A family tree

I’ve recently figured out how everyone that lives in this house is related.  I’ll lay it out here:

Anta is the grandmother.  She’s probably in her 70s or 80s and seems to always be home.  She’s an interesting woman.  She prays a lot and doesn’t seem to speak much French.  Adja is Anta’s daughter.  She is my mother figure here.  Her children are Mohammad (20), Mariam (13), and Hardeem (9).  Through a conversation I had with Mohammad, I learned that she is divorced from their father, who lives in a different country now and teaches English.  Adja’s definitely the head of the household.  She is kind, but very intimidating at the same time.  Amadou is one of Anta’s sons (Adja’s brother).  He is also divorced and his kids are Papi (10), Cheikhrouna (6) (pronounced “share-ro-nuh”) and Moustapha (4).  Another of Anta’s sons and his wife also live in the house.  They do not have children and I still don’t know what their names are.  Everyone is very nice!

Yesterday I went up to the rooftop with Papi.  From there you can peak over the side and see into the courtyard of their neighbor’s house.  Apparently this is where their friend Papa lives.  Papi yelled down at Depa and then turned to me and said that he was going to show me his Toubab.  It was pretty funny.  There’s a huge group of students studying at another center like ACI that just moved in with their host families last night, and one of them, Mary Hannah, is living next door.  So that’s pretty cool.

Last night, right before dinner, the electricity went out.  I had given the family headlamps as gifts and they were put to great use.  As soon as the lights went out Amadou started to pray, but he had his headlamp on.  It was just a very odd and comical thing to watch.

Goodnight Gorilla is now a series of single leaf pages, floating around the house.  I found one in the bathroom the other day.

The political situation is not great.  The council decided that Wade (the current president) would be allowed to run for a third term.  I guess protesters stoned a policeman to death a couple of nights ago.  Needless to say, we’re not really supposed to leave our houses all that much.  It’s pretty safe in my neighborhood though, no need to worry everyone!!