I made it to Gaan Seei!

I have been out at my site for five weeks now, making a trip into the city to restock on food, skype and refuel. My move out to my village was really great. Everyone was really receptive to me, but at the same time giving me some time to get settled in. Unlocking and stepping into my house for the first time was a really exciting feeling because it was the very first moment where I was on my own out in my village, where I was going to have more control and input and interaction. Then I realized every mouse, cockroach and bat had been partying for the past month because no one had been living there. Luckily a quick sweep and bleach soak took care of that.

My house is a wood cabin that’s probably about 10ft x 20ft, with a front porch that extends off my house another 10ft. In the back of my house I have my wash house/latrine dual and my rain catch durotank (which is where I get all the water to put through my water filter).
Right next door to me is a family with two sisters who live with their kids (including eight-month old twins Tete and Boto). In Maroon villages the houses are very close together so I have had a little bit of adjustment realizing that sometimes when I think people are on my porch talking to me they are really just talking to each other… in their own houses. Everyone comes by in the morning to see how I slept and say good morning. The one day I was sick everyone came by my bedroom window to tell me that I have to get better.

The biggest task right now has been trying to learn everyone’s name. I’m doing pretty well with that so far, the only problem is that everyone has at least two names, a school name/birth name and then what everyone in the village calls them. So I will be asked if I know someone and I will tell them no, only to find out we are talking about the same people. So far I think I have gotten about 50% of them down, most importantly all of my neighbors and all of the leaders in the community. I have started giving English classes in the village, so that has helped out A LOT because I made everyone learn to say “My name is______” and it helped me avoid asking people over and over their names… instead they are just practicing their English. Pretty sure they’ve caught on.

Other than that I fill my time with washing my clothes/dishes in the river, walking around the village, reading, cross-stitching, going out to grounds, and hanging out with the kids. I have been trying to exercise… there’s an overgrown path that I have run on a few times, I jump rope, and I play soccer. Honestly the walks around the village greeting everyone makes me sweat just as much from the burning sun.
The first three months of my time at site I am not really supposed to concentrate on beginning any projects, but rather on strengthening my language and introducing myself as a member of Gaan seei. Everyone there has helped me so much with learning new foods, new words, new names, new sites, new everything. Sometimes I worry that they will see my inability to hand wash clothes on a stone or cook a bush-meat soup as incompetence, but they never seem to judge me like that…plus they are just happy that I am there and wanting to learn how they do things. Nothing too crazy has happened during my first month …although I have added parrot to my list of foods tried.

Being in the city has been nice because I got to see all the other volunteers who have been out at site and see what they have been up to (and I got to eat ice cream, eat burgers and sleep in airconditioning), but it was a little stressful making sure I got everything taken care. Tomorrow marks eight hour long trip back to site (which I am not excited about) but I can’t wait to get back to my new home.