Coping Strategies

Since I’m in the midst of Unbloggable EventsTM, I thought I’d write about the day immediately preceding them. My host mother took my roommate and I across the street to meet our neighbors. As it turns out, one of them is her father who very warmly greeted us in educated French. His second wife talked about la vie quotidienne en Afrique (daily life in Africa): you wake up early, you work hard, you’re tired, you suffer, you eat (too) little, and then you pass out to start the whole thing over again le lendemain. When you put it like that, life just seems depressing at worst, there at best. One of the most common phrases in Host Country is “On est là!” (“We’re here!”). Though this does lead to some frustration when dealing with what seem like major issues, it does make for a surprisingly effective expression of solidarity or condolence in a land of many struggles.