Word. So I talked to the family about all the things I didn't understand and now I feel a lot more chill. I think I feel/felt really wierd cuz I've never been around really devout people and I don't understand the melange of modern culture and traditional culture so I was taking my mistakes too seriously, thinking they reflected on me as a human more than they really did. They kept saying, ca n'est pas grave (it's not a big deal/its not serious) about all the things I messed up. The mix is so bizarre, though. Like on Tuesday when I came home the grandmother was over and she was on the prayer rug and she was praying with her beads and whatnot and not 15 feet away Adie and I were watching some movie in which there was this ubersexual scene and the volume was, as always, full blast. Also Adie doesnt wear the flowing muslim outfits that the older women wear here, she wears jeans and tshirts (I dont know how she wears tight jeans when it's so hot)...
Friday we're going to go to the market so I can find a pair of short pants and hopefully a used bike. I miss biking, I also missed something really wierd the other day--NPR. I'm such a politics junkie. Adie asked me why Americans think theyre better than the rest of the world. I had to explain about our terrible education system (we dont learn anything about history, which is really important but we're just told to memorize dates and names without understanding the significance of things) and how the media is corporate controlled and in bed with the government, and how when most of the people have enough money they don't need to wonder why the world is the way it is cuz they know they will have enough to eat at the end of the day, etc. Then they all started talking about it but I couldnt really follow, esp cuz they kept going back and forth in Wolof. I need to ask the father what he thinks cuz he watches the news and I think he knows more about what's going on in the world than the kids.
Being here gives me insights left and right all day long that I would have to study many books critically to tentatively come to a conclusion about in the States.
Oi! I hope I can find a bike for not too expensive. bikebikebike! I hope I don't get killed riding it the traffic here is fucking insane; much worse than Mpls.
