Jaay Fonde!

Jaay is to sell and fonde is millet (a grain you cook like rice, etc.) so it means to sell millet. When you boil millet and mix it with sugar and pour sweet yogurt over it and eat it for dinner it's supposed to make you fat so you get a big booty. So if you have a big booty people say "jaay fonde!" because you have so much millet you can sell some and because if you sell millet it's a win-win situation because you either make money or you eat it yourself and get a nice big butt.
One of the guys in the big Marche Sandaga downtown who was following us around kept saying that to me to which I kept responding "Je comprends!!" and then he tried to touch my butt so I pushed him away and we (five of us) busted a move across the street. You've got to stick in packs at the market.
In other news, I'm preparing the dinner for the family tonight. I hope they like it. It's a bunch of vegetables with curry and garlic and raisins. They also want me to make soul food. On Thursday we were all talking about food and I was saying how I want to make dinner. They said "you know soul food?" and I was all "Oh yea I do" and was listing off good foods so they said "you can make us soul food!" So that's what I'm going to do next week. Yankee white girl makin soul food in Senegal.
Speaking of race, I saw a guy with a shirt that said "nigga fatal"- I found it intriguing.
Another interesting use of words- I really thought I could tough it out, but I have so many mosquito bites all over my body I feel like I have chicken pox. My host sister said "Tu as beaucoup du pimps!" Yea I have a lot of pimps! Pimps being short for pimples meaning mosquito bites. I've put up the net on my bed and it feels like sleeping in a transparent coffin.
Also my host family, mainly my host mom, was discussing marriage with me a couple days ago (this subject comes up very often here-I get asked often if I am married and when I will marry and why not and what I think of marriage) and she asked "you marry Senegalese?" I said maybe "you marry American?" Maybe, again. "You marry Renee?" (my host brother!) I said well I don't know about that, maybe!" People believe that the easiest way to getting to the US, or anywhere else, is by marrying someone from there. Hence me and all of the other girls on the trip often get asked if we are married and have people propose to us and say they love us.
Healtchare: I spent twelve hours downtown on Friday, and among the many sights was a street lined with dozens of people in wheelchairs and with crutches begging for money. This was tragic and uncomfortable. Maybe since it was Friday (the holy day) and people are most likely to donate alms on Fridays, they make it more convenient for money giving. There are more people than at home walking around with knarled feet or in wheelchairs. Maybe as a result of other untreated diseases? Access to preventative medicine and healthcare in general is extremely difficult without money. Not that the US doesn't have it's own failed healthcare system- failings have different symptoms everywhere.
A friend (who will remain nameless upon her request due to mixed feelings about the incident) and I decided to check out a music store I read about a couple days ago. We set off, but predictably never reached the fabled store. First some guy from her neighborhood spotted her and was talking to us and wanted to go all the way to the music store-he asked for us at a stand and apparently it was shut down. I was feeling a bit uncomfortable so we ducked into a bookstore to gently say goodbye. Not three minutes after leaving another guy came up to us who said something about being at the university and that he was Mormon and he looked very spiffy and had a cell phone and zip drive and briefcase. Then came the catch-he had diabetes and needed us to give him medicine-it only cost 6000 CFA (about $12, but it's the principle). I said no because I wasn't buying him, but my friend gave in, so we traipsed around for the better part of an hour listening to how he has diabetes and she paid for our ride to the right pharmacy where he got the medicine. I went to make sure she was safe, but I just...am not sure because he looked much better off than many other people on the street and I didn't buy the story, but I suppose he wouldn't have asked us if he didn't need the money. I don't know. After that we started walking toward the bus and happened upon a huge mall-like structure with Casino inside-a huge supermarche a cross between Stop and Shop and Walgreens. There were a lot of toubabs there and upper class types. We didn't buy anything, but I enjoyed looking. The clinical brightness and cleanness was striking and odd compared with the rest of things outside the store.
I have much more to say but got to get home for lunch.
Ba beneen yoon!
(Until next time!)
Speaking of money: an update on the bus strike. It only lasted half a day because it's Ramadan and people need the money for their families especially right now.