L'adoption

After leaving the capital for our a smaller city, we were sitting in a village building which all the Americans/ Peace Corps personal on one side and the host families on the other.  They begin the ceremony and start calling the host family names, then the names of the volunteers.  My family name is called, then my name is called, so I get up to greet them.  I go for the hug, like normally done in America, and then the French Kisses, four kisses exchanged on the cheek, where the father turns to me after and says to me in French ... "Only in America"!  I think maybe the hug and kisses is not normal for a girl to do to a man in Africa.  lol  Then the food arrived in a large bowl, and water in a bag.  I look to my host family as to what we are suppose to do with this large bowl of food.  They begin using their right hands, I join in...

Next the sons take my two large suitcases, my carry on, and back back and shove it in the car.  It is myself, the father, the five brothers, and my luggage... I'm sweating.  Then I get out of the car and meet the mother, her sister, her other sister, her grandmother, some one else's grandmother, then the family on the compound, the family down the street... etc.  Now I'm really sweating, lol  I've been introduced to so many people that only speak the village language, susu.  Hence the conversations went something like, "Tana mu fenen?" and I stand there smiling.  Finally, my family asks me to take a shower, cause they can obviously see I'm uncomfortable and drenched in sweat.  The best part is, I have to ask how you do this.  I am given a bucket, a mug, and a large can of water.  They pour the water in, and the older brother shows me how to do this as well as how to go to the bathroom over the small hole in the ground and no toilet paper.  That was quite a challenge to get the soap off my body and shampoo out of my hair, and I'll stop there.

I come back out to attempt to socialize with the family, where they make sure to get a chair for me to sit in, then dinner is served; the children, men, and myself all eat out of a large plate, they gave me a fork, and the rest eat with their hands.  I begin eating, till my mouth in on fire, and I can't feel my lips.  They use a lot of pepper, or so I've been told.  

Then the three young boys take me out to show me around.  The tell me to meet the rest of their family and their families pet.  So I follow them, speaking in as much broken French as possible.  The sons all speak French and susu, so I spend my time with them.  We enter the hut... and I see this monkey type thing, showing his teeth and jumping around, they ask me to pet him, and I think maybe not.

After, the next older brother asked me if I wanted to go watch the soccer game.  I see a soccer player walk by and see him in socks and jellies, the clear sandals I wore when I was 4...   I watch the game, where there are two small goals, the soccer players are wearing jellies... lol and try to understand how the rules work.  Next thing I know there is a large fight in the middle of the field and people are grabbing trees and pieces of wood to continue fighting.  At this point, my brother friends say that he should take me home.  I ask him later "is thats normal", and he says "no" laughing.  Whatever that means.  Then we walk around some more and I am trying to understand what he's saying, as I walk to someone's house, look into the cage and see three large crocodiles.  He later explains there use to be eight, but they've "gone away".  So I say what do you mean they went away.....  "They swam away" is all he says.  lol

Then I get back to the house, and its starting to get dark, my host family says I need to eat again.  So I am sat down and asked to eat again.  Avocado, tomatoes, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, and then my mother adds salt.  Mayonnaise is the ketchup of Africa!  After eating as much as I could, them standing around saying, "Mange!" (Eat) I head to bed.  I had imagined it would be dark without electricity, but not this dark.  I put my head lamp on, brush my teeth with water-bottle water, and wash my face in the bucket of water supplied to me.  Oh boy, this should be fun!