This stop was really interesting as it was Sira’s village. I helped Sira with an assignment during the ECD term and since then we had kept in touch. It was nice to visit her village and meet her family and children. We arrived pretty late due to the long wait for the driver but it was like a mini party at the school when we got there. Some women were busy cooking – amazingly for me they were cooking in a place where the concrete had developed a hole in the verandah of the house (it also surprise me that to light the rooms the Gambians will melt wax from a candle on a desk then fuse the candle to the desk then leave it burning unattended). I am concerned that many houses might burn.
The men again washed and prayed and I went with Sira to her family compound to meet her family. Sira is married with two children. She lives in the same village as her husband but in the compound with her mother and father and her children. She visits her husband regularly. I met her two sisters, father, mother and the children of the compound. It is really tricky to try and understand Gambian families because a sister might be a full sister with the same mother and father, or a half sister with the same father and a different mother, or the wife of a brother who is either a full brother or half brother. It takes a little while to work out. The family had good fun trying to get me to use my bad mandinka.
After meeting Sira’s family we went back to the school and some children fetched some water from the well so I could shower. It is expected that children take on roles in Gambian families so even though I felt bad that a ten year old was carrying a heavy bucket of water for me it would have been disrespectful for me to take over from the child.
Then I encountered the biggest challenge of the trek. Trying to have a bucket shower by torch light on a bull ants nest. The shower was literally an area fenced by sheets of corregated iron with two small cement blocks to stand on while you showered. Underneath the cement blocks was an ants nest with really big bull ants. I was extremely determined not to be a ‘silly white woman’ so I worked out a method of marching with a torch in my mouth whilst tipping cans full of water and soap over myself. It wasn’t much fun but I had a real sense of satisfaction that I didn’t give up. And I didn’t get bitten.
That night I stayed in the female teacher’s house. I would go to bed at around 10pm about three hours before the Gambians, and I would get up at about quarter to seven, around an hour and a half after the Gambians. So I was always told I was going to bed early and ‘sleeping in’. But I didn’t need the afternoon nap my colleagues needed.
That night I wasn’t really sure whether I was sharing a bed or not so I was curled up right against the wall, but it turned out the female teacher slept in the other room with some other women and children. That night it rained properly with a spectacular display of thunder and lightning so I was kept awake a lot by all the bugs that came to life with the rain.
The next morning I discovered the toilet in the house behind where I was staying was much nicer, because it was concreted. However the toilet had been used for someone’s morning expulsion and the iron around the area was much shorter so I had to hold my breath and shower whilst kneeling because there were children sweeping the compound outside the short fence where I was showering (plus it backed on to the rest of the village). However again the shower was so nice and refreshing and I felt a sense of accomplishment that I managed to shower without flashing the village!
That morning the women got started on ground nut porridge for breakfast and then the children cooked it and washed the dishes before putting on their uniform for school. Ground nut porridge is delicious. It is pounded peanuts and rice cooked slowly in milk and sugar. When serving it up Nonu is poured over the top which is fresh cows milk that has been left for a day to turn into something midway between sour milk and porridge (not something I think people would eat in the Western world – especially as the cows aren’t TB tested). It is really yummy if you don’t think too much about it. I didn’t get sick and I have since learnt to make it in my own way.
The men again washed and prayed and I went with Sira to her family compound to meet her family. Sira is married with two children. She lives in the same village as her husband but in the compound with her mother and father and her children. She visits her husband regularly. I met her two sisters, father, mother and the children of the compound. It is really tricky to try and understand Gambian families because a sister might be a full sister with the same mother and father, or a half sister with the same father and a different mother, or the wife of a brother who is either a full brother or half brother. It takes a little while to work out. The family had good fun trying to get me to use my bad mandinka.
After meeting Sira’s family we went back to the school and some children fetched some water from the well so I could shower. It is expected that children take on roles in Gambian families so even though I felt bad that a ten year old was carrying a heavy bucket of water for me it would have been disrespectful for me to take over from the child.
Then I encountered the biggest challenge of the trek. Trying to have a bucket shower by torch light on a bull ants nest. The shower was literally an area fenced by sheets of corregated iron with two small cement blocks to stand on while you showered. Underneath the cement blocks was an ants nest with really big bull ants. I was extremely determined not to be a ‘silly white woman’ so I worked out a method of marching with a torch in my mouth whilst tipping cans full of water and soap over myself. It wasn’t much fun but I had a real sense of satisfaction that I didn’t give up. And I didn’t get bitten.
That night I stayed in the female teacher’s house. I would go to bed at around 10pm about three hours before the Gambians, and I would get up at about quarter to seven, around an hour and a half after the Gambians. So I was always told I was going to bed early and ‘sleeping in’. But I didn’t need the afternoon nap my colleagues needed.
That night I wasn’t really sure whether I was sharing a bed or not so I was curled up right against the wall, but it turned out the female teacher slept in the other room with some other women and children. That night it rained properly with a spectacular display of thunder and lightning so I was kept awake a lot by all the bugs that came to life with the rain.
The next morning I discovered the toilet in the house behind where I was staying was much nicer, because it was concreted. However the toilet had been used for someone’s morning expulsion and the iron around the area was much shorter so I had to hold my breath and shower whilst kneeling because there were children sweeping the compound outside the short fence where I was showering (plus it backed on to the rest of the village). However again the shower was so nice and refreshing and I felt a sense of accomplishment that I managed to shower without flashing the village!
That morning the women got started on ground nut porridge for breakfast and then the children cooked it and washed the dishes before putting on their uniform for school. Ground nut porridge is delicious. It is pounded peanuts and rice cooked slowly in milk and sugar. When serving it up Nonu is poured over the top which is fresh cows milk that has been left for a day to turn into something midway between sour milk and porridge (not something I think people would eat in the Western world – especially as the cows aren’t TB tested). It is really yummy if you don’t think too much about it. I didn’t get sick and I have since learnt to make it in my own way.
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