Timmy Toubab and me

My brother arrived early Sunday morning in all his Minnesota whiteness among the crowds of the Dakar airport getting jostled and jolted and scammed and seemingly oblivious to it all with his wide shiteating grin and practicing his long forgotten French with every vendor and trickster "Bonjour Ca Va? You from America?" And my brother unknowingly, unwittingly, replies head bobbing, "oui oui ca va, America, yes." And when I leave him for five minutes, he gets taken down the beach by two blokes looking for the perfect toubab to "tour their village." And the dive shop lady says, "Il faut que tu expliques des choses du Senegal a ton frere (you need to explain some things about Senegal to your brother)." So it's all part of the learning experience, for both of us, me learning to play host to this country that suddenly has become mine in small ways and suddenly I'm in a position to try to explain it all to someone else (someone who all my life has been the one explaining-me life's lessons). And I feel I'm in the middle, in the middle between being a toubab tourist and a what? toubab resident? Either way, there's still a lot more to learn and my few words of Wolof and the few bargaining skills I've picked up and my occasional attitude when someone tries to pull a fast one on me are only the beginning and, really, are only the bare minimum needed to survive here (but not easily transferrable in a week's time).

But, soon we'll be off, both out of our elements, to spend Christmas Day touring Casablanca and then off to (rendre visite!) visit Jeremy of Arabia in Egypt -- I just hope he's ready for us.

Have a happy Christmas. And no matter how exotic these travels sound, my heart is in South Dakota with all of you, the cold, the snow, midnight mass, real Christmas decorations, yummy Christmas food, and warm houses. Love from Senegal, Casablanca, and Cairo!