Famita starts school at 8 am and finishes at 4 pm. She goes to school Monday through Wednesday. Some kids are on a different schedule and attend Thursday through Saturday.
Famita's home is a five-minute walk from her local elementary school. She walks by houses of friends and relatives all the way there on the dirt path.
Famita comes home for lunch. Her favorite food is called Futi! Which is a kind of rice, peanut dish.
School is conducted in French and Wolof. Her native language is Pulaar, and you greet someone by saying Mbad-daa?, which translates to "What are you doing?" or "How is it going?” The standard response is Jam-Tan, which means “Peace only,” and can be translated as, “It's all going great!”
Fatoumata, Mariama, Ansara (my local name!), and Seynabou are some popular girls' names. For boys, Mouhamed, Abouli, Aliou, Ousumon (my husband’s local name), and Thierno are popular.
Famita expressed that she only learns French and Arabic at school, but after visiting a class or two, I noticed that they are also learning a little bit of math, science, biology, and grammar while learning French.
