First of all, please forgive me for attempting to condense 2 very intense months together. Hopefully as I get used to everything I will be better at blogging, and can flesh my posts out a little more. So after we spent the first week getting oriented in the city, we were told which language we would be focusing on and were split up into training villages. I'm a WOLOF: The best language (though I'm partial), because it's used throughout the country. It is the business and transportation language, so anytime I'm shopping or traveling, they will speak Wolof. Also, if there is a Fula and a Mandinka village next to each other (the other 2 languages my training group is learning), they will speak Wolof to each other. My language also determined my village, and myself and 6 others were assigned to Sara Samba. Each of us stayed with a different host family (including our teachers, called LCFs {language and cultural facilitators})
Brian, Beth, Jeremy, Lindsey, Mallory, and Wells were with me in Sare Samba (check facebook for more pictures). Also, my teachers Haddy and Gibril. So after driving for what seemed like miles down dusty, sandy roads, we arrived. We were swarmed by children and Haddy called out whose family was whose. Two small girls came forward when they were called and proceeded to carry my two 40 pd. bags on their heads. I was amazed. So then I followed them to my compound, and they took me to my adorable little house:
Now this may look tiny, but I lucked out and got what we called the Ritz Carlton of Sara Samba, because not only is it the cutest house you've ever seen, but it had a relatively big backyard, and was in very good shape. I totally lucked out.
At this point my little sister offered me attaya, which is green tea loaded with sugar, given in tiny glasses, served hot. I proceeded to drink 3, as it is very delicious. Then my moms came home from the farm (peanut fields behind the village, where they harvest groundnuts to sell) and at first I was extremely intimidated, not knowing anything in Wolof except 'peace be with you' and 'how is the afternoon' but we did enough gesturing to where we understood one another, and we warmed up quite fast. I say 'moms' because I had 2. The Gambia is polygamous, so a man can have as many as 4 wives at a time. My moms were named Ramatta Mbay and Maram Seka. I also had 2 little sisters (Haddy, 10 and Sohona,12) and a little brother (Lye, 13). My host dad was named Babu and I also had 2 cousins living in the compound with us, Alaji and Fafa Fal (best name ever). The whole family was amazing, and I came to really adore them before we had to leave. (We only stayed in the training villages for about 6 weeks, and traveled to other places while we were there, so essentially we were only in village with them for about 1 month or less).
Some highlights from Sara Samba:
Our naming ceremony (Ngente in Wolof): 
This is a ceremony we had so we could get Gambian names. This is a good idea because although I love listening to Gambians try and pronounce 'Devin' (sounds like Deweben or some version thereof), it is much easier on the ears to have a Gambian name, and it also helps with our integration into the communities. When small children see white people, they shout "toubab"- not necessarily an insult, but having a Gambian name helps to avoid the practice. Usually we are named after someone in our host family. I got the name Xadi Njaay (pronouced Haddy- after my littlest sister). Beth was Fana Touray (Gambians call each other by their full name, because they are all named after each other, so in a village you will have 20 Fanas and 12 Haddys), Mallory was Adam Sinyaan, Lindsey - Ramatta Ngalan, Wells - Ali Seesay, Jeremy - Mohammed Seesay, and Brian - Katim Touray). There was dancing and drumming and the night before we had made benyays (pankettas, basically flour and sugar balls dropped in oil- delicious). All in all, a great time. Other people from the village came to watch, and from then on, anywhere you went in the village, everyone knew your name.
My Birthday!!:
About a week and a half after arriving in Sara Samba, it was my birthday. I realized that both Fana (Beth) and Mohammed (Jeremy) had both brought guitars, so I invited them over to play for my family. All of the other trainees came with their families, and I set up my headlamp as a spotlight in the middle of my compound. We all gathered around to watch Fana and Mohammed play, only to realize that Fana only plays classical, and Mohammed brought a ukalaley, and neither knew how to tune a guitar. So then I pulled out my radio, which did nothing for the excitement factor. Not a good start to my party. Haddy was there, so I asked her what we could do to liven things up - we were getting desperate. So she talked to my moms and next thing I know, out come the buckets. We got Adam's sisters to be drummers, and started up the most kick ass dancing circle ever (atleast that we had seen at this point - they only got more intense after that). Followed by more pankettas and juice, it turned out to be a splendid evening.
As you can tell by Ali's (Wells') dancing. They ate this up!
