Friday, November 21, 2008
Just because
I try to talk a lot on my blog, but I really do not go into too much detail. If you have any questions about The Gambia, my life here, or whatever, click on "comment" on this particular blog entry (you actually have to be on the website and not just reading in email), and ask your question. I'll answer all of the questions and post the answers here on the blog.
Random Thoughts
From 11/14/08
Only 12 days to go til Farjara for Thanksgiving. Only 17 days to go til holiday!!!
I recently discovered the joy of bike riding again. I've been riding my bike all over the Greater Brikama Area. If I ride east of my village, then I have to ride up and down hills which can get quite tiring after some time. It's good for my legs, so I try to do it a couple of times a week. My family still doesn't get that I'm just riding for fun, and they always want to know where I'm going/where I've been. I always tell them, "N ka ta training," which means "I go training." They still think I'm a total weirdo, but I'm sure that they're just thinking, "oh that crazy Fatoumata." Some people in my village actually get what I'm doing though. The other day one of the bitik owners in my village told me that he saw me training, and how wonderful training is for the body.
I've had some crazy adventures while riding my bike. Today while riding through Brikama, some random Gambian man shouted out, "hey Katie!" That was a little odd! I also get a lot of kissy faces/noises and obscene gestures from the truck drivers, so I'm just as rude right back. I've given quite a few people the finger in this country. I also sometimes get bothered by the truckers that sleep by the road outside of my house, but I find that a few choice words usually shut them up really fast. They seem to understand exactly what I am saying to them.
Today I did a little "off-roading" in search of a lodge that I saw a sign for on the side of the road. The sign said that the lodge was "400 meters" off the road, but I have no clue how far of a distance that actually is. I road down the road and ended up in a village. I then turned around, and tried a different path, and ended up in a garbage dump. There were other paths left to explore, and I plan on going back soon, and this time paying closer attention for car tracks. I really want to find this place. I mean what if it has a pool!!! That would be amazing.
I'm still losing a lot of weight, and soon I'm going to be thinner than when I was in high school. Most people aim for their high school weight; looks like I'm going for middle school. I've been really hungry lately which I guess is because I've been working out. I eat a lot of food, and nothing satisfies me any more. What I wouldn't give for some french onion dip made out of sour cream and french onion soup mix! There doesn't seem to be any sour cream in The Gambia, but I have been told that the plain yogurt here is a great substitute.
Everything here for the most part is "natural," so I'll probably come home all "healthy" and unable to eat processed foods. Even though I've already decided that I'll only buy produce from farmer's markets from now on (it's cheaper and better quality), I swear that I will of everything in my power to get my body used to an extreme amount of processed foods again! I will also join a gym.
I've found that hot sauce makes all of the nasty food my host aunt cooks magically taste good. Just sprinkle a little, or a lot in some circumstances, and the food goes from bland to bam! I also can't wait to get the box that my mom sent because there is canned chicken in it. I'm going to mix some of it up with mayo and hot sauce, and then eat it on bread. I can't wait! Right now I'm just really hoping that my package came in, and that it will be delivered on mail run. Because of Thanksgiving and the All-Volunteer Meeting this month, mail run got shortened from 6 days to 4 days. I just hope that they'll deliver my package even though I live with 2 hours of Farjara.
I'm starting to get really antsy waiting for this trip! On Wed I cleaned my entire house (okay my teeny, tiny 2-room place) and even moved furniture. I dusted, swept, and threw things away. I even cleaned my windows.
The humidly has left for the time being, and it's actually starting to kind of get cold. At night it's in the 70s, and I've been sleeping with a sheet! I even wear my long-sleeve shirt in the mornings sometimes because it's a little chilly. I heard that the temperatures will drop some more soon. Then it'll just work its way up to being really hot and raining all the time again. A new group came last week, and some of them were going on and on about how nice the Gambia is. I thought, "just you wait!"
The problems with the bats seem to have been solved. Papa Jammeh put up some chicken wire along the line where the roof and the ceiling meet. I've been trying to keep the place nice just in case I do get replaced. I doubt it, but you never know. Papa Jammeh also showed up one day to fix the screen. I could hear him shouting my name while I was cutting down the top of my morigna tree with my machete, and when I went to greet him at the door he was outside of the window. He smiled and said, "Fatou screen mang beteyatta." (Fatou your screen is not good.) He said this with his arm inside the screen. I had been meaning to get the screen replaced, but I kept forgetting to buy a new screen. Papa Jammeh once again had taken care of me.
I still cannot believe that I have been here for almost one year. November is almost over, and then December will fly by. I've got the trip and Christmas, so that will fly by as well. Jenni is staying with me after the trip til Christmas, and she is bringing her bike, so we'll be able to do a lot of things. Maybe even ride to the beach! Before I know it I will have been here one year, and then it will be time to get all of my check-ups.
In February there's WAIST (West African International Softball Tournament). I'm planning on playing on the social team, which is the worst of the three teams that PC The Gambia is sending. I've heard that all of our teams do poorly, but I'm playing on the team where people might not even be able to catch the ball. I want to play with my friends, and to be perfectly honest I just want to have fun. People have been practicing for a couple of months for the other two teams, and if I'm on vacation then I want to have fun and relax. I gave up competitive sports a long time ago because I hate all of the pressure. Some time in the Spring I'm also going to get my Fula scars done. AKA let an old woman slice into my back using a razor blade.
I've got a lot to look forward to, and things are FINALLY picking up at site! The couple of months should fly by!
Only 12 days to go til Farjara for Thanksgiving. Only 17 days to go til holiday!!!
I recently discovered the joy of bike riding again. I've been riding my bike all over the Greater Brikama Area. If I ride east of my village, then I have to ride up and down hills which can get quite tiring after some time. It's good for my legs, so I try to do it a couple of times a week. My family still doesn't get that I'm just riding for fun, and they always want to know where I'm going/where I've been. I always tell them, "N ka ta training," which means "I go training." They still think I'm a total weirdo, but I'm sure that they're just thinking, "oh that crazy Fatoumata." Some people in my village actually get what I'm doing though. The other day one of the bitik owners in my village told me that he saw me training, and how wonderful training is for the body.
I've had some crazy adventures while riding my bike. Today while riding through Brikama, some random Gambian man shouted out, "hey Katie!" That was a little odd! I also get a lot of kissy faces/noises and obscene gestures from the truck drivers, so I'm just as rude right back. I've given quite a few people the finger in this country. I also sometimes get bothered by the truckers that sleep by the road outside of my house, but I find that a few choice words usually shut them up really fast. They seem to understand exactly what I am saying to them.
Today I did a little "off-roading" in search of a lodge that I saw a sign for on the side of the road. The sign said that the lodge was "400 meters" off the road, but I have no clue how far of a distance that actually is. I road down the road and ended up in a village. I then turned around, and tried a different path, and ended up in a garbage dump. There were other paths left to explore, and I plan on going back soon, and this time paying closer attention for car tracks. I really want to find this place. I mean what if it has a pool!!! That would be amazing.
I'm still losing a lot of weight, and soon I'm going to be thinner than when I was in high school. Most people aim for their high school weight; looks like I'm going for middle school. I've been really hungry lately which I guess is because I've been working out. I eat a lot of food, and nothing satisfies me any more. What I wouldn't give for some french onion dip made out of sour cream and french onion soup mix! There doesn't seem to be any sour cream in The Gambia, but I have been told that the plain yogurt here is a great substitute.
Everything here for the most part is "natural," so I'll probably come home all "healthy" and unable to eat processed foods. Even though I've already decided that I'll only buy produce from farmer's markets from now on (it's cheaper and better quality), I swear that I will of everything in my power to get my body used to an extreme amount of processed foods again! I will also join a gym.
I've found that hot sauce makes all of the nasty food my host aunt cooks magically taste good. Just sprinkle a little, or a lot in some circumstances, and the food goes from bland to bam! I also can't wait to get the box that my mom sent because there is canned chicken in it. I'm going to mix some of it up with mayo and hot sauce, and then eat it on bread. I can't wait! Right now I'm just really hoping that my package came in, and that it will be delivered on mail run. Because of Thanksgiving and the All-Volunteer Meeting this month, mail run got shortened from 6 days to 4 days. I just hope that they'll deliver my package even though I live with 2 hours of Farjara.
I'm starting to get really antsy waiting for this trip! On Wed I cleaned my entire house (okay my teeny, tiny 2-room place) and even moved furniture. I dusted, swept, and threw things away. I even cleaned my windows.
The humidly has left for the time being, and it's actually starting to kind of get cold. At night it's in the 70s, and I've been sleeping with a sheet! I even wear my long-sleeve shirt in the mornings sometimes because it's a little chilly. I heard that the temperatures will drop some more soon. Then it'll just work its way up to being really hot and raining all the time again. A new group came last week, and some of them were going on and on about how nice the Gambia is. I thought, "just you wait!"
The problems with the bats seem to have been solved. Papa Jammeh put up some chicken wire along the line where the roof and the ceiling meet. I've been trying to keep the place nice just in case I do get replaced. I doubt it, but you never know. Papa Jammeh also showed up one day to fix the screen. I could hear him shouting my name while I was cutting down the top of my morigna tree with my machete, and when I went to greet him at the door he was outside of the window. He smiled and said, "Fatou screen mang beteyatta." (Fatou your screen is not good.) He said this with his arm inside the screen. I had been meaning to get the screen replaced, but I kept forgetting to buy a new screen. Papa Jammeh once again had taken care of me.
I still cannot believe that I have been here for almost one year. November is almost over, and then December will fly by. I've got the trip and Christmas, so that will fly by as well. Jenni is staying with me after the trip til Christmas, and she is bringing her bike, so we'll be able to do a lot of things. Maybe even ride to the beach! Before I know it I will have been here one year, and then it will be time to get all of my check-ups.
In February there's WAIST (West African International Softball Tournament). I'm planning on playing on the social team, which is the worst of the three teams that PC The Gambia is sending. I've heard that all of our teams do poorly, but I'm playing on the team where people might not even be able to catch the ball. I want to play with my friends, and to be perfectly honest I just want to have fun. People have been practicing for a couple of months for the other two teams, and if I'm on vacation then I want to have fun and relax. I gave up competitive sports a long time ago because I hate all of the pressure. Some time in the Spring I'm also going to get my Fula scars done. AKA let an old woman slice into my back using a razor blade.
I've got a lot to look forward to, and things are FINALLY picking up at site! The couple of months should fly by!
From October
10/20/2008
Lately things have been going pretty slow here at site. Romonda ended with the celebration of Korieta. My fasting was cut short with a last minute trip to see Amanda, bit I was able to make it 10 days. I was supposed to wake up every morning around 5am to eat breakfast, but I was never able to do that so I just ended up starving all day. I did however sneak small sips of water throughout the day because I was getting dizzy spells. Every evening by 7pm I was pacing by my front door waiting for the women to set up the small meal to break fast, aka "the appetizers." By 7:20pm, I was outside pacing around with the rest of the family patiently waiting until the Iman called out on the Mosque loudspeaker that it was time to eat. I do not speak Arabic so I have no idea if this part is true, but I would like to believe that he shouted "people it's time to eat!!!" every evening.
I missed the first half of Romonda because of my finger infection, so by the time I started it was just an old habit for everyone else. Every night we had a mashed bean dip with a red pepper sauce. It was actually one of the most amazing things that I've had here. I was told by other PCVs that they didn't get anything like that. We had bread to dip in the dishes as well. Next, we always ate the millet porridge. We all had ladle-type spoons, and we ate out of a large bowl. Everyone also got a cup of tea to enjoy with the meal. We also usually had one large glass of cold water that everyone shared. Sometimes if one of Papa Jammeh's older children were visiting they'd bring juice mix. They sometimes also brought chicken along which was always amazing!!!
I ate with the women every night. Once we had all we wanted, the kids would move in to finish off the dishes. I never felt bad because the kids had been eating all day. Papa Jammeh ate alone in his house, and was occasionally joined by some of his friends. The other men ate around their own food bowl nearby to us women folk. Everyone that lives in the side house did their own thing. They just ate on their porch.
After dinner all of the adults, minus me, had to pray A LOT!!! Some nights they left to pray places, other times they just took their mats to isolated places and prayed. During all of this I just laid out on the mats with all of the kids. My cousin, Binta "LaLa," age 7, liked to cuddle with me. This was okay til I remember that LaLa would be an instant candidate for ADHD medication in the USA. She wiggled and turned all over, and constantly adjusted my arms. She also liked to call me her "daano" "baby," and it became our running joke. I also had to squeeze on the mat with Sirea and Mariama, so we all pretty much slept on top of each other. At around 9:30p or so, it was time to eat dinner. The food was a lot better than it normally is. We had a lot of vegetables, and all of the food tasted much richer.
A big part of Romonda is bread. Everyone breaks fast with bread. It's just what you do. Everything went very well with the bread the first two days that I was fasting, and then I noticed that they bread sections that everyone was getting was getting smaller and smaller each night until there was no bread at all in the whole village!!! I know this because I ran from bitik to bitik in search of bread. When I finally thought to ask someone what was going on, I was told that the Fula bakers went on strike, and that we may not have bread for a while. (The Fulas are one of the ethnic groups here, and they speak Pular.)
With the price of everything going up, the price of flour did as well. I heard that a sack of flour went up to D1,000, roughly $48 US Dollars. The bakers in Brikama started making the bread smaller, but they still charged the same price to buy each individual piece of bread. The Western Region Governor got wind of this, and told the bakers to reduce the price. The bakers said no, and eventually stopped selling the bread altogether. I've got to respect them for sticking it to the gov't and standing up for themselves, but on those days I really wanted my bread!!! We went two whole days without any bread at all, and then some of the small bakeries started baking bread. There wasn't very much bread, but we were all able to get a small piece each night. I loved the bean dip so much that I just ended up eating it with my hands most days. Then finally one afternoon I saw some kids with bread and asked them where they got it. I ran to that bitik which was overflowing with bread! We finally had bread again! I bought one loaf of bread, and ran home super excited. Turns out that the gov't really threatened the bakers about something with licenses. I'm not sure what it was but it worked!!!
Lately things have been going pretty slow here at site. Romonda ended with the celebration of Korieta. My fasting was cut short with a last minute trip to see Amanda, bit I was able to make it 10 days. I was supposed to wake up every morning around 5am to eat breakfast, but I was never able to do that so I just ended up starving all day. I did however sneak small sips of water throughout the day because I was getting dizzy spells. Every evening by 7pm I was pacing by my front door waiting for the women to set up the small meal to break fast, aka "the appetizers." By 7:20pm, I was outside pacing around with the rest of the family patiently waiting until the Iman called out on the Mosque loudspeaker that it was time to eat. I do not speak Arabic so I have no idea if this part is true, but I would like to believe that he shouted "people it's time to eat!!!" every evening.
I missed the first half of Romonda because of my finger infection, so by the time I started it was just an old habit for everyone else. Every night we had a mashed bean dip with a red pepper sauce. It was actually one of the most amazing things that I've had here. I was told by other PCVs that they didn't get anything like that. We had bread to dip in the dishes as well. Next, we always ate the millet porridge. We all had ladle-type spoons, and we ate out of a large bowl. Everyone also got a cup of tea to enjoy with the meal. We also usually had one large glass of cold water that everyone shared. Sometimes if one of Papa Jammeh's older children were visiting they'd bring juice mix. They sometimes also brought chicken along which was always amazing!!!
I ate with the women every night. Once we had all we wanted, the kids would move in to finish off the dishes. I never felt bad because the kids had been eating all day. Papa Jammeh ate alone in his house, and was occasionally joined by some of his friends. The other men ate around their own food bowl nearby to us women folk. Everyone that lives in the side house did their own thing. They just ate on their porch.
After dinner all of the adults, minus me, had to pray A LOT!!! Some nights they left to pray places, other times they just took their mats to isolated places and prayed. During all of this I just laid out on the mats with all of the kids. My cousin, Binta "LaLa," age 7, liked to cuddle with me. This was okay til I remember that LaLa would be an instant candidate for ADHD medication in the USA. She wiggled and turned all over, and constantly adjusted my arms. She also liked to call me her "daano" "baby," and it became our running joke. I also had to squeeze on the mat with Sirea and Mariama, so we all pretty much slept on top of each other. At around 9:30p or so, it was time to eat dinner. The food was a lot better than it normally is. We had a lot of vegetables, and all of the food tasted much richer.
A big part of Romonda is bread. Everyone breaks fast with bread. It's just what you do. Everything went very well with the bread the first two days that I was fasting, and then I noticed that they bread sections that everyone was getting was getting smaller and smaller each night until there was no bread at all in the whole village!!! I know this because I ran from bitik to bitik in search of bread. When I finally thought to ask someone what was going on, I was told that the Fula bakers went on strike, and that we may not have bread for a while. (The Fulas are one of the ethnic groups here, and they speak Pular.)
With the price of everything going up, the price of flour did as well. I heard that a sack of flour went up to D1,000, roughly $48 US Dollars. The bakers in Brikama started making the bread smaller, but they still charged the same price to buy each individual piece of bread. The Western Region Governor got wind of this, and told the bakers to reduce the price. The bakers said no, and eventually stopped selling the bread altogether. I've got to respect them for sticking it to the gov't and standing up for themselves, but on those days I really wanted my bread!!! We went two whole days without any bread at all, and then some of the small bakeries started baking bread. There wasn't very much bread, but we were all able to get a small piece each night. I loved the bean dip so much that I just ended up eating it with my hands most days. Then finally one afternoon I saw some kids with bread and asked them where they got it. I ran to that bitik which was overflowing with bread! We finally had bread again! I bought one loaf of bread, and ran home super excited. Turns out that the gov't really threatened the bakers about something with licenses. I'm not sure what it was but it worked!!!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Sorry It's Been Forever!!!
Okay, so I haven't written anything in a while. I think that I may have written some blogs out at site, but I left that book at home so I am not sure. I'll be back down here in Farjara at the end of the month for an All-Volunteer meeting as well as Thanksgiving. Every single person in PC will be here, so it's not likely that I will be able to get on the computer very much.
Right after Thanksgiving, on Dec 1, I am leaving for my Spain/Morocco trip!!! I'm super excited, but to be perfectly honest it really hasn't hit me yet that I am going on a trip. I've heard from other volunteers that it is really nice to just get out of The Gambia for a little bit. I really do like it here, but now that it is all "normal" (whatever that means) to me, I often get annoyed. I've gotten so comfortable with my family now that sometimes I just get annoyed with them like I do my family back home. Two weeks ago I got so annoyed with my Aunt for following me around and trying to boss me around, that I just left and went to see my friend Isatou all day. I cooked and cleaned with her, and then just ate lunch with her family. Her compound is small, so it's nice to go over there sometimes. It's just Isatou, her Mom, her sister, Isatou's 3 daughters, and her sister's 3 kids. Her sister is also about to have another baby very soon so I excited!!!
December will be a wild month. I have the trip, and I am returning the day after Tobaski starts. Tobaski is basically the Muslim version of Christmas, only the they are smarter about it because they spread it out over multiple days. I think that Jenni is going to come stay with me in-between when we return and Christmas. As of now the plan is to celebrate Christmas in Farjara at the PC house. I want to make Christmas cookies, so we'll see how that turns out.
This has been a crazy month!!! The first Saturday of the month we celebrated Jenni's birthday that actually took place at the end of September. We bought fried chicken, and made potato salad, a salad with ranch dressing and croutons, watermelon, and a cake. It was AMAZING!!! I either ate too much or my stomach isn't designed to handle that sort of food any more, and sadly I threw most if it back up. At least I got to taste it!!! I'm going to pig out in Spain, and even if most of it doesn't stay down, I'll be happy to have tasted it. Anyone reading this may think that it is crazy, but if everything you ate everyday never satisfied you, then you would be happy to taste something that does. Two weeks later, I attended a girls night at another volunteers house. It was interesting, and that is all I have to say about that. On the Wednesday before Halloween, I went up to Jenni's house. I decided to hang out with Amanda that morning in Farjara, so I got off to a late start. By the time I traveled all the way up to Jenni's house it was almost evening, so I got stuck on a gele to her village that took forever!!! I guess normally the geles take the paved road, but later in the day they travel down the bush roads. I'm really not sure that the paths we drove down qualify as a road though. Sometimes the gele was pretty much "four-wheeling it" over broken rocks. At one point I was certain that the thing would flip! This was also the week of my dreaded "running stomach." (This is the polite Gambian term for diarrhea.) Let's just say that when I finally made it to Jenni's house I was very happy. I hung out with Jenni and Shayla, ate a little bit of dinner because my stomach felt so bad, and then passed out. The next morning Jenni really wanted to walk to the river, so I decided to just go. She said that it was like 9k away, but it was cool (oh by the way, it gets cold here at night now), so I figured that I could tough it out. I also was stupid and wore a sleeveless shirt and forgot to bring sunscreen. By the time we were half-way there, I was really sick and starting to burn. It was ugly. When we finally got there I had to run into the bushes, and I spent a great deal of time there throughout the day. We walked home in the late afternoon when it started to cool down. We walked down a path from the river, and ended up in someone in the village's back yard. We walked right through their kitchen, and they invited us to lunch. We declined, but it was just showed how polite Gambians are. They didn't even know us, but they still invited us into their home. We walked to the water pump, and filled up our buckets. We also splashed water all over ourselves, but we were completely dry 15 minutes into our long journey back to Jenni's village. We walked through a couple of villages, and it was funny because I'm willing to bet that it was the first time that they saw a group of toubabs walking through their teeny, tiny villages in the middle of the bush.
On Halloween, Shayla, Jenni, and I traveled to another girl's site to celebrate Halloween. Her site was full of all these old colonial abandoned buildings. The place was really cool!!! They even have an outdoor movie theater that no one uses. Most of the party took place at an old peanut factory. All of the machines where still inside, and at night it was really creepy. We camped out on the dock, which was directly on the Gambian River. It got cold at night, and a little creepy, but I was still sick, so I did not sleep too much. On Saturday we traveled to Amanda's house because the week before her host Mother had twins. One boy and one girl. On Sunday the kulio (naming ceremony) took place. The four of us got dressed up in our matching outfits from our swearing-in ceremony, and we spent the day being stared at my everyone that came to the party. The babies were really cute!!! They were only a week old, so they just sort of sat there. They were named Adama (boy) and Hawa (girl). This is a pretty common name pairing for twin babies. On Monday Shayla, Jenni, and I traveled to Farjara and just hung out. On Tuesday we decided to just stop by the US Embassy because we were too tired to go to any parties. I stayed up until about 1am here (8p est i think), and then fell asleep on the folding chair bed that I made. I woke up every hour to see how the electoral votes were going, and then at like 4am they announced that Obama won. Outside the Embassy people started honking their horns and shouting. People of the Gambia were very happy!!! It's very different to have people actually like the US President. We'll have to see what happens. I think that Obama really wants to make a lot of change, and I pray to God that he can do it. I missed seeing his speech, but I heard that it was amazing.
On Wednesday, Jenni, Shayla, and I went to my house. We spent Wed and Thurs being lazy, and pretty much reading and napping most of the time. We hadn't slept much during the past week, so we were trying to play catch-up. We also messed with Ebrima aka the "little special boy" who lives in my compound. He's four, and he just started talking two months ago. He's "afraid" of my friends that come to visit, so I chase him and threaten to take him to them, and he screams. It's actually quite funny. Then when he thinks that he is tough, he comes to my door and shouts at us. It's very entertaining. We decided to come back today, Friday, instead of Sunday, because Shayla was feeling a little sick, and we were having a problem with bats.
Right now the moon is in the process each night of getting full, so the bats are going crazy right now. Usually they just dive bomb my house, and scream a lot outside. I've gotten used to this, and it doesn't even bother me anymore when they come close to me as I am bathing. On Wed night everything was going fine until we heard some movement in my ceiling (i have a aluminum ceiling under the roof, so I'm never worried about all of the creepy things that live up there). The movement was quickly followed by the worst screaming sound that I have ever heard!!! Imagine your worst and times it by one-hundred! We could also hear it trying to walk around up there, and what sounded like it tearing up the ceiling. Then last night, there wasn't as much screaming, but the bat really sounded like it was destroying the house. This morning when I woke up I found Papa Jammeh and tried to explain what was going on to him. Actually I spoke to Mama Jammeh first, and she didn't really get what was going on. I think that she really enjoyed watching me pretend to be a bat that was attacking my house. I kept saying "tansoo" which is Mandinka for bat. Then Papa Jammeh showed up and also got a kick out of my impersonations. I have no idea how to say ceiling, so he thought that I was just talking about them dive bombing the roof. Finally Brama, a bitik owner that is some how related to me, stopped by, and helped me translate into Jola what was going on with the bats. I led Papa Jammeh over to the part of the house where the bats had knocked away the rocks to get into my ceiling, and he promised me that he would fix it. I told him that I was just more worried about the bats destroying his house.
Now I'm back in Farjara until Sunday. The newest group of PCVs arrived yesterday, so now I'm getting to be even more of an upperclassman. I can't believe that I'm getting close to one year already! I heard that the second year goes by even faster which is really scary!!! My health group came in February, but now the group comes in November with the Agfos, so in a way I am a second year already. Yikes!!! Before I know it this entire crazy adventure will be over!!! Then it's back to the real world. Dear Lord I'm not sure if I can handle it after being gone for so long!
Right after Thanksgiving, on Dec 1, I am leaving for my Spain/Morocco trip!!! I'm super excited, but to be perfectly honest it really hasn't hit me yet that I am going on a trip. I've heard from other volunteers that it is really nice to just get out of The Gambia for a little bit. I really do like it here, but now that it is all "normal" (whatever that means) to me, I often get annoyed. I've gotten so comfortable with my family now that sometimes I just get annoyed with them like I do my family back home. Two weeks ago I got so annoyed with my Aunt for following me around and trying to boss me around, that I just left and went to see my friend Isatou all day. I cooked and cleaned with her, and then just ate lunch with her family. Her compound is small, so it's nice to go over there sometimes. It's just Isatou, her Mom, her sister, Isatou's 3 daughters, and her sister's 3 kids. Her sister is also about to have another baby very soon so I excited!!!
December will be a wild month. I have the trip, and I am returning the day after Tobaski starts. Tobaski is basically the Muslim version of Christmas, only the they are smarter about it because they spread it out over multiple days. I think that Jenni is going to come stay with me in-between when we return and Christmas. As of now the plan is to celebrate Christmas in Farjara at the PC house. I want to make Christmas cookies, so we'll see how that turns out.
This has been a crazy month!!! The first Saturday of the month we celebrated Jenni's birthday that actually took place at the end of September. We bought fried chicken, and made potato salad, a salad with ranch dressing and croutons, watermelon, and a cake. It was AMAZING!!! I either ate too much or my stomach isn't designed to handle that sort of food any more, and sadly I threw most if it back up. At least I got to taste it!!! I'm going to pig out in Spain, and even if most of it doesn't stay down, I'll be happy to have tasted it. Anyone reading this may think that it is crazy, but if everything you ate everyday never satisfied you, then you would be happy to taste something that does. Two weeks later, I attended a girls night at another volunteers house. It was interesting, and that is all I have to say about that. On the Wednesday before Halloween, I went up to Jenni's house. I decided to hang out with Amanda that morning in Farjara, so I got off to a late start. By the time I traveled all the way up to Jenni's house it was almost evening, so I got stuck on a gele to her village that took forever!!! I guess normally the geles take the paved road, but later in the day they travel down the bush roads. I'm really not sure that the paths we drove down qualify as a road though. Sometimes the gele was pretty much "four-wheeling it" over broken rocks. At one point I was certain that the thing would flip! This was also the week of my dreaded "running stomach." (This is the polite Gambian term for diarrhea.) Let's just say that when I finally made it to Jenni's house I was very happy. I hung out with Jenni and Shayla, ate a little bit of dinner because my stomach felt so bad, and then passed out. The next morning Jenni really wanted to walk to the river, so I decided to just go. She said that it was like 9k away, but it was cool (oh by the way, it gets cold here at night now), so I figured that I could tough it out. I also was stupid and wore a sleeveless shirt and forgot to bring sunscreen. By the time we were half-way there, I was really sick and starting to burn. It was ugly. When we finally got there I had to run into the bushes, and I spent a great deal of time there throughout the day. We walked home in the late afternoon when it started to cool down. We walked down a path from the river, and ended up in someone in the village's back yard. We walked right through their kitchen, and they invited us to lunch. We declined, but it was just showed how polite Gambians are. They didn't even know us, but they still invited us into their home. We walked to the water pump, and filled up our buckets. We also splashed water all over ourselves, but we were completely dry 15 minutes into our long journey back to Jenni's village. We walked through a couple of villages, and it was funny because I'm willing to bet that it was the first time that they saw a group of toubabs walking through their teeny, tiny villages in the middle of the bush.
On Halloween, Shayla, Jenni, and I traveled to another girl's site to celebrate Halloween. Her site was full of all these old colonial abandoned buildings. The place was really cool!!! They even have an outdoor movie theater that no one uses. Most of the party took place at an old peanut factory. All of the machines where still inside, and at night it was really creepy. We camped out on the dock, which was directly on the Gambian River. It got cold at night, and a little creepy, but I was still sick, so I did not sleep too much. On Saturday we traveled to Amanda's house because the week before her host Mother had twins. One boy and one girl. On Sunday the kulio (naming ceremony) took place. The four of us got dressed up in our matching outfits from our swearing-in ceremony, and we spent the day being stared at my everyone that came to the party. The babies were really cute!!! They were only a week old, so they just sort of sat there. They were named Adama (boy) and Hawa (girl). This is a pretty common name pairing for twin babies. On Monday Shayla, Jenni, and I traveled to Farjara and just hung out. On Tuesday we decided to just stop by the US Embassy because we were too tired to go to any parties. I stayed up until about 1am here (8p est i think), and then fell asleep on the folding chair bed that I made. I woke up every hour to see how the electoral votes were going, and then at like 4am they announced that Obama won. Outside the Embassy people started honking their horns and shouting. People of the Gambia were very happy!!! It's very different to have people actually like the US President. We'll have to see what happens. I think that Obama really wants to make a lot of change, and I pray to God that he can do it. I missed seeing his speech, but I heard that it was amazing.
On Wednesday, Jenni, Shayla, and I went to my house. We spent Wed and Thurs being lazy, and pretty much reading and napping most of the time. We hadn't slept much during the past week, so we were trying to play catch-up. We also messed with Ebrima aka the "little special boy" who lives in my compound. He's four, and he just started talking two months ago. He's "afraid" of my friends that come to visit, so I chase him and threaten to take him to them, and he screams. It's actually quite funny. Then when he thinks that he is tough, he comes to my door and shouts at us. It's very entertaining. We decided to come back today, Friday, instead of Sunday, because Shayla was feeling a little sick, and we were having a problem with bats.
Right now the moon is in the process each night of getting full, so the bats are going crazy right now. Usually they just dive bomb my house, and scream a lot outside. I've gotten used to this, and it doesn't even bother me anymore when they come close to me as I am bathing. On Wed night everything was going fine until we heard some movement in my ceiling (i have a aluminum ceiling under the roof, so I'm never worried about all of the creepy things that live up there). The movement was quickly followed by the worst screaming sound that I have ever heard!!! Imagine your worst and times it by one-hundred! We could also hear it trying to walk around up there, and what sounded like it tearing up the ceiling. Then last night, there wasn't as much screaming, but the bat really sounded like it was destroying the house. This morning when I woke up I found Papa Jammeh and tried to explain what was going on to him. Actually I spoke to Mama Jammeh first, and she didn't really get what was going on. I think that she really enjoyed watching me pretend to be a bat that was attacking my house. I kept saying "tansoo" which is Mandinka for bat. Then Papa Jammeh showed up and also got a kick out of my impersonations. I have no idea how to say ceiling, so he thought that I was just talking about them dive bombing the roof. Finally Brama, a bitik owner that is some how related to me, stopped by, and helped me translate into Jola what was going on with the bats. I led Papa Jammeh over to the part of the house where the bats had knocked away the rocks to get into my ceiling, and he promised me that he would fix it. I told him that I was just more worried about the bats destroying his house.
Now I'm back in Farjara until Sunday. The newest group of PCVs arrived yesterday, so now I'm getting to be even more of an upperclassman. I can't believe that I'm getting close to one year already! I heard that the second year goes by even faster which is really scary!!! My health group came in February, but now the group comes in November with the Agfos, so in a way I am a second year already. Yikes!!! Before I know it this entire crazy adventure will be over!!! Then it's back to the real world. Dear Lord I'm not sure if I can handle it after being gone for so long!
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