Journal Post 11/14

I swear to God every time I go to Jenoi I leave with seven new mosquito bites and I'm not even the only one! My roommate, Alyssa, who is such a hilarious story teller, got so tired of their shit that she woke up and had a mosquito massacre in her bed net. The bed nets that Jenoi supplies are crappy, untreated, and ripped. We're all trapped in a lose-lose situation in Jenoi, though, since it's a furnace inside the residence dorms where we're suppose to sleep but there's a frenzy of bugs outside ready for human blood. I already got chomped on even with long sleeves and pants but they get me during the day! Damn them. It's a combination of ants, small flying things that bite, and mosquitoes. I'm really patting myself on the back 1 million times because my bed net is my savior and I'm so happy I purchased it.

So I'm scratching myself allll the way through our remaining time left in Jenoi but before that, let me take a minute to appreciate the delicious breakfast I had today. It started with a spam/potato/grease sandwich but it was no where as deluged in oil as some of my other friends. I finished my plate but my co-workers who didn't even touch theirs just drank their coffee. One of the super kind ladies from the kitchen came out and asked if we'd like some of the jam she bought. We all politely said yes but in our minds we were all, "HELL YEAH." This lady is one of the kindest women I've met here thus far and she's multilingual! I swear I'm going to buy a watermelon just for the cooks and give her a great big slice. She retreats into the kitchen and comes back out with strawberry jam, bread, and a huge tub of chocolate peanut butter which tastes exactly like Nutella. Needless to say I was a very happy Mariama after breakfast. We had our session about ethnic groups and caste systems after that, which was our sole session before driving back to our training villages.

Now I'm going to write what little I know about Serehules (my ethnic group) here. But before that, let's talk about the caste system which the Serehules still put a lot of clout on. Once upon a time long, long ago, the Gambia was dominated by a caste system like this:

Kings/nobles > Artisons/griots/craftsmen > Slaves.

Nobles are determined by who has strategically led their people to victory in a battle (thus people will follow them - mostly it was passed down to the king's first son and very rarely was it ruled by queens. In even rarer circumstances, but still happened and outrageous nonetheless, the king's sister's 1st male born would inherit the throne since people were afraid the queen might cheat on the king so her offspring won't really be the king's. HOWEVER, people were sure that the king's sisters were of his blood and so they definitely couldn't mix up the child that way). All the caste classes marry within themselves. Everyone depends on these nobles/kings for (army) protection.

The Artisans are those who make stuff, in particular craftsmen who make tools for farming and transportation. Griots are professionals who tell stories of ancestral histories. People love going to the Griots to learn more about their past - through song. The Slaves are different from the slaves we think about in America because people usually get into that class if they borrow too much from another person and becomes indebted to them. Both the borrower and borrowee head to court and the borrower becomes a "slave" to the person who lent them whatever and has to work for him/her until their debt is repaid. Further, the slave can stay in his/her own community and home with their family.

Anyways, the caste system is mostly a relic of the past and most of the groups look past whatever caste group their ancestors came from... except for the majority of the Serehules. For example, before marriage, the Serehules will look into the potential wife/husband's background and see where they originated from. The one from the higher branch will not like to marry into a lower branch. What would impact me, however, is if my work counterpart was from a lower caste group and my Serehule community wouldn't listen to him/her. Shit sucks. Anyways, the Serehules are among the minority ethnic groups in the ethnic melting pot/mixed salad/what have you in The Gambia. They are the 9%. They are also the richest since they have been age-long business people who travel, have a money-saving mindset, and migrated to the Gambia from The Songhai Empire/Ghana to expand their business market. There are Serehules all over the world - Spain, America, all over Africa and beyond, but they always go out and send money back to their families. They have a successful gold mining business that they're known for. Although the majority of Serehules are concentrated in the Upper River Region (the eastern-most region in The Gambia), they own the majority of the large mansion/buildings in the capital, Banjul, because they have all the money. They are one of the two most conservative groups and value a large family. Most Serehule families will have 3-4 wives and a plethora of kids. 99.9% of Serehules are Muslims and consider themselves the purest group in The Gambia. They do not tend to marry out because they look down on the other groups with that "I'm the purest" mentality. I think they're really interesting, like look at their characteristics. I just didn't imagine that kind of group in The Gambia.

Anyways, after the session, my gardening guru Bah2 gave me his rancid concoction made of onions, garlic, tobacco, soap, and probably other things to pour into my garden. It's suppose to kill my termite problem. It smells disgusting but I'll also do anything to save my crops. On our way back home (the Serehule ladies were finally the first ones to get dropped off as opposed to the last, which is the norm), I discovered another volunteer named Dillon was in a long distance relationship too! We talked about our significant others for a little bit but I'm happy I'm not the only one. Now I can complain to him and be all "I MISS MY PARTNER THIS SUCKS" and someone will understand. Dillon's also in the same region as I am too! He's a swell, tall guy.

When we finally arrived and my colleagues got a better taste of the Serehule village, I greeted everyone and found out that one of the MOMS (not my direct 2) had a BABY. I held it but oh my God it was so cool and scary at the same time... she was so tiny and alive and squishy. Her naming ceremony will be next week. I also found out that the same mom has one of her other children really sick and he's at the creepy clinic. I know exactly who he is and he's one of the most active kids in my compound! His sister's sick, too (the one who's spoiled but assertive and cute), and I'm afraid it's malaria. I saw her today but she's not as energetic as usual. I told them to give her lots of water, put her to sleep, and take her to the clinic which they said they would tomorrow. I think they understood what I said. Anywho, I used the opportunity while seeing the newborn to practice the 5 lines of exclusive breastfeeding that I memorized. AND THE MOM UNDERSTOOD. Miracles. Then all the women asked me when I was going to have kids of my own. I said "It is not time yet but later, later, later, maybe. I am scared," which is a totally true response. Next, one of the ladies approached me with a receipt in English because I think somebody (my dad?) sold or bout a cow yesterday which I translated but I can't recall if I used the right verb (sell? buy? shit.). I also didn't know how to say "keep it" in Serehule so I just said the receipt was good. He better not have bought a cow because he has two children to send to the hospital. Anyways, I sat down my stuff unpacked lots, swept, treated my garden, and somehow got the message across that the stuff I was putting into my garden was a pesticide.

I left for lunch soon after that and stopped by Rohi's place to chat a little, chatted with more people along the way, and Ida's host family. I tried to explain to them why I didn't like Jenoi because of all the damn mosquitoes (they seemed to understand and they laughed which is good...but my interpretive language to signify mosquito by scratching at my bites is really aggravating the itching and I hate myself for it). After lunch, I finished recopying my notes and wrote another journal entry/monologue in Serehule. Ida was so very happy with me. She told me everyone at the Peace Corps office was really impressed. The training manager and all the other teachers called her lucky because she said none of the other 17 volunteers were on my level yet. It was really flattering but shit, pressure's on. I'm proud that my hard work is paying off because my head is always in a book recopying sentence or making sentences in my head, talking to myself, or other language obsessed things. Really, though, after talking to all the current volunteers, I'm taking their advice to heart and focusing all my energy during training on language. I'll shift gears to the health stuff after these next couple of months but until then, language is my key to making a connection, attaining trust, gaining security, and everything, so I'll pour all my time and energy into that. As much as I want to plan what I'd like to do (Or exercise. Or make a food diary. Or read. Or draw. Or do other things), I should really enter my village open minded, observe, and establish connections first - which is the main mission for the first three months of permanent site.

At night, I went out for math lessons longer than expected again, but that's always a good thing. Like I said before, I'm teaching subtraction now and gave them a crap load of homework to do. I also communicated that I wanted one of the older kids to act as the teacher during the day and teach the kids how to count to 10. My eventual goal is to teach the kids to count to 30 so they can wash their hands and count to 30 before rinsing. Finally went inside, turned on my iTouch, wrote forever, and enjoyed the cool night :)