Aaand I'm Back

The morning we were supposed to leave for site, we all got up at 5:45am and loaded our bags into different peace corps trucks, hugged goodbye and left for our three month challenge. I was so excited, nervous, and happy to get away from the Stodge, to get to Brikama, to unpack all of my things, to meet my new host family, we took the hour trip down the road and arrived at my new compound. Little did I know...

As we walked in I noticed how gorgeous it was. The last visit had been so short, stressful, and rainy, I don't think I took the time to look around me. This time I did. Gambians aren't known for their appreciation of ascetics. Most compounds look like a dirty pile of rusted corrugated tin, mud blocks, dirty chickens and goats running around, maybe a thatch roof, and usually a trash pile very close by. You get the not-so-pleasant picture. Luckily my new compound is beautiful. There is a real wall surrounding their compound, not just a bunch of twigs tied together, and its painted! There are mango, banana, cashew, and orange trees inside of the compound and a few small beds of corn and other plants I didnt recognize. They have actually planted FLOWERS and bushes, unheard of!! The only people here that I have seen that plant flowers in their compounds are the Rastafarians.

There is a tap in the compound!!! which means no more walking a gigantic 30-40 liter bedong on the seat of my bike to the pump about a 10 minute walk away, then having to pump the water for what seems like forever with 15 wild African children jumping around me (sometimes helping me pump if they started to feel sorry for Salimata and her weak arms). I usually ended up soaking wet from the water and sweat, would throw the bedong on the back of my bike and walk all the way back with the bedong falling off my bike every 6ish steps. All for one days worth of water, maybe two if I take a very frugal bucket bath and have no laundry to do. Every now and then my host sister Ami would follow me to the pump and show up right as I was struggling to lift the bedong onto my bike. She would tisk and take the bedong and easily lift it onto her head like it was empty, walk all the way home with it balanced like that, with me wandering behind her dumbfounded.

My hut doesn't have current (electricity), but it looks like it wants to. There are small holes around the bottom of the hut that are in the shape of an outlet, but it isn't wired. The family that owns the compound does have current in their part so we will have to see if I can talk them into charging my phone for me.

So as I'm wandering around my compound in amazement, I walk over to my hut's door, peek in and find that it looks exactly the same as site visit. Termite hills, lack of pit latrine, and all. Alhig, one of the Peace Corps engineers/drivers (who was trained by NASA btw, but that's a whole other story) looks in and tells me that I can't stay and he's taking me back to the Stodge. Around 5 hours later, after dropping Jessica off at her site, and then Dylan off in Bwiam (off the paved highway), we return to the Stodge and here I am, with nothing to do until the rain stops and they can dig my pit latrine.

I feel like I am wasting time here, but looking at the big picture, I have two years in Brikama, and I should probably appreciate a few more days in Kombo with internet and electricity. So call me!! I have absolutely NOTHING to do until maybe Monday but drink beers, take real showers, redesign my blog, and spend hours washing all of the laundry I have put off for the past month.