It Makes the World Go Round, Part 2: Cookie Culture

So you already know how hard it is to get small change, and how all you can ever use is small change. We've already covered that.

What I haven't talked about yet is the effect it's had on MSID students as a community of people with a common annoyance (it's not really a problem, that is). We all know how hard it is to get change, so it isn't at all out of place to hear someone say "I need to break a bill- who can I buy lunch for?" or, "All I've got is tens, can you cover me today?" I'll pay you back when I have change. That's how it is, every day. We all owe each other so much little change in things like taxi fares or lunch tabs or bottles of water or oranges. And it's not worth keeping track of. Sure, big things (ten bucks or more, let's say) we keep track of. But it's not worth it, and by now we're all so used to it that no one blinks at a request for change.

And as I mentioned before, this also results in us all buying more stuff than we need. Namely, food. Namely, cookies. Let me explain.

Very early on in our stay here, we realized that it's cheaper to buy cookies at the supermarket than it is to buy lunch at the restaurant here. And the supermarket is a lot more likely to give you change. And so for about a week a few of us just ate packaged cookies for lunch. That means that after a week we kept buying cookies, but didn't want to eat them. So we shared them, you know, as a gesture that we were learning about this culture of sharing. Or something. And now we're in the habit. Which means that at any given time someone will have just been to MyShop or the supermarché and will have a big shiny new stack of cookies, that will last all of a day because we just put them out on the table for whoever wants them.

We don't eat cookies for lunch anymore though. That was a bad plan to start with.

But I'm going to miss that small endearing detail of how we've come together as a group here. Sharing cookies that you bought just because you figured it was your turn to buy cookies since you hadn't in a few weeks and you'd been eating everyone else's cookies. Having that thought of "oh, I should get around to getting something for the group" but not worrying about if everyone gets some, they will next round from somebody else. Or realizing that even though so-and-so hasn't paid you back for the lunch you covered, it's about three dollars and next time you don't have change you can ask them, or anyone else around you.

I'm not sure if this is a Senegalese thing, or a American Students Studying in Senegal thing, but I really do appreciate it.

Little things like that, like walking into WARC and saying "good morning, how's the wireless working today?" and hearing the string of trilingual curses that follow. The rows of computers charging in the classroom during class so we can sit in the sun with our laptops after lunch. Or geeking out over fabric, and the outfits we walk by on the way home. It's weird, this being the last week of all of that before we split up and leave for various internships.