Wednesday, February 24, 2010
What if I want to go to University? (Written Feb 21)
Many Gambians want to go to Europe or America to go to university (many also want to go because they think life will so much better and easier in America or Europe. The thought is if you make it to America or Europe you will never have to worry about anything again). There is one Gambian in particular who we met when we first came to The Gambia who until the other day we thought would be perfectly qualified for university (he is intelligent, motivated, spoke good English, has good grades, and isinvolved with the Scouts group in his village in a leadership role). However, yesterday I noticed a minor problem. Math. He is about to graduate from the Gambian equivalent of high school and has been asking us questions about graphs. This a topic that will be on his final exam in one month, but he has not been taught anything about graphs. The final exam is called the WAS (West Africa something something) and is the standardized test that all students graduating from high school in English speaking West Africa must pass if they want to go to university in Africa. It also functions, we think, as a graduation certificate. As we were discussing graphs I noticed several other basic math concepts (exponents, algebra, etc.) that he just did not know. This is not because he is stupid or unmotivated. It is because he was never taught them. Imagine trying to take the SATs without knowing what exponents are or much about algebra. It won't work well at all. After some further investigation it turns out that math and science education are a significant weakness in The Gambia. There are few teachers who are skilled at teaching these subjects and often if a teacher is not good at a subject he/she will just quickly gloss over it and not really teach the subject. Unfortunately that makes it really hard to be accepted to and succeed in a western university. Sad.
Culinary School (written Feb 21)
If I had told you that I was going to The Gambia for two years and was going to help teach cooking classes you would have laughed at me right? Well guess what...we might help teach some cooking classes. Today we went to the Soma Scouts Skills Training Center with the intention of watching another computer class. However, class was canceled because the students had taken an exam on the previous day. Instead we talked with the person who taught that class about the many other activities he is involved in, one of which is a culinary school for girls that is attached to the Scouts center (both are supported by a Danish Scouts group). It is a two year program that trains students to work in the hospitality industry teaching skills such as basic math, english, and cooking. Apparently we had impressed this man with our cooking when he happened to be over for dinner the other night and he has been encouraging us to teach the students how to cook ever since. At first I was not incredibly excited by it, but then we realized the income generating potential of teaching new dishes to these students. Think a bake sale. There is minimal diversity in the market. If you want to buy a ready to eat snack you are basically limited to a couple kinds of sandwhiches, an orange, a banana, or panketos (fried balls of dough). If we could help several Gambians learn how to make a new dish that other Gambians would like, then we would create a great opportunity for income generation if these new creations were sold in the market. The funds raised would be used to support the Scouts program and the school fees for the particpants (many of these youth come from very poor backgrounds so paying school fees is often an issue). So assuming we can rustle up all the relevant supplies, we might work with the culinary school and teach them how to make some of our favorites and work with them to test them in small focus groups (our Gambian friends idea) and then sell them as a small income generating activity. For the record - never expected to teach cooking in The Gambia but income generation and skills development is a huge issue so I am actually quite excited by this potential project.
Picture update
Carribbean group dinner - rice and beans, jerk chicken, pineappple mango salsa, sauteed onions, cabbage and sweet potato with jerk spices. Not shown is our attempt to steam a chocolate cake, which was in progress at the time. It resulted in more of a chocolate pudding than a cake, but it was still delicious.
The sweaty chefs
Our ingenious method of hanging a single-bed bednet from the roof and fenceposts in a way that gets it to cover two people (thus allowing said people to sleep outside, where it is at least 10-15 degrees cooler, without taking down their indoor set-up). Exhibit #2 of how clothes pins and nylon cord are invaluable here (Exhibit #1 is our technique for hanging our door and window
curtains). We will drape a large piece of fabric over the bed to keep creepy crawlies from crawling up through the bamboo and a smaller piece over the air mattresses to act as a sheet, and install a hook to allow us to lock our back screen door from the outside, and voila, we will have two complete sleeping set-ups...one inside and one outside!
Cicumcision ceremony (written Feb 20)
Today we attended an all-day party in celebration of the circumcision of two sons of one of our good friends, which occurred about a month ago. NOTE - Both boys and girls are circumcised here. Female circumcision is a very touchy issue though, so we haven't had a chance to breach the topic here yet. For girls, I circumcision believe always occurs around age 6-7, while for boys it can either occur shortly after birth or at age 6-7. Our friend's two youngest sons are 6 and 7, so they opted to do the ceremony together. As I said, the actual circumcisions occurred about a month ago, after which the two boys spent a couple of weeks living in a house by themselves in a neighboring village while they recovered. Here is an approximate timeline of the past two days, which includes the final preparations and the event itself:
Friday morning - Purchase/gather ingredients and pots/bowls for various meals that will be cooked the following day, visit the tailor in Soma to pick up asobis (matching outfits).
Friday afternoon - Guests begin to arrive, greet and cook lunch for them, braid hair.
Friday evening - Entertain guests.
Saturday morning - Begin preparing various meals, go to Soma to purchase remaining ingredients, gather additional chairs/benches, more guests begin to arrive, entertain them and give them breakfast.
Saturday afternoon - More cooking, dancing, parade across the village with a group of young boys, get them set up to wait out the afternoon sitting in an empty room in our compound (see more on that below), more dancing, serve lunch.
Saturday evening - More cooking, more dancing, bathe, change into asobis, retrieve boys from their waiting room, more dancing, serve ebey (hot and sour cassava and fish soup/stew, the cooking of which I described in an earlier post), more dancing, serve dinner and baobob juice (baobob mixed with water, bananas, milk powder, coconut, powdered mango drink mix),
more dancing, guests slowly begin to leave.
Two relevant numbers to note - The number of outfits Fatou, the oldest sister of the two boys wore over the course of the day: 5. The number of meals we ate today: 8...Breakfast #1: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before leaving home, Breakfast #2: Tiyofaso ning pote - Rice and groundnut porridge with a peanut butter baobob sauce, Lunch #1: Cucha - Rice with sorrel sauce,Lunch #2: Ebey, Lunch #3: Benechin nig nee - Fried rice with fish and sauce, Lunch #4: Futoo nig nee - Pounded millet with fish and sauce, Dinner #1: Ebey again, Dinner #2: Baobob juice and "Sauce" - fried chicken and potatoes served with a carmelized onion sauce, served over lettuce.
Here are a few pictures (and two video clips! - hopefully they work - someone please let me know whether they do) that I took:
New braids I got especially for today, which unfortunately have come halfway out already (apparently for slippery toubab hair, adding the fake hair make braids stay in significantly better. Noted.
The dancing begins
More dancing (Fatou in outfit #2)
Boys procession
The beginning of a long afternoon of dancing in our compound. The door to our house is in the top of the picture in the middle.
Sometimes babies are along for the ride :-)
The boys set up and ready to wait out the afternoon. Since they were spending the afternoon in our compound, apparently it was a big honor for our family. We had the option to spend the afternoon with them, but opted out.
Giant vat of benechin
Giant vat of ebey
Us in our lovely peacock asobis
Friday morning - Purchase/gather ingredients and pots/bowls for various meals that will be cooked the following day, visit the tailor in Soma to pick up asobis (matching outfits).
Friday afternoon - Guests begin to arrive, greet and cook lunch for them, braid hair.
Friday evening - Entertain guests.
Saturday morning - Begin preparing various meals, go to Soma to purchase remaining ingredients, gather additional chairs/benches, more guests begin to arrive, entertain them and give them breakfast.
Saturday afternoon - More cooking, dancing, parade across the village with a group of young boys, get them set up to wait out the afternoon sitting in an empty room in our compound (see more on that below), more dancing, serve lunch.
Saturday evening - More cooking, more dancing, bathe, change into asobis, retrieve boys from their waiting room, more dancing, serve ebey (hot and sour cassava and fish soup/stew, the cooking of which I described in an earlier post), more dancing, serve dinner and baobob juice (baobob mixed with water, bananas, milk powder, coconut, powdered mango drink mix),
more dancing, guests slowly begin to leave.
Two relevant numbers to note - The number of outfits Fatou, the oldest sister of the two boys wore over the course of the day: 5. The number of meals we ate today: 8...Breakfast #1: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before leaving home, Breakfast #2: Tiyofaso ning pote - Rice and groundnut porridge with a peanut butter baobob sauce, Lunch #1: Cucha - Rice with sorrel sauce,Lunch #2: Ebey, Lunch #3: Benechin nig nee - Fried rice with fish and sauce, Lunch #4: Futoo nig nee - Pounded millet with fish and sauce, Dinner #1: Ebey again, Dinner #2: Baobob juice and "Sauce" - fried chicken and potatoes served with a carmelized onion sauce, served over lettuce.
Here are a few pictures (and two video clips! - hopefully they work - someone please let me know whether they do) that I took:
New braids I got especially for today, which unfortunately have come halfway out already (apparently for slippery toubab hair, adding the fake hair make braids stay in significantly better. Noted.
The dancing begins
More dancing (Fatou in outfit #2)
Boys procession
The beginning of a long afternoon of dancing in our compound. The door to our house is in the top of the picture in the middle.
Sometimes babies are along for the ride :-)
The boys set up and ready to wait out the afternoon. Since they were spending the afternoon in our compound, apparently it was a big honor for our family. We had the option to spend the afternoon with them, but opted out.
Giant vat of benechin
Giant vat of ebey
Us in our lovely peacock asobis
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Another picture update
Shiny new bike #1 (Jacob's). Peace Corps really hooked us up...brand-new Trek bikes with Bontrager and Shimano components!
Shiny new bike #2 (mine)
My hair after my second braid removal. It doesn't look overly knotty here here, but after this was taken (which was post-brushing, mind you), it took me a good half hour and a quarter-bottle of conditioner to get all the knots out!
"Before picture" of a primary school library we are helping get in order. The books were donated several years ago but aren't being used because of the state of the library. This angle only shows maybe 1/3 of the books, which range from math, physics and chemistry textbooks (often with accompanying teacher's editions and workbooks), to various plays and short stories, to Dr. Seuss and a wide range of other children's books, to classics like Huck Finn and The Three Muskuteers. "After picture" to come later...
Making pancakes on our finally not-leaking stove! (note this picture does not actually represent reality because Jacob is cooking with his shirt on, which he almost never does - he put it on for the picture).
Yum!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Cleanliness and Gambian Culture - (February 14)
I don't quite know why this is, but somehow Gambians developed an intense devotion to cleanliness. For example...
- A village near us does not have reliable access to water. They are apparently making a huge sacrifice and only bathing once a day. This is down from the 2-3 times that is normal. This is normal during the dry/cold season - I can't even begin to imagine how many baths people take during the hot season.
- Every time you go to the rice fields or go to water the garden it is essential to wash your legs and feet off when you are finished. I understand this as it relates to a trip to the rice fields because then you do get legitimately dirty. However, you can only have a few specks of dirt on your feet after going to the garden and everyone will be shocked if you do not wash your feet. If you don't do a good job, someone else will come help you.
- It is frowned upon to sit on rocks, walls, or front porches without a mat because you might get dirty.
- Washing your hands, feet, face, nose, and ears every time before you pray (Muslims pray five times a day). Yes this has a religious base, but still it shows the value of cleanliness.
- Many Gambians wear clothes that are mainly white (and shockingly they always look freshly bleached white). We think this is a way of showing off how clean you are because you can wear white in a very dusty environment and have it always look clean.
- People frequently do laundry and when laundry is done there is an incredible usage of caustic soap and intense scrubbing that occurs.
- Finally - yesterday a Gambian touched the ground and picked up a handful of dirt claiming that the dirt shows how much worse Gambia is than America. Apparently, in America there is not dirt like there is in Gambia.
We have a few hypothesis as to why this might be the case:
1 - Religion - the presecription to wash before you pray has been extended to place overall value in cleanliness.
2 - Desire to be "Western" or "Civilized" - Cleanliness is associated with the West and is considered to be "civilized" therefore it is a highly prized value among Gambians (this might be related to the ambition of 90% of the Gambians we meet to go to Europe or America).
*Side note - when people talk of going to Europe or America they often talk about going to "Babylon" or Toubabaduu." Just like we might talk about a far away place being in Timbuktu (an actual city in Mali), Gambians refer to a far off place as Babylon or Toubabaduu.*
3 - Reaction to Current Living Conditions - The Gambia is a dusy place. Most roads are dirt. There is enough dust in the air to distort some of the picture we take. Potentially the emphasis on cleanliness is a reaction to the dirt all around and a way to exert control over one's living conditions.
- A village near us does not have reliable access to water. They are apparently making a huge sacrifice and only bathing once a day. This is down from the 2-3 times that is normal. This is normal during the dry/cold season - I can't even begin to imagine how many baths people take during the hot season.
- Every time you go to the rice fields or go to water the garden it is essential to wash your legs and feet off when you are finished. I understand this as it relates to a trip to the rice fields because then you do get legitimately dirty. However, you can only have a few specks of dirt on your feet after going to the garden and everyone will be shocked if you do not wash your feet. If you don't do a good job, someone else will come help you.
- It is frowned upon to sit on rocks, walls, or front porches without a mat because you might get dirty.
- Washing your hands, feet, face, nose, and ears every time before you pray (Muslims pray five times a day). Yes this has a religious base, but still it shows the value of cleanliness.
- Many Gambians wear clothes that are mainly white (and shockingly they always look freshly bleached white). We think this is a way of showing off how clean you are because you can wear white in a very dusty environment and have it always look clean.
- People frequently do laundry and when laundry is done there is an incredible usage of caustic soap and intense scrubbing that occurs.
- Finally - yesterday a Gambian touched the ground and picked up a handful of dirt claiming that the dirt shows how much worse Gambia is than America. Apparently, in America there is not dirt like there is in Gambia.
We have a few hypothesis as to why this might be the case:
1 - Religion - the presecription to wash before you pray has been extended to place overall value in cleanliness.
2 - Desire to be "Western" or "Civilized" - Cleanliness is associated with the West and is considered to be "civilized" therefore it is a highly prized value among Gambians (this might be related to the ambition of 90% of the Gambians we meet to go to Europe or America).
*Side note - when people talk of going to Europe or America they often talk about going to "Babylon" or Toubabaduu." Just like we might talk about a far away place being in Timbuktu (an actual city in Mali), Gambians refer to a far off place as Babylon or Toubabaduu.*
3 - Reaction to Current Living Conditions - The Gambia is a dusy place. Most roads are dirt. There is enough dust in the air to distort some of the picture we take. Potentially the emphasis on cleanliness is a reaction to the dirt all around and a way to exert control over one's living conditions.
Random Anecdotes Part 1 (written February 10)
Bread paper - Long story short, our stove is broken and has been broken since we moved out to our permanent site. Sarah will regale with that story shortly. Because our stove is broken we have been having peanut butter and jelly or banana sandwhiches for breakfast every morning. So every morning around 8:30 the baker bikes to all the bitiks (village stores) and delivers that day's bread. Shortly thereafter, I show up and buy a loaf of bread (sort of like french bread) for about $0.20. This bread comes wrapped in paper. Our favorite wrappings have been as follows: a page out of a cheesy romance novel; pages from the IRS tax preparation handbook; and a page from the monthly Peace Corps agriculture/environment newsletter. For a bit we were baffeled by how the bitik owner got his hands on these papers, but a few weeks later when we got the IRS booklets in the mail we realized that volunteers must be donating uneeded pieces of paper to the neighborhood bitik. What this country lacks in trash and recycling services, it makes up in reusing things...
UPDATE - On February 14 a very sad thing happened. We got our bread wrapped in either a page from a medical dictionary or a page from the glossary of some medical book. Someone somewhere in the Gambia I am sure could have actually used that book to study, but now it will be ripped up into bread paper.
Divebombing mouse - Yesterday afternoon we were sitting in our house and all of a sudden heard some skittering overhead. By now we have learned to tell the difference between a mouse and a lizard skittering across our rice bag ceiling. In this case it was a mouse. It went down one length of the house and then turned the corner and went down the width. It stopped and all of a sudden we saw a mouse head (with giant ears) poking out of the corner. It seemed to look around and sniff a bit and then promptly lept out of the ceiling towards (read dive bombed) our fridge and disapeared. Once we got over our shock we came over to that corner and looked around but could not find the mouse. This process repeated itself again last night, but this time we had forgotten to put the lids back on our water filters that happen to sit on top of our fridge. Thankfully the mouse did not land in one of our filters. The one good thing is we now know how the mice are getting into our house, that is after we fixed the hole in our door. Unfortunately, I don't know how we can plug up the ceiling hole. The really scary thing is we think a mouse might be trying to make a similar hole in the corner right above our bed. Although in theory our mosquito net should protect us, that still is a rather unsavory though. I hope my pounding the wall with the handle of our rake will scare it away. Regardless, our sitemate will be bringing back mouse traps from Kombo shortly, so hopefully if the rake doesn't work, they will....
Dengpatengo - A.K.A. rice krispies cereal. Seriously, this delicious treat tasted just like a bowl of rice krispies with milk. To make it, take a bowl full of rice (still in its husks) and soak that rice in water for three to five days. After this, roast the rice in small batches over a fire. As the rice gets properly roasted, spoon it into a mortar and watch as everyone comes running to quickly pound the rice (this is astonishing because normally you have few volunteers for pounding anything). Once the rice is pounded, toss it to remove the husks and mix it with some water, sugar, and evaporated milk. Magically, you now have rice crispies. Now if only this process was not so labor intensive, I would want it every morning.
Gambians not stocking up on household goods - At home if you need toilet paper you will go the store and buy a package of toilet paper. Maybe there will be 4 rolls, maybe 8 or 12, maybe even 24. Regardless of the number, you don't buy one roll of toilet paper or one candle in most cases. However, that is exactly what happens here. We were in a Gambian friend's house and saw the candle burning low. Sarah pointed this out and our friend's sister immediately ran out to the closest bitik to buy a new candle. The same thing happens with basic everyday ingredients like sugar, jimbo (boullion with MSG and Vitamin A), oil, tomato paste, vinegar, etc. Everything is packaged and purchased in single-use quantities in plastic bags (which then end up all over the ground until they are piled up with other trash and burned). In part not stocking up on household goods occurs because of the availability of money, in part because there is no discount for buying goods in bulk, and in part because it is very difficult to keep pests from getting into your food here, but I also think it is also in part a cultural value (see my post from a few weeks ago) that is not shared.
Despite Gambians great love for rice, some Gambians don't like to eat rice at night. The reason we have heard is that rice is too heavy to eat at night. One alternative is a sour milk and millet porridge. Go figure...
Termite battle in garden - The saddest of them all.... Since we enjoy fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs we have decided to have a garden. Unfortunately, no one seems to have told the termites living in two of our garden beds that they should move out. We planted maybe two weeks ago and every day since then we have placed wood ash arouond the termite mounds (apparently the wood ash scratches the termites bodies and they don't like that), we have made a tea out of neem leaves (natural bug repellant) twice and poured that on the termites, and we have tried flooding them out with liters and liters of water. Regardless of what we do, the termites are back in force by the next day. Fail.
Donkeys - Seriously, WTF...google donkeys and find a clip of donkeys braying. Perhaps the most ridiculous noise I have ever heard. There are a ton of donkeys here and they are LOUD! I hope it never grows old...
UPDATE - On February 14 a very sad thing happened. We got our bread wrapped in either a page from a medical dictionary or a page from the glossary of some medical book. Someone somewhere in the Gambia I am sure could have actually used that book to study, but now it will be ripped up into bread paper.
Divebombing mouse - Yesterday afternoon we were sitting in our house and all of a sudden heard some skittering overhead. By now we have learned to tell the difference between a mouse and a lizard skittering across our rice bag ceiling. In this case it was a mouse. It went down one length of the house and then turned the corner and went down the width. It stopped and all of a sudden we saw a mouse head (with giant ears) poking out of the corner. It seemed to look around and sniff a bit and then promptly lept out of the ceiling towards (read dive bombed) our fridge and disapeared. Once we got over our shock we came over to that corner and looked around but could not find the mouse. This process repeated itself again last night, but this time we had forgotten to put the lids back on our water filters that happen to sit on top of our fridge. Thankfully the mouse did not land in one of our filters. The one good thing is we now know how the mice are getting into our house, that is after we fixed the hole in our door. Unfortunately, I don't know how we can plug up the ceiling hole. The really scary thing is we think a mouse might be trying to make a similar hole in the corner right above our bed. Although in theory our mosquito net should protect us, that still is a rather unsavory though. I hope my pounding the wall with the handle of our rake will scare it away. Regardless, our sitemate will be bringing back mouse traps from Kombo shortly, so hopefully if the rake doesn't work, they will....
Dengpatengo - A.K.A. rice krispies cereal. Seriously, this delicious treat tasted just like a bowl of rice krispies with milk. To make it, take a bowl full of rice (still in its husks) and soak that rice in water for three to five days. After this, roast the rice in small batches over a fire. As the rice gets properly roasted, spoon it into a mortar and watch as everyone comes running to quickly pound the rice (this is astonishing because normally you have few volunteers for pounding anything). Once the rice is pounded, toss it to remove the husks and mix it with some water, sugar, and evaporated milk. Magically, you now have rice crispies. Now if only this process was not so labor intensive, I would want it every morning.
Gambians not stocking up on household goods - At home if you need toilet paper you will go the store and buy a package of toilet paper. Maybe there will be 4 rolls, maybe 8 or 12, maybe even 24. Regardless of the number, you don't buy one roll of toilet paper or one candle in most cases. However, that is exactly what happens here. We were in a Gambian friend's house and saw the candle burning low. Sarah pointed this out and our friend's sister immediately ran out to the closest bitik to buy a new candle. The same thing happens with basic everyday ingredients like sugar, jimbo (boullion with MSG and Vitamin A), oil, tomato paste, vinegar, etc. Everything is packaged and purchased in single-use quantities in plastic bags (which then end up all over the ground until they are piled up with other trash and burned). In part not stocking up on household goods occurs because of the availability of money, in part because there is no discount for buying goods in bulk, and in part because it is very difficult to keep pests from getting into your food here, but I also think it is also in part a cultural value (see my post from a few weeks ago) that is not shared.
Despite Gambians great love for rice, some Gambians don't like to eat rice at night. The reason we have heard is that rice is too heavy to eat at night. One alternative is a sour milk and millet porridge. Go figure...
Termite battle in garden - The saddest of them all.... Since we enjoy fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs we have decided to have a garden. Unfortunately, no one seems to have told the termites living in two of our garden beds that they should move out. We planted maybe two weeks ago and every day since then we have placed wood ash arouond the termite mounds (apparently the wood ash scratches the termites bodies and they don't like that), we have made a tea out of neem leaves (natural bug repellant) twice and poured that on the termites, and we have tried flooding them out with liters and liters of water. Regardless of what we do, the termites are back in force by the next day. Fail.
Donkeys - Seriously, WTF...google donkeys and find a clip of donkeys braying. Perhaps the most ridiculous noise I have ever heard. There are a ton of donkeys here and they are LOUD! I hope it never grows old...
Our stove saga (written February 15)
When the volunteer we are replacing offered to sell us her double-burner gas stove and her mini-fridge, we thought we had hit gold. Not only were we avoiding having to pay full price for these expensive items new, but we also avoided having to deal with transporting them from Kombo to our village. Oh, and she had just refilled the gas tank a few weeks before! When we arrived in village, they were set up and ready for use. Perfect, right? Not so much.
On our first morning in village we noticed a relatively strong gas smell while we were cooking our oatmeal. Somewhat concerning, but we figured we just opened one of the valves too far or something like that. After playing around with the various valves and settings, we decided that it did not seem to be operator error and in the interest of not blowing up our new home, we should have someone come take a look at it. Peace Corps conveniently came by a few days later and told us that we needed a new regulator, which we could buy in Soma for D150 ($6). Great. However, neither we nor Peace Corps had the correct size wrench to remove the regulator from the heavy tank, so we started asking around for a wrench. Our sitemate nearby directed us to her local fix-everything-that-has-moving-parts guy, who gave us two wrenches to try. When neither fit, he rode his bike over to our house with another one that did fit. He insisted that we did not need a new regulator, and only needed a new rubber seal. He put a new one in and tightened everything down, which seemed to work at first, but unfortunately, when we tested it the next day, it leaked worse than before. Now sure that we did, in fact, need a new regulator, we located another wrench that fit in a pile of dust under a chair in the storeroom of our village skill center, removed the old regulator, and took it into Soma to help us explain to people what we wanted. We thought it would be smooth sailing from there...
We regulator #2 in Soma without a problem and put it on, only to find that it leaked just as badly as the previous one. We called in our host father to look at it, and he said the regulator was defective but he should be able to fix it. Over a period of several days he tried tightening everything as much as possible, switching the rubber seals on the two regulators, super glue, and wrapping string around the nozzle, all to no avail. He tried taking the new regulator to work, where he used metal glue on it, but someone dropped something on it while it was drying and broke it. Back to trying to fix regulator #1. He brought home metal glue, tried more super glue, tried cutting off the top of the rubber hose and reattaching it, and we tried duct tape (because why not?), which got the leak down to a small hiss, but didn't completely fix it. At that point our host father decided the best course of action would be for him to go back to Soma and buy another new regulator that was not defective.
We gave our host father money and he came back with a gently used regulator, having learned that the hardware store's entire new batch of regulators was defective (whether or not they knew this when they sold it to us is unclear). We put regulator #3 on with high hopes, but were quickly disappointed, as it STILL leaked! Our host father assured us that the only problem was the rubber seal needed to be replaced, which would be easily remedied. He tried to purchase one in Soma, then Kombo (he happened to be going there for a weekend), but discovered that you cannot buy a replacement seal in this country. However, he said, you can cut one from a piece of a car inner tube, which he obtained for us. He cut two different seals and put them in the regulator, but, lo and behold, it still leaked. At this point, he asks for a bar of soap and some water, which he mixed into a putty and spread over the seams as a type of home-made glue. Not surprisingly, since the super glue and the metal glue didn't work, the soap glue also didn't work.
A full month into this saga, we STILL did not have a working stove, which means: a) since we do not eat breakfast with our family, our only option for breakfast was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread, which believe it or not, do get old after a while; b) every day we were eating whatever our host mother cooked for lunch and dinner, which is a rotation of maybe 6-7 different dishes, all with a base of white rice and all but one including a heavy dose of dried fish, regardless of whether we like it or whether our stomachs were feeling up to Gambian food; and c) we spend almost every night waiting around for our host father to get home from work and come work on our stove. Quite the sad tale for a couple of foodies like us!
We are eternally grateful to our sitemate for keeping us sane during this period with weekly "american food" lunches/dinners cooked on her stove (ironically, "american food" thus far has included middle eastern, indian, and thai food!). She also happened to be going into Kombo around this point in the story, so our next strategy was to ask her to buy regulator #4 there, in hopes that they would be better quality and/or not defective down there. She did just that and finally, today we have a working stove!!! Definitely cause for celebration...
On our first morning in village we noticed a relatively strong gas smell while we were cooking our oatmeal. Somewhat concerning, but we figured we just opened one of the valves too far or something like that. After playing around with the various valves and settings, we decided that it did not seem to be operator error and in the interest of not blowing up our new home, we should have someone come take a look at it. Peace Corps conveniently came by a few days later and told us that we needed a new regulator, which we could buy in Soma for D150 ($6). Great. However, neither we nor Peace Corps had the correct size wrench to remove the regulator from the heavy tank, so we started asking around for a wrench. Our sitemate nearby directed us to her local fix-everything-that-has-moving-parts guy, who gave us two wrenches to try. When neither fit, he rode his bike over to our house with another one that did fit. He insisted that we did not need a new regulator, and only needed a new rubber seal. He put a new one in and tightened everything down, which seemed to work at first, but unfortunately, when we tested it the next day, it leaked worse than before. Now sure that we did, in fact, need a new regulator, we located another wrench that fit in a pile of dust under a chair in the storeroom of our village skill center, removed the old regulator, and took it into Soma to help us explain to people what we wanted. We thought it would be smooth sailing from there...
We regulator #2 in Soma without a problem and put it on, only to find that it leaked just as badly as the previous one. We called in our host father to look at it, and he said the regulator was defective but he should be able to fix it. Over a period of several days he tried tightening everything as much as possible, switching the rubber seals on the two regulators, super glue, and wrapping string around the nozzle, all to no avail. He tried taking the new regulator to work, where he used metal glue on it, but someone dropped something on it while it was drying and broke it. Back to trying to fix regulator #1. He brought home metal glue, tried more super glue, tried cutting off the top of the rubber hose and reattaching it, and we tried duct tape (because why not?), which got the leak down to a small hiss, but didn't completely fix it. At that point our host father decided the best course of action would be for him to go back to Soma and buy another new regulator that was not defective.
We gave our host father money and he came back with a gently used regulator, having learned that the hardware store's entire new batch of regulators was defective (whether or not they knew this when they sold it to us is unclear). We put regulator #3 on with high hopes, but were quickly disappointed, as it STILL leaked! Our host father assured us that the only problem was the rubber seal needed to be replaced, which would be easily remedied. He tried to purchase one in Soma, then Kombo (he happened to be going there for a weekend), but discovered that you cannot buy a replacement seal in this country. However, he said, you can cut one from a piece of a car inner tube, which he obtained for us. He cut two different seals and put them in the regulator, but, lo and behold, it still leaked. At this point, he asks for a bar of soap and some water, which he mixed into a putty and spread over the seams as a type of home-made glue. Not surprisingly, since the super glue and the metal glue didn't work, the soap glue also didn't work.
A full month into this saga, we STILL did not have a working stove, which means: a) since we do not eat breakfast with our family, our only option for breakfast was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread, which believe it or not, do get old after a while; b) every day we were eating whatever our host mother cooked for lunch and dinner, which is a rotation of maybe 6-7 different dishes, all with a base of white rice and all but one including a heavy dose of dried fish, regardless of whether we like it or whether our stomachs were feeling up to Gambian food; and c) we spend almost every night waiting around for our host father to get home from work and come work on our stove. Quite the sad tale for a couple of foodies like us!
We are eternally grateful to our sitemate for keeping us sane during this period with weekly "american food" lunches/dinners cooked on her stove (ironically, "american food" thus far has included middle eastern, indian, and thai food!). She also happened to be going into Kombo around this point in the story, so our next strategy was to ask her to buy regulator #4 there, in hopes that they would be better quality and/or not defective down there. She did just that and finally, today we have a working stove!!! Definitely cause for celebration...
My first Gambian mango! - (written February 13)
Mangos are one of my very favorite foods, so I have been watching in mouth-watering anticipation over the past couple of weeks as tiny mangos started appearing on the mango trees that practically cover this country (lucky for us, apparently our village's mangoes are generally among the first to ripen in the region). The largest ones are the size of small apples now, but they are still quite green, so we had not considered trying to eat them yet. However, when our host sister asked us if we wanted to eat mangoes on the way home from watering her family's plots in the community garden tonight, I certainly was not going to argue! She gave us each one and we ate them then and there, skin and all. It tasted like a very sour cross between a green apple and a mango and gave me a mild stomachache, but was still exciting and a nice treat. Just a few more weeks until we will be eating the real thing...
Potential project list to-date (written February 13)
Since we've been at site for a month now, long enough to get a pretty good idea of what our options are for work here, we decided you all might be interested in seeing our current list of potential projects.*
Long-term/Primary Projects
Rural Development Institute (government school that trains government-employed Community Development Assistants and some non-governmental organization workers)- 1) Help redesign outdated curriculum, 2) Develop a set of resources for students to take with them when they graduate.
Soma Health Center - 1) Support the Public Health Office with various activities relating to immunizations, growth monitoring, health education, environmental sanitation, food safety, etc, especially relating to gathering and analyzing data, 2) Introduce more proactive nutritional counselling for mothers of underweight children at weekly clinics, combined with follow-up and home visits by Community Health Nurses, 3) Introduce the sale of moringa powder (moringa is a local tree whose leaves are packed with an incredible number of vitamins and minerals) at weekly clinics.
______ Well - Assist in developing a proposal and aquiring funding for a small nearby community without easy access to safe water.
Short-term/Secondary Projects
Rural Development Institute (government school that trains government-employed Community Development Assistants and some non-governmental organization workers) - 1) Help teach students and train teachers on basic computer competency, 2) Start/lead after-school gender and small business clubs.
Soma Scouts Skill Center - 1) Help teach students and train teachers on basic computer competency, 2) Help brainstorm better marketing of the Center's services, 3) Attend/assist with management and business development courses, 4) Improve business practices/improve income-generating capacity.
_______ Skill Center - 1) Improve business practices/improve income-generating capacity, 2) Help with developing new activities (computer training, poultry raising, basket weaving).
Ad Hoc Basic Health Education - 1) Formal presentations (schools, Community Health Nursing School, Red Cross Clubs, Scouts), 2) Informal teaching (village/family level).
Divisional Health Team - 1) Participate in workshops/trainings/campaigns as they arise, 2) Meet with nutrition officer to identify ways to collaborate.
Village Development Committee - Assist chair of the committee with improving and submitting project proposals for funding.
*Caveat - This list is very much a work in progress. It is by no means comprehensive and we have no intention of trying to do even half of these things. It is simply a laundry list of options for us to work from as we move forward. Also, depending on our time and interests, we will most likely work together on some projects and split up for others.
Long-term/Primary Projects
Rural Development Institute (government school that trains government-employed Community Development Assistants and some non-governmental organization workers)- 1) Help redesign outdated curriculum, 2) Develop a set of resources for students to take with them when they graduate.
Soma Health Center - 1) Support the Public Health Office with various activities relating to immunizations, growth monitoring, health education, environmental sanitation, food safety, etc, especially relating to gathering and analyzing data, 2) Introduce more proactive nutritional counselling for mothers of underweight children at weekly clinics, combined with follow-up and home visits by Community Health Nurses, 3) Introduce the sale of moringa powder (moringa is a local tree whose leaves are packed with an incredible number of vitamins and minerals) at weekly clinics.
______ Well - Assist in developing a proposal and aquiring funding for a small nearby community without easy access to safe water.
Short-term/Secondary Projects
Rural Development Institute (government school that trains government-employed Community Development Assistants and some non-governmental organization workers) - 1) Help teach students and train teachers on basic computer competency, 2) Start/lead after-school gender and small business clubs.
Soma Scouts Skill Center - 1) Help teach students and train teachers on basic computer competency, 2) Help brainstorm better marketing of the Center's services, 3) Attend/assist with management and business development courses, 4) Improve business practices/improve income-generating capacity.
_______ Skill Center - 1) Improve business practices/improve income-generating capacity, 2) Help with developing new activities (computer training, poultry raising, basket weaving).
Ad Hoc Basic Health Education - 1) Formal presentations (schools, Community Health Nursing School, Red Cross Clubs, Scouts), 2) Informal teaching (village/family level).
Divisional Health Team - 1) Participate in workshops/trainings/campaigns as they arise, 2) Meet with nutrition officer to identify ways to collaborate.
Village Development Committee - Assist chair of the committee with improving and submitting project proposals for funding.
*Caveat - This list is very much a work in progress. It is by no means comprehensive and we have no intention of trying to do even half of these things. It is simply a laundry list of options for us to work from as we move forward. Also, depending on our time and interests, we will most likely work together on some projects and split up for others.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Picture update (part 2)
A giant termite mound I've been meaning to take a picture of for a while now and kept forgetting
Typical road in our area (taken looking down towards our village)
Another delicious group dinner....tandoori chicken w/ eggplant, potatoes and sweet potatoes, chapati, and two kinds of no-bake cookies (chocolate peanut butter and oatmeal fruit nut)
The chefs
RDI student drama focusing on the challenges of working with Village Development Committees
CHN student drama focusing on malaria and the challenges of balancing modern medicine with traditional healing methods
We can now add termites to the list of pests inhabiting our house (along with mice, lizards, ants, and spiders...and that doesn't count the fly problem in our latrine or the massive termite problem in our garden...). I swear this thing cropped up in one night!
Picture update (part 1)
Our garden after planting - four beds on the left with some shade from two mango trees and a hole for a banana tree and a compost hole on the left. We planted carrots, lettuce, sugar snap peas, edamame, collards, tomatoes, three different kinds of basil, cilantro, and acorn squash.
Preparing for the rice bag running race at the interhouse track/field meet in Kaiaf. You can't see in this picture, but the bag on the far right has the World Food Programme logo on it. Somehow I doubt this is what they intended when they said people should try to reuse the rice bags :-)
GO!!
Preparing for the bucket balance race...certainly not something you would see at home
And they're off! The second girl from the right just got disqualified for touching her bucket with her hand.
There were more traditional running races too. This was the 100m. Great to see girls competing!
Action shot
Adorable little girl who hung out with us for a while at a naming ceremony in Soma
Nursing students singing at a farewell program for the volunteer we're replacing
The volunteer we're replacing accepting a gift from the first year nursing students
Skills I Never Valued (written Feb 5)
Prior to leaving for The Gambia Sarah and were a bit concerned about what would we have to offer. For example, who were we, with no real gardening experience, to tell Gambians that despite the fact that they have been gardening a certain way for generations that what they are doing is all wrong and in fact they should do _______. Basically, as recent college graduates without a career full of experience, how can we go tell a 60 year old Gambian that he/she is doing it all wrong. That thought process is a bit daunting. However, we have come to realize that there are many things we took for granted that in reality are not so basic.
These can be grouped into four main categories - basic health and sanitation, basic business sense, basic preparedness and basic computer skills.
Health and Sanitation - We know that it is important to wash a cut with soap and water. In contrast, some people here will rub battery acid, manure, or ink on a cut. The ink at least makese sense because rubbing ink or your skin has a similar coloring effect to rubbing iodine on your skin, and based on peoples experience in health facilities it is known that doctors rub something on a cut that looks like ink. Tellingly the Mandinka word for iodine is Inkoo. Oops...
Business Sense - If an American were to start a business the first thing he or she is likely to do is think - will someone buy my product? Another common first thought is - are other people already selling my product? That line of reasoning doesn't really occur. Take gardening for instance - our village has two large gardens (2-3 hectares total) and the following three crops are grown - mint, potatoes, and hot peppers. Even in the smaller garden with a good fence to protect more delicate crops from goats/donkeys/chickens, no one bothers to grow a different crop to sell at market. Also, everyone sells the same thing at markets. If you want a chance at being successful try selling something that is low in supply. Again - go figure - apparently we do have something to offer.
Preparedness - When leaving home for a long time we will bring some food and water or money to buy some. That sort of preparation rarely if ever occurs. For instance, it would not be out of the ordinary to go on a bike ride and not bring any water. Likewise, it is not considered unreasonable for someone to leave for the morning and not bring any food, water, or money.
Computer Skills - Our trainers said that in The Gambia, every American is an IT expert. I didn't quite realise the truth of this until I was asked by several people to set the time on their phone. Training in how to use Word or Excel would also be very useful. Just knowing how to turn on a computer and create a folder is a useful skill we can transfer.
So while I might not be able to teach much about gardening, there is apparently much that I once took for granted that I actually can teach.
These can be grouped into four main categories - basic health and sanitation, basic business sense, basic preparedness and basic computer skills.
Health and Sanitation - We know that it is important to wash a cut with soap and water. In contrast, some people here will rub battery acid, manure, or ink on a cut. The ink at least makese sense because rubbing ink or your skin has a similar coloring effect to rubbing iodine on your skin, and based on peoples experience in health facilities it is known that doctors rub something on a cut that looks like ink. Tellingly the Mandinka word for iodine is Inkoo. Oops...
Business Sense - If an American were to start a business the first thing he or she is likely to do is think - will someone buy my product? Another common first thought is - are other people already selling my product? That line of reasoning doesn't really occur. Take gardening for instance - our village has two large gardens (2-3 hectares total) and the following three crops are grown - mint, potatoes, and hot peppers. Even in the smaller garden with a good fence to protect more delicate crops from goats/donkeys/chickens, no one bothers to grow a different crop to sell at market. Also, everyone sells the same thing at markets. If you want a chance at being successful try selling something that is low in supply. Again - go figure - apparently we do have something to offer.
Preparedness - When leaving home for a long time we will bring some food and water or money to buy some. That sort of preparation rarely if ever occurs. For instance, it would not be out of the ordinary to go on a bike ride and not bring any water. Likewise, it is not considered unreasonable for someone to leave for the morning and not bring any food, water, or money.
Computer Skills - Our trainers said that in The Gambia, every American is an IT expert. I didn't quite realise the truth of this until I was asked by several people to set the time on their phone. Training in how to use Word or Excel would also be very useful. Just knowing how to turn on a computer and create a folder is a useful skill we can transfer.
So while I might not be able to teach much about gardening, there is apparently much that I once took for granted that I actually can teach.
Privacy (written Feb 3)
So apparently privacy is one of those things you don't really appreciate until you lose it. I've already spoken to a few people about this, so my apologies if this is old news to you. In short, this culture does not value, appreciate, or understand the concept of privacy. The only time people are inside their houses or in their back yards is when they are sleeping, bathing, or using the latrine...every other part of life is carried out in the public eye (unless you are in a child, in which case, those activities are often carried out in public as well).
It is not considered rude or inappropriate to attempt to carry out a conversation through the fence with someone using the latrine or taking a bath in their back yard if you are walking by and happen to hear/see someone. It is also not considered rude to stand outside someone's door and call their name insistently until they come out, then demand to know what they were doing, even if you don't know them well and/or have anything to say to them beyond "good morning." This happens very frequently, pretty much anytime we are in our house. If you stay in your house with the door closed past 8:30am or so, people will think you are sick. Whenever you arrive anywhere, expect everyone to ask where you are coming from. Whenever you leave a place, expect everyone to ask you where you are going and why. If you go to the well/tap, expect everyone in the vicinity to ask what you will be using the water for. If you get your hair braided, expect everyone to ask who braided it for you. If you are not married, expect everyone to ask why not. If you are married, expect everyone to ask you where your children are. If you say you don't have any yet, expect people to be shocked and offer you theirs (semi-seriously). Also, if you are married, anytime you are more than 3 feet from your spouse, expect everyone to ask where your spouse is. Etc, etc, etc. How well a person knows you has absolutely no bearing on whether they will ask these questions...they are fair game for anyone. One thing that makes me feel a bit better is that these questions are by no means reserved for toubabs - they do the same thing to each other; it is the way they show they care about each other. Unfortunately, however, at least at this point, that knowledge doesn't make all this seem any less nosy/invasive/exasperating.
Currently, I would say that the lack of privacy is the biggest challenge we are facing, mainly because it adds to the innate stress of the foreign environment we are in and has put us both a bit on edge. We are working on developing coping mechanisms though, so hopefully as time goes on, it will get easier.
Sorry for two downer posts in a row here...I promise an upbeat one next time!
It is not considered rude or inappropriate to attempt to carry out a conversation through the fence with someone using the latrine or taking a bath in their back yard if you are walking by and happen to hear/see someone. It is also not considered rude to stand outside someone's door and call their name insistently until they come out, then demand to know what they were doing, even if you don't know them well and/or have anything to say to them beyond "good morning." This happens very frequently, pretty much anytime we are in our house. If you stay in your house with the door closed past 8:30am or so, people will think you are sick. Whenever you arrive anywhere, expect everyone to ask where you are coming from. Whenever you leave a place, expect everyone to ask you where you are going and why. If you go to the well/tap, expect everyone in the vicinity to ask what you will be using the water for. If you get your hair braided, expect everyone to ask who braided it for you. If you are not married, expect everyone to ask why not. If you are married, expect everyone to ask you where your children are. If you say you don't have any yet, expect people to be shocked and offer you theirs (semi-seriously). Also, if you are married, anytime you are more than 3 feet from your spouse, expect everyone to ask where your spouse is. Etc, etc, etc. How well a person knows you has absolutely no bearing on whether they will ask these questions...they are fair game for anyone. One thing that makes me feel a bit better is that these questions are by no means reserved for toubabs - they do the same thing to each other; it is the way they show they care about each other. Unfortunately, however, at least at this point, that knowledge doesn't make all this seem any less nosy/invasive/exasperating.
Currently, I would say that the lack of privacy is the biggest challenge we are facing, mainly because it adds to the innate stress of the foreign environment we are in and has put us both a bit on edge. We are working on developing coping mechanisms though, so hopefully as time goes on, it will get easier.
Sorry for two downer posts in a row here...I promise an upbeat one next time!
On Corporal Punishment (written Feb 3)
Jacob already touched on this briefly, but I wanted to talk a little more about the prevalence of physical violence here. It really is exceedingly common, and it is something that we are really struggling to come to terms with. As Jacob mentioned, beating (or threats of beating) is the accepted way to discipline a child of any age for any transgression, no matter how minor. While we don't agree with this strategy, we do recognize that the kids here can get out of control very quickly and it does seem that physical violence is the only way to get their attention (nevermind the vicious cycle that produces this mentality - we are not condoning the behavior we just realize that given the current situation it is the only method parents have for discipline). Situations where the severity of the beating far outweighs the severity of the transgression are particularly excrutiating to watch. Here are two examples, interestingly both relating to pounding rice/millet, a very physically demanding job:
1) We just witnessed a twenty-something women demand that a 7 or 8 year old help her pound cous, then take away the pounding stick and push the child away when she wasn't pounding well enough (due to lack of physical strength at that age), which made the child cry and eventually lie down on the ground to nurse her injured pride. A few minutes later, while the child was still lying quietly on the ground, the woman asked a different child to get her a stick, and she proceeded to hit the first child at least a dozen times on the back of her legs (which were bare). The child started wailing, but she kept hitting her, while two other young women looked on and laughed. It took all the strength I had to keep myself from snatching the stick away from her. Instead, I just turned around and walked quickly out of the compound back to our house.
2) A few days ago, we were helping our 11 year-old host sister pound rice when she started sweating profusely and was gagging and having trouble breathing. She had been telling us earlier about how hard she had been working all day in the sun, so we suspected heat stroke or something along those lines. We quickly made her sit down and gave her some water to drink. We told her she needed to rest and we would finish her pounding for her. In between gasps for air, she kept standing up and trying to keep pounding, saying that she would be beaten if she didn't keep pounding. We told her we would not allow that and went to go talk to her older sister, who is a mother figure for her. We explained the situation as best as we could in Mandinka and told her that her sister was not well. Her reaction was to laugh and say her sister was very lazy and just didn't want to work. As this was happening, an English speaker walked up and we asked him to translate and explain that she should take the situation seriously. He also laughed and agreed that our host sister was lazy. We had to leave to go to meeting then, unfortunately. I guarantee our host sister went back to pounding to avoid a beating. Thankfully, she seemed ok the next day, so I guess no harm was done that time. A couple days later, the same girl came home from school and showed us where her teacher had beaten her (we never were able to determine why).
1) We just witnessed a twenty-something women demand that a 7 or 8 year old help her pound cous, then take away the pounding stick and push the child away when she wasn't pounding well enough (due to lack of physical strength at that age), which made the child cry and eventually lie down on the ground to nurse her injured pride. A few minutes later, while the child was still lying quietly on the ground, the woman asked a different child to get her a stick, and she proceeded to hit the first child at least a dozen times on the back of her legs (which were bare). The child started wailing, but she kept hitting her, while two other young women looked on and laughed. It took all the strength I had to keep myself from snatching the stick away from her. Instead, I just turned around and walked quickly out of the compound back to our house.
2) A few days ago, we were helping our 11 year-old host sister pound rice when she started sweating profusely and was gagging and having trouble breathing. She had been telling us earlier about how hard she had been working all day in the sun, so we suspected heat stroke or something along those lines. We quickly made her sit down and gave her some water to drink. We told her she needed to rest and we would finish her pounding for her. In between gasps for air, she kept standing up and trying to keep pounding, saying that she would be beaten if she didn't keep pounding. We told her we would not allow that and went to go talk to her older sister, who is a mother figure for her. We explained the situation as best as we could in Mandinka and told her that her sister was not well. Her reaction was to laugh and say her sister was very lazy and just didn't want to work. As this was happening, an English speaker walked up and we asked him to translate and explain that she should take the situation seriously. He also laughed and agreed that our host sister was lazy. We had to leave to go to meeting then, unfortunately. I guarantee our host sister went back to pounding to avoid a beating. Thankfully, she seemed ok the next day, so I guess no harm was done that time. A couple days later, the same girl came home from school and showed us where her teacher had beaten her (we never were able to determine why).
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