Talking on the phone with my mom the other day made me realize something. I don’t think I talk much about the things that I find common place now. So I decided to write up a quick list of things that, in retrospect, are pretty odd, but no longer make me do double-takes.
In no particular order:
[1] Public urination: No rules here. Oh wait, unless it says ‘Interdit Uriner ICI– 5.000 CFA’ which translates to ‘Illegal to urinate here – 5,000 CFA’ (that’s the fine, but who knows who you are supposed to pay). Men tend to face the road so they can see you and you can see… them. Women hike up their dresses (to reduce splatter damage), spread their legs, turn their faces down to their target, and let fly. Children just do it wherever and whenever they want. I’ve seen my neighbor’s kid (cowgirl’s older sister) hop over in front of my door, slide her underwear to the side with her hand, and let go. That would be kind of like me going to your front porch and peeing. Haha. That’s funny. Babies usually don’t have diapers, so you’ll usually see them stop, look like they are concentrating, and then pee will be flowing down their leg. Once finished, they continue walking again and the parents just let it all air dry. Of course, if it happens in the house, they’ll rub it around with a dirty rag designated for such things and spread it thin so it’ll dry faster.
[2] Livestock: I was waiting for an English exam to start for a competition us volunteers help put on each year and I looked out the window to see a herd of cows meandering through the school grounds. Two children were herding them through with big sticks, whacking away to make sure they stayed the course. I sat there wondering, ‘Woah, cows (in Djakotomey?)!’ instead of, ‘Woah, cows (what the hell are they doing on school grounds)?!?’ I also find it funny when a random baby goat walks into our concession, makes his rounds, nibbles on some choice pieces of trash, and hops his way out.
[3] Sounds: Children crying here is almost like an art. I can now determine when a child is crying of hunger, anger, fear, sadness, pain, or faking. The most annoying are the times where the child (who shouldn’t even be in my concession) will do a half-hearted cry and then sustain it over the life of the amount of air he/she has in his/her lungs. He/she will do this for at least 5 to 10 minutes straight, trying to garner the attention of an adult (usually his/her mom). Depending on how I feel, sometimes I will yell, “YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!” For some reason, it occasionally works.
[4] Verbal fights: My mama next door has a lot of friends or at least a lot of people come by on a day to day basis. Therefore, this means occasionally they will have moments where they are yelling at one another. Now, since I don’t fully understand local language, I don’t know if they are mad at each other or if they are just passionately discussing a topic. Much like Korean, Adjah seems to be spoken through volume, rather than subtlety. I’ve looked out my window to see my mama yelling her head off, then, a few minutes later some neighbor walks into the conversation, listens, makes some sort of joke, laughs really loud (and ends with a big, “OOOOOhhhhh Weeeeeeee!!!”) and then everyone laughs?!? Yeah, I don’t get it.
[5] Power outages: We’ve had a lot of these lately. I ran out of candles so for the last few nights when 7PM has hit, I take a seat in my pagne chair, put up my feet on my coffee table, and look at the wall. Sometimes I’ll just sit there for two hours just listening to the church drums being played or just the quiet of the still night. It is relaxing and soothing… then I realize that this is really weird and almost creepy and try to find something to do (like listen to a podcast or something).
[6] Baby toys: I went to the mayor’s office once and a lady there had recently had a child. He’s a cute looking kid but it was weird cause he was probably only like 5 months old or something and this lady was bringing him in cause she was working. As I talked with her she put him on the ground on top of a big pagne (piece of cloth) and then, to make sure he had something to play with, threw him her house keys, a piece of plastic, and a calendar. I laughed out loud when I saw her throw him these things because after it hit him and plopped to the floor, the kid became COMPLETELY absorbed with these simple items. That’s all they need! As the children get older all they really need is some sort of plastic container, some water, and red dirt (which is everywhere). They play house with the mud they make (which represents food, furniture, etc).
[7] Male affection: I remember this was one of the funnier things that we encountered when first coming here. My host dad would hold my hand as we walked across the busy streets, usually leading me by my hand, so I would in turn put on a dopey looking face and sort of hop along behind him. Good friends here also hold hands (males), which is kind of like Korean culture, although, that is usually reserved for the female gender. So when I see two dudes kind of close together, speaking to each other in close proximity, I look down to see what their hands are doing. Usually one guy will have his index finger and middle finger slightly crooked and his friend will have the same fingers on the opposite hand lightly touching the fingertips of his friend. Yes, it isn’t full on ‘hand’ holding. Usually it just involves the fingertips or hooking up to the first joints of the pinky finger. Intriguing, huh?
In no particular order:
[1] Public urination: No rules here. Oh wait, unless it says ‘Interdit Uriner ICI– 5.000 CFA’ which translates to ‘Illegal to urinate here – 5,000 CFA’ (that’s the fine, but who knows who you are supposed to pay). Men tend to face the road so they can see you and you can see… them. Women hike up their dresses (to reduce splatter damage), spread their legs, turn their faces down to their target, and let fly. Children just do it wherever and whenever they want. I’ve seen my neighbor’s kid (cowgirl’s older sister) hop over in front of my door, slide her underwear to the side with her hand, and let go. That would be kind of like me going to your front porch and peeing. Haha. That’s funny. Babies usually don’t have diapers, so you’ll usually see them stop, look like they are concentrating, and then pee will be flowing down their leg. Once finished, they continue walking again and the parents just let it all air dry. Of course, if it happens in the house, they’ll rub it around with a dirty rag designated for such things and spread it thin so it’ll dry faster.
[2] Livestock: I was waiting for an English exam to start for a competition us volunteers help put on each year and I looked out the window to see a herd of cows meandering through the school grounds. Two children were herding them through with big sticks, whacking away to make sure they stayed the course. I sat there wondering, ‘Woah, cows (in Djakotomey?)!’ instead of, ‘Woah, cows (what the hell are they doing on school grounds)?!?’ I also find it funny when a random baby goat walks into our concession, makes his rounds, nibbles on some choice pieces of trash, and hops his way out.
[3] Sounds: Children crying here is almost like an art. I can now determine when a child is crying of hunger, anger, fear, sadness, pain, or faking. The most annoying are the times where the child (who shouldn’t even be in my concession) will do a half-hearted cry and then sustain it over the life of the amount of air he/she has in his/her lungs. He/she will do this for at least 5 to 10 minutes straight, trying to garner the attention of an adult (usually his/her mom). Depending on how I feel, sometimes I will yell, “YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!” For some reason, it occasionally works.
[4] Verbal fights: My mama next door has a lot of friends or at least a lot of people come by on a day to day basis. Therefore, this means occasionally they will have moments where they are yelling at one another. Now, since I don’t fully understand local language, I don’t know if they are mad at each other or if they are just passionately discussing a topic. Much like Korean, Adjah seems to be spoken through volume, rather than subtlety. I’ve looked out my window to see my mama yelling her head off, then, a few minutes later some neighbor walks into the conversation, listens, makes some sort of joke, laughs really loud (and ends with a big, “OOOOOhhhhh Weeeeeeee!!!”) and then everyone laughs?!? Yeah, I don’t get it.
[5] Power outages: We’ve had a lot of these lately. I ran out of candles so for the last few nights when 7PM has hit, I take a seat in my pagne chair, put up my feet on my coffee table, and look at the wall. Sometimes I’ll just sit there for two hours just listening to the church drums being played or just the quiet of the still night. It is relaxing and soothing… then I realize that this is really weird and almost creepy and try to find something to do (like listen to a podcast or something).
[6] Baby toys: I went to the mayor’s office once and a lady there had recently had a child. He’s a cute looking kid but it was weird cause he was probably only like 5 months old or something and this lady was bringing him in cause she was working. As I talked with her she put him on the ground on top of a big pagne (piece of cloth) and then, to make sure he had something to play with, threw him her house keys, a piece of plastic, and a calendar. I laughed out loud when I saw her throw him these things because after it hit him and plopped to the floor, the kid became COMPLETELY absorbed with these simple items. That’s all they need! As the children get older all they really need is some sort of plastic container, some water, and red dirt (which is everywhere). They play house with the mud they make (which represents food, furniture, etc).
[7] Male affection: I remember this was one of the funnier things that we encountered when first coming here. My host dad would hold my hand as we walked across the busy streets, usually leading me by my hand, so I would in turn put on a dopey looking face and sort of hop along behind him. Good friends here also hold hands (males), which is kind of like Korean culture, although, that is usually reserved for the female gender. So when I see two dudes kind of close together, speaking to each other in close proximity, I look down to see what their hands are doing. Usually one guy will have his index finger and middle finger slightly crooked and his friend will have the same fingers on the opposite hand lightly touching the fingertips of his friend. Yes, it isn’t full on ‘hand’ holding. Usually it just involves the fingertips or hooking up to the first joints of the pinky finger. Intriguing, huh?
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