I'm Back! (Sort of)

If youre reading this and you're wondering what on earth has happened to me, slash if you were wondering why I haven't been emailing recently, I've just started to get over malaria this past week. Boo malaria. Boo sickness. Anyhoos, I'm just really tired all the time now, but will try and get up some updates. Today the ODPC team are coming and we're all excited!

Mango Feast

Isa and Alas and I went to Fatou's compound to pick some mangoes. Fatou is one of Isa's friends and we wanted mangoes. The ones on our compound are constantly picked at for ripe fruit (like this morning, when after running, Anna Marie and Sharon were throwing rocks to try and get a ripe one they spotted in the tree right by the field). We got a bagful of mangoes and brought it back to the center and 'chobbed' it together just before a delish beans dinner.
Alas thought it would be really funny to lock me and Kintah and Anna Marie and Jung in the kitchen, so we were stuck in there a while. On the bright side, there were lots of beans and rice, so we didn't get hungry. Later, Alas kind of put me on the spotlight, as he and Santos and Pierre and Sanna are all determined to get me to teach them a new song. I don't think they understand yet just how bad my voice is. I have been playing so much Ludo, which is a rather addictive board game. I beat Jung even though he kept cheating.

The Kembujeh Dogs

There are two dogs that live on the Kembujeh compound, and they love bread.

We gave the Sunday School kids bread with mayonnaise as a snack on Sunday and they kept giving pieces of it to the dogs.

My dad bought a goose yesterday

We are eating it.

My Kembujeh Buddies

Here are some of the Sunday School kids from Kembujeh. Since I've been rotating with the churches, this was the first week that I've been able to go to Kembujeh... which was a good thing because Arthurue (I don't think that's teh right spelling, but that's how he spells it), who used to come and help with the painting, would chatter away to me in Mandinka and keep telling me to come to church in the most earnest of tones, like he was afraid for my soul. I couldn't find a very good picture of him, but he's the one in the stripey purple shirt in this picture I took with little Kaddy:

This is AB praying. Well, he came up and covered his face with both his hands and then mumbled something really fast and quietly (all into both his tiny little palms, of course) and then ended with a loud manly AMEN. It's only his second week coming to the Kembujeh church, but he likes it better there I think because the first week he answered the question that Sirumbai asked correctly and got a free pencil. This week he aced another questino and got a piece of bread that he later shared with me.

The weather recently has been miserable, so I expect we're going to have some heavy rainstorms pretty soon. Can't wait.

Catch Me If You Can

Buba is a little camera shy. This means that it has been quite a chore to get a proper picture of him. Nevertheless, I am soldiering on. Here are some nearly-pictures of Buba.

Kubuneh Scrimmage

Our studmuffin big boys got together a team of various people that have either passed through this camp or are currently here, and they were playing at the village of Kubuneh against the village team. We took the WAM bus there.

Adn this was our cheer squad, led by Simon and Alieu, who kept trying to get me to dance.

We won 1-0, which was a good thing because my dad threatened to not drive us back if we lost. Isa and Nyima and I were watching on the sidelines

This is the post-win jubilation parade:

And here are some more pictures of fans and tired players.

(Celestine, Musa, Alas)

(Simon, Alieu, Nicola, Abba)

(Alieu and Swaibou)
(Aisha and Simon dancing haha)

(And one of our star players, Baks:))

(Me and Aisha with Sirumbai, another of our studmuffin players - he's actually the one that put together the team)

Musa

So the other day Musa was trying to teach me some of his keyboard skills, and I was failing miserably. We got back early from Kembujeh to find that everybody except for me and Jaewon had been abandoned (the rest had all gone to Banjul). So we went to the church and played around on the instruments.

Little Musa also came along. This is Omar's son, and even though he's an avid football player and speaks a mile a minute in Mandinka, there's one word he will never say, and that's: Abaraka. haha He mooches breakfast off of us every morning and he never says thank you. My dad gives him a hard time for it, but isn't he so cute?

Janke and Sonna's Dance Club

Some afternoons, the girls just break it down and dance in front of the girls dorm. It's usually led by some of the older junior girls, and on this particular day we had an entire line-up of girls led by Janke and Sonna doing a crazy dance. AB also joined in.

Cooking with Aisha

Benachin
- Cut up chunks of beef and then sit it in vinegar
- Pound black pepper and hot red pepper (around 6) together, add some salt
- Remove some of the pepper mix and put it in with the beef
- With the remaining pepper mix, cut up 2 onions, slicing them and then pound it together
- Add a jumbo cube crushed and mix it in
- Put oil in pot until it gets really really hot
- Peel the potatoes, cut the egg plant, cut the cabbage, and cut the carrots, beans, and radishes into tiny little pieces
- Pull out the meat from its liquid stuff and stick it in (watch out it sizzles...)
- Put in the onion/pepper mix
- Put in the cut vegetables
- Put in the vinegary mix from the meat
- Add some salt
- When the vegetables are cooked, pull them out (the chunky ones) and set them aside
- Steam the rice on top of the bowl if possible, if not, that's okay too :)
- Once the rice gets a little softer, stick it into the hot hot hot oil and add some water
- Add one jumbo crushed and one Adja, add some salt too just for good measure
- Stir occasionally, wait til the rice gets done

As we were making this, Celestine kept trying to give tips on how to do things better. Americo tried to help as well, and basically everyone who passed by, but it was mainly just because they wanted to have some bahaha. It was yummy.

The Perks of Getting Older

AB had these awesome bronze jelly shoes when we were here two years ago. He used to just leave them in our house and then run around everywhere barefoot, even though his mom kept telling him to wear his shoes. So one day we hid them from him. Much to my delight, even after two years some things don't change. AB still leaves his shoes around in our house all the time. Here are his new and improved Disney Princess sneakers. They're pretty ballin.

Nyima

Nyima got a part of a chalo fish bone stuck right up under her fingernail and we don't know what to do :( It looks like it hurts a lot

How to Turn Fractions Into Decimals

So somehow in the course of today, Alas roped me into teaching the fifth graders math.

Back to Work Again

Back to Kembujeh to try and finish the paint job...
Highlight: Gorugi, Pierre's insanely cute younger brother, came along. Literally, I can't look at him without wanting to squeeze him or pinch his cheeks or pick him up. Look at him. Just look at him.

Gorugi used to pee his pants and cry all the time during Sunday School. Now he can walk properly he likes to chase the car whenever we go past his house. He also likes to pose for pictures. Pierre is a sweetheart, and he's not just protective of his little brother, but also of me. Whenever there are creepy men around who hit on me, like in the market the other day or like when I went out to the field today to play soccer with the kids, he told me not to talk to anyone because they were all causing trouble. He was seriously worried about my safety and acted as my bodyguard the entire time. He was helping me paint today. We are finally done with the background! Nearly halfway there yippeeee
Also, the rest of the boys who weren't helping with the painting, like Musa and Alas, were doing hard manual labor. They were sorting out some of the rocks. Or I shoudl really say that Musa was beasting the rocks, becuase in great Alas fashion, he was slacking off not doing anything. He calls it "directing." Here is evidence.

Also, a chicken fell into the well we're digging in Kembujeh. If anyone has any ideas on how to get it out...

Oh, and i forgot to mention, Nicolas had malaria and was sick for a while. He was hurling everywhere, but now that we've got some proper medicine in him, he's feeling better and he's back to his mischievous ways. He also came to help paint at Kembujeh today... but he mainly sat under the mango tree eating mangoes and cashews and posing for pictures.

Ninja Assassin

Every Sunday evening we show the kids a movie or two. Last week, we watched Ninja Assassin. They love this movie. LOVE IT.

I, perhaps, am a little partial to it because of the presence of a Korean popstar (much the same way that I feel for the TV show the OC...). The kids all want to be like him now.

How to Make Kuchaa

Aisha and Kintah taught me how to make KUCHAA. I am so excited.

So this is what you do.
- First you need a bag full of kuchaa leaves (the flowers of these plants are used to make that pink juice, wonjo, that they freeze and sell in teh markets here) and pick out the leaves and wash them really well.
- Then get a handful of netetuwoo (which I have no idea what you would call in English, but it's in this long bean thing that people collect in the bush in teh rainy season and the yellow fluff around it looks like popcorn but its really sweet and monkeys love it) and rinse it out

- Pound the netetuwoo until it's nice and smooshed
- Put a pot of water to boil with 3 or 4 occra in it (you have to boil it until the occra is cooked)
- Wash 6 or 7 hot red peppers and add it to the turoo mix - i.e. pound it together with the netetuwoo mush
- Once the occra is ready, take it out of the water and stick it in to the turoo mix and pound it all together until it's a lovely slimy sticky delicious consistency
- then you have to remove all that stuff from the pounder because it's really slippery
- Oh, and when you take out the occra, you have to put in the kuchaa leaves. The water by this point should be boiling at least for a while.
- When teh leaves start to get dark green adn floppy and kuchaa-shade looking, take it out and stick it in the turoo and pound it until it's smooth
- Then add in the netetuwoo mix and pound it all together
- Add about 2 jumbo cubes, and add some salt as ncessary
- Some people also put a little bit of palm oil in afterwards.
It is delicious. I'm so excited. The only problem I need to solve now is where to get ingredients when I go back across the pond...

Sister

Best thing of my life: All the kids kept saying "Sister!" "Sister!" and I had no idea who they were talking about. Well apparently the story behind hat is that Diminga chose her own name way back when, and she wanted to be called "Sister Nyaakuloo" which in Mandinka means "Sister Big-Eyes." She insisted that everyone call her that. Now everyone calls her "Sister." Best thing of my life.

Deberoo

Sunday afternoons are lazy. All the girls were getting their hair did (the plaiting is called deberoo in Mandinka) and I got mine done too. Jariatou sat me down and did it for me :)
Here is me and the schwester and a bunch of the girls at the church porch on Sunday. Nyima is doing Iso's hair... and Garam's doing Nyima's hair.

Aisha did Sukunda's hair

But really, the resident hair master is Anna Marie, and so later I got Anna Marie to do my hair in smaller braids.

June has picked up the habit somehow of calling me J.S. Park whenevr he sees me. I yell Evra back at him. Somehow we've all earned soccer names...

Anyway, this has resulted in June coming up with a new nickname for me. Now whenever he sees me he yells "RASTA!"

Santos

This is Santos peeling vegetables for my mom.

This is Santos copying notes or Bakary Fabureh (also known as Baks).

This is Santos and Joseph (Musu's Joseph). He finally stopped crying when Santos held him and fell asleep, giant puddles of tears still caught in his eyelashes.

Santos is great.

Blue Monday

On Monday we had to take Jariatou back to her home in Jamisa.
My dad's started a new church in Jamisa, and so we went there this past Sunday. It was the first service we had at the new site, so there was nothing there. We brought some of the benches from Jariatou's house and had teh service under one of the cashew trees.

My dad was preaching and leading the singing in Mandinka, and Pastor Ali was there as well (in teh white) - he's Moniya and AB's dad.

Well Jariatou was living with us on teh camp since the beginning of teh year, but she got pregnant before she came in. Even though we really want her to stay, because her morning sickness and cravings are getting really bad, we thought it would be better for her to stay at home so that she can get the proper care she needs. It's sad, but living in a community like this it's hard to specifically do things for just one person sometimes. This is us, Nyima and Sharon in the back with the two Josephs and Maro (who is still afraid of white people) taking Jariatou back home. Jariatou's the one on the far left. Note that Joseph (Musu's Joseph) is inconsolable and can't stop crying. The entire trip.

I really miss her

Luntango!

We have visitors (in Mandinka, "luntangolu") from the big C-N woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Me and the padre and Santos, Pierre, Buba, and Sanna went to the airport to pick up Mrs. Shim (Laura Lee) and her two kids, Jae-won and Yoo-jung. They are jetlagged, but they love the mangoes.

NAWEC

NAWEC is the Gambia's "National Water and Electric Company." Even though Brikama is considered a town area, NAWEC has been on the slackage. We've had so many powercuts recently and it's gone on for pretty much the whole day. We've only had a few hours of electricity every once in a while, usually the morning. It's ridic. Mostly at night we have to use solar.
Anyhoos, fyi that internet usage has been on the downage because of NAWEC's suckage. On that note, though, I am thankful that we have electricity. Vidic, who is from Packalinding, was making fun of some of the Jamisa kids becuase he said that in Packalinding they have electricity, but Jamisa is too much of a village to have electricity haha.

Musa Pt. 2

So we went to visit Musa at the hospital, and he is completely fine except for a few minor scratches and bruises. They don't provide any food or sheets at the hospital, so we've been delivering his food every day. He really should have come back home yesterday morning, but the doctor delayed it because he said he needed some shots or something. Musa is walking about and is getting antsy and wants to come back though.
Here's a picture of some of our kids who piled onto the back of the truck (which, incidentally, is the same truck that ran over Musa when he was three years old...first the front wheel, then the back wheel) after the evening service. The boys booted most of the girls out, but Nyima and Aisha somehow managed to hold their ground haha.

It turns out that if some of the branches and (more importantly) the roof of his mom's house hadn't broken his fall, he probably would have died. This isn't the first time we've warned kids about climbing mango trees!!!!!!!!!!!!(many exclamation points, because you've no idea how alarmed we were when the men from teh village carried a bleeding and crying Musa to the jemberengo). Exhibit A: Abba, a.k.a. Vidic, who is Santos' younger brother (the one in the red - he's next to June, who is like his bffl). Earlier this year, he also fell out of a mango tree and nearly killed himself.

They love their mangoes. Even though there's a designated stick that you're supposed to use to get the mangoes that are higher up, some kids just insist on risking their lives and climbing up the tree.
Anyway, we brought Musa dinner, and all teh stray cats came along. We also brought him some mangoes.

Musa

Musa fell out of a mango tree at his house today and seemed to be hurt pretty bad, he was crying and bleeding from the neck and we don't really know if anything's happened to him yet. Some people carried him over here and my dad just rushed him off to the hospital.

Musa (the boy with the blue shirt) lives with us but he's from Brikama so he goes home all the time. He used to be in Rainbow Preschool when he was small and my dad accidentally ran over him with our truck. Miraculously, he turned out to have absolutely nothing wrong with him at all - just shock. I really hope that he's alright this time too.

Also, we saw the giant statue:

It's really big.

And my sister played in the Alumni vs. not-Alumni soccer game (soccer really is the world's greatest sport) and she got pelted in the stomach with the ball. ok, it was kind of funny at the time, but now she keeps complaining about bruised abs. Pshhh...

Finding My Happy Place

Well, we managed to make it to DA in time for the graduation and even got to catch some of the 50th Anniversary shindigs (wooooooo!). One of the best parts was getting to see people again. I got to see some familiar faces :) Yay. I miss them already.

Since the main purpose of our Dakar visit was to consume food that we, yes, both me and my sister, have been craving for the past two years, we proceeded to do that.
This is us at Chez Elias with an Hamburger Royale, which is like 3 pounds of meat and fries and chawarma goodness all squished into a giant burger. This is my sister in her happy place.

Then we made the rounds and paid a visit to N'ice cream just down the road, where they truly serve nice ice cream.

I was happy to find that the Obama flavored ice-cream was still there:

And since we were all feeling like beached whales but were extremely happy, we took this opportunity to take a couple of pictures :)