More picture of life in Gambia

My training group at swear-in. The fabulous Gambians

with us are our teachers Kunta and Bakari.

Here you see Mac the Manitee and Mr. Turtle,

they are the new additions to my livingroom.

This is the other half of the mural in my living room.

The octopus is named Ollie.

My cat is quite the tree climber.

My cat crunching on a lizard.
Yummy!

Backyard/ bathroom.
Yes, that is the toilet on the left.

Here is a picture of my bedroom.

The kids in my compound went crazy over bubbles!

Time to go shopping!!!

Typical Day in Village

5:30am: Eyes open... Why am I awake?

6:00am: Prayer call, not so bad when they have a normal person do it, excruciating when they have the sick old man do it and it sounds like a donkey braying in pain

6:05am: Trip to latrine then back to bed to snuggle with cat

8:30am: Get out of bed (because this is a decent time to get up)

9:00am: Open door and greet family. Visit bitik and decide what I want for breakfast

9:30am: Breakfast maybe chocolate spread and peanut butter on bread. Yummy!

10:00am-12:00pm: Read, paint, talk with children, hang with family.

12:00pm-2:00pm: Make lunch, cooked over a wood fire, takes a while.

2:00pm: Lunch, if I'm lucky it is fish balls with domada

2:30pm-4:00pm: Brew Attaya with the boys next door and chat out on the porch.

4:00pm-6:30pm: Play with children, practice my pathetic Mandinka

6:30pm: Bucket bath, must get to this before the sun goes down

7:00pm-8:30pm: Visit with family, sit out under mango tree in compound

8:30pm: Dinner

9:00pm: Off to bed to read for a while ( I have read a lot of books!)

Sleep!

Get up and do it all over again tomorrow. Soon I will find work to do in the village that will begin to take up some of my time but now I am mainly working on integrating with the family and getting to know the village.

Thoughts on life in village:

Food:
Gambian food is great, or at least I think so. The only exception to this is plasas, which I find totally vile. I mean who in their right mind wants to eat green paste with fish parts pounded into all topped off with palm nut oil (if you do not know what this is I will say it it a mostly solid that is bright red in color and has a very distinct flavor, not a good one). My favorite things to eat here are fish balls and domada (fish meat balls in a spicy peanut sauce over rice). I also really like Yassa which is a sour onion sauce, so tasty! My sister Alima is teaching me to cook and soon I will be the perfect Gambian woman.

Clothes:
Day to day wear in village is simple, if it's clean that it is ok to wear. Nothing is really off limits as long as you keep from your knees to your waist covered. Shirts are optional for women when they are in their compound but you will always see men wearing shirts. The big challenge with Gambian fashion is programs. These are events in the village that require you to dress up, Gambian style. For women that means full-on wrap skirt and matching shirt but they must be fabulous. If you are not fully embroidered in gold thread, dripping lace or blinding people with sequins than you are under dressed. I have now attended several of these ceremonies with my family wearing American clothing. Pretty sure I embarrassed them with my lack of flare. So last week I went on a shopping spree with my sister to get some nice appropriate party clothes. I have to say when I wear them I feel pretty, oh so pretty I think it has something to do with the amount of sparkle involved.

Washing clothes:
Two trips to the well, three buckets of water, twenty pairs of underwear, ten shirts, four skirts, one pair of pants and a sheet. Two hours of scrubbing, three finger bloodied by rubbing them raw. This is no easy task. Number of items that don't really appear clean when finished: about half. Must find a women in village I can pay to do this. Washing clothes sucks!!!

Boys/Men:
Men in village do various jobs, work at the clinic, farm, run the corner store, build things and drive bush taxis. However their favorite pass times are drinking attaya (green tea) and proposing to me. I have managed to average 3 proposals a day. These range from my 6 year old cousin all the way up to my 80+ year old grandfather. I am one hot lady in the Gambia. Most often my response is I will marry you when you can buy me a house and a compound in California. I some how doubt that I will be getting married soon.

Girls/Women:
These are the strongest most hard working people I think I have ever met. They are almost always occupied with some task for the family and usually do it with a small child strapped to their back. They pound rice, Cook, sweep, wash clothing, clean the houses, care for the children, bathe the children, garden, do the shopping, take the children to medical visits and care for the elderly. They are pretty much super heros, had I not witnessed most of them with out shirts on I would have believed that they were all wearing Lycra unitards under their dresses proclaiming them Super Gambian Woman. I am in awe of these women. Most girls in my village go to school.

Football:
As with most parts of the world the predominate game is football, for all you Americans I mean soccer. We have spent the last month watching the African cup of Nations, and just in case you are wondering Egypt won (but they have for like the last 3 times). All the boys and most of the men in village play it. I was never much of a sports fan but I have to admit I kinda like football.

Pictures from Africa!

My cat, Niino Daano!

Me and my Bomba-hoes!

My favorite married couple, Luke and Alison!

Old men are the cutest!!!!

Seriously think this is the coolest picture I have taken!
These people are beautiful!

Walking through the bush by the village!

Me dressed like a Gambian on the way to my naming ceramony.

My new name is Kaddy Jarjue.

Me wearing a snake neckalce!

Chilling at the beach. Yes, that is me in a hammock,

sipping a cold beverage and enjoying the view.

Hanging out with my trainee buddies at a local bar.

So much has happened!

Ok, where to begin?

The New Year has come and New Years eve in Africa is very much the same as it is in the States, drinking with friends and general merry making. It was a good time even though I was super exhausted. So let me see if I can catch you up on what has been happening durin the last 2 months.

Which language will I speak?
I am a Mandinka. Our group of 35 trainees was split into 3 groups, the Mandikas, the Fulas and the Wolofs. The Mandinkas are the largest group.

Training Villiage:
We began our time in The Gambia in training villages, this is where they begin to teach us the language and the culture of the people we will be living with for the next two years. So basically everyday was a class designed for a two year old learning to say phrases like "I want..." "my name is..." "I live..." etc. We also began with some classes on Gambian manners here are a few that you all might find interesting:

-Never touch anyone with your left hand (it's the poo hand)
-Always greet people, if you don't you are seen as rude and stuck up
-Never walk over the food bowl
-Don't shake hands with a man unless he initates the handshake

And many more. The time in village was wonderful I had an amazing family that took really great care of me. The Daabo's were the best cooks ever and always gave me the most delicious food, all the other volunteers in the village were a bit jelious.

Our second day in village we had a naming ceramony, this is were all us Americans become Gambians. Tradionally naming ceramonies are done on the 8th day after a baby is born. Their head is shaved, they are given a name and a huge party is thrown. We got our own naming ceramony minus the headshaving. I was renamed Kaddy Daabo. I like the name, and I have a toma (this is the person you share your name with) my toma is my older sister. That is pretty cool. Gambians tend to name people after other family members or people in the community who they respect. So after I was christened Kaddy we ate pankaatos (little doughnut like things) and drank juice while women in the village danced for us and tried to persuade us to dance. After much protest I did join my sister Nako in a dance but it is sad how bad my dancing is. It is wonderful to now have a Gambian name, not only does it help you feel like part of the community but my Mandinka family could not pronouce Rachelle, so I shall now be Kaddy.

Everyday our classes were held under a giant mango tree which was pretty fantastic. We also would eat our lunches under the mango tree. We had an amazing cook named Mariama who made us the most delcious Gambian dishes such as Domada (spicy peanut sauce) and Benichin (fried rice) but my favorite was Yassa (a sour onion sauce). I think the food here is amazing!

There were 6 of us in training group, Alison and Luke (our married couple), Erica, Lucia, Danielle and Me! It was a great time, we all got along really well and enjoyed hanging out at night drinking Attaya (green tea) and playing rummy. It is our opinion that the Peace Corps turns you into old people. The majority of our conversations were centered around naps, GI issues, food quality and sickness. Our main joys in village were naps, playing cards and drinking tea.

It was difficlult to say goodbye to my family the were amazing and I feared that my new family could never live up to them. My taining family consisted of my father Bakari, his three wives Sunkar, Kumba and Satu and their 12 children. By far my favorite person was my sassy sister Nako who was a great deal of help and fun.

Trips to Training Camp:
We went to training camp three times during our time in training. The camp was reletivly close to all of our villages and it provided us a space to learn the techinical stuff together. We were there for the holidays as well whiched helped us by giving us tons of friends to be around. Thanksgiving was really fun, we spent most of the day cooking in less than favorable conditions and still managed to turn out a pretty good holiday feast, mainly due to Beth who went all out with her cooking to make sure we had all the necesarry pieces of a holiday meal. It was nice to spend the day with all of my new friends.

We went back twice more, once right around Christmas. For the most part these trips consisted of learning what we would be doing for the next two year but on Christmas eve something special was planned. For the past few years volunteers would take a day and go on a long hike through the National Park in Kiang. We went on Christmas eve. The day was supposed to be about a 15 mile hike that would have us back before 3. The Gambian is really flat so there would be very little difficulty (or so we were told). It all started off well in the early morning with us hiking throught the dried mut flats beside the river then we climbed to the highest place in the park to look out over the river Gambia, it was super beautiful. After that it all went wrong. We began hiking through 10ft tall grasses with no path and dispersed through the grass was many bushes covered in thorns. We were told it would only be a short hike down to the river. Hours later we are lost and Kunta, one of the Gambians with us, begins to climb tree to try and figure out which was we should be going. It was pretty misrable. We did not have enough water and we had no idea were we were going. Eventually we made the decision to head backt he way we came. In the end our 15 mile hike was more like 18-20 and many people we in serious pain by the time we made it to the enterance to the park and a car came to pick up the worst of us. It was crazy! We spent most of Christmas Day recovering but most of us are still glad that we had the experiance. There is nothing that bonds people quicker than a slightly tramatic experiance. (To any volunteer reading this who will becoming to the Gambia, this was not the way it normally happens and when given the chance to go on the hike yourself you should)

Site Visit:
The past few days I have spent in my new village getting to know everyone and see my new house before swear in. I live in a pretty big village about an hour outside of the city. I think it is amazing. My house is huge and my family is great. The third day I was there they had a naming ceramony in my compound so hundedred of people came by to see the new baby and learn her name. It was chaos, but also really fun. I am very lucky that the volunteer who was there before me will still be there till April. He has moved to the Hospital and I live in his old house but I think it is great to have someone else in village who had gone through this before. I also have a cat, Niinoo Daano (Rat Hunter) who was Steven's but had decided that he was to live with me. That is Ok with me because it mean significantly less rats and mice in the house.

I was attacked in my house on the second night in village. It was crazy. This horrible catipillar attacked my in my sleep, under my bednet no less. I was super pissed! Apparently I am allergic to catipillar and now have a significant rash on my back and hands. What a vile sneaky little creature.

Now:
I am now in the city awaiting swear in which is on January 8th. We are also finishing up all of our learning and paperwork before they set us free and send us out into the wild. I can't wait.

More to come...

Training village, Here I Come!

Today I have packed my bags and have prepared myself to move up country to our training villages. I will meet my new family, start a garden, poo in a hole, eat with my hands and practice Mandinka a lot in the next few days and weeks. I am super excited to be leaving at to really be starting my cultural and language training in earnest but I have to say I will miss the internet. Saying that makes me feel horribly privileged.... who in the world has internet enough to miss it when its gone, not many.

On Monday they are having a naming ceremony where they will dress us up in Gambian clothes and give us a Gambian name after pretend shaving our head (some of the braver volunteers are acutally shaving their heads). Today we went to the market in Banjul and I bought material... one is a beautiful green, red and blue patterened fabric and one is a suprise... but have to say that once I make it into a dress and post the pictures you will all be super happy/excited about it. I also got cell credit. very exciting.

Ok, so I will be with out the internet for like 2 months. I will be back on and updating in the beginning of January.

5 days in!

So, I have been in The Gambia for five whole days... wow! A lot has happened in those five days and here is a quick recap for those that may be interested.

Day 1: After 28 hours of travel (Philly-New York-Brussels-Dakar-The Gambia) we arrived. It was about 6:30pm in The Gambia. As we exited the plane we were hit by the heat, and the amazing view of tons of trees. The airport was pretty remarkable, it was strange to fly into an airport that was a single building and that was not surrounded by other buildings. The tarmac was surrounded by lush green trees and low-laying buildings. Not what I have expected. After disembarking we went about collecting our mass of luggage and then loading it all and ourselves into the Peace Corps vehicles to take us to "the Stodge" which is what the transit house is called that we are staying in this first week. Once arrived at the Stodge we were greeted with smiling faces of current volunteers and also pizza and soda. I think the majority of us expected some more Gambian type food, but the pizza was great. We met some of the staff and the country director then it was off to find a room and a bed for the night.

Day 2: Up at 7am for breakfast... Nutella and bread... how can this be a bad thing? Then loaded on the bus and off to training. We began by getting a tour of the buildings, getting our shots (rabies and HepA) then lunch and lots of new languages. There are three main languages spoken in The Gambia... Pulaar, Mandinka and Wolof. We are learning the greetings in all three languages until our language is chosen for us based on our sites for a later date. After we came home that night we ate our dinner all together piled on the back patio, it is great to sit outside at night talking and eating.

Day 3: Up early again... and off to training. Today was much the same as Friday with language learning and various other classes on how to keep safe and what the Peace Corps does in the Gambia. However, we also went out this night to a local restaurant/bar for some drinks with an opportunity to meet some of the current volunteers in country, which was pretty cool. When we can home everyone was still pretty pumped up so there were games in the living room and a dance party in the kitchen... turns out we are a pretty lively bunch and the older volunteers totally dig us.

Day 4: Sunday, the day of rest. We were able to wake at our own speed on Sunday, which was really nice. We then ate our breakfast and headed down to the beach. The beach was totally remarkable, palm trees, blue water, big surf, hammocks. It was totally relaxing and fabulous. We lounged about for some time then headed back to the Stodge for some lunch and then a very special field trip. We loaded up the bus again and headed for The Gambian Reptile Farm where we got to see many species of Gambian reptiles such as the puff adder, hinged terrapin, monitor lizards, sand snakes and some creepy looking spider and centipede. At the very end we all got a chance to try on the ball python, I thought it made a lovely necklace and would have been quite pleased to take it home. After leaving the farm it was back home and time for dinner and a slide show of The Gambia.

Day 5: Monday began with breakfast and then a shuttle to training where we began with some pretty hilarious warm-ups/icebreakers. We then broke into groups that would get more shots (Typhoid and Meningitis), our interviews, and more language learning. The interviews will help the staff determine what language and site we will be placed in for the rest of our stay here in the Gambia. It was pretty low-key and tomorrow we will find out which language we will get. I'm kinda hoping for Pulaar cause it just seems to make the most sense to me. And now we are home and I am taking time to update my blog so that the world at large knows what we have been up to.

Next week will be really exciting because we will be going to our training villages up country where we will learn the language and also how to garden and live with a Gambian family. Perhaps the coolest part is that when we first arrive they have a Naming Ceremony (which is usually for 1 week old babies) but they do it for us and dress us up like Gambians and give us a Gambian name. I am very excited and hope that I get a name that will stick with me for some time.

Ok, I think that is kinda a lot for this post but I will try my best to update often. I would love to hear from everyone so feel free to email me or facebook me or write me a snail mail letter.