Remember that time...

When I fell off a sharet in Africa?

Yea…so here’s a long story to explain the title of this entry…

So I know that I said I wouldn’t be back online for about 2.5 weeks and I only made it 1.5 weeks, but that’s because I’m currently in Kaolack, on PC Med’s orders, to stay here and rest after falling off a sharet. And since there’s not much to do in Kaolack outside of the market, eating, going to the internet, or lounging around the Regional House, I’m taking this as an opportunity to update my correspondence, lol.

Yea, so I fell off of a sharet. Now what is a sharet, you may ask? Well, in a way it’s the pickup truck of Africa, kind of a horse drawn cart of sorts. Think large wood planks attached together, balanced on two wheels, and pulled by either a horse or a donkey, usually will up to 6 people and their goods from the market, etc.

How did this happen, you may ask. Well, I had spent the entire day observing in town (not my village) at the Health Post and hanging out with the ICP (the nurse at the health post who is also one of my counterparts), her family (mainly Wolof speaking), and the nurse’s assistant (speaks Serere and impeccable French, so I get to practice both). For nearly two hours, I had been waiting for one of the women from my community who is in charge of the women’s group, we’ll call her Sally (obviously not her real name…) and had accompanied me into town to come around so we could go back to our village (bc people don’t yet allow me to come or go on my own…I’ll take it as a blessing until my language improves…). Every time that I tried to leave, they people around made me sit and wait. Well Sally finally shows up and we have to wait for a sharet to take us to our village (bc people think it’s crazy that I would want to walk 4km to our village, they make me wait for the sharet) for about half an hour. Well, the sharet comes by loaded with some members from my compound (of unknown relation in my host family…maybe with time I will figure that out) and a bunch of their stuff, but there was space for myself and Sally. I climb onto the middle spot on the left side, but am not fully seated (only halfway on, since there was a lot of stuff there). The driver kicks the horse into high-gear and I’m holding on tight, but we took a corner to fast and I was bounced off and onto the ground. Right before I fell off, Sally tells the driver to slow down, but it was too late. I landed hard on the ground, rolled, and smacked my chin really hard on the ground. I think I used my hands to soften the fall, but majorly scraped up my left elbow and knee, not to mention hit my head. It was quite the scene.

Trying to brush it all of, I stand up and walk back to the sharet and they put me at the front of it, where there’s a little more space. But before we can take off, one of my host sisters-in-law who was on the sharet too points out that my elbow is bleeding and I see there’s a bloodstained hole at the knee in my skirt and they insist I get cleaned up at the Poste de Sante (since we still hadn’t even made it out of town). That’s when I realize that in the fall, while my huge purse stayed on me, my glasses had been thrown but miraculously survived the fall (the transitions, virtually indestructible glasses were a great investment, Mom!). The driver found them and followed Sally and I to the Health Post as I called the PC Med Office (since we aren’t allowed to be treated by anyone except them except in emergency or with permission). We get to the Health Post and the nurse and assistant look at me, asking “Khady, what happened? Why are you back here so soon?” I should them my elbow and Sally explained what happened and I got to experience some free Senegalese first aid care of the assistant and I was off, having to get back on that sharet to get home.

During the ride back (much slower than usual, which was fine by me), the shock wore off and pain kicked in, in my left hand (where I broke my fall) and my head, and I fought tears off the rest of the way home. As we pulled into our village, Sally jumps off to go find my local counterpart (person pictured a few entries ago) as the sharet heads to my compound. I get off, fighting off tears and wanting to head straight to my room, but some of the older men from my compound are where the sharet stops (my host parents are on the other side of the tree) and call me out for not greeting them, so I turn, manage one greeting, burst into tears before I can get a response and head to my room, not even greeting my host parents or the rest of the family who are seated under a tree on the other side of the sharet. My counterpart and Sally are at my door in a matter of minutes to find out what happened and shortly after my host dad, the village chief comes to find out what happened. I’m crying, it’s an ordeal, and they are obviously very concerned (b/c it would look bad for such a new site to “break their Volunteer” within the first two weeks) and I felt bad that it became such an ordeal.

I spent the rest of the night sitting with my host sister and on the phone with PC Med, Etienne (our amazing Safety and Security guy), the CD, and the nearest volunteer to me. Med really wanted me to come to Dakar for xrays (since it was a head injury, though thankfully no concussion), but after they talked to the nearest volunteer and considering I didn’t yet know how to get to Dakar since I had only been to site for 9 days or so, they decided it would be ok for me to just come to Kaolack, see a pre-approved doctor at a private clinic, and rest here until Monday (3 day mandatory stay at the Regional House).

While thankfully nothing was broken, I’m still very cut up, bruised (pride and physically), and super sore back/neck like I had never felt before (esp when my major med cocktail didn’t do much of anything to curb the pain). I feel very blessed that people in my compound/village were so concerned and that they accompanied me back into town the next morning to head to Kaolack. My local counterpart even went to the Health Post to inform the nurse and I received text messages from the assistant yesterday inquiring about my health as well. I just feel a little ridiculous as I KNOW it will be the talk of several villages for months, if not longer (for serious…everyone saw and when you do something extraordinary as a foreigner here, everyone knows about it, good or bad), plus being away from my site during my first two weeks means I am missing some key integration and language practice time with my family, esp since I have to leave next week for a regional meeting for a few days as well. Oh well, it’s giving me a chance to get to know Kaolack a little more. And, Laura, a new Volunteer near me was kind enough to come up for the day today to hang out with me, which I really appreciate.