Eau de deet

This blogging business is hard work, I'm so tired and worn out  from the climate, training, lack of sleep and bugs that it is just too much effort to post.

So what is eau de deet I hear you ask? It is the delightful new cologne being launched soon by your favourite NGO, as currently sported by all the coolest VSO's and by me also! :)

Deet is the  lovely chemical that send bugs of several kinds screaming in fear from you, apparently.
It has a memorable smell that is not too unpleasant, to some of us it is even getting kinda comforting...

I spray oodles of the stuff over me every morning, and hope that it means I will not be bitten that day, but unfortunately I am still averaging 3 or 4 bites a day at a guess. Most of my first week bites have been reduced to small scabs or scars, but I have more than enough new bites to make up for it. (Note: I also spray myself in the afternoon  and / or evening, and sleep under a mosquito net, in a house with screens on every window and door.)

So what have I been up to in the last week and a bit?

I've been doing lots of Mandinka training, so I can just about ask for a loaf of bread in the market, with some patience required on the part of the trader mind.

I also went to the village of Ndemban in the South bank on the edge of the central river region, so about an hour and a bit drive from us.

We were met by a welcoming committee of local village ladies who had dressed in their finest and sang and danced while leading us to the local lower basic school (~ primary school), I was spotted as a natural talent and asked (dragged screaming0 to joinn them in the dance. We then had more dancing and a meeting of the village elders and the VDC (village development council).

We had a long round of introductions and then a Q & A session. It was great to hear what some of the village had been working on to try and improve their lot. We then had an opportunity to view two of the projects the VDC had been working on, a hostel had been built  for tourists to stay at in order to visit the local wetlands, some boats had been procured for this too. And some land had been converted to gardens to grow more cash crops to help the village finances.

We then had lunch, which we were supposed to eat with our hands but most of us ended up using a spoon,  we had a choice of 3 dishes, Domada (a rice based dish of meat in a peanut sauce), a fish flavoured millet dish, and a rice dish with irish potatoes, sour tomatoes and some kind of meat as topping.
This was washed down with the ever plentiful Coca Cola... (I'm drinking more of the stuff out here in a week than a couple of months back home.)

Once this was done we had another meeting with the VDC, then another dance where we all had to join in, needless to say I was called upon twice...

We then made our way home after a great but slightly long day. The villages made a special effort to welcome us and most of us were quite emotional leaving them.

Thee children as evidenced by my pictures (mainly on facebook), loved having their photo taken, and all of us were adopted by at least two children, these adoptees held our hands and generally tried to keep as close to us as possible. They asked questions if old enough, and held on tight to any empty plastic bottles we gave them as if prized possessions.