The internet has been down for several days and I was really becoming anxious to check my email. I felt a little out of the loop with everyone back home. I have been keeping up with my journal entries so I'll copy down a few to share.
March 15th 7 pm
Today has been an emotional roller coaster. I have gone from a feeling of intense frustration over spending an entire week out of the hospital to the feeling of satisfaction with making new connections with people.
We left Saboba this morning to travel to a nearby village. We met 2 community nurses, Vivian and Polliana. The community nurses will visit the village every few weeks in order to give vaccinations and weigh the babies. They also give very limited medical care. A community nurse has 1 year of training in nursing school. Nikki and I spent the morning sitting on a bench watching the nurses work; I think we were a main form of entertainment. The children are fascinated, curious, and a little afraid of our white skin. It took a couple of hours for many of them to come within a foot of us. The locals have told me repeatedly that I am very white. They tease that we are easy to spot in the dark. Since I wasn't able to be of help to the nurses, I have a lot of time to notice the town and people. The village is very isolated. The "road" into town is a patch for motos (motorcycles). All of the buildings were circular huts made of dung, mud, or concrete with thatched roofs. The huts are built in a circle connected by a wall of thatched grass or mud. In one part of the wall it juts out and this portion is the outhouse. I have yet to go inside a hut, but I'm curious to see what they look like. When we visit a home the people will place plastic lawn chairs in the courtyard for us to sit. These compounds are not just for one family, but also for several members of the extended family.
While I was observing the town, the nurses were busily weighing babies and giving vaccines. The women sew fabric slings that are able to hang from a hook. They place their babies in the sling and attach the sling to a hooked scale that resembles a vegetable scale at the supermarket. It took several hours to weigh and vaccinate the babies and soon it was time to eat. A couple of the village women made lunch for us. Now to the really good part...
Lunch was served in 4 pots.
Pot 1 - Fufu - crushed yeams. This was eaten by rolling the dough in your palm to form a ball
Pot 2 - unknown sauce - it had a fish that was smothered in sauce. This is what we dipped the fufu in
Pot 3 - Tizeetizee (just spelling how I hear it) - crushed maize that is also rolled into a ball.
Pot 4 - Ayoyo - crushed leaves of some type that reminded me of spinache. It was really slimy like boiled okra. My family at home knows how much I despise boiled okra but I surprisingly like the tast of this dish.
As I was eating Vivian asked if I like the food. I said that I did. The girls started to laugh and Poliana reached into the pot and pulled out a RAT! This rat was complete with the head and tail! I was so shocked that I just started laughing. It was so ridiculous to me that anyone would cook a rat. Poliana offered me the rat. So I tore off its little leg and pulled the meat off. The meat had a strong tangy taste. I had no choice but to eat it because the local women were watching us. One of the women in the group made the sauce and I didn't want to offend her. It is amazing what a person will eat so they won't offend someone. Once I got past the thought of it being a rat, it was good. Nikki was too busy laughing and taking photos of my shocked face to try the rat.
Later this evening Nikki and I went for a walk through Saboba. In the evenings the town is buzzing with activity. People are sitting in front of their shops visiting or going to fetch water. We stopped several times to visit. I'll write more about the town later...
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