day 18-22

I seriously just had to look up on my phone what I have been doing for the past couple of days because somehow I cannot remember. Probably because nothing very interesting has happened xD.

Friday and Saturday were very relaxed days, I was not feeling very well so I took things slow. On Sunday I was feeling better, luckily, and we decided to go play football at the beach. Ella and me were the only dutch players, the rest of the teams consisted of Mariama, Haouwa, Mohammed, Yakuba and Yakuba and later on JJ joined us as well. It was a very hot day and after walking to the beach we were already sweating, so first we went for a swim in the ocean. Than we played football, it was very nice and everybody enjoyed it a lot. In the evening we walked back to the compound with all of us, it was a very fun day!

On Monday, Haouwa and I went to home visit some disabled children. This did not really go as planned because for some reason Jariatou’s parents were not home and neither was Fatoumata’s mother, so we were not able to do what we had planned to do. We walked home together and after that I went to the Turntable to eat lunch and do some groceries. It was a very long day because I had to walk and wait a lot, but it was useful. In the evening, Alhagie told us that he was invited to a wedding, he wanted us to join as well. He told us to be ready at 6, and so on 6 o’ clock we were all waiting for him at the gate of the compound. We could have known that he would arrive a few minutes before 7… we waited for him the whole hour and when he finally showed up it was too late for us to go the wedding, because dinner would be served in half an hour. So we decided to go after dinner. We all jumped in Alhagie’s car and he drove us to the wedding location. It was very crowded and the music was very very loud. Everybody was pushing and pulling to go through the gate but all the people made a path for us as soon as they saw Alhagie. I sometimes forget how popular he is. Anyways, the wedding itself turned out not to be a wedding as we know it. The official wedding happened 3 years ago, however it would be celebrated when the bride moves in with the groom. This usually takes up 2 to 3 years because the family of the bride has to buy all sorts of new things, for example a bed, a chair, kitchen tools etc. before the bride was able to move in with her love, and because every family in this area is so poor, they had to save up money for 2 years. BUT THEN, they needed another year to save money for the wedding party, because parties are always very over-the-top. Apparently status is very important, so everybody spends all their money on parties and nice accessories or clothes instead of food or a proper house (that is mainly why everybody is so poor). Anyways, the party was very over the top, the bride had at least 4 different dresses and she looked absolutely beautiful.

This morning I woke up with very heavy stomach ache again, this time it was so bad that I had to stay home from work. I have been having the urge to shave my head again for quite some time, and today I finally decided to do it. First I cut off most of it with a scissor and after that I shaved the little hairs off with my razorblade. It took me almost one and a half hours to get every hair shaved, but that is what you get when you are in Africa and they do not have any hair clippers…. Anyways I am very happy that I did it! I feel a lot more like myself right now, but I have to be careful that I do not get a sunstroke or anything like that. When I go outside I have to wear a cap or a shawl around my head, but that is fine because I do not feel any less beautiful while wearing them.

AND everybody  that knows I am bald again has asked me the same question: why? Well, first of all, because I wanted to :). Second of all, like I said, I feel a lot more like myself right now. I have the feeling that I respect myself more and I really like it that my personality is visible to the world right now. Because as you know, I am not some basic 18 year old girl, and I really felt like I was ever since my hair grew back to a “normal” length again. I tried to change it by colouring my hair, but in the end I ended up liking it even less than I originally did. And third of all, being bald is so amazing! It feels really nice and it saves up a lot of time on your daily routine and it is a lot less hot than having a big layer of hair on your head, which comes in handy because it is 34 degrees here in the Gambia :).

Before I let my love for my new haircut ruin the idea of this blog, I want to tell you some last things about my life here in the Gambia. First of all, WE HAVE A LITTLE CHRISTMASTREEE!!!!! Which is a really nice gift from Alhagie to us, even though the tree looks kind of disabled. I also want to say that it is only 13 days until Christmas and it is only 19 days until my mom arrives here in the Gambia. AND last of all, I just found out that there is a new volunteer arriving today, so I am very curious about that.

Have I forgotten anything…..

Yes!

I JUST FOUND OUT THAT THIS GAMBIAN WOMAN SAW MY SHAVED HEAD AND SHE SHAVED HERS TOO! OMG THAT IS AWESOME!