The People of Nioro

I figured you all might like a brief introduction to my family here in Senegal; so here it is…samay waa ker (“the people of my house” in Wolof):

• Aliou Mane – my Dad. He’s 53 and a former member of the Senegalese national handball team (fancy, I know). Now he works at the Pharmacie Nioro du Rip, which I have taken to be a good omen since my own wonderful Mom back in the States is a pharmacist :)
• Seynabou Ba – my Mom. She’s 35 and a teacher at one of the local primary schools. She’s also probably my favorite person in Nioro thus far and definitely the person that I talk to the most.
• Aminata Mane – my little sister, who’s 11. We’re both named after my Dad’s older sister who lives in Dakar. She’s shy and quiet, but very sweet. She also just started learning English in school this year. I haven’t gotten her to speak much of it yet, but I’m working on it.
• Douda Mane – my little brother, who will be 7 in January. He’s pretty adorable and absolutely can’t sit still to save his life. I wish I could see him when he’s at school because it baffles me that he can pull off sitting that long, haha.

That’s it for my parents and their children, but we also have two of my Yaay’s (Yaay = mom in Wolof) sister’s daughters who live with us and are also my “sisters.”

• Defatou Dioup – she’s 17 and a student at the local high school.
• Awa Dioup – she’s 15 and also a student at the high school. Both she and my Yaay get a particularly good laugh out of the things I do on a daily basis. I have literally had them laughing to the point of tears over such totally hilarious things as the fact that many of the things in my room are green and I don’t like bugs. (They are very easily amused by almost anything I do, haha)

And that’s all of the people who live at my house. It’s a very VERY small household by Senegalese standards, but that suits me. I think I might lose my mind if I’d been put in one of those compounds that house like 40 people, haha.

Other people I see a lot of in Nioro include:

• Aliou Fall – my counterpart who is teaches some business classes locally and is also the secretary at the cultural center
• Mr. Fofana – my supervisor who works for the Development Communitaire. He’s also one of my dad’s best friends so he’s around the house a lot.
• Fatou Ly – my Wolof instructor. She’s married to my counterpart’s older brother.
• Aissatou Ba – my maternal grandmother. I visit her with my Yaay a fair bit, but mostly I put her on here because it gives an opportunity to tell the story of my Yaay’s family. My maternal grandfather was the chief of the whole town and had 4 wives and somewhere upwards of 25 children between them. YEAH. Aissatou is the youngest and the last surviving of his four wives. She lives in one of those huge 40 person compounds across town.

So that’s a brief introduction to the people I spend most of my time with at site. Ba beneen!