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...