I added a little bit more to my morning routine. By the way, my one-room rectangular house thing is a little bit bigger than my college dorm (which I had all to myself anyways). My days are the same but different. It's always hard though with Serehule class and I always try to find time to recopy/practice notes. It's hard trying to get anything done in my house because I always feel like I have to do SOMETHING so I like to stay at Ida's which acts as my library. When I go home, chances are I have to fetch water, gr. But! With Numa, my really awesome 12 year old sister. We sit and wait for our turn at the pump while I get surrounded by kids and greet people. I point/say/make up sentences in Serehule and she either corrects or answers me. I see regular faces and I make a mental note to get their names. By the way did I mention Numa can carry a GALLON of water on her head!? She's shorter than I am by a little bit (sad), smaller than I am for sure, and makes me feel inadequate when I'm next to her carrying like 3 liters of water. After I go back it's the same old, sweep, treat water, dinner, chill outside, study outside, come back inside and try to SANITIZE EVERYTHING because kids just like to touch.
Lots of stuff happened today. I had an unusually long walk to Ida's after getting out the door late, had a short class, and went to garden! The initial spot had awful rocky soil so since my compound was the closest to the water pump, we relocated. LUCKY! Also lucky that I had amazing soil right in my backyard which is rare in The Gambia. We enlisted the help from my compound (mostly the kids) to get random things we needed. OF course my simple backyard got turned upside down but I did some clean control after. We made a compost pile with sheep/goat manure and woodchip mix, grass (too green meh), dirt, water. We learned about Aeration, hydration, nitrogen/carbon ratio for the compost. We then made 1 garden bed, learned how to double dig, planted carts, made a nursery, planted eggplants, and I enisted kids to help me clean my backyard again because that shit was a hot mess.
After 40 minutes of cleaning my house, we went to lunch and had delicious benechin which is like fried rice, grilled veggies and cucumbers. I had a new breakfast - tiga sombe - which is a sweet/sour rice porridge which was good but I was a little hesitant with the sugar. They put an astronomical amount of sugar in everything and I don't want to close my service with cavities and/or diabetes. Elizabeth (site mate) got "white porridge" which was WHITE CONGEE!!!! I would've eaten it all if it hadn't been for our delicious lunch. Then, I stayed after and recopied notes where I had a delightful cross-cultural conversation with Ida (teacher) and Elizabeth about Buddhism/China/Asia/mixed heritage relationships/interracial+intergenerational relationships. By 5 PM, I went back home when the sun was less harsh, fetched water, did exercises outside while everyone watched me, played with the little kids, treated bath water, ate dinner (coos again but less sweet...good), showered, wash my hair even, went outside to study with kids, recited the health info and got the adults to listen this time!!!!!!!!! SUCCESS. They all listened, clapped, nodded, said thank you. I got wicked tired and was in bed by 9:30 PM. Killed a spider too. They shouldn't play with me because they're playing with their life. Anyways, I spent 2 hours in bed laying/thinking/writing/listening to music and it was so relaxing. Unlike yeeeesterday where there were party music in the background bumping away like 50 Center, reggae, etc, until like midnight! Tonight, all was completely quiet by 11 PM. Unheard of.
P.S. Just realized we're cramming in information that'll be useful to us for 2 years in 3 months. Challenge accepted.
P.S.S. Naming ceremony tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment