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!
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