Today was eventful! I woke up, got ready, went out and met a friend of my mom's who is married into the Touray family (my clan). She kept on saying I was from China so I'm going to nix the fact that my fam's from there or the fact that I was born there and straight up say I'm from the US. Too much inquiry into my background otherwise... HM and Ceedee came by sometime around 10ish but before that I was able to communicate with my family of my rent. I'll probably cook breakfast for myself, have lunch and dinner with them, have them do my laundry once a week, and I'll bring them gifts on the road every time I go to Basse which could be every other week. All just day trips! It sucks though because one of my sisters have something wrong with her eye - it LOOKS like cataracts but she's only 20 years old so I don't know... she says she needs 400 dalasi for that and I'd love to lend her some but I don't want to be known for that so early on in my service (as the money giver/lender). I'll probably pay for my rent on Wednesday for the half month that I'm here and my January rent on the first Saturday so that they have enough and it'd fall on a regular pay cycle. I was thinking of giving my family my rent and such every first Saturday anyways so this works out!
Anyways, HM and Ceedee came by to whisk me away. I finally got to talk to the carpenter and I really want two short tables with wheels. It's near impossible to get them in Kulari so I'm going to have to find wheels in Basse hopefully and bring them to the carpenter. That, or I'm going to have to wait until someone from the US ships them to me... I'm just so hellbent on finding them/adding them. The carpenter super tried to rip me off but HM was nice enough to talk the price down. It went from 600D down to 250 for a table, jeez. I'm getting my bigger table finished first, holding off for the two small ones until later when I can figure out this wheel situation, and we went to someone who makes bamboo beds. I got a quote of 200D for the bed which is a great deal! I just hope no creepy bugs will nest their way inside... I'm going to have to do frequent bug spray downs and wrap my bamboo bed in fabric. Yes I will go to extreme lengths, just let me live. Now I have to invest in the 20 meters to do that! And twine.
Next, we stopped at our final destination which was HM's place where I met Alaji, a Wolof Public Health Official from Basse (the regional big town where I go to stock up on supplies and interwebs). A bunch of people came by (most of them men, figures, men hang out with men and women hang out with women in Serehule communities), and I met HM's neighbor who asked me if I wanted to see a monkey. WAT? Even in English I had to ask him to repeat himself and I did a double take. We all went to his house to see the monkey (he is actually HM's neighbor) and sure enough it was there. His name was Buba, haha. They gave me peanuts to feed to him and Buba ripped it out of my hands. Hit it out. It was pretty cute and smart. I asked the guy - Ibraima - where Buba came from and he said the bush, lmao, of course, where else was I thinking, Petco? So I go back to HMs, chill, Alaji taught me/ran me over the immunization chart for babies (in Gambia they administer 9 vaccines for kids by the way), HM quizzed me, Ceedee was off/on teaching me Serehule, I greeted random people who passed by, and journaled in Serehule. I read it to everyone and they seemed to understand me! Musa the acting Alkaloo stopped by and we chatted for a bit. We ate benechin (fried rice with bony fish and pumpkin) and Ceedee got us COLD WATER fuck yeah! The kids are still warming up to me but it was my first day. Slowly, slowly. Later, HM bought me to a compound where two school girls lived and they understood English and Serehule! They both agreed to be my English teacher! Apparently they're really active in the community, too, during the huge TOSTAN event. I hope they're good teachers. Either way, I'm freakin' psyched to find two gems there! How awesome that they go to school everyday, and they're Serehule's which makes it an even bigger feat because as a whole the group is still super traditional/strict about letting women get schooling. Even if they aren't good teachers, I want to become friends with them and talk to them more. I wanna let them know just how awesome they are in doing what they're doing.
After that, we went to a man's house who's sick and exhibiting symptoms of malaria. HM gave him a shot and we'll go back tomorrow for follow up. I need to brush up on my "get well please" vocabulary... note to self, note to self. Apparently we saw him at the carpenter's, too, and it was so fast that he came down with some hardcore symptoms, jeez. My thoughts are with him tonight and I really do wish him a speedy recovery.
HM and one of my 29834792 my younger brothers walked me back to my home and I gained some confidence on how to get to HM's place which seems like the center of everything - including where the gele geles are which I'll need to get anywhere! I also found out the last reliable gele that travels from Basse to Kulari leaves at 3 PM - very useful information. I just have to follow the line of mosques and phone lines to get to my house, which is a nice landmark. Even HM agrees that I'm super far away and it took him months to figure out Kulari... excellent. Good thing I came during cold season when it's not that hot but still SUPER HOT in the afternoon and miserably cold in the mornings. Such extremes... reminds me of New England.
I worked out again today but with way less zeal... I'm hurting from the past couple of days. I als ogot to talk on the phone with my emotional buddy and acquired fabulous tips/advice to shape my three month challenge. I talked to another pal I met for like 5 minutes at the transit house for EVER who looks like Jesus, it's pretty sweet, but now I'm super tired so I'm turning in!
No comments:
Post a Comment