Wonna Gottum

                The title is Pulaar for ‘not something’ which they interpret as ‘not the same’, and my purpose for writing is because I would like to write a bit here on some of the differences between cultures and regions. Where I have grown up and the social normalities and cultural subtleties that surrounded me for the initial part of my life are not now the ones that accompany me on my daily adventures in this environment where I presently reside.

                Prior to moving here to this West African country of Senegal I attempted to refrain from any preconceptions of what my new environment might be like. I tried to look at the situation economically. Why would I put energy into imagining something which was, in all likelihood, only sitting on the edges of possibility to accurately perceive without yet experiencing? Although try as I might some notions did creep into my mind prior to the relocation, but I remember little of them now because the solidity of the reality pushes out the preconceptions due to their misty and vague nature.

                Some interesting oddities of Pulaar are how they count money. Each increment is multiplied by 5. Buying an item that is worth 500cfca results in the shopkeeper asking for 100, and similarly 200 would be stated for an object costing 1000cfca. As one can imagine translating the numbers of a new language into their own familiar language and then multiplying and then translating back is a hassle and double so when anything purchased from a vendor that doesn’t have a permanent stand or building should be bargained over. This means that multiple numbers are being thrown around and will need to be multiplied in order to keep track of the bargain price each step of the way. The exceedingly nice thing about this region is that everything is very inexpensive. Typically the only thing I could want to buy is food and I can only really do that when at my road town 7km from my village. Most singular food items are less than 200cfca and larger quantities are still less than 800cfca. The transfer rate for fcfa and American dollar is 450cfca to 1 dollar. So I can buy a nice breakfast of a bean and egg sandwich with mayonnaise and a local tea which I enjoy, called kinkilliba, for about 80 cents American. The bigger cities have prices which run more along the lines of a modern European or American city.
               The language of Pulaar also has some interesting grammatical oddities. Articles, the a/an, for English are of 23 different varieties in Pulaar. The article for sun in Pulaar is different than the article for body. The sun = naange nge and the body is bandu ndu. The repetitive ending is often times the article but not always. Since some words do not follow the 'just use the ending' rule you actually have to know what the article is for every noun if you want to say it correctly. One specifically annoying component of the language is that almost every noun has a singular form and a plural form that is so different it is unrecognizable. This results in the necessity that one must learn almost twice as much vocabulary for Pulaar as one would for English. Here are some examples; Dog/dogs = Rawandu/dawaadi, Week/weeks = yontere/jonte, Man/men = gorko/worbe, woman/women = debbo/rowbe. Some words need only to have ji added, such as baby/babies = bobo/boboji, but mostly this applies to words derived from a foreign language; ie. bebe-bobo. 

                A rather peculiar sight in Senegal is the affectionate touching and hand holding that takes place between members of the same sex. When viewed in the light that homosexuality is illegal in this country it makes the subject quite thought provoking. Do people feel comfortable demonstrating affection because they know that anything more is forbidden so any attention is purely platonic, or did the high degree of same sex affection arise separately from the law forbidding only homosexuality? A common sight in this country is for young men to be walking down the street holding hands. Men that would, in America, be almost defiantly opposed to the slightest implication of any homosexual behavior on their behalf. Watching these events are one thing but you have to remember that I live here now and for a time, and that anything the locals do among themselves they will also perceive as perfectly acceptable to do with me. So often among children and young males they will try to hold hands with me or be otherwise very close physically and due to my American notions I often do not find these interactions comfortable. I think this is less because of the homosexual perception and more that I am unaccustomed to anyone touching me at all so it feels odd when anyone does.

                On the note of human interactions hospitality and neighborly conduct is perceived vastly differently here than in America. Multiple times I have been asked by people I don’t know to come and eat with them while just walking down the road. You might pass this off as an unusual greeting that lacked true intent but in reality either of those times I could have accepted and walked into a random person’s compound and eaten a meal with their family. One of the five tenants of Islam is to give alms which can be done in the form of food or money for the poor. But the actions I have observed thus far have been more than the commands of their theistic ideologies. People here are willing to share everything they have with complete strangers. I’ve heard many stories of other volunteers being stranded in a strange place for a night and a simple question of ‘hey can you help me out tonight?’ led to a bed and warm meal from a stranger. I know that some families have hardly enough for themselves but walking around anywhere near mealtime means you will be bombarded by the request to come and eat "Ar nyam". The concept is odd because in America we think that if anyone tries to share then you attract individuals that would rather leech on the generous than generate anything. I often wonder what the real percentage of leeches would be if America tried this sharing mentality.

                A most interesting part about living in any part of the world that isn't America is that so many people are bilingual or more multilingual than 2 or 3. Many people here know 3 languages and parts of several others. I know my perceptions upon arriving here is that to be taught only one language almost cripples an individual. I’m trying to pick up Pulaar to use in my village and French to use in the bigger cities that speak primarily Wolof and French, but at my age the brain is less adept at ingesting a new language. Honestly it seems my brain is only programmed to work in one language while my new neighbors are more flexible. One of the most difficult things I have run into is when someone says a sentence to me and one word is in butchered English or French (of which I only know a tiny amount). My brain is working so hard to try and focus on all the Pulaar words I know that partially misspoken English words just kill my understanding of the whole sentence. After these experiences I want my kid/s to be bilingual at least, hopefully I’ll be adept enough with French eventually to teach them myself. Funny tidbit one of the gentlemen from my group has lived his whole life in France and made it into the American Peace Corps only because his mother is American and he is in possession of dual citizenship. The thing I was proud of is that he has several times complimented my accent when I attempt French within his hearing.

                I guess the last little fun differential I shall give you all for now is public transportation. If you want to go somewhere you first get to the ‘garage’ of the city you are in. To get to the garage you just wait on the side of the road for a taxi and tell it to take you to the garage, or you walk. When there you find a vehicle headed to your destination. There are tons of seven passenger cars that travel faster but are more expensive than the slower modes. These sept-places as they are called run from the departure to destination typically without stopping to pick up passengers. There are 15-24 passenger vans that depart and pick up anyone on the side of the road who flags it down before it is full and they get off whenever they want. This makes most journeys on them quite slow as you tend to stop frequently. There are also a handful of night busses that are what you would consider a standard concord coach in America and they run mostly at night but will run during the day as well. They are on the expensive side but quite comfortable in comparison to the other means of transport. If you are out in the middle of nowhere and desire transportation you must find a main road and wait for one of the busses to drive by and just flag it down and tell them your destination. Also bags that you do not intend to keep on your lap (which may be several based on how lightly you travel) you need to bargain for the price of carrying the bag on top of the vehicle or in a trunk space. This is because the driver will keep an eye on bags that have been paid for to ensure that they are not stolen. Lastly each vehicle looks as if it had set in a junkyard for 10 years before the owner decided to try and drive it. Finding a taxi with a non-broken windshield is somewhat of a rarity and all passengers are in constant peril of flat tires, engine failure, or some form of accident due to the utter lack of both road rules and any formalized driving education. Fun times though.

                Here are some random fun facts that didn’t quite require a full paragraph. People here do not use toilet paper. They keep water near the bathroom and use the left hand and water to rinse. I prefer keeping a bar of soap VERY close to my bathroom, being a literal hole in the ground. Some more fancy places actually have a porcelain ‘turkish’ toilet, basically a fancy hole in the ground that sorta flushes if water goes down it and has a place for you to stand. As the left hand is often… ‘unclean’ it is impolite to hand or accept anything to anyone with that hand. Similarly it is extremely impolite to eat with one’s left hand. People here eat with their right hand out of a large community bowl. Meals are prepared to a texture that can be scooped and formed into a ball then placed in the mouth. Typically 3-12 people sit around each bowl all eating at the same time. Greetings are also another difference. It is very impolite to refrain from greeting most people in a formal setting. Obviously this is non-applicable when walking down a crowded city street but if you walk into a shopkeepers or intend to speak with someone or pass by a person whom you see regularly they expect a small exchange of words before you depart or attempt to talk business with them.

                Well that’s some of the things that come to mind for interesting things and I know I’m forgetting a load of them but I’ll have time to communicate them later. Good evening ya’ll.