Woke up freezing yet again - a great trend and I relish every second of it because I fear what is about to come in a matter of months - but this time it was without the A/C. It was my first time actually cold in Jenoi because the dorms they put us in are like ovens usually. I was all wrapped up in sheet and blanket but still woke up at 3:50 AM -_- I listened to music and derped in bed forever until I finally threw myself out when the breakfast bell signalled abnormally early and stumbled into the dining hall. Breakfast was potato wedges, greasy fried egg, bread, and chocolate spread. We had a brief session about our sites, language (my teacher wasn't there so Elizabeth and I just studied alone), session about making neem cream (where you have to stir for EVER and get beast arms or small boy a child to do it for you, if you haven't read before it's an organic not totally scientifically proven way to prevent mosquitos but works well enough here), lunch (which was delicious), another session about methods to exchange Gambian culture back home (sending back gifts, having people visit, talking at colleges, blogs, World Wise School pen pal system and teaching everyone how there's so many misconceptions about Africa and especially the Muslim religion and debunking a shit ton of myths) and I like that one a lot. I'm writing a lot about my day-to-day life now but I think life slows down for me, I'll be able to write a lot more about my observations and such and go in depth about the people in The Gambia.
We threw around a Frisbee for a bit and then I took an early shower again to wash a few things so I don't get a mountain of clothes to tackle when I get back to training village. I went outside to study, folded stars, counted what I actually folded and... I counted 481 stars in the past two days???? Jesus, fingers, good for you! It totally doesn't even look like it in my small little zip lock bag. I'm planning to give them all out as Christmas presents, kukuku. We then had a scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner/feast prepared for us by the PCVs and I was yet again in food heaven. We had carrots, cucumber, ranch dressing, stuffing, string beans, broccoli, yam, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, beef and potato stew (that was Gambian), and it was ALL SO DELICIOUS AH. I guiltily admit that our carbon footprint for that dinner was large but for this one time... so be it. I hate so much because I was well aware after training I will not be feasting like that for a WHILE. I may have gotten up for fourths. The dinner was all very joyous - I talked to lots of people from the kitchen staff, PCVs, staff, and the trainees. I went off to go study/journal inside one of the classrooms and waves of people would come in and out with different things to talk/laugh about. One group of ladies came in and we started to brainstorm ideas for the big speech for the swear in ceremony which is TWO WEEKS AGH. This will be televised, read in four different languages AT the Ambassador's house... before the big big party that's the talk of the country right now among the PCVs One of the guys who we elected to be a part of the speech writing group wasn't there since he had to be transported to Kombo for a hook worm in his foot, eek. He'll be back tomorrow, though, and another trainee had to be transported to Kombo late, late, late last night but both are okay now!
Anyways, it's been a real chill day+night. I just randomly started thinking about how awesome this one kitchen lady is - she's always all smiles and can speak English but mostly Mandinka. She also knows a handful of other languages too She always comes up to hug me and ugh I swear to God I want to get something just for the kitchen staff. She makes me feel so welcomed whenever she talks to me even when I'm bitten alive or starving from a late lunch. I think she's the one person/thing I'll miss most about Jenoi!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Journal Post 11/24
I wake up freezing in the transit house because they're BLASTING the AC with no mercy. It was like, 4:30, too. I tarried for the longest time in bed cocooning both my blanket and sheets around me as many times as possible before getting up and ready but it was a chill, non rushed morning. Kara, the volunteer who saved me and served as our main guide (go figure she was a New Students Orientation counselor, too) was so nice and made us feel even MORE at home by getting us breakfast sammiches. That's called being small boy'd/girl'd. When you do something for another person like they ask you to fetch something for them. I got half a sammich with fried eggs and beans again and a cup of warm (powdered) milk. I am addicted to powdered milk, it has a bunch of nutrients but also a lot of calories. I can literally eat it out of the can with a drop of water, it's really what I grew up on. Chinese kids (I mean, those who actually grew up in China) love that kind of stuff. I had the right amount of time to get packed, dressed, the red sea even subsided, and peed before we left. I would've been so miserable if I had to pee again because that means sacrificing my ankles to those goddamn bugs again. We also met up with Malcolm who arrived - he always has the BEST stories. He's the farthest volunteer out east into the bush and he absolutely loved his family. Of course it's no surprise when he told us he tried goat brain in the middle of a herd of goats during a ceremony and sat and watched a small goat terrorize this kid. A normal person may chase the goat off... but not Malcolm, haha. Anyways, out of all of us, he's 105% getting a donkey.
Anywho, we walked into Basse for the 12 PM bus and had time to spare. Soooo Kara took us on one of her favorite past times - fabric shopping! I can't even describe how beautiful (and random, some prints are all money signs or toilets or bowls used for pounding coos) the prints are and I'll be excited to have more time to check them out. I'm about to drop bank around the time I close my service on all these fabrics to bring back home/make something out of it to bring back home. We all said our goodbyes and the bus was moving by 12:05 PM. It was not the express bus so there wasn't AC but we got seats anyways which makes everything 50000x better. The bus was empty when we got on but within a turn of the corner, more and more people started jumping on (even when the bus was moving... because the door never shut, it just hung limply open), and it was full! Multiple co-workers and people we met on the bus fed me panketos today (small fried balls of dough, kind of like a munchkin) and Elizabeth got me a banana! The ride was delicious and smooth sailing. Lots of music listening and it was relaxing. We paid 120D and arrived by 4:30 PM. My pants had a huuuge sweat stain from my butt, though, so that was uncomfortable and I had to air that out pronto. We even got to skip a military checkpoint because the amicable guy sitting next to us was a soldier in the army! Sweet success.
We arrived in Soma and it was hot as hell. The guys secured a bigger car to get us all to Jenoi for 25 D a piece and we ended up being the last group back at 4:50 PM ish. We were only separated for four days but everyone was so happy to see each other and exchange stories. We were talking like we haven't seen each other in ever! I chatted a bit but straight away set my stuff up and took a shower. Good life decision right there, I had 6 layers of dried sweat on me. Anyways, I went back to the group and listened in. Like I said, everyone had different stories - in one village, some guy committed suicide while my friends were on their site visit, someone helped deliver a baby, someone else saw bush pigs and monkeys, some were spoiled rotten by their families with food, some had an American/British couple living in their community for 15 years - every site was so unique! BUT we had one thing in common - we all loved our new families. It was really everyone's biggest fear - not liking our family, but we were all so relieved. We spent the entire rest of the day and night talking and I ended up staying up way late. Daniel, the Health PCVL, came over to deliver our fabric for our asobes which look fantastic and I headed in for the night. It was very pleasant altogether :)
Anywho, we walked into Basse for the 12 PM bus and had time to spare. Soooo Kara took us on one of her favorite past times - fabric shopping! I can't even describe how beautiful (and random, some prints are all money signs or toilets or bowls used for pounding coos) the prints are and I'll be excited to have more time to check them out. I'm about to drop bank around the time I close my service on all these fabrics to bring back home/make something out of it to bring back home. We all said our goodbyes and the bus was moving by 12:05 PM. It was not the express bus so there wasn't AC but we got seats anyways which makes everything 50000x better. The bus was empty when we got on but within a turn of the corner, more and more people started jumping on (even when the bus was moving... because the door never shut, it just hung limply open), and it was full! Multiple co-workers and people we met on the bus fed me panketos today (small fried balls of dough, kind of like a munchkin) and Elizabeth got me a banana! The ride was delicious and smooth sailing. Lots of music listening and it was relaxing. We paid 120D and arrived by 4:30 PM. My pants had a huuuge sweat stain from my butt, though, so that was uncomfortable and I had to air that out pronto. We even got to skip a military checkpoint because the amicable guy sitting next to us was a soldier in the army! Sweet success.
We arrived in Soma and it was hot as hell. The guys secured a bigger car to get us all to Jenoi for 25 D a piece and we ended up being the last group back at 4:50 PM ish. We were only separated for four days but everyone was so happy to see each other and exchange stories. We were talking like we haven't seen each other in ever! I chatted a bit but straight away set my stuff up and took a shower. Good life decision right there, I had 6 layers of dried sweat on me. Anyways, I went back to the group and listened in. Like I said, everyone had different stories - in one village, some guy committed suicide while my friends were on their site visit, someone helped deliver a baby, someone else saw bush pigs and monkeys, some were spoiled rotten by their families with food, some had an American/British couple living in their community for 15 years - every site was so unique! BUT we had one thing in common - we all loved our new families. It was really everyone's biggest fear - not liking our family, but we were all so relieved. We spent the entire rest of the day and night talking and I ended up staying up way late. Daniel, the Health PCVL, came over to deliver our fabric for our asobes which look fantastic and I headed in for the night. It was very pleasant altogether :)
Journal Post 11/23
Today, I woke up nice and early at 5:15 AM but didn't really get up until 15 minutes later. It's just hard to get up that early. W knocked on my door and I threw myself outside, got ready, there was a constellation in the sky because of how early it was but I didn't have time to look at the beauty just yet. It was freezing for sure but much more comfortable inside my hut. I was packing with God speed and promised to appreciate the zillions of stars when I walked to the main road.
By the time I was out the door, it was 5:50 AM and the only person awake in my compound was my sister. I told her bye and hugged her (which probably freaked her out) and trudged through the sand to get a gele. If it was any hotter I would be soaked in sweat but thankfully it wasn't. W was in his usual sweater and mittens while I just had shorts and capris on, hah. True New England style. I can't believe I actually like the cold now. The stars were just as beautiful as before and it looks like something straight out from a museum. It's unreal. They were all so bright and me being as blind as I am could see them as clear as day. As cheesy as it sounds, they look like someone scattered glitter in the sky and the deep, navy blue sky in the background made it so gorgeous.
When I finally arrived at the only gele leaving, I was surprised to see it in awesome condition. It looked like it was newly shipped in from America! It had great padded seats and none of the lining was falling off, either! I lightly chatted with a woman next to me and even found out where she was going (hospital) and asked what was wrong... which is a success whenever I can successfully communicate anything. As the gele started filling up, one of the men who boarded even knew my name from last night's event! I was also able to thoroughly surprise the drivers when I asked for the fare/ask for my change back, haha. It took a little under an hour to get to Basse and they dropped me off at a gas station where I originally thought I had to go but it turned out to be the wrong one. So, 7:30 AM and I'm ringing up my PCVL/RAs and they were telling me directions to get to the PC transit house but I could barely hear them because there were three bulldozer/construction trucks ROARING in the background literally following me. Damn it. Eventually, Seth (PCVL) called his girlfriend who was in Basse (I tried calling her last night but her number wouldn't go through, womp) and her savior soul found me and led me the right way. Which was the exact opposite way I would've gone because it was pass a construction "do not pass" zone, but silly me, construction tape means nothing in the Gambia and we limbo'd under it to continue on our way. We stopped by a stand along the way to order breakfast sandwiches. It's called Kumba's and it's apparently the most frequented place that PCVs go to since it's so close to the transit house. I got a half order of bean+fried egg sammich for 25 D. Yum. We walked back to the transit house where I met Christine - a volunteer who I already met from previous training sessions - and Albert, an older Agriculture volunteer. After chatting for a bit - it's such a burst of energy everytime I see PCVs and get to know them - Kara and I walked into town and she showed me around. We saw Selina, a fellow trainee who lives in a village past Kulari but on the main road, on the way and her community rep was en route to lead her to the PC house. Best of all, Kara showed me the INTERNET CAFE! What I wasn't expecting was Dillon, another PCV who also has a relationship with someone back home so we have that bonding point, already sitting there! I shamelessly went on for 4 hours and typed my fingers away to get my blog updated, e-mailed some people, and talked to some really close friends back home.
After forever, I walked back to the house with three other trainees and Christine and we arrived right in time for lunch! It was hot as hell for sure and sweat just continued to drip while I was eating. Beth, another volunteer, arrived and helped fix up a salad with a current volunteer who's from Connecticut named Peter. It was such a memorable time - eating my first real spaghetti dish in a long time with vegetables and everything. We had spaghetti with tomato sauce and an array of veggies, watermelon, peanuts, bananas, and a salad with delicious and healthy dressing (I think). After that, the AC miraculously came on (which it doesn't usually until 6 PM at night but the governor was there) and we all enjoyed the fresh breeze for a moment before heading back to the Internet cafe. I got another 1.5 hours of online time and talked to more friends from back home. Best of all, I figured out my travel itinerary! If everything goes well, I'll be going to Zambia, Spain, someone's visiting me in Gambia, Senegal, Morocco, Turkey, and the Seychelles! Like I said, all is tentative but it got me excited and put me in a fantastic mood.
Dillon and I were the last to return home after the sun was starting to set so we walked back 3/4s of the way back... and decided to walk back towards Basse proper to a restaurant and meet everyone there. Could've planned that better, oops. We were the first to get to Aminata's and it was a two-room restaurant filled with men transfixed on two huge TVs with the same soccer game on. The men here LOVE soccer. Or, football as they call it. It's all that the little boys do it seems. I was the only woman in there and we were the only toubabs. Neither Dillon nor I really watched soccer so this was all very new for us. Eventually our group came and we ordered either domada (rice with peanut oil sauce) for 40 D or a chicken and spaghetti dish for 80 D. I got the former and it was delicious. Clearly my priorities are the same as they are in America: Internet, food, transportation...damn I'm so straight out of college. We walked back in the dark with shoddy light, thankfully I didn't step in anything suspicious, watched Pitch Perfect which actually was pretty cute/good, and showered in a creepy bathroom. CREEPY. Really creepy, I want to do some work in cleaning it up but definitely not alone. Shit I never want to be in there after it gets dark again. It was also fricken freezing because we had the AC on but it was all so very perfect. We went to bed but I got two stupid late night calls when I was snuggled in! My mom calls me frantically about something and she like needed me to fax her my passport/license/everything and I'm like, I'm 6-9 hours away from the capital where that stuff is... sorry. She can't just spring stuff on me like that, damn, so that got me a little bothered. Then Musa, the kid, calls me and I sternly tell him he can't call me at night and he hung up right away. Gr. Anyways, it was a fantastic day over all and the Peace Corps Volunteers did everything to help us feel at home. I'm so thrilled to be close to this house. Home sweet transit home.
By the time I was out the door, it was 5:50 AM and the only person awake in my compound was my sister. I told her bye and hugged her (which probably freaked her out) and trudged through the sand to get a gele. If it was any hotter I would be soaked in sweat but thankfully it wasn't. W was in his usual sweater and mittens while I just had shorts and capris on, hah. True New England style. I can't believe I actually like the cold now. The stars were just as beautiful as before and it looks like something straight out from a museum. It's unreal. They were all so bright and me being as blind as I am could see them as clear as day. As cheesy as it sounds, they look like someone scattered glitter in the sky and the deep, navy blue sky in the background made it so gorgeous.
When I finally arrived at the only gele leaving, I was surprised to see it in awesome condition. It looked like it was newly shipped in from America! It had great padded seats and none of the lining was falling off, either! I lightly chatted with a woman next to me and even found out where she was going (hospital) and asked what was wrong... which is a success whenever I can successfully communicate anything. As the gele started filling up, one of the men who boarded even knew my name from last night's event! I was also able to thoroughly surprise the drivers when I asked for the fare/ask for my change back, haha. It took a little under an hour to get to Basse and they dropped me off at a gas station where I originally thought I had to go but it turned out to be the wrong one. So, 7:30 AM and I'm ringing up my PCVL/RAs and they were telling me directions to get to the PC transit house but I could barely hear them because there were three bulldozer/construction trucks ROARING in the background literally following me. Damn it. Eventually, Seth (PCVL) called his girlfriend who was in Basse (I tried calling her last night but her number wouldn't go through, womp) and her savior soul found me and led me the right way. Which was the exact opposite way I would've gone because it was pass a construction "do not pass" zone, but silly me, construction tape means nothing in the Gambia and we limbo'd under it to continue on our way. We stopped by a stand along the way to order breakfast sandwiches. It's called Kumba's and it's apparently the most frequented place that PCVs go to since it's so close to the transit house. I got a half order of bean+fried egg sammich for 25 D. Yum. We walked back to the transit house where I met Christine - a volunteer who I already met from previous training sessions - and Albert, an older Agriculture volunteer. After chatting for a bit - it's such a burst of energy everytime I see PCVs and get to know them - Kara and I walked into town and she showed me around. We saw Selina, a fellow trainee who lives in a village past Kulari but on the main road, on the way and her community rep was en route to lead her to the PC house. Best of all, Kara showed me the INTERNET CAFE! What I wasn't expecting was Dillon, another PCV who also has a relationship with someone back home so we have that bonding point, already sitting there! I shamelessly went on for 4 hours and typed my fingers away to get my blog updated, e-mailed some people, and talked to some really close friends back home.
After forever, I walked back to the house with three other trainees and Christine and we arrived right in time for lunch! It was hot as hell for sure and sweat just continued to drip while I was eating. Beth, another volunteer, arrived and helped fix up a salad with a current volunteer who's from Connecticut named Peter. It was such a memorable time - eating my first real spaghetti dish in a long time with vegetables and everything. We had spaghetti with tomato sauce and an array of veggies, watermelon, peanuts, bananas, and a salad with delicious and healthy dressing (I think). After that, the AC miraculously came on (which it doesn't usually until 6 PM at night but the governor was there) and we all enjoyed the fresh breeze for a moment before heading back to the Internet cafe. I got another 1.5 hours of online time and talked to more friends from back home. Best of all, I figured out my travel itinerary! If everything goes well, I'll be going to Zambia, Spain, someone's visiting me in Gambia, Senegal, Morocco, Turkey, and the Seychelles! Like I said, all is tentative but it got me excited and put me in a fantastic mood.
Dillon and I were the last to return home after the sun was starting to set so we walked back 3/4s of the way back... and decided to walk back towards Basse proper to a restaurant and meet everyone there. Could've planned that better, oops. We were the first to get to Aminata's and it was a two-room restaurant filled with men transfixed on two huge TVs with the same soccer game on. The men here LOVE soccer. Or, football as they call it. It's all that the little boys do it seems. I was the only woman in there and we were the only toubabs. Neither Dillon nor I really watched soccer so this was all very new for us. Eventually our group came and we ordered either domada (rice with peanut oil sauce) for 40 D or a chicken and spaghetti dish for 80 D. I got the former and it was delicious. Clearly my priorities are the same as they are in America: Internet, food, transportation...damn I'm so straight out of college. We walked back in the dark with shoddy light, thankfully I didn't step in anything suspicious, watched Pitch Perfect which actually was pretty cute/good, and showered in a creepy bathroom. CREEPY. Really creepy, I want to do some work in cleaning it up but definitely not alone. Shit I never want to be in there after it gets dark again. It was also fricken freezing because we had the AC on but it was all so very perfect. We went to bed but I got two stupid late night calls when I was snuggled in! My mom calls me frantically about something and she like needed me to fax her my passport/license/everything and I'm like, I'm 6-9 hours away from the capital where that stuff is... sorry. She can't just spring stuff on me like that, damn, so that got me a little bothered. Then Musa, the kid, calls me and I sternly tell him he can't call me at night and he hung up right away. Gr. Anyways, it was a fantastic day over all and the Peace Corps Volunteers did everything to help us feel at home. I'm so thrilled to be close to this house. Home sweet transit home.
Journal Post 11/22 Pt 2
I woke up and wrote in my journal at 6 AM. I finished up my journal entry from last night because it was so late. I finally got ready at 7:40ish and was dressed by 8:15... unlocked my door and breakfast was delivered to me. I ate a little and W comes knocking at my door telling me he was at my house since 7! I felt so bad since yesterday, he told me he would show up at 9. Either way, he looked cold (it was cold by Gambian standards I'm sure) with a fleece sweater and mittens on and I felt bad. I was just lying in my bed with music on, writing away, which is probably why I didn't hear him. It was probably a good thing he didn't get me for my sake anyways because HM calls me right in time to tell us the district chief we were suppose to donkey kart to wasn't there. SO we didn't need to haul ass. Nice, because I could tell the day was going to be hot as hell already. We changed plans and W took me to HM's place instead.
HM wasn't feeling well when I got there and it turns out he was tested POSITIVE FOR MALARIA???? W gave him a shot but wtf! I asked him what happened and he kept on saying "Malaria is bad" in Serehule and well yeah I know it's bad but shit I didn't know he had it! I keep on freaking out but adults have a resistence to Malaria but still you can't let your guard down that shit killsssss. HM thinks he got bit in Jenoi which I totally believe since it's mosquito city there. So now I know why HM isn't taking me places, he's such a nice guy and very concerned but it's because he's been feeling like crap with Malaria ughhh. W gave him a shot. HM seems like he's holding up okay but clearly it must suck. Ceedee, one of HMs friend's, was at HM's house with his mom, the coolest woman so far who led the singing group that inducted me into the village upon my entry. Both of them are just a friendly presence but SHE is a woman to reckon with and you know when that lady is in the room. We touched base and figured out the rest of the day and C and W walked me back. Along the way, we stopped by some people's homes and even this one compound was cooking food for tonights big event. Everyone seemed mobilized for this huge event. M was no where to be found because he's probably running around getting everything ready. C is also on the committee since he's the point person for TOSTON. When they dropped me off, C said he'd come by at 2 to pick me up to have lunch.
I stayed in my house for a bit to journal and then some random guys came by. First, Ali, one of my host brother's friends, comes by right after prayers and just says hi. Then bikes away, but I bet he wanted me to come out to talk. I just wasn't feeling it and opted to stay inside, out of the window's view, and went right back to writing. I'm period tired, still. Anyways, then it was Mohammed, this really tall guy who kind of reminds me of the evil guy in the Princess and the Frog, comes by. He actually came into my house the first night with his mom I think it was, then yesterday and kept on telling me how bad Gambia was, then today. He just kept on standing in front of my door - which I had the screen shut but the outside door was open - and was just talking to me even though I said I was writing. Just then, a little girl comes over to peek into my house but then one of my moms appear out of no where, reaches across Mohammad and shuts the door to end that conversation lmao. He's like, "I'll come by later." I'm not sure if my mom was protecting me from him or the girl but I love how she just ended that little meeting. Thank God, I nothing that guy anyways and don't want men I don't know anywhere around my house.
I was left alone for a bit to muse and went back outside at around 12:30 PM to chat/study. I had fun this time since the kids all huddled around me and were less shy... but a lot more loud. Not sure if I like the trade off now that I think about it. I sat with my mom and sisters and found out that one of my moms don't feel well!!! The elder mom went to fetch her medicine. So now, I'm confused. I THOUGHT my mom who was in pain wanted to lie down so I followed her inside the house (my first time in) and she did lie down. I got her water to drink...but as soon as she get up to get a sip she's like "Okay, now I have to make lunch." Even though she was in pain! I think it's from overworking since it's in her right arm and back. To make matters worse I get served lunch by her -_- My elder mom came back with medicine - hopefully it's even the right one - and if not I hope it's something that won't make new problems - but the lunch was delicious. Fried rice, pumpkin, and fish. I went inside to eat and they all called me out a bit later. Ali was there, but that wasn't why they called me out. They pointed for me to go inside the house. I stepped in and ... my dad bought a really big juicy watermelon! It was fucking lovely. It was delicious but I suck at eating the fruit without making a mess. My family were nice enough to see my distress and gave me a pan and even a small pot to wash my hands with.
Then that Malick guy from yesterday who was nice came by and was talking to men when W appeared to take me out again. Both M and W walked me to HMs where the agricultural extension worker was. He isn't in Kulari but traveled all the way here to see me since he was HM's friend and HM asked for a favor. It really makes me smile that even though he's sick with Malaria he's still on it with his task. The Extension Worker didn't know Serehule and lives a couple of towns away but was nice nonetheless. I then called my PCVL to get the OK on skipping out on the district chief since I didn't go today and I'll be heading to Basse tomorrow morning ... and the only car that goes to Basse from Kulari that's reliable leaves at 6:15 AM. Malick just followed us and he isn't even W or HM's friend so I don't even know what happened.
Anyways, W walks me to the last person I needed to meet and that was the school management committee head. When we got there, I Found that he knew English pretty well - why am I always surprised. I guess I'm surprised by them and they're surprised by me. I got a bit closer with W today, we joked around more and he was less ambiguously condescending I think. I told W how expensive and cold America was and the differences in health care for the UK and the US. They're both his favorite places. Of course they're probably everyone's favorite place in the Gambia. It would do everyone wonders if they would set their sights on making their country just as "good" as the UK/US in their eyes, I think. There's definitely some things I think Gambia can imitate from the US and some things they should never, ever imitate. More on that in later posts. Anyways, I hope I debunked his theory that I had money because I definitely don't and I did out the math to show him how expensive college was in America.
After the meeting with the School Management Committee Chair, I thought we were walking home. Mind you, Kulari is a spider web of streets and everything looks the same so I have no idea where I'm going without someone's lead. Next thing I Know, I take a right turn, and I see a HUGE, ginormous, astronomical gathering of people. It was a gigantic circle which probably explained why the streets seemed so empty. IT was the TOSTAN event that everyone was talking about. I met up with Ceedee and Musa and they told me this meeting was talking about the importance of clean water and polio/meningitis vaccinations. Ceedee's running around doing a bunch of things, talking to a bunch of people, moving stacks of chairs left and right so as many people can sit, and beckons me over. He then looks me in the eye and says, "We want to introduce you. Can you speak to the crowd? In Serehule?"
So I mean, I suppose so, but I told him it would be much better if he practiced first. He took me aside and helped me craft a paragraph where literally minutes later I was speaking with a microphone in front of 300 Gambians. I guess the stars really aligned for me because like I said, TOSTAN was once a year and it just happened to fall on the day I was here for site visit. So this is what I said... in a completely different language from English:
Hello. I want to extended my greetings to the Imam and the VDC Chairman. Good evening. I am not a toubab/foreigner. I am a black, Serehule man. My name is Mariama Touray and I am from America but next month, I'll start my stay here for two years. I am a volunteer because I like to help people and educate them about health. Thank you, bless you, and good night.
SO CLEARLY Ceedee quipped in his own notes (I am not a black Serehule man, I was lying to 300 people in front of their faces -_-) but I did all of that by myself! I was recorded and pictures were taken and everyone was talking about it that night, said HM when he called me. I left early because I was really tired and so that I can finally take a shower in peace without bugs colliding into me and it was glorious. I got fed boiled peanuts through the window RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FRONT DOOR which can look into my entire house but whatever, they fed me free food and I'm down with that. I spent a good amount of time phoning my friend to get her ready for her own site visit while snacking on said peanuts and it was a fine time. Dinner was served by one of my moms and they're always so sweet when they enter my house, they always take off their shoes. She even saw all the empty peanut shells and collected them for me ugh I was really treated with grade A hospitality. The moms respected my need for alone time and that means a lot in this culture when no one does anything by themself.
Dinner is something I'm skipping from now on since it was plain coos with this watery/oily sauce which gets old really quick. I'll probably do lunch for sure and maybe breakfast with the family and contribute half a bag of rice and beans to my rent every month. I snacked on a breakfast bar (which I thank myself every day for packing) and took out the rest of my lunch. I spent an entire hour with my family talking by the fire about having kids (and why I'm scared to do so which blows their mind since women really set their sights on marrying and having kids in Serehule communities and that's their biggest thing for the majority of them), telling them that I was leaving tomorrow until next month, discovering that one of the ladies were leaving to get married and promising to visit her by donkey cart, they tested me in some vocab and I impressed them thoroughly, thanked my mom for saving me earlier in the morning from strange men and told her I didn't like men around my house and the moms IMMEDIATELY shouted over to my host brother who was sitting away from us to not let any more of his friends near my little hut hahaha. They are on their shit. When you ask them to do something, they will do it. I'm just surprised they actually understood!
I really like the nights around the fire especially since I hate being inside my house at night with all the bugs... bleugh. Except if I'm tucked away in my bed. Yes I know I'm in Africa, don't judge me. Okay sleep time.
HM wasn't feeling well when I got there and it turns out he was tested POSITIVE FOR MALARIA???? W gave him a shot but wtf! I asked him what happened and he kept on saying "Malaria is bad" in Serehule and well yeah I know it's bad but shit I didn't know he had it! I keep on freaking out but adults have a resistence to Malaria but still you can't let your guard down that shit killsssss. HM thinks he got bit in Jenoi which I totally believe since it's mosquito city there. So now I know why HM isn't taking me places, he's such a nice guy and very concerned but it's because he's been feeling like crap with Malaria ughhh. W gave him a shot. HM seems like he's holding up okay but clearly it must suck. Ceedee, one of HMs friend's, was at HM's house with his mom, the coolest woman so far who led the singing group that inducted me into the village upon my entry. Both of them are just a friendly presence but SHE is a woman to reckon with and you know when that lady is in the room. We touched base and figured out the rest of the day and C and W walked me back. Along the way, we stopped by some people's homes and even this one compound was cooking food for tonights big event. Everyone seemed mobilized for this huge event. M was no where to be found because he's probably running around getting everything ready. C is also on the committee since he's the point person for TOSTON. When they dropped me off, C said he'd come by at 2 to pick me up to have lunch.
I stayed in my house for a bit to journal and then some random guys came by. First, Ali, one of my host brother's friends, comes by right after prayers and just says hi. Then bikes away, but I bet he wanted me to come out to talk. I just wasn't feeling it and opted to stay inside, out of the window's view, and went right back to writing. I'm period tired, still. Anyways, then it was Mohammed, this really tall guy who kind of reminds me of the evil guy in the Princess and the Frog, comes by. He actually came into my house the first night with his mom I think it was, then yesterday and kept on telling me how bad Gambia was, then today. He just kept on standing in front of my door - which I had the screen shut but the outside door was open - and was just talking to me even though I said I was writing. Just then, a little girl comes over to peek into my house but then one of my moms appear out of no where, reaches across Mohammad and shuts the door to end that conversation lmao. He's like, "I'll come by later." I'm not sure if my mom was protecting me from him or the girl but I love how she just ended that little meeting. Thank God, I nothing that guy anyways and don't want men I don't know anywhere around my house.
I was left alone for a bit to muse and went back outside at around 12:30 PM to chat/study. I had fun this time since the kids all huddled around me and were less shy... but a lot more loud. Not sure if I like the trade off now that I think about it. I sat with my mom and sisters and found out that one of my moms don't feel well!!! The elder mom went to fetch her medicine. So now, I'm confused. I THOUGHT my mom who was in pain wanted to lie down so I followed her inside the house (my first time in) and she did lie down. I got her water to drink...but as soon as she get up to get a sip she's like "Okay, now I have to make lunch." Even though she was in pain! I think it's from overworking since it's in her right arm and back. To make matters worse I get served lunch by her -_- My elder mom came back with medicine - hopefully it's even the right one - and if not I hope it's something that won't make new problems - but the lunch was delicious. Fried rice, pumpkin, and fish. I went inside to eat and they all called me out a bit later. Ali was there, but that wasn't why they called me out. They pointed for me to go inside the house. I stepped in and ... my dad bought a really big juicy watermelon! It was fucking lovely. It was delicious but I suck at eating the fruit without making a mess. My family were nice enough to see my distress and gave me a pan and even a small pot to wash my hands with.
Then that Malick guy from yesterday who was nice came by and was talking to men when W appeared to take me out again. Both M and W walked me to HMs where the agricultural extension worker was. He isn't in Kulari but traveled all the way here to see me since he was HM's friend and HM asked for a favor. It really makes me smile that even though he's sick with Malaria he's still on it with his task. The Extension Worker didn't know Serehule and lives a couple of towns away but was nice nonetheless. I then called my PCVL to get the OK on skipping out on the district chief since I didn't go today and I'll be heading to Basse tomorrow morning ... and the only car that goes to Basse from Kulari that's reliable leaves at 6:15 AM. Malick just followed us and he isn't even W or HM's friend so I don't even know what happened.
Anyways, W walks me to the last person I needed to meet and that was the school management committee head. When we got there, I Found that he knew English pretty well - why am I always surprised. I guess I'm surprised by them and they're surprised by me. I got a bit closer with W today, we joked around more and he was less ambiguously condescending I think. I told W how expensive and cold America was and the differences in health care for the UK and the US. They're both his favorite places. Of course they're probably everyone's favorite place in the Gambia. It would do everyone wonders if they would set their sights on making their country just as "good" as the UK/US in their eyes, I think. There's definitely some things I think Gambia can imitate from the US and some things they should never, ever imitate. More on that in later posts. Anyways, I hope I debunked his theory that I had money because I definitely don't and I did out the math to show him how expensive college was in America.
After the meeting with the School Management Committee Chair, I thought we were walking home. Mind you, Kulari is a spider web of streets and everything looks the same so I have no idea where I'm going without someone's lead. Next thing I Know, I take a right turn, and I see a HUGE, ginormous, astronomical gathering of people. It was a gigantic circle which probably explained why the streets seemed so empty. IT was the TOSTAN event that everyone was talking about. I met up with Ceedee and Musa and they told me this meeting was talking about the importance of clean water and polio/meningitis vaccinations. Ceedee's running around doing a bunch of things, talking to a bunch of people, moving stacks of chairs left and right so as many people can sit, and beckons me over. He then looks me in the eye and says, "We want to introduce you. Can you speak to the crowd? In Serehule?"
So I mean, I suppose so, but I told him it would be much better if he practiced first. He took me aside and helped me craft a paragraph where literally minutes later I was speaking with a microphone in front of 300 Gambians. I guess the stars really aligned for me because like I said, TOSTAN was once a year and it just happened to fall on the day I was here for site visit. So this is what I said... in a completely different language from English:
Hello. I want to extended my greetings to the Imam and the VDC Chairman. Good evening. I am not a toubab/foreigner. I am a black, Serehule man. My name is Mariama Touray and I am from America but next month, I'll start my stay here for two years. I am a volunteer because I like to help people and educate them about health. Thank you, bless you, and good night.
SO CLEARLY Ceedee quipped in his own notes (I am not a black Serehule man, I was lying to 300 people in front of their faces -_-) but I did all of that by myself! I was recorded and pictures were taken and everyone was talking about it that night, said HM when he called me. I left early because I was really tired and so that I can finally take a shower in peace without bugs colliding into me and it was glorious. I got fed boiled peanuts through the window RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FRONT DOOR which can look into my entire house but whatever, they fed me free food and I'm down with that. I spent a good amount of time phoning my friend to get her ready for her own site visit while snacking on said peanuts and it was a fine time. Dinner was served by one of my moms and they're always so sweet when they enter my house, they always take off their shoes. She even saw all the empty peanut shells and collected them for me ugh I was really treated with grade A hospitality. The moms respected my need for alone time and that means a lot in this culture when no one does anything by themself.
Dinner is something I'm skipping from now on since it was plain coos with this watery/oily sauce which gets old really quick. I'll probably do lunch for sure and maybe breakfast with the family and contribute half a bag of rice and beans to my rent every month. I snacked on a breakfast bar (which I thank myself every day for packing) and took out the rest of my lunch. I spent an entire hour with my family talking by the fire about having kids (and why I'm scared to do so which blows their mind since women really set their sights on marrying and having kids in Serehule communities and that's their biggest thing for the majority of them), telling them that I was leaving tomorrow until next month, discovering that one of the ladies were leaving to get married and promising to visit her by donkey cart, they tested me in some vocab and I impressed them thoroughly, thanked my mom for saving me earlier in the morning from strange men and told her I didn't like men around my house and the moms IMMEDIATELY shouted over to my host brother who was sitting away from us to not let any more of his friends near my little hut hahaha. They are on their shit. When you ask them to do something, they will do it. I'm just surprised they actually understood!
I really like the nights around the fire especially since I hate being inside my house at night with all the bugs... bleugh. Except if I'm tucked away in my bed. Yes I know I'm in Africa, don't judge me. Okay sleep time.
Journal Entry 11/22
God I've been so tired lately. I don't know if it's my period/the red sea as I like to call it zapping my life force (not unlikely) or what but I feel like I have endemic low energy stores which gets drained after a brief walk. Anyways, I woke up and spent a lot of time laying in bed thinking about everything and really just trying to procrastinate dealing with bugs. Because really, the ladies help me do a once over of killing spiders/grasshoppers the size of a fifty-cent coin before bed every night. The damn spiders here are fast as hell too! WTF. So finally the ultimate alarm clock rang - my bladder - and I can't hit the snooze button on that. I forced myself out of bed and getting ready took a lot longer than usual because I have very limited supplies and I wasn't sure about the water they gave me since it looked super muggy even after I ran it through the filter. They said it was pump water... but I really don't know. So it's really unnerving with my looking inside the cup they gave me and the liquids all muggy. I drank maybe three gulps before saying stop stop stop. Plus, it tasted plastic. SO NOW I'm really not sure if it's the water or just the filter... woe. I took what remaining trustworthy water I had left and used that for the important stuff.
My breakfast got delivered to me as soon as I opened my door and I'm glad that my family got the message last night that I did not like sugar (SUCCESS) because they put it on the side for me to add in. They gave me this corn porridge which is delicious with a generous ladle of sugar on the side but it's really awful without any added in. I ate all the boiled peanuts they gave me last night instead. I gathered everything together and decided to go outside and chat. I was with my moms and tried doing the family tree. Amazingly enough I think I figured out a lot - way more than the first time I did my family tree, but then again my training village family tree is more like a family forest. This family is much more contained. I have some brothers in the capital/kombo, some women marrying out, some women about to be married out, but overall the family is much smaller. Everyone else was out in the bush so it was just me, my three moms, and some small kids which I really like. I was halfway finished with the family tree when Musa (the acting Alkaloo for his dad, who is very old), Wujare (Public Health Official), and HM arrived to take me everywhere. We went to the Village Development Committee sitting place where I discovered I am related to some people on the comittee! Yay. One of them even speaks french...which doesn't help me much, but cool nonetheless. I also met the chair. He had a realllllyyy large compound full of women cooking in the front/main entrance. Next, we went to the Imam's place and that was a ridiculously large compound as well. I found out he's the eldest man of all the Tourays (my surname) which makes him the clan head. I'm so, so tired by now and it's just a bunch of meetings with people talking wicked fast and it's burning me out. Mostly when I open my mouth they look at me confused like "who is this girl and why does she speak my language" and we then both proceed to look confused at each other. The women, although I had no time with them, were all very friendly. The group and I trekked through the Sahara once again to the Alkaloo's compound (Musa's home) - which is also as large as can be with outside mosquito nets, too! He very much loves Obama because on top of his main entrance is a huge poster. Anywho, we go inside to meet his wife and prior to that I mentioned that I wanted a bag of water with small drinking water packets inside (yes, bagception) because I was way too suspicious of the water coming out of my filter. He had a couple of packets inside his house and HM asked me if I wanted it... 45D later, I finally had drinking water without needing to haul it 20k away from Basse (the nearest place where I can get anything). This rocked because I was thirsty as hell. We went back to HM's place which is attached to the health clinic/meeting area and dropped him off. We gave his friend Ceedee my huge bag of water to take by motorcycle back to my place while Wujare walked me back home. Like I said, I was so thirsty by the time I got back that I just downed an entire packet, which is impressive because I don't drink that much in one sitting for those of you who ever saw me drink.
I chilled inside for a bit and thought about how I wanted to arrange my new home. After a while I went back outside and there was a lot more people there. They were all back from the bush for lunch. I read them my notes in Serehule and everyone seemed pretty tickled. A friend f my host/landlord/brother came over - his name is Ali - and he seems to know more English than anyone else in my compound thus far. When I started reading my vocab, he started pointing things around us and translating to me what they were. This went on for a bit until I asked them if they could show me the tap system. THANK THE LORDS it's only down the street and to the left. Apparently there's also another tap - a spigot system - but that was broken or maybe they just took off the knob and only give it to the public at certain times in the day. We walked back and they pointed more things out to me - some I knew and some I seriously had no clue even if it was right in front of me. I think they were telling me the different types of trees and shit, I don't even know that in English.
I found out that Baharu, my host dad, is 32 years old and still looks very young. It must be his smile. He has a very kind smile and reminds me of Baloo from Jungle Book - just super chill and easy going. He doesn't have kids yet - he just married Fatoumata like 5/6 months ago - and she's from Sabi. Baharu loves kids and is always laughing in the background while messing around with them. Anywho, we got on the topic of my 'husband' and so I went inside to get a picture. They were all pretty enthralled. Lunch was delivered right after and I was so thankful it was rice and some sauce. One of the moms, who I didn't get to show my "husband's" picture to because she was cooking, rushed up to me and was like, "Picture! Picture!" When I finished eating and brought the bowl outside (and I might have derped inside for a little), I wasn't aware that they were waiting for me to resume chatting until they asked me if I was ready. I guess I was because next thing I know, I wrote down all this vocab - like literally a full page and a half worth - but was unsure how I'd ever use it. When will I ever need to know the word for coal? Or the thing you put around a donkey when you use it to pull a cart. Or snot. And halfway through I'm like, are they really teaching me or making a fool out of me because Baharu is laughing while Ali is teaching and I think they had the best of intentions but we didn't have a ton around us. Anyways, they then said something about me having something and at first I didn't understand and neither Baharu or Ali could translate it. It turns out that my grandpa, who comes riding a bike back, actually knows English! He came by and told me they were trying to say that I have a good mind. Or memory. Lol, maybe, but I appreciate the compliment. Another guy came along and jumped in on the teaching. We had kids all around us and laughed in surprise whenever I knew something. I think they're all surprised that this random Chinese American can speak a bit of Serehule. They were REALLY tickled that I knew the word for butt. After forever, I finally said I was going inside to wash my hair which I totally wanted to... but Wujare came by again and whisked me away to meet more community figure heads.
We went this really long back way to see the school/head teacher. He was teaching me random vocab along the way and I can't tell if he's a good teacher or what. He knows English well but he talks too fast and I don't know if he's making me feel dumb when he re-emphasizes the fact that I don't know something or when he's genuinely surprised when I do know something. Or maybe this is just natural. However, I have heard many stories from Ida (my formal teacher), that the men do not like women in education or having any sort of power over them and that especially the Serehules because they are very traditional. Also, being around a lot of men can tarnish my image to the community because they will start thinking I'm there to find a husband or that I sleep around a lot or something like that. It's just really hard now because I'm meeting all these figure heads and they're, OF COURSE, men that hold these seats/positions of power but I really feel comfortable with the women and kids. I do know that I'll need to be well known and respected by the men but I really want to do some empowerment stuff with the women. I know it's not their fault, but HM being a guy is going to have a lot of male friends which is why I have this body guard of males following me around. SIGH anyways. W would sometimes say, "do you know _______really fast sentence________" and I'm like, "No," in which he's like, "You don't know?" Or, "You have to know _______really fast sentence______" No, dude, I wouldn't lie to you about something I didn't know. Then he translates. I have picked up some helpful things but if I don't write things down there's no way I'll remember it. Good thing we were always walking >_> He's a pretty fast paced guy in general and he's been helping me a lot since he lives closer to me than HM. His house has electricity, a TV, and a satellite dish! It's a pretty sizable compound, too. He has relatives that come back to live with him from Spain. W also asked if he could be considered as a teacher if I ever needed (PC will reimburse, 45 D an hour, which is some but not much). I said I would ask, but ideally I would like to get a female teacher. He'll be a back up, though.
When we finally got to the school, we found out the Head Teacher wasn't there but I got his phone/name anyways for my Peace Corps assignment (where I have to identify figureheads in the community). We walked all the way back to HM's place to meet M/acting Alkaloo and back to his compound to find the chair of the women's group...who of course wasn't there. Instead, a cohort of women were there instead, cooking. Apparently, tomorrow is a huge once a year event that an organization called TOSTAN is holding in Kulari. They have a representative in Kulari that sets it all up with the help of the community. I don't know exactly what TOSTAN is but I do know it has to do with culture and they're based in Basse, so they have to travel to get here. I got to sit with the ladies and they are so, so, so friendly and I feel just so comfortable with them but unfortunately the sun was setting and I still had more people to meet. People were reeling at the fact that I've only been learning Serehule for 4 weeks and they're so excited to teach me more. WHICH IS GREAT, but I hope they set their expectations low because I'm just working hard at my own pace. They then start to think about me learning Pulaar (another language) and Mandinka and I'm just like hoooold up, cannot do yet.
Anyways, W thinks I know kungfu and if that's what it takes for personal security then so be it. By the time we finished meeting the remaining craftsmen that I was required to find, he walked me home and it was really dark.I went to take one of the most miserable showers so far - cold and a multiplicity of bugs. I don't even know if I'm clean. It hurt to splash water on me, damn. I ate dinner (two really bony fish, coos, and watery sauce) and went outside to chat. My family that I met outside were mostly the women and children and it was very homey and comfortable. They had a fire in the middle while everyone sat around. The women who talked to me understood the few things that I said. I noticed that the three moms had very distinct personalities but they all seem very protective and caring towards me. The children are older than the kids in Jalanbereh. They don't interact with me much yet probably because I'm new and I haven't spent much time with them alone. We mostly sat in silence and watched the fire. This one kid materializes from thin air all of a sudden and says some greetings before plopping down right next to me. He's a reserved boy and I couldn't see who he was. I asked him his name and he said Musa. He asked if I forgot who he was but as soon as I heard him speak English, I remembered! Yesterday, he helped me with carrying my sleeping bags from HMs all the way to my house. Right before he left, he said he would see me tomorrow (today) and he kept his promise. He knew his English pretty well and I got to know him better - he showed me pictures of his family on his phone and told me he went to school in Kombo before his dad moved him and his mom back to Kulari... way the hell back into the bush. I liked his presence and sat in silence or talked some. I gave him my phone number because I felt like he'd be nice to know - kids are good and allies in the Gambia - and it was a nice ending to my night. BUT although that was a nice ending, my favorite part is still lying in my two layers of protection from bugs while I think about all that happened in the day.
My breakfast got delivered to me as soon as I opened my door and I'm glad that my family got the message last night that I did not like sugar (SUCCESS) because they put it on the side for me to add in. They gave me this corn porridge which is delicious with a generous ladle of sugar on the side but it's really awful without any added in. I ate all the boiled peanuts they gave me last night instead. I gathered everything together and decided to go outside and chat. I was with my moms and tried doing the family tree. Amazingly enough I think I figured out a lot - way more than the first time I did my family tree, but then again my training village family tree is more like a family forest. This family is much more contained. I have some brothers in the capital/kombo, some women marrying out, some women about to be married out, but overall the family is much smaller. Everyone else was out in the bush so it was just me, my three moms, and some small kids which I really like. I was halfway finished with the family tree when Musa (the acting Alkaloo for his dad, who is very old), Wujare (Public Health Official), and HM arrived to take me everywhere. We went to the Village Development Committee sitting place where I discovered I am related to some people on the comittee! Yay. One of them even speaks french...which doesn't help me much, but cool nonetheless. I also met the chair. He had a realllllyyy large compound full of women cooking in the front/main entrance. Next, we went to the Imam's place and that was a ridiculously large compound as well. I found out he's the eldest man of all the Tourays (my surname) which makes him the clan head. I'm so, so tired by now and it's just a bunch of meetings with people talking wicked fast and it's burning me out. Mostly when I open my mouth they look at me confused like "who is this girl and why does she speak my language" and we then both proceed to look confused at each other. The women, although I had no time with them, were all very friendly. The group and I trekked through the Sahara once again to the Alkaloo's compound (Musa's home) - which is also as large as can be with outside mosquito nets, too! He very much loves Obama because on top of his main entrance is a huge poster. Anywho, we go inside to meet his wife and prior to that I mentioned that I wanted a bag of water with small drinking water packets inside (yes, bagception) because I was way too suspicious of the water coming out of my filter. He had a couple of packets inside his house and HM asked me if I wanted it... 45D later, I finally had drinking water without needing to haul it 20k away from Basse (the nearest place where I can get anything). This rocked because I was thirsty as hell. We went back to HM's place which is attached to the health clinic/meeting area and dropped him off. We gave his friend Ceedee my huge bag of water to take by motorcycle back to my place while Wujare walked me back home. Like I said, I was so thirsty by the time I got back that I just downed an entire packet, which is impressive because I don't drink that much in one sitting for those of you who ever saw me drink.
I chilled inside for a bit and thought about how I wanted to arrange my new home. After a while I went back outside and there was a lot more people there. They were all back from the bush for lunch. I read them my notes in Serehule and everyone seemed pretty tickled. A friend f my host/landlord/brother came over - his name is Ali - and he seems to know more English than anyone else in my compound thus far. When I started reading my vocab, he started pointing things around us and translating to me what they were. This went on for a bit until I asked them if they could show me the tap system. THANK THE LORDS it's only down the street and to the left. Apparently there's also another tap - a spigot system - but that was broken or maybe they just took off the knob and only give it to the public at certain times in the day. We walked back and they pointed more things out to me - some I knew and some I seriously had no clue even if it was right in front of me. I think they were telling me the different types of trees and shit, I don't even know that in English.
I found out that Baharu, my host dad, is 32 years old and still looks very young. It must be his smile. He has a very kind smile and reminds me of Baloo from Jungle Book - just super chill and easy going. He doesn't have kids yet - he just married Fatoumata like 5/6 months ago - and she's from Sabi. Baharu loves kids and is always laughing in the background while messing around with them. Anywho, we got on the topic of my 'husband' and so I went inside to get a picture. They were all pretty enthralled. Lunch was delivered right after and I was so thankful it was rice and some sauce. One of the moms, who I didn't get to show my "husband's" picture to because she was cooking, rushed up to me and was like, "Picture! Picture!" When I finished eating and brought the bowl outside (and I might have derped inside for a little), I wasn't aware that they were waiting for me to resume chatting until they asked me if I was ready. I guess I was because next thing I know, I wrote down all this vocab - like literally a full page and a half worth - but was unsure how I'd ever use it. When will I ever need to know the word for coal? Or the thing you put around a donkey when you use it to pull a cart. Or snot. And halfway through I'm like, are they really teaching me or making a fool out of me because Baharu is laughing while Ali is teaching and I think they had the best of intentions but we didn't have a ton around us. Anyways, they then said something about me having something and at first I didn't understand and neither Baharu or Ali could translate it. It turns out that my grandpa, who comes riding a bike back, actually knows English! He came by and told me they were trying to say that I have a good mind. Or memory. Lol, maybe, but I appreciate the compliment. Another guy came along and jumped in on the teaching. We had kids all around us and laughed in surprise whenever I knew something. I think they're all surprised that this random Chinese American can speak a bit of Serehule. They were REALLY tickled that I knew the word for butt. After forever, I finally said I was going inside to wash my hair which I totally wanted to... but Wujare came by again and whisked me away to meet more community figure heads.
We went this really long back way to see the school/head teacher. He was teaching me random vocab along the way and I can't tell if he's a good teacher or what. He knows English well but he talks too fast and I don't know if he's making me feel dumb when he re-emphasizes the fact that I don't know something or when he's genuinely surprised when I do know something. Or maybe this is just natural. However, I have heard many stories from Ida (my formal teacher), that the men do not like women in education or having any sort of power over them and that especially the Serehules because they are very traditional. Also, being around a lot of men can tarnish my image to the community because they will start thinking I'm there to find a husband or that I sleep around a lot or something like that. It's just really hard now because I'm meeting all these figure heads and they're, OF COURSE, men that hold these seats/positions of power but I really feel comfortable with the women and kids. I do know that I'll need to be well known and respected by the men but I really want to do some empowerment stuff with the women. I know it's not their fault, but HM being a guy is going to have a lot of male friends which is why I have this body guard of males following me around. SIGH anyways. W would sometimes say, "do you know _______really fast sentence________" and I'm like, "No," in which he's like, "You don't know?" Or, "You have to know _______really fast sentence______" No, dude, I wouldn't lie to you about something I didn't know. Then he translates. I have picked up some helpful things but if I don't write things down there's no way I'll remember it. Good thing we were always walking >_> He's a pretty fast paced guy in general and he's been helping me a lot since he lives closer to me than HM. His house has electricity, a TV, and a satellite dish! It's a pretty sizable compound, too. He has relatives that come back to live with him from Spain. W also asked if he could be considered as a teacher if I ever needed (PC will reimburse, 45 D an hour, which is some but not much). I said I would ask, but ideally I would like to get a female teacher. He'll be a back up, though.
When we finally got to the school, we found out the Head Teacher wasn't there but I got his phone/name anyways for my Peace Corps assignment (where I have to identify figureheads in the community). We walked all the way back to HM's place to meet M/acting Alkaloo and back to his compound to find the chair of the women's group...who of course wasn't there. Instead, a cohort of women were there instead, cooking. Apparently, tomorrow is a huge once a year event that an organization called TOSTAN is holding in Kulari. They have a representative in Kulari that sets it all up with the help of the community. I don't know exactly what TOSTAN is but I do know it has to do with culture and they're based in Basse, so they have to travel to get here. I got to sit with the ladies and they are so, so, so friendly and I feel just so comfortable with them but unfortunately the sun was setting and I still had more people to meet. People were reeling at the fact that I've only been learning Serehule for 4 weeks and they're so excited to teach me more. WHICH IS GREAT, but I hope they set their expectations low because I'm just working hard at my own pace. They then start to think about me learning Pulaar (another language) and Mandinka and I'm just like hoooold up, cannot do yet.
Anyways, W thinks I know kungfu and if that's what it takes for personal security then so be it. By the time we finished meeting the remaining craftsmen that I was required to find, he walked me home and it was really dark.I went to take one of the most miserable showers so far - cold and a multiplicity of bugs. I don't even know if I'm clean. It hurt to splash water on me, damn. I ate dinner (two really bony fish, coos, and watery sauce) and went outside to chat. My family that I met outside were mostly the women and children and it was very homey and comfortable. They had a fire in the middle while everyone sat around. The women who talked to me understood the few things that I said. I noticed that the three moms had very distinct personalities but they all seem very protective and caring towards me. The children are older than the kids in Jalanbereh. They don't interact with me much yet probably because I'm new and I haven't spent much time with them alone. We mostly sat in silence and watched the fire. This one kid materializes from thin air all of a sudden and says some greetings before plopping down right next to me. He's a reserved boy and I couldn't see who he was. I asked him his name and he said Musa. He asked if I forgot who he was but as soon as I heard him speak English, I remembered! Yesterday, he helped me with carrying my sleeping bags from HMs all the way to my house. Right before he left, he said he would see me tomorrow (today) and he kept his promise. He knew his English pretty well and I got to know him better - he showed me pictures of his family on his phone and told me he went to school in Kombo before his dad moved him and his mom back to Kulari... way the hell back into the bush. I liked his presence and sat in silence or talked some. I gave him my phone number because I felt like he'd be nice to know - kids are good and allies in the Gambia - and it was a nice ending to my night. BUT although that was a nice ending, my favorite part is still lying in my two layers of protection from bugs while I think about all that happened in the day.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Journal Entry 11/20
Today was the big day! I got up and packed, ran into the dining room to eat a chocolate and grease sandwich, downed half a cup of powdered milk in hot water, and had just enough time to sterilize my moon cup. Great first journal entry sentence. Before I knew it, Peter the Driver was rushing us to the bus garage park and all hell broke loose. We ran around at the last minute trying to pack and whatnot. My community representative was real sweet and helped me with some of my stuff and is always concerned/keeping me up to date with stuff. I sat up next to him and right before we drove off, someone yelled "CHINESOO" really loudly and I have no idea who but I decided to ignore it because it was too early. I think some of the Gambians/volutneers gave whoever it was a look.
So, we're off to Soma at 8:20 AM, arrived at 8:40 AM, walked around the huge and barren garage park with my stuff for training/exercised and talked about everything under the sun with fellow volunteers who wanted to walk around. We were going to be trapped on a bus for the next 5 hours, after all. We legitimately walked around for 1.5 hours while my counterpart was like this girl is crazy and sat in the shade. The bus finally arrived at 11:15 AM and we were actually on the road, MOVING at 12:04 PM. It was 140 D for express which saves a lot of time since we didn't need to stop every other stop for people to get off. Of course, 15 minutes into the bus moving I really needed to pee but my theory is that it's because of all the damn bumps! I thought my seat was going to be miserable but I totally overestimated my size and I actually sat really comfortably alllll the way in the back in the left-most seat next to the window. We drove all the way east - past Jalanbereh, past Janjanbereh (another big town), past Bansang (a bigger town), and had to maneuver around lots of free roaming animals.
Along the way there was a military check point where we all had to get off and unzipped our luggage for a brief glance over. My friend/colleague, Beth, and I took the opportunity to jet off far into the distance behind some bushes to pee. It was awesome to let it all out but unfortunately it was not so awesoem for my calves/ankles because they were victims to some pretty potent mosquitoes. There's even a huge swollen bump on my left ankle which is still so very itchy, 8 hours later. It was pleasant just sitting, listening to music, and looking at the passing landscape. HM was really considerate and left me to listen to music (he dozed off, too, haha) but pointed out certain things we passed - like the oldest weekly market, different cities, etc. When we finally arrived in Basse at 4:30 PM, we bought some cola nuts (as a traditional gift when you arrive at a new place) to give to the Alkaloo to distribute to the various family heads, candy, and bananas for my family. HM had his motorcycle in Basse so he found a friend who drove a gele to Kulari and instructed him to drop me off at a particular spot. I hopped on while HM went to find his bike and I took up the entire 3rd row to myself with all my stuff... because I am such a large person. It was 35 D from Basse to Kulari.
After what seemed like forever waiting for the gele to fill up, stopping for gas, driving, dropping people off, veering away from huge holes in the road, breathing in a dust storm, I finally arrived at 5:50 PMish. The Alkaloo's son, Musa, the acting Alkaloo, met me there and so was HM's other friend, Ceedee. They both helped me with my stuff and we walked to HM's place. It was a MAZE. Everything looked the same and very different from Jalanbereh. I felt like I was walking through the Sahara desert with the huge sand dunes in the road. After maybe 10-15 minutes, we finally made a right turn to HM's house and there was a group of women there waiting to dance/clap/and greet me! They immediately started celebrating and dancing me to HM's place - just like a mini Jenoi! HM said a few words to them about me, I greeted people, and I was shipped off to my permanent home... which turns out to be in the middle of no where because it's far away from the mosques (so that the 5 AM prayers won't have to always wake me up). It's also super far away from the main road AND HM's place... guh. But I do like the secludedness of it.
My new family was all there and it seemed smaller than my Jalanbereh family but just as welcoming. I dropped off my stuff and requested a chair, bucket, cup, and water and they all helped gathered it for me. I have a pretty big round hut with a thatch roof to the side of the main compound and tucked in. There's a window right directly in front of my door where people can look in from, yay. It's closed most of the time though. Pretty private over all. I have 2 windows - 1 where I can see out to the main front part of the compound and the other that's out back. My backyard is brand new with corrugated metal to block off wandering eyes, a new road, and a pit latrine/shower area. It's smaller than my training village backyard but not by much. There was definitely room for a small garden. A couple more people came to say hi, I showered, washed my water filter, got served dinner (coos with some salty/spicy sauce and a piece of fish), took it outside, and talked with my fam for the rest of the night. They even gave me boiled peanuts! Huzzah.
So, we're off to Soma at 8:20 AM, arrived at 8:40 AM, walked around the huge and barren garage park with my stuff for training/exercised and talked about everything under the sun with fellow volunteers who wanted to walk around. We were going to be trapped on a bus for the next 5 hours, after all. We legitimately walked around for 1.5 hours while my counterpart was like this girl is crazy and sat in the shade. The bus finally arrived at 11:15 AM and we were actually on the road, MOVING at 12:04 PM. It was 140 D for express which saves a lot of time since we didn't need to stop every other stop for people to get off. Of course, 15 minutes into the bus moving I really needed to pee but my theory is that it's because of all the damn bumps! I thought my seat was going to be miserable but I totally overestimated my size and I actually sat really comfortably alllll the way in the back in the left-most seat next to the window. We drove all the way east - past Jalanbereh, past Janjanbereh (another big town), past Bansang (a bigger town), and had to maneuver around lots of free roaming animals.
Along the way there was a military check point where we all had to get off and unzipped our luggage for a brief glance over. My friend/colleague, Beth, and I took the opportunity to jet off far into the distance behind some bushes to pee. It was awesome to let it all out but unfortunately it was not so awesoem for my calves/ankles because they were victims to some pretty potent mosquitoes. There's even a huge swollen bump on my left ankle which is still so very itchy, 8 hours later. It was pleasant just sitting, listening to music, and looking at the passing landscape. HM was really considerate and left me to listen to music (he dozed off, too, haha) but pointed out certain things we passed - like the oldest weekly market, different cities, etc. When we finally arrived in Basse at 4:30 PM, we bought some cola nuts (as a traditional gift when you arrive at a new place) to give to the Alkaloo to distribute to the various family heads, candy, and bananas for my family. HM had his motorcycle in Basse so he found a friend who drove a gele to Kulari and instructed him to drop me off at a particular spot. I hopped on while HM went to find his bike and I took up the entire 3rd row to myself with all my stuff... because I am such a large person. It was 35 D from Basse to Kulari.
After what seemed like forever waiting for the gele to fill up, stopping for gas, driving, dropping people off, veering away from huge holes in the road, breathing in a dust storm, I finally arrived at 5:50 PMish. The Alkaloo's son, Musa, the acting Alkaloo, met me there and so was HM's other friend, Ceedee. They both helped me with my stuff and we walked to HM's place. It was a MAZE. Everything looked the same and very different from Jalanbereh. I felt like I was walking through the Sahara desert with the huge sand dunes in the road. After maybe 10-15 minutes, we finally made a right turn to HM's house and there was a group of women there waiting to dance/clap/and greet me! They immediately started celebrating and dancing me to HM's place - just like a mini Jenoi! HM said a few words to them about me, I greeted people, and I was shipped off to my permanent home... which turns out to be in the middle of no where because it's far away from the mosques (so that the 5 AM prayers won't have to always wake me up). It's also super far away from the main road AND HM's place... guh. But I do like the secludedness of it.
My new family was all there and it seemed smaller than my Jalanbereh family but just as welcoming. I dropped off my stuff and requested a chair, bucket, cup, and water and they all helped gathered it for me. I have a pretty big round hut with a thatch roof to the side of the main compound and tucked in. There's a window right directly in front of my door where people can look in from, yay. It's closed most of the time though. Pretty private over all. I have 2 windows - 1 where I can see out to the main front part of the compound and the other that's out back. My backyard is brand new with corrugated metal to block off wandering eyes, a new road, and a pit latrine/shower area. It's smaller than my training village backyard but not by much. There was definitely room for a small garden. A couple more people came to say hi, I showered, washed my water filter, got served dinner (coos with some salty/spicy sauce and a piece of fish), took it outside, and talked with my fam for the rest of the night. They even gave me boiled peanuts! Huzzah.
Journal Entry 11/19
Yesterday, I got picked up nice and early and UNPREPARED at 7:18 but left by 7:25 AM. It was a really messy leave and I wish I had more time to say all my goodbyes but the PC car was waiting. The other group received wrong information as well and was unprepared save for one person but we all eventually were on our way to Jenoi, the kingdom of mosquitoes. More mishaps happened - like 3/10s of us got breakfast and that annoyed some people but I was at the right place at the right time and got to nom a bit... on greasy breakfast.
I got to briefly glance at a mirror from a friend and trimmed the brows but also REELED at how bad I was breaking out because of my damn approaching period which of course will come on the day of traveling to site. Y U SO BAD AT TIMING YOURSELF, PERIOD? This probably explains my overflowing emotions lately.
Anyways, after mowing my eyebrows, we all sat in a big meeting room facing the front and met our counterparts! THE BIG UNVEIL! The Serehules all have male community representatives ranging from 25, 27, to somewhere in his 30s. They were a bit surprised when I started greeting in Serehule. My own community representative from Kulari, HM, is a very friendly, kind, and helpful 27 year old community health nurse who is actually Mandinka so I guess I'll be learning Mandinka for my 2nd language, lol. The other counterparts are all very nice and show that they want to help us so it's a huge relief! There were a lot of introduction-esque activities that ensued and I got super tired probably from the lack of sleep.
Lunch was had, I was still tired, but finally we finished and was treated by one of my favorite sessions thus far - cooking for yourself 101! Taught by Chris Dude (not really his surname but we were teaching a Gambian teacher Californian English which includes tonal variations of 'dude' to describe your emotions), a information technology volunteer in the Kombo area who has a culinary arts degree, was in the presence of Julia Child, and managed restaurants before coming to The Gambia. How interesting, right? He's very funny, too. He taught us how to make spaghetti and cream sauce with veggies from scratch with all these tips inbetween, and all the ingredients were locally found! I hope I remember everything since I didn't take notes...
After that, I played frisbee with some trainees and my Agriculture/Forestry PCVL/RA, and two Gambians. It was so very fun. We (my team consisting of three very tall men - my PCVL and the two Gambians - 1 was my friend Musa), were down by 4 points bu twe caught up and stayed ahead. It was a close game but we stayed ahead and I contributed with some clutch catches but I think by the end of the game there were more "if only she was a bit taller" moments than not. I'm pretty sure that was our team name. BUT, we won! Mwahahaha. I smelled horrid after, showered, dinnered, studied, and slept.
Today, we started with lots of activities again. I perfected my Neem Cream Serehule translation as best that I could and people were very happy with my progress. I'm sure I'll have more tools in my vocab to make it better! People call me Serehule Girl now and I suppose that's okay. I prefer Serehule Princess :P I snuck in the chance to charge my iTouch before tomorrow's long journey to site, thank God. The counterparts are all so sweet but they all speak Mandinka (and English) and I can only speak like 6 phrases in their language! Many more activities (all about what we expect from our communty representatives, how they can help us, what's expected from the volunteers, what PCVs are/aren't, anxieties, travel logistics) and lunch later, it was finally over for the day. I washed my shirt from yesterday which reeked and found a good place to study while everyone else went to Soma. I wasn't really feeling it, probably my period telling me to stay.
Anywho, I did study, but I also drew some sketches for my first custom made Gambian outfit! The entire PC training group is going to get asobes which are clothes in matching fabric to symbolize a united group. These asobes will be worn during our swear in ceremony. I looked over the map that HM and Omar (a representative from another Serehule village) helped me with of the Kulari region and talked to one of the language teachers and other community representatives. Before I knew it, dusk arrived, mosquitoes were out for blood, I was victim to 4 bites, and the trainees were back. I showered, dinnered, and went to bed. Big day tomorrow!
I got to briefly glance at a mirror from a friend and trimmed the brows but also REELED at how bad I was breaking out because of my damn approaching period which of course will come on the day of traveling to site. Y U SO BAD AT TIMING YOURSELF, PERIOD? This probably explains my overflowing emotions lately.
Anyways, after mowing my eyebrows, we all sat in a big meeting room facing the front and met our counterparts! THE BIG UNVEIL! The Serehules all have male community representatives ranging from 25, 27, to somewhere in his 30s. They were a bit surprised when I started greeting in Serehule. My own community representative from Kulari, HM, is a very friendly, kind, and helpful 27 year old community health nurse who is actually Mandinka so I guess I'll be learning Mandinka for my 2nd language, lol. The other counterparts are all very nice and show that they want to help us so it's a huge relief! There were a lot of introduction-esque activities that ensued and I got super tired probably from the lack of sleep.
Lunch was had, I was still tired, but finally we finished and was treated by one of my favorite sessions thus far - cooking for yourself 101! Taught by Chris Dude (not really his surname but we were teaching a Gambian teacher Californian English which includes tonal variations of 'dude' to describe your emotions), a information technology volunteer in the Kombo area who has a culinary arts degree, was in the presence of Julia Child, and managed restaurants before coming to The Gambia. How interesting, right? He's very funny, too. He taught us how to make spaghetti and cream sauce with veggies from scratch with all these tips inbetween, and all the ingredients were locally found! I hope I remember everything since I didn't take notes...
After that, I played frisbee with some trainees and my Agriculture/Forestry PCVL/RA, and two Gambians. It was so very fun. We (my team consisting of three very tall men - my PCVL and the two Gambians - 1 was my friend Musa), were down by 4 points bu twe caught up and stayed ahead. It was a close game but we stayed ahead and I contributed with some clutch catches but I think by the end of the game there were more "if only she was a bit taller" moments than not. I'm pretty sure that was our team name. BUT, we won! Mwahahaha. I smelled horrid after, showered, dinnered, studied, and slept.
Today, we started with lots of activities again. I perfected my Neem Cream Serehule translation as best that I could and people were very happy with my progress. I'm sure I'll have more tools in my vocab to make it better! People call me Serehule Girl now and I suppose that's okay. I prefer Serehule Princess :P I snuck in the chance to charge my iTouch before tomorrow's long journey to site, thank God. The counterparts are all so sweet but they all speak Mandinka (and English) and I can only speak like 6 phrases in their language! Many more activities (all about what we expect from our communty representatives, how they can help us, what's expected from the volunteers, what PCVs are/aren't, anxieties, travel logistics) and lunch later, it was finally over for the day. I washed my shirt from yesterday which reeked and found a good place to study while everyone else went to Soma. I wasn't really feeling it, probably my period telling me to stay.
Anywho, I did study, but I also drew some sketches for my first custom made Gambian outfit! The entire PC training group is going to get asobes which are clothes in matching fabric to symbolize a united group. These asobes will be worn during our swear in ceremony. I looked over the map that HM and Omar (a representative from another Serehule village) helped me with of the Kulari region and talked to one of the language teachers and other community representatives. Before I knew it, dusk arrived, mosquitoes were out for blood, I was victim to 4 bites, and the trainees were back. I showered, dinnered, and went to bed. Big day tomorrow!
Journal Entry 11/17
Well damn, this is the 1 month anniversary of my coming to The Gambia. Lots of stuff happened today but the best gift of all was the weather. It was super cloudy all day and sprinkled for a bit in the morning. Overall, it was very mild and comfortable. When I got up it was even cold! What is this fantastic feeling. Those of you who know me would never imagine those words coming out of my mouth.
Anyways, I started off the day with washing millions of clothes and my bed sheet so that's always special. Luckily, they all dried but I did this at like 8 in the morning, they all better damn well dry. For my PC homework I was suppose to shadow a Gambian of the opposite sex but everyone went to the bush to pick groundnuts before I even got time to eat breakfast soooo I went to the women's community garden with my mom instead. She first brought me through her own compound where she grew up - which is literally across the street - and I said hi to all her family members. We then went towards the back where it opened up into a sprawl/web of other compounds and weirdly enough everyone knew my name - even the kids - and I've never been there before. I spent a good three hours at the garden with just my mom and I (and the goats). Between the weather light conversation with my mom (successful in that I conversed with her and we both understood each other), it was an awesome experience. We didn't speak much but we exchanged vocabulary in Serehule and English, we talked about my site mates, she teased me, and she even understood when I explained why I didn't like having too many kids. It was all just very pleasant. It started raining a little and I was arguing/begging/kooing/bartering with the sky to cut the shit and keep it cloudy because I was in a garden field in the middle of NO where and my clothes were drying. The community garden hasn't gotten to the planting stage yet, they are still clearing fields. Every woman had a plot of land where they were charged to clear and take care of and it's just them, a hatchet, they go to down with the weeds, and then they burn it. It's ridiculous work, lots of repetition and callouses involved and lots of just thick sticks and stuff, ugh. I can't believe this is what they do every day. It drizzled for all of 20 minutes but stopped and we went back by 11:30ish. I said "Hi," to my cousin (who is my joke mate, all cousin relations are), at the market who wanted to see me, went back home to pack for my site visit, and left to go to lunch.
On the way, I literally walked into a parade led by an elderly woman carrying a chair (who greeted me and I greeted her right back). Then, all the other older women (including my mom and all of my site mates' moms) come parading along and they all greet me while I'm standing on the side really confused as to what this parade is. I got my answer right away because out of the blue, like 10-15 white people appear in the parade and then I got REALLY confused. One of them saw me look at them in consternation and I managed to stumble out a "Hi." They were from the Netherlands and were there to build a new pump or two. They were briefly touring villages and being welcomed just like we were with a welcoming ceremony. One of the men shook my hand and thanked me for being there and they were off. They were doing the very opposite of what Peace Corps does - come in without learning about the culture of bringing any entering gifts (like Cola nuts, I doubt they knew what they were), dropped off cash, gave the people things, and left. It's nice to get a tap system but damn. Not the way to do it sustainably.
Anyways, I met Ida and Elizabeth on the road because they wanted to see the parade and Ida was tired because apparently she walked a lot in the morning (with people telling her I was going to the gardens...of course. Very exciting news). We had lunch and even a watermelon and it was DELICIOUS. I tried to study but this one little girl had other plans and kept on distracting me (she's comfortable with me now), I showed the Alkaloo's daughter Rohi pics on my iTouch, went back home, and biked. I did some super fast biking too because two guys were behind me and I didn't want to put myself in a risky situation with the sun about to set. The temperature was perfect, I got my exercise in, and finally I was home to tackle a pretty hefty mission... translating the procedure to make Neem cream in Serehule. Neem cream is an organic, non harmful mosquito repellent that anyone can make here for a super cheap price and it's very simple. More info on that later when I ACTUALLY make it. Anywho, with the help of a nice set up, comfortable temperature, and a PILE of boiled peanuts, my mission was attempted.
One of the ladies in the compound who I'm close to had her friends visit me. They all wanted to see my house/room so naturally they ALL came in - all 6 of them - and greeted me. They were all very nice :) but mostly surprised this random Chinese girl can speak Serehule. It was later than I liked but I went out to teach math at 8:30 PMish. I have a commitment to them! The kids were all doing something so I chatted with the older women about my trip to Kulari/Jenoi and they were all sad and disappointed that I wouldn't make the naming ceremony for the new baby. My namesake/elder mom even got me an outfit! It's super cute, in orange, I guess that's my new color now. The outfit (completi) that they made me has a nice top but it's a pain to take off because I have a thing called boobs and I think they told the tailor to make it so that it fit my 12 year old sister. The skirt was also way too tight and long and my 12 year old sister tried putting it on me from the bottom up and from the top down to no avail. I was waddling/shifting my entire body to move - that's how tight it was. It was also way too long. So in conclusion, I found out that I am shorter than a 12 year old but I have more of an ass/chest than a 12 year old...success?
Suddenly, a car pulls up and some guests arrive - maybe 7ish. They call their guests "strangers" here. They were mostly women (some speaking in Spanish/Serehule, some speaking in Mandinka) and kids. They were relatives of my family who lived in Sekunda, a neighboring community with all the good schools. Their kids were a bit more out of control than the kids in my compound but the ladies were all very nice. I gave out what seems like 1,000 math problems for homework since I'll be gone for 9 days in Jenoi/Kulari for site visit and instructed the kids to be acting teachers. My mom called after I retreated back inside to tell me everything's okay with my grandma, she's in safe hands, so that's good. The next week will be filled with lots of big news.
Anyways, I started off the day with washing millions of clothes and my bed sheet so that's always special. Luckily, they all dried but I did this at like 8 in the morning, they all better damn well dry. For my PC homework I was suppose to shadow a Gambian of the opposite sex but everyone went to the bush to pick groundnuts before I even got time to eat breakfast soooo I went to the women's community garden with my mom instead. She first brought me through her own compound where she grew up - which is literally across the street - and I said hi to all her family members. We then went towards the back where it opened up into a sprawl/web of other compounds and weirdly enough everyone knew my name - even the kids - and I've never been there before. I spent a good three hours at the garden with just my mom and I (and the goats). Between the weather light conversation with my mom (successful in that I conversed with her and we both understood each other), it was an awesome experience. We didn't speak much but we exchanged vocabulary in Serehule and English, we talked about my site mates, she teased me, and she even understood when I explained why I didn't like having too many kids. It was all just very pleasant. It started raining a little and I was arguing/begging/kooing/bartering with the sky to cut the shit and keep it cloudy because I was in a garden field in the middle of NO where and my clothes were drying. The community garden hasn't gotten to the planting stage yet, they are still clearing fields. Every woman had a plot of land where they were charged to clear and take care of and it's just them, a hatchet, they go to down with the weeds, and then they burn it. It's ridiculous work, lots of repetition and callouses involved and lots of just thick sticks and stuff, ugh. I can't believe this is what they do every day. It drizzled for all of 20 minutes but stopped and we went back by 11:30ish. I said "Hi," to my cousin (who is my joke mate, all cousin relations are), at the market who wanted to see me, went back home to pack for my site visit, and left to go to lunch.
On the way, I literally walked into a parade led by an elderly woman carrying a chair (who greeted me and I greeted her right back). Then, all the other older women (including my mom and all of my site mates' moms) come parading along and they all greet me while I'm standing on the side really confused as to what this parade is. I got my answer right away because out of the blue, like 10-15 white people appear in the parade and then I got REALLY confused. One of them saw me look at them in consternation and I managed to stumble out a "Hi." They were from the Netherlands and were there to build a new pump or two. They were briefly touring villages and being welcomed just like we were with a welcoming ceremony. One of the men shook my hand and thanked me for being there and they were off. They were doing the very opposite of what Peace Corps does - come in without learning about the culture of bringing any entering gifts (like Cola nuts, I doubt they knew what they were), dropped off cash, gave the people things, and left. It's nice to get a tap system but damn. Not the way to do it sustainably.
Anyways, I met Ida and Elizabeth on the road because they wanted to see the parade and Ida was tired because apparently she walked a lot in the morning (with people telling her I was going to the gardens...of course. Very exciting news). We had lunch and even a watermelon and it was DELICIOUS. I tried to study but this one little girl had other plans and kept on distracting me (she's comfortable with me now), I showed the Alkaloo's daughter Rohi pics on my iTouch, went back home, and biked. I did some super fast biking too because two guys were behind me and I didn't want to put myself in a risky situation with the sun about to set. The temperature was perfect, I got my exercise in, and finally I was home to tackle a pretty hefty mission... translating the procedure to make Neem cream in Serehule. Neem cream is an organic, non harmful mosquito repellent that anyone can make here for a super cheap price and it's very simple. More info on that later when I ACTUALLY make it. Anywho, with the help of a nice set up, comfortable temperature, and a PILE of boiled peanuts, my mission was attempted.
One of the ladies in the compound who I'm close to had her friends visit me. They all wanted to see my house/room so naturally they ALL came in - all 6 of them - and greeted me. They were all very nice :) but mostly surprised this random Chinese girl can speak Serehule. It was later than I liked but I went out to teach math at 8:30 PMish. I have a commitment to them! The kids were all doing something so I chatted with the older women about my trip to Kulari/Jenoi and they were all sad and disappointed that I wouldn't make the naming ceremony for the new baby. My namesake/elder mom even got me an outfit! It's super cute, in orange, I guess that's my new color now. The outfit (completi) that they made me has a nice top but it's a pain to take off because I have a thing called boobs and I think they told the tailor to make it so that it fit my 12 year old sister. The skirt was also way too tight and long and my 12 year old sister tried putting it on me from the bottom up and from the top down to no avail. I was waddling/shifting my entire body to move - that's how tight it was. It was also way too long. So in conclusion, I found out that I am shorter than a 12 year old but I have more of an ass/chest than a 12 year old...success?
Suddenly, a car pulls up and some guests arrive - maybe 7ish. They call their guests "strangers" here. They were mostly women (some speaking in Spanish/Serehule, some speaking in Mandinka) and kids. They were relatives of my family who lived in Sekunda, a neighboring community with all the good schools. Their kids were a bit more out of control than the kids in my compound but the ladies were all very nice. I gave out what seems like 1,000 math problems for homework since I'll be gone for 9 days in Jenoi/Kulari for site visit and instructed the kids to be acting teachers. My mom called after I retreated back inside to tell me everything's okay with my grandma, she's in safe hands, so that's good. The next week will be filled with lots of big news.
Journal Entry 11/16
My mom called me after I fell asleep with good and bad news. First, she told me that I have a care package to look forward to. Second, she told me some bad news about my grandma. Her physical health isn't compromised but still something really shitty happened to her and it stayed on my mind. I guess I didn't know how much it was affecting me until Alicia started a spiel about how she has everyone's back and how she wants us/me to watch our own safety and well being because if anything happens to us, we're compromising her safety, too, since she'll be the one getting us out of trouble. It was really touching and it started to make me cry (read: it made me cry a lot and it wouldn't stop) because of course nice things people say have that backwards affect on me. I'm starting to see a crying trend but I promise it doesn't happen as often as it sounds... just when people say nice things to me. I know, wtf, right?
So my grandma really threw me in a loop today and I couldn't concentrate. Good thing the Peace Corps staff chose my training village to be the sample one for the Inspector General and other important people to observe, yay! When they got here, I got an audience of 12 PC/important people watching me while another 15 other kids/adults from the community came and watched. Awesome. My site mates and I tried our best talking/interviewing the two lactating women about breastfeeding and well...it was stressful - but also successful. It was difficult having a three person-to-one interview (felt like an interrogation, I felt bad) but it was short. To our dismay, the women were NOT exclusively breastfeeding, so I gave them feedback. I would like next time for the introduction to be longer so I can fully introduce myself and let them know who I am/ask them more about themselves, and improve on my language so I can actually explain why exclusive breastfeeding is good for the child. I wasn't ready to be in a theater, like it felt like I was on a stage, but apparently we did really good. We talked to them Inspector General and one of his employees for quite some time before they left - leaving Ida, Elizabeth, and I exhausted. Alicia left for some check ups. After lunch (where I told the ladies my predicament with my grandma), I spent forever catching up on freakin' homework and not having the time I wanted to go over language...but it was inescapable.
Around 5 PM, Ida, Elizabeth, and I checked out the Africell phone tower and walked there as an evening stroll. We found this compound next to the Africell tower that was littered with trash everywhere but otherwise had ELECTRICITY. There was at least 25 phones being charged in the compound and a part time soccer watching place outside and that's how the head of the compound made extra cash. To be honest, the Africell company is cheating him because they took his land and employed him rather than him making the demands and charging the company. He's a nice guy and wants us to know that we are welcomed to go anytime to charge our stuff but it's not somewhere I'd go by myself. We will, however, capitalize the fact that he has four freezer/refrigerators that we can put our beverages and food in - hell yeah.
I went back home pretty late - apparently they thought I had dinner already so I didn't get any but I was fine with two breakfast bars. I went to teach a little more and enjoyed a call from America. I need to crack down on language, I really do, starting tomorrow!
So my grandma really threw me in a loop today and I couldn't concentrate. Good thing the Peace Corps staff chose my training village to be the sample one for the Inspector General and other important people to observe, yay! When they got here, I got an audience of 12 PC/important people watching me while another 15 other kids/adults from the community came and watched. Awesome. My site mates and I tried our best talking/interviewing the two lactating women about breastfeeding and well...it was stressful - but also successful. It was difficult having a three person-to-one interview (felt like an interrogation, I felt bad) but it was short. To our dismay, the women were NOT exclusively breastfeeding, so I gave them feedback. I would like next time for the introduction to be longer so I can fully introduce myself and let them know who I am/ask them more about themselves, and improve on my language so I can actually explain why exclusive breastfeeding is good for the child. I wasn't ready to be in a theater, like it felt like I was on a stage, but apparently we did really good. We talked to them Inspector General and one of his employees for quite some time before they left - leaving Ida, Elizabeth, and I exhausted. Alicia left for some check ups. After lunch (where I told the ladies my predicament with my grandma), I spent forever catching up on freakin' homework and not having the time I wanted to go over language...but it was inescapable.
Around 5 PM, Ida, Elizabeth, and I checked out the Africell phone tower and walked there as an evening stroll. We found this compound next to the Africell tower that was littered with trash everywhere but otherwise had ELECTRICITY. There was at least 25 phones being charged in the compound and a part time soccer watching place outside and that's how the head of the compound made extra cash. To be honest, the Africell company is cheating him because they took his land and employed him rather than him making the demands and charging the company. He's a nice guy and wants us to know that we are welcomed to go anytime to charge our stuff but it's not somewhere I'd go by myself. We will, however, capitalize the fact that he has four freezer/refrigerators that we can put our beverages and food in - hell yeah.
I went back home pretty late - apparently they thought I had dinner already so I didn't get any but I was fine with two breakfast bars. I went to teach a little more and enjoyed a call from America. I need to crack down on language, I really do, starting tomorrow!
Journal Entry 11/15
Woke up. Did my morning dailies. Decided to don on a new shirt from the free pile Miss Alicia picked up for me which was this Gambian style one and proceeded to stop every 5 minutes to talk about how nice it was to my family/strangers on the street. I thought I'd be the last one to arrive at Ida's but that wasn't the case, phew. We did a lot of technical vocab today and it was haaard. Ida also springs it on me that the Training Manager, Assistant to the Country Director, AND the Inspector General of allll of the Peace Corps organization is coming to watch the Serehule ladies do our breastfeeding trial tomorrow... wtf? Thanks for the heads up, like the day before. Luckily, I already started looking over the lines and memorizing a couple of days ago but still I had to get a few more things in and I was definitely no master. I'm happy to see that I can figure out what certain passages mean on paper and identify vocab but I still need to write it down and practice. I gave my notes to Alicia so I really didn't do much language today away from Ida's. I tried finishing Peace Corps homework but got stumped on this long assignment about diagnosing case studies which I'll tackle tomorrow.
I went home with ample time to go fetch water twice, water my garden, go on a long, far bike ride where I almost crashed into goats, showered, AND washed my hair, set up the nicest PC-worthy "cribs" entertainment center...which involves me eating in front of my luggage case with my health technical handbook propped up by the extended suitcase handle. I had all my other stuff on top of other luggage cases and bidogs, sat cross legged, and ate like three pounds of boiled peanuts while I studied. SMALL VICTORIES are the sweetest victories, it's really hard to find a good position and have everything around you and have the light shine on what I want to read. I was almost ready to leave my throne with Rohi and her friends came by to chat. After that, I finally went outside to see that the kids wanted me to help them with a school project....which involves drawing an elephant. Of course I didn't want to do the work for them but I somehow communicated that I wouldn't do it unless the two elder kids drew three elephants for practice - and they did! So then I went Picasso on their project and actually went overboard to the point where they were like "Mariama, it's okay," but I got a huge group around me and if you know me, I am an art perfectionist.
I went home with ample time to go fetch water twice, water my garden, go on a long, far bike ride where I almost crashed into goats, showered, AND washed my hair, set up the nicest PC-worthy "cribs" entertainment center...which involves me eating in front of my luggage case with my health technical handbook propped up by the extended suitcase handle. I had all my other stuff on top of other luggage cases and bidogs, sat cross legged, and ate like three pounds of boiled peanuts while I studied. SMALL VICTORIES are the sweetest victories, it's really hard to find a good position and have everything around you and have the light shine on what I want to read. I was almost ready to leave my throne with Rohi and her friends came by to chat. After that, I finally went outside to see that the kids wanted me to help them with a school project....which involves drawing an elephant. Of course I didn't want to do the work for them but I somehow communicated that I wouldn't do it unless the two elder kids drew three elephants for practice - and they did! So then I went Picasso on their project and actually went overboard to the point where they were like "Mariama, it's okay," but I got a huge group around me and if you know me, I am an art perfectionist.
Journal Post 11/14
I swear to God every time I go to Jenoi I leave with seven new mosquito bites and I'm not even the only one! My roommate, Alyssa, who is such a hilarious story teller, got so tired of their shit that she woke up and had a mosquito massacre in her bed net. The bed nets that Jenoi supplies are crappy, untreated, and ripped. We're all trapped in a lose-lose situation in Jenoi, though, since it's a furnace inside the residence dorms where we're suppose to sleep but there's a frenzy of bugs outside ready for human blood. I already got chomped on even with long sleeves and pants but they get me during the day! Damn them. It's a combination of ants, small flying things that bite, and mosquitoes. I'm really patting myself on the back 1 million times because my bed net is my savior and I'm so happy I purchased it.
So I'm scratching myself allll the way through our remaining time left in Jenoi but before that, let me take a minute to appreciate the delicious breakfast I had today. It started with a spam/potato/grease sandwich but it was no where as deluged in oil as some of my other friends. I finished my plate but my co-workers who didn't even touch theirs just drank their coffee. One of the super kind ladies from the kitchen came out and asked if we'd like some of the jam she bought. We all politely said yes but in our minds we were all, "HELL YEAH." This lady is one of the kindest women I've met here thus far and she's multilingual! I swear I'm going to buy a watermelon just for the cooks and give her a great big slice. She retreats into the kitchen and comes back out with strawberry jam, bread, and a huge tub of chocolate peanut butter which tastes exactly like Nutella. Needless to say I was a very happy Mariama after breakfast. We had our session about ethnic groups and caste systems after that, which was our sole session before driving back to our training villages.
Now I'm going to write what little I know about Serehules (my ethnic group) here. But before that, let's talk about the caste system which the Serehules still put a lot of clout on. Once upon a time long, long ago, the Gambia was dominated by a caste system like this:
Kings/nobles > Artisons/griots/craftsmen > Slaves.
Nobles are determined by who has strategically led their people to victory in a battle (thus people will follow them - mostly it was passed down to the king's first son and very rarely was it ruled by queens. In even rarer circumstances, but still happened and outrageous nonetheless, the king's sister's 1st male born would inherit the throne since people were afraid the queen might cheat on the king so her offspring won't really be the king's. HOWEVER, people were sure that the king's sisters were of his blood and so they definitely couldn't mix up the child that way). All the caste classes marry within themselves. Everyone depends on these nobles/kings for (army) protection.
The Artisans are those who make stuff, in particular craftsmen who make tools for farming and transportation. Griots are professionals who tell stories of ancestral histories. People love going to the Griots to learn more about their past - through song. The Slaves are different from the slaves we think about in America because people usually get into that class if they borrow too much from another person and becomes indebted to them. Both the borrower and borrowee head to court and the borrower becomes a "slave" to the person who lent them whatever and has to work for him/her until their debt is repaid. Further, the slave can stay in his/her own community and home with their family.
Anyways, the caste system is mostly a relic of the past and most of the groups look past whatever caste group their ancestors came from... except for the majority of the Serehules. For example, before marriage, the Serehules will look into the potential wife/husband's background and see where they originated from. The one from the higher branch will not like to marry into a lower branch. What would impact me, however, is if my work counterpart was from a lower caste group and my Serehule community wouldn't listen to him/her. Shit sucks. Anyways, the Serehules are among the minority ethnic groups in the ethnic melting pot/mixed salad/what have you in The Gambia. They are the 9%. They are also the richest since they have been age-long business people who travel, have a money-saving mindset, and migrated to the Gambia from The Songhai Empire/Ghana to expand their business market. There are Serehules all over the world - Spain, America, all over Africa and beyond, but they always go out and send money back to their families. They have a successful gold mining business that they're known for. Although the majority of Serehules are concentrated in the Upper River Region (the eastern-most region in The Gambia), they own the majority of the large mansion/buildings in the capital, Banjul, because they have all the money. They are one of the two most conservative groups and value a large family. Most Serehule families will have 3-4 wives and a plethora of kids. 99.9% of Serehules are Muslims and consider themselves the purest group in The Gambia. They do not tend to marry out because they look down on the other groups with that "I'm the purest" mentality. I think they're really interesting, like look at their characteristics. I just didn't imagine that kind of group in The Gambia.
Anyways, after the session, my gardening guru Bah2 gave me his rancid concoction made of onions, garlic, tobacco, soap, and probably other things to pour into my garden. It's suppose to kill my termite problem. It smells disgusting but I'll also do anything to save my crops. On our way back home (the Serehule ladies were finally the first ones to get dropped off as opposed to the last, which is the norm), I discovered another volunteer named Dillon was in a long distance relationship too! We talked about our significant others for a little bit but I'm happy I'm not the only one. Now I can complain to him and be all "I MISS MY PARTNER THIS SUCKS" and someone will understand. Dillon's also in the same region as I am too! He's a swell, tall guy.
When we finally arrived and my colleagues got a better taste of the Serehule village, I greeted everyone and found out that one of the MOMS (not my direct 2) had a BABY. I held it but oh my God it was so cool and scary at the same time... she was so tiny and alive and squishy. Her naming ceremony will be next week. I also found out that the same mom has one of her other children really sick and he's at the creepy clinic. I know exactly who he is and he's one of the most active kids in my compound! His sister's sick, too (the one who's spoiled but assertive and cute), and I'm afraid it's malaria. I saw her today but she's not as energetic as usual. I told them to give her lots of water, put her to sleep, and take her to the clinic which they said they would tomorrow. I think they understood what I said. Anywho, I used the opportunity while seeing the newborn to practice the 5 lines of exclusive breastfeeding that I memorized. AND THE MOM UNDERSTOOD. Miracles. Then all the women asked me when I was going to have kids of my own. I said "It is not time yet but later, later, later, maybe. I am scared," which is a totally true response. Next, one of the ladies approached me with a receipt in English because I think somebody (my dad?) sold or bout a cow yesterday which I translated but I can't recall if I used the right verb (sell? buy? shit.). I also didn't know how to say "keep it" in Serehule so I just said the receipt was good. He better not have bought a cow because he has two children to send to the hospital. Anyways, I sat down my stuff unpacked lots, swept, treated my garden, and somehow got the message across that the stuff I was putting into my garden was a pesticide.
I left for lunch soon after that and stopped by Rohi's place to chat a little, chatted with more people along the way, and Ida's host family. I tried to explain to them why I didn't like Jenoi because of all the damn mosquitoes (they seemed to understand and they laughed which is good...but my interpretive language to signify mosquito by scratching at my bites is really aggravating the itching and I hate myself for it). After lunch, I finished recopying my notes and wrote another journal entry/monologue in Serehule. Ida was so very happy with me. She told me everyone at the Peace Corps office was really impressed. The training manager and all the other teachers called her lucky because she said none of the other 17 volunteers were on my level yet. It was really flattering but shit, pressure's on. I'm proud that my hard work is paying off because my head is always in a book recopying sentence or making sentences in my head, talking to myself, or other language obsessed things. Really, though, after talking to all the current volunteers, I'm taking their advice to heart and focusing all my energy during training on language. I'll shift gears to the health stuff after these next couple of months but until then, language is my key to making a connection, attaining trust, gaining security, and everything, so I'll pour all my time and energy into that. As much as I want to plan what I'd like to do (Or exercise. Or make a food diary. Or read. Or draw. Or do other things), I should really enter my village open minded, observe, and establish connections first - which is the main mission for the first three months of permanent site.
At night, I went out for math lessons longer than expected again, but that's always a good thing. Like I said before, I'm teaching subtraction now and gave them a crap load of homework to do. I also communicated that I wanted one of the older kids to act as the teacher during the day and teach the kids how to count to 10. My eventual goal is to teach the kids to count to 30 so they can wash their hands and count to 30 before rinsing. Finally went inside, turned on my iTouch, wrote forever, and enjoyed the cool night :)
So I'm scratching myself allll the way through our remaining time left in Jenoi but before that, let me take a minute to appreciate the delicious breakfast I had today. It started with a spam/potato/grease sandwich but it was no where as deluged in oil as some of my other friends. I finished my plate but my co-workers who didn't even touch theirs just drank their coffee. One of the super kind ladies from the kitchen came out and asked if we'd like some of the jam she bought. We all politely said yes but in our minds we were all, "HELL YEAH." This lady is one of the kindest women I've met here thus far and she's multilingual! I swear I'm going to buy a watermelon just for the cooks and give her a great big slice. She retreats into the kitchen and comes back out with strawberry jam, bread, and a huge tub of chocolate peanut butter which tastes exactly like Nutella. Needless to say I was a very happy Mariama after breakfast. We had our session about ethnic groups and caste systems after that, which was our sole session before driving back to our training villages.
Now I'm going to write what little I know about Serehules (my ethnic group) here. But before that, let's talk about the caste system which the Serehules still put a lot of clout on. Once upon a time long, long ago, the Gambia was dominated by a caste system like this:
Kings/nobles > Artisons/griots/craftsmen > Slaves.
Nobles are determined by who has strategically led their people to victory in a battle (thus people will follow them - mostly it was passed down to the king's first son and very rarely was it ruled by queens. In even rarer circumstances, but still happened and outrageous nonetheless, the king's sister's 1st male born would inherit the throne since people were afraid the queen might cheat on the king so her offspring won't really be the king's. HOWEVER, people were sure that the king's sisters were of his blood and so they definitely couldn't mix up the child that way). All the caste classes marry within themselves. Everyone depends on these nobles/kings for (army) protection.
The Artisans are those who make stuff, in particular craftsmen who make tools for farming and transportation. Griots are professionals who tell stories of ancestral histories. People love going to the Griots to learn more about their past - through song. The Slaves are different from the slaves we think about in America because people usually get into that class if they borrow too much from another person and becomes indebted to them. Both the borrower and borrowee head to court and the borrower becomes a "slave" to the person who lent them whatever and has to work for him/her until their debt is repaid. Further, the slave can stay in his/her own community and home with their family.
Anyways, the caste system is mostly a relic of the past and most of the groups look past whatever caste group their ancestors came from... except for the majority of the Serehules. For example, before marriage, the Serehules will look into the potential wife/husband's background and see where they originated from. The one from the higher branch will not like to marry into a lower branch. What would impact me, however, is if my work counterpart was from a lower caste group and my Serehule community wouldn't listen to him/her. Shit sucks. Anyways, the Serehules are among the minority ethnic groups in the ethnic melting pot/mixed salad/what have you in The Gambia. They are the 9%. They are also the richest since they have been age-long business people who travel, have a money-saving mindset, and migrated to the Gambia from The Songhai Empire/Ghana to expand their business market. There are Serehules all over the world - Spain, America, all over Africa and beyond, but they always go out and send money back to their families. They have a successful gold mining business that they're known for. Although the majority of Serehules are concentrated in the Upper River Region (the eastern-most region in The Gambia), they own the majority of the large mansion/buildings in the capital, Banjul, because they have all the money. They are one of the two most conservative groups and value a large family. Most Serehule families will have 3-4 wives and a plethora of kids. 99.9% of Serehules are Muslims and consider themselves the purest group in The Gambia. They do not tend to marry out because they look down on the other groups with that "I'm the purest" mentality. I think they're really interesting, like look at their characteristics. I just didn't imagine that kind of group in The Gambia.
Anyways, after the session, my gardening guru Bah2 gave me his rancid concoction made of onions, garlic, tobacco, soap, and probably other things to pour into my garden. It's suppose to kill my termite problem. It smells disgusting but I'll also do anything to save my crops. On our way back home (the Serehule ladies were finally the first ones to get dropped off as opposed to the last, which is the norm), I discovered another volunteer named Dillon was in a long distance relationship too! We talked about our significant others for a little bit but I'm happy I'm not the only one. Now I can complain to him and be all "I MISS MY PARTNER THIS SUCKS" and someone will understand. Dillon's also in the same region as I am too! He's a swell, tall guy.
When we finally arrived and my colleagues got a better taste of the Serehule village, I greeted everyone and found out that one of the MOMS (not my direct 2) had a BABY. I held it but oh my God it was so cool and scary at the same time... she was so tiny and alive and squishy. Her naming ceremony will be next week. I also found out that the same mom has one of her other children really sick and he's at the creepy clinic. I know exactly who he is and he's one of the most active kids in my compound! His sister's sick, too (the one who's spoiled but assertive and cute), and I'm afraid it's malaria. I saw her today but she's not as energetic as usual. I told them to give her lots of water, put her to sleep, and take her to the clinic which they said they would tomorrow. I think they understood what I said. Anywho, I used the opportunity while seeing the newborn to practice the 5 lines of exclusive breastfeeding that I memorized. AND THE MOM UNDERSTOOD. Miracles. Then all the women asked me when I was going to have kids of my own. I said "It is not time yet but later, later, later, maybe. I am scared," which is a totally true response. Next, one of the ladies approached me with a receipt in English because I think somebody (my dad?) sold or bout a cow yesterday which I translated but I can't recall if I used the right verb (sell? buy? shit.). I also didn't know how to say "keep it" in Serehule so I just said the receipt was good. He better not have bought a cow because he has two children to send to the hospital. Anyways, I sat down my stuff unpacked lots, swept, treated my garden, and somehow got the message across that the stuff I was putting into my garden was a pesticide.
I left for lunch soon after that and stopped by Rohi's place to chat a little, chatted with more people along the way, and Ida's host family. I tried to explain to them why I didn't like Jenoi because of all the damn mosquitoes (they seemed to understand and they laughed which is good...but my interpretive language to signify mosquito by scratching at my bites is really aggravating the itching and I hate myself for it). After lunch, I finished recopying my notes and wrote another journal entry/monologue in Serehule. Ida was so very happy with me. She told me everyone at the Peace Corps office was really impressed. The training manager and all the other teachers called her lucky because she said none of the other 17 volunteers were on my level yet. It was really flattering but shit, pressure's on. I'm proud that my hard work is paying off because my head is always in a book recopying sentence or making sentences in my head, talking to myself, or other language obsessed things. Really, though, after talking to all the current volunteers, I'm taking their advice to heart and focusing all my energy during training on language. I'll shift gears to the health stuff after these next couple of months but until then, language is my key to making a connection, attaining trust, gaining security, and everything, so I'll pour all my time and energy into that. As much as I want to plan what I'd like to do (Or exercise. Or make a food diary. Or read. Or draw. Or do other things), I should really enter my village open minded, observe, and establish connections first - which is the main mission for the first three months of permanent site.
At night, I went out for math lessons longer than expected again, but that's always a good thing. Like I said before, I'm teaching subtraction now and gave them a crap load of homework to do. I also communicated that I wanted one of the older kids to act as the teacher during the day and teach the kids how to count to 10. My eventual goal is to teach the kids to count to 30 so they can wash their hands and count to 30 before rinsing. Finally went inside, turned on my iTouch, wrote forever, and enjoyed the cool night :)
Journal Entry 11/13
Today was a funny day. Yes, we were training all day and yes it was long, but the sessions were almost all led by current volunteers for the most part of the day. We started off with a big serious security panel and another session about consequences of STDs in the morning but after that was exponentially more fun. It's like college orientation all over again! We then transitioned into the healthy sexuality, different romantic statuses, and problems faced during service as topics. It all began with an icebreaker..which involved picking out a strip of paper from a hat with a random mundane object on it and we had to fit it into the phrase:
"My sexuality is like ________ because ...." and we had to make up a reason behind it. Being racy was encouraged. Here's some good ones I wrote down:
...socks, because you put them on and take them off
...pickles, because you don't have it very often but when you do, you think damn I should do this more
...coffee, because it's hot, dark, and tasty
...waves, because it reaches new heights
...a laptop, because I have lots of buttons to press
...cookies, because mmmmm
...snowballs, because it gets bigger as it goes along but sizzles out if it gets too hot
...attaya (sweet green tea that's almost every Gambian's favorite beverage), because I think about brewing something hot multiple times a day.
You can guess which one's mine. For those who know me anyways, mwahahaha. Then, we had a session outside rotating around where we talked to different Peace Corps Volunteers who already sworn in and doing their thing in country. This first topic was about different relationship statuses: like having a relationship with someone back in America, being in a relationship with a host country national, being single and not ready to mingle, or the opposite, etc.). My first stop was very fortuitous - the guy was talking about the topic of being in a relationship with someone back home! I asked him a ton of tips and lots of other stuff because I'm in one and here's the following information I acquired:
-Relationships who started well in advance before one of the parties leave for their Peace Corps service tended to work better due to a solid foundation
-Most long distances don't work but there's always some that survive
-Communication, while difficult sometimes, is key
-Having your partner visit you was one of the most exciting things ever
-Know yourself, know your partner, be patient, and masturbate
We then had an exhilarating race between the Agricultural/Forestry vs the Health volunteers. The mission was to put on condoms on these rubber dick toys/dildos? The black penis was bigger than the white penis. Of course the better team won (HEALTH). We got yummy cookies as a prize and proceeded to a couple more sessions before ending the day. I studied/recopied notes, talked a bit outside, showered, had dinner, and recopied more notes. NOTES FOR DAYS.
Lo and behold, we apparently had a "ladies night" headed by my teacher AKA best LanguageCultureFacilitator Ida and she talked about many topics only meant for women's ears... like how sex works in The Gambia/how the women hint off that they want some when there's really no outward display of affection all day to the opposite sex. The men and women don't really interact at all the entire day so it was fascinating seeing the subtle hints that women can drop. We also talked about female genital cutting and complications (physical, cultural) behind it, duties of wives/multiple wives, and mobile sex shops. Message me if you want to know more details. I will talk about these things called "sexy beads" AKA "binbins" that women wear and apparently they turn men on, how some are called ball/testicle crusher beads because they can really get a man going before taking the beads off and they'll crush their sacks if they get too excited, secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies that adult Gambians employ that are similar to high school secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies, lubricants that are sold in sex shops called "keys to the vehicle/keys to the compound", aaand Gambian lingerie. Pretty fascinating - all of it - but especially the Female Genital Cutting... it's just such a vast topic to talk about. We ended the night by learning how to twerk with my site mate Alicia and we blasted Beyonce. Of course all the kids were outside watching us and we didn't have the curtains down. I think I'm doing it wrong, however, since it's really taking a toll my back lol. I just got to relax more and isolate the abs. Someone said I looked like I was humping something and honestly it looked like we were in a hump circle/chain. Welp that was fun but I'm exhausted and apparently the guys had a super boring session compared to hours.
"My sexuality is like ________ because ...." and we had to make up a reason behind it. Being racy was encouraged. Here's some good ones I wrote down:
...socks, because you put them on and take them off
...pickles, because you don't have it very often but when you do, you think damn I should do this more
...coffee, because it's hot, dark, and tasty
...waves, because it reaches new heights
...a laptop, because I have lots of buttons to press
...cookies, because mmmmm
...snowballs, because it gets bigger as it goes along but sizzles out if it gets too hot
...attaya (sweet green tea that's almost every Gambian's favorite beverage), because I think about brewing something hot multiple times a day.
You can guess which one's mine. For those who know me anyways, mwahahaha. Then, we had a session outside rotating around where we talked to different Peace Corps Volunteers who already sworn in and doing their thing in country. This first topic was about different relationship statuses: like having a relationship with someone back in America, being in a relationship with a host country national, being single and not ready to mingle, or the opposite, etc.). My first stop was very fortuitous - the guy was talking about the topic of being in a relationship with someone back home! I asked him a ton of tips and lots of other stuff because I'm in one and here's the following information I acquired:
-Relationships who started well in advance before one of the parties leave for their Peace Corps service tended to work better due to a solid foundation
-Most long distances don't work but there's always some that survive
-Communication, while difficult sometimes, is key
-Having your partner visit you was one of the most exciting things ever
-Know yourself, know your partner, be patient, and masturbate
We then had an exhilarating race between the Agricultural/Forestry vs the Health volunteers. The mission was to put on condoms on these rubber dick toys/dildos? The black penis was bigger than the white penis. Of course the better team won (HEALTH). We got yummy cookies as a prize and proceeded to a couple more sessions before ending the day. I studied/recopied notes, talked a bit outside, showered, had dinner, and recopied more notes. NOTES FOR DAYS.
Lo and behold, we apparently had a "ladies night" headed by my teacher AKA best LanguageCultureFacilitator Ida and she talked about many topics only meant for women's ears... like how sex works in The Gambia/how the women hint off that they want some when there's really no outward display of affection all day to the opposite sex. The men and women don't really interact at all the entire day so it was fascinating seeing the subtle hints that women can drop. We also talked about female genital cutting and complications (physical, cultural) behind it, duties of wives/multiple wives, and mobile sex shops. Message me if you want to know more details. I will talk about these things called "sexy beads" AKA "binbins" that women wear and apparently they turn men on, how some are called ball/testicle crusher beads because they can really get a man going before taking the beads off and they'll crush their sacks if they get too excited, secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies that adult Gambians employ that are similar to high school secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies, lubricants that are sold in sex shops called "keys to the vehicle/keys to the compound", aaand Gambian lingerie. Pretty fascinating - all of it - but especially the Female Genital Cutting... it's just such a vast topic to talk about. We ended the night by learning how to twerk with my site mate Alicia and we blasted Beyonce. Of course all the kids were outside watching us and we didn't have the curtains down. I think I'm doing it wrong, however, since it's really taking a toll my back lol. I just got to relax more and isolate the abs. Someone said I looked like I was humping something and honestly it looked like we were in a hump circle/chain. Welp that was fun but I'm exhausted and apparently the guys had a super boring session compared to hours.
Journal Post 11/12
Going to Jenoi is always hectic. I thought I packed so well... nope. Forgot toothpaste and shampoo. I was starving this morning on our way to Jenoi and polished off two breakfast bars and a small spamwich (spam and onion sandwich.. it is as not delicious as it sounds) to sustain myself. I wrote another journal entry in Serehule recalling my day yesterday and was proud of myself. I also got a shipment of new clothes from the free pile at the transit house in the capital/Kombo! It's exciting to wear things that aren't ginormous from being hand washed/sun dried. I had a long day of technical sessions about hand washing, diarrhea, making visuals on rice bags, and exclusive breastfeeding (feeding the child only breast milk for the first 6 months of life, which few women adhere to because they think the child needs water if it's thirsty, like an adult). All were pretty basic knowledge stuff but we did lots of demonstrations and I thought the facts behind each subject were useful. I can spew a ton of facts about how many kids die each year from diarrhea but that's really depressing. Let me know if you want to hear.
We had a SUPER late lunch but it's hard to get mad at the lunch ladies because they are just so nice. I love them to death. We had a long security session but funny skits inbetween and that's pretty much it. After dinner, I got three clutch massages from very nice coworkers who I owe. Luckily I am just the right size to step on backs. My friend Jon says I have a back of steel because he was like, grinding his knuckles on my back but I couldn't feel a thing. I have an awful knot or SOMETHING in my scapula area and it's obnoxious.
I'm getting very conscious of the possibility of gaining weight because of all the starch/CHO I eat which doesn't even come close to my energy output but I'm trying so hard to spend all my time studying! I try to remind myself that weight is transitory and can fluctuate and I have time to shed it all off after training. Apparently it's normal for ladies to gain a few extra pounds during this time.
All night, I sat by my Medical Officer and Jon (one of my nice co workers who worked on my back) who were switching off on the guitar and studied. It reminded me of going to the boba tea cafe in my college town or a local coffee shop to study. Except I was outside, looking for questionable bugs on/around me, and sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs hahaha. I socialized a little bit and went to get my cellphone which I charged earlier in the day. On the way, I saw a huuuuge centipede that looked like it was on steroids. Becca, one of my other colleagues who's a champ that can bench 135 pounds - legitimately a champ since she was her school's intramural bench pressing champion - poked it and it got so scared that he pooped and curled up in a ball. I talked to my mom after that and went to bed. It's always so exhausting in Jenoi or any day for that matter. We're suppose to master some of our technical language by the end of this week and I'm scared. I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED IT YET. I have, however, read it off the paper to my family. Now it just has to be memorized...
We had a SUPER late lunch but it's hard to get mad at the lunch ladies because they are just so nice. I love them to death. We had a long security session but funny skits inbetween and that's pretty much it. After dinner, I got three clutch massages from very nice coworkers who I owe. Luckily I am just the right size to step on backs. My friend Jon says I have a back of steel because he was like, grinding his knuckles on my back but I couldn't feel a thing. I have an awful knot or SOMETHING in my scapula area and it's obnoxious.
I'm getting very conscious of the possibility of gaining weight because of all the starch/CHO I eat which doesn't even come close to my energy output but I'm trying so hard to spend all my time studying! I try to remind myself that weight is transitory and can fluctuate and I have time to shed it all off after training. Apparently it's normal for ladies to gain a few extra pounds during this time.
All night, I sat by my Medical Officer and Jon (one of my nice co workers who worked on my back) who were switching off on the guitar and studied. It reminded me of going to the boba tea cafe in my college town or a local coffee shop to study. Except I was outside, looking for questionable bugs on/around me, and sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs hahaha. I socialized a little bit and went to get my cellphone which I charged earlier in the day. On the way, I saw a huuuuge centipede that looked like it was on steroids. Becca, one of my other colleagues who's a champ that can bench 135 pounds - legitimately a champ since she was her school's intramural bench pressing champion - poked it and it got so scared that he pooped and curled up in a ball. I talked to my mom after that and went to bed. It's always so exhausting in Jenoi or any day for that matter. We're suppose to master some of our technical language by the end of this week and I'm scared. I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED IT YET. I have, however, read it off the paper to my family. Now it just has to be memorized...
Journal Entry 11/11
I had the ideal morning today. I had more time to do things since I needed to report to Ida's at ~10:30 ish for one-on-ones. I had ample time to do all my chores, practice counting with the babies (2-5 year olds), and actually enjoyed my breakfast without the fear of getting sand seasoned in it every time I opened the cover. It's called tiga sombi and I've been having it for the past couple of days. It's a really delicious rice porridge with pounded peanuts and a questionable amount of sugar but it's damn good. Anywho, I set up my space so that my suitcase became my table at the junction between my front and back door for maximum ventilation. You can tell how satisfied/excited I am with this arrangement with this in depth description. The mornings are so briskly refreshing before the sun demands the spotlight back and melts us all. When I was finally settled down, I went over notes and wrote a huge 22 line monologue with what baby Serehule / baby Hule I knew. I was pretty proud of my creation - I tried my best to incorporate a series of verbs/nouns/phrases that I knew. I tried catching Rohi/the Alkaloo's daughter before going to Ida's but she left for the rice fields already. Instead, I greeted the women in her compound and carried on.
Once I got to Ida's, I read her my spiel and I guess it was good because she was laughing/smiling/clapping and even her host sister who I see every day understood me! Obviously I made grammatical mistakes but Ida was really impressed and told me to keep on journaling...since she wanted me to get to advanced by next month -_______- I'll try my hardest but the request seems so daunting. My tactic is to use less of the workbook unless I want to learn vocabulary but my main focus is to master making snetences in the past/present/future. Ida complimented me and asked what Chinese people give to their kids to make their children so smart hahahaha. Probably verbal abuse and/or all the pressure in the world. JUST KIDDING, that only applies to me personally and not meant to generalize! She said all her past Asian students picked up language quickly. Who knows, maybe iet's because we're bilingual. I'm getting through Serehule through making stupid/funny word associations and sheer determination to memorize. Serehule is friggin hard but at least it's not Chinese... which is a jumble of 5000 characters of your worst nightmare. I got a few valuable moments exercise-studying on Ida's mat in her house before lunch came and today was domada, otherwise known as delicious peanut sauce with oil and vegetables with rolled up fried fish. We had a memorable conversation about when kids stop questioning and expressing themselves in The Gambia, politics in America, and marriage (or the dark side behind it).
Afterwards, Elizabeth and I went outside to study. A bit later, the PACA training crew came by again and we learned about needs assessment and the pair wise graph/voting. Bah2, one of the friendliest Gambians I know who reminds me of a penguin for some reason and a God of all things related to gardening, Peter the Driver (who is also short like Bah2), and my PCVL/RA Daniel went to our houses to teach us how to transplant/examine our gardens. I didn't do much learning, more like watching and reveling at their skill. Peter quickly fixed my bike chain in a matter of 2 seconds so I can ride my bike again! Bah2 examined my garden and said my nursery was good (eggplants) but it needs to be thinned. I can also peel away my cover for my nursery which is really just a plastic bag from Target. The real problem is is with the nocturnal termites which is apparently an endemic in Gambian soil throughout the country. I gave them water and peanuts before they left (which Bah2 thought was from America because I put them in my recycled pretzel bag...silly Bah2) and he told me he would give me his home made pesticide which involves garlic, onion, tobacco, and IDK what else. He did say that he loved my Serehule-group's compost pile! Good, that shit's hard to turn every weekend and gives me the creeps every night when I see suspicious holes like something is burrowing in it. I made them wash their hands before they left... because they are in a health volunteer's home and they just touched my compost pile! Come on, Bah2.
I then biked to Alicia's to grab a couple of things for her when we meet in training village tomorrow (Jenoi). It was an effort remembering exactly what to say and also explaining to them my battle scars from yesterday. They were all very nice though but only the adults could understand me so they would translate what I had to say to the kids by fast forwarding my sentences to 1,000 words a second... because that's how fast they speak. It was dark by the time I returned, had to pack all my stuff and found my last energy reserves to go out and teach the kids for about an hour. That's success to me. I'm transitioning into subtraction now and hopefully they won't forget by the time I'm back!
Once I got to Ida's, I read her my spiel and I guess it was good because she was laughing/smiling/clapping and even her host sister who I see every day understood me! Obviously I made grammatical mistakes but Ida was really impressed and told me to keep on journaling...since she wanted me to get to advanced by next month -_______- I'll try my hardest but the request seems so daunting. My tactic is to use less of the workbook unless I want to learn vocabulary but my main focus is to master making snetences in the past/present/future. Ida complimented me and asked what Chinese people give to their kids to make their children so smart hahahaha. Probably verbal abuse and/or all the pressure in the world. JUST KIDDING, that only applies to me personally and not meant to generalize! She said all her past Asian students picked up language quickly. Who knows, maybe iet's because we're bilingual. I'm getting through Serehule through making stupid/funny word associations and sheer determination to memorize. Serehule is friggin hard but at least it's not Chinese... which is a jumble of 5000 characters of your worst nightmare. I got a few valuable moments exercise-studying on Ida's mat in her house before lunch came and today was domada, otherwise known as delicious peanut sauce with oil and vegetables with rolled up fried fish. We had a memorable conversation about when kids stop questioning and expressing themselves in The Gambia, politics in America, and marriage (or the dark side behind it).
Afterwards, Elizabeth and I went outside to study. A bit later, the PACA training crew came by again and we learned about needs assessment and the pair wise graph/voting. Bah2, one of the friendliest Gambians I know who reminds me of a penguin for some reason and a God of all things related to gardening, Peter the Driver (who is also short like Bah2), and my PCVL/RA Daniel went to our houses to teach us how to transplant/examine our gardens. I didn't do much learning, more like watching and reveling at their skill. Peter quickly fixed my bike chain in a matter of 2 seconds so I can ride my bike again! Bah2 examined my garden and said my nursery was good (eggplants) but it needs to be thinned. I can also peel away my cover for my nursery which is really just a plastic bag from Target. The real problem is is with the nocturnal termites which is apparently an endemic in Gambian soil throughout the country. I gave them water and peanuts before they left (which Bah2 thought was from America because I put them in my recycled pretzel bag...silly Bah2) and he told me he would give me his home made pesticide which involves garlic, onion, tobacco, and IDK what else. He did say that he loved my Serehule-group's compost pile! Good, that shit's hard to turn every weekend and gives me the creeps every night when I see suspicious holes like something is burrowing in it. I made them wash their hands before they left... because they are in a health volunteer's home and they just touched my compost pile! Come on, Bah2.
I then biked to Alicia's to grab a couple of things for her when we meet in training village tomorrow (Jenoi). It was an effort remembering exactly what to say and also explaining to them my battle scars from yesterday. They were all very nice though but only the adults could understand me so they would translate what I had to say to the kids by fast forwarding my sentences to 1,000 words a second... because that's how fast they speak. It was dark by the time I returned, had to pack all my stuff and found my last energy reserves to go out and teach the kids for about an hour. That's success to me. I'm transitioning into subtraction now and hopefully they won't forget by the time I'm back!
Journal Post 11/10
I just told someone very near and dear to me today that shit just happens here every day. Lots of things checked off the bucket list.. and here they are:
I woke up at 5 to the 5 AM morning calls which sounds like the microphone is placed on my roof blaring, some man singing and calling to prayer. I am not by any means exaggerating since I am right next door to the mosque. I did everything I needed to do to meet Ida on the road by 7:05 AM. We were off in a taxi with a flopping chicken in the back by 7:10 AM and luckily the chicken calmed down when we started moving... like lulling a baby to sleep. Anyways I tried speaking some basic Serehule to the driver but Ida had to clarify for me, as always. By 7:40 AM, we arrived in Soma and I was waiting for the internet store to open. I ate peanuts and stared at this gross half a pickle sized beetle (I later found out that this was a dung beetle) which looked more like a cockroach...for 20 minutes. Thrilling, I know, but it was just so nasty and gross, it was on its back and it looked super greasy and it was trying to wiggle its way somewhere...bleuuughhh. I spent another 15 minutes trying to read and pointing at any kid who toubab'd me and called them toubab which thoroughly confused them.
When the shop owner came (and I was expecting to wait a LOT longer), I went inside and looked at all the grasshoppers and cockroaches around the room. Splendid. It wasn't awful but still pretty bad. I thought I lucked out with waiting but I was very wrong. I spent the next hour waiting for internet because the servers were down or something in the entire area. Luckily I packed my book along with me. Sometime around 9:15 the internet was back and all was well. I logged on and the top 3 most popular websites on Google Chrome on the computer was titled "tranny sex" "hardcore porn" or something equally rated. Typical internet cafe is typical. I spent the next 3 hours typing furiously away to transcribe all my journal entries which I FINISHED like a boss (I felt so accomplished, not only did I type like woah, but every keyboard is sticky... it's the little obstacles, man), sent some quick emails/Facebook messages and called it a day by 12:30 PM.
Apparently I paid for 4 hours so I gave one of my Peace Corps friends the extra time - luckily he was there. Someone I knew from school just started her application to the PC and I'm so proud. Since I left, there has been two of my friends who reached out to me for more PC info and I'm so excited! While I was online, I briefly skimmed one of my PC colleague's blog and she's so much more eloquent than me. Meanwhile I'm all... "today I had sugar in my congee...dammit." They also have a lot of pretty pictures but my iTouch died and I'm waiting for a new charger :( Pictures are on the horizon, I promise. JUST KNOW that what you read in my blog is in my journal which is neither witty nor eloquent, just a vomit of raw words describing my day before I pass out.
Anyways, I walked out of the store when I was finished and some kids who I told my name to YESTERDAY remembered and waved at me! That was special. They don't even speak any languages I know! I took a shortcut to the bus stop and lo' and behold the bus was not there. My teacher Ida called me to see how I was and the minute I hung up with her, a gele gele/passing passenger van came by. I hailed it down and asked for the fare - 35. "Eff that," I said, "make it 20." Then they were all, "Ok ok 25." So then I boarded and found that I was the only foreigner and woman in this 15 passenger vehicle and there was a grand total of 4 other occupants ... all host country nationals and all men. It kind of raised my awareness of where I was at first. I talked to the guy at the back of the gele gele who is like the cash collector (we call him the Apparenti) and he spoke Mandinka. He knew no Serehule so I lied and said I've been in Jalanbereh for two years and blew his mind away with my Serehule greetings. I also threw in the 5 phrases I knew in Mandinka to get fancy. He liked to tap on my wrist while he talked, so although I was all smiling and all "ASALAAAAMALEIKUM" my eyes were looking at the windows to see if I was small enough to throw myself out should I need to evacuate. I also looked for things near me I could use as weapons, couldn't figure out how to unlock the back door (which had no handle), soooo I put my phone in one hand with Ida's name highlighted and finger positioned ready to hit the call button and my other hand on my pink breast cancer awareness pepper spray ready for action. Go ahead and laugh, I was being extra cautious my first time! Anyways almost 3/4s of the way to Jalanbereh, we picked up a woman and her daughter and I felt a lot safer. As I was hopping off the gele at my stop, the fare collector tapped me on the shoulder and told me he wanted me to find him a wife. Why? Because he liked me since I was nice to him and he wanted to remain friends. Of course that is how you remain friends, okay gele man.
I went to Ida's house for lunch and both her and Elizabeth were astounded by the time it took for me to return. Honestly, it was record time without any hitches. I think I'm the first one in my training group to take the public transportation by myself, I feel on top of the world. We reeled at the lack of training days we had left (which is not much) over lunch. Today, we had yassa, and it was delicious. I loooove the cook at my village and she's actually related to me on my mom's side! My immediate mother I learned my lesson not to eat so much today, so I'm patting myself on the back for that. Ida told me that when she returned to Jalanbereh this morning, a cohort of little kids from my family were on an adventure to deliver my breakfast. She told them I was in Soma and sent them back home. I guess the kids didn't tell my mom so the eldest mom and my own mom marched off to Ida's house absolutely beside themselves. They demanded to know where the hell their daughter was. Hahahaha I'm truly touched by their concern. They must've been like, "O HELL NO" status because not much will make my eldest mom AND my immediate mom hike over to Ida's. Ida laughed and said I was in Soma on the internet and they looked at her deadpanned and was like, "And you're here?" Ida said she trusted me and that I was a big girl, lol. So then they all laughed and chatted for a bit and told her they miss me every time I'm in Jenoi because I'm usually everywhere at night teaching the kids. That was very sweet :)
After lunch I went with Elizabeth to get soap and we both bought two watermelons for our families. When I returned, both of my aforementioned moms were sitting together while the kids zeroed in on me like magnets. They told me they went to Ida's house in the morning hahaha. I gave them the watermelons and they were so happy. I then told them I needed to wash clothes and they called out one of the younger women to do it. I didn't want to trouble her too much so I played dumb and said we could do it together. She, Jaaxa (who I also teach English to and we're pretty close), comes out with her baby's miniature shirts and I come out with my bucket load of kid-sized clothes.
Halfway through washing (which goes like this: bring clothes and soap out in a bucket. Acquire two additional big basins. Amble to the well and fetch two huge basins + one bucket full of water. Have someone fetch a stool for me while they haunch over... because that's how they were trained. Wash once in 1st basin with soap and suds, scrub, twist to get the water out, throw the article of clothing into the 2nd basin. 2nd basin - repeat, throw into 3rd bucket. 3rd bucket is final rinse. Empty dirty water from 1st and 2nd basin, empty 9/10s of the clean water in the bucket into one of the now emptied basins. Add a palm full of this blue/indigo powder into the remaining water in the bucket so that it turns vibrant indigo and they like to dunk shirts into this thing. I still haven't figured out what exactly what this powder is, other than the fact it turns my white shirts a light shade of blue. One final rinse, twist dry, hang it to dry, and you're done and exhausted!), I realize washing baby clothes with their half yard of fabric was a way better use of anyone's time so I tried focusing on that. Now, my laundry strategy will be to wash clothes with someone who is doing laundry for their infant, because I can do that for sure. I don't trust myself with my own clothes to get it clean.
After laundry, I turned over my compost and to my relief no animals were hiding in it. I also planted 3 more rows of okra. I went to fetch water at both the well and water pump and almost had an accident bringing the water home. It's always the last leg/setting the bucket down that kills me. Luckily, all the women noticed I was having issues and came to my aid. I swept, watered, refilled my water filter, I WAS ON A ROLL. I finally called Elizabeth around 5 to see if she'd like to go bike riding and she said yes.
It all started out innocently and fine. Elizabeth came out with a long skirt but of course she had to hike it higher when she was biking. Knees were shown, le gasp. I write this because it will be an important detail later. Here, in The Gambia where 99% pretty much is Muslim and women DON'T show their knees, that is not allowed. We biked for a bit with some complications - my bike seat is all up in my crotch with no ways of adjusting and I was fighting a perpetual losing battle to keep my helmet from falling off/strangling me. As for Elizabeth, her bike can't change gears and it's generally too tall for her. We reached our stopping point and turned around to bike back. Unfortunately, my helmet was just about to fall off my head so I yelled back to Elizabeth (who was behind me), "I gotta stop to fix my helmet!" I guess she didn't hear me and was only focusing on the road in front of her front wheel so she was looking down. Next thing I know, I hear "Oh God - AH!" and I look behind me just in time to see the =O face as Elizabeth, this 58 year old tall, South Carolina woman, careening into me. She took me down. I did an awkward fall on my side and dropped down while she also fell to her side. I felt like I was having an out of body experience watching the two of us on the ground in the middle of the road surrounded by the bush with NO ONE around us as far as the eye could see. We both had on the "holy shit did that just happen" face and spluttered, "holy shit did that just happen?" We checked ourselves for injuries and luckily we weren't hurt super bad, just some scrapes. I got a 2-3 inch scrape on the side of my right calf and a tiny scrape on my left elbow which is annoying for its size. Elizabeth, unfortunately, got it worst - her left knee was pretty scraped up, the top of her left foot had a small scrape, and a small, small wound on her elbow like me. We pat ourselves down and planned to quickly get back to Elizabeth's to patch ourselves up. WELL that would've worked if my bike chain didn't fall fall down and I don't know how to fix it. Elizabeth biked for a bit until she noticed I was behind her and rode back. We walked home together.
On the plus side, we noticed a lot more things but our wounds were stinging. They really aren't that bad but it was a bloody which made it look a lot worse than it actually was. I was just worried for Elizabeth. The whole ordeal was freakin' hilarious to me and it still us. Watching us crash into each other was pretty funny but I won't be laughing if this shit gets infected. We finally got home to Elizabeth's place and we made a bee line straight to her shower area to doctor ourselves up. We made a great time. I went to bleach the water while she got the medical kit. We washed our hands and went to work cleaning/cutting the dead skin off with nail clippers off each other. Both our elbows were fine but our legs took up the majority of the time. When we were pretty much done cleaning, Elizabeth took a bucket bath/peed next to me while I cleaned my feet and we bonded over the crash experience. Peace Corps style.
I'm convinced we scorned the knee Gods and paid for it dearly. Anyways we got each other's backs and dressed our wounds and after I limped back to my place. I had to explain to my family where my bike was and the whole crash but on the plus side I turned in early to write this epic of a story.
I woke up at 5 to the 5 AM morning calls which sounds like the microphone is placed on my roof blaring, some man singing and calling to prayer. I am not by any means exaggerating since I am right next door to the mosque. I did everything I needed to do to meet Ida on the road by 7:05 AM. We were off in a taxi with a flopping chicken in the back by 7:10 AM and luckily the chicken calmed down when we started moving... like lulling a baby to sleep. Anyways I tried speaking some basic Serehule to the driver but Ida had to clarify for me, as always. By 7:40 AM, we arrived in Soma and I was waiting for the internet store to open. I ate peanuts and stared at this gross half a pickle sized beetle (I later found out that this was a dung beetle) which looked more like a cockroach...for 20 minutes. Thrilling, I know, but it was just so nasty and gross, it was on its back and it looked super greasy and it was trying to wiggle its way somewhere...bleuuughhh. I spent another 15 minutes trying to read and pointing at any kid who toubab'd me and called them toubab which thoroughly confused them.
When the shop owner came (and I was expecting to wait a LOT longer), I went inside and looked at all the grasshoppers and cockroaches around the room. Splendid. It wasn't awful but still pretty bad. I thought I lucked out with waiting but I was very wrong. I spent the next hour waiting for internet because the servers were down or something in the entire area. Luckily I packed my book along with me. Sometime around 9:15 the internet was back and all was well. I logged on and the top 3 most popular websites on Google Chrome on the computer was titled "tranny sex" "hardcore porn" or something equally rated. Typical internet cafe is typical. I spent the next 3 hours typing furiously away to transcribe all my journal entries which I FINISHED like a boss (I felt so accomplished, not only did I type like woah, but every keyboard is sticky... it's the little obstacles, man), sent some quick emails/Facebook messages and called it a day by 12:30 PM.
Apparently I paid for 4 hours so I gave one of my Peace Corps friends the extra time - luckily he was there. Someone I knew from school just started her application to the PC and I'm so proud. Since I left, there has been two of my friends who reached out to me for more PC info and I'm so excited! While I was online, I briefly skimmed one of my PC colleague's blog and she's so much more eloquent than me. Meanwhile I'm all... "today I had sugar in my congee...dammit." They also have a lot of pretty pictures but my iTouch died and I'm waiting for a new charger :( Pictures are on the horizon, I promise. JUST KNOW that what you read in my blog is in my journal which is neither witty nor eloquent, just a vomit of raw words describing my day before I pass out.
Anyways, I walked out of the store when I was finished and some kids who I told my name to YESTERDAY remembered and waved at me! That was special. They don't even speak any languages I know! I took a shortcut to the bus stop and lo' and behold the bus was not there. My teacher Ida called me to see how I was and the minute I hung up with her, a gele gele/passing passenger van came by. I hailed it down and asked for the fare - 35. "Eff that," I said, "make it 20." Then they were all, "Ok ok 25." So then I boarded and found that I was the only foreigner and woman in this 15 passenger vehicle and there was a grand total of 4 other occupants ... all host country nationals and all men. It kind of raised my awareness of where I was at first. I talked to the guy at the back of the gele gele who is like the cash collector (we call him the Apparenti) and he spoke Mandinka. He knew no Serehule so I lied and said I've been in Jalanbereh for two years and blew his mind away with my Serehule greetings. I also threw in the 5 phrases I knew in Mandinka to get fancy. He liked to tap on my wrist while he talked, so although I was all smiling and all "ASALAAAAMALEIKUM" my eyes were looking at the windows to see if I was small enough to throw myself out should I need to evacuate. I also looked for things near me I could use as weapons, couldn't figure out how to unlock the back door (which had no handle), soooo I put my phone in one hand with Ida's name highlighted and finger positioned ready to hit the call button and my other hand on my pink breast cancer awareness pepper spray ready for action. Go ahead and laugh, I was being extra cautious my first time! Anyways almost 3/4s of the way to Jalanbereh, we picked up a woman and her daughter and I felt a lot safer. As I was hopping off the gele at my stop, the fare collector tapped me on the shoulder and told me he wanted me to find him a wife. Why? Because he liked me since I was nice to him and he wanted to remain friends. Of course that is how you remain friends, okay gele man.
I went to Ida's house for lunch and both her and Elizabeth were astounded by the time it took for me to return. Honestly, it was record time without any hitches. I think I'm the first one in my training group to take the public transportation by myself, I feel on top of the world. We reeled at the lack of training days we had left (which is not much) over lunch. Today, we had yassa, and it was delicious. I loooove the cook at my village and she's actually related to me on my mom's side! My immediate mother I learned my lesson not to eat so much today, so I'm patting myself on the back for that. Ida told me that when she returned to Jalanbereh this morning, a cohort of little kids from my family were on an adventure to deliver my breakfast. She told them I was in Soma and sent them back home. I guess the kids didn't tell my mom so the eldest mom and my own mom marched off to Ida's house absolutely beside themselves. They demanded to know where the hell their daughter was. Hahahaha I'm truly touched by their concern. They must've been like, "O HELL NO" status because not much will make my eldest mom AND my immediate mom hike over to Ida's. Ida laughed and said I was in Soma on the internet and they looked at her deadpanned and was like, "And you're here?" Ida said she trusted me and that I was a big girl, lol. So then they all laughed and chatted for a bit and told her they miss me every time I'm in Jenoi because I'm usually everywhere at night teaching the kids. That was very sweet :)
After lunch I went with Elizabeth to get soap and we both bought two watermelons for our families. When I returned, both of my aforementioned moms were sitting together while the kids zeroed in on me like magnets. They told me they went to Ida's house in the morning hahaha. I gave them the watermelons and they were so happy. I then told them I needed to wash clothes and they called out one of the younger women to do it. I didn't want to trouble her too much so I played dumb and said we could do it together. She, Jaaxa (who I also teach English to and we're pretty close), comes out with her baby's miniature shirts and I come out with my bucket load of kid-sized clothes.
Halfway through washing (which goes like this: bring clothes and soap out in a bucket. Acquire two additional big basins. Amble to the well and fetch two huge basins + one bucket full of water. Have someone fetch a stool for me while they haunch over... because that's how they were trained. Wash once in 1st basin with soap and suds, scrub, twist to get the water out, throw the article of clothing into the 2nd basin. 2nd basin - repeat, throw into 3rd bucket. 3rd bucket is final rinse. Empty dirty water from 1st and 2nd basin, empty 9/10s of the clean water in the bucket into one of the now emptied basins. Add a palm full of this blue/indigo powder into the remaining water in the bucket so that it turns vibrant indigo and they like to dunk shirts into this thing. I still haven't figured out what exactly what this powder is, other than the fact it turns my white shirts a light shade of blue. One final rinse, twist dry, hang it to dry, and you're done and exhausted!), I realize washing baby clothes with their half yard of fabric was a way better use of anyone's time so I tried focusing on that. Now, my laundry strategy will be to wash clothes with someone who is doing laundry for their infant, because I can do that for sure. I don't trust myself with my own clothes to get it clean.
After laundry, I turned over my compost and to my relief no animals were hiding in it. I also planted 3 more rows of okra. I went to fetch water at both the well and water pump and almost had an accident bringing the water home. It's always the last leg/setting the bucket down that kills me. Luckily, all the women noticed I was having issues and came to my aid. I swept, watered, refilled my water filter, I WAS ON A ROLL. I finally called Elizabeth around 5 to see if she'd like to go bike riding and she said yes.
It all started out innocently and fine. Elizabeth came out with a long skirt but of course she had to hike it higher when she was biking. Knees were shown, le gasp. I write this because it will be an important detail later. Here, in The Gambia where 99% pretty much is Muslim and women DON'T show their knees, that is not allowed. We biked for a bit with some complications - my bike seat is all up in my crotch with no ways of adjusting and I was fighting a perpetual losing battle to keep my helmet from falling off/strangling me. As for Elizabeth, her bike can't change gears and it's generally too tall for her. We reached our stopping point and turned around to bike back. Unfortunately, my helmet was just about to fall off my head so I yelled back to Elizabeth (who was behind me), "I gotta stop to fix my helmet!" I guess she didn't hear me and was only focusing on the road in front of her front wheel so she was looking down. Next thing I know, I hear "Oh God - AH!" and I look behind me just in time to see the =O face as Elizabeth, this 58 year old tall, South Carolina woman, careening into me. She took me down. I did an awkward fall on my side and dropped down while she also fell to her side. I felt like I was having an out of body experience watching the two of us on the ground in the middle of the road surrounded by the bush with NO ONE around us as far as the eye could see. We both had on the "holy shit did that just happen" face and spluttered, "holy shit did that just happen?" We checked ourselves for injuries and luckily we weren't hurt super bad, just some scrapes. I got a 2-3 inch scrape on the side of my right calf and a tiny scrape on my left elbow which is annoying for its size. Elizabeth, unfortunately, got it worst - her left knee was pretty scraped up, the top of her left foot had a small scrape, and a small, small wound on her elbow like me. We pat ourselves down and planned to quickly get back to Elizabeth's to patch ourselves up. WELL that would've worked if my bike chain didn't fall fall down and I don't know how to fix it. Elizabeth biked for a bit until she noticed I was behind her and rode back. We walked home together.
On the plus side, we noticed a lot more things but our wounds were stinging. They really aren't that bad but it was a bloody which made it look a lot worse than it actually was. I was just worried for Elizabeth. The whole ordeal was freakin' hilarious to me and it still us. Watching us crash into each other was pretty funny but I won't be laughing if this shit gets infected. We finally got home to Elizabeth's place and we made a bee line straight to her shower area to doctor ourselves up. We made a great time. I went to bleach the water while she got the medical kit. We washed our hands and went to work cleaning/cutting the dead skin off with nail clippers off each other. Both our elbows were fine but our legs took up the majority of the time. When we were pretty much done cleaning, Elizabeth took a bucket bath/peed next to me while I cleaned my feet and we bonded over the crash experience. Peace Corps style.
I'm convinced we scorned the knee Gods and paid for it dearly. Anyways we got each other's backs and dressed our wounds and after I limped back to my place. I had to explain to my family where my bike was and the whole crash but on the plus side I turned in early to write this epic of a story.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Journal Post 11/9
Today's highlight: we were tasked to go to Soma (the big town around here) and to the ferry where people cross the river and into the North bank. I started off the morning with chores and went to fetch water. I saw Hule again, the 28 year old educated Mandinka woman in town for agriculture who is staying with Rohi, the Alkaloo's daughter. There's a project in place but it hasn't officially started yet because the fields aren't cleared. Damn I wish she was my counterpart. She's so nice and has a wonderful smile always on her face. Her voice is very calming. She hopes to get a sponsor to go to college soon in The Gambia and I know what I'll be wishing for every time I see a shooting star. She is expecting her 2nd child soon (which is significant in itself, she's 28 with 1 child and expecting a second while some 20 year olds already have 3 kids) and hopes that I'll have twins in the future. OK Hule, keep on dreaming.
Ida, Elizabeth, and I caught a gele to Soma for 20 Dalasi a piec, saw a white woman on there with a man and his two daughters who were sitting next to me, I exchanged the 5 Mandinka greetings I know but they knew English. At least the woman and the man did. The girls were so cute and friendly. It's always a bit of a shock to see a westerner. Anyways, we got off at Soma, dropped off our phones at the bank to charge, and took a 7-person-car (fits 7, 8 including the driver) to the ferry crossing. I can't even sum up in words the experience. Basically I felt like I was going to die from the extreme bumpiness of the nonexistant roads (thank God I didn't feel nauseous otherwise people were not going to be happy), dust storm, and the cramped conditions being squeezed in the back of a car with NO leg space- and I'm a short person! The car definitely looked like it could break down at any minute and sometimes, on the plus side, it felt like I was on a cool roller coaster ride at Universal Studios. We made it to the ferry crossing after passing the endless queue of cargo trucks and cars waiting to cross the river. It's only 1 (or 2?) ferry for EVERYONE who wants to get back and forth. Apparently stuff at this place was expensive because a lot of Senegalese business people inflate the prices with their currency (which is worth more). Farafenneh is a busy town on the other side oef the ferry known for its shopping. I'm not sure how long you wait on average but Ida told me it could be 3-4 days for some people!
We taxi'd (4 people, 5 including driver) back to Soma after that and saw a long waiting line at the internet cafe. I don't like waiting so I went to explore/sit elsewhere. I met another volunteer named Jess along the way and we sat next to the bank where my phone was charging. I talked to another LCF called Kounta (he's like an Ida/a teacher to another group of volunteers) and we shared my bag of boiled peanuts. After they left, a little boy kept on trying to get my attention and said he loved me. I went to meet up with Ida after and we sat in the bank with AC... which was heaven. She knew one of the bank workers which was our in. That's very smart...making friends with a banker. After our phones finished charging, we went back to get a bus for Jalanbereh. I can't even count how many times I was called "toubab" or "Chinese" today. It's just a descriptor, but the frequency is taxing on my patience.
There were NO geles our way because everything was in the Banjul area since the Nigerian president was visiting. Nigeria's media/entertainment/movie industry is big in Gambia. After waiting forever (which is the story of traveling anywhere in The Gambia), a bus finally came and we were off. BUT FIRST, after we boarded the bus, we had to wait 20 minutes for everyone to get off, get food/use the bathroom, and another 20 minutes for everyone to get on and get their tickets checked or pay. I did, however, work on my Serehule by conversing with some women on the bus and that was exciting. I was starving by the time we got back and gorged myself with lunch. It was delicious but I'll never do it again. We also bought a watermelon which explains my increased eating. IT WAS ALL SO GOOD but the consequences were dire. I had a food baby and hated myself afterwards. I spent the afternoon uncomfortable full, brainstormed what I wanted at my permanent site, and scrolled through pictures of Ida's family!
After all that, I went home to ride my bike. I rode my farthest today and came back just in time to receive a call from my mom. I had dinner, watered the plants, sat out to teach English/math/study Serehule. I told my family in Serehule that I was going to Kulari next month and they said they would miss me :( I will miss them too, but it won't be until three months that I can see them again. The first three months of permanent site is called the three month challenge where we must stay in that area. Grawr. It's a challenge but it's telling that a volunteer can survive their service. I'll be waking up early tomorrow to go to Soma again for the internet. Hopefully I'll go early and come back early! I'm starting to get the hang of life.
Ida, Elizabeth, and I caught a gele to Soma for 20 Dalasi a piec, saw a white woman on there with a man and his two daughters who were sitting next to me, I exchanged the 5 Mandinka greetings I know but they knew English. At least the woman and the man did. The girls were so cute and friendly. It's always a bit of a shock to see a westerner. Anyways, we got off at Soma, dropped off our phones at the bank to charge, and took a 7-person-car (fits 7, 8 including the driver) to the ferry crossing. I can't even sum up in words the experience. Basically I felt like I was going to die from the extreme bumpiness of the nonexistant roads (thank God I didn't feel nauseous otherwise people were not going to be happy), dust storm, and the cramped conditions being squeezed in the back of a car with NO leg space- and I'm a short person! The car definitely looked like it could break down at any minute and sometimes, on the plus side, it felt like I was on a cool roller coaster ride at Universal Studios. We made it to the ferry crossing after passing the endless queue of cargo trucks and cars waiting to cross the river. It's only 1 (or 2?) ferry for EVERYONE who wants to get back and forth. Apparently stuff at this place was expensive because a lot of Senegalese business people inflate the prices with their currency (which is worth more). Farafenneh is a busy town on the other side oef the ferry known for its shopping. I'm not sure how long you wait on average but Ida told me it could be 3-4 days for some people!
We taxi'd (4 people, 5 including driver) back to Soma after that and saw a long waiting line at the internet cafe. I don't like waiting so I went to explore/sit elsewhere. I met another volunteer named Jess along the way and we sat next to the bank where my phone was charging. I talked to another LCF called Kounta (he's like an Ida/a teacher to another group of volunteers) and we shared my bag of boiled peanuts. After they left, a little boy kept on trying to get my attention and said he loved me. I went to meet up with Ida after and we sat in the bank with AC... which was heaven. She knew one of the bank workers which was our in. That's very smart...making friends with a banker. After our phones finished charging, we went back to get a bus for Jalanbereh. I can't even count how many times I was called "toubab" or "Chinese" today. It's just a descriptor, but the frequency is taxing on my patience.
There were NO geles our way because everything was in the Banjul area since the Nigerian president was visiting. Nigeria's media/entertainment/movie industry is big in Gambia. After waiting forever (which is the story of traveling anywhere in The Gambia), a bus finally came and we were off. BUT FIRST, after we boarded the bus, we had to wait 20 minutes for everyone to get off, get food/use the bathroom, and another 20 minutes for everyone to get on and get their tickets checked or pay. I did, however, work on my Serehule by conversing with some women on the bus and that was exciting. I was starving by the time we got back and gorged myself with lunch. It was delicious but I'll never do it again. We also bought a watermelon which explains my increased eating. IT WAS ALL SO GOOD but the consequences were dire. I had a food baby and hated myself afterwards. I spent the afternoon uncomfortable full, brainstormed what I wanted at my permanent site, and scrolled through pictures of Ida's family!
After all that, I went home to ride my bike. I rode my farthest today and came back just in time to receive a call from my mom. I had dinner, watered the plants, sat out to teach English/math/study Serehule. I told my family in Serehule that I was going to Kulari next month and they said they would miss me :( I will miss them too, but it won't be until three months that I can see them again. The first three months of permanent site is called the three month challenge where we must stay in that area. Grawr. It's a challenge but it's telling that a volunteer can survive their service. I'll be waking up early tomorrow to go to Soma again for the internet. Hopefully I'll go early and come back early! I'm starting to get the hang of life.
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