⎨Jawro⎬Day 16

We got to go visit a bush village today.

We drove about an hour outside the town on a dirt road to get to a small village. Actually, there wasn't even a road for part of the way. The boy that came with us to guide us there had us turn off the road at one point and told us to drive into what looked like the middle of nowhere. We drove around trees and bushes and weren't sure that he knew where he was taking us. 

Slowly, though, a road started to form and it took us to the village. We were greeted by a "grandma" whom Treven and Melanie knew from a time a few years ago when they stayed in this village for 10 days. She put down a big mat for us to sit on and have a visit. 

My initial observation of this village is that the kids seem more apprehensive about me. They don't sit close to me, and when I smile at them, they look away. I began to look for something I could start playing with, and these little fruit things kept falling from the tree above us. So I started playing with the stems and tying them in knots. During this time I kept trying to smile at the girls and soon a few of them came over and sat next to me. I "honked" their noses and they giggled. They showed me the little sticks that they all have in their noses as "piercings". The little girl in the below picture with the green head wrap started making eyes at me, and we began exchanging silly faces. Soon all the kids started smiling and giggling and we began communicating that way. 

At about that time a huge windstorm came up and was blowing dust everywhere. The people moved our mat inside a partially enclosed hut and we visited there some more. This time the boys sat next to me and I "honked" their noses too and they soon started talking to us and playing games with us.

The windstorm was getting worse so we were moved into one of the mud huts for a while until the storm calmed down. When we went back outside we took a few photos:

Impressive hey?

and played some games:

This is the same "jacks" game that I showed in a previous post. I tried it and they all laughed at me cause I'm not very good at it.

Everyone wants to be in the front of the picture! 

I think this guy was the "class clown"

We ended up staying here for lunch. Pretty much as soon as we arrived they went and killed a chicken for us to eat. We had that along with some millet Nyiiri and Haako.

After lunch we played a while longer and I tried to ask the kids to help me learn some of their language. It's really hard to try and explain something when you don't have any basis for each other's language. I would say something and they would all mimic me as though I was teaching them English. After several minutes of confusion they seemed to understand and started teaching me some words. They taught me how to count to 10 and say the parts of the face. It was also a struggle to communicate that I wanted to know their names. When they finally understood, they would say their names and then laugh at me when I attempted to say them back. A lot of the names are very similar to each other and are names that have no resemblance to English names. The only name I recognized was Yasmine.

At one point I started singing a few simple songs and everyone got really quiet just to listen. When I would finish they would ask for another song.

Near the end of the time, all the kids kept motioning to breasts and making sucking sounds. I was extremely confused and started feeling self-conscious, like they were asking me something about my body or commenting on my body. While I'm still not completely sure, I think what they were asking me is if I had any children. The way they ask that in this culture is to ask if a woman is nursing, which would make sense why the kids were motioning like that. I told them that I had no children (at least I think that's what I told them). In this culture a woman my age should have a few children already, so I think that it's kind of strange to them that I don't have children yet.

At the end of our time as we were leaving, the kids all ran after our car for several "blocks", grabbing onto the back of the car and waving after us. 

It was a great experience to see a small village like this. It's kind of hard to imagine that most of these kids will spend their whole lives in this little area. It's simple. It's secluded. It's such a different life than what I have. 

When we got back to town, Stephen went with Treven to the market and passed by this sign that I had wanted to get a picture of. Because it's funny. Stephen can tell the story...

So Treven and I had gone to pick up some fruit and we passed by a billboard that Carlin has wanted a picture of since we got here. I asked if we would pass by it on the way home and Treven said yes. When we passed by again I tried to take a picture of it from the car but it didn't work, so Treven pulled over and I said I would get out and go take a picture of it. Treven said that would be fine but to make sure I took the picture straight on the sign, because to the left was a police station (you are not allowed to take pictures of police officers or any government buildings here). I quickly ran over, took the picture and ran back to the car to discover it was locked and Treven wasn't there. I looked around and saw him talking to the police officers. Apparently they saw me and started pointing at me when I took the picture so Treven decided to go over and talk to them and explain. Everything was fine when he explained - no African jail for me. One of the officers even spoke a little English and said to me, "Welcome to Africa. We are not a rich country, but we are happy." 

The picture of the billboard that almost got Stephen arrested

(Back to Carlin) In the evening Treven and Melanie went out on a date and Stephen and I watched the kids. We brought along an ice cream "ball" that you fill with ice and salt and are able to make ice cream by shaking the ball around and playing with it to churn the ice cream. We had a lot of fun with that and the ice cream was so good! 

Blessings,

Carlin & Stephen

Tidbits:

- 33ºC with a windstorm in the village and a lot of rain in town. We actually got cold sleeping in the night!

- Stephen bought a hat to match his Boubou. He thinks he's going to wear it everyday. I think otherwise.

- Stephen and Treven bought some mangoes today. The man that they bought them from gave us a gift of peanuts as a sign of loyalty and to build the friendship. The culture here is one of give and take, and so vendors will often give gifts to customers in order to build that friendship. All relationships seem to work in this way. Coming from a North American mindset, this can appear that both parties are only friends because of what they can get from one another. Yet in this culture it is a sign of respect to give gifts and establish a connection this way.

- Stephen got to meet the chief of the village (only the men were able to go) and gave him a gift of tea and sugar. We tried some of the tea and it is very sweet! They really like their sugar.