Hello All!! Thanks for waiting! This is my first update since going to training village, and as it happens, its all done! I’m trained! Eek, in a few days, I’ll be sworn in, and then I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer, for reals.

Anyhoo, village was good. The trainees were split up into smaller groups, and each group was sent to a different village for language and cultural immersion, and formal language and technical classes. It was nice to have the other trainees to lean on as we got a taste of what we would be doing at our various sites.

Our first week the village held a naming ceremony for the trainees, in the same way that they would for a newborn baby. The morning of the ceremony, our families dressed us up in traditional clothes, for me that was a very nice wrap skirt and matching shirt, and a head scarf. Then, everyone met in the middle of the village, the elders prayed for the group. Then, one by one, we were called up and the alkalo (village leader) pretended to shave our heads(if it were a baby, they would be actually shaved), then announced our name to the group. My name is Fatoumata, which is a Mandinka version of Fatima, who is the prophet Mohammed’s daughter. Its tradition to name every first daughter Fatoumata, and so obviously there are lots of them(the traditional first son‘s name is Lamin). The name is shortened often to Fatou, or F-O, or F-La, or a variety of others. My host father’s last name is Samateh, so I am Fatou Samateh. I will probably change my last name to the last name of my host family at site, although women don’t change their last name when they marry, so maybe that would be confusing.

My host family was very nice. It was confusing at first, because it was so big, and because of language difficulties, it took me a long time to figure out who was who. My host father’s name was Bama Samateh, and he has three wives. One was his, and two were inherited when his brother died. All together with his three wives, he had 18 children. Some still live on the compound, others are other places. The youngest child was about 6 or 7 years old….I’m not sure how old the oldest child was. There were multiple women who are my age, and they all have children, and so I wondered if they were wives as well. Nope, they are my sisters. When a woman gets married, she does not go to live with her husband right away, even if they have children, so that is why they live on their father’s compound still. My sisters were very nice, and always good about including me in things. All in all there were lots of children anywhere, and they could either be really helpful and fun to be with, or really really in my business and a little irritating.

My hut is pretty sweet. I hope my hut at site is about the same. Its made from mud and corrugated metal. There are two rooms, each with one window. The front room has a table with my water filter, and I also keep my bike there. The back room has my bed and suitcases, etc. Out back from my house is a fenced enclosure surrounding my pit latrine and a concrete slab where I take bucket baths. There is also a lime tree out there(I really hope I get one of those at my permanent site!). Pit latrines…..not as bad I expected, actually they seem pretty normal at this point, and I have yet to pee on myself as I had originally dreaded. Also, bucket baths are more pleasant then I expected. Taking a bucket bath under the massive sky full of stars is downright awesome. One might think that living in a village would be quiet and relaxing. As it happens, its pretty loud. Between the mine having some battle royale in my ceiling and on my floor, the donkeys, sheep, goats, roosters, and crickets outside, the babies, radios, and people aeound, its actually ridiculously loud at night. Also prayer call. 5 am. On the daily. Despite these setbacks, I’ve not slept this well in a long time. I fall asleep around 9:30 and am crashed out until 7.

Ummm…..what else to talk about….food is all right, kind of hit or miss, either deliciously wonderful, or really hard to choke down. Nearly every meal is some sort of cooked meat--either fish or chicken--in sauce, served over rice, often (though not always) with potatoes, or egg plant, or bitter tomatoes. The sauce is spicy and made from ground peanuts. Fish isn’t really my thing….but it will have to be, because we eat it a lot. And if there is no fish, then people add fish powder for protein, and that’s not my thing either. It kind of tastes the way an aquarium smells. The chicken is good. When I read about Gambian food before coming, I read that I would eat coos, and I thought that it would be like coos-coos, which I have had at home. This was a mistake. Coos is ground millet, and looks and tastes a lot like sand. Same texture, same color. This was very difficult at first, coos was my first dinner in village, but after a while, I really have come to like it. If you put sugar and milk on it, it’s a lot like cereal. Street food is pretty good. I like to buy egg sandwiches and bean sandwiches when we’re in a larger town. All the bread is like French baguettes, sliced down the middle, with eggs, beans, or fish balls as filling (and often spaghetti). I’m looking forward to mango season. And cashew season

Food is served in a communal bowl, and everyone eats using only their right hands. This was cause for frustration when I began, because you may only use your right hand (the left is for the restroom), and I had a hard time getting food into my mouth. You are meant to make small balls out of rice and meat, then put the ball into your mouth. Much of my first few meals ended up in my lap or on the floor, but now I must say I’m pretty good at it.

I’m not sure what else to talk about here, and I recognize that this has been a very long entry. In the future I will try to break entries up into more manageable chunks. I’m open to specific questions, if anyone has them. Thanks for reading! Love to you all!!