Woke up. Did my morning dailies. Decided to don on a new shirt from the free pile Miss Alicia picked up for me which was this Gambian style one and proceeded to stop every 5 minutes to talk about how nice it was to my family/strangers on the street. I thought I'd be the last one to arrive at Ida's but that wasn't the case, phew. We did a lot of technical vocab today and it was haaard. Ida also springs it on me that the Training Manager, Assistant to the Country Director, AND the Inspector General of allll of the Peace Corps organization is coming to watch the Serehule ladies do our breastfeeding trial tomorrow... wtf? Thanks for the heads up, like the day before. Luckily, I already started looking over the lines and memorizing a couple of days ago but still I had to get a few more things in and I was definitely no master. I'm happy to see that I can figure out what certain passages mean on paper and identify vocab but I still need to write it down and practice. I gave my notes to Alicia so I really didn't do much language today away from Ida's. I tried finishing Peace Corps homework but got stumped on this long assignment about diagnosing case studies which I'll tackle tomorrow.
I went home with ample time to go fetch water twice, water my garden, go on a long, far bike ride where I almost crashed into goats, showered, AND washed my hair, set up the nicest PC-worthy "cribs" entertainment center...which involves me eating in front of my luggage case with my health technical handbook propped up by the extended suitcase handle. I had all my other stuff on top of other luggage cases and bidogs, sat cross legged, and ate like three pounds of boiled peanuts while I studied. SMALL VICTORIES are the sweetest victories, it's really hard to find a good position and have everything around you and have the light shine on what I want to read. I was almost ready to leave my throne with Rohi and her friends came by to chat. After that, I finally went outside to see that the kids wanted me to help them with a school project....which involves drawing an elephant. Of course I didn't want to do the work for them but I somehow communicated that I wouldn't do it unless the two elder kids drew three elephants for practice - and they did! So then I went Picasso on their project and actually went overboard to the point where they were like "Mariama, it's okay," but I got a huge group around me and if you know me, I am an art perfectionist.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Journal Post 11/14
I swear to God every time I go to Jenoi I leave with seven new mosquito bites and I'm not even the only one! My roommate, Alyssa, who is such a hilarious story teller, got so tired of their shit that she woke up and had a mosquito massacre in her bed net. The bed nets that Jenoi supplies are crappy, untreated, and ripped. We're all trapped in a lose-lose situation in Jenoi, though, since it's a furnace inside the residence dorms where we're suppose to sleep but there's a frenzy of bugs outside ready for human blood. I already got chomped on even with long sleeves and pants but they get me during the day! Damn them. It's a combination of ants, small flying things that bite, and mosquitoes. I'm really patting myself on the back 1 million times because my bed net is my savior and I'm so happy I purchased it.
So I'm scratching myself allll the way through our remaining time left in Jenoi but before that, let me take a minute to appreciate the delicious breakfast I had today. It started with a spam/potato/grease sandwich but it was no where as deluged in oil as some of my other friends. I finished my plate but my co-workers who didn't even touch theirs just drank their coffee. One of the super kind ladies from the kitchen came out and asked if we'd like some of the jam she bought. We all politely said yes but in our minds we were all, "HELL YEAH." This lady is one of the kindest women I've met here thus far and she's multilingual! I swear I'm going to buy a watermelon just for the cooks and give her a great big slice. She retreats into the kitchen and comes back out with strawberry jam, bread, and a huge tub of chocolate peanut butter which tastes exactly like Nutella. Needless to say I was a very happy Mariama after breakfast. We had our session about ethnic groups and caste systems after that, which was our sole session before driving back to our training villages.
Now I'm going to write what little I know about Serehules (my ethnic group) here. But before that, let's talk about the caste system which the Serehules still put a lot of clout on. Once upon a time long, long ago, the Gambia was dominated by a caste system like this:
Kings/nobles > Artisons/griots/craftsmen > Slaves.
Nobles are determined by who has strategically led their people to victory in a battle (thus people will follow them - mostly it was passed down to the king's first son and very rarely was it ruled by queens. In even rarer circumstances, but still happened and outrageous nonetheless, the king's sister's 1st male born would inherit the throne since people were afraid the queen might cheat on the king so her offspring won't really be the king's. HOWEVER, people were sure that the king's sisters were of his blood and so they definitely couldn't mix up the child that way). All the caste classes marry within themselves. Everyone depends on these nobles/kings for (army) protection.
The Artisans are those who make stuff, in particular craftsmen who make tools for farming and transportation. Griots are professionals who tell stories of ancestral histories. People love going to the Griots to learn more about their past - through song. The Slaves are different from the slaves we think about in America because people usually get into that class if they borrow too much from another person and becomes indebted to them. Both the borrower and borrowee head to court and the borrower becomes a "slave" to the person who lent them whatever and has to work for him/her until their debt is repaid. Further, the slave can stay in his/her own community and home with their family.
Anyways, the caste system is mostly a relic of the past and most of the groups look past whatever caste group their ancestors came from... except for the majority of the Serehules. For example, before marriage, the Serehules will look into the potential wife/husband's background and see where they originated from. The one from the higher branch will not like to marry into a lower branch. What would impact me, however, is if my work counterpart was from a lower caste group and my Serehule community wouldn't listen to him/her. Shit sucks. Anyways, the Serehules are among the minority ethnic groups in the ethnic melting pot/mixed salad/what have you in The Gambia. They are the 9%. They are also the richest since they have been age-long business people who travel, have a money-saving mindset, and migrated to the Gambia from The Songhai Empire/Ghana to expand their business market. There are Serehules all over the world - Spain, America, all over Africa and beyond, but they always go out and send money back to their families. They have a successful gold mining business that they're known for. Although the majority of Serehules are concentrated in the Upper River Region (the eastern-most region in The Gambia), they own the majority of the large mansion/buildings in the capital, Banjul, because they have all the money. They are one of the two most conservative groups and value a large family. Most Serehule families will have 3-4 wives and a plethora of kids. 99.9% of Serehules are Muslims and consider themselves the purest group in The Gambia. They do not tend to marry out because they look down on the other groups with that "I'm the purest" mentality. I think they're really interesting, like look at their characteristics. I just didn't imagine that kind of group in The Gambia.
Anyways, after the session, my gardening guru Bah2 gave me his rancid concoction made of onions, garlic, tobacco, soap, and probably other things to pour into my garden. It's suppose to kill my termite problem. It smells disgusting but I'll also do anything to save my crops. On our way back home (the Serehule ladies were finally the first ones to get dropped off as opposed to the last, which is the norm), I discovered another volunteer named Dillon was in a long distance relationship too! We talked about our significant others for a little bit but I'm happy I'm not the only one. Now I can complain to him and be all "I MISS MY PARTNER THIS SUCKS" and someone will understand. Dillon's also in the same region as I am too! He's a swell, tall guy.
When we finally arrived and my colleagues got a better taste of the Serehule village, I greeted everyone and found out that one of the MOMS (not my direct 2) had a BABY. I held it but oh my God it was so cool and scary at the same time... she was so tiny and alive and squishy. Her naming ceremony will be next week. I also found out that the same mom has one of her other children really sick and he's at the creepy clinic. I know exactly who he is and he's one of the most active kids in my compound! His sister's sick, too (the one who's spoiled but assertive and cute), and I'm afraid it's malaria. I saw her today but she's not as energetic as usual. I told them to give her lots of water, put her to sleep, and take her to the clinic which they said they would tomorrow. I think they understood what I said. Anywho, I used the opportunity while seeing the newborn to practice the 5 lines of exclusive breastfeeding that I memorized. AND THE MOM UNDERSTOOD. Miracles. Then all the women asked me when I was going to have kids of my own. I said "It is not time yet but later, later, later, maybe. I am scared," which is a totally true response. Next, one of the ladies approached me with a receipt in English because I think somebody (my dad?) sold or bout a cow yesterday which I translated but I can't recall if I used the right verb (sell? buy? shit.). I also didn't know how to say "keep it" in Serehule so I just said the receipt was good. He better not have bought a cow because he has two children to send to the hospital. Anyways, I sat down my stuff unpacked lots, swept, treated my garden, and somehow got the message across that the stuff I was putting into my garden was a pesticide.
I left for lunch soon after that and stopped by Rohi's place to chat a little, chatted with more people along the way, and Ida's host family. I tried to explain to them why I didn't like Jenoi because of all the damn mosquitoes (they seemed to understand and they laughed which is good...but my interpretive language to signify mosquito by scratching at my bites is really aggravating the itching and I hate myself for it). After lunch, I finished recopying my notes and wrote another journal entry/monologue in Serehule. Ida was so very happy with me. She told me everyone at the Peace Corps office was really impressed. The training manager and all the other teachers called her lucky because she said none of the other 17 volunteers were on my level yet. It was really flattering but shit, pressure's on. I'm proud that my hard work is paying off because my head is always in a book recopying sentence or making sentences in my head, talking to myself, or other language obsessed things. Really, though, after talking to all the current volunteers, I'm taking their advice to heart and focusing all my energy during training on language. I'll shift gears to the health stuff after these next couple of months but until then, language is my key to making a connection, attaining trust, gaining security, and everything, so I'll pour all my time and energy into that. As much as I want to plan what I'd like to do (Or exercise. Or make a food diary. Or read. Or draw. Or do other things), I should really enter my village open minded, observe, and establish connections first - which is the main mission for the first three months of permanent site.
At night, I went out for math lessons longer than expected again, but that's always a good thing. Like I said before, I'm teaching subtraction now and gave them a crap load of homework to do. I also communicated that I wanted one of the older kids to act as the teacher during the day and teach the kids how to count to 10. My eventual goal is to teach the kids to count to 30 so they can wash their hands and count to 30 before rinsing. Finally went inside, turned on my iTouch, wrote forever, and enjoyed the cool night :)
So I'm scratching myself allll the way through our remaining time left in Jenoi but before that, let me take a minute to appreciate the delicious breakfast I had today. It started with a spam/potato/grease sandwich but it was no where as deluged in oil as some of my other friends. I finished my plate but my co-workers who didn't even touch theirs just drank their coffee. One of the super kind ladies from the kitchen came out and asked if we'd like some of the jam she bought. We all politely said yes but in our minds we were all, "HELL YEAH." This lady is one of the kindest women I've met here thus far and she's multilingual! I swear I'm going to buy a watermelon just for the cooks and give her a great big slice. She retreats into the kitchen and comes back out with strawberry jam, bread, and a huge tub of chocolate peanut butter which tastes exactly like Nutella. Needless to say I was a very happy Mariama after breakfast. We had our session about ethnic groups and caste systems after that, which was our sole session before driving back to our training villages.
Now I'm going to write what little I know about Serehules (my ethnic group) here. But before that, let's talk about the caste system which the Serehules still put a lot of clout on. Once upon a time long, long ago, the Gambia was dominated by a caste system like this:
Kings/nobles > Artisons/griots/craftsmen > Slaves.
Nobles are determined by who has strategically led their people to victory in a battle (thus people will follow them - mostly it was passed down to the king's first son and very rarely was it ruled by queens. In even rarer circumstances, but still happened and outrageous nonetheless, the king's sister's 1st male born would inherit the throne since people were afraid the queen might cheat on the king so her offspring won't really be the king's. HOWEVER, people were sure that the king's sisters were of his blood and so they definitely couldn't mix up the child that way). All the caste classes marry within themselves. Everyone depends on these nobles/kings for (army) protection.
The Artisans are those who make stuff, in particular craftsmen who make tools for farming and transportation. Griots are professionals who tell stories of ancestral histories. People love going to the Griots to learn more about their past - through song. The Slaves are different from the slaves we think about in America because people usually get into that class if they borrow too much from another person and becomes indebted to them. Both the borrower and borrowee head to court and the borrower becomes a "slave" to the person who lent them whatever and has to work for him/her until their debt is repaid. Further, the slave can stay in his/her own community and home with their family.
Anyways, the caste system is mostly a relic of the past and most of the groups look past whatever caste group their ancestors came from... except for the majority of the Serehules. For example, before marriage, the Serehules will look into the potential wife/husband's background and see where they originated from. The one from the higher branch will not like to marry into a lower branch. What would impact me, however, is if my work counterpart was from a lower caste group and my Serehule community wouldn't listen to him/her. Shit sucks. Anyways, the Serehules are among the minority ethnic groups in the ethnic melting pot/mixed salad/what have you in The Gambia. They are the 9%. They are also the richest since they have been age-long business people who travel, have a money-saving mindset, and migrated to the Gambia from The Songhai Empire/Ghana to expand their business market. There are Serehules all over the world - Spain, America, all over Africa and beyond, but they always go out and send money back to their families. They have a successful gold mining business that they're known for. Although the majority of Serehules are concentrated in the Upper River Region (the eastern-most region in The Gambia), they own the majority of the large mansion/buildings in the capital, Banjul, because they have all the money. They are one of the two most conservative groups and value a large family. Most Serehule families will have 3-4 wives and a plethora of kids. 99.9% of Serehules are Muslims and consider themselves the purest group in The Gambia. They do not tend to marry out because they look down on the other groups with that "I'm the purest" mentality. I think they're really interesting, like look at their characteristics. I just didn't imagine that kind of group in The Gambia.
Anyways, after the session, my gardening guru Bah2 gave me his rancid concoction made of onions, garlic, tobacco, soap, and probably other things to pour into my garden. It's suppose to kill my termite problem. It smells disgusting but I'll also do anything to save my crops. On our way back home (the Serehule ladies were finally the first ones to get dropped off as opposed to the last, which is the norm), I discovered another volunteer named Dillon was in a long distance relationship too! We talked about our significant others for a little bit but I'm happy I'm not the only one. Now I can complain to him and be all "I MISS MY PARTNER THIS SUCKS" and someone will understand. Dillon's also in the same region as I am too! He's a swell, tall guy.
When we finally arrived and my colleagues got a better taste of the Serehule village, I greeted everyone and found out that one of the MOMS (not my direct 2) had a BABY. I held it but oh my God it was so cool and scary at the same time... she was so tiny and alive and squishy. Her naming ceremony will be next week. I also found out that the same mom has one of her other children really sick and he's at the creepy clinic. I know exactly who he is and he's one of the most active kids in my compound! His sister's sick, too (the one who's spoiled but assertive and cute), and I'm afraid it's malaria. I saw her today but she's not as energetic as usual. I told them to give her lots of water, put her to sleep, and take her to the clinic which they said they would tomorrow. I think they understood what I said. Anywho, I used the opportunity while seeing the newborn to practice the 5 lines of exclusive breastfeeding that I memorized. AND THE MOM UNDERSTOOD. Miracles. Then all the women asked me when I was going to have kids of my own. I said "It is not time yet but later, later, later, maybe. I am scared," which is a totally true response. Next, one of the ladies approached me with a receipt in English because I think somebody (my dad?) sold or bout a cow yesterday which I translated but I can't recall if I used the right verb (sell? buy? shit.). I also didn't know how to say "keep it" in Serehule so I just said the receipt was good. He better not have bought a cow because he has two children to send to the hospital. Anyways, I sat down my stuff unpacked lots, swept, treated my garden, and somehow got the message across that the stuff I was putting into my garden was a pesticide.
I left for lunch soon after that and stopped by Rohi's place to chat a little, chatted with more people along the way, and Ida's host family. I tried to explain to them why I didn't like Jenoi because of all the damn mosquitoes (they seemed to understand and they laughed which is good...but my interpretive language to signify mosquito by scratching at my bites is really aggravating the itching and I hate myself for it). After lunch, I finished recopying my notes and wrote another journal entry/monologue in Serehule. Ida was so very happy with me. She told me everyone at the Peace Corps office was really impressed. The training manager and all the other teachers called her lucky because she said none of the other 17 volunteers were on my level yet. It was really flattering but shit, pressure's on. I'm proud that my hard work is paying off because my head is always in a book recopying sentence or making sentences in my head, talking to myself, or other language obsessed things. Really, though, after talking to all the current volunteers, I'm taking their advice to heart and focusing all my energy during training on language. I'll shift gears to the health stuff after these next couple of months but until then, language is my key to making a connection, attaining trust, gaining security, and everything, so I'll pour all my time and energy into that. As much as I want to plan what I'd like to do (Or exercise. Or make a food diary. Or read. Or draw. Or do other things), I should really enter my village open minded, observe, and establish connections first - which is the main mission for the first three months of permanent site.
At night, I went out for math lessons longer than expected again, but that's always a good thing. Like I said before, I'm teaching subtraction now and gave them a crap load of homework to do. I also communicated that I wanted one of the older kids to act as the teacher during the day and teach the kids how to count to 10. My eventual goal is to teach the kids to count to 30 so they can wash their hands and count to 30 before rinsing. Finally went inside, turned on my iTouch, wrote forever, and enjoyed the cool night :)
Journal Entry 11/13
Today was a funny day. Yes, we were training all day and yes it was long, but the sessions were almost all led by current volunteers for the most part of the day. We started off with a big serious security panel and another session about consequences of STDs in the morning but after that was exponentially more fun. It's like college orientation all over again! We then transitioned into the healthy sexuality, different romantic statuses, and problems faced during service as topics. It all began with an icebreaker..which involved picking out a strip of paper from a hat with a random mundane object on it and we had to fit it into the phrase:
"My sexuality is like ________ because ...." and we had to make up a reason behind it. Being racy was encouraged. Here's some good ones I wrote down:
...socks, because you put them on and take them off
...pickles, because you don't have it very often but when you do, you think damn I should do this more
...coffee, because it's hot, dark, and tasty
...waves, because it reaches new heights
...a laptop, because I have lots of buttons to press
...cookies, because mmmmm
...snowballs, because it gets bigger as it goes along but sizzles out if it gets too hot
...attaya (sweet green tea that's almost every Gambian's favorite beverage), because I think about brewing something hot multiple times a day.
You can guess which one's mine. For those who know me anyways, mwahahaha. Then, we had a session outside rotating around where we talked to different Peace Corps Volunteers who already sworn in and doing their thing in country. This first topic was about different relationship statuses: like having a relationship with someone back in America, being in a relationship with a host country national, being single and not ready to mingle, or the opposite, etc.). My first stop was very fortuitous - the guy was talking about the topic of being in a relationship with someone back home! I asked him a ton of tips and lots of other stuff because I'm in one and here's the following information I acquired:
-Relationships who started well in advance before one of the parties leave for their Peace Corps service tended to work better due to a solid foundation
-Most long distances don't work but there's always some that survive
-Communication, while difficult sometimes, is key
-Having your partner visit you was one of the most exciting things ever
-Know yourself, know your partner, be patient, and masturbate
We then had an exhilarating race between the Agricultural/Forestry vs the Health volunteers. The mission was to put on condoms on these rubber dick toys/dildos? The black penis was bigger than the white penis. Of course the better team won (HEALTH). We got yummy cookies as a prize and proceeded to a couple more sessions before ending the day. I studied/recopied notes, talked a bit outside, showered, had dinner, and recopied more notes. NOTES FOR DAYS.
Lo and behold, we apparently had a "ladies night" headed by my teacher AKA best LanguageCultureFacilitator Ida and she talked about many topics only meant for women's ears... like how sex works in The Gambia/how the women hint off that they want some when there's really no outward display of affection all day to the opposite sex. The men and women don't really interact at all the entire day so it was fascinating seeing the subtle hints that women can drop. We also talked about female genital cutting and complications (physical, cultural) behind it, duties of wives/multiple wives, and mobile sex shops. Message me if you want to know more details. I will talk about these things called "sexy beads" AKA "binbins" that women wear and apparently they turn men on, how some are called ball/testicle crusher beads because they can really get a man going before taking the beads off and they'll crush their sacks if they get too excited, secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies that adult Gambians employ that are similar to high school secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies, lubricants that are sold in sex shops called "keys to the vehicle/keys to the compound", aaand Gambian lingerie. Pretty fascinating - all of it - but especially the Female Genital Cutting... it's just such a vast topic to talk about. We ended the night by learning how to twerk with my site mate Alicia and we blasted Beyonce. Of course all the kids were outside watching us and we didn't have the curtains down. I think I'm doing it wrong, however, since it's really taking a toll my back lol. I just got to relax more and isolate the abs. Someone said I looked like I was humping something and honestly it looked like we were in a hump circle/chain. Welp that was fun but I'm exhausted and apparently the guys had a super boring session compared to hours.
"My sexuality is like ________ because ...." and we had to make up a reason behind it. Being racy was encouraged. Here's some good ones I wrote down:
...socks, because you put them on and take them off
...pickles, because you don't have it very often but when you do, you think damn I should do this more
...coffee, because it's hot, dark, and tasty
...waves, because it reaches new heights
...a laptop, because I have lots of buttons to press
...cookies, because mmmmm
...snowballs, because it gets bigger as it goes along but sizzles out if it gets too hot
...attaya (sweet green tea that's almost every Gambian's favorite beverage), because I think about brewing something hot multiple times a day.
You can guess which one's mine. For those who know me anyways, mwahahaha. Then, we had a session outside rotating around where we talked to different Peace Corps Volunteers who already sworn in and doing their thing in country. This first topic was about different relationship statuses: like having a relationship with someone back in America, being in a relationship with a host country national, being single and not ready to mingle, or the opposite, etc.). My first stop was very fortuitous - the guy was talking about the topic of being in a relationship with someone back home! I asked him a ton of tips and lots of other stuff because I'm in one and here's the following information I acquired:
-Relationships who started well in advance before one of the parties leave for their Peace Corps service tended to work better due to a solid foundation
-Most long distances don't work but there's always some that survive
-Communication, while difficult sometimes, is key
-Having your partner visit you was one of the most exciting things ever
-Know yourself, know your partner, be patient, and masturbate
We then had an exhilarating race between the Agricultural/Forestry vs the Health volunteers. The mission was to put on condoms on these rubber dick toys/dildos? The black penis was bigger than the white penis. Of course the better team won (HEALTH). We got yummy cookies as a prize and proceeded to a couple more sessions before ending the day. I studied/recopied notes, talked a bit outside, showered, had dinner, and recopied more notes. NOTES FOR DAYS.
Lo and behold, we apparently had a "ladies night" headed by my teacher AKA best LanguageCultureFacilitator Ida and she talked about many topics only meant for women's ears... like how sex works in The Gambia/how the women hint off that they want some when there's really no outward display of affection all day to the opposite sex. The men and women don't really interact at all the entire day so it was fascinating seeing the subtle hints that women can drop. We also talked about female genital cutting and complications (physical, cultural) behind it, duties of wives/multiple wives, and mobile sex shops. Message me if you want to know more details. I will talk about these things called "sexy beads" AKA "binbins" that women wear and apparently they turn men on, how some are called ball/testicle crusher beads because they can really get a man going before taking the beads off and they'll crush their sacks if they get too excited, secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies that adult Gambians employ that are similar to high school secret-sneaking-out-for-sex strategies, lubricants that are sold in sex shops called "keys to the vehicle/keys to the compound", aaand Gambian lingerie. Pretty fascinating - all of it - but especially the Female Genital Cutting... it's just such a vast topic to talk about. We ended the night by learning how to twerk with my site mate Alicia and we blasted Beyonce. Of course all the kids were outside watching us and we didn't have the curtains down. I think I'm doing it wrong, however, since it's really taking a toll my back lol. I just got to relax more and isolate the abs. Someone said I looked like I was humping something and honestly it looked like we were in a hump circle/chain. Welp that was fun but I'm exhausted and apparently the guys had a super boring session compared to hours.
Journal Post 11/12
Going to Jenoi is always hectic. I thought I packed so well... nope. Forgot toothpaste and shampoo. I was starving this morning on our way to Jenoi and polished off two breakfast bars and a small spamwich (spam and onion sandwich.. it is as not delicious as it sounds) to sustain myself. I wrote another journal entry in Serehule recalling my day yesterday and was proud of myself. I also got a shipment of new clothes from the free pile at the transit house in the capital/Kombo! It's exciting to wear things that aren't ginormous from being hand washed/sun dried. I had a long day of technical sessions about hand washing, diarrhea, making visuals on rice bags, and exclusive breastfeeding (feeding the child only breast milk for the first 6 months of life, which few women adhere to because they think the child needs water if it's thirsty, like an adult). All were pretty basic knowledge stuff but we did lots of demonstrations and I thought the facts behind each subject were useful. I can spew a ton of facts about how many kids die each year from diarrhea but that's really depressing. Let me know if you want to hear.
We had a SUPER late lunch but it's hard to get mad at the lunch ladies because they are just so nice. I love them to death. We had a long security session but funny skits inbetween and that's pretty much it. After dinner, I got three clutch massages from very nice coworkers who I owe. Luckily I am just the right size to step on backs. My friend Jon says I have a back of steel because he was like, grinding his knuckles on my back but I couldn't feel a thing. I have an awful knot or SOMETHING in my scapula area and it's obnoxious.
I'm getting very conscious of the possibility of gaining weight because of all the starch/CHO I eat which doesn't even come close to my energy output but I'm trying so hard to spend all my time studying! I try to remind myself that weight is transitory and can fluctuate and I have time to shed it all off after training. Apparently it's normal for ladies to gain a few extra pounds during this time.
All night, I sat by my Medical Officer and Jon (one of my nice co workers who worked on my back) who were switching off on the guitar and studied. It reminded me of going to the boba tea cafe in my college town or a local coffee shop to study. Except I was outside, looking for questionable bugs on/around me, and sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs hahaha. I socialized a little bit and went to get my cellphone which I charged earlier in the day. On the way, I saw a huuuuge centipede that looked like it was on steroids. Becca, one of my other colleagues who's a champ that can bench 135 pounds - legitimately a champ since she was her school's intramural bench pressing champion - poked it and it got so scared that he pooped and curled up in a ball. I talked to my mom after that and went to bed. It's always so exhausting in Jenoi or any day for that matter. We're suppose to master some of our technical language by the end of this week and I'm scared. I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED IT YET. I have, however, read it off the paper to my family. Now it just has to be memorized...
We had a SUPER late lunch but it's hard to get mad at the lunch ladies because they are just so nice. I love them to death. We had a long security session but funny skits inbetween and that's pretty much it. After dinner, I got three clutch massages from very nice coworkers who I owe. Luckily I am just the right size to step on backs. My friend Jon says I have a back of steel because he was like, grinding his knuckles on my back but I couldn't feel a thing. I have an awful knot or SOMETHING in my scapula area and it's obnoxious.
I'm getting very conscious of the possibility of gaining weight because of all the starch/CHO I eat which doesn't even come close to my energy output but I'm trying so hard to spend all my time studying! I try to remind myself that weight is transitory and can fluctuate and I have time to shed it all off after training. Apparently it's normal for ladies to gain a few extra pounds during this time.
All night, I sat by my Medical Officer and Jon (one of my nice co workers who worked on my back) who were switching off on the guitar and studied. It reminded me of going to the boba tea cafe in my college town or a local coffee shop to study. Except I was outside, looking for questionable bugs on/around me, and sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs hahaha. I socialized a little bit and went to get my cellphone which I charged earlier in the day. On the way, I saw a huuuuge centipede that looked like it was on steroids. Becca, one of my other colleagues who's a champ that can bench 135 pounds - legitimately a champ since she was her school's intramural bench pressing champion - poked it and it got so scared that he pooped and curled up in a ball. I talked to my mom after that and went to bed. It's always so exhausting in Jenoi or any day for that matter. We're suppose to master some of our technical language by the end of this week and I'm scared. I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED IT YET. I have, however, read it off the paper to my family. Now it just has to be memorized...
Journal Entry 11/11
I had the ideal morning today. I had more time to do things since I needed to report to Ida's at ~10:30 ish for one-on-ones. I had ample time to do all my chores, practice counting with the babies (2-5 year olds), and actually enjoyed my breakfast without the fear of getting sand seasoned in it every time I opened the cover. It's called tiga sombi and I've been having it for the past couple of days. It's a really delicious rice porridge with pounded peanuts and a questionable amount of sugar but it's damn good. Anywho, I set up my space so that my suitcase became my table at the junction between my front and back door for maximum ventilation. You can tell how satisfied/excited I am with this arrangement with this in depth description. The mornings are so briskly refreshing before the sun demands the spotlight back and melts us all. When I was finally settled down, I went over notes and wrote a huge 22 line monologue with what baby Serehule / baby Hule I knew. I was pretty proud of my creation - I tried my best to incorporate a series of verbs/nouns/phrases that I knew. I tried catching Rohi/the Alkaloo's daughter before going to Ida's but she left for the rice fields already. Instead, I greeted the women in her compound and carried on.
Once I got to Ida's, I read her my spiel and I guess it was good because she was laughing/smiling/clapping and even her host sister who I see every day understood me! Obviously I made grammatical mistakes but Ida was really impressed and told me to keep on journaling...since she wanted me to get to advanced by next month -_______- I'll try my hardest but the request seems so daunting. My tactic is to use less of the workbook unless I want to learn vocabulary but my main focus is to master making snetences in the past/present/future. Ida complimented me and asked what Chinese people give to their kids to make their children so smart hahahaha. Probably verbal abuse and/or all the pressure in the world. JUST KIDDING, that only applies to me personally and not meant to generalize! She said all her past Asian students picked up language quickly. Who knows, maybe iet's because we're bilingual. I'm getting through Serehule through making stupid/funny word associations and sheer determination to memorize. Serehule is friggin hard but at least it's not Chinese... which is a jumble of 5000 characters of your worst nightmare. I got a few valuable moments exercise-studying on Ida's mat in her house before lunch came and today was domada, otherwise known as delicious peanut sauce with oil and vegetables with rolled up fried fish. We had a memorable conversation about when kids stop questioning and expressing themselves in The Gambia, politics in America, and marriage (or the dark side behind it).
Afterwards, Elizabeth and I went outside to study. A bit later, the PACA training crew came by again and we learned about needs assessment and the pair wise graph/voting. Bah2, one of the friendliest Gambians I know who reminds me of a penguin for some reason and a God of all things related to gardening, Peter the Driver (who is also short like Bah2), and my PCVL/RA Daniel went to our houses to teach us how to transplant/examine our gardens. I didn't do much learning, more like watching and reveling at their skill. Peter quickly fixed my bike chain in a matter of 2 seconds so I can ride my bike again! Bah2 examined my garden and said my nursery was good (eggplants) but it needs to be thinned. I can also peel away my cover for my nursery which is really just a plastic bag from Target. The real problem is is with the nocturnal termites which is apparently an endemic in Gambian soil throughout the country. I gave them water and peanuts before they left (which Bah2 thought was from America because I put them in my recycled pretzel bag...silly Bah2) and he told me he would give me his home made pesticide which involves garlic, onion, tobacco, and IDK what else. He did say that he loved my Serehule-group's compost pile! Good, that shit's hard to turn every weekend and gives me the creeps every night when I see suspicious holes like something is burrowing in it. I made them wash their hands before they left... because they are in a health volunteer's home and they just touched my compost pile! Come on, Bah2.
I then biked to Alicia's to grab a couple of things for her when we meet in training village tomorrow (Jenoi). It was an effort remembering exactly what to say and also explaining to them my battle scars from yesterday. They were all very nice though but only the adults could understand me so they would translate what I had to say to the kids by fast forwarding my sentences to 1,000 words a second... because that's how fast they speak. It was dark by the time I returned, had to pack all my stuff and found my last energy reserves to go out and teach the kids for about an hour. That's success to me. I'm transitioning into subtraction now and hopefully they won't forget by the time I'm back!
Once I got to Ida's, I read her my spiel and I guess it was good because she was laughing/smiling/clapping and even her host sister who I see every day understood me! Obviously I made grammatical mistakes but Ida was really impressed and told me to keep on journaling...since she wanted me to get to advanced by next month -_______- I'll try my hardest but the request seems so daunting. My tactic is to use less of the workbook unless I want to learn vocabulary but my main focus is to master making snetences in the past/present/future. Ida complimented me and asked what Chinese people give to their kids to make their children so smart hahahaha. Probably verbal abuse and/or all the pressure in the world. JUST KIDDING, that only applies to me personally and not meant to generalize! She said all her past Asian students picked up language quickly. Who knows, maybe iet's because we're bilingual. I'm getting through Serehule through making stupid/funny word associations and sheer determination to memorize. Serehule is friggin hard but at least it's not Chinese... which is a jumble of 5000 characters of your worst nightmare. I got a few valuable moments exercise-studying on Ida's mat in her house before lunch came and today was domada, otherwise known as delicious peanut sauce with oil and vegetables with rolled up fried fish. We had a memorable conversation about when kids stop questioning and expressing themselves in The Gambia, politics in America, and marriage (or the dark side behind it).
Afterwards, Elizabeth and I went outside to study. A bit later, the PACA training crew came by again and we learned about needs assessment and the pair wise graph/voting. Bah2, one of the friendliest Gambians I know who reminds me of a penguin for some reason and a God of all things related to gardening, Peter the Driver (who is also short like Bah2), and my PCVL/RA Daniel went to our houses to teach us how to transplant/examine our gardens. I didn't do much learning, more like watching and reveling at their skill. Peter quickly fixed my bike chain in a matter of 2 seconds so I can ride my bike again! Bah2 examined my garden and said my nursery was good (eggplants) but it needs to be thinned. I can also peel away my cover for my nursery which is really just a plastic bag from Target. The real problem is is with the nocturnal termites which is apparently an endemic in Gambian soil throughout the country. I gave them water and peanuts before they left (which Bah2 thought was from America because I put them in my recycled pretzel bag...silly Bah2) and he told me he would give me his home made pesticide which involves garlic, onion, tobacco, and IDK what else. He did say that he loved my Serehule-group's compost pile! Good, that shit's hard to turn every weekend and gives me the creeps every night when I see suspicious holes like something is burrowing in it. I made them wash their hands before they left... because they are in a health volunteer's home and they just touched my compost pile! Come on, Bah2.
I then biked to Alicia's to grab a couple of things for her when we meet in training village tomorrow (Jenoi). It was an effort remembering exactly what to say and also explaining to them my battle scars from yesterday. They were all very nice though but only the adults could understand me so they would translate what I had to say to the kids by fast forwarding my sentences to 1,000 words a second... because that's how fast they speak. It was dark by the time I returned, had to pack all my stuff and found my last energy reserves to go out and teach the kids for about an hour. That's success to me. I'm transitioning into subtraction now and hopefully they won't forget by the time I'm back!
Journal Post 11/10
I just told someone very near and dear to me today that shit just happens here every day. Lots of things checked off the bucket list.. and here they are:
I woke up at 5 to the 5 AM morning calls which sounds like the microphone is placed on my roof blaring, some man singing and calling to prayer. I am not by any means exaggerating since I am right next door to the mosque. I did everything I needed to do to meet Ida on the road by 7:05 AM. We were off in a taxi with a flopping chicken in the back by 7:10 AM and luckily the chicken calmed down when we started moving... like lulling a baby to sleep. Anyways I tried speaking some basic Serehule to the driver but Ida had to clarify for me, as always. By 7:40 AM, we arrived in Soma and I was waiting for the internet store to open. I ate peanuts and stared at this gross half a pickle sized beetle (I later found out that this was a dung beetle) which looked more like a cockroach...for 20 minutes. Thrilling, I know, but it was just so nasty and gross, it was on its back and it looked super greasy and it was trying to wiggle its way somewhere...bleuuughhh. I spent another 15 minutes trying to read and pointing at any kid who toubab'd me and called them toubab which thoroughly confused them.
When the shop owner came (and I was expecting to wait a LOT longer), I went inside and looked at all the grasshoppers and cockroaches around the room. Splendid. It wasn't awful but still pretty bad. I thought I lucked out with waiting but I was very wrong. I spent the next hour waiting for internet because the servers were down or something in the entire area. Luckily I packed my book along with me. Sometime around 9:15 the internet was back and all was well. I logged on and the top 3 most popular websites on Google Chrome on the computer was titled "tranny sex" "hardcore porn" or something equally rated. Typical internet cafe is typical. I spent the next 3 hours typing furiously away to transcribe all my journal entries which I FINISHED like a boss (I felt so accomplished, not only did I type like woah, but every keyboard is sticky... it's the little obstacles, man), sent some quick emails/Facebook messages and called it a day by 12:30 PM.
Apparently I paid for 4 hours so I gave one of my Peace Corps friends the extra time - luckily he was there. Someone I knew from school just started her application to the PC and I'm so proud. Since I left, there has been two of my friends who reached out to me for more PC info and I'm so excited! While I was online, I briefly skimmed one of my PC colleague's blog and she's so much more eloquent than me. Meanwhile I'm all... "today I had sugar in my congee...dammit." They also have a lot of pretty pictures but my iTouch died and I'm waiting for a new charger :( Pictures are on the horizon, I promise. JUST KNOW that what you read in my blog is in my journal which is neither witty nor eloquent, just a vomit of raw words describing my day before I pass out.
Anyways, I walked out of the store when I was finished and some kids who I told my name to YESTERDAY remembered and waved at me! That was special. They don't even speak any languages I know! I took a shortcut to the bus stop and lo' and behold the bus was not there. My teacher Ida called me to see how I was and the minute I hung up with her, a gele gele/passing passenger van came by. I hailed it down and asked for the fare - 35. "Eff that," I said, "make it 20." Then they were all, "Ok ok 25." So then I boarded and found that I was the only foreigner and woman in this 15 passenger vehicle and there was a grand total of 4 other occupants ... all host country nationals and all men. It kind of raised my awareness of where I was at first. I talked to the guy at the back of the gele gele who is like the cash collector (we call him the Apparenti) and he spoke Mandinka. He knew no Serehule so I lied and said I've been in Jalanbereh for two years and blew his mind away with my Serehule greetings. I also threw in the 5 phrases I knew in Mandinka to get fancy. He liked to tap on my wrist while he talked, so although I was all smiling and all "ASALAAAAMALEIKUM" my eyes were looking at the windows to see if I was small enough to throw myself out should I need to evacuate. I also looked for things near me I could use as weapons, couldn't figure out how to unlock the back door (which had no handle), soooo I put my phone in one hand with Ida's name highlighted and finger positioned ready to hit the call button and my other hand on my pink breast cancer awareness pepper spray ready for action. Go ahead and laugh, I was being extra cautious my first time! Anyways almost 3/4s of the way to Jalanbereh, we picked up a woman and her daughter and I felt a lot safer. As I was hopping off the gele at my stop, the fare collector tapped me on the shoulder and told me he wanted me to find him a wife. Why? Because he liked me since I was nice to him and he wanted to remain friends. Of course that is how you remain friends, okay gele man.
I went to Ida's house for lunch and both her and Elizabeth were astounded by the time it took for me to return. Honestly, it was record time without any hitches. I think I'm the first one in my training group to take the public transportation by myself, I feel on top of the world. We reeled at the lack of training days we had left (which is not much) over lunch. Today, we had yassa, and it was delicious. I loooove the cook at my village and she's actually related to me on my mom's side! My immediate mother I learned my lesson not to eat so much today, so I'm patting myself on the back for that. Ida told me that when she returned to Jalanbereh this morning, a cohort of little kids from my family were on an adventure to deliver my breakfast. She told them I was in Soma and sent them back home. I guess the kids didn't tell my mom so the eldest mom and my own mom marched off to Ida's house absolutely beside themselves. They demanded to know where the hell their daughter was. Hahahaha I'm truly touched by their concern. They must've been like, "O HELL NO" status because not much will make my eldest mom AND my immediate mom hike over to Ida's. Ida laughed and said I was in Soma on the internet and they looked at her deadpanned and was like, "And you're here?" Ida said she trusted me and that I was a big girl, lol. So then they all laughed and chatted for a bit and told her they miss me every time I'm in Jenoi because I'm usually everywhere at night teaching the kids. That was very sweet :)
After lunch I went with Elizabeth to get soap and we both bought two watermelons for our families. When I returned, both of my aforementioned moms were sitting together while the kids zeroed in on me like magnets. They told me they went to Ida's house in the morning hahaha. I gave them the watermelons and they were so happy. I then told them I needed to wash clothes and they called out one of the younger women to do it. I didn't want to trouble her too much so I played dumb and said we could do it together. She, Jaaxa (who I also teach English to and we're pretty close), comes out with her baby's miniature shirts and I come out with my bucket load of kid-sized clothes.
Halfway through washing (which goes like this: bring clothes and soap out in a bucket. Acquire two additional big basins. Amble to the well and fetch two huge basins + one bucket full of water. Have someone fetch a stool for me while they haunch over... because that's how they were trained. Wash once in 1st basin with soap and suds, scrub, twist to get the water out, throw the article of clothing into the 2nd basin. 2nd basin - repeat, throw into 3rd bucket. 3rd bucket is final rinse. Empty dirty water from 1st and 2nd basin, empty 9/10s of the clean water in the bucket into one of the now emptied basins. Add a palm full of this blue/indigo powder into the remaining water in the bucket so that it turns vibrant indigo and they like to dunk shirts into this thing. I still haven't figured out what exactly what this powder is, other than the fact it turns my white shirts a light shade of blue. One final rinse, twist dry, hang it to dry, and you're done and exhausted!), I realize washing baby clothes with their half yard of fabric was a way better use of anyone's time so I tried focusing on that. Now, my laundry strategy will be to wash clothes with someone who is doing laundry for their infant, because I can do that for sure. I don't trust myself with my own clothes to get it clean.
After laundry, I turned over my compost and to my relief no animals were hiding in it. I also planted 3 more rows of okra. I went to fetch water at both the well and water pump and almost had an accident bringing the water home. It's always the last leg/setting the bucket down that kills me. Luckily, all the women noticed I was having issues and came to my aid. I swept, watered, refilled my water filter, I WAS ON A ROLL. I finally called Elizabeth around 5 to see if she'd like to go bike riding and she said yes.
It all started out innocently and fine. Elizabeth came out with a long skirt but of course she had to hike it higher when she was biking. Knees were shown, le gasp. I write this because it will be an important detail later. Here, in The Gambia where 99% pretty much is Muslim and women DON'T show their knees, that is not allowed. We biked for a bit with some complications - my bike seat is all up in my crotch with no ways of adjusting and I was fighting a perpetual losing battle to keep my helmet from falling off/strangling me. As for Elizabeth, her bike can't change gears and it's generally too tall for her. We reached our stopping point and turned around to bike back. Unfortunately, my helmet was just about to fall off my head so I yelled back to Elizabeth (who was behind me), "I gotta stop to fix my helmet!" I guess she didn't hear me and was only focusing on the road in front of her front wheel so she was looking down. Next thing I know, I hear "Oh God - AH!" and I look behind me just in time to see the =O face as Elizabeth, this 58 year old tall, South Carolina woman, careening into me. She took me down. I did an awkward fall on my side and dropped down while she also fell to her side. I felt like I was having an out of body experience watching the two of us on the ground in the middle of the road surrounded by the bush with NO ONE around us as far as the eye could see. We both had on the "holy shit did that just happen" face and spluttered, "holy shit did that just happen?" We checked ourselves for injuries and luckily we weren't hurt super bad, just some scrapes. I got a 2-3 inch scrape on the side of my right calf and a tiny scrape on my left elbow which is annoying for its size. Elizabeth, unfortunately, got it worst - her left knee was pretty scraped up, the top of her left foot had a small scrape, and a small, small wound on her elbow like me. We pat ourselves down and planned to quickly get back to Elizabeth's to patch ourselves up. WELL that would've worked if my bike chain didn't fall fall down and I don't know how to fix it. Elizabeth biked for a bit until she noticed I was behind her and rode back. We walked home together.
On the plus side, we noticed a lot more things but our wounds were stinging. They really aren't that bad but it was a bloody which made it look a lot worse than it actually was. I was just worried for Elizabeth. The whole ordeal was freakin' hilarious to me and it still us. Watching us crash into each other was pretty funny but I won't be laughing if this shit gets infected. We finally got home to Elizabeth's place and we made a bee line straight to her shower area to doctor ourselves up. We made a great time. I went to bleach the water while she got the medical kit. We washed our hands and went to work cleaning/cutting the dead skin off with nail clippers off each other. Both our elbows were fine but our legs took up the majority of the time. When we were pretty much done cleaning, Elizabeth took a bucket bath/peed next to me while I cleaned my feet and we bonded over the crash experience. Peace Corps style.
I'm convinced we scorned the knee Gods and paid for it dearly. Anyways we got each other's backs and dressed our wounds and after I limped back to my place. I had to explain to my family where my bike was and the whole crash but on the plus side I turned in early to write this epic of a story.
I woke up at 5 to the 5 AM morning calls which sounds like the microphone is placed on my roof blaring, some man singing and calling to prayer. I am not by any means exaggerating since I am right next door to the mosque. I did everything I needed to do to meet Ida on the road by 7:05 AM. We were off in a taxi with a flopping chicken in the back by 7:10 AM and luckily the chicken calmed down when we started moving... like lulling a baby to sleep. Anyways I tried speaking some basic Serehule to the driver but Ida had to clarify for me, as always. By 7:40 AM, we arrived in Soma and I was waiting for the internet store to open. I ate peanuts and stared at this gross half a pickle sized beetle (I later found out that this was a dung beetle) which looked more like a cockroach...for 20 minutes. Thrilling, I know, but it was just so nasty and gross, it was on its back and it looked super greasy and it was trying to wiggle its way somewhere...bleuuughhh. I spent another 15 minutes trying to read and pointing at any kid who toubab'd me and called them toubab which thoroughly confused them.
When the shop owner came (and I was expecting to wait a LOT longer), I went inside and looked at all the grasshoppers and cockroaches around the room. Splendid. It wasn't awful but still pretty bad. I thought I lucked out with waiting but I was very wrong. I spent the next hour waiting for internet because the servers were down or something in the entire area. Luckily I packed my book along with me. Sometime around 9:15 the internet was back and all was well. I logged on and the top 3 most popular websites on Google Chrome on the computer was titled "tranny sex" "hardcore porn" or something equally rated. Typical internet cafe is typical. I spent the next 3 hours typing furiously away to transcribe all my journal entries which I FINISHED like a boss (I felt so accomplished, not only did I type like woah, but every keyboard is sticky... it's the little obstacles, man), sent some quick emails/Facebook messages and called it a day by 12:30 PM.
Apparently I paid for 4 hours so I gave one of my Peace Corps friends the extra time - luckily he was there. Someone I knew from school just started her application to the PC and I'm so proud. Since I left, there has been two of my friends who reached out to me for more PC info and I'm so excited! While I was online, I briefly skimmed one of my PC colleague's blog and she's so much more eloquent than me. Meanwhile I'm all... "today I had sugar in my congee...dammit." They also have a lot of pretty pictures but my iTouch died and I'm waiting for a new charger :( Pictures are on the horizon, I promise. JUST KNOW that what you read in my blog is in my journal which is neither witty nor eloquent, just a vomit of raw words describing my day before I pass out.
Anyways, I walked out of the store when I was finished and some kids who I told my name to YESTERDAY remembered and waved at me! That was special. They don't even speak any languages I know! I took a shortcut to the bus stop and lo' and behold the bus was not there. My teacher Ida called me to see how I was and the minute I hung up with her, a gele gele/passing passenger van came by. I hailed it down and asked for the fare - 35. "Eff that," I said, "make it 20." Then they were all, "Ok ok 25." So then I boarded and found that I was the only foreigner and woman in this 15 passenger vehicle and there was a grand total of 4 other occupants ... all host country nationals and all men. It kind of raised my awareness of where I was at first. I talked to the guy at the back of the gele gele who is like the cash collector (we call him the Apparenti) and he spoke Mandinka. He knew no Serehule so I lied and said I've been in Jalanbereh for two years and blew his mind away with my Serehule greetings. I also threw in the 5 phrases I knew in Mandinka to get fancy. He liked to tap on my wrist while he talked, so although I was all smiling and all "ASALAAAAMALEIKUM" my eyes were looking at the windows to see if I was small enough to throw myself out should I need to evacuate. I also looked for things near me I could use as weapons, couldn't figure out how to unlock the back door (which had no handle), soooo I put my phone in one hand with Ida's name highlighted and finger positioned ready to hit the call button and my other hand on my pink breast cancer awareness pepper spray ready for action. Go ahead and laugh, I was being extra cautious my first time! Anyways almost 3/4s of the way to Jalanbereh, we picked up a woman and her daughter and I felt a lot safer. As I was hopping off the gele at my stop, the fare collector tapped me on the shoulder and told me he wanted me to find him a wife. Why? Because he liked me since I was nice to him and he wanted to remain friends. Of course that is how you remain friends, okay gele man.
I went to Ida's house for lunch and both her and Elizabeth were astounded by the time it took for me to return. Honestly, it was record time without any hitches. I think I'm the first one in my training group to take the public transportation by myself, I feel on top of the world. We reeled at the lack of training days we had left (which is not much) over lunch. Today, we had yassa, and it was delicious. I loooove the cook at my village and she's actually related to me on my mom's side! My immediate mother I learned my lesson not to eat so much today, so I'm patting myself on the back for that. Ida told me that when she returned to Jalanbereh this morning, a cohort of little kids from my family were on an adventure to deliver my breakfast. She told them I was in Soma and sent them back home. I guess the kids didn't tell my mom so the eldest mom and my own mom marched off to Ida's house absolutely beside themselves. They demanded to know where the hell their daughter was. Hahahaha I'm truly touched by their concern. They must've been like, "O HELL NO" status because not much will make my eldest mom AND my immediate mom hike over to Ida's. Ida laughed and said I was in Soma on the internet and they looked at her deadpanned and was like, "And you're here?" Ida said she trusted me and that I was a big girl, lol. So then they all laughed and chatted for a bit and told her they miss me every time I'm in Jenoi because I'm usually everywhere at night teaching the kids. That was very sweet :)
After lunch I went with Elizabeth to get soap and we both bought two watermelons for our families. When I returned, both of my aforementioned moms were sitting together while the kids zeroed in on me like magnets. They told me they went to Ida's house in the morning hahaha. I gave them the watermelons and they were so happy. I then told them I needed to wash clothes and they called out one of the younger women to do it. I didn't want to trouble her too much so I played dumb and said we could do it together. She, Jaaxa (who I also teach English to and we're pretty close), comes out with her baby's miniature shirts and I come out with my bucket load of kid-sized clothes.
Halfway through washing (which goes like this: bring clothes and soap out in a bucket. Acquire two additional big basins. Amble to the well and fetch two huge basins + one bucket full of water. Have someone fetch a stool for me while they haunch over... because that's how they were trained. Wash once in 1st basin with soap and suds, scrub, twist to get the water out, throw the article of clothing into the 2nd basin. 2nd basin - repeat, throw into 3rd bucket. 3rd bucket is final rinse. Empty dirty water from 1st and 2nd basin, empty 9/10s of the clean water in the bucket into one of the now emptied basins. Add a palm full of this blue/indigo powder into the remaining water in the bucket so that it turns vibrant indigo and they like to dunk shirts into this thing. I still haven't figured out what exactly what this powder is, other than the fact it turns my white shirts a light shade of blue. One final rinse, twist dry, hang it to dry, and you're done and exhausted!), I realize washing baby clothes with their half yard of fabric was a way better use of anyone's time so I tried focusing on that. Now, my laundry strategy will be to wash clothes with someone who is doing laundry for their infant, because I can do that for sure. I don't trust myself with my own clothes to get it clean.
After laundry, I turned over my compost and to my relief no animals were hiding in it. I also planted 3 more rows of okra. I went to fetch water at both the well and water pump and almost had an accident bringing the water home. It's always the last leg/setting the bucket down that kills me. Luckily, all the women noticed I was having issues and came to my aid. I swept, watered, refilled my water filter, I WAS ON A ROLL. I finally called Elizabeth around 5 to see if she'd like to go bike riding and she said yes.
It all started out innocently and fine. Elizabeth came out with a long skirt but of course she had to hike it higher when she was biking. Knees were shown, le gasp. I write this because it will be an important detail later. Here, in The Gambia where 99% pretty much is Muslim and women DON'T show their knees, that is not allowed. We biked for a bit with some complications - my bike seat is all up in my crotch with no ways of adjusting and I was fighting a perpetual losing battle to keep my helmet from falling off/strangling me. As for Elizabeth, her bike can't change gears and it's generally too tall for her. We reached our stopping point and turned around to bike back. Unfortunately, my helmet was just about to fall off my head so I yelled back to Elizabeth (who was behind me), "I gotta stop to fix my helmet!" I guess she didn't hear me and was only focusing on the road in front of her front wheel so she was looking down. Next thing I know, I hear "Oh God - AH!" and I look behind me just in time to see the =O face as Elizabeth, this 58 year old tall, South Carolina woman, careening into me. She took me down. I did an awkward fall on my side and dropped down while she also fell to her side. I felt like I was having an out of body experience watching the two of us on the ground in the middle of the road surrounded by the bush with NO ONE around us as far as the eye could see. We both had on the "holy shit did that just happen" face and spluttered, "holy shit did that just happen?" We checked ourselves for injuries and luckily we weren't hurt super bad, just some scrapes. I got a 2-3 inch scrape on the side of my right calf and a tiny scrape on my left elbow which is annoying for its size. Elizabeth, unfortunately, got it worst - her left knee was pretty scraped up, the top of her left foot had a small scrape, and a small, small wound on her elbow like me. We pat ourselves down and planned to quickly get back to Elizabeth's to patch ourselves up. WELL that would've worked if my bike chain didn't fall fall down and I don't know how to fix it. Elizabeth biked for a bit until she noticed I was behind her and rode back. We walked home together.
On the plus side, we noticed a lot more things but our wounds were stinging. They really aren't that bad but it was a bloody which made it look a lot worse than it actually was. I was just worried for Elizabeth. The whole ordeal was freakin' hilarious to me and it still us. Watching us crash into each other was pretty funny but I won't be laughing if this shit gets infected. We finally got home to Elizabeth's place and we made a bee line straight to her shower area to doctor ourselves up. We made a great time. I went to bleach the water while she got the medical kit. We washed our hands and went to work cleaning/cutting the dead skin off with nail clippers off each other. Both our elbows were fine but our legs took up the majority of the time. When we were pretty much done cleaning, Elizabeth took a bucket bath/peed next to me while I cleaned my feet and we bonded over the crash experience. Peace Corps style.
I'm convinced we scorned the knee Gods and paid for it dearly. Anyways we got each other's backs and dressed our wounds and after I limped back to my place. I had to explain to my family where my bike was and the whole crash but on the plus side I turned in early to write this epic of a story.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Journal Post 11/9
Today's highlight: we were tasked to go to Soma (the big town around here) and to the ferry where people cross the river and into the North bank. I started off the morning with chores and went to fetch water. I saw Hule again, the 28 year old educated Mandinka woman in town for agriculture who is staying with Rohi, the Alkaloo's daughter. There's a project in place but it hasn't officially started yet because the fields aren't cleared. Damn I wish she was my counterpart. She's so nice and has a wonderful smile always on her face. Her voice is very calming. She hopes to get a sponsor to go to college soon in The Gambia and I know what I'll be wishing for every time I see a shooting star. She is expecting her 2nd child soon (which is significant in itself, she's 28 with 1 child and expecting a second while some 20 year olds already have 3 kids) and hopes that I'll have twins in the future. OK Hule, keep on dreaming.
Ida, Elizabeth, and I caught a gele to Soma for 20 Dalasi a piec, saw a white woman on there with a man and his two daughters who were sitting next to me, I exchanged the 5 Mandinka greetings I know but they knew English. At least the woman and the man did. The girls were so cute and friendly. It's always a bit of a shock to see a westerner. Anyways, we got off at Soma, dropped off our phones at the bank to charge, and took a 7-person-car (fits 7, 8 including the driver) to the ferry crossing. I can't even sum up in words the experience. Basically I felt like I was going to die from the extreme bumpiness of the nonexistant roads (thank God I didn't feel nauseous otherwise people were not going to be happy), dust storm, and the cramped conditions being squeezed in the back of a car with NO leg space- and I'm a short person! The car definitely looked like it could break down at any minute and sometimes, on the plus side, it felt like I was on a cool roller coaster ride at Universal Studios. We made it to the ferry crossing after passing the endless queue of cargo trucks and cars waiting to cross the river. It's only 1 (or 2?) ferry for EVERYONE who wants to get back and forth. Apparently stuff at this place was expensive because a lot of Senegalese business people inflate the prices with their currency (which is worth more). Farafenneh is a busy town on the other side oef the ferry known for its shopping. I'm not sure how long you wait on average but Ida told me it could be 3-4 days for some people!
We taxi'd (4 people, 5 including driver) back to Soma after that and saw a long waiting line at the internet cafe. I don't like waiting so I went to explore/sit elsewhere. I met another volunteer named Jess along the way and we sat next to the bank where my phone was charging. I talked to another LCF called Kounta (he's like an Ida/a teacher to another group of volunteers) and we shared my bag of boiled peanuts. After they left, a little boy kept on trying to get my attention and said he loved me. I went to meet up with Ida after and we sat in the bank with AC... which was heaven. She knew one of the bank workers which was our in. That's very smart...making friends with a banker. After our phones finished charging, we went back to get a bus for Jalanbereh. I can't even count how many times I was called "toubab" or "Chinese" today. It's just a descriptor, but the frequency is taxing on my patience.
There were NO geles our way because everything was in the Banjul area since the Nigerian president was visiting. Nigeria's media/entertainment/movie industry is big in Gambia. After waiting forever (which is the story of traveling anywhere in The Gambia), a bus finally came and we were off. BUT FIRST, after we boarded the bus, we had to wait 20 minutes for everyone to get off, get food/use the bathroom, and another 20 minutes for everyone to get on and get their tickets checked or pay. I did, however, work on my Serehule by conversing with some women on the bus and that was exciting. I was starving by the time we got back and gorged myself with lunch. It was delicious but I'll never do it again. We also bought a watermelon which explains my increased eating. IT WAS ALL SO GOOD but the consequences were dire. I had a food baby and hated myself afterwards. I spent the afternoon uncomfortable full, brainstormed what I wanted at my permanent site, and scrolled through pictures of Ida's family!
After all that, I went home to ride my bike. I rode my farthest today and came back just in time to receive a call from my mom. I had dinner, watered the plants, sat out to teach English/math/study Serehule. I told my family in Serehule that I was going to Kulari next month and they said they would miss me :( I will miss them too, but it won't be until three months that I can see them again. The first three months of permanent site is called the three month challenge where we must stay in that area. Grawr. It's a challenge but it's telling that a volunteer can survive their service. I'll be waking up early tomorrow to go to Soma again for the internet. Hopefully I'll go early and come back early! I'm starting to get the hang of life.
Ida, Elizabeth, and I caught a gele to Soma for 20 Dalasi a piec, saw a white woman on there with a man and his two daughters who were sitting next to me, I exchanged the 5 Mandinka greetings I know but they knew English. At least the woman and the man did. The girls were so cute and friendly. It's always a bit of a shock to see a westerner. Anyways, we got off at Soma, dropped off our phones at the bank to charge, and took a 7-person-car (fits 7, 8 including the driver) to the ferry crossing. I can't even sum up in words the experience. Basically I felt like I was going to die from the extreme bumpiness of the nonexistant roads (thank God I didn't feel nauseous otherwise people were not going to be happy), dust storm, and the cramped conditions being squeezed in the back of a car with NO leg space- and I'm a short person! The car definitely looked like it could break down at any minute and sometimes, on the plus side, it felt like I was on a cool roller coaster ride at Universal Studios. We made it to the ferry crossing after passing the endless queue of cargo trucks and cars waiting to cross the river. It's only 1 (or 2?) ferry for EVERYONE who wants to get back and forth. Apparently stuff at this place was expensive because a lot of Senegalese business people inflate the prices with their currency (which is worth more). Farafenneh is a busy town on the other side oef the ferry known for its shopping. I'm not sure how long you wait on average but Ida told me it could be 3-4 days for some people!
We taxi'd (4 people, 5 including driver) back to Soma after that and saw a long waiting line at the internet cafe. I don't like waiting so I went to explore/sit elsewhere. I met another volunteer named Jess along the way and we sat next to the bank where my phone was charging. I talked to another LCF called Kounta (he's like an Ida/a teacher to another group of volunteers) and we shared my bag of boiled peanuts. After they left, a little boy kept on trying to get my attention and said he loved me. I went to meet up with Ida after and we sat in the bank with AC... which was heaven. She knew one of the bank workers which was our in. That's very smart...making friends with a banker. After our phones finished charging, we went back to get a bus for Jalanbereh. I can't even count how many times I was called "toubab" or "Chinese" today. It's just a descriptor, but the frequency is taxing on my patience.
There were NO geles our way because everything was in the Banjul area since the Nigerian president was visiting. Nigeria's media/entertainment/movie industry is big in Gambia. After waiting forever (which is the story of traveling anywhere in The Gambia), a bus finally came and we were off. BUT FIRST, after we boarded the bus, we had to wait 20 minutes for everyone to get off, get food/use the bathroom, and another 20 minutes for everyone to get on and get their tickets checked or pay. I did, however, work on my Serehule by conversing with some women on the bus and that was exciting. I was starving by the time we got back and gorged myself with lunch. It was delicious but I'll never do it again. We also bought a watermelon which explains my increased eating. IT WAS ALL SO GOOD but the consequences were dire. I had a food baby and hated myself afterwards. I spent the afternoon uncomfortable full, brainstormed what I wanted at my permanent site, and scrolled through pictures of Ida's family!
After all that, I went home to ride my bike. I rode my farthest today and came back just in time to receive a call from my mom. I had dinner, watered the plants, sat out to teach English/math/study Serehule. I told my family in Serehule that I was going to Kulari next month and they said they would miss me :( I will miss them too, but it won't be until three months that I can see them again. The first three months of permanent site is called the three month challenge where we must stay in that area. Grawr. It's a challenge but it's telling that a volunteer can survive their service. I'll be waking up early tomorrow to go to Soma again for the internet. Hopefully I'll go early and come back early! I'm starting to get the hang of life.
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