Happy Father's Day

Today was hot, very hot, which means that no one did much of anything which was totally fine by me. This morning I took my time getting ready, continued organizing my room around my new shelves which I'm completely obsessed with, and spent the better part of the hour trying to scrape my water filter clean. I also played with Ahmed for a really long time, which I haven't done in a while. We played with his "Legos" and he told me that I can make really beautiful giraffes, but that my castles are ugly. I think I'm going to put that on my resume.

All of these activities only brought me to about 11am so I grabbed a book and parked myself in front of the television to watch soccer for the rest of the day. As I said, it was extremely hot today so everyone was laying on the tile floor to remain as cool as possible. The living room and entryway was like a mine field of dozing people who would occasionally rouse themselves to cheer for a goal or bemoan a missed shot. I too passed in and out of consciousness as the games were played, we ate lunch, and I finished my book. My favorite sleeper was big Ahmed who passed out with his head under the couch in the entryway and his feet in the doorway of the living room. It was oddly exactly how I wanted to pass my day especially after Petit and Jeenaba had been talking about going to the beach and dragging me with them. My past 36 hours had been spent thinking up potential excuses/ lies.

Now that I know that Ziabata and Awa are married I've been observing all of their interactions closely to see if there are any changes. Ziabata's life seems to be pretty much the same. He's still the oldest man at the lunch bowl and kind of the man of the house until my dad gets home at night, even though he's not an immediate family member while big Ahmed is. Awa's status has definitely improved. She used to be what I liked to call our "quasi maid," which means she came around to clean, cook, and be with Ziabata sometimes, but she wasn't a daily presence. It now appears as though she lives here and unless her honeymoon means she doesn't have to work for a week she's not doing nearly as many chores. Also, Jeenaba and Deenba have to have either Khady or my mom taste the rice they make for lunch before they can serve it to make sure it's ok. Today they were both passed out on the floor so Jeenaba took the rice to Awa. I don't know if a married woman has to taste the rice or if Awa is now a woman of the house and is therefore more powerful than Jeenaba and Deenba.

I also wanted to give a special shout out to my dad for Father's Day. I know that you went to Ma's and Pa's for dinner, but in my daily exercise of "What Would I Eat Today If I Was In America?" I imagined a Caesar salad, burger, and snowball at the club for your Father's Day meal!