UPDATE: Thies Family

Saturday, June 3, 2006

A lot of you have continued to ask about my Thies’ host family. They were a family that I became very close to and very grateful for having. It took awhile and a lot of consistent effort (which is the norm here) to get a hold of them, but I finally did. Today, I met up with one of my two sisters at my Thies’ family’s Dakar compound so to speak. It turns out that it is about a 20 minute walk from the hospital and I go to the Toubab grocery store at the intersection there about two or three times a week. I hung out there for about an hour after work, catching up on the family. My sister saw the national news the other day when I was on it, so she brought that up. Also, we talked about my hand and what I am going to cook when I head back to Thies. I saw some family members that I had met briefly before and met my grandmother (mom’s mom). One of my favorite people in the family is I think my second cousin. I don’t know her name, but that isn’t surprising because, I don’t know too many peoples names, they just don’t know that. She is about 3 years old and cute as a button, but is scared to death of me because I’m white and she is very shy but mischievous. She refuses to look at me in the eyes or acknowledge my presence, but I’m working on it…starting with bribes. Overall, it was a great visit, but they were disappointed that I wasn’t staying for lunch.

I intend to go back Monday evening and see my dad and other sister. As I have said in the past, my sisters go to University in Dakar and my dad comes to Dakar every week this semester to teach at one of the ecoles (elementary school). So, if everything goes according to plan, I will get to see a little more of my Thies family on Monday and stay for dinner. I am still hoping to make it up to Thies in the upcoming weeks.