Monday, February 16, 2009

Grand Marche

So yesterday I bit the bullet and went to John’s site for his grand marche day, which is Sundays. When I ventured out of my house about 9, there was already a taxi stopped by the orange ladies so I went over and asked if there was an available seat and there was, so I went to tell the SP that I was going to John’s site for the day (and maybe the night depending on availability of a taxi back – also Peace Corps policy to tell someone in your village where you’re going and for how long plus it’s polite). Then I grabbed my backpack and Yogi and went out to wait for the taxi to leave. You never know when a taxi is going to leave. There isn’t much rhyme or reason to it. The chauffer had said to go tell the SP “vite vite!” so we could leave but then I ended up sitting around for like 45 min waiting to leave. But one thing I discovered while sitting waiting is that there is a rice and sauce lady across from the orange ladies and Yogi likes rice and sauce! A dude sitting next to me gave Yogi a couple of spoonfuls and he gobbled it up (it was leaf sauce). So that’s a relief because I can just go down with a Tupperware and buy some rice and sauce every day or two for like 2 mil and mix in some sardines and Yogi will have a pretty balanced meal that’s a lot easier and cheaper than what I had been doing before.

On the ride to John’s site I saw my first (wild) monkeys! Two of them sprinted across the road in front of the taxi and I got a kick out of it though I think everyone else in the taxi thought I was crazy. Yogi did not travel very well on the way there, he was very fidgety and just wouldn’t sit still! But on the way back I discovered that if I hold him up to the window and let him stick his head outside he is a much better traveler. All dogs love sticking their heads out of car windows – all over the world.

So when I got to John’s site and into reseau I called him and said, “Hey! Where you at??” And he was like, “Uh…at my house?” And I was like, “I’m at your site! Stay there I’m coming over!”

So then I tried to get through the marche and MAN is it crowded and crazy. Got to John’s house and interrupted his busy reading-and-cleaning routine and made him go to the marche with me, which he was actually grateful for because he wouldn’t have gone if I wasn’t there.

There was so much good stuff at the marche!! We found avocadoes FIVE FOR A MIL! The most I have paid for an avocado here has been 2.5 mil, so getting FIVE for only ONE mil was pretty exciting (granted, the sizes of the avocadoes I have bought have varied greatly, in fact today I bought two ripe avocadoes before leaving John’s site and they were 700 each, so yeah, prices vary). Also, there was LETTUCE – AND – FRESH CORN!!! I nearly died when I saw the fresh corn. All told I bought tomatoes, lettuce, fresh corn, potatoes, avocadoes, eggs (10 of them!), condensed milk and sardines for Yogi, a bucket, a goblet and steel wool for my marmite. It was productive. Oh and today I bought a plastic kettle, which is what they use to clean themselves when they use the bathroom so I can stop using toilet paper at home. Toilet paper is expensive, rare, and better used to clean up Yogi’s messes.

I did not manage to find a chew toy for Yogi, though, but I did take my mom’s advice and tie a knot in a sock that had no partner and Yogi is liking that. He sort of uses it as a pillow. One thing I was sort of disappointed about was I didn’t find any cucumber which I actually thought was kinda weird. The only other vegetables they had that I didn’t buy was okra, piment (hot peppers), eggplant and leaves for leaf sauce. Oh and there was this leaf powder, and I wondered if it was Moringa powder but I didn’t end up asking because I don’t know the Pular word for it. But I am going to figure it out and ask next time I’m there! Because if it IS Moringa powder I would definitely buy some and sprinkle some in every meal because it is SOOOOOOO good for you. Speaking of Moringa I really need to plant my Moringa seeds. I want a Moringa forest in my yard so I always have leaves to eat.

So after the marche we went back to John’s house and dropped off all of our stuff and then went back on ville for rice and sauce for lunch. He has a good rice and sauce lady but she never has the peanut sauce when I am there so we always get leaf sauce. It’s still tasty but I want some peanut sauce, man!! We had some left over so we filled a Coyah sachet (water bag) with it and I brought it home for Yogi. People thought I was crazy. The concept of a doggie bag has now made it to West Africa.

So then we went to the taxi gare and sometimes it’s really hard to figure out who the dude is! The “dude” being the guy you ask to buy a ticket for a taxi from. Once we found him he said the last taxi for my village was full and I’d have to wait for tomorrow. This didn’t really shock me as it was already like 4pm and that’s about when I would expect the last taxi to be leaving.

So I stayed the night at John’s. We went down to his water source to get water and it’s the same as the mystery water in my village (in Pular it is called a “chango”) and everyone laughed at me again for only taking half a bucket (John took a full bidon and as he says that’s a better workout than you’d ever get at any gym in NYC). The path to his water source is pretty much the same as mine. It’s about half a kilometer away, over and through fences and down a hiking trail. Pretty similar. But he lives in a pretty big city so there is always a line for water (we use the term “line” VERY loosely, really there’s no such thing as lines in Guinea). In my village I hardly have to wait at all to get water.

Then there was a wedding in the middle of John’s sort of neighborhood so we watched that for awhile and talked to his neighbors. John’s neighbors are freaking awesome. One of them, Balde, turns out is also my neighbor in my village! He works for this NGO that trains people to use grinders, I think? I dunno, my French is still only ok. But the point is that he comes to my village often enough that he has a house here, and it’s the house right next to mine that has always been locked up and I had been wondering who lived there because it seems to be a pretty well-kept house but no one is ever there! Mystery solved. He said he is coming to my village in 2 weeks so I’ll get to sit and chat with him while he is here.

But the best part about Balde is that he wrote a note for me to give to one of his friends here in my village to find petites to get my water!! Tomorrow I’m going to figure out where the guy lives and drop the note off and then hopefully my water problems will be solved! And some petites will be enjoying Runts, Nerds, Laffy Taffys and fun sized Baby Ruth bars daily. Anyone out there sending care packages: send me single-sized American candy!

The other awesome thing about Balde is that he told me where my reseau spot is!! It’s one of the other villages in my sous-prefecture and he wrote down the name for me and said it is maybe 5-6k away. Tomorrow I am going to look on the map in the SP’s office and have him point me in the right direction, get on my bike and check it out! It will be good to finally figure that out so that I can warn John when I am coming to his site instead of just surprising him, call Dr. Traian when I have medical questions, receive calls from the US and gossip with Jake on a regular basis.

Basically Balde is the best.

So this morning Yogi was a terror and robbed me of hours of sleep and then we went to the taxi gare and I bought a seat for my village. Interestingly enough, the car was an (ancient) Land Cruiser! Which meant the ride only took an hour! It can take twice as long in the Peugeots. Also, they didn’t stuff the car completely full. There were two dudes in the front seat plus the driver, three adults (including me), a petite and my puppy in the middle seat and then the back seats are those kind that face each other and I think there were just three adults and a petite back there. And randomly some dudes on the roof here and there, but that was actually not a full taxi! They could’ve fit like 3-4 more people in there. So that was a pleasant surprise.

Right when I got home I made lunch: 2 fried eggs with onion, tomato, avocado and piment sauce. For dinner I had a taco salad: lettuce, tomato, avocado, onion, my dehydrated concoction (black beans, beefish bits, corn, bell peppers), topped off with a Laughing Cow triangle and piment sauce. It was an awesome day for food.

Later on, Nene came by to say hi on her way to the pump and I told her I’d go with her and fill up my petite bidon (I think it’s 10 L) so we took off for the pump which is “loin” (far) at almost a K from my house. I asked Nene why the pump was so far away from where all the people live and she said that there are actually three pumps but that a bandit had stolen some parts from the other two so they aren’t working. A-ha! Mystery solved. I thought this might turn out to be a good PC project: raising the will and funds to fix the other two pumps. I carried my bidon back on my head all by myself and lots of people got a kick out of it. I think I need to buy a couple more petite bidons because I can pretty easily manage those and it’s not as funny as it is when I just fill half a bucket. However, I can NOT balance it on my head and I have to steady it with one of my hands which Nene teases me about.

After that we went to the marigot (creek-like watering hole thingy I bathed in during site visit) and had some bien integree bathing down there. The way I look at it is, if they don’t think it’s weird for me to do it, then I don’t care, either. Boobs don’t mean anything here, though a lot of PCVs would tell you white boobs mean something but I really don’t think they do among the women and petites (the only people you find at the water sources). And when it comes down to it, bathing in the marigot and the chango is what they do, and the whole point is that I’m supposed to be integrating into the community. So there you go.

Next weekend I think I am going to go up to Ian’s site on Saturday for his market day and to see his site and then assess if I want to go to John’s site once a week or every two weeks for veggies as a routine. The only thing about it is that it is kind of expensive to take the taxi (30 mil round trip) and that might be a lot to do every week. But at the same time, I don’t spend any money in my village, so maybe it isn’t so bad. OH! AND I bought wire to extend my shortwave radio antennae! It’s basically speaker wire and it was cheap but it allowed me to listen to a couple of hours of Dutch news pretty clearly on my shortwave tonight. So I know a little bit about what’s going on in the world! Still having trouble tuning in BBC and VOA, but hey, the Dutch don’t give a bad newscast (in English!), either. Also, I saw this tote bag with Obama’s face on it that I am seriously considering buying next time I am at John’s site. Gotta love all the Obama swag.

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