Language

Yesterday morning, my host brother walked into my room and plopped himself, as he often does, on my wicker couch.

He does this often, and in fact, he is doing it as I type this. Sometimes I think this is his way of getting something from me, or he's hiding from the women in the family who never shut up.

Anyways, I proceeded to make small talk and asked him what he was going to do for the national holiday that day. (Side note: there's always some national holiday) He said he would spend the day doing nothing, which I half expected.

I then asked about another member of the family and his whereabouts as I hadn't seen him all morning. My host brother said he had left for the auto shop where he works. I was surprised, as I thought everyone had today off. The schools were closed, and I knew the post office was shut. I asked why this was and my host brother said that anyone who works with the French language has the day off.

In the States, our division of labor is labeled by our collars: blue or white. In Senegal (and I'm sure most of post-colonial Africa) the division is labeled by what language one works with. It makes prefect sense. A command of the French languages generally implies someone is educated and most likely has a job that doesn't involve manual labor.