Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Nit nitay garabam (a person is another person's remedy)

This phrase expresses the communal nature in Senegal. It's why it's important to greet everyone, not just the ones you know. It's the reason there are no public restrooms; you can just walk in to anyone's home. People spend time together here.

This is a lesson I believe God has been teaching me over the past year or so. I talked not long ago about learning to really enjoy time spent together with others. It says in Genesis that "it is not good for man to be alone". And although most Senegalese people are Muslim, I'm sure that's one thing from the Bible that they can certainly agree with.

It reminds me of a phrase from South Africa: a person is a person through other people. I spent nearly an hour talking about friends and family with my host sister (6). The concept of friend isn't really used so much when you live with people, like I live with my friends at school. So as I pointed out pictures, I said they were brothers and sisters. She said, "Tu as une grande famille. C'est bon" (you have a big family. That's good).

To be alone is a miserable thing here. It can be hard for the toubabs to understand, but it's a way of life.

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