It’s been about a month since I got dropped off in my village. Things have gone much better than I was expecting, to be honest. People really had me scared and expecting the worse, but I’ve had very few problems so far.
My village is completely beautiful. I have some pictures, but my camera battery died just before swear-in, so I don’t have any pictures of the village since I’ve been there. I’ll have some next time I get to a computer, which should be in about a month, inshallah. Anyway, it’s located on sand dunes, which are much lovelier than I ever thought they could be. There are lots of trees and also some mountains in the distance. Right now, there’s even a lake – seriously. It’s not much more than a really big puddle, but it’s big enough that I can go up to it and listen and hear the water lapping against the shore and it sounds like home. The village is 2 hours away from the road, so it’s pretty isolated, but what it lacks in amenities it makes up for in beauty. I think that when I’m not doing so well during my time here, just watching the sunset (or sunrise, since I wake up early enough to see that here) will go a long way in helping to make things better.
It’s currently Ramadan, which means that it’s the holiest time of the year and everyone’s fasting. This means no food or drink (or cigarettes or sex) from sunup to sundown. It’s really hot here, so I admire people here so much for being able to stick it through. I constantly down water and I know that I’m still dehydrated, so I don’t know how they manage to do it. At sunset, they break fast and drink big bowls of zrig, a sugary milk drink they make here, and eat dates, which are simply delicious. They also stay up really late, until about midnight or 1, eating, since they pretty much have to eat a full day’s worth of food from sundown until they go to sleep. I go to bed at 9:30, like a total baby – I don’t know how they manage to stay up so late! There’s no power, so after dinner I’m totally ready to go to sleep because I get annoyed with not being able to see or do anything. I guess I’ll adjust soon enough.
On the first night that my sitemate and I were there, 4 separate neighbors brought us big bowls of fresh milk – straight from the cow. In America, we might make cookies or something for new neighbors (if that, even), but being that there’s a lot less for people to offer here, they bring milk. We were completely blown away by the generosity, especially since 3 people brought us milk the next morning (and we hadn’t even been able to finish the milk from the previous night). This went on for a few days, and we kind of thought that it would stop, but it hasn’t yet. Every night, even if we’re already asleep, people come by and bring large bowls of warm, fresh milk to us. I feel really badly for my sitemate, because I can’t drink milk, so he has to drink a ton every day. I’m lactose intolerant, which I never imagined would be such an issue here. Seriously, though, it’s the number two thing people talk to me about (number one being why I’m single and don’t want a husband – clearly I’m nuts). Especially during the rainy season, when the cows have plenty of milk, people give you milk or zrig allll the time, and it’s nearly impossible to refuse just because you don’t want it. I made the decision to tell people that I can’t drink milk because it hurts my stomach (which whole milk does, especially in large quantities), and I never imagined it would be such an issue. People don’t understand that I don’t drink milk – it’s a totally foreign concept. They’ve finally accepted it, so I don’t have to explain it all the time, although it does come up when I meet anyone new. It’s really pretty amusing, but I feel really bad about it all the time!