Distant relatives and good friends of the mayor all live here on the compound to go to school, work in town, work at the local farms sponsored by Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or just pass through, only spending one or two nights. On any given night, around 25 people sleep at the mayor’s house, so there is a lot of work to be done. As part of their rent, the teenage girls do all the work; cleaning, cooking, laundry and taking care of the animals are all their collective responsibilities. They swap days with each other for who will be on what duty, rotating coffee, cleaning, lunch and dinner duties, along with an all-hands approach to the massive amounts of laundry they have to do Saturday through Monday. The men and boys who live in the house may occasionally help with an animal related project such as mending a fence or moving bags of rice, but other than that, they sit around while the girls do all the work.
Ansetta will get ready for school quickly as she has to walk across town to the middle school, arriving by 8:30 am for her first class. She keeps all of her clothes in a suitcase, just like the other girls. Wood and building materials are hard to come by, so furniture like dressers and tables is scarce.
Dressing up and looking cute for school is maybe a bigger deal here than in America, where pajamas have become the norm, though certainly some kids do wear PJs to class in Senegal. As fitting with the culture, having a clean and orderly appearance (by Senegalese standards) is imperative for making a good impression on your teacher and your classmates.
