Sibling Rivalry

Today I noticed my little sister MamDiara, definitely spelled wrong, fights the most with the siblings closest to her in age. I grew up in a family where I was by far the youngest and there were no kids around. When I was a kid my brothers and sisters were teenagers. I don’t think I really ever fought with any of them, but if I did it would have been Valerie, the one closest to me in age. I guess it’s the same across cultures.  I thought about this more today and realized my irritation with my littlest brother may be due to the fact that I’m just not used to living with a baby. He is a little over a year old, he is always sick, and has vomited on me. He screams all the time. Sounds like a baby right? Although he does have a few unique characteristics which I feel make him more annoying. He pinches. I hate being pinched! He also has syphilis which as far as I know cannot be transferred by skin contact but the lesions on his skin are still gross enough that I don’t want him to touch me. I heard my dad on the phone tonight and he was talking about the pharmacy so I think they are getting him medicine tomorrow.  It is definitely an adjustment going from the youngest to the oldest even though I had a little experience with my awesome nieces and nephew it’s not the same as actually living with little people.

            My older siblings don’t fight with each other at all. I guess they don’t have anything to fight about. They have very few clothes and are different enough in size that they don’t share or steal. They have no toys except what they find in the garbage piles. There is one board game in our house and it does cause some commotion. It is currently in pieces due to the last scuffle. They are competitive, but since it broke the house is a much more peaceful, though I actually enjoyed watching them play and sometimes joined in. I had a feeling they were changing the rules as we played. The game is pretty much a version of sorry with no cards, dice only. They play friendly games of shoot ‘em up with the neighbor kids using plastic they find discarded.  They do know a little about having more things because they have a tv and there are soap operas from different countries, not North American, dubbed in French. They seem content though. I don’t know enough of the language to say they aren’t complaining but they smile and laugh a lot.

            The tv only works when the electric does. It’s a big problem in Senegal. Tonight for example, I am sitting typing in my room in the dark because the power has been out for hours. It goes out on pretty much a daily basis. The country has too many people using electricity and only one power source. If you have something important, or rather if you have a lot of money, you have a generator for backup. In the training center there is a generator so we never noticed the problem with the electric until we were in our home stays. My permanent site doesn’t have electric at all so it won’t matter to me then.  The only thing I really miss electric for is light. Candles just don’t do it. My friend said I could have his solar flashlight since he has electric and that might work out. I’ll let you know! I have a solar charger which I should be able to use for my camera, ipod, and phone. My computer will be staying at the regional house in a nearby city called Kaolack. It has electricity so I won’t have to worry about charging it at site. I will have to travel about 3 hours to get there and will probably stay the night when I do to make the trip worth it. The city has Americanized restaurants and the house has internet access. I will probably go once a month to clear my email and throw some new stories on the blog.