Site Visit

New family

My surname has changed, as I will no longer be living with the Dibba family in my training village but now with the Darboe family (pronounced Daa-boe) which is my permanent site, so my name is now Caaku Darboe.   I live in a multi-family compound of two brothers, Bobuccar and Alaghie Darboe, my 2 host fathers.  They both have 2 wives, meaning I have 4 host mothers! Alaghie is a headmaster of a school in a neighboring village so is only home on the weekends, so Bobuccar is my primary father. Bobuccar is also the village health worker, meaning he is the person to go to for any basic health needs or advice. If he cannot help, he refers individuals to the minor health center 5 km away.  In terms of my compound dynamics, there are usually 15-30 people in the area whether they are working on building the 2 new houses in the backyard, visiting my mothers, or just neighbor kids passing through to see the new white person in the village.  

 Over the past few days I have been busy getting to know my village, counterpart, and family. My community representative, Omar, has been a huge help every step of the way. Plus he is the only person I’ve met who is fluent in English.  The first full day here, one of the Peace Corps language and culture facilitators came and helped introduce me to my village leaders and helped me get settled and communicate effectively my desires and needs to my family. Also, she helped figure out which father and which mother I should be paying rent to and expecting to receive my food from.  It’s kind of funny because the father and mother that was identified is the family I have worked with the least.

Daily I have been helping my family with watering their garden beds which are located in the massive community garden, the size of 5 football fields! While working in the garden I pretty much follow my recently married 25-year old sister, Amie, drawing water from the well and watering the plants (eggplant, tomato, bitter tomato, pepper,  onion, cucha, and lettuce). Amie made a rule that when she calls out someone’s name to greet them, I must call it out as well.  It’s quite funny to me because my American mindset is that it doesn’t matter if I don’t know or don’t greet everyone, but this is not America! Amie scolds me if I do not greet someone saying, “Caaku, greet her” or “Caaku, answer her.”

Relationships are EVERYTHING!

I must admit that I dreaded going to the garden at first, not because of the hard work but because I did not like greeting everyone! But now I actually enjoy it! This evening, my sister and mother (one of four mothers) were picking bitter tomatoes to sell in Barra and left me with the responsibility of watering the beds. Once I completed this task, I found myself just standing around, so I began drawing water for other women going to the well. I will probably be sore in the morning; however, I was very glad to be able to help the other women and show what kind of person I am (since I’m not able to communicate with any of them hardly at all). Plus, I like working hard, and here in Africa that’s what women do best: work very hard! 

I do not know how to explain it other than to say that this culture is ALL about relationships!  Relationships are EVERYTHING! In America we walk down the street and mind our own business, not greeting anyone at all; however, here if you do not greet someone, stopping to shake hands, ask how their children are, whether their mother or father is at home, comment on their family’s surname,  and so on, you are being rude.  

School girl epidemic?

                Yesterday I visited the minor health clinic, just 5 km away, where I will be helping out in some capacity. Very nice staff and facility. While speaking with the administrator, a rush of secondary school children flooded into the compound carrying a girl having a hard time breathing.  First thing I thought of was asthma; however, this is not the case. The girls (and it only happened to girls) will be walking down the hallway and suddenly pass out.  No warning. This type of health problem has been going on for many years but used to only occur in one particular school; however, it has now spread to every region of The Gambia.  No one knows the cause. Some think the girls are faking it. Some think it is supernatural, demonic activity. When I heard this latter possible cause I became interested and asked for more information. Apparently this is not the only health problem occurring throughout the schools; some girls have epileptic symptoms, some have ability to read minds, and some walk into fires if not held back. I continued my detective work and discovered that even in the teachers’ quarters strange things are happening. Dishes will be heard moving around when no one is there or the shower will suddenly turn on and no one turned the knob.  And being as this is a country with animism in its culture, this makes for an interesting health problem!  To be honest, I do not know what to think. Hopefully I will learn more in the coming months. Thoughts? Comments?

Tomorrow my site-visit is over and I return to the Kombo area for a couple weeks before returning for my 2 years.  Although I have only been here for a few days, I can tell already that I’m going to miss my family and village. I have gained a very good friendship with my 25-year old sister, Amie, who told me this evening, “Caaku, I will miss you.” J

          Well, I will write more later. I will return to site the 15th.

          Thank you all for the letters and packages!