Moudawa

 

bedroom closet and window

 

scary bathroom, its next to my bedroom, but I don't use it

 

some kids helping me harvest Sesbania sesban seeds in the living room

 

the "backyard", also to the left is my preferred bathroom

I finally made it!  I am a Peace Corps volunteer and I have been living in Moudawa for a week now.  I will live there and work in Mouda and Gazal.  Moudawa is a small village, about 850 people.  Its mostly the Guiziga people that live there and that is also the language most people speak in the area.  

 

 

 

 

When I first headed out to the village, I wasn’t sure exactly where the house was or who had my key.  When we reached the village, we asked a group of kids and they got really excited and pointed the way.  When we got out of the car there was a crowd of people around the car, smiling and staring.  An older man with thick glasses and a large hat came up to me waving a key.  I walked with him into the house and when I turned around there was a train of kids carrying all my things into the house.  They started helping me clean and cleaned my water jug and went and filled it up.  All of this without me mentioning anything.  It really hasn’t stopped yet.  If they see me start to do anything, go for water, dig a compost pit, harvest seeds, sweep the floor, they immediately take over.  Smiling and laughing the whole time.  Mostly its been a handful of girls that have been around the most.  They only speak a little bit of French and so we mostly communicate with hand motions and laughter.  Guiziga is a really fast language that includes a lot of noises that don’t sounds like words at all.  Its going to be a difficult language to learn, but if I want to have any friends, its a little bit necessary.  There are a few people who speak French, but they are mostly men.  There is one woman named Esther that speaks French and she is wonderful!  I think she was really close to the last volunteer that was here because she seems to anticipate a lot of things that I need.  I have walked around the village with her a few times and she has introduced me to a lot of people. I went with her and her son to the market in Salak (about 30 min away) on Saturday.  She made sure I didn’t pay too much for anything and that I got home with all of my things.  Her son Badah (I think maybe 15?), is really helpful too.  He rode my bike while I took the car from Mouda and he thought it was so cool.  ”Grand merci madam! Votre velo est magnifique!”  He likes to play cards and he and some of his friends came over and played cards for about 2 hrs yesterday.  I also went to church yesterday and the structure was pretty similar to my church in New Home.  But that’s the only similarity.  The service was in Guiziga (although, the pastor did pray once in French).  The building is small and has concrete benches really low to the ground.  The women mostly sat on the left and they stood up to sing, almost all with babies strapped to their back.  The singing was a little bit difficult to follow, but the harmony was beautiful.  Singing is everywhere!  At night I can hear people singing to the beat of drums until about 10 or 11 every night (if I am up that late).  There is so much more to write, but I will save it for later posts.  I love all of you and miss you!  Enjoy the cold weather and the Christmas decorations, that’s what I miss most right now!