Arrival in the Training Village -- Oct. 7, 2006

So, on Friday, yesterday, 25 of us crammed into "The Coaster" (which is short for rollercoaster, as I'll explain in a minute) and headed east, "up country" towards our training villages. It was a 4 1/2hour bus ride to our villages over what was easily the worst road I've ever seen, period. Bumpy as hell, potholed like crazy and incredibly uneven - such that the driver swerved back and forth to avoid the biggest holes. Hence, the name "Coaster". Of course, I had the good fortune to contract a particularly nasty bout of diarrhea (or "ass-cough" as it's affectionately called here), the day before, so I was feeling awful before the 4 1/2 hour jarring-fest began. Luckily I procured some Immodium from the medical office before departing, so there were no emergency stops along the way, although I did get the urge to throw up every 20 minutes from the nausea. Good times. On to Part Two of the The Gambian odyssey....
We arrived at Bambako at around 2PM and the four of us that wre training here said our goodbyes to the rest of the group. Bambako is a mediun-sized village of 50 family compouds (around 500 people). My first impressions were good - the village is really clean and the houses, while meager, seemed well cared for. Most of the buildings are constructed from mud bricks or concrete, and have corrugated tim roofs, or grass roofs. Most compounds have a fence partly enclosing thm made up of reed branches.
The whole family lives together in the compund, and as Gambians like to have lots of children (children are a social welfare program in Gambia - the idea is that the more children you have, the better the chance of havig a rich child who can take care of you in your old age) the families are large - 8-10 people. So, after the bus left, we met with our LCH, Language and Culture Helper (local Gambians who are our teachers during training) whose name is Muhammoudin B__. We talked for a short time in his host family's compoud, under the mango tree. In a short time, our host family's children came to help with our bags and to show us to their compound. Laame, the oldest son living at home speaks very little English and was able to give me very basic instructions. After a short walk, we arrived at the D_______ compund, where I am spending the next 3 months. When I walked through the fence, most of the family was sitting on a large matal "bench" in the middle of the compound. I said a quick "Salaamaleekum" and put my things inside the door that Laami pointed to then came back out to formally greet my family. Greetings are VERY IMPORTANT in Gambia, not greeting someone is seen as a big insult. They are also VERY EXTENSIVE. Here's a sample of a typical greeting:

Q. Salaamaleekum. (Peace be with you)
A. Maleekum Salaam. (And also to you)
Q. I saama. (Good morning)
A. Surname, I saama. (Surname, good morning)
Q. Suumoolulee? )(How are the home people?)
A. I be jee. (They are there, in peace)
Q. Kori tana te jee? (I hope there is no trouble)
A. Tana te jee (There is no trouble)
Q. Kori I siinoota? (Ihope you slept well)
A. Haa n siinoota buake le. (Yes, I slept very well)
Q. Soomandaa be naadii? (How is the morning)
A. Soomandaa be jay doroy. (Morning is here,(in peace),only
Q. Kayira laata? (Peace in the morning?
A. Kayim dorong. (Peace only)

So this is done to every person that you pass by, every time. It is accecepted that if you are busy (which rarely happens in Gambia) that you can shorten the greeting to a few exchanges, but yo must greet nonetheless. Of course, people rattle these greetings off and I have gotten pretty efficient in doing so myself.

OK, back to the narrative.
I greeted my family and gave my host father 1/4 kg. of kola nuts to show my appreciation for living with them. Kola nuts are a very important ceremonial gift in Gambia, thay are given at many important gatherings and ceremones. My host father's name is Laame (same as his son's) ____. He is "Tay naani niy worowwla" - 47, and as far as I can tell, he has 3 wives and about 6-8 children who are living at home. The family is reserved around me and I around them, as we are getting used to each other, and slowly working around my language deficiences. The hardest part of the language learning for me, is audibly comprehending the different words, and pronouncing them from hearing only. The Gambians tend not to enunciate at all, so it's really difficult to pick up on what they are saying, expecially since the words are nothing like English or anything I've ever heard for that matter. Not only that, but my Spanish has an annoying habit of substituting itself for Mandinka words. It's funny, I'm acutally remembering MORE Spanish by learning Mandinka! Strange, Huh?
So, I found out a little about my host father, and then having run out of things to say, I just stood there awkwardly, smiling, wanting to escape inside, but not wanting to appear rude. Luckily, Laami (the son) said, "you go inside". So, I made my exit. I walked in and got my bearings. My house is concrete with a corrogated tin roof, 2 windows, 2 doors and 2 rooms. The first room has a desk and chair, and the back room has a bed. It's actually pretty nice - and very clean - the Gambians place a high value on cleanliness. My backyard" is surrounded by a reed fence and has a concrete slab which covers the pit latrine and is also used for taking bucket baths - something I've readily embraced and love. I take three a day. After getting my bearings I walked back inside and my first thoughts went something llike this: "What in the hell am I doing here?! I'm soaked with sweat, there are big lizards hanging out under my mattress, it's hotter than a fat whore in a Baptist church on a hot August day in Georgia, I can't even speak to my host family, there's not a single climbing spot in the whole of Gambia and I'm missng out on not one, but 2 ski seasons?!?!? It's going to be a very looong 2 years. Luckily, this feeling of impending doom passed quickly and I attribute most of it to the fact that I had had 9 bouts of "concentrated evil coming out of my butt" (quoting Maggie) in the past 24 hours, and was therefore almost delirious from dehydration, exhaustion and complete lack of food. Unfortunately, I had misplaced one of my water bottles earlier during the day so I was also out of water. I managed to convey to my host brothers that I needed water, and a couple of them took me down to the well, where we fetched water from the pump. It took all the self-restraint I possessed not to plunge my head into the buckets and drink heavily of the delicoious looking nectar of the gods. WE carred the buckets back to my house and waited very impatiently for my excruciatinly slow filter to do its job. Water has never tasted sweeter!! After drinking a couple liters of water with rehydration salts, I started to feel human again, and dozed off for an hour or so. I woke up feeling much stronger and ventured outside to chat with my host family and visit the other volunteers in the village. Everyone in Bambako is very friendly and very helpful with the language. All the volunteer's host families are vey nice, always curious about us. Being that it is Ramadan, I returned home and broke fast with my family at sundown by eating bread ad drinking mosquito grass tea, which is delicious and very sweet. I spent the rest of the night playing with the children, and went to bed after dinner feeling exhausted, a little overwhelmed, but definetely glad to be here.
Today was much the same, we had an informal village greeting where we took kola nuts to the Alkalo (head) of the village, and the Imam of the mosque. Afterwards, we had a few hours of language courses complete with "Snakes and Ladders" in Mandinka! After eating lunch (with my hand, of course) I returned home and spent the rest of the day studying, practicing language with my host family, sweating, reading, sweating, showing my host family the pictures I brought, and just generally being a sweaty mess, despite all the bucket baths. Luckily, this is the hottest time of the year and although I don't believe it, it supposedly gets cold enough at night in December to use a blaket!!!!! I'm anxiously awaiting December. So, all in all things are going "domamdiy, domandiy" (slowly, slowly), but I am enjoying it and learning a hell of a lot in the process. This time next week I'll hopefully be able to have meaningful conversations with my host family.
Letter written to family Saturday, Oct 7th, 2006