My week in village

So this past week I had a language seminar (where we do 4 intense days of language classes) in Togue. It was quite an interesting time. Togue is a village of about 100 people with nothing to do but pick peanuts. I arrived on Monday morning via Peace Corps car, I am not in good enough shape to bike 40+ km (25 miles) to get there via bike, and was warmly greeted by CJ (one of my fellow Sangalkam people) and his family. Once Jess (another girl from Sangalkam)got there we started to settle in. We took a tour of the village, which took about 10 mins, and then we just hung around CJ’s hut. This was my first experience without running water or electricity. So when night came I pulled out my trusty headlamp (thanks Savario, it’s super bright!!!) and we settled down to have a delicious dinner. CJ’s family decided to kill a chicken that day so we had chicken and rice, which was cooked in the chicken broth, delicious!! My first night was interesting, CJ stayed at his brother’s place where the bed was made out of rice sacks and Jess and I stayed in CJ’s hut. Jess was nice enough to give me his bed while she slept on a mattress on the floor. It wasn’t bad until right before dawn when I was awoken by some creature either flying or scurrying around the hut. I will admit I was too afraid of what it might be to turn on the light and find out what it was so I just plugged me ears and hoped it wouldn’t attack me. Finally down came and I was relieved to see that I was still in one piece. For breakfast every morning, we had some type grain that had the consistency of couscous with spoiled milk and sugar on it, I would eat about 2 bites and then say I’m full. On the second day we had language classes that went all day. For dinner they made some type of sauce that if you add chicken to it would taste exactly like sweet and sour chicken!!!!
On the third day we decided to venture to the nearest shop, which was a 15 min bike ride. Now seeing as how I didn’t bring a bike I had to hop on the back of CJ’s while he tried to maneuver over hills and rocks. Once getting to the “shop” we sat down with the people there and enjoyed a lollipop. It wasn’t much of a shop because it was a shack on the side of the road that sold candy, powdered coffee and milk, and a few other things. On our way back we decided to stop at a stream and dip our feet in and enjoy the surrounding beauty (CJ lives at the base of a mountain). It was nice and peaceful but after about a half an hour we decided to head back. Seeing as how there was no way I was going to be able to sit on the back of CJ’s bike we decided to walk back, that helped us kill about 45 mins of the day. The reason that I couldn’t hop on the back of his bike again is because I had to sit on his luggage rack with my legs bent up so they wouldn’t drag on the ground, not the most comfortable thing and by the time we got to the shop my thighs were on fire!! Once getting back we just rested for the rest of the day. That night though at around 4am (I’m guesstimating) something ran into Jess’s face while she was sleeping on the floor. I woke to her yelling. From that point on I couldn’t really sleep. Luckily it was our last day and I got to come back to the city that afternoon. Also, our toilet/shower situation was less than ideal because CJ has a fence around the area but it goes up to about mid-torso, which it’s fine for a guy to stand in and take a shower but not really a woman, so I had the pleasure of having to squat while throwing water on myself and trying to lather up!! So all in all it was a very interesting experience, but I am very glad in my decision of telling the Peace Corps that I wanted an urban site.

To get to Touge you have to cross over the Gambia river. Here is the "raft" that takes us over.

The Peace Corps car on the raft crossing the Gambia river.

No oars needed on the raft, you just get out and help pull the rope to get across!!

The entrance to the village.

A view of the village. Told you it was small!!!

What does one do without electricity at night, why break out your headlamp and read, but remember to use the red light, helps keep the bugs away :)

Setting up Jessica's bed in CJ's hut. We improvised and used dental floss to hang it up!!

Here was my shower situation, fine for a man, not so great for a woman.