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.
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