Anyone curious about my last week in the Gambia?
began training, they loaded us with binders two inches thick, manual after manual on beekeeping, solar panel technology, fruit trees, fodder plants, composting, you name it and we have to study it. Classes go from 7am to 8.30pm, with meals, of course, but this is not American food, this is Gamibian food. Salted and MSG'd. Oily and sometimes delicious. I hit my first milestone. I ate a piece of fish. It was fried lady fish and I had to mash it up with the rest of my rice and veggies, but I did it.
Some say it's the heat that gets ya, others the humidity, I think it's both. They team up and sit on you like it's a big fat joke and just for fun they see what new places they can make you sweat, like, your forearms. I've never sweated out of my forearms before.
But all is good. We have classes sometimes under a mango tree and the wind blows through and I feel like I'm in Hawaii. Everyone is great here and our group is bonding well. I am learning Pulaar, that will be my language for two years. So Hono mbuda?
Jam tan.
Here's the bad news. As you can tell from the subject heading, I already got dysentery. I didn't think I'd get it until way down the line, but nope, I swear to God the fish did it. Just as I was being nice...
They call it Kunte Kinteh's Revenge and I know why. Not only did I get massive diarrhea, but a horrible bout of the chills, where I literally thought that I was going to convulse into a seizure. A lot of you know me for telling stories and exaggerating a bit, but I am not exaggerating! I woke up with them Sunday night, cold in Africa. Cold! in Africa!, I had to turn the fan off and pull out my sleeping bag for warmth, it's the middle of the hot season!! I was winded, I couldn't catch my breath, the only thing that put me back to sleep was the most beautiful and amazing thunder storm I have ever seen. Tropical torrential downpour, loud crackling thunder and sharp lightning, amazing. I couldn't help but see the coincidence between what was going on outside my window, and inside, bundled up shivering beneath my blankets. (Do I control the weather? Who know's, maybe in Africa I do.)
The next morning I went to the medical office still feeling lousy but good enough to walk. The Nurse took pity on me and gave me the private room to sleep. I had another attack of the chills, she had to wrap me with three blankets and rub me down for warmth like a gentle mother bear, it was very sweet. I got some Tylenol for the fever and eventually it broke, though it made it to 105! I was out of commission for two days and now we are leaving to our training villages and I'm little behind on studying. But everyone has been great. One other kid got the dysentery, and, as of now, all 24 of us have had diarrhea. The Nurse is pissed cause she thinks it's the way our hostel is having us clean the dishes. And I agree. It's filthy. Granted we have running water (sometimes) and electricity (sometimes), but we can't use either when cleaning the communal dish and flat wear. It's one sink for dirty, one for clean and one sponge for all. Nothing gets clean and I have stopped using any of it.
But that's literally the worst of it. I was the first to fall and I fell the hardest, but I got back up and everyone was so supportive. Tomorrow morning we're broken up into small groups, I'll be with five others learning Pulaar in a Fula village and I will have a host family and my own little hut for the next 9 weeks before I move to my final site where I'll be for 2 years. There may or may not be emails coming for a while so enjoy this one. Know that I am safe. I am sending three pictures, that's all I have time to load, but I think they are the best and sum up what Africa looks like, what African's look like, and what I look like.
love you all, thanks for all your replys, I do read them all.
dick
