crickets and karma

sitting in an internet cafe in bakau ... a new village for me. it's a coastal town, quite touristy and filled with african crafts, wooden giraffes (though as yet, i've not spotted a giraffe in the gambia), turtles and long necked women on batik prints. nothing that screams out at me to buy it - except for the men selling. 'hey nice lady, you want look?, come into my shop boss lady' ... no thank you.

i ended up staying the night in an extra room at an eccentric english woman's house in cape point last night. she is the landlady of the program manager and it's a beautiful place, with electricity and running water (and toilets!) - and she's happy for visitors to stay for a respite. caroline (the PM) came to makumbaya yesterday for a visit with some friends of her so they could see 'real' african life, and they brought me up for the night. i was going to head up anyway on saturday morning. so i just got a head start. as i said in a previous blog, you take a ride when you can get one! and today i'll go back to the beach - i'm meeting up with another girl i met on the plane who is also volunteering in the gambia. though hers sounds like more of an 'urban' experience. she's living in fajara with some english expats. it'll be interesting to swap stories and compare experiences.

per the last blog, i found the marriage proposal. all mistakes, his:

'High!
With the refernce of above mensioned school, I am a young teacher of 28 years of age.

And I would like use this visiting oppotunity to creat intimediate frienship which could easily lead us to the state of husband and wife.

I wish to stay to the expectations that, my dream will be giving go a head by your instant reply.

Thank you for your visit.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Alhassan Muhhammed Colley
Phone no xxxx '

sweet. but like the wooden giraffes and rasta beads in the stalls, no thanks!

so ... thursday night i killed a cricket in my parlour. i thought it was a cockroach, and i was going in for the kill when i realized it wasn't a cockroach but in fact a small cricket. i could've stopped myself, i had enough time. but i went ahead and smacked it with my flyswatter (another genius pack). and now i think i've got bad cricket juju. because that night, i had another cricket in my bedroom singing a very lonesome song. i think i'd killed its singing buddy, so it kept me awake all night whining and whimpering. i hope all is forgiven and it's gone by tomorrow night. it was incredibly LOUD!

i've decided that since there is no way i can kill all of the bugs in africa, to simply put up with them unless they are severely bothering me, or unless they are long legged spiders the size of silver dollars. (no sympathy for those, ever). some kind of bug fell into my bag of clothes and i searched for it for a few minute, couldn't find it, so gave up. if it would have fallen into my 'kitchen' (the bottom compartment of my rucksack) i would have turned the bag inside out ... but as long as it doesn't lay eggs on my trousers, i'll survive. like the fish heads in the rice, if i just don't think about it, i'm fine.

in brikama my peace corp friend pointed to the stalls in the market where they sell 'dead toubab' clothes, as they are called. and they really do get the dregs here of our old clothes. probably the stuff even goodwill is too ashamed to sell. 50 Cent is pretty big on t-shirts, as are Destiny's Child (with the old girls), and random t-shirts from bars, restaurants and events from around the world. yesterday, the teacher was wearing a shirt that said 'swizzle inn, bermuda' and on the back it said 'swizzle out' ... quite apropro as i looked over to see him falling asleep while the kids were working on their assignment. (!!) i'm trying to take a photo diary of the kids in the compound and their dress. it would be sad, if they weren't so happy and it wasn't so funny. some days they will wear traditional (as you would expect) african garb, beautiful dresses, with sequence and headscarves. other times, they'll wear raggedy pajamas, ripped shirts, oversized t-shirts, silky slips for skirts. but most of the time, it's a combintion of the two. so they might wear a lovely skirt, with an oversized Sean John t-shirt. i'll get some photos up o the blog so you can see what i mean.

and i've given up on concern for hygene when it comes to the kids. two things made me give up. firstly, kumba had something in her eye (pink eye or something similar has been going around the compound with the kids this week), and she came over to kaddy (pronounced haddy, i learned) who was sitting next to me and knelt in front of her. kaddy spread her eye open with two hands and leant over and blew very hard into her eye. (!!) despite a small protest from me, she did it again and again, with kumba's consent. i didn't get that. and secondly, i looked over to see assan a) attempting to mount a goat wearing nothing but his juju beads around his waste (AKA, naked). and then b) then scrubbing his undersides with the same brush that his mother was using to scrub the washing only minutes earlier. the mother's don't seem to mind, so why should i? but it's not surprising that whilst they are so good at sharing, they also share each others colds and germs and sicknesses. fatou and assan constantly have running noses. though i am trying to teach fatou to wipe her nose (especially before she hugs me, which she likes to do) by making the wiping motion with my finger under my nose. and fortunately, she's learning.

i just get used to carrying around my germ-X bottle of antiseptic and rinsing with that every hour or so. especially at school - because everyone wants to shake my hand. and again like the fish heads, i just can't think about it or i wouldn't touch anything or anyone here. so i just get on with it.

school was interesting this week. i went in to 'observe' this week to just get a feel for how things are run and what they do and where i can be of use. on my first day, the first grade teacher didn't show up for school, as sometimes happens, so i ended up teaching first grade for the morning. and yesterday, i filled in for forth grade and attempted to teach them about months (30 days has september, april, june and november .... etc) by the end, i think they understood. but it took a very long time, and their fourth grade is nothing like ours. very different levels. the biggest hit by far was 'making rain' .... that i learned at sixth grade science camp, where you start by rubbing hands together, then tapping two fingers, then four fingers, then hand claps, then pounding thighs, then chests, then finally banging desks. and repeat. i did that with grade one, grade four, and then at the school assembly with about 100 kids, and they all loved it. (or loved the toubab at the front of the class beating her chest like tarzan). either way, it kept them amused and occupied for a good 5 minutes. i would be VERY grateful for any simple games to play ... rainy day classroom games that kids can do at desks ... leave them on the blog or email if you would!

it's too early for me to write any solid reactions to the school and how it is run - because they would be my initial impressions without a real understanding of why things are done that way, and perhaps, why that is the only way that will work in the gambia. so i'll save school thoughts for a later blog.

of note though this week, my proposal was accepted and it looks like we'll be getting the money to build the nursery, so that is exciting! i'd like to aim for march 1/2 as the building weekend - but we'll see what the village development committee has to say and whether we can muster the support from the villagers for the labor.

and now, lest i spend an entire saturday in the internet cafe, i am moving onwards to the beach. hope you're enjoying your time wherever you are! xx