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.
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