Stories

Stories of the North:
Here are some embarrassing stories/everyday life in the North.
Eating lunch and dinner in Senegal is a very great way to connect with someone, you don’t even have to talk to the person during the meal but sharing the food in the communal bowl means a lot to the Senegalese that you’d take the time to eat with them and enjoy their food. In my host family I eat lunch and dinner with my father, whose a very elderly, respected man in my village (being the village chief and all). My goal in my Peace Corps service is to win my father over, he’s very old and very distant; he tries to do the fatherly roles but he’s just so unaware of what’s happening it’s very hard for him to fulfill these roles. So I have it in my mind that I just need to keep trying to impress my father and he’ll be so happy that my service will be so easy and he’ll tell the family to behave a lil around me. We’re eating our lunch and of course it’s rice, a few veggies, and some lil fish which is strange because we normally have a pretty medium size fish, but these were ‘bait fish’, maybe 2 ½ inches long. My father throws me one in the bowl and I try to cut it up with my spoon and the whole time I’m watching him to see how he’s going to eat his…because I have yet to find any meat on these fish to pick off the bones and skin and eat.
He threw the whole fish in his mouth… and started to chew. Still staring at this fish and knowing I need to make a quick decision before I have my father scream --- eat! I quickly decide, why not? And I proceed by shoving the entire bait fish in my mouth and just start to chew, then the taste, texture, and bones got way too overwhelming and I decide, well swallow of course. So this half chewed and eatin fish is now slowly going down my esophagus and I’m thinking to myself, the eye balls were still in the fish- baaba I’m full. Went in my room chugged water, and remembered my vegetarian days.
Ear ache galore: (Not direct quotes)
I started having horrible ear aches, and I couldn’t hear out of my left ear. Everything was just so bizarre, when you have ear pain it slowly but surely spreads to your jaw and sinuses. This was just the beginning of the pain so I had assumed I just have something stuck in my ear, what would my mom do in this situation? My mom would put a piece of cloth over my ear and suck until she got the water out. Because the pain at first wasn’t bad I was able to experiment with cleaning my ear out with q-tips, putting water in it, anything of the sort. I told a few North Volunteers the technique my mom used to use; a light bulb started to flicker over Evan’s head – he brought me a straw and said “Okay I’m ready.” My laughter at the sheer thought of having someone I barely know attempt to suck whatever could possible be in my ear out (I mean, come on this is Africa) didn’t not deter his assistance. So I caved in put a cloth between my ear and the straw and he started to suck, I continuously laughed because it was A) doing nothing B) strange situation C) tickled, of course. So I did it to Evan so he knew what it felt like because that’s what friends do, then him and Maddy came up with another plan “what about a sudden burst of water I think that’s how they flush ears out” ------After that I got a water gun to the ear.
So a week later and I’m now in Dakar with more pain and different medication- no straws, and no water guns.
The Jump(s):
Traveling to and from my road is best done by charrette, walking is nice but the lack of shade on the path dehydrates you fast. I was heading back to my village after a nice trip to my road town Medina; I was sitting upon a donkey charrette driven by one of my favorite kid charrette drivers (the kids are my protectors) His mother is also my favorite person, and of course I don't know any of their names so I can't name drop them at this moment. So we're riding along and a storm decides to grace us with it's present, an intense rain storm that doesn't last too long but we're on a charrette and all the sand/clay turned into mud instantly. Everyone got off the charrette because it was too heavy, they wouldn't let me walk through the mud, so I stayed on the charrette with the lil kid (driver), and another woman with her baby. We're riding along and I'm holding on for dear life because I have a tendency to "fly" a little bit on the rough charrette roads-- now just add some mud in that and 2 stubborn donkeys. I jumped off the charrette 2 times into giant mud puddles; not on purpose out of fear of a tipping charrette. I was the only one with this fear!