So I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to today, but not bad. I did not do laundry which means I have to bring dirty clothes to Conakry and wash there first thing. Which isn’t so bad, but it would have been nice to have clean clothes.
I did not want to work today, which is part of the reason (no, pretty much WHY) I did not get everything done that I would have in a perfect world.
There were a TON of petites here in the afternoon and BOY were they getting on my nerves. I kept telling them to go away and shutting my door and everything and they just WOULD NOT STOP annoying me. So finally I went outside to work on my garden, thinking that they would probably help me. And most of them did (and received bon-bons, even though most of them tried to act like I hadn’t already given them one and cop a second but I wouldn’t let them). The others, I said, “either help or leave” and they left. So I re-dug 2 more of the beds, threw out a bunch more stones and garbage and put on the gliricidia leaves as organic fertilizer. That leaves just one bed undone (of 6). I did not get around to cow poo or getting compost from the nasty garbage pile by my house, but I’ll do that when I get back first thing before I transplent my seedlings. I also need to go en brousse and find some Neem to use as a pesticide because there are bugs in the dirt and termites. Termites being the really malicious thing.
Which brings me to seedlings! I planted seeds in about 70 or so sachets, 2 seeds each. Here’s what I planted: Local: cucumber, corn (it’s like cow corn, not sweet corn), tomato, grapefruit, bell pepper. Shoot I forgot to plant the piment! I’ll try to do that in the morning before I leave. Then I planted a bunch of stuff sent from the States, which I am told won’t grow well because the seeds aren’t adapted to Africa, but I thought it was worth a shot: sweet corn, lettuce, zucchini, butterstick hybrid zucchini, tomato, bush beans, garden beans, scarlet runner, sunflowers, cucumber and sugar pea. Then it was getting dark so I did a few sachets with Moringa seeds but not as many as I would have liked. I did 3 sachets of most with 2 seeds each, a couple I only did one or two and then I did 6 or so of each corn since you have to plant them in rows of 3 (so, 4 plants, 3 rows of each). It has been raining pretty consistently although it did not rain yesterday and hasn’t rained today either (but could overnight). I told my friend Ousmane that if it doesn’t rain while I’m gone to come by every day and check the sachets and if they are dry, water them. He said he would. I am buying him shoes in Conakry so he better!!
When I get home in 2 weeks I have to finish fertilizing (and I’m hoping to get chicken poo in Conakry to put in the holes when I transplant the seedlings), put organic pesticide on, plant flower seeds along my walkway (dad and Marci sent a TON), fill more sachets and start planting more tree seeds. Especially Moringa. I have decided that is going to be my biggest project, getting Moringa trees planted all around town. It appears to have been my predecessor’s biggest project to put gliricidia in all the living fences, and she succeeded pretty well with that, and my goal will be Moringa. In living fences and just in public places, and show people how to use it, especially at the Centre de Sante so that they can prescribe it to pregnant women and infants.
All in all, I wish I could have planted more seeds today. Like filled all the sachets rather than just over half. Le sigh. This means I have to work super hard as soon as I get back.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Headlamps Are Awesome
I always forget how awesome my headlamp is until I put new batteries in it. It’s like watching your dog grow up: you don’t notice him getting bigger because the changes day by day are so small: you don’t notice your headlamp getting dimmer because day by day the change is so small. But then one day you realize you can barely see the print in the book you’re reading and you pop three brand-spanking-new AAA batteries from Costco in it and all of a sudden you can see your entire yard in the middle of the night as though it were daytime. Headlamps rock. For anyone wondering, I have a Petzl Tikka headlamp, but I am sure this is true of all headlamps.
So I have taken to letting Yogi in my bed in the mornings. Starting around 5am he starts putting his front paws up on the bed and whining and it’s not that he wants to go out or even that he doesn’t want to sleep anymore, he just wants to be in the bed, because once I let him in the bed he just sprawls out and goes back to sleep. This means I have to bathe him more because I do not want a stinky dog in my bed.
Which brings me to another point. He hates being bathed. I do it in the rain now, making him stand under the rain coming off the roof while I lather him up but it is a FIGHT from start to finish. And uses too much shampoo. I have to figure out another soap solution for this. I’m going to write home for doggie shampoo in my next package.
Also, he doesn’t want to stay in the bedroom at night. I don’t know why. But a few nights ago around 2am somebody came to my window (a woman) babbling and Yogi just barked his head off which alerted some dude on the path or next door who made her go away but it was frightening and now I’m all jumpy about noises and obsessively check my backyard before getting into my bed. So he has to stay in my room, end of story.
Today I walked the 45 minutes to the pepiniere because I wanted to take my dog and because my bike was kind of broken. And I haven’t ridden it in awhile (like since before I went to Dakar) and know that the ride back would once again be hell in a handbasket. So I walked and it took 45 minutes. I think it takes about 5 minutes to bike there, but it takes like 30 minutes to get back because I have to walk my bike part of the way because I am neither Ian nor Scott and can’t make it up the hill…sad but true.
Anyway I spent three hours filling sachets and when I left they still weren’t done but I had to be home by 2 to meet up with Ousmane. The walk back was tiring, even with my iPod (and hot) and when I got back I just wanted to take a bath and have a nap but Ousmane was here so I couldn’t. And then, predictably, people were here for the rest of the day.
There is this other Ousmane who wants me to teach him English so he comes by every day with his notebook and asks me how to say certain things in English and just generally practice. At first it always gets on my nerves but then eventually I calm down and it isn’t as annoying. Today I made him (and Crazy [that’s not really his name, they all go by sort of rapper nicknames, I think his real name is Ibrahima], Ousmane 1 and this other kid) help me prepare the Coyah (mineral water) sachets and then we filled 23 of them with the good soil from under my cottonwood tree. But it started to rain and unlike me, they don’t like to work in the rain so the deal is that we are going to finish filling the rest of them tomorrow. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, putting the seeds in sachets instead of waiting for my beds to be ready (which has already been a SLOW process and I haven’t even put any fertilizer in them yet…I mean, half of them aren’t even dug yet!). So tomorrow when we finish filling all the Coyah sachets (I would say there are maybe 100 or so…I thought I had more), I am going to plant a bunch of seeds, some for the vegetable garden and some trees. Once I have some good tree seedlings I am going to give them each a couple of trees to plant around their house (probably a cashew and a moringa each, because they are food trees and are more likely to be valued).
I also got Crazy interested in the idea of doing the World Map Project somewhere around town by busting out my world map and talking about different countries and the languages they speak and explaining that just because the US and England both speak English, it’s not identical though one can understand the other without trouble. I also told him that the people in Australia speak English because long ago England sent all their “bandits” there and he thought that was very interesting. I don’t think I can do the World Map Project on an exterior wall during the rainy season so it might have to wait for the fall, but hey at least I have one person interested already!!
I also made Crazy get me some mangoes from the tree in my backyard. I am actually surprised at the lack of mango gifts I have received. I feel like mango season is starting to come to a close and I’ve barely eaten 10 of them in my village. So for the rest of this week I am going to make an effort to eat at least 1 mango a day even if I have to make Ousmane or Crazy get them out of the tree for me.
Ousmane told me that the last soccer game is tomorrow between Manchester and Barcelona. I might end up obliged to go to the video club with them to watch it. I much prefer live soccer, but we’ll see.
Also I went by the big generator building yesterday and the generator IS there. I don’t think I’ve really heard it running, and I don’t really know what they’re using it for, but there are a ton of lightbulbs hooked up all around the building and outlets outside of it and I think there was a rice winnow-er hooked up to the generator inside. So who knows.
I also took a walk down the road that goes by my house (embarrassed to say I had not gone down it before) and discovered that the mosque is under construction! Did not know that. Also there is a new-looking pump right next to the mosque (the concrete looks new, and the pipe is there coming out of the ground but all the exterior pump stuff is missing, or not there yet, or something). So if they get that pump working, that will be the closest water source (like 50 yards away!) and very easy to get water from, which would be a load off my back though Ousmane and Lamarana have been getting me a lot of water lately and I fill up buckets every time it rains so I have plenty of water for hand washing and dish washing and bathing and stuff like that.
I went down the road a pretty long ways and here’s what I discovered: EVERYONE is growing manioc. I keep telling my friends that manioc is “empty” and they should eat more vegetables but it’s hard to explain nutrition to someone who has never even had a basic health course and doesn’t even understand the concept of “vitamins” or “nutritional value”. It’s hard to tell them not to grow manioc, either, because it stores for so long and is relatively easy to grow, and what else would they be able to grow as a staple crop other than manioc that would last as long and have more nutritional value? If you know, comment please!! But there is manioc EVERYWHERE. In every field, around every house. Manioc, manioc, manioc. That must be why everyone thinks I’m weird for growing tomatoes and piment. Though I would still like to know where the piment THEY eat is grown.
Also banana and orange season has ended, which came as kind of a shock because I was in some sort of bubble where I just thought there were ALWAYS oranges and bananas around. Not the case.
Ok, need to wrap this up. Have I mentioned that I found a good rice and sauce lady?? I buy it for Yogi but then end up eating half of it myself because it is really good! It is one of the women who has a boutique at the Carrefour and she is pretty much always sold out by 9am so I have to make sure I get up and get out there around 8 so I am sure to get some. So far it has only been leaf sauce and peanut sauce (fine by me!) and I am sort of rue-ing the day when she has a soup sauce. Maybe that day will never come. Keep those leaves and peanuts coming!!
So I have taken to letting Yogi in my bed in the mornings. Starting around 5am he starts putting his front paws up on the bed and whining and it’s not that he wants to go out or even that he doesn’t want to sleep anymore, he just wants to be in the bed, because once I let him in the bed he just sprawls out and goes back to sleep. This means I have to bathe him more because I do not want a stinky dog in my bed.
Which brings me to another point. He hates being bathed. I do it in the rain now, making him stand under the rain coming off the roof while I lather him up but it is a FIGHT from start to finish. And uses too much shampoo. I have to figure out another soap solution for this. I’m going to write home for doggie shampoo in my next package.
Also, he doesn’t want to stay in the bedroom at night. I don’t know why. But a few nights ago around 2am somebody came to my window (a woman) babbling and Yogi just barked his head off which alerted some dude on the path or next door who made her go away but it was frightening and now I’m all jumpy about noises and obsessively check my backyard before getting into my bed. So he has to stay in my room, end of story.
Today I walked the 45 minutes to the pepiniere because I wanted to take my dog and because my bike was kind of broken. And I haven’t ridden it in awhile (like since before I went to Dakar) and know that the ride back would once again be hell in a handbasket. So I walked and it took 45 minutes. I think it takes about 5 minutes to bike there, but it takes like 30 minutes to get back because I have to walk my bike part of the way because I am neither Ian nor Scott and can’t make it up the hill…sad but true.
Anyway I spent three hours filling sachets and when I left they still weren’t done but I had to be home by 2 to meet up with Ousmane. The walk back was tiring, even with my iPod (and hot) and when I got back I just wanted to take a bath and have a nap but Ousmane was here so I couldn’t. And then, predictably, people were here for the rest of the day.
There is this other Ousmane who wants me to teach him English so he comes by every day with his notebook and asks me how to say certain things in English and just generally practice. At first it always gets on my nerves but then eventually I calm down and it isn’t as annoying. Today I made him (and Crazy [that’s not really his name, they all go by sort of rapper nicknames, I think his real name is Ibrahima], Ousmane 1 and this other kid) help me prepare the Coyah (mineral water) sachets and then we filled 23 of them with the good soil from under my cottonwood tree. But it started to rain and unlike me, they don’t like to work in the rain so the deal is that we are going to finish filling the rest of them tomorrow. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, putting the seeds in sachets instead of waiting for my beds to be ready (which has already been a SLOW process and I haven’t even put any fertilizer in them yet…I mean, half of them aren’t even dug yet!). So tomorrow when we finish filling all the Coyah sachets (I would say there are maybe 100 or so…I thought I had more), I am going to plant a bunch of seeds, some for the vegetable garden and some trees. Once I have some good tree seedlings I am going to give them each a couple of trees to plant around their house (probably a cashew and a moringa each, because they are food trees and are more likely to be valued).
I also got Crazy interested in the idea of doing the World Map Project somewhere around town by busting out my world map and talking about different countries and the languages they speak and explaining that just because the US and England both speak English, it’s not identical though one can understand the other without trouble. I also told him that the people in Australia speak English because long ago England sent all their “bandits” there and he thought that was very interesting. I don’t think I can do the World Map Project on an exterior wall during the rainy season so it might have to wait for the fall, but hey at least I have one person interested already!!
I also made Crazy get me some mangoes from the tree in my backyard. I am actually surprised at the lack of mango gifts I have received. I feel like mango season is starting to come to a close and I’ve barely eaten 10 of them in my village. So for the rest of this week I am going to make an effort to eat at least 1 mango a day even if I have to make Ousmane or Crazy get them out of the tree for me.
Ousmane told me that the last soccer game is tomorrow between Manchester and Barcelona. I might end up obliged to go to the video club with them to watch it. I much prefer live soccer, but we’ll see.
Also I went by the big generator building yesterday and the generator IS there. I don’t think I’ve really heard it running, and I don’t really know what they’re using it for, but there are a ton of lightbulbs hooked up all around the building and outlets outside of it and I think there was a rice winnow-er hooked up to the generator inside. So who knows.
I also took a walk down the road that goes by my house (embarrassed to say I had not gone down it before) and discovered that the mosque is under construction! Did not know that. Also there is a new-looking pump right next to the mosque (the concrete looks new, and the pipe is there coming out of the ground but all the exterior pump stuff is missing, or not there yet, or something). So if they get that pump working, that will be the closest water source (like 50 yards away!) and very easy to get water from, which would be a load off my back though Ousmane and Lamarana have been getting me a lot of water lately and I fill up buckets every time it rains so I have plenty of water for hand washing and dish washing and bathing and stuff like that.
I went down the road a pretty long ways and here’s what I discovered: EVERYONE is growing manioc. I keep telling my friends that manioc is “empty” and they should eat more vegetables but it’s hard to explain nutrition to someone who has never even had a basic health course and doesn’t even understand the concept of “vitamins” or “nutritional value”. It’s hard to tell them not to grow manioc, either, because it stores for so long and is relatively easy to grow, and what else would they be able to grow as a staple crop other than manioc that would last as long and have more nutritional value? If you know, comment please!! But there is manioc EVERYWHERE. In every field, around every house. Manioc, manioc, manioc. That must be why everyone thinks I’m weird for growing tomatoes and piment. Though I would still like to know where the piment THEY eat is grown.
Also banana and orange season has ended, which came as kind of a shock because I was in some sort of bubble where I just thought there were ALWAYS oranges and bananas around. Not the case.
Ok, need to wrap this up. Have I mentioned that I found a good rice and sauce lady?? I buy it for Yogi but then end up eating half of it myself because it is really good! It is one of the women who has a boutique at the Carrefour and she is pretty much always sold out by 9am so I have to make sure I get up and get out there around 8 so I am sure to get some. So far it has only been leaf sauce and peanut sauce (fine by me!) and I am sort of rue-ing the day when she has a soup sauce. Maybe that day will never come. Keep those leaves and peanuts coming!!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
And All the Little (?) Ants Go Marching...Plus Soccer!
So, bizarre thing just happened. Went out to my latrine for one last stop before bed and heard a weird buzzing sound. Then noticed a huge black line of insects streaming into my latrine, which Yogi also noticed and started sniffing. They looked like really big, black ants.
A line of them was streaming in one side of the latrine and exiting the other. I think they were biting ants because Yogi started doing a jig of sorts after sticking his nose in the line. At first I was apprehensive because I thought I wasn’t going to be able to go to the bathroom but after a minute or so the end of the line appeared and they all disappeared out the other side of the latrine.
Weird.
In other news, today I finally went to my first soccer game. It was my village vs. a neighboring village and lots of people turned out. In fact, they had walled up the whole field with sticks and palm fronds and were charging an entrance fee at one of the two tiny entranceways (the other was closed and only opened to let the opposing team onto the field). Of course, they waved me through without having to pay (it’s funny, the people who might actually be able to AFFORD the entrance fee don’t have to pay it, like me and the Sous Prefet). They were trying to make my friend Ousmane pay and he didn’t want to so I told them I wasn’t going to go if Ousmane wasn’t coming with me and they let him in for free, too.
It was HOT and they made room on the one bench for me to sit and in a matter of five minutes I went from sweltering to freezing as the skies opened up and poured and people scattered looking for shelter. I didn’t move from my seat, despite everyone else running for the mango trees and telling me to come with them. I was like it’s just a little water! And at the time I was really hot so it was welcome. Then I was wet with cold rain and the breeze started up and I was “bien glace”. Almost too cold. Almost. Then the rain stopped and it was just comfortable. Of course, the players kept playing this whole time. Rain ain’t going to stop them.
I noticed that the teams lacked (especially my team) some of the simple rules of team sports. Like, when you pass the ball, make sure there is someone to pass it to. Also they had clearly not done enough footwork drills as I can count the times I saw a player keep the ball from another player by kicking it around them on one hand. Also, every other contact was with heads. They were using entirely too much head. And my team seemed to always be playing defense, as it seemed the objective of every player was just to get the ball out of our side of the field, regardless of where it went or if it just ended up right back in the other team’s possession. I wonder if they have a coach?
Anyway at halftime three guys put on a breakdancing show and one of them was really good. The other two need to practice more and put even the best guy on the streets in the States and a ten-year-old would be wiping the sidewalk with him but it was fun to watch anyway.
I left before the end of the game because there was a big pagaille going on about some disagreement about the last goal and it was about to start raining again so Ousmane said, “Allons.” At any rate, I think the score was 3-0, other team at the time and I am pretty sure my village lost, as we were well into the second half by this time.
Walking to and from the field and sitting to watch the game, I was once again struck by how absolutely beautiful this place is in which I live. The mountains with the sheer cliff faces, the palm trees and mango trees, dirt roads, dark grey clouds rolling in, a pack of white birds soaring toward the mountains underneath them…just gorgeous.
I am so lucky.
A line of them was streaming in one side of the latrine and exiting the other. I think they were biting ants because Yogi started doing a jig of sorts after sticking his nose in the line. At first I was apprehensive because I thought I wasn’t going to be able to go to the bathroom but after a minute or so the end of the line appeared and they all disappeared out the other side of the latrine.
Weird.
In other news, today I finally went to my first soccer game. It was my village vs. a neighboring village and lots of people turned out. In fact, they had walled up the whole field with sticks and palm fronds and were charging an entrance fee at one of the two tiny entranceways (the other was closed and only opened to let the opposing team onto the field). Of course, they waved me through without having to pay (it’s funny, the people who might actually be able to AFFORD the entrance fee don’t have to pay it, like me and the Sous Prefet). They were trying to make my friend Ousmane pay and he didn’t want to so I told them I wasn’t going to go if Ousmane wasn’t coming with me and they let him in for free, too.
It was HOT and they made room on the one bench for me to sit and in a matter of five minutes I went from sweltering to freezing as the skies opened up and poured and people scattered looking for shelter. I didn’t move from my seat, despite everyone else running for the mango trees and telling me to come with them. I was like it’s just a little water! And at the time I was really hot so it was welcome. Then I was wet with cold rain and the breeze started up and I was “bien glace”. Almost too cold. Almost. Then the rain stopped and it was just comfortable. Of course, the players kept playing this whole time. Rain ain’t going to stop them.
I noticed that the teams lacked (especially my team) some of the simple rules of team sports. Like, when you pass the ball, make sure there is someone to pass it to. Also they had clearly not done enough footwork drills as I can count the times I saw a player keep the ball from another player by kicking it around them on one hand. Also, every other contact was with heads. They were using entirely too much head. And my team seemed to always be playing defense, as it seemed the objective of every player was just to get the ball out of our side of the field, regardless of where it went or if it just ended up right back in the other team’s possession. I wonder if they have a coach?
Anyway at halftime three guys put on a breakdancing show and one of them was really good. The other two need to practice more and put even the best guy on the streets in the States and a ten-year-old would be wiping the sidewalk with him but it was fun to watch anyway.
I left before the end of the game because there was a big pagaille going on about some disagreement about the last goal and it was about to start raining again so Ousmane said, “Allons.” At any rate, I think the score was 3-0, other team at the time and I am pretty sure my village lost, as we were well into the second half by this time.
Walking to and from the field and sitting to watch the game, I was once again struck by how absolutely beautiful this place is in which I live. The mountains with the sheer cliff faces, the palm trees and mango trees, dirt roads, dark grey clouds rolling in, a pack of white birds soaring toward the mountains underneath them…just gorgeous.
I am so lucky.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Productivity
Today was productive. I got up around 7am and it wasn’t very hot for most of the day because there was cloud cover (praise Allah for rainy season!).
My friends Ousmane, Lamarana and Mamadou D came over to help me change the position of my bed so that I can open and close my screen/window, which is necessary during the rainy season because if it’s a really heavy, windy rain, the rain comes through my bedroom window which doesn’t matter so much now that my bed isn’t against it, but I am much happier this way. They also fixed my bed, which was sort of broken and had been the whole time I was here, and I finally got a full sweep of my room so the floor is much cleaner and less scary (I was afraid to look under my bed before because I was sure there was a whole family of huge nasty spiders living underneath). They also fixed my screen so that it fully stays in the window by hammering nails through it into the wall. Rockin!
Also they got me a ton of water, though I had to lend them my bike to do it. The pump is broken, which sucks. I think Ousmane said there was blood coming out in the water, but he might have just said dirt, but the point is, my village is now sans-pump. That’s not that bad, though, because there is that spring thing that the villagers drink straight out of and that water is pretty clean (much cleaner than well water) so I am just double-bleaching (capful of Sur-Eau in the bidon and then the ten drops in the top of the filter when I fill it). I think it will be fine for me, but the villagers really need that pump since they don’t bleach or filter, so I might have to investigate why it is broken and make it a project to have it fixed. Then again, maybe World Bank will fix it as water security is also on their agenda here.
We also chopped up my yard again for my garden, throwing a bunch of stones out, removing organic material to the compost pile and putting handfuls upon handfuls of plastic, wrappers, old shoes, tin cans, broken glass, bits of cloth, batteries and every other kind of trash you can make in Africa into a big rice sack (it is full and that doesn’t count the larger items that did not fit). This is only from one part of my yard. The whole country is like this. Let alone the other side of my front yard. Le sigh. I still have to chop the whole thing up again, throw out more stones, clear more organic material, collect more trash, make the beds and put in fertilizer (I’m going to use gliricidia leaves and urine) before I actually sow any seeds, but hey, petite a petite as they say here. EVERYONE who walks by asks me what I am going to plant there and seem satisifed when I say, “piment” (hot peppers). Really I am going to plant corn, bell peppers, piment, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, sunflowers, moringa, beans and hopefully soybeans (mom said she found some seeds!). I think the idea of planting so many different things in what they consider a small space (in the space I am using they would cover the whole thing with either just manioc or just corn) is very strange to them. But the size of what I’m using is about twice the size of my mom’s community garden and she plants all of that and more and has a yield too large for us to finish on our own each year, so I think Although I think it’s just that no one has planted there in a very long time so there are SO MANY rocks and years of trash iter all the work I am doing this year.
We also went to the carpenter and he made me a new gate (although already it is sort of broken so he has to come fix it) and I found another hole in my fence and blocked it up. Since doing these two things the only animal I have seen in my yard is one small chicken. I also asked the carpenter to make me a big table, which I am desperately in need of and he said it will be ready on Saturday. It is costing about the equivalent of $12, which is still kind of expensive here.
Ousmane also killed one of the big wasps always hanging out on my porch! I was so excited!! I FREAKING HATED THAT WASP! He’s gone now though so I am happy.
Also Ousmane brought the keke lady over to my house! YAY I FOUND THE KEKE LADY! Keke is pounded manioc that is then steamed and then topped with a plethora of things (depends on your keke lady). My lady tops it with magi cube (basically, MSG), peanut oil, tomato, onion and piment. You can also get fish balls on it but I opted out of that one as I have only ever had good fish balls once and it was on the epic 12-hour bush taxi ride when we stopped for rice and sauce at Schwegel’s site. Ousmane put mayonnaise on his in addition and I will have to try that next time. At any rate, it was good, and REALLY cheap (equivalent of about 20 cents or a loaf of French bread here).
So for their troubles I gave my friends bread and mayo (standard breakfast, in fact the mayo is a luxury item) and Quaker Chewy granola bars. I’m not sure if I should be giving them more than this or not. Next time they help me out I will augment their bread and mayo with a can of sardines (they think this is delicious).
I also finished the first Harry Potter book today and I gotta say I think they did a great job with the movie, perhaps an even better job. I could see what they changed and why and thought pretty much all of the choices were an improvement so thumbs up. Now we’ll see if that holds true for the rest of the books, though the only movies I really remember are Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Also I am missing Book 3 so I have to do a mad search for it ASAP as I am sure I will finish book 2 in no time flat and then be all sad that I have to read something else before continuing.
Well, that’s all really. It’s funny how much you can get done in one day without even really leaving your house.
My friends Ousmane, Lamarana and Mamadou D came over to help me change the position of my bed so that I can open and close my screen/window, which is necessary during the rainy season because if it’s a really heavy, windy rain, the rain comes through my bedroom window which doesn’t matter so much now that my bed isn’t against it, but I am much happier this way. They also fixed my bed, which was sort of broken and had been the whole time I was here, and I finally got a full sweep of my room so the floor is much cleaner and less scary (I was afraid to look under my bed before because I was sure there was a whole family of huge nasty spiders living underneath). They also fixed my screen so that it fully stays in the window by hammering nails through it into the wall. Rockin!
Also they got me a ton of water, though I had to lend them my bike to do it. The pump is broken, which sucks. I think Ousmane said there was blood coming out in the water, but he might have just said dirt, but the point is, my village is now sans-pump. That’s not that bad, though, because there is that spring thing that the villagers drink straight out of and that water is pretty clean (much cleaner than well water) so I am just double-bleaching (capful of Sur-Eau in the bidon and then the ten drops in the top of the filter when I fill it). I think it will be fine for me, but the villagers really need that pump since they don’t bleach or filter, so I might have to investigate why it is broken and make it a project to have it fixed. Then again, maybe World Bank will fix it as water security is also on their agenda here.
We also chopped up my yard again for my garden, throwing a bunch of stones out, removing organic material to the compost pile and putting handfuls upon handfuls of plastic, wrappers, old shoes, tin cans, broken glass, bits of cloth, batteries and every other kind of trash you can make in Africa into a big rice sack (it is full and that doesn’t count the larger items that did not fit). This is only from one part of my yard. The whole country is like this. Let alone the other side of my front yard. Le sigh. I still have to chop the whole thing up again, throw out more stones, clear more organic material, collect more trash, make the beds and put in fertilizer (I’m going to use gliricidia leaves and urine) before I actually sow any seeds, but hey, petite a petite as they say here. EVERYONE who walks by asks me what I am going to plant there and seem satisifed when I say, “piment” (hot peppers). Really I am going to plant corn, bell peppers, piment, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, sunflowers, moringa, beans and hopefully soybeans (mom said she found some seeds!). I think the idea of planting so many different things in what they consider a small space (in the space I am using they would cover the whole thing with either just manioc or just corn) is very strange to them. But the size of what I’m using is about twice the size of my mom’s community garden and she plants all of that and more and has a yield too large for us to finish on our own each year, so I think Although I think it’s just that no one has planted there in a very long time so there are SO MANY rocks and years of trash iter all the work I am doing this year.
We also went to the carpenter and he made me a new gate (although already it is sort of broken so he has to come fix it) and I found another hole in my fence and blocked it up. Since doing these two things the only animal I have seen in my yard is one small chicken. I also asked the carpenter to make me a big table, which I am desperately in need of and he said it will be ready on Saturday. It is costing about the equivalent of $12, which is still kind of expensive here.
Ousmane also killed one of the big wasps always hanging out on my porch! I was so excited!! I FREAKING HATED THAT WASP! He’s gone now though so I am happy.
Also Ousmane brought the keke lady over to my house! YAY I FOUND THE KEKE LADY! Keke is pounded manioc that is then steamed and then topped with a plethora of things (depends on your keke lady). My lady tops it with magi cube (basically, MSG), peanut oil, tomato, onion and piment. You can also get fish balls on it but I opted out of that one as I have only ever had good fish balls once and it was on the epic 12-hour bush taxi ride when we stopped for rice and sauce at Schwegel’s site. Ousmane put mayonnaise on his in addition and I will have to try that next time. At any rate, it was good, and REALLY cheap (equivalent of about 20 cents or a loaf of French bread here).
So for their troubles I gave my friends bread and mayo (standard breakfast, in fact the mayo is a luxury item) and Quaker Chewy granola bars. I’m not sure if I should be giving them more than this or not. Next time they help me out I will augment their bread and mayo with a can of sardines (they think this is delicious).
I also finished the first Harry Potter book today and I gotta say I think they did a great job with the movie, perhaps an even better job. I could see what they changed and why and thought pretty much all of the choices were an improvement so thumbs up. Now we’ll see if that holds true for the rest of the books, though the only movies I really remember are Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Also I am missing Book 3 so I have to do a mad search for it ASAP as I am sure I will finish book 2 in no time flat and then be all sad that I have to read something else before continuing.
Well, that’s all really. It’s funny how much you can get done in one day without even really leaving your house.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Holy S*** I'm in Africa
So I think I finally had my “holy s*** I’m in Africa” moment. It was during the second evening of rain and I was washing my dishes on the porch and watching the kids across the way bathing in a wheelbarrow filling up from the rain falling from the edge of the roof.
I just sat there, washing my dishes in a bucket, rain pelting the ground around me, a clean breeze and kids taking baths in a wheelbarrow and thought…”Holy s***. I’m in Africa.”
Last week went really well at my village. My friend Ousmane stopped by every day but he told me that when he is done with his studies for the year he is moving away to live with family in a bigger city so he can go to the 11th and 12th grade. This makes me sad. I gave him a wheel of Laughing Cow cheese and he was really happy about that. He told me that everyone in my village says that they like me a lot, which is nice.
One of the dudes involved in the whole big generator thing told me they were going to hook my house up to electricity when it’s ready. The building is almost done and once it is, I wonder how long it will take before the generator actually arrives and is functional. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did actually hook my house up to the electricity because my house is one of the closest to the generator and I am a “permanent” resident. The other houses close to the generator are houses where people just inhabit rooms in them and not all the time. Plus I seem to be a high profile member of the community, even if all I do is sit on my porch and read and saluer people as they walk by and make little kids draw me pictures and buy onions daily.
Also last week Pular really started to click for me. Before, it would go in one ear and out the other, but now I am retaining phrases and able to say more things and understand more and even Madame Bangoura said, “You are beginning to understand!” which made me feel good because she has yelled at me about my awful French before. I feel like my French is also getting better which is nice. By the time I am done here I feel like my French will be really good and I’ll be able to say I speak conversational Pular…maybe .
Anyway tomorrow we see everyone for IST but it will be a bit sad without Aaron and Dave. Miss you guys!! John and I are planning to get up super early to get the first car to Kindia and catch the Peace Corps bus as it goes through on the way to Mamou. And hence shall commence two more weeks of training.
I just sat there, washing my dishes in a bucket, rain pelting the ground around me, a clean breeze and kids taking baths in a wheelbarrow and thought…”Holy s***. I’m in Africa.”
Last week went really well at my village. My friend Ousmane stopped by every day but he told me that when he is done with his studies for the year he is moving away to live with family in a bigger city so he can go to the 11th and 12th grade. This makes me sad. I gave him a wheel of Laughing Cow cheese and he was really happy about that. He told me that everyone in my village says that they like me a lot, which is nice.
One of the dudes involved in the whole big generator thing told me they were going to hook my house up to electricity when it’s ready. The building is almost done and once it is, I wonder how long it will take before the generator actually arrives and is functional. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did actually hook my house up to the electricity because my house is one of the closest to the generator and I am a “permanent” resident. The other houses close to the generator are houses where people just inhabit rooms in them and not all the time. Plus I seem to be a high profile member of the community, even if all I do is sit on my porch and read and saluer people as they walk by and make little kids draw me pictures and buy onions daily.
Also last week Pular really started to click for me. Before, it would go in one ear and out the other, but now I am retaining phrases and able to say more things and understand more and even Madame Bangoura said, “You are beginning to understand!” which made me feel good because she has yelled at me about my awful French before. I feel like my French is also getting better which is nice. By the time I am done here I feel like my French will be really good and I’ll be able to say I speak conversational Pular…maybe .
Anyway tomorrow we see everyone for IST but it will be a bit sad without Aaron and Dave. Miss you guys!! John and I are planning to get up super early to get the first car to Kindia and catch the Peace Corps bus as it goes through on the way to Mamou. And hence shall commence two more weeks of training.
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