My family

My family is wonderful. I already think that they are possibly the best family of all the homestay families. At first I wasnt so sure. Namely becuase the one thing I was hoping for, and asked for, was a family with a lot of children. I love kids and feel that they make a transition a lot easier, because of laughter, and games, even when communication is difficult. When I arrived at my house, however, there was only one 11 year old boy, Abdu, and two babies, of 2 years and 2 months. Yes I was a little disappointed. And it was funny because many of the other trainees said, you might be really really glad about that a little later, when you just want some peace and quiet and dont have six faces staring at you and watching and laughing at your every move. And it turns out to be true, (although I still think I would like more kids, but hey, kids are everywhere, its true.) But yes I love my family. There is the "Papa", Ibrahim, who is a farmer and goes to his various fields around Nassarao on his bicycle. He knows a little little bit of French, mainly limitted to "Hello! Did you eat? Did you eat well? Really? Are you lying to me? Ok. Thank you!" He is very concerned about me eating well. And very sweet. And always says "Merci" at the end of our very short conversations. His older daughter is 29, Aissatou. She has a daughter Coultoumi, aged 2 years. Ibrahims wife is Aissatou and she is 34. Her daughter is Coultoumi, aged 2 months. Yes, confusing. About every fifth woman here seems to be named Aissatou. And then Aissatou (Sr.) has a son Abdu, 11, from a different father, and he speaks very very limitted French. I think actually he just nods his head and says "Yes" a lot of times when Im speaking french although he doesnt understand. At the beginning this made me think he spoke French. Actually it took me a very long time to figure out that noone really speaks french and also to figure out who everyone in the family was and how they were related. All three of the adults in the compound were previously married and divorced, something I found interesting. Aissatou Jr is now looking for a husband and is living at home, although actually this past week she has been visiting her mother in Garoua. The women dont speak any French at all, only Fulfulde. I was kind of expecting not to be in a French speaking family, and it has been really good. The only difficulty I have is that I cant really communicate with the women as I would like to. This was very hard in the beginning because the only ones I could have conversations with were men. I can say Good morning, and May I help, Im going to school now, etc in Fulfulde, but no real conversations. But that will come, as Im slowly learning. But the word to describe everyone in the family is just Sweet. They are all sweet. And very nice and laid back and easy going. I do wish you all could know them. In addition, there are about 6 students who live in our compound and are going to high school here: they are all 20 something males, who come by most evenings to sit on the mat with us, to speak french, or even english, as many of them are very interested in learning and imroving english, and learning about America. There is also another woman, probably about my age, who lives in the compound with her four little boys and husband, who I just met for the first time two nights ago. Her name is Magout, and she too is a friend, and helps in that she speaks french with me and can help communicate between myself and the Aissatous.

The compound is really beautiful. Its all walled in in a sort of Trapezoid shape with red dirt mud walls. Some of the buildings are mud huts with thatched roofs. My room and the Aissatous room is a mud brick covered in cement building with tin roof. There are fruit trees, guava, papaya, citris, around the compound, and a big garden in the outside part. It reminds me of mideival castle set up, with walls and rooms making up a community. Pictures will come later.