Saturday, May 10, 2014

Snapshots

-I haven’t felt homesick for the US yet. I do feel homesick for France whenever I walk into a Toubab store. Strangely enough, it’s always the French brands names that do it. LU is a particularly strong trigger. Tearing up guaranteed. Makes absolutely no sense.

-City bread here is what you might call French bread or baguette, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s an insult. This bread is white and bland, with the consistency of cotton. I think it’s machine made with millet flour. Apparently, village bread—tapalapa—is associated with low socio-economical status. Personally, I think it’s far superior to city bread: wonderfully chewy, nutty, and dense. When I visited Venchele, I had an amazing egg and tapalapa sandwich. Definitely my best meal here.


-Abdou, my host brother, works as an apprenti tailor for his cousin Lamine in M’bour. He says that he’ll be working for free for the next 2 to 3 years while he’s in training. The hours are long: he leaves the house around 9:30am, comes home for lunch around 2pm, goes back to work at 4, and comes home around 9pm. It takes him about 45 minutes to walk each way.

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