It’s a leafy vegetable that has been ground into a pasty, sticky substance. The women use it on their fingers to form the rice into compact balls. It’s really just grass and holds no nutritional value, but people here are addicted to it as they’ve been eating it with lunch and dinner since they were born. Even though I eat with a spoon at my bowl, there is always a lump or two of it around the bowl for the little boys as they usually don’t eat with a spoon until about age ten.
After lunch it is socializing and chore time. Ansetta may help with the dishes or prep dinner. She’ll also sit around with the young men and the girls, chatting, playing a game on a phone or playing with the little kids. After a while, she’ll head back to her room and may take a nap or scroll on her phone for a bit. When it gets a little bit cooler, around 6 pm, she may head out to a friend's house to chill and generally do nothing. If her friend has chores to do, she may help with those or play with the little kids in their house.
When the young men who work in the farms come home for dinner around 8 pm, Ansetta will get her homework out and have them help her with it. They will basically do all of her homework for her, as she doesn’t understand what her teacher was trying to explain to the class today. Sometimes they try to coach her on how to do something or ask her to do the example, but as the priority (in this culture) is getting the homework done right, and not her personal education, they will do for her the parts she cannot do.
Ansetta may help Koumba or Aminata or whoever’s turn it is with dinner, to dish up the bowls before sitting down at the girls' bowl again for dinner around 9:30 pm.
