Lightbulb Moments

One of my adult students is Ouaddaian, and he corroborated the Tunjour/Ouaddai story. I told him pops was Tunjour and he said, “Oh yeah, we have the same parents!” (meaning ancestry). “Parents” here tend to mean anyone remotely related to you, or of the same group. CaCa and I went to visit one of her friends the other day and CaCa said, “: Her father and AlHadj’s grandfather were brothers,”…making her and CaCa…third cousins? By marriage? It’s difficult to understand, but Chadians can rattle off the complicated family lines. And whether you’re a brother or 5th cousin, you’re treated with the same hospitality. For instance, a woman came to stay with us for about a month. I asked the girls who she was and they said, “She’s Papa’s sister.” “Same mother same father?” I asked. “No, the father of her father and the father of Papa’s father were brothers,” So…second cousin, I think, I barely know my second cousins!

Life in a Francophone country is filled with fun light bulb moments. Like the time I realized the English word “parasol” comes from the French “parasoleil”. And like today, when I found randomly in the dictionary that the peeuuu! noise we make when something stinks comes directly from the French verb “puer” or “to stink.” Knowledge is power.