Tuubaab Tuubaab!!! 29-Jan-11

White person white person!!! My paradigm has shifted or begun to shift, whatever that means…. I’ve been in West Africa, specifically The Gambia, Africa’s smallest nation for ohhh 3 weeks.  It is amazing and strange and humbling and enlightening and depressing and uplifting and hard and easy all in one.  I arrived with about 30 other tuubaabs as we now refer to ourselves- tuubabo is not a derogatory word, it just means white person and when in West Africa if you are Caucasian you are a tuubab and always will be.  The difference for us Tuubabo’s is that we are learning the local langauage(s), this distinguishes us as Peace Corps Trainees (PCT’s) and soon to be PCV’s because every other Tuubab is either a tourist (commonly female sex tourists from Europe) or from NGO’s in Europe and America.  These people most often do not know the language and tend to come quick through villages handing out candy, clothes, medicine, etc. Learning the language is critical to our success in PC and our ability to integrate and function in Gambian society as their equals.  Nonetheless, being a Tuubaab comes with the glory of d-list stardom and a posse of children everywhere you go and with everything you do.  Villages are like oasis in sub-Saharan sand dune land- we roll around in PC land rovers and every child within 300 yards runs our from their house to wave at us and shout “hello” “what is your name” (they don’t necessarily know what this means just how to say it over and over) and as I gaze out the window at them the reality of where I am remains ever present.

            Speaking of children- Gambia is ranked something like 19^th in the world for % of population under the age of 10 or something like that. Ie: there are A LOT of kids here. It’s like Lord of the Flies times 10000000.  The kids are their own rulers for the most part.  Once able to walk they join the other “dingdings” (children in Mandinka) in everyday life of: eating oranges (currently in season) chasing chickens, playing in dirt with old bike wheels and trash, chasing Tuubabs, beating each other up and when called upon by their mother or grandmother they carry water or other babies around.  5 year olds take care of 4 year olds take care of 3 year olds and so on.  It is NUTS.  I’ve been doing chores with them, ie: carrying my water (that I then have to filter and bleach b/c I am a Tuubab in W Africa and can’t drink the water without being glued to the toilet after), washing my clothes in a bucket (not really sure if this cleans them but mentally it does)  Going to the garden with my host sisters to water their plants (ie hauling water up a well to no end and pretending like it doesn’t make me tired b/c the 8 year old at the next well is kicking my ass).  And Tooroo- pounding grain with a full body stand up mortar and pestle.  Basically we work out all day to feed, and clean ourselves and do it over again the next day.  And by we I mean my sisters: Fatou Bintou (27ish who I’m named after) and Mariama (19).  Fatou has 2 dingdings (kids, remember?) and her husband died so she moved back home.  She does most of the cooking and cleaning and is a real tough broad with a really soft heart, she is not much of a discipliner from what I can tell- she leaves this to her mother.  Mariama is 19 but doesn’t act like a teenager in that she is very responsible, helps with all the chores is ridiculously strong and speaks some English (ie translates for me and helps me learn Mandinka).  They are great and I’m very lucky because from what the other trainees tell me I have it pretty good in my host compound.  Other than Fatou’s 2 kids there are about 4 other children who reside and eat with our family- Gambian families rely heavily on each other- so much that brothers and sisters give their kids to each other to take of, and not for a week or so, but for rearing, the long haul- 2,3,4,5 years, whatever it takes.  I’ve been learning a lot from my family and the reality of living in a developing nation amongst people who live on less than a dollar a day is setting in.  It is dry season right now which means small gardens provide the bulk of food and income.  The animals (goats, chickens, donkeys) all roam freely as well making for what initially seems like total chaos- I don’t just mean a few here and there either, I’m talking hundreds if not thousands of each.  The roosters crow all day starting around 4am and then the mosque starts prayer call around 545 am.  This loudspeaker prayer call (there are several per village) then becomes competition for the 50 roosters in its vicinity.  As you can imagine this leads to complete chaos predawn.  Or so it seemed in the beginning, it is gradually becoming an afterthought but wow it was strange at first.  So then the sleepy villages begin to rise and babies cry and goats cry and donkey’s call each other for sex (all the time every day) and life in West Africa goes on accordingly. 

In addition to language and culture we’ve been getting training on gardening and the environment in Gambia as well as a boatload of shots, malaria pills, vitamins, and safety training.  We are well taken care of, the Gambian PC trainers are wonderful people who really believe in PC’s mission and they are thrilled to be a part of it, thus making PCTG (peace corps the Gambia) successful for over 40 years.

            As you may imagine futbol is a driving force here-the boys are always playing in one of the 5 fields in our village.  And by field I mean futbol field sized sand box.  Gambians don’t have much in terms of material goods but they are REALLY resourceful and will use things until they disintegrate.  Anyway back to futbol- today, the same boy usually bringing supplies via donkey around the village was setting up a satellite in order to watch the Barcelona vs Hurcules match in their hut with a generator.  Yea. Nuf said. We got our warm orange fanta (soda) and 5 dalasi and watched it with them, the first tv I’ve seen in 3 weeks. It was awesome.  Dalasi are the form of money here and its about 27 dalasi to the dollar so it cost like 10 cents to watch the game.  Speaking of warm Fanta- our standards for food are REALLY low these days, rice and peanuts are staples here so anything besides those 2 things are luxury.  So on that note feel free to send a little care package, the cheapest way is probably to stuff the smallest sized USPS priority mail box with any dried good you can think of from trader joes or that you made or candy, candy is gooooooddd, or spices that I can cook with, ANYTHING will doJ. (desperate? Haha)

Nicole Hackman, PCT
c/o US Peace Corps, The Gambia
PO Box 582
Banjul, The Gambia
West Africa

I learned I will be working in Baboon National Forest in the Central River Region of the Gambia, this is one of the largest forests in the Gambia and I can’t wait but I don’t know the details yet. When I learn them I will share more. Look it up though, sounds great to me!

      Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more from Tuubab land and the adventures of Fatou Bintou in The Gambia, West Africa.