Helen la tuda (my name is Helen)

Salaam alecum. Nanga def? Mangi fi rek. Thanks to a few tips from another VSO on training, questioning of locals and my pacing practice I had a vague idea of some rudiments of Wolof. And of course I habitually try to be at the front of the class, rehearsing and doing home work (OK, chatting to my compound family), trying to get the best pronunciation. It's not purely the latent swot; people here love to chat to new faces and being able to reply in the local language makes me feel much more polite and secure and let's them know that I'm not a tourist. Especially when someone is helping me past some fighting dogs in the street or selling me an orange on the walk to the beach. I'm often met with cries of "oh, you're Gambian now" as well as pleased peals of laughter.

The old choral techniques come into play too; here they say "I hear 3 languages" rather than "I speak 3 languages", an interesting display of how a language can reveal that the culture faces towards the community not an individual. Your role is to hear others, not necessarily to speak over them. My teacher Awr (pronounced "our" and the Gambian version of Eve) is a national expert on Wolof and grammar, giving sentence construction advice as well as vocabulary and so forming a lasting foundation to my language; even if it does leave a homework task of learning all the pronouns (verbs aren't conjugated, instead pronouns shift to show changes in tense and ownership).

Alongside language, getting to know my fellow volunteers and making Gambian friends, getting to know my compound ("ker") family and making my home feel like mine is a top priority. Slowly ("ndanke", a word I use a lot!) I'm replacing my improvised suitcase bedside table and shelves (see photo) with woven Gambian wicker, thinking about putting up paintings and chasing the wildlife out of the kitchen. My flat mate Agnes, another VSO, has been away for a month so a few things moved in her absence but its hardly "Joe's Apartment" (old obscure film reference - look it up, there are singing cockroaches!). My most exciting purchase of the week were two pillows, pure luxury after a few days on a balled up jumper in a sheet. The pillows cost almost three days allowance but we get extra at the set up stage for such essentials. Luckily I also have the fabulous family upstairs to help, including showing me how to buy electricity which is a pre paid metre. Yesterday I was invited to eat with them, the tastiest food I've had so far with home cooked rice and fish benechin, a kind of tomato and onion stew. One to learn! There's very different sharing food habits here to the UK and I don't know if I got them all right. Often food is served in a shared bowl, which the family did, but Seikou gave me a separate plate and spoon, often done to host important guests. It was a great honour, and a favour I will return once I have practiced a little more bargaining in the market.

[written 15.3.13 and uploaded at my convenience.]

P.s. on 16th: after a morning scrubbing floor tiles and old dusty pans I was invited for lunch again, this time beef domoda (peanut sauce) and rice. Unusual and delicious but definitely need to make sure I walk a lot to cope with all this food!