Markets, Toubabs, and 20 minute greetings....

This lovely picture or our mango tree is being blatantly stolen from my site mate Evan as he is the only person that seems to be able to get his pictures uploaded. We have training sessions under this tree everyday and it seems at least 10 degrees cooler than everywhere else. I am in the orange shirt diligently studying Wolof with Jim. Jim and I are trig to memorize the very lengthy list of questions and responses that comprise greetings in this country. Greetings are very important to Gambian culture and can go on for 10-15 minutes even if you just saw the person an hour ago. If you don't greet someone it severely offends the other person. I will be sure to write a more detailed description of the importance at a later date because the whole practice is quite complicated. The whole "greeting everyone I see for at least 10 minutes whenever I pass them on the street" will definlty be a challenge for this city girl who is used to walking down streets with blinders on making as little eye contact as possible. This pratice will be a huge cultural shift for me but one that I am sure will have positive effects.

This morning we got a break from endless sessions to head to Serekunda market (the largest in the country) to practice our respective language skills and haggling. All goods in The Gambia can be bargained for and it is expected that the shopkeeper will start ridicously high and you will have to work down from there. They even try to rip off Gambians so high prices are reserved just for toubabs (any foreigner), which is comforting in a strange way. We went to the market with our LCHs (language and cultural helpers) and they helped us get good prices for items and navigate the intensely crowded area. I bought two meters of fabric to get a skirt made, some kola nuts (a required gift when visiting families in the Gambia unless you are totally rude) and a plastic mat for sitting, exercise or anything else that it may be useful for. I got really good prices for everything and had a lot of fun haggling. The market here is a lot less intense than East African or Indian markets where the people tend to grab your arms and shout at you. Here they are pretty mellow and just joke around with you till you decide whether or not you agree with the price.

After a lovely morning at market we had more super long medical sessions to teach us how to avoid the multiple causes of illness. The medical sessions are far from an inspirational experience and can be quiet depressing. These sessions have finally made the whole "living in Africa for two years" seem much more real. Till today I felt like I was on vacation, nothing really shocked me yet and I didn't feel like there was a possibility I couldn't handle what I signed up for. After listening to a nurse and other volunteers describe in detail the symptoms of dystentary and other fun GI diseases -it became real, maybe to real. I am glad that I experience this first shock and got it out of the way at least for now. There will undoubtedly be many more such moments but they have drilled us on many different coping mechanisms and so that we are prepared when we hit bumps.

Tomorrow I am off to visit a school, cram in a couple more sessions than pack everything up to head upcountry to the training villages Friday. This may be my last post for a week or two but I will try to update when I am near internet again.

Wolof is fun!

In case sarcasm is lost on blogs, Wolof started out fun and I am sure it will get fun again but for now it is just ridiculously hard. The pronunciation alone is ridiculous with fused words, new letters and a base 5 number system. Any number higher than five gets a formula applied to it. Example: 6 is 5 (juroom) + 1 (bena) so six=juroom bena. It literally takes a paragraph to say a number higher than 20. Right now my nights are filled with Wolof studying with other PCT's although last night the cramming was pleasantly accented by the guitar and fiddle stylings of two very musical trainees. It was sureal to be sitting in a pavilion in Gambia surronded by strange sounds, studying Wolof with a kid from Montana and listening to blues guitar and celtic fiddle. Hopefully some of the Wolof sunk in because tomorrow we get to go the market to practice haggling in Wolof so it should be a good time!

Other than cramming as much Wolof into my head as possible, days are filled with hours upon hours of sessions on topics ranging from adjusting to culture, to bucket bath lessons to preventing disease. Training is exhausting but still mostly interesting. PCV's joke that training is the best thing you will ever do to prepare for service but not something you ever want to go through again. I believe it.

Thanks to all for reading and posting, it has been great to hear from all of you. I am excited to head out to my training village to see the real Gambia that I will be living in for the next two years.

Jamma rek! (Peace only!)

Hot hot Gambia makes mangos delicious!

I have arrived safely in Gambia and am having an amazing time so far. Myself and 20 other fellow Gambia PCT's are doing our best to get used to the amazingly intense heat and humidity here - we are just constantly telling ourselves we will adjust but who knows. The group is awesome and from all corners of the US. Ages are pretty spread out and range from 21 to 44, the 44 old is a 3 time Peace Corps volunteer so I am sure he will have some great insights for the rest of us. We also have a young married couple. My training group only has 7 girls which makes it pretty unusual considering the Peace Corps is 60% female.

We are stayinging in Kombo which is in the greater Banjul area till July 14th when we will get split up into much smaller groups to head upcountry to our training villages where we will be for the next 10 weeks to undergo intensive language and cultural training. I am learning Wolof which I am really excited about. Wolofs are a larger minority here but the language is spoken widely and even in Senegal. The name of my village is Sara Samba and is in the middle of the country very close to the Senegal border. We have already started some basic language class and it is going well but is very difficult. I feel like I am speaking Chinese half the time because the letter groupings are so strange. I am excited to pick it up more quickly once I get to my training village and I am forced to us it on a more regular basis. There are two other guys, Evan (South Dakota) and Jim (Montana) that will be with my in Sara Samaba and having language classes with my everyday from our fabulous Wolof teacher, Haddy.

I don't think it has totally hit me that I am in West Africa and will be for the next two years. The area reminds me a lot of La Entrada in Honduras. I am sure once the van drops me off with Evan and Jim in our village next Friday with all of our stuff and we are thrust into village life and host families it will all become a lot more real. Till then I am enjoying Kombo, internet, the beach, getting to know my training group and massive amounts of the most delicious mangos ever. We meet for training class every day under a mango tree - can't get any better than that!

Milestones for the week:
#1 Adam and I rode a bush taxi with 15 people crammed into it and didn't get over charged or die.
#2 I went to church this morning and it was a very interesting cultural experience if not quite what I am used to back in West Chester.

Off to watch the World Cup! Love you all and talk to you soon hopefully!

Peacing out of the USA

In about two minutes I am leaving for staging in Philadelphia. I have gotten to wait to the last possible minute to say goodbye to family and friends and to pack my life up since I live so close to the staging city. The last week has been a rollercoaster and I am filled with excitement, anxiety, a little bit of sadness and a lot of anticipation. I don't think it has totally hit me till today that I am moving to Africa for two years, and maybe it won't totally hit me until I get on the plane. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful birthday/bon voyage party and all the warm wishes and prayers. I don't know when I will have access to internet again so until then know that I am almost certainly doing well and enduring many hours of training and assimilation. Love you all and talk to you as soon as I can!!!!

"People always say that time will change things, but you actually have to change them yourself." Andy Warhol