It's interesting how everyone's Peace Corps experience differs from one another.....
Even down to same sites, everyone has a different viewpoint. Michael and I are both assigned to Lunsar since it is a large town and we are at different schools. I'm only a 10min quick walk to his place but our difference in gender has made him see another side of Sierra Leone........the Salone "man" culture.
Last night, I went over to Micheal's place and had a romantic dinner for two by candlelight, haha! We shared a plate of seasoned dry gari (dried & milled cassava) topped with a can of baked beans that was heated on his kerosene stove, lol. We then headed over to our local watering hole, "College", which is a palava hut located behind his water pump.
I was going to finally get a tiny glimpse of the Salone "man culture". As I approached this low-lying thatched roof palava hut, I hear men heartily laughing. I enter and walk into this cloud of cigarette smoke and sit on one of the benches along the circular wall of sticks. The hut is filled with men drinking poyo (palm wine) and discussing anything.....mostly nothing, clearly people have been indulging a bit. To my right, there is an old woman filtering the poyo into used 1.5L water bottles. I go grab a cup in the bucket of water outside, ok I admit, not being very smart about cholera at this moment, lol. So we grab a bottle of poyo for Le1000 (20 cents) and just sit back, drink, & relax.
The poyo tasted pretty good but, it was "polluted". We usually call it polluted when it's been diluted with water and sugar is added, it loses it's potency and probably has the alcoholic consistency of half of a wine cooler. You usually want to find a good source of poyo where it is "From God To Man", a saying used here which means, directly straight from the palm tree without being diluted with water.
I introduced myself as Yekia Kabia, my Temne name, everyone always gets a kick out of it so it's a good ice breaker. This man across from me kept insisting in Temne that I was his "wathebera" (woman) and that we were going to get married, he was going to win a TV, and I was going to take him to America, lol, ums, ya sure.......Lay off the palm, buddy, haha.
I also met one of my co-workers who was talking cray-cray stories that made absolutely no sense whatsoever on how palm wine gets stronger in potency b/c the Limba man who tapped the tree took the day off and rested.......wtf, lol. I'm just here to enjoy the show, haha.
They were passing around a packet of ORS (Oral Hydration Salts) and putting it into their bottle of poyo, convinced that it will increase its potency. ORSs is used to hydrate your body when you get cholera or malaria, lol. The guy next to me said it was just to give the poyo "a little more love". Dear god, this place is ridiculous, haha.
I can't judge, they were just having a good time after a long day of work. I was just one of the sober ones in the room is all, lol. It was an interesting peek into the man culture here. Michael was brought there by his male teacher friend and culturally, women shouldn't frequent those places. It was a good way to observe and listen to alot of Temne. I don't want the town to perceive me in the same light as they probably do about the one woman I saw in the corner smoking, drinking straight from the bottle, and swaying back & forth all over the palava hut and cackling like a madman.
So ya.....I went to "COLLEGE" the other night and I definitely learned some stuff, lol.
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