Today was interesting. I went to greet one compound that had
an overwhelming amount of people – I saw boys pounding and women sitting – very
unlike anything I saw before, annoying kids – some were good while others were
OBNOXIOUS and I had to tell them I wasn’t a toubab, I was Mariama, they asked
what my real name was, and I insisted Mariama, haha. They weren’t my favorite
compound but there’s this one little girl who was nice – a fellow Mariama and
one of the women were very nice to me. I think I don’t do well when there’s
8000 kids yelling and crying – I just can’t zone those noises out. Anyways, the
girl who introduced/walked me who was also very nice, we left, and I was on my
way into town again to buy groceries. The ladies gifted me with two bitter
tomatoes and a hot pepper which was so sweet. I bought another eggplant for my
family and tomatoes for myself. OH and leafy greens again. I went back and
chatted for a long while with a woman I mistook for someone else (fail) but she
is pregnant and we talked for a good 40 minutes with people coming in and out
and this guy who couldn’t talk (but loved to speak with hand emotion) brewed
attaya for us. I said I didn’t like a lot of sugar and they obliged + they even
got basil to put in it. It was very pleasant to say the least. I bid them
farewell and willed myself to sit at one more compound before calling it a day.
This compound also had obnoxious kids who were just as loud but very eager to
talk to me. I just can’t carry on a conversation with hoards of kids chanting
my name/shrieking/crying – I don’t know how adults can hear over all that
ruckus. There was a real nice teen there and one of the ladies are super
friendly. I headed home finally, dropped off groceries, and my mom said she
could cook meat and cassava for me. Awesome. So, I went inside, cooked another
delicious meal with enough to spare for tomorrow and got them all washed, too.
I stayed inside to read up on Morocco in the 4 Lonely Planet books I grabbed
from the transit house… only to find 3 of the books had the Morocco pages turn
out and the last one is 13 years old, haha. Oh well, I’ll read what I have but
bringing all the books back is going to be a pain, fml. I spoke with Beth for a
while before showering and heading out to walk my grandma to the clinic because
her back hurt. She thought she needed money to go but my community rep just told
her to go and not to worry about it. I’ll have to ask if that’s true… anyways,
we walked, I greeted, but I said I wanted to greet the woman I had attaya with
– only to forget where she lived and figured my grandma didn’t want to take
that route. SO I wanted to stop by the sitting place that I spoke to a man
earlier in the day because he said that HIS back hurt, too. I offered to walk
with him to the hospital. Well, he wasn’t there, and a mummbly/unable to speak
man was there instead and no one understood me when I was trying to find him.
They said that he left – not that I knew his name or anything, then Bintu, one
of the sellers, made a hand gesture about leaving + she looked a bit
annoyed/vexed. My grandma, then, decided to turn back and go straight home. We
were half way there too, wtf. So I’m confused and they kept on saying something
I didn’t understand at all. So we were almost home but I decided to go to the
tailor’s to make use of my time and showed him the design of the dress I wanted
him to make on my iTouch. My little sister who tagged along of course thinks
it’s a phone but the tailor – Masane – knows it’s an iPod + was excited to try
and make a toubab dress, haha. We chatted for a bit before I returned. My moms
were trying to explain the situation but that was legit the first time I had NO
clue what was happening – they seemed a bit annoyed – and they were using a
word I had no idea of. SO I called Ida. Thankfully that confusion was sorted
out. They lady at the market messed up and misinterpreted the situation – they
thought I had a pregnant friend visiting my house so they turned back but in
reality I just wanted to visit my friend in passing/the one who I drank attaya
with) and go to the hospital but couldn’t find that man. Luckily, Ida
translated all of that and my family wasn’t mad at all, it was just one big
misunderstanding. We’ll go to the clinic tomorrow morning. I tried calling
Hadja but her phone was off and I didn’t want to talk to her dad with her
there. Welp, after dinner I went back outside and my mom called! American mom.
After talking to her, I told a bit of my background/life in America to my
family here in particular my mom who was interested in hearing. All in
Serehule. I said my parents were divorced, my mom only has one child, my
parents live separately, they only have one kid because they didn’t have the
ability to raise more since they didn’t get a good education and can’t speak
English so I help my mom. I also said my “husband” helps my mom even though
they’re far away from each other. Like from Kulari to Banjul, haha (in distance).
I then called my training family and yeah, productive night.
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