A thank you card wrapped in a party

Today we had a party to celebrate the end of PST and thank our homestay families for their generosity and patience over the last two months. Each family chose one person to make the trip to Thies - in my family, my mom Nene. She showed up early in the rented sept-places with the other T~ family reps. She brought two things with her:

a) a brand new complet - fancy Senegalese-style outfit, as a gift, not unlike the one I had made to wear to swearing-in tomorrow. The coloring is mirror-imaged, but the cut and the embroidery are different. It is beautiful. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this is that it was made by my other tailor-uncle who never actually took my measurements. He just kind of guessed my sizing when he saw me last. Awesome. I immediately changed into the outfit and wore it for the rest of the day.

b) my wax complet. There's a story here, but let me start off by explaining that gift-giving is a very important part of Senegalese culture. If you ever go out of town (to Thies, or Dakar, for instance), it's customary to come back with a gift, however small (some tea or sugar maybe), for your family. Friendships are based on gift exchanges. If you say you like my skirt, I will give it to you because, well, we're friends and of course I would share with my friend. The awkward thing is that I'm still used to the American idea of complimenting someone's clothes just because I like them, not because I want them or because I'm trying to cement our friendship.

I've made this mistake twice now. The first time, I was looking at pictures with a neighbor when I said I like an outfit she was wearing in one of the pics. Two minutes later, she was generously, whole-heartedly pulling it out of her armoire and telling me she'd love to see me wear it. The only problem here is that the woman is Amazonian huge and the complet dwarfed me. So, I gave it to my uncle-tailor who was able to turn it into something I can wear (although not in time for me to show it off to Fatou, the neighbor). That's the other outfit my mom brought to the party today. Hooray - my Senegalese closet already includes two bassin complets (high quality fabric), a wax complet (everyday quality fabric), a wax dress, a pagne and a ridiculous pair of capri pants.

Also, the second time I made the mistake of complimenting someone's clothes, she went back in her room, took off the shirt, and then promptly offered it to me and a different shirt to Alyssa (which it would be impolite to refuse). This time, the girl was about 1/10th my size; putting on the shirt is like trying to fit Barbie doll clothes on a Cabbage Patch doll... Le sigh. Have I learned my lesson on saying anything nice about other people's stuff?

So, anyway, the party today was a riot. There was delicious yassa chicken lunch, lots of music, lots of Senegalese dancing, and lots of toubabs looking silly in our Senegalese clothes. Pictures are up on Picasa; I'll try to edit together a video of the dancing. We also gave our family certificates saying that they'd put up with us for two months.

I'm exhausted now. Tomorrow, we are leaving for Dakar at the crack of dawn for the swearing-in ceremony at the American ambassador's home. (More on that, well, sometime after tomorrow.) Then, site installations start next week. Eek...

PS - Shout-out to Alyssa's mom Sharyl!! I probably wouldn't have made it through PST without Alyssa, either. We just got super lucky getting placed together. I don't know how we'll get through service so far apart (they'd better work on getting that cellphone plan), but it might be a good thing since we've already started dressing alike. :D