First week of school ! (Senegal Style)

Last week was my first week of classes, and I am very excited for them, because the material is interesting and incredibly relevant for me! (Country Analysis of Senegal, Wolof, French refresher course, International Development of Education, Public Health, and Microfinance, and Research Methodology) and everything is in French, except Wolof which is a blend of French, English, and Wolof right now. The language levels range anywhere from international development overview class in “franglais” to Public Health in which we were all trying to figure out the names of some preventable but deadly diseases in French (along with some funny gestures, circumlocution, and trying to re-pronounce English words in French) to Microfinance. That was an interesting class, because the professor is very knowledgable in his subject area, but speaks softly. Not to mention that I had to try and explain the relation of real variables to money in the economy and later what caused the 2008 recession in French (the professor probably thinks I’m an idiot by now, but struggling is part of the learning experience, right?) I would say that all of the rest felt like taking classes in English, although the profs have to excuse my fautes because I still have issues with grammatical gender (le or la? un or une?) and some compound tenses.

It’s been fun being able to learn and discover not just at school, but at home also because my host family is totally obliging of me asking questions and is not afraid to correct me or explain things when I take missteps. They really enjoy when I try and speak Wolof, although they will still speak French when I’m actively involved in the conversation. The latest victory was my brief conversation with our maid, Mariama, who speaks about as much French as I do Wolof which is good, because I feel terrible for managing to track so much sand in the house even though I empty my shoes outside (I wonder how long it will take me to say all that in Wolof). The inside joke of the week (which has taken over “look out for the bones” from the week before) has been whenever I walk into the living room someone will say my Senegalese name “Ngone Ndiaye ” and I’ll say their name back and “ca va?” (how’s it going, what’s up? in French) and everyone laughs. They especially enjoy teasing me in Wolof when I get tired and speak really goofy French which sounds like French with English grammar and pronunciation.