Fatoumata!

Originally, I thought I would only have the patience to upload five pictures because the internet is being really slow. Instead, I only had the patience to upload one picture. Fatoumata is the girl in the center, she was one of my neighbors until she returned home to a nearby village. I'm hoping I can visit them someday, because her village is only a short bike ride away, and Fatoumata and her younger sister Hawa (not pictured) are some of my favorite people. I have a hilarious picture of Hawa too, but it'll have to wait for another day.

The boy in the photo is Cherno, who I'm sure I've mentioned before, unless I mentioned him in posts that I've set to published at a future date. He claimed he was going to style his hair in dreadlocks for Tobaski. The girl next to Fatoumata is Mariama, but she's not a regular visitor to the compound, so I don't know her too well.

Awesome-possum-ness

Today I rushed around like crazy accomplishing many semi-important tasks and feeling productive. So I felt very American. And despite all the rushing around, I never felt stressed out because awesome stuff kept happening! For example:

• In the morning I re-visited the free pile of clothes and junk that volunteers (mostly the ones leaving the country) contribute to. And I found a pair of fleece pajama pants exactly like the ones I left at home. The pink ones from Old Navy with a reindeer pattern. I left them at home because I didn't realize The Gambia would actually get legitimately cold at night, or that I would really wish I would be able to wear them for Christmas morning, which is what I had been wishing yesterday. Yay!
• I went to the dentist. Normally, this would not be cause for excitement, especially considering the last time I went to the dentist he took half my money and four of my teeth. But this time the dentist was Swedish! There was a Swedish flag hanging outside of the door and the waiting room table was stocked with last week's Swedish newspapers (which made me really wish I could understand Swedish, because the only English reading material was an issue of Time from exactly a year ago), and those little plastic beads that you put on the plastic board and then melt with a hot iron, except they weren't melted so you could mindlessly rearrange the patterns as you were waiting. And probably only a handful of this blog's readers understood what I meant by those meltable plastic beads, for which I'm sorry, but can do nothing about. Oh, and the name of the dental clinic was Swedent.
• I ATE MUFFINS. NO LIE. While wandering one of the many supermarkets I wandered today I found a package of chocolate-chip mini muffins. I couldn't believe it. I bought them, of course. They could have cost a thousand dalasi and I would have bought them (but luckily they were only fifty-five or something like that). I bought a bottle of milk, too. The only supermarket disappointment was the absence of the white chocolate hippopotamuses that the KinderEgg company makes. I never bought one when I saw them in September because they were expensive and I just assumed white chocolate hippopotamuses would still be there when I returned. But if I don't find them before it's time for me to return to site again, I'll buy a package of "Little Skateboarders." At least that's what I'm assuming the French translates too. Some knock-off brand is selling their interpretation of the "Little Schoolboys" that I used to always eat with my mom, but changed the schoolboys to skateboarders. Any chocolate can make you smile, but it's a special chocolate that makes you laugh hysterically.

I just adjusted my posture in my chair and my skirt slipped down below my knee and I moved to push it back... then remembered that no one here cares if my knees show. But they will care if I'm smelly. So I'll go take a shower now.

P.S. I did not spot any oppossums today. But today is my sister's birthday, so this title is for her.

Update!

[yup, actually in front of the computer, again]

I have eaten ice cream since the last time I posted and it was delicious and I took a hot shower and it was also delicious.

And now I return to writing more posts of things past for reading in the future.

Twix!

So I said I'd stop writing one-word, exclamation point titles, but...I lied.

I am in front of the computer right now, and it is even better than when I was in front of a computer yesterday because this time I'm the room has air conditioning, and my stomach is full of chicken, fries, Coke and a Twix candy bar. The morning was a rough day of travel that involved waking up with the call to prayer and dragging my suitcase to the car park. Then we piled into the car and didn't unpile for...hours. First it was cold and dusty and later it was hot and less dusty (not less dusty because the air became warmer, less dusty because we changed to the paved North Bank road) and all the time I was squished in the middle.

Also, there was a chicken. Our driver shoved it in back with the backpacks, and it squawked and pretended like it wanted to scratch my eyes out, but actually just roosted on someone's bag for awhile.

Eventually we arrived at the craziness that was the ferry terminal and I was excited because it meant we were almost done, but unexcited because boarding and deboarding the ferry is a generally horrible experience for people who don't like crowds of shoving and shouting people.

But then we ate lunch and that made everything better. I haven't eaten any ice cream yet, and that is because I was kidding when I said I wanted to eat ice cream until I puke, so I'm going to wait until I'm less full to buy some.

I'm tired of exclamation points

Not that this post won't be exciting, but limiting my titles to one-word exclamations was...limiting.

Also, I'm in front of a computer right now! And tomorrow I'll be in the Kombos! (See, this post is exciting). I've got lots of posts to write and time to write them--right now I'm the only person in the transit house, so I'm not paranoid that everyone secretly despises me for hogging the computer. Also, it's morning, so I'm likewise not paranoid that swarming bugs are planning to eat me alive.

So, as a reminder: the posts I'm going to be writing now I will be posting for your reading pleasure in the future. This means you will be reading about Tobaski in January, even though it happened in November. And the naming ceremony I attended yesterday, you'll also have to wait until January to read. Patience, young padawan.

But today you can read about today!

• Waited for the gelly.
• Boarded the gelly.
• Crammed between two large men, one of whom steps on my foot.
• A foul smell fills the gelly. The men sitting across from me plug their noses. Two of them tuck their heads into their shirts.
• Someone opens a window. A cold wind blows through the gelly. The smell goes away.
• The cold wind is still blowing. It was cold in the gelly before the window was open, so it is not pleasant.
• I shiver. I tuck my hands into the sleeves of my sweatshirt.
• No one closes the window.
• The driver turns off the main road because he's taking a different route to Basse. One of the guys gets really mad because he's not going to Basse, he's going to some other town. He complains about "time wasted"
• The gelly arrives at the car park. Because of the alternate route, the gelly comes to the car park without driving by the intersection with the mosque that I normally get dropped at. The distance I now need to walk has been doubled.
• I remember that I never received my change, but the driver and his apprentice have left the gelly and disappeared into the swarm of people shouting and asking where I'm headed towards.
• I struggle to put my suitcase (it's a small one) on my head. Two guys laugh at me. In Pulaar, I command them to help me. They obey.
• I attempt carrying my suitcase on my head for awhile, but my arms tire and I worry that everything will come crashing down. I attempt to roll the suitcase along the crumbling asphalt road, but even though the suitcase has wheels, it feels like I'm dragging it.
• I reach sand. I put the suitcase on my head again.
• I come to the transit house. The gate won't open. I bang on it, hoping someone will open it. 
• No one hears.
• I bang on the door some more.
• No one's coming.
• By the way, the gate is made of metal and the banging makes a very loud sound.
• I sit on my suitcase and eat some peanuts.
• I text people for advice.
• I'm told to push the door really hard so that whatever's turned at the bottom (if I were a door manufacturer I would know the word) to keep the door closed will move.
• It works!
• I wander the house, admiring its cleanliness and emptiness.
• I wait for power.
• I hear a fan running.
• I rush the computer, even though I don't need to rush, because I'm the only one around.

And later I'll probably go to the market.