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.
Monday, February 15, 2010
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5 comments:
Hi Jacob,
My wife and I are currently working on our Peace Corps applications and are enjoying your blog. Thanks for sharing! If you and Sarah have some time, we'd love to hear your answers to the following:
- How did you end up in Gambia? Was The Gambia or western Africa your top choice? Did you rank areas in the world where you wanted to go? Would you change anything about how you ranked areas?
- If you could go back and begin the application process over, would you do anything differently?
- Any other tips for PC applicants?
Thanks for the great posts! They are a lot of fun to read and are very helpful for us as potential PCV's.
Adam
It's interesting to read the Gambian take on cleanliness...
The Japanese are also obsessed with things being clean but it usually means that things are separated for maximum control of germs/dirt. For example: taking off your shoes and changing into slippers. If that wasn't enough there are also specific toilet slippers to wear in the bathroom. Food is packaged individually to a degree that seems ridiculous and wasteful to me. The majority of produce at the store is wrapped individually in plastic.(Even things like bananas, grapefruits, lemons will be individually wrapped in plastic) Your post citing religious belief has made me wonder if some of this Japanese cleanliness stems from Shinto beliefs (in which cleaning the home is very important). But maybe its also derived from an attention to detail that is evident in all aspects of Japanese culture. (especially in the presentation of things like food and presents) Anyways, I thought this was really interesting. I'm really enjoying the blog! Hope you guys are doing well and I'd love to mail you some goodies when I get back to the US!
I think part of the Japanese effort to prevent dirt from getting inside originates from the idea that the inside and outside are and should be two separate worlds, and the outside should not be allowed to enter or defile the inside. There is a lot more to it than that obviously, but it's fun to over simplify.
As for Gambia that is really interesting. I wonder if any of it has to do with a desire to avoid disease under the assumption that if things are dirty they will make you sick.
Unfortunately the whole concept of germs/dirt making you sick doesn't really work. I mean people know that mosquitoes give you malaria but that is about it (and that unfortunately does not lead to people always sleeping under bed nets. And yes almost every bed we have seen has a bed net).
People don't really wash their hands before cooking/eating/etc but will wash the dirt off their feet after walking through the dust to get to some event.
Hi Adam,
Sarah and I did much the same thing you are doing when we were applying for Peace Corps. Good luck with the entire process. I am glad you are enjoying our blog.
Our journey to the Gambia was a lengthy one - we applied in October 2007 and left the US in November of 2009. Part of that delay was that we were originally assigned to Mauritania and then to Guinea. Peace Corps subsequently pulled out of those countries which delayed our departure from June 2009 (which would have been Mauritania) to November 2009.
We consistently told Peace Corps that we were flexible and would go anywhere and do anything - we did not express any preferences about region, but since we both had some knowledge of French that was a naturally push towards West Africa. However, in hindsight if you do have a preference on where you go and what you do I would definitely voice it. If you have a region you don't want to go to you need a really good reason. I think it is better to emphasize where you want to go rather than saying where you don't want to go.
Our main advice is have patience. It is a long process and it is particularly long for couples. One thing that worked out great for us was that when I left my job for us to leave for Mauritania I went on unpaid leave instead of quitting. I was scheduled to quit the day we were supposed to leave but because we were delayed and then canceled it was easier for me to go back to my old job. Hope that doesn't happen for you guys but it was a convenient safe guard for us. One other piece of advice is to follow up with Peace Corps to make sure your papers don't get lost in the shuffle. Definitely don't call every week but checking in every few months is probably a good idea. It was a long process but as of right now we both feel as if it was totally worth it.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions but if you have any more please feel free to let us know. You can email me at jacob.cohn@gmail.com.
Jacob
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