Almost a week in the Gambia

January 15, 2009

Hi everyone! How are all of you? I hope you are all doing well!

Today I started showing my first signs of a tan from the African sun….my feet. You know…I never thought the weather would be like this in the Gambia. It’s cool in the mornings and really hot at around 2 or 3 and then when the sun goes down it gets really cold again. It’s really weird. I know you’re probably thinking, “well Jen, it gets like that in Canada too.” But the weird part about it is that it’s like a cold fall day in the mornings and evenings and Hawaii weather in the afternoons. Today was a very cool day and the sun didn’t come out until almost 2pm. Apparently when this happens EVERYONE is in a bad mood for the whole day and they blame everything on the weather. I wore Capri pants and a t-shirt and I also wore a long sleeve shirt and I was just right, that’s why only my feet have the only signs of being in the sun. They say that when a day like this comes, all the kids are late for school and people don’t open their shops until really late in the day ( really late would be around 9am since people open they’re little roadside vending shops at around 6am).

Today I went out with Sr. Cecile and Sr. Sue to sell eggs again. And they along with the rest of the Gambian’s today were very out of sorts because of the weather, so we had full intentions of getting back to the house early to rest. Full intentions are nice to have but it didn’t happen. I didn’t mind thought because I was able to spend more time looking at all the people in the streets. We went out to the market and BOY was it busy! I don’t know if anyone who hasn’t come from an environment like this can ever get used to it. But I do understand why Sr. Cecile used to say when she would come home, “where are all the people?!” Because most people back home spend their time in their house or yard where as the people here spend their time at the market or on the streets.

We met up with Mike, the other Saskatchewanian from Moose Jaw again today, and I was able to visit with him some more about what he does. Apparently Mike when to school for Economic Development and after school he volunteered for VICS, which is an organization where you volunteer for 2 years in a designated spot where there is a need. This is his 3^rd volunteer site and he seems to really enjoy the program. He spent his previous 2 volunteer jobs in South America and on a few islands near Hawaii. This time he works in the Gambia doing some accounting for the Catholic missions office. It was nice to visit with him because obviously coming from rural Saskatchewan to a country where people are everywhere and there is never any silence he understood where I was coming from when I said, “it’s taking some getting used to.” He mentioned to me that after the 7 months are up and I head back home, I won’t only be a changed person but I will come back with a different perspective of my view of home. What he meant by that was that I will take things from this culture and wonder why home is not the same way. I then realized that in some way, I feel I’m holding back from really immersing myself into the culture because I still want to come home the same person as when I left. I’m not sure if I will ever let go of that fear, since the cultures are so very different. But my prayer is that the Lord will always provide for me and allow my heart to be changed in the way that He wants.

When we arrived back at the house I helped Sr. Sue make supper. Spaghetti was on the menu. I’m not sure why, but there ended up being mini hot dogs in the sauce. The other sisters enjoyed it but for myself, I just took the noodles. I try to try everything once, and for the most part I’ve liked most of the food, but there are a few things that I’ve left of my plate. Dessert was a custard that Sr. Sue had made and it was very good.

Just before supper, the sisters had their community meeting and so I went to pray with the girls in the hostel. I’m definitely starting to see big differences in each of them and I’m slowly starting to learn their names. Tonight I got out and paper and pencil and wrote down all of their names, so that I could understand them better. Turns out that most of the names are common names I’ve heard before. I just didn’t realize it because they all say it with an accent. The girls names are: Fatoubintou (fat-too-bin-too), Nancy, Susan, Antonette, Therese, Harriet, Cathrine, Princess, Edibis (Ed-ee-bis), Edwina, Betty, Fatima, Lucinda, Rita, Zenita, Marian, and Marie. Not so hard after all. I know some of the girls a bit better than the rest now, since they seem to be around a bit more. Slowly but surely I’ll get them all.

After supper, everyone went to bed early. Today I started to feel a cold coming on and I think it’s partly due to the dust and the drastic change in temperature throughout the day. So I took a shower and relaxed in my room for a bit before I went to bed. For the most part the house and living with the sisters is pretty quiet and I enjoy that since it’s SO loud everywhere else. I enjoy the time I get to spend with the sisters although I also enjoy the time I get to spend alone too. Half the time I don’t understand what people are saying and the other half I never know what to say.

January 16, 2009

Wow was today an interesting day. I woke up at 6am to get ready for mass and then we went to the school for the school day. Even though mass was at 7am everyone was rushing to get ready and then we realized that the truck wouldn’t start. The sisters have been having trouble with it all week and today it finally gave out. Well…it just wouldn’t start. So we took the big purple bus to mass. The church is really beautiful. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but it sure it nice on the inside. Almost all buildings have walls around them with a gate because there are animals roaming around all over. So when you pull up into the compound (inside the walls) you come up to an older building which used to be the church until they built the new one and they now use for a hall. Then beside the hall is the new church. I doesn’t look like a normal church, like with pillars or a steeple it just looks like an ordinary building. They have two statue fountains (that are not running), one of the Sacred Heart and the other of Mary. When you walk into the church they have the altar at the front of the church, and pews down the middle and sides. The pews are dark wood and the kneelers are just a piece of wood. The altar and tabernacle are covered with beautiful linens (at the moment white) that seem to almost billow off of the top. I’ve never seen anything like it. There are beautiful pink flowers that stand beside the altar.

After mass Fr. Anthony drove us to the school because Sr. Cecile took the bus back to see if she could get the truck fixed. The whole truck business kinda threw a wrench in the whole day since Fridays at the school are for an assembly, religious studies and then the kids play a bit until around 11:30. They stop school on Fridays at 11:30 because the Muslims pray at 2:00pm since it’s their day of prayer. The Gambia, if I haven’t mentioned already, is 90% muslim. It’s been a bit interesting seeing the customs first hand. I studied Islam in College but seeing it up close is something else. Many men have more than one wife, at every prayer hour (5 times a day…I think) they start praying on a loud speaker, and many women wear the traditional full headdress and dress. As much as the country is almost entirely Muslim, they respect Christianity since many of the Muslim children are educated in the Catholic schools. That is actually the story for the President of the Gambia. He grew up a Muslim and wasn’t going to school so one of the sisters (sister Mary Alice) went to his father to ask if he would put him in school and because of it he joined the Military after he finished school and took the country over when he was 27 years old. To this day he respects and supports the Catholic schools in the country. That obviously is a really good advantage, and because of it the country is very peaceful since both religions get along very well together.

At the end of the school day Sr. had asked me if I wanted to take the girls and teach them how to play volleyball. I was so excited! There was only one problem. About 100 girls….and only one ball. J And all of them want to touch it at the same time! I think I’m going to have to come up with something different next time. Maybe split them in to smaller groups. Since none of them know anything about playing I just started out by teaching the basics of passing….and we didn’t get past that since there was so many girls. But we’re going to work on it and who knows maybe we’ll get a few teams out of it. After we were finished playing volleyball I joined in with the group that was playing “football” – to us soccer. It was really fun and the kids love when older people play with them. The kids are absolutely adorable. They know I’m a stranger to them and obviously I don’t look like them so at first I get a scared stare and when they see me smile at them their faces light up with this bright smile. They’re all so cute.

Everyone took naps in the afternoon and around 5:00pm I went with Sr. Cecile and Sr. Sue to their Catechism or First communion class. I just watch everything because Sr. knows how to address them and they have a translator who translates into mandinka.

My cold has been getting worse and who knows what it’s from. I imagine it is partly due to the weather, but also because there are so many plants that I’ve never been in contact with before and it’s probably adding to the problem…never mind all the dust around. Hopefully it’ll get a bit better within the next few days.

Please continue to pray for me…

In Jesus and Mary,

Jen