Personally, I Prefer Whitey McWhite

I’ve been here a week and I can’t believe it. My first day I remember thinking the day would never end and then six more came and went. And here I am!! A stronger woman for it! Tamba really isn’t a bad little town and I’m figuring my way around just fine. I anticipated difficulty adapting to a different environment than that I had become accustomed to in Thies, which hasn’t really been an issue, but meeting a new family wasn’t even on the radar of things freaking me out… A new family I’ll be living with for the next two years! How I didn’t give thought to this is beyond me….
My family is middle-class for our area (one of the poorest regions in Senegal) and there are tons of kids and babies in my quartier, something I was definitely hoping for, but before my arrival I hadn’t really given any thought to whether or not I’d be what my family wanted. Were they hoping for a guy? An older person? Taller? Someone a little less cool? The possibilities are endless, but never once did it cross my mind that my being white would be an ‘issue’ (not to say that it is a major issue currently).
Sure, I’m ‘white’ and I stand out in a crowd here, and kids point and scream Toubob (white person) at me in the streets and they did in Thies also, but that all stopped once I got to my street and definitely once I was in my house. My family in Thies refers to me by the name they gave me, not the shade of my skin, which I for one feel is reasonable considering once I got here I had to take a Senegalese name (because volunteers don’t give enough of ourselves by joining the Peace Corps. for two years…Keeping our real names is asking entirely too much).
My family here in Tamba apparently didn’t get the memo that they should have named me Toubob and not Khadi, if that’s what they were going to call me, and I’m not referring to the kids, the children call me Khadi, my parents (ADULTS) refer to me as Toubob. Aggravating.
Children I can understand, they don’t know better or they are just trying to get some attention, and once I tell them my name they generally stop with the Toubob ish... But there is NO excuse for an adult to call someone Toubob. People here can’t understand how we, the volunteers, could possibly leave our families for two years and come to a foreign country. Countless people have asked how I could possibly leave everyone in the U.S., because they feel it would be entirely too difficult to leave their loved ones. Clearly, pointing someone out for being different and referring to them as the white person instead of by their name makes it easier for them to leave their family, move to a foreign country, and give two years of their life to help other people. Clearly.
My family has informed me that the only other volunteer they hosted was Senegalese (and black, because they felt they needed to tell me that). I am their first white person (which would explain why, upon arrival, I was greeted with a bunch of crying little kids/babies) but luckily for them, I’m AWESOME!! After me, they are going to be hoping for a ton of little white girls… In other news, now that I’ve been here a week the kids are no longer terrified by my existence and have chosen that instead they can’t get enough of the Khadi. I am their personal jungle gym. I kid you not; I fight them off to get to my room.
So there is my rant for the day. I hate the fact that the subject of race even got this much face time because it is about the last thing that crosses my mind when I meet/see people. Apparently, there are a lot of people that think differently than me here in Senegal.
CLOSING QUOTE- (translation from Wolof) “haha She’s a clever Toubob”- My Tamba Dad… At least he said I was clever!! And I understood him, which caught him off guard because my parents are usually busy talking about me in Wolof and how I can’t speak/understand anything. So, ha!

I’ve won the kids over, maybe in a week or so the parents will come around…

So this entry may seem a litle negative but I'm actually really enjoying myself here!! Things are definitely getting better! And now, a pico f me this morning with the random donkey that was chilling outside my window!