A Very Happy Moment

I just had my first Senegalese friend call me, just to see how I was doing. This doesn't mean that I don't have friends here, but rather that normally phone calls have some kind of hidden purpose, like do this, marry me, or give me this. I know this sounds rather callous, but that's how things are here - if someone is your friend, you can expect them to do pretty much anything for you, especially if they're a toubab. I've had people call me before to see how I was doing, but these have been normally my boss asking me about a project or the guard, wondering when I'm going to get home (he worries when I'm out in the market by myself too long). This, on the other hand, was my lovely friend Theiwdo, who taught us a bunch of Wolof and Pulaar in the front yard of the compound. She's been at school in Thies for the past month, but we ran into her mother the other day and asked her to say hi to Theiwdo for us. Aparently she's been perserting her entire family for phone credit to call us, and she finally got enough for a quick chat to see what was going on with us. It was one of the sweetest phone calls that I"ve ever received, and makes up for all of those toubab calls in the street and those punk kids who threw rocks at us. It's moments like this that help you get through the bad days, and I'm going to ride this high for as long as I can. Thank you Theiwdo.