There are many differences between the 'bush' and the 'city.' Many of them are differentiated by labels such as 'development,' 'civilization,' 'location of food,' 'the beach,' 'rice only,' 'dirty,' bucket showers,' 'showers,' 'pit latrines ' 'taxi,' or 'horse/donkey carts.' In the peace corps world at large the most commonly used terms are 'posh corps,' and 'peace corps.' Now these are pretty easy distinctions. Posh describes a PCV who lives with amenities, such as, electricity, running water, television, easy access to resources, bottom line the basic comforts of development. Although, to be posh, you usually have to have several of the previously mentioned to count, there are many volunteers who might have only electricity at only certain times of the day while still living in the bush, while this is a luxury, they most likely would not be described as posh posts. While a 'bush' volunteer has none of the previously described. There are benefits and disadvantages to each, living in the bush, you know everyone and everyone knows you, there is a less likelihood of theft, much like a small town in America, there is an element of comfort and security that the rural provides...there are thoughts that if anything serious happened to me my village would run a trial like old times or just go off on whoever had caused me harm...what i'm trying to say is that the village protects their own. If you live in a more developed area, a volunteer would tend to get 'toubabed' more often, there are challenges such as tourist season, a warping, imitation and misunderstanding of western cultures which makes communication much more difficult, a exception of because you are white you are rich and thus must give me minti's or money like the tourists do, and a limited wide-spread knowledge of peace corps and its objectives. A bush volunteer would have to carry water for all of their needs, cooking, cleaning, laundry, showering, and ...you're screwed if you run out of water in the middle of a shower or heaven forbid in the middle of a bathroom break...believe me i've done it...but i'm terrible at keeping water in my house. You also have to power all of your movements, and by that I mean many times the only way to get somewhere is walking or biking, there are no opportunities for taxis, but hey if your really in trouble make sure you become friends with someone with a horse or donkey cart so they can get your butt to the road. To get food in the bush, I bike 14 k round trip to a weekly market where I can buy beans, spaghetti, soap, fish(?), seasonal vegetables, second hand clothes like piles of salvation army, which are really fun to look through, soda, milk, coffee, peanut butter, and pasta for the majority of what I buy. In village, I hope that the bitik is open, and I hope that they have bread! At the bitik you can buy tomato paste, onions, garlic, small bags of pasta, mayo, margarine, chocolate sauce, sugar, attaya, oil, candles, cans of condensed or evaporated milk...but just remember that they might not have these things. Larger bitiks have more than smaller bitiks, there is a large bitik 2 k away from me that sometimes has eggs!! So with these things you become really inventive, garlic bread from a frying pan, bean soup, spaghetti sauce from tomato paste, onions, and garlic. When I head into the city, I try to make sure my bag is as empty as possible so I can load up on foods and bring them back home with me.
To get work done, I'm actually pretty lucky in that I have a NGO 14 k trip away which has a generator and get this...wifi, so I can plug in and do grant work...which is where I am right now. But its not as easy as that. For example, one NGO has solar which is FANTASTIC, but if I need to go online I have to use my internet stick which costs do add up fast. The second NGO has a generator but most of the time its broken. So this is how my trips to use power usually go, I bike from home to town, trying to remember to bring water..because the bitiks in town are weirdly always out of water bags and I don't really want to drink the tap water. In town, I check out the NGO situation. ok...so more detailed this is how my morning went. I did remember water, I show up to town really wanted to finish the garden grant I'm working on. One NGO has decided to take the day off because its Tuesday and why not stay home. The second NGO's generator is broken but they tell me that they are working on it...which in Gambia could mean it will be ready sometime today or maybe sometime next week. No one has come to work yet and its 10:30. So I sit...and I wait. And I get frustrated, so at around 11:30 knowing that I have a fully charged computer from the last time I was at an NGO, I head into the backyard and sit down on the cement, turning on my computer hoping to at least get some work done before the battery dies. I have already hand written essay questions and discussed the detailed budget with my counterpart, so I transfer information from my notebook to the computer. Everyone walking around laughs at the weird white girl who sits around doing work instead of just waiting for the generator. Then at 12:30 they have miraculously fixed the generator and I quickly plug into the power. Like I said before I am actually really lucky to have close by access to power, not many volunteers have that opportunity.
I don't know exactly where I'm headed with this whole blog post except that yeah, things can be really difficult and the basics of living like water supply and access and availability to food are limited at times. (water taps being on of only certain times of the day) And if your lucky enough to have some larger populations nearby you might get an NGO that will let you sit and take advantage of their amenities. In the beginning basics of living were a novelty, like ohh look at me I'm living in Africa in a mud hut and image if my friends could see me carrying water on my head. Then feelings shifted to f-this, there are cockroaches that crawl into my hut and carrying water is a bitch. Emotions have changed recently to, whats the ruffling sound inside of my hut at 2am.. cockroach...grab the nearest shoe..bye cockroach, and hey mom is the water on at the tap yet?...ok water time because i'm thirsty. The novelty is gone, the period of fighting it is over, and now its just life. Yes, I live in Africa, yes its hot, the basics of living are somehow difficult, there are days that the daydreams of life in America are constant, but I fight to stay mentally here, because I want this, I asked for this, and I'm not going anywhere.
As we approach the one year mark, I set goals for the next year, what I want to get done for my home-people, what I want to personally accomplish, and where I want to head next. But for now, its all about living and working in a rural African village where I see my siblings growing up so quickly and get teary at the thought of leaving all of this behind. After all, when else am I going to have to carry at least 24 L of water everyday.
