Journal Entry 1/4-1/7

1/4:

Purchased (white) bread fresh out of the oven. Went into town greeting everyone and anyone and arrived at my counterpart's to see that he was gone giving Fatou a ride to a neighboring town for a naming ceremony. I went to Fatou's house/compound and sat for like, an hour. I chatted with the women - Sona, Isatou, Ami, and the grandma and they showed me their backyard. They had a garden! I also watched them cook/prepare lunch, chatted with the grandma some more, shelled peanuts, and boiled them. I didn't know that boiling peanuts took all of like, two hours, so I just ate half boiled peanuts because I don't think I could sit in a compound doing nothing for two hours, hah.  I went back home sometime afternoon noon to do whatever and got a free juice from Jenneba (she's actually a Pulaar woman, not Wolof) SCORE. I got an awful lunch so thank God I bought that back-up bread and chilled until my teacher came over and I had her translate a queue of things I was interested in expressing in Serehule. I read like, 200 pages in Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and slept like a baby.

1/5:
Again, my community rep was gone and I only found out that he went to Basse when I arrived at his house. I bought a sandwich for myself from a stand run by this little girl named Isatou and her sister and it was delicious! I was reading on the bench with them and a ton of kids when an older Isatou in the Women's Group that Fatou leads came over and said she had something to show me. I continue munching and she comes back with a folder. What's inside took me by surprise - they're sheets of paper keeping track of face to face encounters with compounds talking the importance of mosquito nets! WTF that's awesome and totally community health education! Also I found out almost every compound is marked/painted wit ha number to keep track of how many there are in Kulari. Incredible. This kid I met from before during site visit also gave me a free cold soda to drink - Vimto - it was fruity and berry flavored. Sweet. Fatou, the leader, came by to sit with us. I joked about how I was scared of having kids and that made them laugh. I complimented them on how great it was on what they were doing with bednets especially during summer months prior to rainy season because that's when mosquitoes are rampant. Then SOMEHOW we talked about exclusive breastfeeding. Not only did they understand the concept but they understood ME and this is all in Serehule. Clearly these are health educated/conscious ladies with clout in the community. I then sat with Isatou's family for a while chatting, actually chatting, and she's such a pleasant, kind, soft spoken lady. She's also full of life and it would be fantastic if I could befriend her more. She has the prettiest smile and the most soothing tone. By noon, I walked back home and sat in another compound - that of the baker's. I've GOT to watch how much I consume because it's all white bread and God knows how much CHO I'm already consuming. My friend from Nigeria - Aminata - was out but her husband (I think that's who it was anyways) was there and I watched him make peanut oil. He put it in this machine from France and manually cranked it in a circle and it compressed the peanuts so the oil came out, draining it in a basin. I sat and chatted a little and the grandma said I was smart, aw, and the guy welcomed me to their compound whenever. It's a pretty big one right next to the mosque. My teachers came over - both sisters - later in the evening and we went over health translations! I have them secured for two hours a week - on weekends. Of course, things happen, so it's always open and free to fluctuate. School comes first to them first, after all.

1/6:

Had an off day because I read another 200 pages of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and had five hours of sleep. I did, however, finish the book! I need to stop being so obsessive with finishing things right away. I decided to not go anywhere that day but I DID go out and study/shell peanuts for like, 2.5 hours in the morning, then hibernated inside after that. I cancelled my plans to see the women's garden and they were understanding. I said my shoulder hurt, which was very true. Instead, I spent the afternoon drawing a present for my coworker's upcoming birthday since Beth, Lizzie, and I formed an unofficial birthday committee for Motley Crew. Basically, we'll send packages to our friends on their birthdays but details are still a bit blurry. I renamed my off days as Day Offs to stop guilting myself and I hope to take one every week :) Guilt free!

1/7 TODAY:

Interesting day. I promptly fell asleep last night at 9:28 PM and had 9.5 hours of deep slumber. I was refreshed and ready, I even jump roped in the morning! I sifted, walked to work, greeted, HM wasn't there again, but I ran into the acting Alkaloo Musa instead. His dad's the Alkaloo but he's very old, so Musa steps in. He was in the right place at the right time, or maybe I was, and I asked if I could charge my phone. One of his clan's compounds were near us and they had electricity so we stopped by. On the way, I ran into Fatou and she said she tried calling me but couldn't because my phone died. She was on her way to the garden and invited me along. I wanted to go with her so I quickly dropped my phone off at Musa's younger brother's room (Seiku), and went with Isatou and another woman (Fiye). Fatou went off to call her daughter who is my Toma (which means we share the same name) and whose nickname is Baby, haha. She's a very friendly girl in her teens.

Good news: the garden's huge and women are killing it out there gardening like fiends.
Bad news: It's in the middle of no where. I would have never gotten there myself nor do I think I can get there by myself for a long while...

I took a path I never have before and greeted new people, joked with new people, watered a huge bed or two, Fatou took my bag since I remarked the other day that my shoulder hurted (that woman... I love her so much), and watched as she settled a despite among the women about dividing up a plot of land and watering responsibilities. I picked some green onions and 10 hours later, my fingers still smell of them. I really had no idea what I was doing nor could I understand the instructions in Serehule but I tried my best and made use of myself where I could. I also saw two dead rats being thrown over the garden fence, great. I got my squat on though and I need to learn to put on sunscreen every morning no matter how cloudy it is because it will ALWAYS, WITHOUT FAIL get hot/sunny. Fatou told Mariama to take me home at around 12 and she walked me back to HM's on a new path. I discovered another bitik/shop that sold eggs, though! That's fun. It wasn't so far from HM's, either. I met back up with Musa who was sitting at a bantaba/sitting shaded place where men just sit around and brew attaya, sit around, or talk (Cough while the women are in the gardens/home cooking/preparing food Cough). He got his brother to fetch my phone for me - fully charged! I got a bunch of texts and apparently the Country Director is visiting my site next week. Everything's happening next week! More on that later.

So at the bantaba, the Alkaloo said he wanted an European/American wife out of the blue. I ask him why, he had a great wife already, and he says he wants to get one because there's no work in Gambia. Meaning he wanted to go to Europe or America. He says they're just sitting there right now. I mean in my head I'm like no shit, yes you are, I just came back from the gardens where women are working their asses off, but I bit my tongue and said instead, "The women are doing plenty of work, I just came from the women's garden and everyone there is working!" Also no western woman in her right mind would share a husband that doesn't work much less one who is merely using her to get out of the country - which involves a crap ton of paper work and money anyways. Well, that's too general, I suppose there are some western women who are down for that, but few. I told them there was plenty of work available if they were willing to work. The younger brother, Seiku, said it was not that easy for men and women to work together and that the Serehule culture is known to travel. I responded, traveling's good but you need education. Seiku told me it was rare for people to send their kids to school when they can send them to the bush and collect crops/get money. Also, schooling for little boys costs money but is free for young girls, who are more often than not pulled into doing household chores and taking care of their younger siblings. I turned to Musa and said, "You're the Alkaloo, you must have some influence and people will listen to you." Musa just half heartedly laughed at me probably thinking, "This naive foreign girl." I then said if everyone's leaving, there must be a lot of jobs here. Then I suggested they should be businessmen. Honestly they could improve their family's happiness if they would just help their wives or sisters instead of drinking attaya and sitting at bantabas -__- They could do a nursery business, construction, chicken coop, opening a business, bee keeping, fish farming, banking, the list continues, just look at what isn't there and trying. I know there's successful business people in the Gambia and I bet attitude has a lot to do with it. Of course they've been here all their lives, but maybe I can just plant a seed into their heads that they can do something here, with what they have, rather than always setting their sights abroad. They're clearly just trying to find an easy way out (like marrying) but unfortunately there isn't one - even if you go abroad. Seiku understood that without education, they will be cheated anyways. The men at the bantaba told me there was an English school in addition to the Madrasa (the Muslim school) and that they would take me tomorrow. Nothing else really interesting happened the rest of the day save for extreme bloatedness after lunch and I think I'm flirting with the idea of making my own lunch rather than breakfast since the rice here bloats the hell out of me but I keep on eating because it doesn't feel like I'm satiated! Peace Corps problems. Grumble. I'll figure it out... oh also I visited a compound next to another bitik/shop, tis important to show my face.