7/10/2014

The Heat is On...

So, it's been an interesting couple of weeks....

I've hit many milestones since I last checked in.  Most significantly, I've learned to urinate while effectively aiming at cockroaches, to fetch water from a pump-well and carry it the half-mile back to my house without spilling, and to eat a mango the size of a cantaloupe in approximately two minutes.  Life, in short....has changed a bit.

We all left the capital area of Banjul at the end of June and were transported to our "training villages" where we will stay until the end of August when we are officially sworn in as volunteers.  In these villages, we live in our own house or room, have our own outdoor bathroom area, complete with pit latrine (AKA 10 foot deep cement hole) and have a family who "adopts" us and helps us adjust to the new culture.  For these couple of months, we are near three other volunteers, so every morning we meet up at our teacher's house, who is a native of the Fula tribe, and he helps us learn the local language called Pular.  It's a long and stressful day, as learning so much so quickly while the hot sun beats down on us is noooo joke.  My body and mind are still adjusting to this heat. My hand to God I will never again take a cool breeze for granted. I've have never considered myself to be particularly religious, but every time the wind blows, I say a prayer for it to happen again, so we'll see....I may end up a full-on Deacon by the time I'm out of here!

Aside from formal lessons, we have blocks set aside in the day to just walk around the village and practice speaking to people.  This is helpful at times, but also endlessly frustrating and exhausting.  They want so badly to communicate with us and assume that because we are taking lessons, fluency is just around the corner.  As you can imagine, this is not the case.  It's a slow-going process.  Although, two days ago I overhead an old woman on the other side of my bathroom fence say, "Look!  That foreigner is taking another bath!", as she could see my headlamp on and hear me splashing around.  I didn't know whether to be angry at the prospect of being referred to as "that foreigner" or totally ecstatic that I could understand it....

Speaking of old ladies...One of my absolute favorite things that occurs so far has been the dancing-and it's still Ramadan where music and dance are mostly forbidden, so I ain't seen nothin' yet.  The life and energy of dance here is almost enough to make up for being served white rice grits for breakfast, which I lovingly refer to as "hate soup" and clearly can't get enough of.  So the first time we danced with the people in the village, a huge crowd gathered to amuse themselves and watch the strange white people do strange white people things.  Two kids were showing us how to get down and were getting super frisky.  We loved it, but were also not about to join in at a bump and grind in broad daylight--at least not on the first day... But then, I looked over and saw the sweetest, smallest, wrinkliest granny of the bunch give a loud clap and drop it to the floor.  It was then that I knew things were going to be alright.  I mean...if grannies are going full- twerk at noon, then this is definitely the place for me. 

This isn't to say that this time has been without hardships...The food has proved a daily struggle for me.  Not eating many carbohydrates in a culture that believes "noodle dip" is a thing has been...very trying.  Boiled eggs, bits of chicken or fish and the occasional giant mango have been my saviors so far, but I can't wait to move to my permanent site where I can buy all the beans and lentils and cook for myself.  I plan to cover everything in oregano and pound it all directly to the face. 

Other difficult moments are more lacking in comic relief...It was an absolute shock upon arrival to realize where I'd be living.  Dirt floor, stifling hot rooms with no fan or hint of breeze, and the children...Hundreds of children--half naked, fully covered in filth, and totally without the things they need to thrive.  Many are very sick, others are underfed, and all of them need more love and affection than their families are able to provide.  There are simply too many of them.  I've seen babies no older than 10 months walking pant-less down a dirt path alone while sucking on a battery.  I've walked in on my two-year-old "nephew" playing with a huge kitchen knife in the back yard, and on a daily basis I see toddlers carrying infants on their backs while doing hard laborious chores.  This is not meant as a judgement-it's just an unfortunate and unavoidable circumstance of the conditions here.  It will be interesting to see how my views on all of this change throughout my time here....or if any of this will ever cease to freeze me in my tracks. 

Instead of continuing on for ages, I've decided to compile a Top 5 list.  I love Top 5 lists and assuming things continue to amuse me here, I will try and make one every month.  Here goes. 

                                         Top 5 Gambian Moments of the Month: JULY

5)  Having to absolutely M.U.R.D.E.R. all spiders and bugs.  They are such resilient freaks of nature that a simple stomp will just not suffice.  They must be stabbed-violently.. repeatedly.. in order to die.

4) Having a five-year-old girl come to my rescue and help teach me to make Attaya, the local tea.  I thought I had a high tolerance for touching hot things, but apparently, these hot things do not include burning coals or metal teapots containing boiling water.  #Epicfail #Whatfingertips?

3) Realizing that as a random white person, I am pretty much the strangest, most intriguing thing some of these people have ever seen.  There are people peeking through my windows and watching me AT ALL TIMES.  They watch me while I sleep, they watch me bleach and filter my water, one kid even watched me exercise for 40 minutes without so much as acknowledging me...just hands up against the window, mouth agape, like I was on fire.  At first, I tried to get them to stop and explained how I generally prefer a bit more privacy, but mostly they just nodded and laughed because they have no idea what I'm saying.  So now, the way I see it, if you see me sweeping my house naked, that's your problem. 

2) Coming to terms with the fact that corn rows are not for me.  I've only given it one fair shake, but a second shot is not likely.  It lasted a day, no-I have no photographic evidence of said rows, and yes- I looked very much like an extra from Orange is the New Black.  Full disclosure, I think it also affected my personality insofar as I felt a little tough and much less inclined to smile at children, and I think I even licked my teeth a few times. 

 The Absolute #1 realization about Gambian life thusfar is.................

1)  That goats really actually do sound like screaming humans.  Now, for some of you, this may not be a shocker, but for me, it was nothing short of mind blowing.  A goat noise never even occurred to me until last year when that Taylor Swift video went viral.  And even then I just figured it was digitally enhanced.  Turns out...that just actually how they sound.  I wake at all hours of the night in a panic thinking a small child has fallen down a well, when the reality is, the goat in my bathroom just wanted to say goodnight. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFgx5MY72Dk