Journal Post 1/3

Again, it’s been awhile since I wrote but that’s for good reason! I spent my first of three New Years in The Gambia. Let’s start with December 31, New Year’s Eve starting from the beginning...
 

Woke up at 5. I decided to try my luck and wait for the gele that was suppose to drive past my compound at 6. By 6:20, the only thing walking past my compound were people waving flashlights in their stride to the mosque for their morning prayers. I decided enough was enough and I wasn’t going to risk my only chance heading to Basse (regional big town where the Peace Corps transit house was, also where internet is found, and just a bigger town to buy supplies, take money out of the bank, and see fellow Peace Corps volunteers) so I abandoned the uncomfortable bench I was sitting on and sped-walked in the direction of the car park. Fortunately, I didn’t have to walk as far as I thought I would because I saw a gele flashing it’s lights halfway there parked conveniently by the ‘market place’ which is just a place where women sit out with their vegetables, and it’s no more than 10 sellers all at once. I waited for a bit, the gele finally started, and we were off!

I got into town at about 7:30 AM. They dropped me close to the center of town which meant I had to walk about 30 minutes to the transit house, which is located just outside of Basse proper. It’s like if you say you live in Boston but are actually in, like, Arlington or something. Anyways, it’s cold as shit in the mornings now at a whopping low 60s or dare I say high 50s range which is numbingly freezing for Gambia because it reaches, like, mid 90s by the afternoon. I was wearing a yellow short sleeved shirt and orange skirt that was too tight at the knees to allow me to walk faster than I wanted to and glasses... and figured, what the hell, I already look weird as hell so I pulled out my handy dandy roll up blanket and wrapped it around me as I trucked to the transit house as fast as I could. I stopped on the way at Kumba’s, this breakfast place on the side of the road where I think I’m going to slide down from the main pavement and break my neck every time I frequent there. Kumba’s on a steep slope downward from the road and it’s underneath a large bamboo thatched cover. Kumba is a Fula  woman (the Fula ethnic group speak a language called Pulaar) who can speak English quite well and her eatery is the closest to the transit house so that woman makes bank any time there’s a gathering in Basse. I got a full bean and egg sandwich with ketsup and trust me, it’s heaven. I know it might sound really weird from an American point of view but if any of you make it to Gambia, I will bet a day of indentured servitude that YOU WILL get hooked on bean sandwiches. A full bean and egg sandwich will cost you 50 Dalasi, and for me it can last me for breakfast and lunch.

Alright so I finally get to the transit house. Jason, one of the few Serehule speakers and an Education volunteer who also graduated from UMass, was the first one to greet me! He was the only one up. I decided to wake everyone else up by jumping in their beds and cuddling up to them. All my decorations from the week prior have not been torn down and I was very much pleased. We all ended up talking for the greater part of the morning into the afternoon before an army of us marched into town. I, personally, went with a group down the fabric road to a shop that one of the older volunteer’s frequented a lot. The owner knew quite a bit of Serehule and I was able to talk to him! This is always an exciting moment because, like I always stress, not even a majority of Gambians can speak Serehule since they only make up 9% of the population and are concentrated in the eastern most part of the country. Waaay far into the bush. I was able to purchase 3 patterns at 2 meters each, paid 50 D for each meter which is way more reasonable than the friggin 80-100 D that other shop owners were trying to rip me off with during Christmas week. I also got a meter of this nice silk-esque material as a veil in case I need to attend anything serious (funerals, among other occasions, call for head drape/veils/whatever you call them). FINALLY I have the materials for wrap skirts, I feel like I’m the last volunteer to get one! I also desperately need them because all my previous items in my wardrobe became obsolete since they don’t go down to my ankles or aren’t skirts, fail. The group and I walked around some more, then we decided to check out this restaurant by the ferry that had a brothel on the second floor. They sold bush pig and alcohol there, and of course it’s in the farthest reaches from the transit house in the most unexpected place ever, haha. I went to the bathroom on the second floor and it was actually a great view from where the brothel was situated, the staircase up to it was sketchy as hell, but the view of the river was very pretty. They also had a black board that had the phrase ‘you are what you are’ written on it. Not sure what that’s supposed to mean.

The walk back was miserable. It was hot, hot, and hot. We finally reached home and I ripped off my clothes into something a lot less sticky on me and played ping pong for hours. Or watched people play ping pong for hours. It’s been awhile since I picked it up but I have an obsessive personality and get hooked on something easily, haha. I attempted to do a quick workout session before my friend was dragged away to fetch firewood and reverted back to playing ping pong. After forever, dinner was served at it was SCRUMPTIOUS. Two groups of people were making different things – a chilli was brewing in the garden fire pit and other people were making garlic bread/pasta/vegetables and I opted for the latter although I totally could have had both. We paid the cooks and I volunteered to be one of the two tributes to wash dishes. After that I spent a large amount of time consuming 30 roasted marshmellows out by the fire and don’t feel a molecule of regret because damn they were so good!

No one really danced for the greater part of the night until we all looked at the clock and said ‘Oh shit, it’s 10:30 PM already!’ Most of us went inside and I was one of the 3 people to start dancing. In all honesty I love the open space to dance like a fool, but it’s Peace Corps and I’ve been told this is where people really find their style when it comes to dancing haha. I was particularly fond of twirling around that night, partially attributed to the fact that my shirt flowy and I liked the way it spun when I twirled around. Random detail. Anyways, I felt like there was a struggle for music-power when it came to music selection and it got to the point where I had no idea what music was playing nor could I really dance to it and felt a little bit uncomfortable with how tense it was over in the DJ corner... and went into a bedroom with a fellow volunteer to throw our own dance party. Much more manageable. We also had couches were we could jump on and it was grand. I’m not saying for sure, but we may have started the no pants fashion trend that existed into the night. 

We all danced until midnight where we had a great big count down. I PROMPTLY fell asleep at 1 and luckily a good friend of mine was nice enough to share a bed because I did not want to be out in the mosquito infested living room whatsoever.

I woke up on New Year’s Day and still managed to receive two mosquito bites... to the face. Of course. It was a real chill day, I can’t really remember doing anything except for going into town to use the internet, shopping for dinner, cooking a delectable Japanese/Gambian soba noodles fusion type of thing with some friends, studying, and falling asleep on my book. I really hope I absorbed information through putting my head on that thing because it was real uncomfortable all night and I have no idea how I could possibly fall asleep in such a bad position in the first place! Oh somewhere among all of this happening I got my secret santa gift and it was such a pleasant surprise :D

I woke up pretty early the next day to some leftover breakfast that my secret santa made before he left to head back to site. I spent the majority of the morning cleaning up dishes and packing. I walked my friend Tyler Bear to the bus stop and dropped him off, then took a sharp left straight to the market. I bought a head of cabbage, eggplant, and beans for my family and headed to the internet cafe. It always amazes me how fast time flies when I’m on the internet, haha. I like to think I did productive things on there – sent an email, caught up with a couple of friends, listened to some tracks on the new Beyonce album, whatever, but next thing I know I’m walking to the car garage!

I kept track of it – I left for the garage at 12, got there at 12:10, and didn’t even leave for Kulari until 1:20 PM. I HAVE TO REMEMBER 1 PM IS THE MAGIC NUMBER. I know it’s risking it but sitting in a fly infested place is not what I call a good time... I spent the hour and a half sitting, studying a bit, and chatting with some people in Serehule since everyone sitting beneath the shade of the Kulari 18-passenger van were all Serehule! Of course I have people walking by surprised there’s a Chinese girl speaking Serehule and I had to deal with all that. Some people are honestly nice and some people are just there to say two things super fast and turn away before I have the time to register and respond. Lots and lots of kids always surround me to stare me down with either curiosity or disgust or trying to will me with their eyes to buy whatever it is their selling, haha. It was pretty tempting but I got a bean sandwich earlier that morning. Anyways, I was chatting with the women and I’m always asked why I don’t have kids if I have a husband. This one woman in particular was just nodding her head at me whenever I spoke as if she actually understood me but I’m 98% sure she didn’t actually hear a word I said and stopped understanding when I said I didn’t have kids. Thankfully, this one woman next to me understood what I was trying to say on the spot – I said I didn’t want kids yet because I’m learning and working now, I don’t have money, if I don’t have money and have kids it will be bad because I want to help them if my husband dies/leaves me, and later on I will have children. Pretty practical, right? She seemed to understand. Other women don’t, but really, that’s the biggest thing in their lives – it’s like their main purpose for being put on the planet. It’s pretty sad, but if it’s one thing I can try to change, it’s that women can definitely work and make money and their ability transcends that of JUST baring kids. 

The car ride home always seems the longest. I was sitting on the sunny side of the gele for awhile and it was jam packed, and of course there was the loudest baby every on board shrieking because of how hot it was. I understand baby, I totally understand. We finally got off in Kulari and unfortunately I was dropped pretty far away from my place but, whatevs, exercise! I passed by a Wolof woman named Jenneba Njie and greeted her, passed her, then back tracked because I saw a bitik shop next to her house. I walked in, greeted, no one was there, but she comes in and I ask her for sugar. She sees my water bottle empty and pulls out water (the unsure if safe kind, of course haha) from the refrigerator and gives it to me! It didn’t fill all the way so she pulls out another bottle in the fridge and fills it up to the tip, saying I was her friend. Omg. THE NICEST GESTURE EVER. I will definitely be frequenting that bitik. I hugged her and went on my way.

I greet all the way back to my house and drop down my stuff, greet my family, give them the groceries I bought, and retreated in my house. I didn’t come out really all day and thank God I had my bean sandwich because I missed lunch. I spent the entire time cleaning up/putting things away, and just relaxing. I didn’t even go out that much at night, only to return my dinner bowl, and went straight to sleep.

The next day, I woke up at 7 without an alarm clock. Pretty impressive! I was able to do everything in the morning (including squeezing in jump roping) EXCEPT for make my own breakfast because I ran out of clean water. Luckily my family got my back and made me some porridge. I got ready, went outside to sift coos a little, dropped my fabric with the tailor to put a tie on it, and went off into the town to greet/explore a bitik shop/go to HM’s. He bought me a bean sandwich again God bless his soul and I went to work on Excel. The report needs to be done by Sunday and now that he read me all the names, I think it’s a totally doable goal. I just need to transcribe all the names from the monthly clinic visits to three villages, their birthdays, sex, weight, height, and other data stuff. I’ll totally do that if someone’s feeding me, haha. It’s also something to do and I get to reclaim what little I knew about Excel. On the way back to my house for lunch, I stopped by a compound (Bambara kunda? I think.) to shell some peanuts and sit and talk for a little bit. I’m trying to make it a part of my routine. Again, greeted all the way back to my compound and promised the ladies at the market I’d come back later in the evening but I didn’t because... I’ll get to that later.

Get back, sweep, wash some clothes, and ate lunch. I went outside to study/translate some things I wanted to say to my family. I’m totally not sure if I made any sense, but I THINK they understood my message..

‘I wanted to thank them for their delicious food and for cooking for me. However, I want to start cooking breakfast for myself because I have a husband and I should start learning. Starting tomorrow, I would like to do that, but please still cook lunch and dinner for me. Also, can you help me wash my clothes? I’m not fast nor are my clothes clean if I wash them. Is that okay? Every two weeks wash once? Here is my rent of 1,200 D. Sometimes I need to go to Basse because I have work there and here, and I might stay for the day or night, I will call you all. If I go to Basse, I will buy groceries to bring back for us. Thank you all for helping me so much. I can’t talk a lot but my teacher will come in two weeks to talk to you all and she is a Serehule woman who can say a lot.’

Yes, very rudimentary but that’s essentially the paragraph that I said. They smiled and said thank you and ‘no problem’ so hopefully that means they understood. They also said they would tell my grandma when she got back. It brought the biggest smile on my face. My toma/namesake/someone with the same first name as me and my other younger sister went to the pump. Thankfully the water was much faster than last time I went. A horde of women gathered around me to see the foreigner and I greeted some people, apparently my aunt from my dad’s side was there and of course I couldn’t tell and it took me forever to understand her child was a new bride as of last week, but we finally went back to our compound and at last I have clean water. I never know if it’s safe to boil well water because I’ve seen how muggy it is and even get second thoughts about using it for shower water, haha.

I decided to stay in and not go out like I told the women I would. I feel super bad but I’ll sit with them tomorrow morning or afternoon for sure. I might even buy something. I don’t want to be seen as the big money spender and it’s awkward navigating 10 women selling things but only buying from one of them... or buying something more expensive from one person than the next. Derp I’ll have to face it tomorrow. It is, however, supplementing my and my family’s diet. I would love to buy fruit but for some reason the banana sellers are always evading me. I was able to tell my family that if they see the banana seller to send them to my house, or if they see pretty fabric then tell me. Hopefully they understand. My mom understand the other day! 

Aside from exercising, bringing in my clothes, receiving my wrap skirts with a tie on them (but still way too tall on me, I’m going to see if he can cut it shorter for me), I read like 70 pages in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I’m trying to finish it by the twelfth and start The Hobbit then. I’ve got a healthy amount of stuff lined up for tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have the same success that I got today!