Journal Post 12/21

Welp, today marks my first time in the bush! I woke up tired as hell, cold, and dying to pee so that is always an alarm clock that I can’t ignore. I left one of my bags unzipped and freaked out because I thought mad bugs would’ve crawled into it during the night… nope, thank God. Got ready, went out to study for a bit to wait for everyone else to get ready, my host brother gave me half a bean sammich, score. A bit later, my grandma told me to wear socks and change into pants… she cares! It was so cute. I did and we went into the bush. It was me, my host brother’s wife (who’s the same height as me… rare), and my oldest sister. We greeted some people along the way and some guy… my younger uncle I think, and he complimented me on my Serehule for only being here for 2 months. Score. It was far away and windy as hell but I was able to make small conversation with the ladies. 

We got there and my younger brothers were already there working. By working I mean all the younger kids are on the ground picking up peanuts while my older brother who’s in his mid-late teens are packing all the peanuts up and waving them in the wind to get rid of the sand. They basically told me to pick up all the rest of the peanuts on the ground and that’s what I did! All these peanuts will later be shelled, pounded, and made into food. The older of the brothers kept on saying “hey” to get my attention and I told him my name was Mariama so he started calling me that, haha. I hate when people call me “hey.” JUST SAY MY NAME. I really like my sisters because they understand me and are silly/joke with me. I saw this really crazy gross squirmy centipede that was lime green with yellow legs and gross small dung beetles. My shoulder hurts fiercely and I can’t believe these women and kids do this all day for a couple of months. The boys are very sweet and tucked a metal bowl (flipped over) like a makeshift chair under my butt while I was squatting, haha, so cute. I’m still learning everyone’s names… pretty hard. 3 hours of squatting later, my shoulders officially kill but my mom comes by and feeds me a piece of a bean sandwich again and my sister gives me a piece of her panketos! This one was interesting and had some stuff in it and was salty. Good nonetheless. OK so then we came back, my family was so happy that I went into the bush, I fetched water and did some laundry. Lunch comes and it's... PUMPKIN AND FRIED FISHBALLS. Hell yes, Jesus I was fed good today. If this is what I get for going into the bush then they're doing a good job bribing me. 

After lunch, I went out to study, barely stayed awake, fetched well water again (bad tap system here...), exercised (feeling damn proud and damn sore), studied, and dinnered. I sat out for a good 40 minutes before retiring. Although I'm studying, all I'm doing is recopying notes to try and learn Serehule again! I'm trying to learn 5-10 new phrases a day but I'm really trying to look for a female teacher to take me under her wing. Tomorrow, HM, my community representative, is going to visit me so hopefully he can help me find a place to put credit on my phone, map out the way to the gele gele garage park, bring me to the Alkaloo to formally say hello, and find me a woman teacher. It's a lot but it'd help me tremendously. Oh, and go to a carpenter. It would make my life if I could get a table with wheels so it could make cleaning a hell of a lot easier. 

It's weird that across the sea, my friends and family are engulfed in the commercial Christmas spirit. I was so happy receiving a package but the gift giving hype really eluded me. I can't even put myself in those shoes anymore. I'm happy if I get through the day not sick, people understand me, I don't poop my pants, I finish my agenda, if no one dies, if my food is good, and I don't get weird bug bites. I feel like I'm appreciating the small things so much more and it's a great big lesson I'm thankful to be learning. The smallest things give me the greatest joy and they're usually not bought. Anyways, I'm going to give it until Monday/Tuesday to officially compound hop... I need to get my name out more, dammit, but I need to know what to say when I'm sitting there!

Journal Post 12/20

So. Today. I feel like I should feel more accomplished than I actually feel because I accomplished everything I wrote down on my agenda! First, I got ready and somewhere inbetween getting ready, Tyler and I thought it'd be a great idea to put all of Motley Crew into World of Warcraft race/class categories and give them special abilities/weaknesses/ and traits on a talent chart. We just RPG'd Peace Corps The Gambia, yes I understand how nerdy we are. I went out with my moms and grandma to the other Touray compounds and discovered that we have a lot of people in our clan. I also discovered that some people are pretty rich as in... tiled floors, fans, electricity, and refrigerators, WHAT? My moms left for work but my grandmother and I continued. I didn't get such a great map like I intended to because there's SO many people to greet! Slowly, slowly I guess. I'm thinking there's 3 phases: sensitization (getting my name out ther), making a map, asking questions for my baseline. I looked at my 3-month challenge agenda and pretty much balked. Guess I have to get started like five days ago. I came back, did some chores, ate lunch, went out to study for 2.5 hours, my community representative swung by to say hi, went inside to sweet and exercise, showered, dinnered, sat outside for a hot second before coming inside. I guess I'm going into the bush for tomorrow morning. My grandma told me to wear socks, haha. My brother has some friends over and they keep on trying to correct my Serehule and I'm like I knowwww I'm on it dude, slowly, slowly! I'm really trying to reclaim language because I swear I lost all that ability in Kombo and I'm really conscious of it. I basically speak in Serehule 99% of the day minus talking on the phone and all the men who want to talk to me in English but I respond in Serehule. I'm trying to learn 10 new words a day but it's really hard when my workbook isn't always right. I need to go out more in the morning, have the afternoon to myself, go back out again, come back inside, and go back out after dinner. I just have to find the perfect rhythm. Maybe I'll shoot for 9-1 greet people or 8-12 depending on my wake up time, lunch and some chores, 2-4 study outside, 4-5:30 exercise/shower, 5:30-6:30 chat outside, 6:30-8:30 free time/dinner, 8:30-9:30 outside? Tentative but it just might work!

Journal Post 12/19

Today was interesting. Woke up and just about ready when... I get a call from Sheriff the Driver who told me I had some packages they were delivering for me!!! HOOORAAYY!!! I just finished my breakfast (which I swear doesn't taste at all good unless I add 5 tablespoons of sugar) when they arrived. I got a letter from Mike and a package from Melanie. I've never been more excited in my life and I felt like a kid again awaiting my presents. Modou the Driver/past awesome carpenter was with Sheriff and actually was the first one to greet me at my door in English so I thought it was some random guy trying to lure me into an English conversation but clearly that wasn't the case. He was such a sweet heart and helped me clean up my roof which meant sticking a broom all up in my thatched wood above me and sweeping away anything that looks like it's going to collapse on me. Which also meant everything that fell down - which there was a lot of - coated all of my stuff. Modou, again being an angel, proceeded to SWEEP everything for me but I knew... the fire has been ignited. It was henceforth renamed "Ultimate Cleaning Day" and thank god my mom sent me those Clorox wipes because they were my SAVIORS. There was an unfathomable amount of dust on top of my bed and it was nasty.
I made covers for my chests using fabric I bought and scraps of that fabric for covering the chest handles so I don't break my fingers lifting them ever again. I ate lunch, finally washed my clothes which involved my grandma taking pity on me, doing most of it and my younger 20 year old sister (who already has a 2 year old baby) helping me hang it dry. I'm definitely going to pay them to do my laundry...

Anywho, I got to wash the rest of the mold off my stuff, unopened my package/read my letter/laughed alone in my hut, swept like 8 times, finished organizing my stuff, EXERCISED and hot damn I'm so out of shape, took all my clothes down and folded them, washed my feet (which feels like a true victory when you can see the bottom of it), showered, and in all honesty I checked off everything I put on my to-do list. It took me 3.5 days but I'm finally what I called "settled" (or as settled as I can get without furniture). I still need to talk to the carpenter to make me two small roll-y tables and one bigger table with wheels... but I was able to ask the prices for some items from my family and that's a mission for next week when I have money. Right now, I still am operating under less than 50D (which is little bit more than a dollar) and only have enough money to get to Basse, the regional "large town" with shops, internet cafes, and the bank. It takes 35 D to get there... let's hope for the best.
I drafted up another plan for tomorrow, dinnered, and went outside. After sitting a little and telling my moms that I was ready for tomorrow, they decided to take me on a late night adventure to the mosque for what seems like story telling time. A number of people were sitting outside/inside just listening to the loud speaker. They were translating the Koran into Serehule and reading it in Arabic. Good thing I had a lot on my mind because I sat there for 1.5 hours not understanding anything! My butt hurt. We finally arrived back but it was good exercise for tomorrow when I go into town with my grandma. I have one mom who can understand me best, then the older mom who I like a lot too, she can understand me somewhat and is definitely the more fierce of the two women. My grandma is such a nice figure who takes me under her wing. I expressed that I had no idea what I was saying but I just liked sitting with them and I also got to meet other women. Definitely in my element. A group of boys started shouting "toubab" and "Chinese" at me but I told them not to do that and to call me Mariama which I hope they understand but honestly they were just kind of annoying. I'll warm up to them slowly. I also had an awkward encounter with a guy who kept on calling me after site visit and I just ignored him because I just didn't appreciate calls at random times in the day! I told my moms that I didn't like giving out my number to men and I think they understood. I told them I wanted to make more lady friends so the folks of Kulari don't think I'm a hussy. It's such a relief that they understand. I have to juggle how I'm presented - but like I said, tomorrow really begins *my* three month challenge - getting Kulari to know me like in Jalanbereh, I plan on starting a map to the pump first, sitting in at least 5 compounds a day for 20-30 minutes, and walking around freestyle greeting people. 3000 people in Kulari (so says my paper PC gave me)... great. I'm starting my regular routine tomorrow which will consist of a mix of getting ready, greeting people/sitting in compounds, fetching water, snack, reading/studying outside, lunching inside, free time to do whatever, snack, exercise, shower, snack, free time, dinner, and sit outside with family. Every time I eat I've been getting a stomach ache and I feel like it's because my stomach's still adjusting. I think I've been eating a lot lately - including coos - and I can't gauge whether it's Aunt Flo that's changing me or my taste buds are really adjusting. Either way, working out needs to happen. I have a couple of things I need to do for my house otherwise I'm ready to make some friends and hopefully find a female English/Serehule teacher! Eeek.

 

Journal Entry 12/18

Well shit its been a full week since I last wrote! Terribly sorry but Banjul, swear in, shopping, and settling in was exhausting! Let me do a brief run through of what happened…

Woke up early, left Jalanbereh, it was a long, long trip back to Kombo/Banjul and I slept through most of it but we finally made it!

Dropped stuff off in the transit house, had a couple of sessions, went back to dinner, went out to some bars, redeemed myself from my last (weak) encounter with the native beer called Julbrew, went to the beach at night, and got rocked by the waves… scars to show.

We got our final evaluations! I scored an advanced low on language and got really sweet reviews by my Program Manager/PCVL/Program Assistant. My Program Manager congratulated me on the work well done, my PCVL said I should relax because I put a lot of pressure on myself (truth) and my Program Assistant said I was really easy to work with, yay.

I received my packaged from my mom!!! YAY So useful it was like opening the Christmas present I’ve been dying for.

Got flu shots, important later

Ended sessions forever for PST, we all rushed home to either Internet or beach. I went to the beach and braved the waves + played Frisbee in the ocean – hard shit being a PCV.

THURSDAY, woke up mad early again because my room was frigid. This counts as day two of early self wake up, wtf. Today was a 4:30 AM wake up call, damn you body.

Swear in ceremony was incredible – Motley Crew (our official group name) looked fabulous and even the PCVs who attended were saying we all looked smokin in our asoebes (AH-SO-BEES; outfits with matching fabric)! Everyone had their own style and the fabric was great. I loved wearing my dress – it came out so good! I took made selfies with everyone and had a permanent smile on my face. I sat through some long speeches but I was busy rewriting my portion of the speech anyways so I didn’t mess up. Finally, Dani (the one who read Mandinka), Becca (who read Pulaar), Malcolm (who read everything in English), and I approached the stadium for our turn at speeching. It was super fun and everyone laughed at me especially when it was my turn (I read very animatedly) because legit only two people in the audience understands Serehule and I’m this random Chinese girl talking it. Whatever it takes to make people laugh! PS I was televised on national TV… no big deal.

We all sang the Peace Corps song but we were HORRIBLE because everyone forgot the lyrics and I couldn’t help but laugh throughout it. We sounded like dying cows. I was also in the front and was bursting out laughing, oops.

Took the oath and became an official PCV!!

I ate, got rushed back to the transit house to change, and was herded into an important sudden meeting.

Went to meeting and all the PCVs already in country were sitting there! They were waiting in the room and the Country Diretor basically told us that in the first time in forever, literally unprecedented, all the oppositional political parties were peacefully demonstrating in/around Kombo. This is significant because usually they’re very divided groups. Now, they chose to come together. This meant that all travel out of Kombo was illegal for PCVs so no one could exit until at least Sunday. This meant that all the new swear ins (Motley Crew) only had a day and a half of shopping, yay. Right after the meeting, more like 45 minutes after the meeting, we all had to embark on our crazy ass shopping adventure that is 18 people going to shop together for their houses.

BUT FIRST We had to go to the bank and wait forever because a handful of us (me including) sent our checks up country and waited at least one hour to get money withdrawn the hard way and held everyone up. It’s 3:30 PM now and they are still gung ho about us getting our beds and other larger things (stoves, gas tanks, etc) for our house. WOMP.

We went to the mattress store AKA big bounce house to purchase our beds. It was very fun and such a tease because I was so tired and just wanted to sleep!

Went to buy gas tanks, burners, and other miscellaneous items which meant a LOT of waiting because, like I said, we were 18 people all shopping at once. People were going all over the place and we had to wait for them to come back to place their order/pay their money, bah. I did do some bargaining in Serehule, however, and that was exciting.

Went back to the transit house, exhausted, changed into schmancy clothes and went to our party! Our own party which we were late for since everyone was already there! It was so weird seeing Motley Crew in things other than village attire and we all looked so hot.

I had so much fun. I ate curry for the first time in ages, DJ’d and I think people enjoyed my choices. I think. I like to think that, just let me dream. I danced my BUTT off. Laughed at people, got laughed at by people. Let’s just say there was a kissing booth involved. I hollered to some songs. I ALMOST lost my wallet but didn’t, thank God! I tested out the water at the beach because a lot of people went skinny dipping but it was freezing and I went straight on board the Nope Train back to the transit house. I slept like a BABY.

Woke up the next day (Friday) and felt like I got round house kicked in the body. Like, something giant steam rolled over me. I shook it off, was fed some left over breakfast, and out the door with Tyler Bear to shop.

We got ripped off at some ritzy place, and begged to return our items. Somehow my charm worked thank God! I bought a bunch of stuff and food and hauled it back home AKA small boy’d Tyler into carrying a huge bag but still broke my own back with all the cans I friggin purchased.

Went to the beach.

Went back to buy some more stuff, officially ran out of money.

Attended the Open Mic Night and had lots of fun. I attempted to play the violin but that shit’s really hard. Maybe next time.

Returned to the transit house to study for a little – YEUP, all while buzzed, and I journaled in Serehule. I Skyped back home and fell asleep soundly.

I awoke to a phone call. Still slept great, though! A PCV named Sebastian who by the way can dance like none other, anyways he was willing to take the newbies out shopping. I mobilized myself, sent out some texts, and a rag tag team was of to Serekunda Market – one of the biggest if not the biggest in Gambia.

I had to borrow money but I bought pretty much everything and bargained in Serehule yet again from many stores. All thanks to Sebastian! It was pretty chill yet tiring but I definitely wasn’t bored at looking everything.

Went back and discovered that seven of my Motley Crew comrades were down from sickness! I think it’s from the flu shot we got earlier in the week. I took care of the two in my room since I was reminded of how nice it was for Elizabeth to look after me when I was sick. I also got a hair cut.

Meandered over to the bonfire to chill with PCVs, went back to the transit house and packed for MONDAY!

Successfully went to the beach every day I was in Kombo! I woke up relatively late but that’s okay since I had all my stuff in chests and ready to go. Watching the staff tetris pack the cars was something else – they’re so efficient! All the luggage easily was twice the height of the car.

Drove 5/6 hours up country – it was not as packed inside as I had thought but I was tired as hell and Dillon being the saint that he was just grabs my head and puts it on his shoulder even though I’m pretty sure I already dozed off on him, oops. Bless his soul.

Arrived in Kulari first, threw everything in my hut, waved goodbye to my friends, and waved hello to my new family. Right now I really like them and I really hope they like me too! I also hope it stays like this for the next two years.

Opened my trunks/luggage to discover that the two stools I purchased in Jalanbereh COMPLETELY molded over and that was pretty nasty. It got on some of my other stuff but luckily my mom sent over cleaning/chlorox wipes so that was fun.

I never have good luck with this – either my oatmeal spills or I get mold all up in my shit.

Ate dinner. Went out to chat. Somehow miraculously negotiated/told my rent to my family and expressed my gratitude for them. I translated a study consent for them which I hope they understood. I had to write it all out first, hah. I think they’re catching onto my quirks. I tried unfiltered juice and didn’t diarrhea – sweet success.

TUESDAY/ Day 1 of official unpacking: my shit was everywhere it was a disaster. Mostly organized everything into my trunks, sun dried my moldy chairs, and had a lot of shit to organize.

WEDNESDAY/Day 2 of unpacking: Much better today. Got my curtains, bed and bed net up – which means a lot for those of you who know how irrationally afraid I am of spiders and bugs, and I braved through touching the cob-webby roof to tie my bed net up. I rearranged it like 5 times, too, but it’s finally perfect! Re organized my trunks, washed my buckets with solution to be extra clean, and went on an adventure and a half to find safe pump water because there was no sun today and the boar hole is solar powered…great. And the pump that’s closest to me is broken. Extra great.

Tired as hell, falling asleep now!

 

Journal Entry 12/9

After I went to sleep last night, I get a phone call from home. Of course. I was so tired that I had to decline and tell them to call back the next day. I have no idea why but as dead tired as I was, I still woke up at 4 AM and couldn’t fall back to sleep! It definitely must be the stress. I created my own monster by trying so hard at get good at language. I studied for a bit before getting up and getting ready. I still had to finish the forms for Peace Corps and felt like I had a million things to do but finally focused on solely studying. My brother’s wife came to give me hand me downs which … didn’t fit me at all because I am the size of an average Gambian pre-pubescent girl. I’ll have to take that to the tailor’s later. Ida comes along at 10 AM and we have our exam – I think I did okay but no jinxing it! I’ll find out the results in the next two days. I finished the oral test, watered the plants, and took my clothes out to wash. Jaara, one of the younger women/jokemates, was there to help me and we chatted a bit. I found out she was leaving to go get married elsewhere/move in with her husband. And here I was thinking she was the wife to my brother all along…fail. So as we’re hanging everything up, the clothing line falls and almost all of my clean clothes fall into the sand, gr. We had to re-rinse and put them all up again. Jaara just hands me her baby and does everything in like, 10 minutes. Now this is a special moment because I’m no baby person and holding up a little wiggling and squishy life in my hands both terrifies me and makes me happy. I still think I suck at it and fear it’ll barf on me but she was good and easy. She just liked me to be standing up and moving around. I was still awkward holding her but I’m sure I’ll be good with them in due time. I knew there was another reason for me coming here, for me to overcome my fear of babies. After she was done, she went inside and took out a baby walker equipped with songs and all and sat her baby down in it. What??? I didn’t know we could afford these things. I went inside to grab all the Peace Corps forms, brought it back outside and sat while she knitted and it was a pleasantly cool day. It was sunny but we were in the shade and there was a transient breeze. It was really quiet and calm with a couple of kids surrounding us because most of everyone was out in the field. This time of year is especially for doing bush work so everyone’s always busy from 7/8 in the morning until 6 PM at night! I went over to Ida’s to lunch, completed all my paperwork and homework, translated the speech in Serehule, and life was good. All I have to do tomorrow is go to Soma to Internet and transcribe and buy a parting present to my family, return my watering can, make a mobile of cranes for Rohi/Alkaloo’s daughter, finish putting together my kusudama/origami flower for my family, lunch, and finish everyone’s present! After that, I can think clearly about my wish list for my new house ,fantasize about Frisbee on the beach, and finally get a good night’s rest!

Journal Entry 12/8

Yesterday was the big marathon march! Good thing I woke up at 2:30 AM. I was awake and couldn’t go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried. I did some origami, wrote in my journal, and got all mentally ready to get up and get ready at 5:30 AM since, you know, Seth my PCVL told me to be ready by 6-6:30 AM. Good thing Peter the Driver pulls up to my compound at the same time that my alarm rang. I yelled out to him to give me 15 minutes and indeed I rolled my naked ass out of bed and was out at the van by 5:45 AM. My phone died and I didn’t get any calls, womp. Fortunately or unfortunately Alicia and I were the first to be picked up so that I had the entire back row to myself so I got to lie down while we picked up the rest of the crew. One of the LCFs/language teachers, Gibril, shows up shirtless out of no where on one of our stops to pick up the trainees, chucks an empty bidong (empty half gallon oil containers used to fill up with water) in the bus, greets “hey hey hey” and leaves, lmao. We finally stop in Jenoi where we had a short breakfast of bread, banana, jam, and eggs in addition to meeting our trek leaders! Laura, the sole pioneering lady, told me she actually knew where Guangzhou (my hometown) was and have been there! We bounded over our love for dim sum and how badass she was traveling by herself down Southeast Asia. I also met Dan, who I call Boring Math Dan, Jeff, and Josh, my Serehule site mate who lives across the river from me and is also a Serehule speaker! He’s an Education Volunteer who’s pretty far into his service. We started marching at around 8-9 AM. The trail was hard as hell but also beautiful and pleasantly relaxing. It was around 12-13 miles I think (not an actual marathon) and overall super fun. I forgot my hat stupidly in the rush to get out this morning but luckily Lizzie, my first roomie back in Philadelphia, didn’t want to wear hers so it all worked out. All of the stopping points (to rest) had great names – Treeception, Dead Man’s Bridge, Living Man’s Tree (I think), Mordor, etc. It truly felt like I was in Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit walking through grass way taller than me, walking on grass that was thatched thickly over mud beds, and just mud/swampy areas where I was certain I would sink and sprain my ankle but DIDN’T sweet success, walked by natural water springs, dry racked earth, stalks of something, thorns, sticks, past massive mahogany and other magnificent types of trees that were so grand, everything was great. I mean does my feet feel like it can fall off about now? Absolutely. But the conversations we had throughout the day and exercise was priceless. We were all so broken by the time we got to the finishing line and everyone was out of water – good timing, too. We took a group picture on the see saw and got on the bus. We also had these DELICIOUS sugar covered doughnut balls that I’ve never had before, more like 5 of time. We went back to Jenoi where most of us took a shower, I missed the memo to pack of course so I had to borrow stuff from people. I put on my gross sweaty clothes again, bleh. After everyone had a nice shower we all went into a classroom and had beers, lmao. Alicia saw me studying and she had none of that so she bought me a bottle, haha. Legit 1 sip of nasty palm or cashew liquor, and ¼ bottle of beer later, I felt the drunk end of buzzed – wtf. I skipped dinner because it was just goat and potatoes and they served it at like 4:30 PM. Bad idea. I walked back to the drinking chambers and tried to identify all of the states on BoringMathDan’s shirt and failed miserably but I choose to blame it on the alcohol. We sat and talked in a cricle before going home. I had like 4 spoonfuls of coos for dinner before passing the eff out at 9 PM.

…Only to wake back up at 2 AM. What. The. Fuck. Maybe it could be that I’m subconsciously really exhausted, or maybe I’m secretly super anxious about all the shit I have to do before Wednesday morning, or maybe both. BUT I laid in bed for what seemed like ages and worked on my present for my family. When I got up, though, I awoke to a hectic ass morning. First, I brushed up and got ready, packed a little because I thought Peace Corps was arriving at 10:30 AM to pick everything up to transfer to site. I tried to call Elizabeth to warn her about it but her phone was off so I had to haul ass all the way over to her place. Rawr. I then trekked to Ida’s house just to find out that the pick up time was changed to 12 PM, retrieved my two wooden stools I ordered from a woman who locally makes them, double fisted both of them to a bitik/shop to buy locks for my luggage, talked all along the way, and finally made it back to my place. Elizabeth finally had her phone on so I didn’t need to go back to her house again to deliver the news of the change in plans. Thank God because it was getting hot as hell. I finished up packing after explaining I was taking my two stools to Kulari for the 1000^th time (I thought news traveled quickly here dammit). I started dragging my first luggage to the road to meet up with Elizabeth next and had to roll it on the dunes of sand in front of my friggin compound. That was a huge struggling moment… The kids tried to help me and one of them got on his hands and knees to push. It was adorable. I told him thank you and that it was quite alright. Of course the school dismissed their students for an afternoon break and Elizabeth and I were swarmed by a crowd of kids. They all just encircled and it was pretty annoying. It was also hot and the kids would not listen to us at all when we told them to go away. Elizabeth went back with one of her sisters to carry the rest of her stuff out while I watched our luggage. Again, the kids were not leaving and just standing around and staring at us despite multiple attempts to get them to leave. When Elizabeth finally came back, I saw her sister carrying a TRUNK on her head with Elizabeth screaming obscenities about how useless men are and how women rule Africa/the world haha. It was quite the site. She paid her sister some money and she goes to help me with my trunk. Christ, these women are strong. If it’s anything watching Dragon Ball Z taught me, it’s that men take 10 episodes to accomplish one damn thing. We headed back to the side of the road with my heavy trunk on top of her head while I (and her 7 year old daughter) tugs my big hockey bag full of food along. The 7 year old is just too adorable and she frequently delivers Elizabeth her breakfast in the mornings. She’s also a Mariama! As you can tell, Elizabeth loves her. Well, at that point, we assembled almost all of our things and were waiting on the road. 12 PM comes along by, still waiting and still encased by a ring of kids. I swear it felt like the entire population of under 8 year olds were surrounding us. They kept on imitating us when we told them to leave. Talk about annoying. I took the advice of one of my PCVLs, grabbed Elizabeth’s shovel, smashed it on the ground three times and pointed at them. Most dispersed but most also came back, fail. So, I took a rock and threw it at the ground by their feet. OF COURSE a kid runs into my projectile and it hits him in the butt. He left, but some more remained, grrr. The Alkaloo’s daughter rolls on by and drove some of them away and I was forever grateful. 1:30 PM comes by and FINALLY the Peace Corps truck comes. Elizabeth and I are starving at this point but luckily we had each other’s company and I was telling her all about Marathon March. We had to go back to retrieve our bikes and drop it off to get transported to site. It would’ve been lovely if that was communicated to us earlier… My stomach was almost as loud as a steamroller but we trudged, trudged, trudged to Ida’s where… SHE COOKED SPAGHETTI FOR US WITH THE MOST SCRUMPTIOUS SAUCE AND A TON OF VEGGIES IN IT. We all unloaded on her what happened to us and it turns out Alicia’s family was super upset she was leaving. Mine’s pretty bummed but clearly they don’t want to see me go but no one has cried over it. Alicia has the youngest family of us all so she thinks they just haven’t handled this type of stuff, IDK. Anywho, we stayed at Ida’s for awhile before heading back because Jalanbereh was just in a funk. I thought I’d have more time to work on my gift for everyone but it turned out Peace Corps had other plans for me and Ida handed me a crap ton of papers to fill out. I did that, studied, wrote up some math assignments, and had no time to study L It was a pretty quick day. I was still so tired from Marathon March and waking up early BUT I did go to Elizabeth’s to clean my feet so that I can finally see the bottom of them! All the mud from the other day was caked on, ew. It took a good 45 minutes for them to look clean again – that’s how dirty they were. I couldn’t do math lessons since I realized my body would hate me if I had to study+test under 5 hours of sleep so I went outside to drop off their homework, and jumped right back in to go to sleep.

Journal Entry 12/6

 Yesterday, I woke up ungodly early again despite my WICKED tiredness to the 5 AM prayers. I did some origami in bed so I could stagger the amount of crap I needed to finish in the upcoming days. I was out the door by 9:30 and despite finishing my chores in record time and even eating my breakfast I was dead tired! I was fighting sleep the entire field trip to the Regional Health Teams and hospitals and I wasn't the only one, hah. One of my colleagues straight up tilted her head back and passed out. That early wake up call yesterday KILLED everyone. We got to eat lunch in Soma at Ramadan Restaurant and I split a delectable chicken and chips dish with Alicia. We finished the day by visiting Kathy, an older health PCV, who mobilized a traveling drama group that acts like a health acting troupe. It was great to see despite not knowing what they were saying - we watched 3 skits on malaria, environmental sanitation, and hygiene. We returned at a relatively good time before sunset, showered, dinnered where I surprised myself by eating a LOT by my standards of coos, out to math, and I think I'm making headway with the young ones of the concept of "patience" and "taking turns." It was the concluding day to our 2-day field trip series and I was tired the entire day. I think everyone could see it. But, it's all over now and it was definitely inspiring. 

TODAY, I woke up replenished and did everything I needed to do to make it to Ida's by 8. Of course I find out we're doing 1 on 1s when I arrive and it's not even my turn until 10:30... dammit. So, I conversed withs ome neighboring kids, they have so much energy and are really adorable, corrected some math problems, made new ones, memorized hand washing lines for an afternoon health talk in Serehule, and studied by myself. Alicia came by for her turn while Elizabeth came out. Elizabeth and I chatted a bit and I pumped her up to finish training strong because we are so close yet it feels like there's a million things in our way. We laughed at how motley the crew was (motley in a good way, because apparently motley has a negative connotation) and in particular, the Serehule group. This was, for many Jalanbereh denizens, their first time with foreigners/toubabs and they get an older, tall White woman, a curvy, medium built Black woman, and a short as hell young Asian woman. Elizabeth also made me laugh at how Peace Corps put the most intense/enthusiastic/dramatic people in the same group. Welp, we made it pretty successfully if I do say so myself.

It was finally my turn to go into Ida's house and we legit just talked in Serehule to prep for the final test. I feel way more confident now but still I'm going to write note cards to study from during tomorrow's Marathon March. Anywho, it seemed like I was only in there for 10 minutes but I think that was enough. Ida really wants me to get to the "top of the class" and I hope I can do her proud. PRESSURE'S ON AH. Apparently scoring advanced has been done before. I studied with Elizabeth outside some more and felt so hungry until lunch came. It was fried rice with a medley of different ROASTED veggies (unheard of) and steamed beef. Ida made this nasty smelling medicine and it was pungent as hell. I hope it helps her, it just reminds me of awful Chinese herbal medicine that made me want to barf more. SO, we ate and debated whether or not Alicia should go on the Marathon March and what to bring. I'll be packing 2.5 liters of water with ample amounts of Gatorade, mosquito repellent, sun lotion, a head net just in case, anti itching oil, a spoon, some napkins, a big zip lock bag full of mixed nuts as a snack, a small towel, my hat, and iTouch. My phone conveniently died but thankfully I secured an appointment with the in country hairdresser - a PCV named Cat who has a knack for cutting hair - and found out the pick up time for tomorrow before it did so.

Finally, the PC staff arrived and we did our hand washing demonstration. It went okay, not the best since everyone was busy and we had a small audience and they were way weary about being observed than actually paying attention to the lesson. Later, Bah2, Seth, Peter, and Katim came over to my place to look at my compost (which is the best by the way says Bah2, suck it AgFos!) helped me weed, and got guidance on the annoying insect problem I have. Apparently sprinkling wood ash on the leaves will do the trick. They left shortly after and  fetched some water. Came back, chatted with the ladies and jokingly yelled that I wanted to be naked because I was so hot and sweaty. They laughed but cleaaarly in an "oh shit" way... why? Because, as one of the younger ladies that I always joke with says, my totally conservative, old, reserved dad was sitting 8 feet away. Oops. Of course. I greeted him, took a shower, studied, dinnered, mathed, and finally went to sleep for the insane trek tomorrow in the bush.