Social studies!

Pippi Isatou handed me a Gambian social studies book she'd picked up from the ground. She wanted me to talk about the pictures inside, so I did, to the best of my ability. And for once I was grateful that Gambian culture does not often ask "why" because my explanations left much unanswered.

• Tourists in a swimming pool playing volleyball = "White people who came to Gambia, they want to see Gambia...it is not a river, but they are in a lot of water...they are playing, it is not football..."
• Tourists gathered around cannons at a historical site = "It will kill people, but now it will not kill...the people want to look at it"
• Cargo ships loaded with cotton (according to the caption) = "This ship will go from Gambia to America. Inside the carton is...I forget what it is called. It is white, it is soft... people will farm it...before you have fabric, you have it..." Sinni had joined us and she is never satisfied when I trail off after an unknown word. I love her for this, but I wished I knew how to say, "Trust me, this doesn't matter, there's really nothing exciting inside those cartons." She called over an older girl who speaks English well, but I disagreed with her translation of "cotton" so we consulted Sinni's father-in-law, who is an English/Pulaar dictionary I too often forget about. Sinni doesn't seem terribly disappointed with the answer, but just to make sure, I told her that in the river between Gambia and America live large fish that eat people.
• Gambians dressed in white aprons and chef's hats before a stove = "They are cooking. If white people come to Gambia, they will not want to eat domada or benechin every day. Some will eat but some will not. That is why they are learning to cook food white people like."

Of course, the book discussed more than the tourism industry, but the photos where I answered, "that man's name is ________" were not worth recounting.

After we go through the book twice, the girl who mis-translated "cotton" brought over an American social studies book she had borrowed from her school library. It's the same one she'd shown me a few months earlier, so it's possible "borrowed" is the wrong word.

The book contained too many pictures to discuss each individually, so I only needed to provide explanations for those specifically questioned. This I was able to do for all but birthdays, snow and Native Americans (Sinni declared the animal-hide wigwams pretty).

I enjoyed the pictures showing situations that showed similarities between America and The Gambia. Cornfields, for example. Actually, the book didn't specify the crop being harvested, so I just called it corn. I forgot that, even if I cannot recognize corn stalks, Sinni certainly could. She asked, "American corn?" and if she also thought, "American corn sure looks a lot like _____" she kept it to herself.  I said, "Yes."