Your house is full of scorpions. I am not your friend.

So for our final assessment before we would officially swear in as Peace Corps volunteers, we had to give a health presentation completely in Wolof to our village. Tiny did his presentation on wound care, Cassandra on pink eye (Every member of her family [all 32 of them!] had pink eye at some point during the 10 weeks we were there. They would pour sugar and egg into each other's eyes, but would they wash their hands with soap and water? nooooooooooooo). Adam built a handwashing station, and I did my presentation on environmental sanitation.

This glorious 10 minute presentation included information such as:
Do not let animals into your kitchen areas.
Do not let animals into your houses.
Clean up animal feces in compound area on a daily basis.
Keep pit latrines away from kitchen areas.
Throw old batteries in your pit latrines so children don't play with them and suck on them (I saw this).
Be sure to throw batteries in a pit latrine far away from the well.
And finally, sweep your house everyday.

I then went on to explain that if you do not sweep your house everyday (the Gambia is pretty dusty), you will get a cold, your house will be invaded by insects, and your friends will never visit you and will talk about you behind your back.

A topic such as sweeping deserves its own song and dance. So I made up a song, and my host mom, Mam Fatou, Sali and I performed it after my presentation. Please note that the song rhymes in Wolof. I feel that this is pretty remarkable given that I can only say random things like "that chicken wants to bite me" and "why don't you want to be my friend?".

Everyone grab a broom...
This is a repeat-after-me song.



nungee bale. *repeat* (we are sweeping)
fi ak fale. *repeat* (here and there)
balel bes bu neeka. *repeat* (sweep everyday)
wisel ndox njeka. *repeat* (sprinkle water first)

Chorus:
(shake your money-makaaaaa starting now)

ci borri. bale bale, bale bale (to the side. sweep sweep, sweep sweep)



ci ganaaw. bale bale, bale bale (to the back. sweep sweep, sweep sweep)



ci boori. bale bale, bale bale (to the side. sweep sweep, sweep sweep)



ci kanam. bale bale, bale bale (to the front. sweep sweep, sweep sweep)



nungee bale. *repeat* (we are sweeping)
fi ak fale. *repeat* (here and there)
bo balewutee. *repeat* (if you don't sweep)
dinga sexat be buga dee. *repeat* (you will cough until you want to die)

[Insert chorus]

nungee bale. *repeat* (we are sweeping)
fi ak fale. *repeat* (here and there)
ponda bi dafa meti. *repeat* (the dust is paining)
ken du la seeti. *repeat* (no one will come visit you)

[Insert chorus]

nungee bale. *repeat* (we are sweeping)
fi ak fale. *repeat* (here and there)
sa neeg fes na ak jit. *repeat* (your house is full of scorpions)
duma sa xarit. *repeat* (i am not your friend)

[Insert chorus]

Catchy? I think yes.

And this is a picture of Adam's handwashing station. I thought it was creative and I think Adam is nice.



You are also nice.