It's Nice to Be Nice

From Laura Oxenreiter Travel blog
"Daily Life in The Gambia.
My title is one of Gambians' favorite sayings. It's true for them--they're very friendly. Wherever I'm walking to, it's guaranteed that at least 4 adults say "Hah-lo" or "How ah you?" as I walk past. It's too much at first, but now I'm used to it. Some days it gets annoying, but it actually is nice to connect with people, especially the ones I walk past everyday. On the other hand, random guys come up to us and ask us how our holiday is, where we're from, where we're staying, what our name is. It's best to have a made-up name and story ready for those ones.

Now, kids are different. Some will say "Toubab, how ah you?" Toubab=white person. Others just yell, "Toubab!" and if I'm lucky, I'll get just a "Hallo, how ah you?" without the "toubab". If I don't acknowledge the "toubab" screamers, they'll keep yelling, so it works to wave at them. Also, we just learned "Man, duma toubab" in Wollof, which means "Me, I'm not a toubab," which sometimes works if they shut up for long enough to listen, and if they know Wollof."