwards and your wrist resting on the edge of the bowl. Squeeze, open, reshape, squeeze, turn hand sideways and remove from edge of bowl to shake downwards into bowl (without releasing, or you'll have ruined it). When you've got a reasonably shaped cohesive clump, eat it (again, ONLY with your right hand). You can do little tastes of the other things on their own or make them into rice balls as well. Today we had rice, fish, yams (I think), cabbage, eggplant, and that funny, non-red-squishy-salty-small-gelatin-like-gross caviar. I tried all of it (and I'd only had a known like for half of it, so I'm pretty glad).

Now, the left hand. As said earlier, it can be used to hold non-communal bread. Or it can be used to steady oneself and make the modest ladies' seated position a lot more comfortable. Or it can not be used that way-- apparently, in some households, women keep the index finger of their left hand on the edge of the bowl. I hope that doesn't happen when I'm anywhere-- I much prefer being a bit more comfortable slightly more elongated.

When you're done, you don't have to wait around. You clean up your part of the bowl by pushing it all to the middle (in case anyone wants to eat later), then you lick clean your hand, and go wash your hands, careful not to step over anyone still eating as you leave. Oh, also, apparently, and my guess is because of the climate, Senegalese don't really eat food hot. It wasn't cold, but it certainly wasn't much beyond warm. In fact, when food is hot, it is a common expression to say "The cook is jealous"-- and allusion to times of polygamy, when one of the wives might give her husband hot food to show her distress. Oh, also, in another show of their subtlety, you should say the food is fine whatever you think. If you don't like something, you can take a taste and leave the rest to the communal pile. :-)

After that (which came mostly though discussions of different Senegalese words and concepts), we had fruit, juice, and tea, all of which were great. I had apple and papaya, Senegalese tea which is a stronger version of Mauritanian tea which is descended from Moroccan tea and is heavily mint flavored. I liked it, though the whole slurp to show your enjoyment is not my cup of tea (intentionally bad pun). I also tried a mixture of baobab juice (from the juice of the fruits that grow on baobab trees) and a juice that comes from hyacinth plants. Funny thing is, the latter can be a natural laxative, and the former the reverse. Thus the idea of balance, which seems to be a Senegalese value, works out even in their drink.

Communal life seems, while a bit odd with the bowl, very beautiful and interesting. I think it is often noted as a cause of lack of development, etc., but it seems so warm and gentle that I wonder if the more developed nations haven't gotten the wrong end of the stick. If there is a way to preserve both that and have a better economy, that would be nice (although in better economy, I think I do include a dinnerware market, hehe).

Alright, I've been on for a while so I'm going to finish up with some Wolof. This is a very basic conversation and greeting (which is very imporant-- you greet everyone in a group when you go up to it, even if you're only there for one person, and you do it basically individually).

1st-- Asalaa maalekum. (Peace with you-- Ah-sah-laah mah-lay-coum)
2nd-- Maalekum salaam. (And with you.)
1st-- Nanga def? (How are you?-- Nah(n)-geh deff?)
2nd-- Maangi fii rekk. (I'm fine. -- Mahn ghee fee reck)
1st-- Ana waa ker ga? (How is your family? Ah-nah waah k'er gah-- the e is very gutteral- they put two dots over it, so I have to remind myself it's French sounding eher and not a Russian yo)
2nd-- ~Nunga fa. (They are . The squiggle is supposed to be over the N-- it's like the Spanish-- Nyun-gah fah.)
1st-- Alxamdulilaay. (Praise God-- Al-kHam-dou-lee-lay)
2nd-- Alxamdulilaay.

I've noticed that any time a vowel is doubled you get the long version (which means aah (not ey like most English speakers thing-- most of us havent seem to notice that most languages do not attribute that sound to the letter A, but to E) and oh for aa and oo or if followed by y or something has is like one letter with the y). Therefore, any non-doubled vowel gets minimised. I can't tell yet if this language has full declensions, but it seems to have some.

anyway, got to go.

ba bebeen! (till next time)

~Nzie

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Comments

[Webmommy8]

learning to DISH
Hey Nadja! What a riot! Guess you're learning to DISH even more effectively! Sounds awesome! Mom

[Linda]

LOL
Tom is turning green at the idea of eating out of a communal bowl...I fear you'll never make a traveller out of him, Nadja!