Dancing Skeletons

One of my all time favorite books is not a classical piece of literature, nor was it ever even a best seller.

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Skeletons-Life-Death-Africa/dp/088133748X

I came upon the book when I was reading about breastfeeding when I was pregnant with my first.  Once I got through the anatomy of breastfeeding, I became interested in the history of it and the cultural aspect of it.  I began to wonder about breastfeeding and nutrition in other cultures and how it differs from our own.  I started devouring books on anthropology and found the subject fascinating. (Sadly, I never had the opportunity to take a class in anthropology while getting my B.S. in Education nor for my nursing degree).

One of my favorite stories in the book was when the author had stool samples in glass jars (to test for parasites) and she was riding in the back of a pickup truck with local villagers.  Unbeknownst to them, she spoke their language fluently (I forget the name of the language.. but it had a french influence).  They called white people "Toubabs" and while they were riding along the countryside with her they were saying "Wow, this Toubab smells like SHIT!". LOL!  There was a lot of fascinating things about West African culture in the book such as during a survey, the author asked villagers what food they would buy when she gave them all a little bit of money for helping her with her research.  They looked at her like she was crazy and they were insulted-- they all said "we have plenty of rice and bread, we aren't hungry.."  To them, food wasn't consumed for pleasure, it was basically to keep them from being hungry.  What an alien concept to Americans!

Anyway, my point in telling you all this is I had a patient who works for the U.N. and works at an African embassy (I can't remember which one).  She had strokelike symptoms and rushed back to the US for treatment.  (She actually resides in the city my hospital is located).  We got to talking and when she mentioned where she grew up and that there was a strong French influence there I said "Oh, you are from West Africa!" she said "yes!" Then I said, "Oh! Then you can call me Toubab!"
You should have seen the shocked/impressed look on her face! lol  We got to talk about so many things in the book and she was genuinely excited to talk about growing up in West Africa and how times have changed and how amazingly different it is living in the US and how fortunate she is to have the privileges she now does. And OF COURSE I had to tell her about the Toubab shit story which made her laugh and laugh. lol  This story is just another example of why it is SO IMPORTANT to be a well rounded person and to never stop learning, you never know the impact your curiosity could have on another person later in life and it helps you gain such a unique perspective on things.