My last week in Pout

Hello.

Sorry I haven't written in a while, my schedule hasn't permitted me to be online much these past couple of weeks! Well, not long enough to write a blog.

So, just a quick note to let you all know what I've been up to recently.

I just spent about 9 days in Pout, my language town. It was my last time there and I am now back at the training center for the last couple of days before swear-in. My week in Pout was very interesting. I actually made a list of interesting things that happened in Pout while they were happening, but unfortunately I didn't bring it with me. Oops. I guess I'll just have to wing it.

This week in my host family I lost a member as well as gained one. Miriam Ba, my 16 year old Sister went back to the Kolda area, where she lives with her family. My mom and dad in Pout are her aunt and uncle. The new member is my Pati, and I love her! Pati is grandma in Pula Futa. We bonded pretty quickly as after I got home from school every day she was often the only one home and we just sat together for hours. The first time we sat together it was pretty quiet, we literally just chewed on sticks together and picked our noses. It was quite interesting, actually. My Pati is a really good stick chewer. Her teeth are honestly like a hundred times cleaner than mine. After watching her chew her mango tree stick for a while I went to my room and got mine out and started chewing away. I was struggling. It's not so easy. My Pati laughed at me, took my stick, cu the tip off with a knife and gave it back. It was good after that.
After all the stick chewing and nose picking, we started talking. It turns out my Pati is really good at teaching me Pula Futa. She helped me with my homework every day, letting me ask her questions and answering me slow enough to allow me to learn the new words and write them down. My little sisters often got impatient with me in these situations.
Usually my room is private and I don't really allow people inside. That all changed when I decided I wanted to have my lantern in my room so I could study in it after dark. With the lamp came my twin sisters with their books and school supplies. We all laid on the floor hovering around the lamp and studied. After a few minutes my little brother, Issa came in and started causing a ruckus. He was jumping up and down and dancing and doing everything he could to get us to entertain him. Shortly after, my Pati came into my room and sat there watching us study while keeping Issa from messing us up.
After a while studying all my sisters asked me to play the Numa Numa song on my ipod. They love this song... a LOT. They ask me to play it like 100 times a day and they sing along to it and dance along to it perfectly. Too bad I don't have a camera... what a great video it would make! If you guys don't know what the Numa Numa song is, look it up on youtube!
There was an incident with a kitten this week. it included two more than innocent 4 week old kittens who decided to imprint themselves on us Americans. They ended up in a garbage dump almost being stepped on by a 600lb pig. They tried to follow me home and I was already being followed home by about 20 african kids who thought I was crazy for touching kittens. Don't ask me to explain this, it's complicated. I really wanted the best for the kittens in a world that hates them. I really wanted to adopt one of them but it is not the right time. I don't know if they survived or not the the outcome didn't seem good.
On our last day in Pout I went to a soccer game with my fellow Pula Futa students. It was the biggest game of the season for the people of Pout, and it was very crowded. One scene that was great, were the kids in the baobabs. For kids who couldn't afford to get into the stadium, they found other ways to watch the game. There were two baobabs by the fence and there were probably about 50 kids in each tree watching the game. It was a great site! If you don't know what baobab trees are, look them up! They are amazing trees. The game was fun too. We ate lots of yogurt packs and cheered for our teams. Well, kinda. I was more into watching the vendors than the game. People buying things from the venders literally threw money at them from above (it was too crowded on the stands for venders to climb up to the top). If the money was lost in the crowd someone always found it and gave it to the vender. They were all very honest about it. Then the vendor just tossed the food item to the person. it was great!
Now that I am back at the center we are all very excited about the elections. As I am writing this blog we are all in a rented hotel room watching the election coverage on CNN.
Oh, funny fact. I found out the my Pati is 46 years old, which is fricking hilarious considering that my mom is in her upper 50s. Yes, my granny in Africa is younger than my mom. Here is the real kicker. My mom .. which I found out a couple days later when they asked me to read her birth certificate to her, is only 27 years old! Yes, the mom that feeds me and takes care of me is only two years older than me. How much of a kicker is that!
So, I'm really excited about being installed into my village. I'll tell you about it when the time comes. eh..