If I were to ask what do you think Café Francais is… what do you think that would entail? Well it consisted of a session for the volunteers to speak in French with locals. Half way through the Café Francais, after eating a piece of bread and a hot café, I decided this was not a very conducive session for talking, seeing that one of my conversations with a local consisted of him telling me he plans on heading to the United States but just needs a VISA, would I be willing to help him get that… aka marry. I pretended not to understand even when he asked if I wanted to keep meeting outside of class to converse. I determined his knee touching me was now not on accident. Our professors told us this was good practice for us to learn how to say no… thank you for the warning.
This week consisted of a lot of work and not much play. I was able to head to the market to buy some African fabric and take it to the tailor to get a few outfits made. I will take some pictures once the outfits are complete. Quite excited, we were recently told we should be teaching in African attire, so that gives me a reason to get outfits made. When I went to the tailor, she takes somewhat of measurements, then asked generally what you want. In my little French, I was able to point and form somewhat of an outfit, who knows what she gathered from those movements.
The rain has also started here, which is a blessing for me, mainly because it keeps the temperature down, allowing me not to sweat through my pants, quite an embarrassing moment when teaching in front of the class and the back of my pants are a darker color… not embarrassing, lol.
On Saturday, I helped my mother cook dinner. I had to shuffle the rice in a large pan shaped basket, then pick out the rocks. After I had to wash the rice, which I had no idea how to do, but my mother handed me a basin, where I poured water into the bowl, then mixed the rice around with my hands, then poured out the dirty water, then repeated numerous times. Thankfully I didn’t have to do the cooking!
This weekend, we took off to a mini waterfall, which was quite fun, but we were unable to go swimming because of the large amount of rain and how strong it had made the current. But it was beautiful; it was on the side of a mountain, which had waterfalls coming off the side of the mountain, a fog covering part of it, and then the large waterfall in front of us. There was also a restaurant at the site, where I ordered my first café au lait. It was amazing! I have not had a cup of coffee since I’ve been in Africa. My host mother calls it café, but its really tea, leaves soaked in water.
Also, August 1, 2011 was the first day of Ramadan, my family asked if I was going to fast, I told them I would try the first day only, because if anyone knows me, I normally go 5 minutes before I need to eat again. So I made it the entire day, I was woken up at 5:15 before the sun came up to eat; bread, peanut butter, a hard-boiled egg, and manioc paste. You are also not supposed to drink water, but it’s too hot here for me not too, so I had a few sips here and there as necessary! You could feel how tired your body got from not eating. The idea behind the fast was something I was unaware of; the purpose is so that everyone feels the same hunger, poor or rich. Also, families are supposed to donate food to the poor, obtain from swearing, hitting, sexual activity, drinking, smoking; to focus only on God and try to live the ideal life. Its an interesting aspect of the religion I was not aware of myself. But as for me, I will be enjoying food and water tomorrow!
Also, I found out my site today, which is in the Fouta, the coolest part of the country close to the largest waterfall in Guinea! So excited, going to visit it next week!
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