Reality Sets In - Training Village

I am staying in one of the handful of villages used by the Peace Corps for training. I am glad my village was not the first one when we came from Banjul because the change was abrupt. When we arrived at the first village by bus, many of us did not even realize we had arrived at a training place; the sign was small and it looked like any other small village we had passed by. The driver announced the village and the trainees living in that village got off. Right away they were swarmed by kids and we took off to the next village. Knowing what had happened allowed us to mentally prepare for our turn, because all we were told beforehand was that our LCH (trainer) would meet us in the village.

When I stepped off the bus at my training village, I had my African moment as I saw kids running toward me with the sight of the small village behind them. It was then that it really struck me that I was in Africa... the thatched and corrugated metal roofed huts, the fields of crops, the goats, sheep and chickens roaming freely made me realize the experience had begun!!

My village is the smallest training village with a population of 100 to 200 people. Therefore it took us less than 5 minutes to reach the center of town. Before we even noticed, we all had a child holding our hand and walking by our side. In front of us was a big tree with a flat cement platform; under it many women and children were lying and sitting - they were our new Moms but we didn't know that. We were not sure what to do for a minute but then we saw our trainer. She took us to sit under the tree with the women; they tried speaking to us. All we could understand was the greetings. We sat there and tried to say the couple of lines in Pulaar we knew. After that, we were introduced to our "host" mother and family. They showed us to our house and we set about doing the basic things such as sweeping and hanging up our mosquito net.

Each volunteer gets their own house/hut. Some look more like huts while others are a type of apartment for the PC trainee in the same structure as other people in the family. They resemble a room or an apartment but the Gambians call them houses. I live in one of these apartment/houses, which is about half of my bedroom at home, divided into 2 little rooms. Because we are PC trainees we have screens on the doors and windows and a cement floor. This is not the case for Gambians; no one has screens but many have cement floors (at least in my village). We also have a small backyard that has a separation that divides our pit latrine from the rest. I am lucky that my walls there (made of wood and dried reeds) are tall enought that I can stand on my pit latrine cover when I take a bucket bath. Some people have to squat or crouch to take their bath. It has been difficult learning to aim while squatting and taking a bucket shower but with time it has become easier.