Accidental fasting!

I have been in front of this computer for too long. This is because the computer is an air-conditioned room and I am back in The Gambia. It is well past lunch time, even by Gambian standards, but until this moment the benefits of air conditioning were outweighing the costs of venturing outdoors. Now, however, the lack of food is affecting my writing abilities, as evidenced by my pausing randomly in the middle of sentences and staring blankly into space.

I fasted for four days last Ramadan, but I don't remember how.

Okay, I'm off to scavange for lunch now.

Photos of Bakadaji!

So by now it's been...four months since I visited Bakadaji? And my friend doesn't actually live there anymore -- but here are some photos anyway!

This building was empty excapt for two
bidongs, some stones, and a rag.

Obama and Rooney. The two men important enough to
have their names charcoal-graffitied to the wall.

My village doesn't have pretty mosques
like this one.

This is probably my favorite map EVER.

I love thorns and flowers.

This was Mabintu. She's dead now.

I am telling you, Mabintu was just a
cuter version of Frida Kahlo.

Bakadaji has pigeons. Honest-to-goodness,
New York City style pigeons.

In my amazement, I just couldn't stop photographing them.

Sometimes I wish I understood more about car mechanics.
Then maybe I'd know what was happening here.

And if I should be afraid.

If I were president of America...

After questioning me on Obama, his house, and the electoral college, Kairaba tells me he would like to be president of America. "But only for one month."

Me: Only one month? Because you will be tired?

Kairaba: No. After one month I will have a lot of money; I will not want more.

Me: But, you know, if you will be president, before you are president, a lot of people will have to say, "I want Kairaba."

Kairaba: Yes, I know.

Me: And the people who say, "I want Kairaba," they will be angry. If after one month you leave.

Kairaba: No, they will not be angry.

Me: No? I think they will be angry.

Kairaba: No, because if I were president for only one month--only one month, you understand?--just for the money, that would be like stealing.

Me: Yes...

Kairaba: And the people would not want a thief. So they would be happy I left!

Me: Yes...

Amadou: If I could be president of America for even three months, I would have enough money for three years!

D.I.Y: Make a Mattress!

This project is a bit more involved than the blog's previous D.I.Y. projects, but well worth the effort... if you've been sleeping on the ground. Anyway, I just read an issue of Popular Science in which a guy made his own electron scanning microscope. If you're that guy, this'll be a piece of cake!

Materials: several (empty) 50 kg rice bags-the exact number of bags depends on how large you want your mattress, a sewing needle the size of a knitting needle, plastic thread slightly thinner than a laundry line, a lighter, a knife, armfuls of dried grass--exact quantity depends on how thick you want your mattress 

Step 1: Use the knife to cut open the rice bags so that each is a flat sheet.

Step 2: Decide on the dimensions of your mattress. Arrange some of the flattened rice bags so that they form the size and shape of your mattress as it would be viewed from above.

Step 3: Sew the rice bags arranged in Step 2 together. Thread the sewing needle the size of a knitting needle with the plastic thread slightly thinner than a laundry line. Give yourself about a 1.5 inch seam allowance. Sew together whatever sides are necessary to sew together in order to form a large rectangle. To cut your thread, melt it apart with the lighter.

Step 4: Repeat Step 3. Now you have a top and bottom to your mattress.

Step 5: Place the top and bottom pieces of the mattress on top of one another, right sides together. Sew the two pieces together around the perimeter, leaving about 18 inches unsewn. Seam allowance again is 1.5 inches.

Step 6: Turn the mattress inside-out, so that right sides are facing out. Stuff the mattress with the armfuls of dried grass.

Step 7: Sew the opening closed. Mattress complete!

Your rice bag mattress will look
nothing like this.

(Optional) Step 8: I didn't watch how this was done, but if you're feeling fancy and know how, you can make the surface of your mattress look like the one at right. Google tells me this is called a "pillowtop mattress"

Sorrel!

As I stopped to buy bread on my way to the market, a man, upon learning my surname is Jallow, asked if I ate sorrel. The sorrel sauce is one of my favorites; I hadn’t eaten it in months, but the memory excited me. So I said, "Yes! Sorrel is sweet." The man questioned my answer and asked again, with disbelief, “You will eat sorrel?” I thought he was doubting that white people ate sorrel, so I answered again, more firmly, "Yes, I will eat sorrel."

But again the man doubted my answer. So again I tried convincing him otherwise. This continued until I'd been given my six dalasis in change and could continue walking to the market. After the market (where I bought peanut butter and candles) I stopped at Julia’s compound; I think I'd left my mobile there the previous night. As I'm left, Julia's host mom asked me to taste a spoonful of the sorrel sauce.

Umu Jallow: Do you know what it is?
Me: Yes! Sorrel!

And then, excited by this coincidence, I told her all about the man who'd asked me if I ate sorrel and how I'd told him YES. I thought she would laugh. Maybe she did, a little, but then she said, “No, no. Say, ‘Jallows do not eat sorrel. Bahs eat sorrel.’”

Why did no one tell me earlier that sorrel-eating is part of the Bah-Jallow joking relationship??

Lunch!

Pateh told me he’s cooking lunch.

Me: Pateh, what did you cook?
Pateh: Chewing gum. Chewing gum lunch!

Out of Africa

This post is sort of about Africa but mostly about books.

I'm browsing through the books at the Basse transit house and find Out of Africa. Apparently it is also a movie, but I didn't know this then. I read the first paragraph:

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the North, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold."

I'm not impressed. I generally don't like writing styles that use a paragraph where I'd use a sentence, or one's that sprinkle commas about like confetti. But before I return the book, I read the Editor's Preface:

"From the simple first line of this book to its moving close it bears the impress of a writer who said only "yes" to life no matter what the day brought." Then the editor quotes the novel's first two paragraphs.

That was all I read of the Editor's Preface, because I realized the book wasn't for me. If the paragraphs I'd read and thought "blech" about were the same ones the editor considered worthy of quoting in his (or her; having not read until the end of the Preface I never learned the editor's sex) Preface, how could I possibly enjoy the rest of the book?

A few days later I'm back in my village and wandering through the school library. I find a book by Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, and I like the first line--"Then there was the bad weather"--so I decide to continue reading. As I continue, I come to the part where Hemingway mentions Out of Africa:

“I remember you and the Baron von Blixen arriving one night—in what year?” He smiled.
“He is dead too.”
“Yes. But one does not forget him. You see what I mean?”
“His first wife wrote very beautifully,” I said. “She wrote perhaps the best book about Africa that I ever read. Except Sir Samuel Baker’s book on the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia. Put that in your memoirs. Since you are interested in writers now.”
“Good,” said Georges. “The Baron was not a man that you forget. And the name of the book?”
“Out of Africa,” I said. “Blickie was always very proud of his first wife’s writing. But we knew each other long before she had written that book.”

"Huh," I thought, "That's an interesting coincidence." I decided that when I next went to Basse I would find the book again and maybe read more than the first two paragraphs and see if I changed my mind.

After I read A Moveable Feast I began The Catcher in the Rye, which might be the only book by J.D. Salinger I hadn't yet read. And a few pages in, what should I read but this:

“The book I was reading was this book I took out of the library by mistake. They gave me the wrong book, and I didn’t notice it till I got back to my room. They gave me Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen. I thought it was going to stink, but it didn’t. It was a very good book. I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot…What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. I wouldn’t mind calling this Isak Dinesen up.”

This couldn't be coincidence. Now I needed to read Out of Africa.

So the next time I go to Basse I find Out of Africa and read past the first two paragraphs and read a little more and decide, actually, I like it. And when I read what she has to say about the rain, I decide, actually, I love it.


“When the quickly growing rushing sound wandered over your head it was the wind in the tall forest -- trees,-- and not the rain. When it ran along the ground it was the wind in the shrubs and the long grass, -- and not the rain. When it rustled and rattled just above the ground it was the wind in the maize--fields,-- where it sounded so much like rain that you were taken in, time after time, and even got a certain content from it, as if you were at least shown the thing you longed for acted on a stage,-- and not the rain.

But when the earth answered like a sounding--board in a deep fertile roar, and the world sang round you in all dimensions, all above and below, -- that was the rain. It was like coming back to the Sea, when you have been a long time away from it, like a lover’s embrace.”

I brought the book with me to Sweden because I thought, "How cool would it be to read Out of Africa while being out of Africa?? It'll be like the afternoon I saw a Boston terrier walking around Boston!" However, since being out of Africa I haven't read any further. Instead, I've read assorted books people have handed me because they (the books, not the people) were written in English. So it looks like I'll be finishing Out of Africa after I return to Africa.

No Boston terrier for me.

Sandwich stories: Diarrhea!

Once I bought an egg sandwich and it came wrapped in this:

Zoo!

When I return from Sweden, Kairaba wants me to visit a national park in Senegal where he used to work. Apparently, there are lots of animals there. I couldn't tell you which ones, because Kairaba told me all the names in French.

He also told me a story from when he used to work there. One morning before work he bought a big bag of peanuts. Then the tourists arrived and he showed them a French animal and then they saw another French animal and then he was sitting and there was a woman on this side and a woman on this side and he was in the middle. The women were from France. No, not France. Belgium. He took out the bag of peanuts and the woman on the left asked what are these (Kairaba said this in French, as if it were the lady speaking, and then translated to Pulaar for me) and he said peanuts.

She asked, "Who owns them?"
Kairaba replied, "Me."
"Oh I thought they were for the monkeys."
"Would you like some?"
"Oui."

So Kairaba gives the Belgian lady a handful of peanuts. And here is how she ate them (this is my interpretation of the events as gathered from Kairaba's pantomime): First she removed the shell. Then she tilted her head back, gracefully raised one arm and dropped the peanut into her open mouth. When Kairaba saw this, he tried to show her the proper way to eat peanuts--but she couldn’t do it! She couldn't just casually put the peanuts into her mouth!

Then the lady asks for some more peanuts. Kairaba refuses. And she says please and he refuses. And she says please and he refuses. But he is only playing so then he gives her LOTS of peanuts.

The end.

Black cow, white cow

On June 22, the BBC’s Network Africa’s Wise Words came from Ebrima Jallow of The Gambia: “No matter how black the cow is, it will always produce white milk.”

I have been trying to figure out what it means, but keep getting distracted by that quote from Deng Xiaoping, about it not mattering whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

And: Google didn't help me find the answer. But if you click here you can read more words of wisdom courtesy of the BBC.

And here are some words of wisdom courtesy of my village (all told to me in English, so any errors in translation were not mine):

• "You cannot fatten a ram in a day."
• "The teeth and the tongue are both in the mouth. But even if you bite your tongue, you cannot remove your teeth."
• "If someone scratches your back, you should complement it by rubbing your stomach."
• "You need to be grateful to Allah every time he enables us to meet our objectives."
• "Some people talk about child’s rights. But you have the right not to be flogged only if you behave. If you do not behave, that right is not yours."
• "...when the monkey talks."
• "But there is an advantage to chalk: the calcium carbonate in the chalk dust will make your bones strong."
• "Let me go and laugh a bit. I miss laughing."
• "Don’t cry when you are sick. Think of the solution."
• "Don't mix cous and rice."
• "It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, but she’s not dead."

If I had 9,000 dalasis...

“If I had 9,000 dalasis I would buy onions, red beans, a big bag of beans, clothes, bread every day and I would give my mom 900 dalasis and she would say thank you so much”

Isatou Pippi told me this one afternoon, and I thought it was the sweetest thing ever.

Isatou and her brothers:
 Buba, Musa and E.B. (picking his nose)

As a side-note, I thought it was just my imagination that made me think of Pippi Longstocking when I first met this Isatou. That, and a need to distinguish her from the dozen other Isatous I come across.
However, I just looked up pictures of the real Pippi to refresh my memory and discovered: it's not just my imagination! Seriously! I would include the picture here, but I'm not sure that's allowed, so if you'll kindly click here, you'll see what I mean. They have the EXACT same smile. I'm not kidding. Click on the link.

Sodium!

Girl student: That boy is sodium.
Me: Sodium?
Girl student: Yes, he is Mr. Sodium.
Me: …why?
Girl student: He is very reactive. He is always with the girls, you will always see him with many girls around him.

And then one of the boys, I forget whether it was Mr. Sodium or one of his friends, responded that, well, she could always be found with the boys around her.

Yup, I hear Pulaar now.

I am helping Neene crack open peanuts when Tijan comes over, stands in front of me, farts loudly, and moves over next to Buba.

Me: Did you see Tijan? He came, he farted, he left.
Neene: Binta hears Pulaar now! She said, he came, he farted, he left! Binta hears Pulaar now!

School Photos!

"Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative."
Double click this photo and take a closer look.
This is the map I was telling you about, where half the
European countries are unlabeled and the borders are fuzzy.
And I just noticed all of Denmark is missing.

The back wall of a classroom.

And now you've got a view of the windows
and the cabinet.

The first time I saw one of these "ALWAYS REMEMBER"
notes on the wall, I thought it was in memory of a student
who had died. Nope. The vandal just doesn't want you to
forget him.

I'm pretty sure "Tiger blood" is not the correct answer.
But it is certainly a hilarious one.
(this page is from an old copy of the national exam for grade 12)

I took this photo at the request of our bursar, who wanted to
send some photos to some organization he's hoping to get
more computers from. I think this is one of the grade ten classes,
because I don't actually know these students.

One of the grade 11 classes. I like this photo better than the
one I took afterwards, when they were actually prepared.

Mites!

Velvet Ground Mite

For the longest time I could only refer to the arthropod pictured above as "that red fuzzy bug, do you know the one I mean?" Then Julia told me they were her favorite, so I started referring to them as "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?"

Eventually I learned their name in Pulaar. This is a more difficult task than you'd think, because they only come out after a heavy rain, sometimes. I was walking through the village one day when the little girl walking next to me gave a happy shout and yelled, "Sampulu has come!" At first I thought Sampulu was some dear friend she hadn't seen in forever, but when she pointed to the red bug on the ground I realized "sampulu" is Pulaar for "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?"

So the kids and I stopped to watch Sampulu crawling along the ground. I asked a kid if it would bite me and when he said no, I went to pick one up. I wanted to know if they felt as soft and cuddly as they looked. But the girl shouted, “Stop! Don’t kill it! If you kill it, tomorrow…” Here, the ellipsis does not represent the girl's voice trailing off, it represents her using Pulaar words I didn't know the meaning of. However, I could tell from her tone that it was something bad.

You may have noticed the caption to my picture. Yes, "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?" are also known as velvet ground mites. I learned this as I was browsing a bookstore one day (this was during a trip to Kombo, where there is actually a bookstore) and came across a guide to Insects and Arthopods of The Gambia. Unfortunately, not many people have heard of velvet ground mites, so I will probably continue to refer to them as "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?"

"Africa cannot develop without European influence"

I attended another school debate; the topic was, as you may have guessed, "Africa cannot develop without European influence." I pretended I took notes to better score the participants.

For:

• a girl chewing gum and a cow chewing cud; I see the intelligence of the cow
• Europeans brought Christianity, built roofs, and they gave us what they call colonialism
• similarity of products: Gambia produces groundnuts, Senegal produces groundnuts; without Europe there would be no one to sell these products to
• Europeans taught us how to prevent back injuries when lifting heavy objects
•  Europeans brought tiles for the auditorium floor
• how many youths are dying in Libya today?
• we don’t have the materials but we know how to construct
•  the books and the clothes you are wearing, you feel proud that you are wearing European clothes “Made in America” or “Made in Europe;” if you see “Made in Senegal” you will not want to wear that
• some medicines we are using they import them so that we can cure ourselves
• supplies of electricity
• must depend on Europe for processing our materials
• who here would like to drink their tea without putting in sugar?
• mobiles
• Europeans discovered transport that makes travel very easy
• Africans depend on Europeans to manufacture and distribute the materials
• Mr. Chairman, I want to ask a question: “Why are we here?” I think it is to recite knowledge. Europeans brought this.
• have you ever heard of an African going to Europe to supervise their elections? Many African countries need Europe for transparent elections
• Europe is a backboard to Africa. Can anything stand without a backboard? We cannot stand without European support
• Africa in those days of the Europeans, many died of diseases which they know nothing about
• Africans knew nothing about agriculture; it was only hunting and gathering
• most outstanding development is in the field of education
• "Are we speaking local language?" [Audience response: “NO.”]

Against:

• will a good citizen of Africa wait for people from another country to develop them?
• today is more favorable than yesterday
• Libya was one of the riches countries but since Europeans entered what happened? [Audience response: “They destroyed everything!”]
• the Europeans who came here did not give Africans a chance to develop themselves
• our religion—it is fifty percent worse since the Europeans came
• destruction of many African countries
• Gambians enjoying more now than before when the Europeans were here
• anyone who is civilized is acting like a European
• most countries were colonized by Europea, it could be said that they brought civilization. "Example: America-- is it not more developed than any other country in the world? By developed I mean science and technology." [Audience response: “Yes!”]
• People can bear me witness, before in our culture the tradition was respect. Is Africa developing or un-developing? Boys are putting in earrings, girls are putting on trousers...
• Africa is one of the richest countries in the world
• blessed with natural resources that we are transferring them into finished products, even a blind person can say that Africa can be developed without European influence
•  Europeans are playing a game with us
•  now we are educated can develop without European influence
• Europeans put together groups of different ethnic groups, traditions and religions, caused a lot of problems, just look at Somalia
• brain drain is one of the biggest problems, Europe is taking African intellectuals; Europe is a killer parasite, they are ecto-parasites

Conversations with Mamadou: Later!

It is early morning; I am reading in my backyard. Mamadou calls to me from the other side of the fence.

Mamadou: Binta!
Me: Naam!
Mamadou: Bring your cards, let’s play!
Another boy, whose voice I don’t recognize: Binta, bring your cards!
Me: Later!

Thirty seconds later….

Mamadou: Binta!
Me: Naam.
Mamadou: Bring your cards.
Me: Later!

Ten seconds later….

Mamadou: Binta!
Me: NAAM.
Mamadou: Come.
Me: Later. I will come later.
Mamadou: Come eat bread.
Me: Come eat what?
Mamadou: Bread.
Unidentified boy: Bread.
Me: Okay.

I am extremely suspicious, but what if it actually is time to eat bread and what if we’re also drinking Nescafe, which is beverage I now enjoy?

I decide to compromise and prepare to step outside, but take my time doing so.

Mamadou: Binta, come.
Me: I’m coming! Wait a little!

I go outside. Mamadou tears a small piece of bread off of the already small chunk he’s holding in his hand and gives it to me. I sigh and pop it in my mouth.

Sauce!

I was using sandwiches to illustrate an example of proportions (you wouldn't put the same amount of beans on a full bread as you would on a half bread, etc). I mentioned bread with sardines, bread with beans and bread with sauce.
For some reason the students loved the way I pronounced “sauce.” At least, I interpreted their laughter as love. When I asked them why they were laughing and smiling, one student replied, “Even your mouth loves sauce.”

So I said “sauce” a few more times and then we returned to maths.

He followed her to school one day...

Back in June, during a rainy morning, Levi followed me to school. I let him stay because

1. I didn’t have to teach any classes
2. I didn’t feel like walking back in the rain
3. He pushed the gate open after I closed it in his face
4. The principal didn’t seem alarmed or even mildly bothered by his presence

Levi didn’t do much other than sit by my side and whine softly if I forgot to pet him. A couple of times he wandered away to sniff the premises and once he provoked a goat into charging at him, at which point Levi scampered away whimpering with his ears flat against his head and his tail tucked between his legs. Around break time his whining got louder and more persistent, however, and since the rain had stopped, I brought him home.

That night, Fatou Sowe told everyone the story of Levi following me to school: “Today Levi tired Binta! He followed her to the school and she could not teach. She returned him to the compound; she went to Njie Kunda and said, ‘Neene, help me, Levi wants to go to school and learn.’ Aye, Binta.”