After I went to sleep last night, I get a phone call from
home. Of course. I was so tired that I had to decline and tell them to call
back the next day. I have no idea why but as dead tired as I was, I still woke
up at 4 AM and couldn’t fall back to sleep! It definitely must be the stress. I
created my own monster by trying so hard at get good at language. I studied for
a bit before getting up and getting ready. I still had to finish the forms for
Peace Corps and felt like I had a million things to do but finally focused on
solely studying. My brother’s wife came to give me hand me downs which … didn’t
fit me at all because I am the size of an average Gambian pre-pubescent girl.
I’ll have to take that to the tailor’s later. Ida comes along at 10 AM and we
have our exam – I think I did okay but no jinxing it! I’ll find out the results
in the next two days. I finished the oral test, watered the plants, and took my
clothes out to wash. Jaara, one of the younger women/jokemates, was there to
help me and we chatted a bit. I found out she was leaving to go get married
elsewhere/move in with her husband. And here I was thinking she was the wife to
my brother all along…fail. So as we’re hanging everything up, the clothing line
falls and almost all of my clean clothes fall into the sand, gr. We had to
re-rinse and put them all up again. Jaara just hands me her baby and does everything
in like, 10 minutes. Now this is a special moment because I’m no baby person
and holding up a little wiggling and squishy life in my hands both terrifies me
and makes me happy. I still think I suck at it and fear it’ll barf on me but
she was good and easy. She just liked me to be standing up and moving around. I
was still awkward holding her but I’m sure I’ll be good with them in due time.
I knew there was another reason for me coming here, for me to overcome my fear
of babies. After she was done, she went inside and took out a baby walker
equipped with songs and all and sat her baby down in it. What??? I didn’t know
we could afford these things. I went inside to grab all the Peace Corps forms,
brought it back outside and sat while she knitted and it was a pleasantly cool
day. It was sunny but we were in the shade and there was a transient breeze. It
was really quiet and calm with a couple of kids surrounding us because most of
everyone was out in the field. This time of year is especially for doing bush
work so everyone’s always busy from 7/8 in the morning until 6 PM at night! I
went over to Ida’s to lunch, completed all my paperwork and homework,
translated the speech in Serehule, and life was good. All I have to do tomorrow
is go to Soma to Internet and transcribe and buy a parting present to my family,
return my watering can, make a mobile of cranes for Rohi/Alkaloo’s daughter,
finish putting together my kusudama/origami flower for my family, lunch, and
finish everyone’s present! After that, I can think clearly about my wish list
for my new house ,fantasize about Frisbee on the beach, and finally get a good
night’s rest!
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