The last stop was really interesting as well. We stopped in Chamen at Kaddy Cham’s compound. We hadn’t been able to reach Kaddy on the phone so our visit was a surprise and because there was only two student in Chamen it was decided to leave me so my colleagues could drive to the next village (the down side of being the only female is that you are the easiest one to leave). Kaddy’s compound was really active because in two days her uncle was going to get married so she had relatives from Senegal staying.
Kaddy’s father was the principal of a school and used to the Gambian Lecturers being on trek. Luckily for me they had just completed two rooms for people to stay in so I got to stay in a brand new building (although it was still a little rough it was nice to have my own space). Kaddy’s father has three wives. Kaddy’s mother is the first wife and has four daughters and twin boys (who were only around two and terrified of me!). Two of the daughters were away at school so there was only Kaddy, the young sister (who was eight) and the two boys. The second wife had a boy and a girl and the third wife didn’t have any children. The family was lovely, and again, although they were speaking Wolof and I couldn’t understand them, they didn’t mind me sitting with them.
Kaddy’s younger sister was around eight and had recently broken her arm. She had been to the village healer and had some local medicine and it was bound in some material, but she was in a lot of pain at night. She was in great spirits during the day and was really excited to show me her school work so we went through all her school work together. I gave the family some aspirin to give her to help at night but felt really helpless at helping her more. It really brought home how hard it must be when there are not a lot of medical facilities and people have to rely upon local healers.
The family had a lot of farming land there were two boys who also lived with the family to help on the farm. The back of the compound had a stable of sorts with the cows used for ploughing, a horse and a donkey. It was lovely to see healthy animals with lots of hay. In the compound was a really fit ram who was tied up and extremely angry about it who had a go at me each time I walked past.
The other student from the nursery school came by the compound to sit with me. By this stage I was so tired from all the trekking that I wasn’t good company but I had to face yet another cultural hurdle while she was staying. The family all got together to eat food bowl and I was really uncertain because it is extremely rude not to invite someone to food bowl, but they didn’t invite me and I was worried that I had offended them. Then it turned out my boss had told them I was vegetarian so they made a meal of eggs (from Tamba’s farm) for me to eat in my room. The student said she would leave me to eat and rest and then when she was heading off I realized that I was the one being rude and not inviting her to food bowl. I invited her and her sister and brother back to food bowl, although she was the only one who took me up, as well as Kaddy and her sister. They came, though I knew they had eaten so I was still not sure if I had done the right thing. Then I realized that I was the host of food bowl and had to break up the bread and pass it out and divide up the food bowl. Again I was totally unsure as I didn’t know what my role was supposed to be. I ended up breaking up the bread and saw the uncertain look on the faces of everyone around the food bowl. Then I realized I’d used my left hand. It is considered extremely unhygienic in Gambia to use your left hand because they don’t use toilet paper and therefore wash with their left hand and water. The right hand is reserved for shaking hands and eating. So even though I don’t use my hands in the same way I could see what was going through their minds – they would have to eat this bread to be polite and I had used my left hand. Anyway I think they realize our culture is different and I hadn’t meant to be disgusting.
The next morning I got the joy of sharing the family food bowl. They were eating cous, cous (which is ground millet) and a fishy sauce. The cous is similar to eating sand, but it is still nice. The exciting thing about this food bowl is that they didn’t think to give me a spoon, so I had my first experience of eating using my hand (you roll a ball of food in your fingers and eat it – it is a bit harder with cous so you also have to lick it off your fingers). It was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be and I remembered to use my right hand and keep my left well away! I also ate well, and as usual again they told me I wasn’t eating enough. It is part of the culture to encourage a guest to eat more when they have finished. I actually usually don’t eat much because the children usually get the left overs and I want to make sure they get a lot, but in this compound the children were also eating at the food bowl.
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