Training Village

Its very hard to summarize the past two months without writing a novella so I'll just go over the highlights:

1. Naming Ceremony!

I have a new name - Natoma Jallow! The person in the photo is the Imam of the village "shaving" my head (no they didn't actually shave it, just mimicked it!). In Gambia, naming ceremonies are normally held for babies about a week after they are born. The babies' heads are shaven and they are named. There is a big party afterwards with panketos (fried doughnuts) and mango juice as well as lots of dancing! When Peace Corps volunteers come, they are typically given a Gambian name and ceremony to help integrate into the culture.


2. Food!

I have two words to describe Gambian food: Peanuts and delicious! Peanuts grow like weeds here so its put in pretty much everything. Remember that scene in Forrest Gump where Bubba describes all the ways you can make shrimp (shrimp pasta, fried shrimp, baked shrimp, shrimp scampi...)? Yeah, that's pretty much it.

I also eat out of a food bowl with my hands and its freakin awesome. I know it sounds super hippie-dippy but I feel a lot more connected to my food when I physically touch it. Also, you typically see the chickens running in front of you before they are put in your food bowl. Yummy! The picture below are my two teachers, Kunta and Bakari. The super-awesome girls in the picture are in my training class (girl in the purple is Rachelle and Danielle is in the khaki pants).

3. Family

While in training village, I lived with a family of 13 people. It included aunts, grandmothers, lots of kids, my father and my two moms (yes, this is a polygamous society). I thought I would have a problem with it but it hasn't been as bad as i thought. Here is me and my little sister Caddy. She's a bundle of energy and so freakin adorable! I am done with training village now so i probably won't see her for awhile since my permanent site is so far away but i love her all the same.

 4. Learning Mandinka + Culture

I am learning Mandinka which is one of the dominant languages of Gambia. They say that you speak like a baby when you first start (very true!) but with each month of speaking you gain a year. So by the end of my 27 months, i will be speaking like a 27 year old! My daily classes were held under a mango tree and i couldn't help but feel like a brochure sometimes! Oh well, there are worse things in life! Here's what it looked like.

Okay the computer is being really slow so i'm out for now. As they say in Mandinka, Foonato (later!).