Le Week End

Written 23 january 2022

Saturday was very busy for being the weekend. A few of us wanted to find a track to do a quick workout. We found a public track on Google and walked there. I got called a “Toubab” for the first time on the walk there (meaning foreigner) by a group of the cutest kids. To which a random adult promptly hushed them. Once we got to the field we discovered it was not as public as we had imagined. But the gate was open and the guard didn’t stop us, so we walked in and found an entrance. The field was all locked up so we ended up just running up and down the stairs. We couldn’t figure out if they still play games there or if it’s an abandoned field so we’ll have to keep tabs on it.

Afterwards we were invited to Mama Suzanne’s for lunch. She is the lady who cooks for us. We played games and then ate a traditional lunch on the floor with our hands. I tried Ataaya (highly caffeinated tea) for the first time as well. After lunch, they ushered us out the door to the church courtyard where girls from about 5 -20 years old were gathered. They kept asking us if we had “le movement” in the United States, which we had no idea what that meant. We just followed the girls around and sat with them. Eventually, we figured out we were at Girl Scouts and got to know the girls closer to our age which was great!

We had to leave early for a tour of the neighborhood Baobab.

After the tour, we went back to mama Suzanne’s where there was tons of dancing happening. The two kids who I had played games with earlier found me and convinced me to start monopoly again so I played a version of monopoly for the rest of the night.

Sunday was election day so we kept a low profile at the apartment. We ended the day getting Gelato at a nearby restaurant. Now on to a full week of classes!