april fools - the nursery is ON!

i'm happy to report this week that we've found another masoner and painter - so the nursery project is in full swing and he is plastering away as i type this! thankfully, he works quickly and i honestly think that i'll have the plastering and painting (inside and out) finished by next friday! this is all very exciting as it means that i'll be able to commission the artist to get to work the week after next, which means i WILL be able to see the finished (or nearly finished) project. there will be a few more things that they'll have to finish without me - the toilet, some stabilization of the roof, etc - but they can do that over the summer. we're still sans carpenter, which means the benches and tables won't be finished, but there's not an urgent rush on them since the school won't officially open until september. and let's hope the men are back to the village before then. it's still quiet in makumbaya. no news of their return, although i've heard rumors of monday.

in other non-nursery related news (feels like it's been awhile!)

- who knew cashews grew on trees and produced such a colorful fruit? (ok, well, you probably did, but i didn't!) a fruit that is at once as sweet as it is sour and leaves your mouth and teeth feeling as though you've just eaten an entire bag of cooked spinach - instantly dry and plaque free. what IS that called? i can see now why cashews are so expensive - the laborious process of removing the nut from the fruit, roasting it, and then shelling it. they are in season now, so we've been enjoying those at the compound.

- alhagi, ebrima's brother asked me if i would please find him a white man's woman. but in fact, his wife, kaddy, had already made that request a day before. when i asked her why she would want him to have another wife and whether she would be jealous, she laughed. of course she would not be jealous ... she wants another wife to take care of him if she is ever out, so that she might be able to get a job (she ran out of money and couldn't finish her course in computers), so that she has someone with whom to share the responsibilities of african life. in fact, i had the same conversation, weeks back, with jainaba, who told me having another wife made her life easier, someone to share the washing, cooking, sweeping and childcare. and of course, the long hot afternoons. but when i ask jainaba whether she might be allowed two husbands, whether ousman (her husband) would mind, she shrieks with laughter and shouts 'nnoooooooooo' as if i'd just asked her whether donkeys might fly. he would be jealous, she tells me, and leaves it at that. not picking up on the inherent hypocrisy of the system. but it works for them, or so it appears.

- i counted 78 mangos in view on the tree outside my room. i picked one a few days ago, just to see if it might ripen, but sadly, after 4 days, it was still hard as a rock. it's just not QUITE the season yet. though that does not stop the ladies and children from eating them. jainaba 2 (ebrima's wife) boils them up with water, butter and sugar and makes a delicious soup, and the kids will eat them raw, dipping them in salt and spicy pepper to cover the pungent sour taste. ebrima says that in rainy season, they have SO many mangos that they get sick of them, and you never want to see another one. imagine!

- i've had two nice testaments to how comfortable my 'sistahs' here on the compound feel around me. the first was last night when jainaba 2 and i were sitting on the bench alone, waiting for dinner, and she was just singing along with the radio's prayer-song in her small voice. she also talks to me in english when it's just the two of us. otherwise, she defers to the others and makes out that she doesn't understand, but i know she knows more than she lets on. the second came from koja who said to me the other night (in fula, translated by jainaba) 'meagan, when jason was here, you looked so beautiful, now you look ugly.' which i thought was rather insightful and was actually surprised that it had taken her 8 weeks to notice my lack of effort in appearance on most days.

- despite the fact that i don't understand the conversations the women have during the day - particularly now that jainaba the english speaker is away visiting her mother - i think i am getting more of an idea of the kind of humor they have, and the silly things they talk about. usually making fun of each other, or other people, or laughing at the children, pretending to scold. yesterday, we were all sitting around and kaddy pointed out that there was a horrible smell in the vicinity, likely from the cat that died earlier in the week and which ebrima had thrown in the field, though clearly not far enough away. i did the old sniff-my-arm-and-ask-is-it-me?-joke and that threw them into fits of hysterics. they'd clearly not heard that one on the playground.

- today i have exactly four weeks left here. tomorrow i will be able to say 3 weeks, 6 days, which is practically 3 weeks, which is nearly 2 weeks and then may 2 is just around the corner. i am on the outward (not really downward) slope. yesterday i had a lovely afternoon just sitting outside my door, reading and journaling and asking myself whether i have done everything i wanted to do while i was here. because four weeks is still enough time to do something if i've not. but in fact, i think i have. i am quite content with the passing of time here.

i know that i am nearly finished because i have finally picked up 'one hundred years of solitude,' by gabriel garcia marquez. this is a book i have been trying to read for YEARS. i'm sure we all have books like that. for me it's been the kind of book that sits on your shelf, and for which you are very glad it sits on your shelf because it makes you feel like an educated, cultured person, but which you hope no one ever asks you about because you'll just have to say 'yes, yes, i've been MEANING to get to that one.' for some reason, i've left this book till the end (well, OK, not the end, 'atlas shrugged' is next, but HA if i can get through THAT here!) - it's as if the book is some kind of penance. like, 'OK, you've read the FUN books meagan, now it's time for marquez.' - but in fact, i'm really enjoying it. and i've got all day tomorrow set aside under the palapas at the beach to get through it! i've really discovered reading again since i've been here, and i'm so grateful!

- i'm up in fajara again for the weekend - i've managed to catch a small bug again this week (bug as in cold, not as in worms, thank god!) - and i realized that save a day in brikama last week, i've not left the village since jason left two weeks ago. that's my longest stretch in makumbaya and i think my immune system needs a night of pizza and beer. far far away from children with runny noses and white rice. so that's what i've come to do. i can taste it already!