It's the beginning of week two. I can hardly believe it. In some ways it feels like I've been here for some time, and yet in other ways it feels like I'm just beginning. My Wolof classes are going well. They've managed to fit over 50 hours of course into 25 for me, so as I've mentioned, it's a pretty intense pace. But it's definitely worth it and rewarding. My favorite reward is surprising Senegalese people by talking to them in Wolof. They're shocked to meet Tubabs (white people) who can speak it. Today, as I walked home from class, I greeted a man in French who was standing right on the edge of the sidewalk where I was walking. Here responded back by asking me how I was doing in Wolof, so I responded back in Wolof. The look on his face was utter disbelief, and he basically responded in Wolof: "My God, you speak Wolof!" I told him I only spoke just a little, but as I walked away he continued to exclaim how shocked he was.
Walking down the street here, typically the only people who greet me are children who always refer to me as "tubab," and guys my age who are obviously trying to hit on me (I even had one guy shout from a rooftop down at me and start waving his arms, I couldn't help but laugh because I knew he would never do that if he were actually on street level with me). The women are the most unfriendly. They will even make eye contact with me, and I can smile at them, and I'll get nothing but a stone cold stare. However, if I say "hello" or "how are you" their faces typically lighten up and I almost always get a smile at the very least. At the most I'll get women who stop in their tracks to start a conversation with me. With men on the street, it's more of a perfunctory salutation from those whom I don't know. There is one old man who sits about two doors down from my house all day and I pass him every day as I walk to and from class, to and from the store, and basically to and from anywhere. His face always lights up and he smiles and waves at me.
There are stray cats everywhere here. A few stray dogs, but mainly stray cats. As a cat lover, I find this very frustrating. Most of the cats are scraggly and don't exactly look cuddly or friendly, but it's still frustrating. There are always cats that jump down off of the back wall of our compound to eat anything they can find in the trash, and then they climb back up the tree and go away. A few nights ago, there was a baby kitten, who definitely was not more than a week old, in the corner of the backyard simply crying and crying. I saw it the next night crying on our front sidewalk. I went up to it, and it looked terribly sickly. It tried to come over to me like it wanted attention, but it frankly looked too sickly and I didn't touch it cause you never know what kind of disease/bugs it could be carrying. That made me even more frustrated. Its eyes were huge and pouting, like you would see in a cartoon. Earlier tonight I heard some strange noises outside, so I went to check it out. A mother cat with three baby kittens was making its way through the backyard. The kittens looked healthier than the other one, but still sickly. I look forward to seeing my cat at home again, which I can both pick up and pet without fear of contracting anything.
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