In general, I have found the kids here to be particularly polite, but still with a great sense of entertainment. As a kid lover, I often consider children’s behavior quite endearing. The same cannot be said for the parents of those children. I would like to share one of my favorite memories of kids in Senegal with you.  

In my Community-Based Training, where volunteers are assigned to a host family for language learning in their first few months in country, my brother Dauda had a very resounding and particular “uh” sound that comes out with a sharp sense of astonishment when he is in conversation. I don’t think it’s really uttered every time something amazing is said because it’s done at a surprising frequency. Nonetheless, it’s a rather contagious mannerism from a man with a rather strong positive personality. Sadly, I think I even started to adopt it since it was so often heard. 

Dauda also has a cute young son named Pamoud who is about one and a half years of age. He is a stunning depiction of what his father must have looked like as a child as Pamoud looks only like his father. At such a young age, he doesn’t speak much more than this particular “ah” sound that his father makes and I have had many a conversation with him using only this. 

I look at him and say, “uh,” and he would smile ear to ear and respond with, “ah.” We would continue this for about a minute or two before I grew tired. I was never sure what was communicated in these discussions, but they seemed immensely satisfying and intellectually stimulating for him. I hope that if he continues to have discussions like these with people for the rest of his infancy, he will be an academic of sorts in no time!

I have found the kids here to be particularly polite, but still with a great sense of entertainment.

We also had a young girl of similar age named Awa who was around the house for a while. One day the two children had a plastic yellow hose that they were playing with. As children in their Freudian oral stage, they felt compelled to put the ends of the hose in their mouths: one end in Pamound’s and another in Awa’s. I almost died of laughter when they held the hose at length, about a meter and a half, and began to have a vibrantly baritone conversation that sounded a little like this: 

“eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh”

“eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh”

“eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh” “uh” “eh”

Which I think translates to something like this:

• “Wow! Your breath tastes really good.”
  
• “I’m glad that this conversation is being held privately within this tube.”
  
• “The boogers dripping from your face are really cute!”
  
• “Oh look! A metal door that I can make a deafening clanging-sound with if I bang on it really hard!”
  
• “I love how much you rebel with your family! So attractive.”
  

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! 

Pamoud’s Mother: “My child is so rude.”