As soon as my sister left, a Canadian girl, named Laurence, came to work at the health center and live in my family's concession! I could only count this as a blessing because I knew that it would be hard for me to readjust once Jasmine left. And so far, things have been good. She's living in my old room and I allowed her to use my nyegen. I thought that her using my nyegen would cause a fuss, but after talking to everyone possible about it, there hasn't been any stink.
I was also wondering if she might be treated differently or she would disrupt what I've got going on here, but that hasn't happened either. Things haven't changed for better or worse. However, what's funny is that my family has pinned the two of us together. We eat lunch and dinner together and sit and chat at night, which is only natural since we both prefer not to eat toh and speak the same language. But, what's really funny is that people have been asking me if this girl is my younger sister! I don't get it. I'm black, she's white. I'm American, she's Canadian. So, where's the logic in that?
Actually, today, some people came over and asked if we were sisters. Yacouba explains that we're not, not because we don't look anything alike, but because we're not from the same country! Laurence and I just laugh at this reasoning.
Oh, and today someone asked us if we "white women" have menstrual cycles! Like, not only do we not look African, but we're also assumed to have totally different organs and stuff because of how we look! And me and Laurence look nothing alike! That was a real revelation to me. It's like, we're another species to them and that just brings up a whole other topic, like something along the lines of Darwinism. I bet that if I gave them a book on Darwinism, they would totally believe themselves to be lesser humans. Anyway, I digress, the point is I'm still find it interesting that my identity is totally different here.
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