MONKEY TALES #2
(6/29/03)
MONKEY TALES #25
(3/13/04)
MONKEY TALES #24
(3/8/04)
MONKEY TALES #23
(2/12/04)
MONKEY TALES #22
(2/5/04)
MONKEY TALES #21
(1/31/04)
MONKEY TALES #20
(12/22/03)
MONKEY TALES #19
(12/13/03)
MONKEY TALES #18
(12/6/03)
MONKEY TALES #17
(12/1/03)
MONKEY TALES #16
(11/22/03)
MONKEY TALES #15
(11/13/03)
MONKEY TALES #14
(10/24/03)
MONKEY TALES #13
(10/16/03)
MONKEY TALES #12
(10/11/03)
MONKEY TALES #11
(10/4/03)
MONKEY TALES #10
(9/27/03)
MONKEY TALES #9
(9/19/03)
MONKEY TALES #8.5
(9/13/03)
MONKEY TALES #8
(9/13/03)
MONKEY TALES #7
(8/21/03)
MONKEY TALES #6
(8/14/03)
MONKEY TALES #5
(8/8/03)
MONKEY TALES #4
(7/29/03)
MONKEY TALES #3
(7/24/03)
MONKEY TALES #1
(7/17/03)
"YO!"
(6/27/03)
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Bel ma sogha, we buedi? (Hello and how are you in the local
Inzebi language). The internet is finally working today, I finished class
hours early, and I have money to spend on the internet, so I'm finally
able to update ya'll. I really can't explain how slow this is or how often
it's not working, so please believe that I've been trying to get out a
group email for over a week now to no avail.
1. As you know, I'm in Koula Moutou now, a provincial capital about a
one-hour bush taxi ride away from Lastoursville (look on my home page
www.oocities.org.haeljourney/ for a map). It took 8 hours on the train
to get here plus the 1 hour bush taxi, and apparently that's record time.
2. My new family, the Lendjoughous, consists of one older papa, his three
wives (one lives in Libreville), and somewhere around 28 kids. The best
part? They're Catholic. His father foudned our neighborhood and my papa's
a huge figure int he community, so I'm basically a princess. Everyone
in our quartier (Koungu) is related to me, tho I'm still figuring out
how. And, yes, I have all the ethnic babies I can handle, so don't worry.
They used to see me walking home from school and would run away screaming
"La blanche vient, la blanche vient! (the white girl's coming, the
white girl's coming!)" Now the second they see me all the way at
the end of the road, they come running into my arms with happy cries of
"Tantie Leah, Tantie Leah! (Aunt Leah!)" and fight over who
gets to hold my hand. With 28 kids, it's always intersting.
3. As all you know, I love eating and will try anything once...believe
me, I think I already have. A lot of viande de brusse (bush meat), including
antelope, gazelle, and porcupine; tripe, liver, kidneys, spazzy African
eggplant, manioc (my new favorite food--too bad it's all starch and has
no nutritional value), fried plantains, and a spice here called piment
that is hotter than crushed red pepper, wasabi, or Allyn's mom's chili.
I'm buying stock in it and bringing it homle by the caseloads. And of
course, a lot of green leafy things (feuilles). Not much variety, but
it's all delicious and I'm not picky, plus they always have basics like
fish and chicken. I even spend all day cooking with them on Sundays, so
it's been a joy. The only bout of intestinal trauma thus far occurred
my first night with my family when I ate porcupine. NEVER again.
4. You'll prolly get a kick out of my living situation as well. Tho my
fam's influential, we don't have running running water (everyone has electricity);
tho some of my friends do. Thus, I have a small cement shower room attached
to my small cement bedroom (pictures should be on my website soon). I
fill up buckets from the pump outside and then scrub down by dumping handfuls
of water over my body. This room also doubles as my "urination station",
since they instructed me to pee there when I need to. I never feel fully
clean, tho I have started washing my hair at the pump (with the help of
all the younger girls) since it's easier and faster. Also, the big, hairy
jungle spider that has taken up residence in my shower space inevitably
appears, accompanied by creepy millipedes or roaches, so I try to get
in and out ASAP. I accepted the fact that I'll be dirty for at least the
next 8 weeks till I have my own place, so now I'm fine. Oh, and then there's
the latrine. It's vile. Words are not picturesque or smelly enough; so
I'll just say that after discovering that someone had completely missed
the whole twice in one day, I've learned to control my needs till I can
use the real toilet at the Peace Corps office. No joke.
5. Training is going well, and tho it's mental (and physical and emotional)
bootcamp, I'm hanging there. However, 3 people will have gone home by
tomorrow...2 guys and one girl, and I'm betting we lose about 2 more.
We'll knw where we'll be stationed in two weeks, and then we go spend
a week at our sites after that before returning for more training. Apparently
that's another critical time, so we'll see what happens then. Other than
that, a typical day consists of waking up at 7:30am, walking 30 minutes
to class, 4 hours of French language, a 2 hour lunch break (I walk home
and back), 4 hours of technical training for health, return for dinner,
then hang out with the fam for about 3 hours till I head to my room for
a "shower" and 30 minutes of journaling time before falling
asleep around 10pm. It's like that almost 6 days a week and Sundays I
have off, tho I spend it with my fam. The hardest part is not having time
to myself to process, especially since most of you know that I need my
"Leah time". Eh, I can handle it, and I haven't cried once tho
I question myself all the time. My French is getting better and my family
really only ever speaks Inzebi, so I'm picking that up as well.
6. There are 5 of us in our language class ( I tested into intermediate-mid,
which is where everyone needs to be at the end of training, so I'm good)
and my teacher, Djibril, is Senegalese and speaks no English, tho he's
fluent in 7 other languages. He's dubbed me "McFail", or "Mac"
for short, and everyone's starting to use that. I'm loving my new nickname,
tho all the women here are called "momma", so I feel right at
home no matter what :-)
7. If any of you want to send me presents, here's my wishlist...Gold Bond,
toilet paper, stickers, M&M's, hard candy, incense, the new milk campaign
ad (you know who you are!), and anything else at all. I will love you
forever since mail is a commodity here and when I started having dreams
about ice cream, I knew I needed something.
Alright; there's still so much to tell you, but this will have to do.
Thank you to Allyn and others for the surprise addition to my webpage...I
love it. Pictures should be up relatively soon I hope, and maybe email
more frequently. I'm off now for home, where I'll have to step over burning
trash, goats, chickens, naked babies, and raw sewage. Once at home I'll
eat whatever then scare away the roaches/lizards/ants/spiders from my
shower and pass out exhausted. Remeber, my number is (241) 38-90-35 and
it's best to call between 7-10pm my time, tho I'll pick up anytime in
the night even if I'm sleeping. I love you all and even tho I don't have
time for individual replies very often, if at all, you're always on my
mind.
Manioc-flavored kisses...
La Blanche
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