Today we all met our homestay families! It was so crazy everyone was so nervous. My homestay mother came today without her husband, as most did. She was SO sweet to me and so excited for me to stay with her. The first thing I noticed when I was speaking to her was that she did not look me in the eyes once. This is of course out of respect and it was polite of her not to make eye contact with me but it totally caught me off guard. At first I had a hard time not looking at her in the eyes but then I figured out to just focus on something on the ground or something. The bad part about this for me is that it's harder for me to understand her French because I can't read her lips while she speaks. This is going to be an enormous adjustment and is actually pretty physically awkward and uncomfortable right now. Other than that my meeting with her was so amazing. I have my own room and I'm getting my own key to the house and she made it clear that I could go out whenever I want to and have friends over etc. She was so motherly and it felt so natural being with her but she also seems to be allowing me a lot of freedom. There is also a young woman who is staying with them who is something like a distant cousin, she is 21. The kicker: she only speaks Wolof- no French! Ah! That is seriously going to give me some practice with my Wolof. I'm excited to be able to go out with the girl. My mother's name is Soda Diop but she asked me to call her Maman, which I love. She also told me to use "tu" and not "vous" when talking to her, which is another sign of friendship between us. It was actually really powerful talking to this woman whom I've never met before and yet we both know the next 4 months we will be living like family. She really cared about my needs and when she left we hugged and kissed twice on the cheek. Besides our meetings with our Mamans we also had our first real Wolof class. I learned the following Dialogue:
-Peace be with you!
-And also with you
-How are you?
-I am fine.
-How do you spend your day?
-Peace only, Gd willing.
-How do you feel?
-Peace only, Gd willing (again)
-What is your name?
-My name is Zoe, and you?
-My name is Maritou
-What is your last name?
-My last name is Silverman. And you?
-My last name is Oussa
-Where are you from?
-I am from Massachusetts
And some more but you get the idea. It's is SO fun but also very hard. Our Wolof class is in French which is pretty tiring but also really helps us with our French. Tonight we all went out to dinner together and got some drinks first at the restaurant. We had local beer which was pretty good and very cheap. Tomorrow we are going to the market so I'm sure that will be quite the experience. I didn't expect to be writing everyday but so far so much is happening every day that I feel like I need to keep up with it! I'm distracted right now because some guy in the lobby is speaking to me and asking me why I am not married yet and that marriage is ready for me. I should go... Bonne nuit!
