Time to put on hostess hat yet again...

From Monday, 18/8/08



Okay, so when I signed up for PC, I had no idea that it would involve so much event planning. Maybe I'm the "lucky" one. Most pcvs here will never have anyone important come to their site at all. Two weeks ago like half of the PCMOs (PC medical officers) from all over Africa stopped by while they were here for a conference, and now tomorrow the US Ambassador is stopping by as well. The Ambassador is visiting various PC sites along the South Bank, and he's coming here. Oh yeah, sooo excited! Thankfully, another PCV from a site down the road is also coming here to talk to him, so that will take a lot of the pressure off me. The Ambassador went to Amanda's site last week, and she said that it really was not too bad. She said that he stops by and just talks to you. She also said that he's really laid back, and nice to talk with. I'm mostly nervous because I am waiting for PC to call and let me know what time he is coming exactly. I didn't even know that he was coming til yesterday afternoon, so the whole thing is really last minute! Oh wonderful, the PCV that I thought was going to come to my site just texted me to let me know that the Ambassador is coming to her site as well. Oh great, now I have to go after her. I'm sure that she has some great talk planned, and mine will be a complete train wreck. Okay, I just spoke to her on the phone, and she made me feel a lot better. She said that really all we have to do is sit down and talk to him. He's new, and he's really unfamiliar with PC, so he just wants to know what is going on. She said that basically she's just going to sit down with her women's group and have them do most of the talking. They'll just talk about their goals and what is going on. She heard that other villages went crazy, and really he is just there to learn about PC. So now I feel a lot better again. We also talked about how things are going at site. Every day little things are really something to be proud of.
My cell phone will probably die again soon, because it appears to be another rainy day. I also just managed to drop my solio off the roof. It seems to be okay, it's just a little wobbly now. It seems to still be able to get a charge from the sun. I checked when it stopped raining long enough for the sun to come out for 15 minutes. Thank God! If that thing broke then I would really be screwed!
Now I have to walk around and find my counterparts and explain what is going on tomorrow. I can handle a "little chat" so it all should work out fine. Current goal: find a mobile phone that is charged so I can put my sim card in it and call PC so I can figure out when people are coming exactly. Things are pretty dull most of the time, but every once in a while they get really crazy!
(Couple of hours later...)
All of my counterparts are away til the afternoon, so I'll tell them about the "Ambassador chat time" later. My cell phone is dead, so now I just have to wait for my solio to charge. Please do not rain! It's getting dark again which is never a good thing. Okay, it rocks when you want to be locked up and left alone in your house, but when you need the sun to charge your mobile it is not good! Right now there are a whole bunch of kids that want to come into my house and color. This is not a good time. Now it's raining again, so I guess the cell phone will stay dead for the time being.
Almost 2 weeks ago was when the PCMOs came to visit. This was the program that I was stressing about in a blog before. Surprisingly, the whole thing went quite well. Even about 30minutes before everyone was scheduled to arrive, things were not looking good. We had the library all set up, and the bags were there, but no one seemed to be coming, I had spent three hours the day before weeding the area, and a good two hours sweeping and collecting trash around the area that morning. When I went back home to wait for PC, only a couple of the 20+ people that I live with were at home. Right before PC came Papa Jammeh came home, so I told him what was about to go down. The visit to my house had only been added that morning as a way to stall to give the women more time to arrive at the library. Papa Jammeh realized what I was trying to say, and then ran into his house to change. Then of course Ebrima was walking around with poop all over his legs because he was sick. I really wasn't too worried about that; I thought why not let people see what it is really time to leave here. Sunto, my binkie (aunt/father's sister) grabbed Ebrima, cleaned him up, and was in her plastic chair ready to go when PC showed up. Papa Jammeh was also dressed, and it was show time.
Now I had been told to expect 25 people, but close to 40 piled out of the PC bus and various suvs. I welcomed everyone, well as much as one can welcome people when their guests are being bombarded my children that want candy and their picture taken. I let all of them parade through my house. I walked in when a woman who was a guest speaker from an infectious disease place was in there, and I got sucked into a detailed conversation about everything from how I cook to where/how I bathe. All she kept asking were "why questions." That was a real experience! The PCMOs gave me a gift bag (which I later opened and discovered that it was gull of food!). Once everyone got a look around, and people got enough pictures to satisfy themselves, it was time to go buy the bags, so I led everyone to the library. I warned them about the geles, and I told them that they would get hit! In every group there are the people too cool to listen, so a few people actually did get close to getting hit. Geles do not have the best brakes, so unless you have enough time to dart across the road in front of one, always wait til they pass. When we arrived at the junction, the village chief just happened to be there, so everyone got to meet him as well. By this time the kids had all gotten really bad, so I was trying to get rid of them. I told them to "go away" in Mandinka "Ta," and when that didn't work, I said "Penugie te" (no clue how to spell that), which means "I will beat you." Then in English I said, "scram, you know I will beat you!" (Okay I actually never have, but people always tell me to. I can't do it with the peer pressure, but one day a kid almost did get a whack with my broom if I had been able to catch him). The PC Country Director heard this and shouted, "oh she just told them she was going to beat them in Mandinka." I told him, "no that was jola." He just seemed really excited, so I wasn't worried that I threatened to beat kids in front of a whole group of PC nurses. People just laughed. While all of this was going on, one of my host mother's, Mama Jaju, got off a gele, so everyone got to meet her as well.
I was still really nervous about the library, but when we arrived there were actually women there singing and dancing! I was so happy! The women performed, everyone spoke a little, and then it was time to buy bags. The women were able to sell all of the bags minus a few of them. Everyone seemed really happy. It helped that the CD was there really pushing people to buy the bags.
After all that, I grabbed my bag, and hitched a ride with PC to Farjara. We stopped and picked up another PCV that I was going to be traveling with, and then off we went again. Olga and I grabbed a taxi in Westfield, and then headed to Banjul to catch the ferry. We traveled across the Gambia River as the sun was setting. This took about one-half hour because we were crossing at the mouth of the river from Banjul to Barra. I heard that this was actually a really great time because most people end up on ferries that get stuck sitting out in the water at some point and the whole process takes like an hour. We arrived at the other side after dark, and we fought our way off with other people and cars. The road from the ferry to the carpark is walled all the way down, so we were joking that it felt like we were in a refuge camp. We got on a gele and started driving to Amanda's village just as it started to pour. At one point we stopped and the driver escorted a girl home via running through the pouring rain. Who said that chivalry is dead? We met some people on the gele that knew where Amanda's house was, so they promised to help us get there. It was dark, and the rain was really coming down, so I really was not able to see anything. The next thing I knew everyone was telling us that we arrived at Amanda's house. This was probably the nicest gele driver ever! Because of the rain he was going to drive each person home. We jumped out into the rain, I kicked off my sandals, and we ran around trying to figure out which compound was Amanda's. Then we found Amanda and Jenni who had been waiting for us at the gele stop in the rain, and we all went into the house.
Jenni had been in Farjara all week because she was sick, so she just stopped at Amanda's house because we were all traveling to her house the next day. We all had mac&cheese for dinner. Amanda, Jenni, and I ended up staying awake most of the night just talking. The next morning we all stopped at one of Amanda's friend's houses because her daughter was getting married. We ate some breakfast, and then it was on the road again.
When Jenni, Shayla, and I were in Farjara the previous weekend to work on the computer, and collect our "living allowances," Jenni found a kitten in front of the US Embassy. It was little, and super cute, so against her better judgement she picked it up. She was able to find a home for it with another PCV, but that PCV was going on vacation to Spain, so Jenni had to watch little Tobey for the time being. The cat was also coming on the road trip. Jenny brought him in a box the day before, but the box got damaged in the rain. On the short gele ride back to Barra to catch a ride to Farfeni, the cat completely tore the box apart. Now we were forced to hold the silly thing. Jenni was made at him after the box incident, so Amanda and I volunteered to hold him. I put the cat's bottom in a plastic bag to serve as a diaper because he was not yet trained. About half-way through the trip, the kitten got all upset and kept trying to get out of the bag. I looked into the bag and it had pooped everywhere. Amanda and I wait until he was done, and then threw the bag of poop out the window. Amanda even had to wipe him with TP! We quickly got him into another plastic bag diaper, and I just looked over and smiled at the Gambian woman sitting next to me. She looked back at me like what the hell?
We made it to Jenni's house safely. We had to change geles and Olga started holding him without his diaper. We warned her, and he peed in her bag. The weekend was fun, and we all just sort of hung out. Shayla joined us a little while later. Everything went well til one girl there went on and on about how hard she works while PCVs in villages just sit around a lot. This got all of us pretty upset, and we let her have it! It didn't help that most people already feel like they don't do anything in the first place. She's now talking about joining a gym in the town where she lives, so I really do not think that we are apart of the same PC world.
When Sunday came it was time to go. This time I was traveling down the South Bank road, so it would be a long day. Olga and I traveled with Shayla to Soma. It took almost four hours to get there and it really isn't even that far! We had to ride to Farafeni, take a gele to the ferry, cross the ferry (a bridge would have been useful because it was maybe 25 yards across), and then take another gele to Soma. Then we boarded the gele for the 4-5 hour ride home. This particular gele did not have a lot of leg room, so my legs were really jammed in. Luckily they went to sleep quickly, so there wasn't much pain. By the time I was able to get out in my village, my ankles were so swollen that I had kankels! The lack of circulation and lack of water really did a number on them. I returned home, and then took a bath and went to bed as soon as I could without looking weird. I find that 9p seems somewhat okay. I guess that they just think I'm a crazy toubab that needs lots of rest sometimes.
(Many hours later...)
Right now it is about 8:30pm, and I am still waiting to talk to one more person about tomorrow. As of now, things are good to go. We lied and told the women the program started at 11am instead of 11:30 hoping that some of them would make it on time. It really is stupid to visit at that time because the women have to cook lunch and others work in the fields, but the US Embassy doesn't seem to get that. Now the Ambassador is sick, so he's sending someone else in his place. Throughout the day, the time also kept changing, but now things seem good to go. Let's hope so! I'm really glad that I've made some friends, because today I was able to look sad and beg them to come help me out. Life here is always an adventure! I also got to spend some time talking to one of my counterparts about some of the things that he would like to do. One of his sisters had a baby last week, so I also got to see the baby, Adama, as well. I did my good toubab deed, and held the baby. I always have newborn babies thrown at me. They're always so small and alien looking, and I'm always afraid that I'll hurt the baby.
Today when I went to see Kaddy, one of my counterparts, her baby, Ababukar (age 9 months) peed all over the front of my shirt. Apparently that's good luck here, so I know that things will go well tomorrow.