Leftovers, anyone?

Leftovers, anyone?

In my house leftovers entered the stage with me. The kids pretend they like them and my husband makes tremendous efforts to eat them because, sometimes, I don’t offer an alternative.  Leftover food is still kind of a tabou in this country. It’s mostly for the poor,...
How I became a stepmother overnight

How I became a stepmother overnight

It was the end of the summer, my brand new husband’s youngest children (11 and 13 years old) had spent the whole summer with us. In the summer everything goes, you wake up late and eat ice cream at all times, and I was absolutely not interested in issuing directives...
Mommy Mommy

Mommy Mommy

You can travel up and down the world and will find no two cultures are alike. But the mom is always The Mom. In Senegal it is not a rare instance to be raised by a woman who’s not your biological mother, even if your mother is alive and well, you know her and have a...
When life decides for you

When life decides for you

I don’t remember what day of the week it was when I arrived in Dakar for the first time, it was January 2013. I remember that as soon as I got out of the plane it was hot and I could smell the ocean: it seemed like I was off to a good start. I wasn’t really expecting...