I felt like I had a million pounds on my back today worth of books/less so of toiletries and clothes, my rope bag in my front, right hand clutching my mosquito net, and left hand clutching my pillow. I was whisked off to Jenoi shortly after. I had time inbetween to look in the mirror and do some reconstruction on my eyebrows. We arrived the latest out of everyone, threw our stuff in our rooms, and rushed to class. We finished our sexual assault training which started with this really horrible story about a woman getting raped by her school's principle who she was working with and shit I don't know if it was in the Gambia or if it was an accumulation of real accounts, but it was so heavy and ugh. It sounds like it could happen anywhere and it was so tough. We went over the Peace Corps response to sexual assault in the PC (which has a lot of resources, probably rigorously developed over time from their previous response plan), did multiple sessions but finally it was site announcement time!
They blindfolded us and told us to hold hands/shoulders and walk to a building over yonder. It was one of the most dangerous things I've done since coming here. I didn't know where we were going, who was tickling me, when I would trip. When we got into the building, they moved us (still blindfolded) around a map of The Gambia drawn on the floor. Someone gave me a piece of paper with my site information on it and finally told all of us to open our eyes!
I am in... Kulari! Cool name. It's pretty east of the country but not the furthest east. That's were all the Serehules are. Luckily, it's below the river so I don't need to worry about crossing ferries or anything. It's about ~3000 in population, 20k away from Basse which is the regional transit house area for Peace Corps (which they SAY has wifi and air conditioning...we'll see), and some compounds have electricity! I'm also 10k away from the nearest weekly market. Sounds like it's biking time for me and I'll be back with Greek goddess legs. Basse's the biggest city on the eastern end and not as expensive as Soma, thank God. I'll be living in a round hut with a thatch roof which will be nice for ventilation but questionable about bugs. I'll have a medium sized backyard (whatever that means) living in a compound of 25, and my new surname will be "Touray". I have a range of project areas on my radar and apparently there's no health clinic. The closest one is in Basse or the next town over. I'm very close by the river so there'll be lots of fish. I'll also be hot as hell since the temperatures are either 5-10 degrees hotter or colder than the coast/Banjul area. I wish I had more information but my PCVL/RA is making it ambiguous so we can find out ourselves during site visit. We'll be doing that in 2 weeks. I'll be involved with more community work than clinic work and I'll have to be super creative with where I can reach out to people...definitely the schools and clubs. Anyways, I'm close to my site mate Alicia, and Agriculture/Forestry Mandinka volunteer named Dillon, and a health Pulaar volunteer named Selina. Malcolm, the only male health volunteer, is posted the farthest east from anyone in the country.
Right now, Kulari doesn't mean much for me because I've never been there. People are telling me good things, though. I hope to have a understanding, supportive family and a driven, patient counterpart. Aaaand of course, a welcoming community. I'm continuously pushing myself on language since there's no English speakers there... or at least very few. I also need to learn the skills that will be most important as a Health volunteer to master in order to model it/pass it onto others. I can always bike to Basse and build up my endurance for wifi/AC access. Just trying to look positively!
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