Today was... one hell of a day. It started pretty normal until halfway through class. There was a distant wailing/crying from the next compound. One of the little girls from Ida's compound (where we study every day) went over to check it out, as did pretty much everyone, and that's how news of death is spread. Apparently a little boy is really sick and it's pretty determined that he won't make it. Ida went over to confirm. The wailings increased and when Ida came back, we found out that the girl was right. There was a 7 year old boy who was so sick, it was definitely for sure he would die soon. I can't remember his face but I KNOW his person - he was always the lively kid who rolled a tire around every day for fun while I sat in class. He would never be without his tire and he's an active little kid. Apparently he came down with something three days ago just as I was going off to Jenoi. Ida thinks it's malaria... When he was initially sick, he didn't tell his grandma (his mom married into another family and left him with her mom). Kid's don't normally tell their caretakers, they just pretend like everything is okay until they don't get up to play anymore which cues in the adults that something is wrong. It's the child culture here, they are pretty subservient to their elders. Kids just don't express themselves or how their feeling at all. Had the adults suspected something like malaria as soon as the child was sick, he might have survived. But obviously, they thought it was just a cold or something minor. Ida said when she went over to the next compound, the boy was still alive but when she held his hand, she knew it wouldn't be long until death came over him. He looked like he was just sleeping.
I asked if anyone else was sick since he contracted it, then there must be others vulnerable in a cramped sleeping space. Ida said his older half sister looked pretty sickly and looked like she was dying. Ida told the adults to take the girl to the clinic but with the funeral about to take place (funerals happen the DAY of the death), she isn't sure if they will. The wailing continued all day - it was loud, as most mourning days are in The Gambia. The first day when it's discovered, the women wail loud so everyone knows, people come to find out what's wrong, news spread to kin and close friends to gather, some adults in the bush who were working don't even know what would happen until they return, the women prepare the deceased by washing him/her and clothing them in white robes, the women stay in the compound to mourn while the men take the body wrapped in a blanket or mat or coffin to the burial grounds. There is no cremation and the graveyard is free for everyone but only men are allowed to go. If the deceased is older, usually there's more people that congregate. If the deceased was a man, his widowed wife would need to stay inside the house for 45 days just to confirm that if she is pregnant, people would know the child was the deceased man's... which is problematic to me, but that's personal opinion. I don't even know what to think of today.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Journal Post 11/7
Training dragged on for most of the day. The real treat happened at the end whwen there was a group session called "American diversity in Gambia" which involved some of the current volunteers discussing one of their characteristics and how that has negative/positive impacts on their service. Some volunteers talked about their gender, others about their ethnicity, and others about their martial status, etc. I felt so enlightened by their stories and feel like I got to know them a lot better. After that, we had another short session about differences in values between the US and The Gambia and were rushed back to our training villages.
I got the chance to finally see everyone's villages because they dropped the Serehule ladies off last. EVERY VILLAGE WAS SO INTERESTING. There's definitely a difference between where I live and between where the rest of my colleagues live. Most of their communities were off-road country filled with narrow turns, cramped neighborhoods, and hidden pathways/roads. Oh, and gorgeous gateways. My village has things much more spread out with each compound and road being large. I'm also right next to the main road.
I went home, everyone was pretty excited to see me, went to fetch water right away because I ran out (all 2 bidongs and a bucket worth!), and I'm sooooo worried about my garden because I didn't water it at all last night/this morning. I put stuff back to normal places, showered, and went out to do some math with the folks. I spent time longer out there than expected and I'm drained. I'm splitting the groups more but I need to divide the younger children in half between "kids" and "babies." I will have a "teen" "kids" and "babies" group. Slowly slowly...
I tried explaining to my 12 year old sister to teach/hvae the small kids practice every day but I'm not sure if that happens. I know she has a packed day filled with going to the fields, going to school, doing chores at home, ah. Her young life. Then, the oldest mom says she wants me to teach the youngest girl but I'm like, Numa (my 12 year old sister) can teach her. The oldest mom (who I'm named after by the way), insisted that Numa COULDN'T but I was adamant that she could. Psh. Numa totally can teach something as easy as 1-10 which is the basis of counting. Rude. I'm not giving her daughter special attention, I'm just going to teach her with the rest of the gang. She's definitely spoiled but very sweet to me - just a little impatient. At least she's assertive with what she wants which is good for a girl! I shower her with compliments every time she coughs into her elbows. I read a bunch of health stuff to the kids and turned in for the night.
I got the chance to finally see everyone's villages because they dropped the Serehule ladies off last. EVERY VILLAGE WAS SO INTERESTING. There's definitely a difference between where I live and between where the rest of my colleagues live. Most of their communities were off-road country filled with narrow turns, cramped neighborhoods, and hidden pathways/roads. Oh, and gorgeous gateways. My village has things much more spread out with each compound and road being large. I'm also right next to the main road.
I went home, everyone was pretty excited to see me, went to fetch water right away because I ran out (all 2 bidongs and a bucket worth!), and I'm sooooo worried about my garden because I didn't water it at all last night/this morning. I put stuff back to normal places, showered, and went out to do some math with the folks. I spent time longer out there than expected and I'm drained. I'm splitting the groups more but I need to divide the younger children in half between "kids" and "babies." I will have a "teen" "kids" and "babies" group. Slowly slowly...
I tried explaining to my 12 year old sister to teach/hvae the small kids practice every day but I'm not sure if that happens. I know she has a packed day filled with going to the fields, going to school, doing chores at home, ah. Her young life. Then, the oldest mom says she wants me to teach the youngest girl but I'm like, Numa (my 12 year old sister) can teach her. The oldest mom (who I'm named after by the way), insisted that Numa COULDN'T but I was adamant that she could. Psh. Numa totally can teach something as easy as 1-10 which is the basis of counting. Rude. I'm not giving her daughter special attention, I'm just going to teach her with the rest of the gang. She's definitely spoiled but very sweet to me - just a little impatient. At least she's assertive with what she wants which is good for a girl! I shower her with compliments every time she coughs into her elbows. I read a bunch of health stuff to the kids and turned in for the night.
Journal Entry 11/6
I felt like I had a million pounds on my back today worth of books/less so of toiletries and clothes, my rope bag in my front, right hand clutching my mosquito net, and left hand clutching my pillow. I was whisked off to Jenoi shortly after. I had time inbetween to look in the mirror and do some reconstruction on my eyebrows. We arrived the latest out of everyone, threw our stuff in our rooms, and rushed to class. We finished our sexual assault training which started with this really horrible story about a woman getting raped by her school's principle who she was working with and shit I don't know if it was in the Gambia or if it was an accumulation of real accounts, but it was so heavy and ugh. It sounds like it could happen anywhere and it was so tough. We went over the Peace Corps response to sexual assault in the PC (which has a lot of resources, probably rigorously developed over time from their previous response plan), did multiple sessions but finally it was site announcement time!
They blindfolded us and told us to hold hands/shoulders and walk to a building over yonder. It was one of the most dangerous things I've done since coming here. I didn't know where we were going, who was tickling me, when I would trip. When we got into the building, they moved us (still blindfolded) around a map of The Gambia drawn on the floor. Someone gave me a piece of paper with my site information on it and finally told all of us to open our eyes!
I am in... Kulari! Cool name. It's pretty east of the country but not the furthest east. That's were all the Serehules are. Luckily, it's below the river so I don't need to worry about crossing ferries or anything. It's about ~3000 in population, 20k away from Basse which is the regional transit house area for Peace Corps (which they SAY has wifi and air conditioning...we'll see), and some compounds have electricity! I'm also 10k away from the nearest weekly market. Sounds like it's biking time for me and I'll be back with Greek goddess legs. Basse's the biggest city on the eastern end and not as expensive as Soma, thank God. I'll be living in a round hut with a thatch roof which will be nice for ventilation but questionable about bugs. I'll have a medium sized backyard (whatever that means) living in a compound of 25, and my new surname will be "Touray". I have a range of project areas on my radar and apparently there's no health clinic. The closest one is in Basse or the next town over. I'm very close by the river so there'll be lots of fish. I'll also be hot as hell since the temperatures are either 5-10 degrees hotter or colder than the coast/Banjul area. I wish I had more information but my PCVL/RA is making it ambiguous so we can find out ourselves during site visit. We'll be doing that in 2 weeks. I'll be involved with more community work than clinic work and I'll have to be super creative with where I can reach out to people...definitely the schools and clubs. Anyways, I'm close to my site mate Alicia, and Agriculture/Forestry Mandinka volunteer named Dillon, and a health Pulaar volunteer named Selina. Malcolm, the only male health volunteer, is posted the farthest east from anyone in the country.
Right now, Kulari doesn't mean much for me because I've never been there. People are telling me good things, though. I hope to have a understanding, supportive family and a driven, patient counterpart. Aaaand of course, a welcoming community. I'm continuously pushing myself on language since there's no English speakers there... or at least very few. I also need to learn the skills that will be most important as a Health volunteer to master in order to model it/pass it onto others. I can always bike to Basse and build up my endurance for wifi/AC access. Just trying to look positively!
They blindfolded us and told us to hold hands/shoulders and walk to a building over yonder. It was one of the most dangerous things I've done since coming here. I didn't know where we were going, who was tickling me, when I would trip. When we got into the building, they moved us (still blindfolded) around a map of The Gambia drawn on the floor. Someone gave me a piece of paper with my site information on it and finally told all of us to open our eyes!
I am in... Kulari! Cool name. It's pretty east of the country but not the furthest east. That's were all the Serehules are. Luckily, it's below the river so I don't need to worry about crossing ferries or anything. It's about ~3000 in population, 20k away from Basse which is the regional transit house area for Peace Corps (which they SAY has wifi and air conditioning...we'll see), and some compounds have electricity! I'm also 10k away from the nearest weekly market. Sounds like it's biking time for me and I'll be back with Greek goddess legs. Basse's the biggest city on the eastern end and not as expensive as Soma, thank God. I'll be living in a round hut with a thatch roof which will be nice for ventilation but questionable about bugs. I'll have a medium sized backyard (whatever that means) living in a compound of 25, and my new surname will be "Touray". I have a range of project areas on my radar and apparently there's no health clinic. The closest one is in Basse or the next town over. I'm very close by the river so there'll be lots of fish. I'll also be hot as hell since the temperatures are either 5-10 degrees hotter or colder than the coast/Banjul area. I wish I had more information but my PCVL/RA is making it ambiguous so we can find out ourselves during site visit. We'll be doing that in 2 weeks. I'll be involved with more community work than clinic work and I'll have to be super creative with where I can reach out to people...definitely the schools and clubs. Anyways, I'm close to my site mate Alicia, and Agriculture/Forestry Mandinka volunteer named Dillon, and a health Pulaar volunteer named Selina. Malcolm, the only male health volunteer, is posted the farthest east from anyone in the country.
Right now, Kulari doesn't mean much for me because I've never been there. People are telling me good things, though. I hope to have a understanding, supportive family and a driven, patient counterpart. Aaaand of course, a welcoming community. I'm continuously pushing myself on language since there's no English speakers there... or at least very few. I also need to learn the skills that will be most important as a Health volunteer to master in order to model it/pass it onto others. I can always bike to Basse and build up my endurance for wifi/AC access. Just trying to look positively!
Journal Post 11/5
Bright and early yesterday morning, Elizabeth, Alicia, and I caught a gele-gele (all by ourselves!) to Soma. I was able to deliver my note personally to Tombo and felt great. I was also able to return the dish that Arroy gave me with the spaghetti and I filled it with some boiled peanuts, and that was great too.
Anyways, gele-geles are beat up looking vans fit for 15 people with skinny dilapidated seats. They all look pretty worn out but keep on trucking people and things (bags, bicycles, carts, donkeys, chickens, etc. are stacked on the roof) from one place to another. It is one of the cheapest ways to travel in The Gambia.. but not the cheapest. We waited at the korosma which is a junction waiting area, hopped on, and we were off. About 25 minutes later, we arrived, disagreed with prices and I was setting my foot down, and finally settled at 25 dalasi. They were trying to charge us for 35! Psh no. 25 wasn't awful since it's usually 20-25 D.
We walked around a little bit before arriving at Gamtel, one of the leading phone companies and they had 3 empty fast working computers we could use for 20 Dalasi an HOUR! Plus it was fast!Talk about score. Naturally, I spent 3 hours there - totally could've done more, too. That's where I typed like my fingers were on fire to update my blog... sorry if descriptions were not rich. These blog entries are what I do every night before bed and I'm usually super tired by then, or super tired of writing at a weird angle so the ink in my pen can come out. After staying until a little after noon and getting our phones charged, we headed out. We walked around Soma which is a crossroad town between the urban capital and the eastern most half of the country. There was one huge road that cut the town in half. This road was flanked by shops and stands on both sides. There was a "toubab store" which caters to foreigners by selling western goods like Colgate toothpaste, prawn crackers (of course from China), drinks in refrigerators, etc. I found a surprising amount of stuff that I could also find in China and this is a store that our PC friends frequent often. There were seller stands that preceded the storefronts selling food and fruits, flip flops, clothes, bags, mattresses, and anything and everything. If you go down into the side streets which are like small veins that curl around the back of the main street, it's a lot cooler since there's shade but equally abundant in stuff to buy. There was a plethora of just RANDOM STUFF 9pasta, pens, batteries, suit cases, etc.). Needless to say, we were toubab'd a lot more from annoying kids (disrespectful!) than back in our own village) and I Couldn't even set them straight because they all speak another language! I speak Serehule (9% of the population) while they all spoke Mandinka (40ish%?) and Wolof (15ish%?). Note to self, learn key phrases in each language above the general greetings. Or just the general greetings is fine.
We wound up in a food market and the flies were EVERYWHERE. I never even saw Chinese markets that bad. It was like a storm of flies zipping from vegetable to fish, from fish to the ground, from ground to the humans, bleugh. People were friendly and tried to speak in English. The variety of food was sparse (a metric boat load of mini peppers, bananas, potatoes, fried/dried fish), but everything's so EXPENSIVEEE. Apparently Soma is the most expensive because it is at the crossroads. A teeny tiny apple was 25 D which was smaller than the size of my fist and I have baby hands! A carrot that's smaller than the distance from my thumb and pinky was 30 D. WTH! If toubabs think that's outrageous, how do native Gambians afford this stuff? The most affordable thing at the end of the day was the internet!
Of course, we didn't buy anything and decided to head back to Jalanbereh. We went to the car park and got directed to the gele gele heading to our village. We haggled for price - they wanted 35 D again but I was adamant on 25. They finally relented and told us to sit on benches again infested with flies... but in the shade. Some people came and left but we waited forever - 1.45 hours to be exact. Alicia was having none of that shit and went up to the apprentice boy helping the driver to ask why we weren't leaving yet. He said they were waiting for the gele gele to fill up with more people and he gave her lip IN ADDITION to toubabing her and she snapped. She marched right up to him, attitude literally dripping out from every pore in her body and I'm witnessing this from afar, and told him he was being disrespectful. We left the car park and headed to the Gamtel office to ask for directions to a bus stop. We hiked at least half a mile to the next bus parking area with the help of a ranger for the wildlife conservation up-country who spoke great English and took pity on us.
Amazingly enough, we met Ida on the way back!!!! And even better, the bus was even CHEAPER - it was 10 D! We were so hungry and dying to pee by the time we arrived at Ida's place for lunch. After eating, I was exhausted, headed home to tend to the garden, showered, dinnered all of three bites, and passed out. My mom called me but I was too delusional to have a conversation with. She'll have to get me at a better time.
Today, I went to Jenoi for training. I looked in a mirror for the first time in ages and I look like a mess. I'll need to do some crowd control on my eyebrows. My PC colleagues made a no-shave-until-swear-in pact and swore that none of us will, as the title says, shave until swear in which is in the 2nd week of December. It was a long day filled with trainings about politics, facts, food security, and sexual assault/awareness. I was sharing some of my insight of being a Chinese American with the staff and I'm so happy they're interested! I also found out super exciting news that I scored an Intermediate Low on my baseline language test which is a little bit better than average. I think average was a Novice High, one level below Intermediate Low. I'm just a small step ahead but that means I have to work so much harder from now on until the final test. I was also thrilled that some of the kids in Jenoi still remembered my name (Jess He, Jess He, Jess He!) and some of the ladies remembered my Gambian name! IT was just about dark when I got home. I didn't get to fetch water like I intended to but my family was nice enough to wash my clothes AND give me back my soap (out of respect, a huge thing. Normally when you give someone clothes to wash with a bar of soap, they don't give it back) without charge even though I wanted to pay. I worked on more math wit hthe kids and used my limited vocabulary but successfully conveyed putting all additions to the left of the equation and all subtraction to the right. I tutored 3 of the older ones and the host sister which I'm closest to really excels. I was also able to indirectly tell the 16 year old who was toubabing me that I didn't like being called toubab and that I want for them to tell their friends that my name is NOT toubab, it's Mariama Dukare. Looked her straight in the eye too. She nodded and we are good now :)
I then turned my attention to the younger kids and there's this one girl who is so spoiled because she's the youngest. I always tell her to wait even though she's always tapping on my shoulders and wanting to contribute but she's not at the upper level yet. She's very cute though and I will be teaching her the art of patience because I always will focus on her/the younger ones. I'll have to split the kids up into lower/middle/upper groups... somehow. I mostly played a game to get them to count with their fingers correctly and use English numbers more. It was fun! I did, however, find out that the brainy, reserved but helpful/respectful Spanish/Serehule bilingual boy who I REALLY liked is going to Serekunda - the same place the Sierra Leone girl went - tomorrow for school ... for the next 9 years? Jeez! Good luck to him. Tomorrow I have to wake up super early to pack for an overnight stay in Jenoi... we'll be finding out our permanent sites and I'll be grilling Ida all about it. In other news, the three rows of okra I planted three days ago are already sprouting! Talk about fast.
Anyways, gele-geles are beat up looking vans fit for 15 people with skinny dilapidated seats. They all look pretty worn out but keep on trucking people and things (bags, bicycles, carts, donkeys, chickens, etc. are stacked on the roof) from one place to another. It is one of the cheapest ways to travel in The Gambia.. but not the cheapest. We waited at the korosma which is a junction waiting area, hopped on, and we were off. About 25 minutes later, we arrived, disagreed with prices and I was setting my foot down, and finally settled at 25 dalasi. They were trying to charge us for 35! Psh no. 25 wasn't awful since it's usually 20-25 D.
We walked around a little bit before arriving at Gamtel, one of the leading phone companies and they had 3 empty fast working computers we could use for 20 Dalasi an HOUR! Plus it was fast!Talk about score. Naturally, I spent 3 hours there - totally could've done more, too. That's where I typed like my fingers were on fire to update my blog... sorry if descriptions were not rich. These blog entries are what I do every night before bed and I'm usually super tired by then, or super tired of writing at a weird angle so the ink in my pen can come out. After staying until a little after noon and getting our phones charged, we headed out. We walked around Soma which is a crossroad town between the urban capital and the eastern most half of the country. There was one huge road that cut the town in half. This road was flanked by shops and stands on both sides. There was a "toubab store" which caters to foreigners by selling western goods like Colgate toothpaste, prawn crackers (of course from China), drinks in refrigerators, etc. I found a surprising amount of stuff that I could also find in China and this is a store that our PC friends frequent often. There were seller stands that preceded the storefronts selling food and fruits, flip flops, clothes, bags, mattresses, and anything and everything. If you go down into the side streets which are like small veins that curl around the back of the main street, it's a lot cooler since there's shade but equally abundant in stuff to buy. There was a plethora of just RANDOM STUFF 9pasta, pens, batteries, suit cases, etc.). Needless to say, we were toubab'd a lot more from annoying kids (disrespectful!) than back in our own village) and I Couldn't even set them straight because they all speak another language! I speak Serehule (9% of the population) while they all spoke Mandinka (40ish%?) and Wolof (15ish%?). Note to self, learn key phrases in each language above the general greetings. Or just the general greetings is fine.
We wound up in a food market and the flies were EVERYWHERE. I never even saw Chinese markets that bad. It was like a storm of flies zipping from vegetable to fish, from fish to the ground, from ground to the humans, bleugh. People were friendly and tried to speak in English. The variety of food was sparse (a metric boat load of mini peppers, bananas, potatoes, fried/dried fish), but everything's so EXPENSIVEEE. Apparently Soma is the most expensive because it is at the crossroads. A teeny tiny apple was 25 D which was smaller than the size of my fist and I have baby hands! A carrot that's smaller than the distance from my thumb and pinky was 30 D. WTH! If toubabs think that's outrageous, how do native Gambians afford this stuff? The most affordable thing at the end of the day was the internet!
Of course, we didn't buy anything and decided to head back to Jalanbereh. We went to the car park and got directed to the gele gele heading to our village. We haggled for price - they wanted 35 D again but I was adamant on 25. They finally relented and told us to sit on benches again infested with flies... but in the shade. Some people came and left but we waited forever - 1.45 hours to be exact. Alicia was having none of that shit and went up to the apprentice boy helping the driver to ask why we weren't leaving yet. He said they were waiting for the gele gele to fill up with more people and he gave her lip IN ADDITION to toubabing her and she snapped. She marched right up to him, attitude literally dripping out from every pore in her body and I'm witnessing this from afar, and told him he was being disrespectful. We left the car park and headed to the Gamtel office to ask for directions to a bus stop. We hiked at least half a mile to the next bus parking area with the help of a ranger for the wildlife conservation up-country who spoke great English and took pity on us.
Amazingly enough, we met Ida on the way back!!!! And even better, the bus was even CHEAPER - it was 10 D! We were so hungry and dying to pee by the time we arrived at Ida's place for lunch. After eating, I was exhausted, headed home to tend to the garden, showered, dinnered all of three bites, and passed out. My mom called me but I was too delusional to have a conversation with. She'll have to get me at a better time.
Today, I went to Jenoi for training. I looked in a mirror for the first time in ages and I look like a mess. I'll need to do some crowd control on my eyebrows. My PC colleagues made a no-shave-until-swear-in pact and swore that none of us will, as the title says, shave until swear in which is in the 2nd week of December. It was a long day filled with trainings about politics, facts, food security, and sexual assault/awareness. I was sharing some of my insight of being a Chinese American with the staff and I'm so happy they're interested! I also found out super exciting news that I scored an Intermediate Low on my baseline language test which is a little bit better than average. I think average was a Novice High, one level below Intermediate Low. I'm just a small step ahead but that means I have to work so much harder from now on until the final test. I was also thrilled that some of the kids in Jenoi still remembered my name (Jess He, Jess He, Jess He!) and some of the ladies remembered my Gambian name! IT was just about dark when I got home. I didn't get to fetch water like I intended to but my family was nice enough to wash my clothes AND give me back my soap (out of respect, a huge thing. Normally when you give someone clothes to wash with a bar of soap, they don't give it back) without charge even though I wanted to pay. I worked on more math wit hthe kids and used my limited vocabulary but successfully conveyed putting all additions to the left of the equation and all subtraction to the right. I tutored 3 of the older ones and the host sister which I'm closest to really excels. I was also able to indirectly tell the 16 year old who was toubabing me that I didn't like being called toubab and that I want for them to tell their friends that my name is NOT toubab, it's Mariama Dukare. Looked her straight in the eye too. She nodded and we are good now :)
I then turned my attention to the younger kids and there's this one girl who is so spoiled because she's the youngest. I always tell her to wait even though she's always tapping on my shoulders and wanting to contribute but she's not at the upper level yet. She's very cute though and I will be teaching her the art of patience because I always will focus on her/the younger ones. I'll have to split the kids up into lower/middle/upper groups... somehow. I mostly played a game to get them to count with their fingers correctly and use English numbers more. It was fun! I did, however, find out that the brainy, reserved but helpful/respectful Spanish/Serehule bilingual boy who I REALLY liked is going to Serekunda - the same place the Sierra Leone girl went - tomorrow for school ... for the next 9 years? Jeez! Good luck to him. Tomorrow I have to wake up super early to pack for an overnight stay in Jenoi... we'll be finding out our permanent sites and I'll be grilling Ida all about it. In other news, the three rows of okra I planted three days ago are already sprouting! Talk about fast.
Journal Post 11/3
FIRST BIRTHDAY IN THE GAMBIA! First of three birthdays. I stayed up listening to music until it was 12 AM when the day officially changed and fell asleep. It was actually a bit cold and I had to wrap myself in my bed sheet...exciting stuff. Note to self that I will need to break out the nifty pillow blanket that I received from Res Life if this cool draft keeps up. I'm very proud of Res Life for equipping me with this useful tool. Anyways, the morning was really cool and borderline crisp.cold by the time I woke up and it was beautiful. I ate the boiled peanuts my family gave me last night with a couple of spoonfuls of congee WITHOUT the sugar, sweet success.
I went off to Ida's early to rewrite notes. Unfortunately, my iTouch charger broke today. I was okay with it though since tourist season is here and packages come easily aaand I was expecting phone calls from the States later in the day. Besides, the lack of music will help me concentrate on studying/reading the gazillion books Peace Corps provided. I made a wish list of what I needed and it's kind of funny...
Cleaning Chlorox wipes/chlorox spray
Small plastic containers (bigger than tupperware)
Tupperware
Big bottle of Purell
Dottle soap
Spoon/fork case
Waka Lamp or a crank flashlight (I THOUGHT I packed it... luckily I have a Waka Lamp that solar charges which I put in a zip lock bag so when the kids reach for it, I can sleep easy at night)
D Batteries x2938479283
PJ capris
Breakfast bars x29384723
Dried fruit
White board + markers + eraser
ITOUCH CHARGER
Protein powder
SteriPen Freedom
But... I'll probably only have 5% of my list until March/April when I can leave The Gambia after my 3 month challenge after swear in for my first real life grown up vacation haha.
Anyways, a bit more studying later, Tombo (a girl from Sierra Leone who helped the Peace Corps with our PACA training a couple of days ago) comes by and chats with me a little. She's very shy and reserved but knows a lot of English. She came from Sierra Leone to stay with her mom and get away from the country. I keep on telling her every day that I see her that she must go back to school because she has so much potential. I gave her some of my papers tucked away in my PC binder to read. She's great at pronouncing and reading and just needs to know the definition to words but that all comes with time. A bit later, my two site mates came along and sang happy birthday to me! They gifted me with food and cards. I was so happy - definitely didn't expect such a sweet gesture! I then gave Tombo other materials to read and there was one awkward moment where she read my salary for Peace Corps and I quickly turned the page and told her to focus on something else. It's not much by American standards but I bet it's a LOT for Gambian standards. Out of no where, Tombo turns to me and tells me she made a song for me. I took out my iTouch - thank god I had SOME batteries left - and recorded it. It was so unreal. All of my site mates stopped to listen and we all loved it. I felt so touched and I will play it back for myself years to come and remember the exact morning, what I was doing, where I was, who I was with, and everything that took place. I know that I will always remember.
We tried studying but our minds were so scattered and I tried my best recopying notes. There was just random things distracting us - hunger, the fact that there was a death in the extended family in one of our sites, I wanted to make sure Tombo read some of the more difficult words easier and that I could define them for her, and there was this white baby doll owned by this one boy who was the biggest Distractor of all. First of all, the idea that there's this white plastic baby doll in Gambia with big blue eyes, peach skin, and bleached blonde hair is hilarious. Second of all, it's a sad looking naked doll with its face jarred from marker and its eyelashes falling off. BUT THIRD OF ALL, the best part about this thing is that it had strings of black hair being braided into its head and the kids renamed him Toubab baby (foreigner baby). I had to take a picture which will hopefully be posted later. A little later, Tombo is done with reading and I asked if she wants to sit away from the sun since it was slowly creeping in on us. She shook her head and said no because she was going to head out, but before she leaves, she turns to me, looks me straight in the eye, and says "I like you because you have have regard for others." I totally wasn't prepared to for that and so I thanked her and asked if I would see her tomorrow. She said she was moving to a place where she could go to school, a placed called Sekunda which has a LOT of schools. I was super excited that she was finally going, the biggest step was relocation, but I wanted to give her something to express my gratitude in meeting her. She said she will try to see me.
Unfortunately, I'm suppose to be going to Soma for internet and a homework assignment so I don't know if I will see her (since I'm meeting my site mates at 8:30 AM). SOOO I wrote her a nice message on a note card and drew Hello Kitty holding a book tonight and set my alarm clock for 6 AM so that hopefully I can catch her in the morning before leaving. I really do hope I'll see her, though.
I had lunch with my site mates and we and raised hell at Ida's since she wasn't there. We did everything we weren't suppose to do - knees were out, asses were shown, ate with spoons, laid everywhere, damn we were wreckless. We had fun talking about anything and everything and I received nice birthday texts/calls. One of our Peace Corps Resident Assistants (I like to call them... they're really my PCVL/Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders) called and said he'd be visiting us shortly so we finally found the will to leave Ida's house. On the way, Arroy, the Alkaloo's daughter, waved me down and we stopped in her compound. She brought us into her house and we saw her beautiful drapes and dishes and really shiny wedding gifts. She had this huge cabinet full of shiny things, everything was really well kept, her bed area was very colorful and the mattress was huge. I really liked the place. She was generously hospitable to us and it was at her house that my first call from the US came through! My site mates and I only stayed for a bit before leaving and was quickly surrounded by school children saying hi, hi, hi. All these kids from my compound came rushing at me and then the kids from the school were dismissed and came rushing at us, and then the Peace Corps vehicle came and all hell broke loose. I felt like a celebrity at a movie premiere. My PCVL/RA Daniel emerged and I introduced him, Alicia, and Elizabeth to my family. DANIEL IS SO POPULAR. Absolutely everyone's host family loves him... what a charmer. He then checked out the garden and bussed the ladies back home. It was quite convenient that at that very minute my second call from the US came! I started gushing about how Gambia was thus far since I couldn't really hear that well on the other end. It didn't seem that long but it was 20 minutes and when I started recalling everything the waterworks came. I just started crying because it has only been a mere 3 weeks but so much happened. It's a bit overwhelming when I really think about it because never in a million years would I expect how my life is unfolding.
A bit later, a friend of Arroy's came by and she dropped off a pot of oiled up spaghetti with a couple of potato slices. The gesture was endearing and saved my LIFE because my family only cooked coos and peanut sauce/oil tonight which I had none of. I went outside for brief homework checks and assigning out more math problems. They gave me a bowl of boiled peanuts, hell yeah. I called it an early night though because I was exhausted. I do think, however, that I heard one of my 16 year old sisters talking crap about me/toubabing me and so I'll have to confront her tomorrow with my limited Serehule and get my RA face on. Helllll to the no is she getting away with that after I helped her with math and we had a naming ceremony where the Alkaloo specifically instructed everyone not to toubab us. Especially the adults. Hell no.
I went off to Ida's early to rewrite notes. Unfortunately, my iTouch charger broke today. I was okay with it though since tourist season is here and packages come easily aaand I was expecting phone calls from the States later in the day. Besides, the lack of music will help me concentrate on studying/reading the gazillion books Peace Corps provided. I made a wish list of what I needed and it's kind of funny...
Cleaning Chlorox wipes/chlorox spray
Small plastic containers (bigger than tupperware)
Tupperware
Big bottle of Purell
Dottle soap
Spoon/fork case
Waka Lamp or a crank flashlight (I THOUGHT I packed it... luckily I have a Waka Lamp that solar charges which I put in a zip lock bag so when the kids reach for it, I can sleep easy at night)
D Batteries x2938479283
PJ capris
Breakfast bars x29384723
Dried fruit
White board + markers + eraser
ITOUCH CHARGER
Protein powder
SteriPen Freedom
But... I'll probably only have 5% of my list until March/April when I can leave The Gambia after my 3 month challenge after swear in for my first real life grown up vacation haha.
Anyways, a bit more studying later, Tombo (a girl from Sierra Leone who helped the Peace Corps with our PACA training a couple of days ago) comes by and chats with me a little. She's very shy and reserved but knows a lot of English. She came from Sierra Leone to stay with her mom and get away from the country. I keep on telling her every day that I see her that she must go back to school because she has so much potential. I gave her some of my papers tucked away in my PC binder to read. She's great at pronouncing and reading and just needs to know the definition to words but that all comes with time. A bit later, my two site mates came along and sang happy birthday to me! They gifted me with food and cards. I was so happy - definitely didn't expect such a sweet gesture! I then gave Tombo other materials to read and there was one awkward moment where she read my salary for Peace Corps and I quickly turned the page and told her to focus on something else. It's not much by American standards but I bet it's a LOT for Gambian standards. Out of no where, Tombo turns to me and tells me she made a song for me. I took out my iTouch - thank god I had SOME batteries left - and recorded it. It was so unreal. All of my site mates stopped to listen and we all loved it. I felt so touched and I will play it back for myself years to come and remember the exact morning, what I was doing, where I was, who I was with, and everything that took place. I know that I will always remember.
We tried studying but our minds were so scattered and I tried my best recopying notes. There was just random things distracting us - hunger, the fact that there was a death in the extended family in one of our sites, I wanted to make sure Tombo read some of the more difficult words easier and that I could define them for her, and there was this white baby doll owned by this one boy who was the biggest Distractor of all. First of all, the idea that there's this white plastic baby doll in Gambia with big blue eyes, peach skin, and bleached blonde hair is hilarious. Second of all, it's a sad looking naked doll with its face jarred from marker and its eyelashes falling off. BUT THIRD OF ALL, the best part about this thing is that it had strings of black hair being braided into its head and the kids renamed him Toubab baby (foreigner baby). I had to take a picture which will hopefully be posted later. A little later, Tombo is done with reading and I asked if she wants to sit away from the sun since it was slowly creeping in on us. She shook her head and said no because she was going to head out, but before she leaves, she turns to me, looks me straight in the eye, and says "I like you because you have have regard for others." I totally wasn't prepared to for that and so I thanked her and asked if I would see her tomorrow. She said she was moving to a place where she could go to school, a placed called Sekunda which has a LOT of schools. I was super excited that she was finally going, the biggest step was relocation, but I wanted to give her something to express my gratitude in meeting her. She said she will try to see me.
Unfortunately, I'm suppose to be going to Soma for internet and a homework assignment so I don't know if I will see her (since I'm meeting my site mates at 8:30 AM). SOOO I wrote her a nice message on a note card and drew Hello Kitty holding a book tonight and set my alarm clock for 6 AM so that hopefully I can catch her in the morning before leaving. I really do hope I'll see her, though.
I had lunch with my site mates and we and raised hell at Ida's since she wasn't there. We did everything we weren't suppose to do - knees were out, asses were shown, ate with spoons, laid everywhere, damn we were wreckless. We had fun talking about anything and everything and I received nice birthday texts/calls. One of our Peace Corps Resident Assistants (I like to call them... they're really my PCVL/Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders) called and said he'd be visiting us shortly so we finally found the will to leave Ida's house. On the way, Arroy, the Alkaloo's daughter, waved me down and we stopped in her compound. She brought us into her house and we saw her beautiful drapes and dishes and really shiny wedding gifts. She had this huge cabinet full of shiny things, everything was really well kept, her bed area was very colorful and the mattress was huge. I really liked the place. She was generously hospitable to us and it was at her house that my first call from the US came through! My site mates and I only stayed for a bit before leaving and was quickly surrounded by school children saying hi, hi, hi. All these kids from my compound came rushing at me and then the kids from the school were dismissed and came rushing at us, and then the Peace Corps vehicle came and all hell broke loose. I felt like a celebrity at a movie premiere. My PCVL/RA Daniel emerged and I introduced him, Alicia, and Elizabeth to my family. DANIEL IS SO POPULAR. Absolutely everyone's host family loves him... what a charmer. He then checked out the garden and bussed the ladies back home. It was quite convenient that at that very minute my second call from the US came! I started gushing about how Gambia was thus far since I couldn't really hear that well on the other end. It didn't seem that long but it was 20 minutes and when I started recalling everything the waterworks came. I just started crying because it has only been a mere 3 weeks but so much happened. It's a bit overwhelming when I really think about it because never in a million years would I expect how my life is unfolding.
A bit later, a friend of Arroy's came by and she dropped off a pot of oiled up spaghetti with a couple of potato slices. The gesture was endearing and saved my LIFE because my family only cooked coos and peanut sauce/oil tonight which I had none of. I went outside for brief homework checks and assigning out more math problems. They gave me a bowl of boiled peanuts, hell yeah. I called it an early night though because I was exhausted. I do think, however, that I heard one of my 16 year old sisters talking crap about me/toubabing me and so I'll have to confront her tomorrow with my limited Serehule and get my RA face on. Helllll to the no is she getting away with that after I helped her with math and we had a naming ceremony where the Alkaloo specifically instructed everyone not to toubab us. Especially the adults. Hell no.
Journal Entry 11/2
Today was extremely productive. I woke up and did the dailies (funny that I did dailies when I played World of Warcraft which involved collecting gizzard organs, different colored, gems, and just random shit but now my dailies entail... taking pre-natal vitamins, fetching well water and watering my garden, sweeping, etc.), then I started helping my other two site mate ladies build their garden. It was a PERFECT day to do so because it just rained so the temperature was warm but not hot, and most importantly not sunny. One of my site mates were almost finished with her garden so that was easy to complete while the other hasn't started. All in all, everything was easy to complete between/among the three of us... it's all thanks to the merciful weather, though. I did a lot of self care today - primping, washing, and exercising as I promised myself and loved every second of it. I just have to somehow figure out a way to pluck my eyebrows now without a mirror. Unfortunately I lost a pair of cute panties in the latrine in the morning :( I WILL NEVER WEAR ANYTHING ANY TIME I GO EVER AGAIN. This I vow. They were actually relatively cute too :(
Anyways I went on a bike ride with one of my site mates (Alicia) and we passed a health clinic. It's the only one servicing at least 3-4 villages in the vicinity... which is a lot of people. Alicia and I walked in briefly to talk to the people who were there who knew our names and were very nice to us. We explored the grounds after. As soon as you walk through the threshold of the gates, there are two buildings in front of you both white... and dabbed with black dust, cobwebs, and the like. On the right was the building for bedstays but that looked locked up, abandoned, and unused. On the right was the main health clinic building...staffed by a total of one man - a nurse - who was Mandinka but spoke great English. He is government employed. Next to the main health clinic parked a pretty sturdy/new looking ambulance which, from a far, looks really nice but when you walk closer... you realize ALL the words on it are in Spanish and backwards. As in, you can only read the words if you were looking in a mirror. The male nurse who worked there was gracious enough to let us look around and explain the back story to the clinic. He told us that the establishment was given to the area from the Spanish government but they severely cut funds after seeing the clinic perform below their standards. The building was erected in 2004 but poor management drove the Spaniards to withdraw quickly. The little funds that they have now are given to the government which decides how much the clinic should get. The nurse said he was only there since 2009 with no other support. I looked around and felt like I was in a horror movie. The scariest horror movie - I can still envision how filthy and creepy it was. Alicia and I didn't even go at a late hour - it was still light out! But things inside were just so dirty and they had huge solar panels in the back that were definitely broken. It was unsanitary that not even animals should be in there. Silent Hill and Left 4 Dead could learn from what I saw. The instruments were all western-styled, the bathrooms were also western-styled, and the tools were all western. I specifically remember a cobweb encased wheel chair and walker for old people collecting dust in the back corner of the building. I can't believe foreign aid wasted time and money on the walker (or wheel chair) in this dirt path omnipresent country. I'm guessing everything was swooped in and delivered in 2004 when there wasn't even paved roads! Like I said, they had a western toilet as well and I'm sure it's broken (and where is the water for the plumbing anyways) so why even waste resources in the first place? Clearly they didn't do an assessment of The Gambia at ALL and just came in to decide to do things which is the opposite of sustainable. We thanked the nurse and went on our way.
We road past the Africell tower and back. We were heckled by some kids calling us toubabs and I wasn't having ANY of it especially this one kid so I sternly RA-faced him, yelled at him in Serehule and his dad yelled too until he succumbed to saying my Gambian name. Came home, finished some laundry and did math with the kids. The young ones sometimes test my patience because they want attention and grab at me but they don't know the deeper stuff yet much less the foundations of counting 1-10 in English. I might have pissed off one of the moms because I was ignoring her child until later when I transitioned my attention to them but she barely knows how to count, like I said! I told my 12 year old sister who I'm closest to to teach the younger kids 1-10. This one 16 year old can't really add or subtract and one of the younger moms can't either! I then distributed some homework problems to the older kids and focused on the young ones. Here, I'm using hand techniques for counting in addition to vocally teaching but it's a hard process... especially when kids old and young along with adults yell back and forth for communication. It's also super annoying when kids yell out answers that are clearly wrong and the kid that I'm questioning just repeat the shit they hear... WHICH IS WRONG instead of focusing on me while I coach them through to the solution/use the right methods. It also makes the whole ordeal hard when I don't know how to say the word minus, just the phrase "reduce some." I need to create a mentoring system where I have the older kids teach the younger kids how to say 1-10 over and over while I write new math problems for them to mull over or while I tutor the other older kids and rotate every 5-10 minutes. It's the only way because the young ones are just so loud and take away from the concentration of the older ones who need the challenge. I need to physically divide the younger from the older but it's pretty difficult when everyone just wants to be around... me.
My birthday's tomorrow though, so since I've done almost all my self care today, I can focus on studying!
Anyways I went on a bike ride with one of my site mates (Alicia) and we passed a health clinic. It's the only one servicing at least 3-4 villages in the vicinity... which is a lot of people. Alicia and I walked in briefly to talk to the people who were there who knew our names and were very nice to us. We explored the grounds after. As soon as you walk through the threshold of the gates, there are two buildings in front of you both white... and dabbed with black dust, cobwebs, and the like. On the right was the building for bedstays but that looked locked up, abandoned, and unused. On the right was the main health clinic building...staffed by a total of one man - a nurse - who was Mandinka but spoke great English. He is government employed. Next to the main health clinic parked a pretty sturdy/new looking ambulance which, from a far, looks really nice but when you walk closer... you realize ALL the words on it are in Spanish and backwards. As in, you can only read the words if you were looking in a mirror. The male nurse who worked there was gracious enough to let us look around and explain the back story to the clinic. He told us that the establishment was given to the area from the Spanish government but they severely cut funds after seeing the clinic perform below their standards. The building was erected in 2004 but poor management drove the Spaniards to withdraw quickly. The little funds that they have now are given to the government which decides how much the clinic should get. The nurse said he was only there since 2009 with no other support. I looked around and felt like I was in a horror movie. The scariest horror movie - I can still envision how filthy and creepy it was. Alicia and I didn't even go at a late hour - it was still light out! But things inside were just so dirty and they had huge solar panels in the back that were definitely broken. It was unsanitary that not even animals should be in there. Silent Hill and Left 4 Dead could learn from what I saw. The instruments were all western-styled, the bathrooms were also western-styled, and the tools were all western. I specifically remember a cobweb encased wheel chair and walker for old people collecting dust in the back corner of the building. I can't believe foreign aid wasted time and money on the walker (or wheel chair) in this dirt path omnipresent country. I'm guessing everything was swooped in and delivered in 2004 when there wasn't even paved roads! Like I said, they had a western toilet as well and I'm sure it's broken (and where is the water for the plumbing anyways) so why even waste resources in the first place? Clearly they didn't do an assessment of The Gambia at ALL and just came in to decide to do things which is the opposite of sustainable. We thanked the nurse and went on our way.
We road past the Africell tower and back. We were heckled by some kids calling us toubabs and I wasn't having ANY of it especially this one kid so I sternly RA-faced him, yelled at him in Serehule and his dad yelled too until he succumbed to saying my Gambian name. Came home, finished some laundry and did math with the kids. The young ones sometimes test my patience because they want attention and grab at me but they don't know the deeper stuff yet much less the foundations of counting 1-10 in English. I might have pissed off one of the moms because I was ignoring her child until later when I transitioned my attention to them but she barely knows how to count, like I said! I told my 12 year old sister who I'm closest to to teach the younger kids 1-10. This one 16 year old can't really add or subtract and one of the younger moms can't either! I then distributed some homework problems to the older kids and focused on the young ones. Here, I'm using hand techniques for counting in addition to vocally teaching but it's a hard process... especially when kids old and young along with adults yell back and forth for communication. It's also super annoying when kids yell out answers that are clearly wrong and the kid that I'm questioning just repeat the shit they hear... WHICH IS WRONG instead of focusing on me while I coach them through to the solution/use the right methods. It also makes the whole ordeal hard when I don't know how to say the word minus, just the phrase "reduce some." I need to create a mentoring system where I have the older kids teach the younger kids how to say 1-10 over and over while I write new math problems for them to mull over or while I tutor the other older kids and rotate every 5-10 minutes. It's the only way because the young ones are just so loud and take away from the concentration of the older ones who need the challenge. I need to physically divide the younger from the older but it's pretty difficult when everyone just wants to be around... me.
My birthday's tomorrow though, so since I've done almost all my self care today, I can focus on studying!
Journal Entry 11/1
Test day. D day. Woke up and did the whole daily routine which always takes longer than expected. I really spent a grand total of 1.5 hours before go time and I feel bad for that. I think I'm always comparing myself and feel really conscious of the possibility of letting down expectations. People think I'm smart but really, well, I do consider myself smart but what I REALLY consider myself is a hard worker. Anyways, I did my best with Ida in our 1 on 1 and she recorded it. She'll give me a grade then she'll pass it off to someone else to grade it, and the two marks are averaged together to determine my baseline language level. There's a really big test at the end of training and that's the scariest monster of all. It's like college and exams all over again. I still can't believe it was Halloween yesterday and it's probably freezing back in New England. Last year I was kick ass Zatanna and this year I was just a basic toubab, studying under my two mosquito nets while rats on my roof were jiving away to the holiday spirit like they were at the Apollo. RUDE.
My favorite part of the day was after lunch when the ladies and I talked a lot about cross generation, jobs, family, outrageous cost of bras and panties and how the length of fabric increases with age hahaha, and men. I really enjoy our talks because we're women coming from starkly different paths of life. I'm so lucky to have them now at this age - PERSONALLY - because I don't know. I feel like they will influence me profoundly. After I lunch I went home to find my family huddled around a small kitchen TV... wtf. They have the money for that??? That really took me for surprise. I went back into my house and saw a bee...a huge ass African bee and said "DEUCES" while slowly retreating backwards out my door. I kind of walked to the right of my house thinking of what the hell I was going to do now because I was not playing with any African BEES because if one comes they all come. My family saw me walking back and forth and asked me what was wrong, so I told them the truth and said "I am not brave/I'm scared." I motioned for them to go back into the house with me (of course with me poking at the door first to examine for signs of attack). 2-3 adults came with and a million babies while I cautiously searched for the culprit responsible for the B&E. I didn't know how to say the word "bee" so I made the ZZZZZzzZzZzz sound. I finally found it and it flew to my back window, they laughed, opened the door while I turned my back and it flew out. I thought I was in the safe zone until one of the women pointed at my ceiling and there was a fucking nascent beehive that BLENDED IN WITH MY CEILING. Excuse me, what? They took it down with a stick and went to the corners of my house and dusted off the cobwebs. The kids naturally had to touch every surface and luckily I didn't have too much out but just enough to make me cringe.
After they left, I treated myself to a full afternoon of cleaning my tent/mosquito net bed (did I mention I sleep under two? Judge me all you want but guess who isn't open game every night - this girlllll), organizing my stuff so that everything I need is easily accessible to me but not by bugs, and I Finally feel really good about where everything is now! One of the ladies in my compound asked if she could put her baby in my tent and I obviously said no for clear reasons but the stars aligned and I told them I was washing it (because really I was, plus I had a bucket out) and I just learned the vocabulary "dirty" today. After a successful house scouraging mission, I got to scrub myself down a little before getting water - 2 gallons worth - which my poor 12 year old sister had to help me out with but I'm slowly getting there. I got laughed at at the pump again but I tried my best. I swear to God I will attempt to carry a gallon of water by the time training ends. The gorgeous Alkaloo's (village head) daughter was there and she visited me earlier in the day when I was studying. She wants me to visit her tomorrow. She has these STUNNING earrings and necklaces that always make her stand out. Afterwards, I carried SOME MORE water from the well for my family so I did feel better that the help was reciprocated...even if I was carrying a bucket 70x smaller than the one my sister was carrying. Later, I delievered some hydration salts to my site mate who was running low on them (these things are like gold here but I prefer my Gatorade mix better... it's just difficult knowing it's like 20 grams of sugar for 3/4 of a scoop), sat and talked in her compound while we watched the sun set, and headed back with several greetings along the way. I got back home, showered, washed stuff, and went out for my daily lessons. Somewhere in my lunch conversation I discovered that girls had a hard time with math and so I'm going to continue the "I wash hands" sentence but decided to focus on addition, subtraction, and later multiplication and division if language/time allows. It was really hard but I'm committed to work with them every night.
My favorite part of the day was after lunch when the ladies and I talked a lot about cross generation, jobs, family, outrageous cost of bras and panties and how the length of fabric increases with age hahaha, and men. I really enjoy our talks because we're women coming from starkly different paths of life. I'm so lucky to have them now at this age - PERSONALLY - because I don't know. I feel like they will influence me profoundly. After I lunch I went home to find my family huddled around a small kitchen TV... wtf. They have the money for that??? That really took me for surprise. I went back into my house and saw a bee...a huge ass African bee and said "DEUCES" while slowly retreating backwards out my door. I kind of walked to the right of my house thinking of what the hell I was going to do now because I was not playing with any African BEES because if one comes they all come. My family saw me walking back and forth and asked me what was wrong, so I told them the truth and said "I am not brave/I'm scared." I motioned for them to go back into the house with me (of course with me poking at the door first to examine for signs of attack). 2-3 adults came with and a million babies while I cautiously searched for the culprit responsible for the B&E. I didn't know how to say the word "bee" so I made the ZZZZZzzZzZzz sound. I finally found it and it flew to my back window, they laughed, opened the door while I turned my back and it flew out. I thought I was in the safe zone until one of the women pointed at my ceiling and there was a fucking nascent beehive that BLENDED IN WITH MY CEILING. Excuse me, what? They took it down with a stick and went to the corners of my house and dusted off the cobwebs. The kids naturally had to touch every surface and luckily I didn't have too much out but just enough to make me cringe.
After they left, I treated myself to a full afternoon of cleaning my tent/mosquito net bed (did I mention I sleep under two? Judge me all you want but guess who isn't open game every night - this girlllll), organizing my stuff so that everything I need is easily accessible to me but not by bugs, and I Finally feel really good about where everything is now! One of the ladies in my compound asked if she could put her baby in my tent and I obviously said no for clear reasons but the stars aligned and I told them I was washing it (because really I was, plus I had a bucket out) and I just learned the vocabulary "dirty" today. After a successful house scouraging mission, I got to scrub myself down a little before getting water - 2 gallons worth - which my poor 12 year old sister had to help me out with but I'm slowly getting there. I got laughed at at the pump again but I tried my best. I swear to God I will attempt to carry a gallon of water by the time training ends. The gorgeous Alkaloo's (village head) daughter was there and she visited me earlier in the day when I was studying. She wants me to visit her tomorrow. She has these STUNNING earrings and necklaces that always make her stand out. Afterwards, I carried SOME MORE water from the well for my family so I did feel better that the help was reciprocated...even if I was carrying a bucket 70x smaller than the one my sister was carrying. Later, I delievered some hydration salts to my site mate who was running low on them (these things are like gold here but I prefer my Gatorade mix better... it's just difficult knowing it's like 20 grams of sugar for 3/4 of a scoop), sat and talked in her compound while we watched the sun set, and headed back with several greetings along the way. I got back home, showered, washed stuff, and went out for my daily lessons. Somewhere in my lunch conversation I discovered that girls had a hard time with math and so I'm going to continue the "I wash hands" sentence but decided to focus on addition, subtraction, and later multiplication and division if language/time allows. It was really hard but I'm committed to work with them every night.
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