End of October...

I’m in The Gambia – this whole thing is such a trip! I’m in a small rural village bordering Senegal; I have my own mud and plaster hut, complete with concrete floor, thatch roof and pit latrine (read “hole in the ground, with a cover”). My name is Yassin Tuday and I live in the Tuday compound, which consists of another hut for two undes (21 and 22 years old, both names Aladdy) and a bigger concrete house (with a super-modern corrugated tin roof) with three rooms, where the rest of the compound lives: a young couple, one for my “parents”, Savo and Yassin, their three little ones, plus two other kids whose parents are relatives, but not around, plus a grandma. My whole village is pretty tiny, but beautiful. They all go to the fields that surround the village every morning to harvest rice, coos, and corn, and peanuts.

It’s the end of the rainy season, and everything’s green and lush – there are big boabola and mango trees everywhere, and lots of livestock – goats are my new favorite thing! It’s about 85F and humid, but really beautiful weather and not too many mosquitoes. My days go like this:

6:45am – bike ride with Ro-hee (a.k.a. Cheyanne, another Woolof PCT) down one of the 5 or 6 roads leading to other villages. Fields, trees, birds, coos, mud/sand, donkey carts…awesome.

7:45pm – bucket bath (from water I carried on my head!), breakfast (coos & peanut porridge).

8:00am-1:00pm – Language with my three other Woolof PCT’s (Cheyanne-from Alaska, Grover from Kansas, Mandy from Washington – all very cool) and our language teacher, a twenty-something Gambian girl who’s awesome, Hadi Sow.

1:00pm – Lunch, Gambian style – a big bowl of food the 5 of us share, eating with our right hand. Always, rice with meat and sauce.

1:30pm – Get water, take a nap, read, study, play Uno with the fam – in the shade!

5:00pm – go bird watching with the PCT crew, herd of young children in tow, eat peanuts growing road-side.

7:00pm – Break fast with the fam (it is the month of Ramadon – they don’t eat or drink from sun-up to sun-down). Have dinner served to me in a separate bowl. Always rice with fish, tasting sauce and perhaps a bitter tomato (yum!).

8:00pm – Hang out, maybe drink some attaya (their version of sweet tea – intense, bitter, so sweet even American’s southerners would wince).

9:00pm – Read by head lamp, snooze. Rain sometimes comes at night, with refreshing wind. Night skies, when clear are just completely amazing!

Woolof is hard, but being immersed as we are is great and we’re learning fast. At lease we have the greetings down pat! Greetings are extremely important, you do it to everyone you come across. They go like this:
“Peace be on you.” Response -“And on you”.
“How are you”. “I’m here only”.
“How are the people of your compound?” “They are there only”.
“How is your morning/afternoon/evening?” “Peace only”.
“Does your body have peace” “Peace only”.
“How is the work” “Peace only” or- best part! “I’m on it, slowly, slowly.(That makes an important statement about the culture I think).

Two guys have gone home already! With my hopes of working in development later, and goals of personal growth and simplifying life, this experience is perfect for me – it’s pure mind-expanding fun. But it’s pretty intense, and it’s such a specific type of experience that it’s not hard to understand why those guys left – it’s either for you or it’s definitely not.

Though I started this letter in my training village I’m not at our group training camp, Ten-da-ba, right on the Gambian river, which is wide and muddy like the ‘ol Miss. It’s great to be back with a big group of people, big good meals, a nice shower, a pool! We just have training sessions all day, with teachers or in-country volunteers conducting “skills sessions” – we’re learning “sweet skills” – mud stove making, tree and crop ID, gardening, lesson planning, bee-keeping, etc. And language!

I haven’t been missing TV cuz this group of PCT’s are pure entertainment. Lots of funny quirky interesting people, from all backgrounds. It’s “Real World” Peace Corps, complete with random hook ups and all the stereotypical “Real World” roles! Funny stuff.

Write me often! I’m crazy to hear from everyone. Tell me everything that’s new! Things to send if you get the desire to mail something. My list of wants and needs:

I’m hoping to do some of my own cooking (dinners I think – other meals I’ll pay my fam to cook for me) cuz Gambian food s good but lacks variety and nutrition. So, spices, dries fruits, and veggies, seeds to plant (tomatoes, basil, salad greens), whole-wheat or whole-grain or fiber in any form – this may be kind of hard…but dried soup things, anything with protein powder. I’m craving fruit so much so dried fruits I would love.

Also, need baking soda, baking powder (can’t find it here), UNO game cards – a couple of sets, news magazines – I’m totally disconnected! Pictures – lots of pictures of everyone and everything. Laminated if possible. And chocolate!! Powdered is the only way to send it.

Books: The World and A Small Place in Africa, Any Vandanna Shiva (except the Water one), anything interesting about development work, environmental work, sustainable development especially in Africa. JANE or SEED magazines, also TIME magazine.

Lots of letters – I won’t have any time on the Internet until some time in December and would love to hear from you before then.

I love you for sending things but please don’t send:
Peanuts or peanut butter (there’s plenty here)
Vitamins
Normal toiletries
Rice…(someone’s family sent them rice!!)
Snickers candy – I can buy them here
Postcards – OR put them in an envelope, people snag them.