Thursday, December 27, 2007

Luckily, I've finally managed to post this picture of my family. It's only taken 3 trips to the internet cafe and over 2 1/2 hours of waiting for it to upload! But here it is... my Merry Christmas picture from Fatoto...

Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Eve

Saalam Malaekum and Merry Christmas! Well, school is done for the first term and we are on break now for Tobaski and Christmas. Tobaski is a Muslim holiday… it was celebrated on the 20th of December this year… sometimes the dates change, depending on how they see the moon. I still haven’t quite figured out what it is they are looking for at the moon when they determine the date. It was the same thing for Ramadan. Some people said the holiday began on Thursday, and others said Friday. Then, it seemed as if everyone was going to celebrate it on Friday… then it changed again to Thursday. But really, the celebrations continued from Thursday to about Saturday or Sunday… so who knows? It’s like many things here. You just have to shrug your shoulders and go along with it. As much as I like to question things and constantly ask “why is it this way?” (I am a teacher, after all), I’ve learned since I’ve been in Africa that some things just are as they are…

For Tobaski, just about every family slaughters a Ram, and we eat almost nothing but lamb meat for at least three days. I have a picture of my family slaughtering the ram, but I’m not sure if it would be appropriate to post it online… They used my knife to slaughter it, and then laughed at the posture I assumed to observe the initial process. I was laying on the bantaba (which is a raised platform in the middle of the compound), my arms were stretched out beyond my face, and I was peering over them like a small child watching something she’s not supposed to see… they said “Maimuna na susi!”, which means “Maimuna is scared!” I told them I just didn’t like to watch the actual death of the animal… but I still watched, and then I even helped them to skin it and remove the meat. After the ram had been dead for a while, I had no problem with the rest of the process… in fact, I was able to conduct a short anatomy lesson with my brother and his son… We took out the lungs and the heart and I explained the structures, cut the heart open to show the different chambers, etc… they were interested. And then we all proceeded to eat as much meat in as many different ways as we could for the next two days. My brother cooked a delicious stew with some of the vegetables that I had bought in Basse… carrots, potatoes, cabbage, onion… it was delicious. I made spaghetti with meat sauce. I cooked the whole meal over an open fire, and used whatever seasonings I could find, along with a tomato sauce seasoning packet that my family sent me (thanks mom and dad!). We also ate plain meat grilled over hot coals, as well as several different African dishes with meat… let me tell you, it was a lot of meat. But it was a nice break from fish, which is about all they eat, usually.

The next day, I took out all of the Christmas decorations that my family sent me (which arrived just in time, by the way). My parents sent a small Christmas tree with little ornaments, a Christmas penguin (of course, anyone who knows my mother knows that the penguin is a necessary Christmas figure… even in Africa!), and a small nativity scene. I taught the children in my compound how to decorate the Christmas tree and let them go to town with it. My uncle mailed me some candy canes (among many other wonderful gifts too… thanks Uncle Dave and Sally!!!). I shared most of these with my family. Then I had fun taking pictures of my family and neighbors with the various Christmas items. It was fun, and a great opportunity to teach them about Christmas. We talked about the nativity scene. They know all about Jesus and Mary… they learn about them in the Koran, but it’s a very different version of the story than what is told in the bible. And the names are slightly different. Jesus is Essa, and Mary is Mariama.

Then I packed up all of my Christmas items, along with my mandolin and another bag of clothes and school things, and tied everything to the back of my bike on Saturday morning for the 42 km ride to Basse for Christmas and New Years. Liza took a picture of my when I arrived. I had to laugh at myself… even in Africa, I somehow manage to travel with too much stuff for Christmas! I’m hoping to try to post the picture with this blog. We’ll see if the computers in Basse will allow me to do this or not.

Christmas is tomorrow, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. The temperature has increased in the past few days, and I’m pretty sure it’s been at least 100 F during the afternoon since at least Friday. The temperature in my hut the other morning was 95… I really hope this doesn’t mean that the wonderful “cold season” is already coming to an end. It only lasted a few weeks! So here I am, in tank tops and sandals, preparing for our Christmas celebration tomorrow. Something about it just doesn’t fell right (well, many things about it, really…)

One of the URD Peace Corps volunteers, Dan, has got it in his head that we need to cook a Terdukin for Christmas this year… I’m not sure that I spelled that correctly, but it’s when you put a chicken inside of a duck, inside of a turkey… he came up with this idea a while back, which we all said, “sure, let’s try it!”, but there’s several potential problems. First of all, Turkeys in the Gambia??? Second of all, no on in Basse has a true oven. We are going to “borrow” the oven of one of the local restaurants, but it’s the same kind of oven they use to cook bread in. It’s a huge brick oven that you heat for several hours by lighting a wood fire inside. Then, when you are ready, you spread the coals and put the items you want to bake inside of it. There’s no way to tell what temperature the oven is, or how long it will stay that way… nonetheless Dan has made almost all of the arrangements. He somehow found a turkey (raised by Peace Corps Volunteers), which he brought to Basse yesterday on the back of his bike. Unfortunately, he’s grown attached to the turkey now, and has named it “beast.” I hope he’ll be ok when we have to slaughter it… Alex, another PCV in the URD (that’s Upper River Division), has brought a duck to Basse (ducks, once again, have been introduced to The Gambia by Peace Corps Volunteers), and now we just need to find a chicken… but that shouldn’t be difficult. Chickens are all over the place here. Tonight, we will probably begin the process by killing the birds and plucking the feathers… then, we’ll begin cooking tomorrow. There should be about 20 of us here for the festivities. This includes 3 VSO volunteers (the UK’s version of the Peace Corps), and one catholic nun. We’ve just been gathering all the Toubabs we can find!

I have much more to report later, but for now, I should probably get to the market to buy some items for the things I’ll be contributing… It seems I’ve been put on pumpkin duty again. But this time, I won’t be making pumpkin pie. I’m going to do something different… I’ll just have to see what kind of ingredients I can find. So I’ll be writing again very soon… but for now… Merry Christmas!!!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Thoughts and Reflections

Unlike my usual blog entries, which are usually about my day-to-day routines (which lately, includes lots of food talk!), this one goes into some thoughts and reflections... the good and the bad. The following entry expresses my opinions alone and does not represent the opinions of the Peace Corps...

Now that I am “settled in” to life in Fatoto, I have finally had the opportunity to analyze my feelings a little regarding the people of The Gambia and my role here as a Peace Corps volunteer. It is a strange position to be in, because the Peace Corps does an excellent job of integrating us into the culture and communities that we will be a part of for two years of our lives. However, no matter how well I learn language, no matter how familiar I become with local customs, traditions and religious beliefs and practices, no matter how close I become to members of my family and of my community… I never have been and never will be a true “Gambian.” And while that fact may seem to be an obvious statement, its impact on my life here is tremendous. I often sit and watch my sister, Amin, when she is with her good friends. I find myself envious of those friendships because it is just a friendship between two Gambians. Neither friend is viewed as more privileged than the other, and therefore there are no expectations other than friendship between them. The color of my skin is a symbol of privilege and wealth. I have found myself in more than one friendship here in which, eventually, I realize that part of the intention of my friend is to be on the receiving end of whatever I can provide for them… and not just friendship. Some want money, some want me to take them to the United States, some want me to marry them (most likely so that I can take them to the United States)… others ask for whatever they can think of… pens, pencils, papers, money to buy clothes for school, etc. And the thing is, almost everything they ask for is a worthy request, but I find myself explaining again and again, that I am here to work… I am not here to give away things or to bring people to America. It is frustrating for me in multiple ways, and I deal with it as well as I can. I am happy with the relationships that I have formed, and it is in my nature to grow attached to people quickly, but I have to hold back at least a little. Even with those that have never asked me for anything but what I am here to do… even with those kind people in my life, I keep my truest feelings guarded. This is one of the many reasons why I am ever grateful for the other Peace Corps volunteers. I can let those guards down and just be myself for a while...

It is certainly frustrating when I am constantly being approached and asked for things... from strangers and from people I know. Perhaps the hardest part of all about all of this is that I understand why most Gambians feel this way, so even when I want to get angry about a situation, its difficult for me to do. These people have practically nothing. The Gambia’s primary export is peanuts, and peanuts just don’t generate much income for the typical Gambian. If a Gambian wants to make money, he/she finds a way to leave the country and work… then he can send money back to his family (the dollar goes a long way here… the Euro goes even farther). What brings in more money than anything else to The Gambia is tourism, and who are your typical tourists? They come mostly from Europe (as well as other countries, like America), they are almost always white, and they usually have money… or at least enough money to travel on and vacation with. These are the “toubabs” that Gambians know from experience. (If anyone comes to visit, you will become well-acquainted with the word toubab, because you will hear it shouted at you often... they don't mean harm, but it gets old after a while). Their other image of Americans and Europeans comes from the media: news reports and television (if they have television), movies, and what is talked about in music (favorite American musicians include Akon, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dog… what kind of image of Americans do these musicians send?) The other group of Toubabs that Gambians see here are people working for NGO’s and volunteer organizations like the Peace Corps and VSO (based out of the UK). There is so much aid coming into this country in varied forms… Some of us are here to work, but others come in, give away something or provide funding for something, and then leave. I remember visiting the primary school in Jiroff (where I did my training). Some of the buildings at the school were built by a Swedish NGO, the water pump was provided to the school by the world bank, the food that the children ate for lunch (or what was left of it after much of it "disappeared") was provided by the world food program, and the garden was planted by the Peace Corps. Organizations around the world donate things like books for libraries, computers, money for building schools, solar systems for schools and health centers, medications, vaccines… the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, a lot of these donated items mysteriously disappear, and many others fall into disrepair and disuse because there is no one there to train them how to take care of these items.

With all of this in mind, it’s no wonder the Gambians see my white skin and wonder what I can give them. With all of this aid coming in, many of them have forgotten that it is possible to achieve some of these things themselves… if someone doesn’t bring it to them, or take them out of the country to get it themselves, then they will just have to be without it. Some of the more cynical Peace Corps volunteers that I have met have suggested that perhaps the best thing we could do for the Gambia is to pull all our aid out of this country. They reason that as long as aid keeps coming, the people here have no need to work toward sustainability… if something breaks down, they can hope that replacements will come. While I disagree with this mentality, I understand the frustration and experiences that have led them to this point of view. After all, they didn’t arrive here feeling this way, or they would never have come at all. It is their experiences that have shaped that opinion. Last week, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Peace Corps in the Gambia, which is impressive in many ways. But in some ways it can be discouraging. After all, we are still working towards the same goals that the first Peace Corps volunteers began here 40 years ago. This is when I remind myself that development takes time… America spent more than 40 years to get to the point that it’s at now. And there have been vast improvements here in the quality of life because of organizations like the Peace Corps.

Regardless of all of these thoughts, I do truly enjoy the people and the culture. Yesterday, some of my students went out into the community to look for donations towards a training camp that they want to have at school for a new organization called Ambassadors for Peace. On foot, they covered the entire village of Fatoto and the surrounding villages. They returned with over 400 dalasi in donations from different people. I read their record book, and I saw that most people paid anywhere from 5 to 25 dalasi… which isn’t much, but for many, it’s more than what they have. It is a reflection of how generous the Gambian people can be with the little that they have. I can’t tell you how often students or just random villagers have brought me small gifts of food or hand made trinkets. My brother, Abdoulie, has spent his free time (which isn’t much) every afternoon in the past few weeks collecting wood from the bush to construct a fence for me around the plot of land that I will be using for my garden. Without a fence, there is no point in planting anything. The animals are roaming freely now, and will demolish my poor garden before it even has a chance to start growing. It is tough work, cutting down wood and hauling it to the compound, but he does it without complaint and refuses to let me help. A number of people, including students, friends, and even one of the care-takers at school have offered to wash my clothes for me. While this is tempting, I’ve actually begun to enjoy my clothes-washing sessions. It’s nice to do some hands-on work… and there's something gratifying in knowing that I can do it myself.

Gambians are devoutly religious, and I have had many fascinating conversations with them. I enjoy the call for prayers every day… soulful Arabic melodies called over speakers throughout the village. I also appreciate the peaceful look on their faces when they discuss their beliefs. And even though we disagree on many points, they still accept me for who I am, and no one has judged me yet for those differences. It makes me think that if all Muslims were as generous and accepting as the Gambians, then our world would be a different place right now… but then again, we could say the same for other religions as well.

So here you have it… my deep thoughts of the week… the good and the bad. I wish that I could honestly report nothing but positive feelings, but in reality, my feelings constantly fluctuate. I knew when I joined the Peace Corps that this would be a challenge, and it is true. This is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done, but the rewards are unbelievable, and I am learning more about myself than ever before in my life.



Saturday, November 24, 2007

six months

So now that I have finally posted a few pictures, I can talk a little about some experiences and feelings that I have had in the past few weeks at site and here in Kombo. Life in Fatoto has, overall, been pretty nice. The weather is changing now, finally. The humidity has completely vanished from the air, and it literally happened over night. One day, the bills in my wallet were a crumpeled soggy mess, the next day, they were crispy. Some of my fabrics have stiffened up too. And all of my papers and envelopes. By the way, incase anyone has recieved a letter from me lately, you may have noticed that the envelope is taped shut, and the stamps are taped on too... I forgot to put my envelopes inside of a plastic bag, and the humidity sealed them all shut, so I've had to tear them all open and tape them closed. And the stamps just won't stick any more... most likely from the humidity as well. The temperature is cooler now too. It's been in the 80's in the day (sometimes in the 90's too, but mostly the 80's), and the nights are downright chilly sometimes. Of course, my body has adjusted to the heat at this point, but there have been a few instances where the temperature actually reached below 70 F! It's funny to watch my family on these evenings or early in the morning when they are just waking up. They wear multiple layers and walk around shivering. I shouldn't laugh. That may be in two years! I am going to be such a wimp when I head back to Colorado.
So here are a few highlights from the past month. I've been making pretty regular trips to Basse, partially for work, and partially just to be able to communicate and colaborate with other Peace Corps Volunteers. And because Basse has a transit house there and it's a good place to buy goods that you cannot find in the villages, there are often other Peace Corps Volunteers there when I visit. So I'm really getting to know some of the other URD PCV's (sorry for all the acronyms... URD is Upper River Division). They are a good crew. We've gotten together a few times and cooked American style food. You can buy things like carrots and cucumber in the market here (fresh vegetables... yeah!), as well as canned chick peas, so we've made hummus a few times now and dipped veggies in it. I've also learned how to make tortillas, which are good buy themselves or with hummus.
And here's another fun food-related adventure (you'll notice that many of my fond memories have to do with food! I can't help it... with so little variety to chose from, it's always a big event to try something new) Liza and Danielle (another Basse PCV) came to Fatoto and spent the weekend with me a few weeks ago. Ever since I carved that pumpkin for Holloween, I've been wanting to try cooking pumpkin pie, so we tried it. I talked to the bread baker in Kolikunda (the small village next to Fototo), and he said I could use his brick bread-baking oven, so we set up a time for me to come on a Saturday to bake my pies. So incase you're ever wondering how to bake a pumpkin pie from scratch when you live in a hut with no electicity... here's what we did. We chopped the pumpkin into peices and began to boil them over my gas stove, but then I ran out of gas (and the closest places to re-fill gas tanks are in Senegal or Basse), so we ended up cooking them over a fire instead (this worked just fine). This makes the pumpkin nice and soft, and it's easy to cut off the outer rind (we orignally tried to cut this when the pumpkin was still raw, but it was taking a very long time, which is why we decided to boil them first). Then it was easy to smash them and add ingredients. I had been saving a box of soy milk that I bought in Kombo in August. Also, Liza brought cinnamon and I actually found nutmeg in Basse (It was an accidental find... I have no idea what Gambians would use nutmeg for, but I was thrilled to find it)... so we just added these ingredients together until it tasted good. Then we made the pie crust. First we sifted the flour to remove the bugs and worms in it. (I'm finally getting over finding insects in my food. It just happens somtimes. In the states, I would have thrown it out... here, I pick out the bug and just keep on eating, unless it's one of the smelly bugs that Fulas call "Yuka Herande," which means "spoil dinner," because they spoil your dinner if they get into your food). The directions on my pie crust recipe call for a food processor and refrigerator (ha!), and ice water (ha ha!). Obviously, those things were not an option, so I just ended up throwing together flour, sugar, and butter. It tasted more like a sugar cookie than a pie crust, but it was still good. I've discovered that a nalgeen bottle works as a pretty decent rolling pin, so I rolled the crust and lined the pie trays (small, rectangular pans I found in Basse). We showed up at the baker's compound four mintues early, but he said he thought we had "postponed" it... I'm still wondering why. We said no, in fact, we were ready to go... so he brought us to the oven and fired it up (The oven is a huge mud/cement oven that is heated with fire wood). Now usually, you would want to let the oven heat for several hours, but we did not want to wait that long, so we only heated it for about a half an hour. Because of this, our pies never really baked... they just became really warm and soft. But they were still very good. We gave some to the baker and his wife, some to my family, then ate the rest ourselves. My family really liked it. They have been amazed at what I've shown them about pumpkins lately. Not only can you carve faces in them, but you can also eat the seads and make sweet food from it too! They cook pumpkin all the time, but they cook it like they cook everything else. They put it in lots of oil and spice and serve it over rice. It's really good as well. I hope pumpkins are pretty good for me, because I've probably been eating them every day for the past 3 weeks straight!
I told Dan, who is one of the URD PCV's I see in Basse sometimes, about our Pumpkin pie experience, so he asked for help making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving at the Embassador's house. So on Thanksgiving, I helped make over 30 pumpkin pies from scratch for all of the Peace Corps Volunteers and other invited guests. All of my clothes from that day are still covered in pumpkin. It took hours, but it was fun! (And the pies were really good too). Thanksgiving was fun. We ate chicken (no turkey's here in the Gambia), and mashed potatoes and stuffing... we even had cranberry sauce (mailed from the states, of course). And of course, pumpkin pie.
Ok, that's enough talk of food... The thought occurred to me the other day that when I get together with other PCV's, we always seem focused on cooking and eating. Sorry, it's what we do for fun, I guess.
The past week here in Kombo has been good but busy, as usual. Yesterday was the Peace Corps' 40th anniversary celebration. It was a very formal event at a very nice 5 star hotel in the area of the Kombo called Senegambia. It's strange to go from village to a place like that. I start to forget that places like that actually exist here. In the evening, Julebrew, the Gambia's brewery, threw the volunteers a party with free beer. It's one of the few times all of the volunteers in the country will see each other at once, so, without going into details... the evening last night was very fun and very, very late. This morning was an all-volunteer meeting (we all showed up but were very tired), which I found to be incredibly informative and extremely helpful. Each sector (Education, Health, and Environment) met seperately... then we met together as one large group. We were able to discuss and exchage ideas and frustrations, learn about who's projects were working or not working, get our hands on a few teaching resources (like paper for a 3-ring binder! Yeah!), and meet several guests from different NGO's and Gambian development organizations. I hear they used to do these meetings twice a year, but they may be switching them to once a year. If they are all as helpful as this one, I hope they keep it to twice a year! It's also been really nice just to meet all of the other volunteers and some of the PC staff members that I've met only once or twice because they stay here in Kombo. Our administrative officer, Tim, saw me in the Peace Corps office the other day and stopped to talk to me because he didn't recognize me. Then a look of realization came across his face and he said "Oh yeah! You're the one at the very end of the map"... you see, there's a large map of The Gambia in the office, and they put a picture of every PCV in the country on the map with a peice of string leading to their posted village or town. My picture is waaaay off to the right of the map. It's kind of my claim to fame here. And not only am I the farthest, but I'm also the only one in my disctrict, the Kantora district. But as far as Fatoto seems, it's not unaccesable... I just won't be doing this trip to Kombo very often. It's quite tiring.
Tomorrow morning, I head back up-country. I'm leaving at about 6 am, and I'm really hoping to make it all the way back to Fatoto by the evening so that I can teach on Monday. We'll see... I think I can do it if I run into favorable traveling conditions. It's really just the role of the dice though. Between the poor roads, vehicles that break down constantly (we had to push the vehicle we rode in on our way to Kombo at least 3 times to get it running again), and ferry crossings (you would think that a country split in half by a large river would use bridges instead of old ferries that only take a few vehicles at a time and often break down themselves... but oh well). Time can be either for or against me. So until next time!

Monday, November 19, 2007

picture update

I have made through my three month challenge, and I am back in Kombo, once again, for several events. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, Friday is the 40th anniversary of Peace Corps in The Gambia, and Saturday is an all volunteer meeting... so I took the week from school and made my way down country. Now that I have faster internet, I can acutally post some pictures...
The first picture is a picture of my home. It is a one-room, round, mud-hut with a thatched roof. The thatched hut keeps my home much cooler than homes with a corrogated tin roof, like what I had in training village. On the left, you may notice an old tire (It looks to be below that large Mango tree)... that is the open well in my compound. I am going to plant a garden there soon, so it will be nice to have a well right next to my garden for watering purposes. I also use that water for bathing and cooking. The drinking water I use though, comes from another well.




And here's what the Gambia River looks like when you get up-country. It's much narrower here, and the river is freshwater. Down-country, the river is much larger and saltwater.








I am also posting some pictures of my family. One of the pictures is from Koriteh, or the "Day of Prayer." This is the 30th day of the Muslim holiday, Ramadan. The Muslims fast for 29 days (no food or water from sunrise to sunset), and then feast on the Day of Prayer. Everyone gets dressed up in new clothes with new hairstyles and everything. As you can see from the picture, even I have on an African dress and I let my "siter-in-law," Susana, plait my hair. It was definitely fun to see the whole village celbrating. The children in the picture are Mariama, Bobo, an Ousman.









The next picture was also during Ramadan. Since the Muslims fast all day, they feast every night. On this night, they were just about to break fast, so we had a ton of delicious food to eat (they go all-out for the breaking fast meals), and we were hit with a tremedous thunderstorm. Since we usually eat outside (we do everything outside except for sleeping, really), we moved our meal into my familie's hut... all eight of us. After eating, we were just hanging out because the rain was really strong. For some reason, I found the whole situation hilarious (I often find humor in situations that are perfectly normal to the Gambians), and decided to take a bunch of pictures. I wish I had time to post all of them... they ended up getting pretty silly. This one shows Amin (my sister), Ousman ( Samba's son), and Bobo Kole (Amin's daughter).







And here are some pictures of my school and my students.



This is a picture of the outside of my classroom. The school consists of a number of different buildings, or "blocks" instead of one building with many rooms, like in the states. I'm sure that air circulation has much to do with this. Without windows, it would be impossible to teach or learn in these rooms. It's hard enough as it is. Notice the goat hanging out outside of the classroom. The school has over 40 goats right now.



My grade 12 students. They are a great crew of kids.












Here are my grade 11 students... and this is what the inside of my classroom looks like... it's really much nicer than I expected to have. In fact, I never expected to have my own classroom at all, so this has been a wonderful surprise.
And yes, I did celebrate Holloween... here is the pumpkin to prove it! From left to right... Mariama and Umo (although we call her Bobo Kole... Gambians aften have multiple names, which gets confusing when you're trying to learn a bunch of new names). Mariama and Bobo are Amin's daughers (Amin is my sister here, so by American standards, they would be considered my neices, but in the Gambia, your mother's sisters are also your mothers, so here they are my daughters, I guess... it gets confusing). The the woman on the right is Susana (her other name is Fanta, just like the drink). Susana is Samba's wife (my brother).
Well... that's it for now, I hope you like the pictures!

Friday, October 26, 2007

2 months now

It is the end of October now, which means that the wet season is coming to an end and the dry season is just beginning. Regardless of how the Gambians tell me that we are entering a new season, my body cannot help but feel confused. I'm used to a Fall... the temperatures drop, (in some places snow is already falling in the U.S., or so I have been informed by my Colorado friends), the leaves change, the air gets dryer, etc... Right now, the humidity is better (except for a few days here and there), but it's still as hot as ever. It just feels as if summer is going to keep going indefinitely... my jacket hangs neatly and completely unused in my hut. I can count on one hand the number of times I've covered myself with a sheet while sleeping. I still take at least two baths a day just to cool my body....
But from what I hear, it really will be cold here in about a month or two. Maybe even as low as 55F on a few evenings... that would be wonderful. Now that I have a thermometer (thanks mom and dad!), I know for sure that I am getting adjusted to the heat. It was quite pleasant in my hut the other night, so I ventured to look at the temperature. It was a chilly 86 degrees F! I almost had to use the sheet that night.
I am also beginning to adjust to other things as well. After two months, my language skills are beginning to develop a little bit more. I can pretty much accomplish almost any day-to-day task in Pulaar. I can buy things from the market, get anywhere I need to on public transport, make small talk about the day, borrow or lend things to/from others, talk about what's paining me or ask other's what's wrong if they are sick or hurt... and all in Pulaar. (with some roadblocks, of course). I feel as though I definitely have a long way to go before I can really form close friendships with anyone who cannot speak any English though. Friendships can only go so far when all you can talk about is what you did that day. I want to be able to communicate feelings, emotions and abstract ideas as well... well as the Fulas say, "Seda, Seda!" (slowly, slowly).
School is going well so far. I am teaching three classes right now. It was supposed to be five classes, but due to a teacher shortage, they have combined the two grade 11 classes into one class, and the same goes for grade 10. My smallest class has about 40 students, and my largest class has 55. In the beginning, teaching was easier, because the class sizes were smaller. Not all of the students had shown up yet. As the sizes began to grow, I realized that I would have to figure out ways of adjusting my teaching methods. I can completely understand why most Gambian teachers simply write their notes up on a blackboard for the students to copy, memorize, and then take a test on later. Between the class size and the lack of English comprehension (and literacy in general, for that matter), it's difficult to engage the students in meaningful learning activities. Even giving tests and quizzes, for example. The other day, I wanted to give my grade 10 students a quiz on measurements and measuring tools. I really wanted to have them read the measurements themselves from different instruments, but I didn't have enough of each instrument for all fifty students to use (or even half that amount), and since we have no computer or photocopier, I had to write the questions and diagrams on the blackboard with questions for the students to answer and turn in... but with 50 students, not everyone can see the blackboard well... especially when it comes to paying attention to details (like what I was asking for). I finally asked for advice from some of my fellow Gambian teachers and they helped me come up with a solution. I had half of the class take the test, while the other half of the class waited in another building. Then the second group took the test. So it's been a lot of improvisation. I'm learning more and more every day. I really enjoy my students though. Many of them come to visit me in their free time for extra help or just to chat. One of my students has even started running with me in the mornings. A few others have expressed interest in joining us too. The next thing I know, I'll have a little running club!
I've also begun riding my bike more often as well. It's nice to know that if I cannot find public transportation, I can always ride my bike to Base. It takes about 3 hours (42 km). I am also planning on making some trips into the surrounding villages and hopefully into Senegal after my three month challenge is over. I hear that there are some Senegalese Peace Corps Volunteers who live just over the border. They may be closer to me than even my fellow Gambian PCV's... we'll see.
I'm hoping to be able to post some pictures at some point. This internet connection is not very good, so posting pictures is completely out of the question right now, but I'm working on sending a CD with pictures back to the states for my family for me to post for me instead. That may take a while, but I am heading to Kombo in about a month (for Thanksgiving), and I know that I can at least put a few pictures up using the internet there... so expect at least a few before Christmas, I hope!

Friday, September 28, 2007

My first month

Well, here I am back in Base... this time for the weekend. Yeah! It's pay-day for Peace Corps, so I had to come to the bank. But this also means getting to visit some other Peace Corps volunteers a bit and taking a little break from Fatoto. I do like it there, but I have to admit, it's really nice to occasionally get to see another Toubab. I am constantly the center of attention wherever I go... it's kind of hard to blend in when I'm the only white person in town.
I have been in Fatoto for a month now... so I am starting to get settled-in. My family is amazing. They have really made me feel like I am part of them. And I've made a few good friends in Fatoto as well.
Officially, I just finished my second week of school, but classes didn't really begin until this week. The first week, only three teachers (including myself) showed up and some students. In some ways, it was nice to get to meet some of the students before I began teaching them. All we really did was clean up the school, and talk a little bit about classroom policies, etc. I pulled a group of students into the science lab and we spent a day cleaning as much as we could, but I keep finding more to clean. The science lab actually has quite a few useful things. I have test tubes, beakers, graduated cylinders, magnets, posters depicting various things... there's not a whole lot of chemicals or supplies to carry out many experiments, but the basics are there. I'll just have to get creative. I'm excited to even have a science lab, really. Especially since it means that I get my own classroom, which is uncommon in many Gambian schools. The students usually stay in once class and the teachers change classrooms. And it is the same for the students at my school, but since there's a science room, they come to me for science. It's quite nice.
We still don't have all of the teachers we need, so I'm not sure how this is going to work out, and the 10th graders haven't yet received all of their results from testing last year, so they haven't begun classes yet, but I have begun teaching my 11th and 12th graders a bit. It's going to be challenging on many levels. I have 45 student in my 12th grade class, potentially 50 in my 11th grade class, but only 20 at the most showed up last week, and I'm not sure about 10th grade yet, but there should be 2 classes of 10th graders when those classes are determined. English is the language that is spoken in schools. Students in some schools are punished harshly for speaking in their native languages. I don't think the staff at Fatoto SSS punishes that infraction too harshly, but they try to enforce it, still the same. It makes it interesting in many ways. Some students have better English skills than others, but I don't feel like many of them (if any) are fluent, especially when it comes to subjects like science, that use words most native English speakers find difficult to understand. Then there's the whole matter of what to teach. I have been trying to figure out what they already have learned, and what they are supposed to learn by the end of Senior Secondary School when they take their final exams. There's a pretty intimidating syllabus outlining the information required for this exam.

Looks like that's all for now, I was just typing here at the internet cafe when the power was lost... it took a while for it to come back on, and now I'm out of time... I guess that's just how it goes sometimes. I'll try to update the next time I come to Basse.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Fatoto

So I've begun settling into my life in Fatoto. School has not started yet... they told me it would start on the 11th at first, but I went to the school to meet the vice principal the other day, and he seems to think it has been pushed back a week... He's not sure though. He's also not sure when I need to show up to work, or when any of the other teachers are going to be there. So I guess I'll just have to check back again soon. I have a feeling this isn't the first time, I'll have to be patient with the Gambian school system.
In the meantime, I've been spending most of my time with my family. They are very kind. I've been learning how to cook Gambian-style... it has been fun. I was right before I came when I told everyone that I would be eating a lot of rice and peanuts. It's true... and lucky for me, I love both things. Some of my family and their friends have started calling me Maimuna Dege, because Dege is the word for peanut butter... and I put peanut butter on everything. You know the kind of peanut butter you pay more for in the states because it's organic? Well, it's really, really cheap here. I also cooked dinner for my family a few nights ago... an American dinner of spagetti and garlic bread. It took some creativity on my part because of lack of resources. But I had bought spagetti noodles and canned tomatoes in Kombo, as well as spices and olive oil, so I was able to use these. Bread and fresh onions are usually easy to find. I even found a few cloves of fresh garlic for the garlic bread! I have a double gas burner that is pretty much like the camp stoves I used to cook on in America, but it worked just fine for cooking my American dinner. My family loved it! They kept saying "Maimuna, Herande na weli!" Which means dinner is good! I was wondering if they really did enjoy it, or if they were just being nice, but everytime a visitor comes to our compound now, someone in the family brags about the American dinner they ate the other night. Now half of the village wants me to call for them the next time I cook.

I have made a short trip to Basse, and stopped into this internet cafe to send my update... unfortunately, the internet is so slow, it's taken me 40 minutes to get this far, and I've only paid for 45 minutes... So I don't think I'll be able to upload any pictures now. I took some of my family and my hut... so eventually, I'll figure out how to get them online. So that's all for now...

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Ready to Go

Well, it's finally my last day here in Kombo. Yesterday was the swearing-in ceremony at the Amassador's house, which is a beautiful house with a swimming pool and everything that has a great view of the beach. Here is a picture of me and my fellow Fulas, Josiah and Liza. The outfit I am wearing in the picture was made by my village tailor in Jiroff. I bought the fabric from a really nice lady who came and taught us how to make tie-die designs. We learned how to do this as one possibility of something we can teach women in our villages to do. Tie-die fabrics are very popular here, and may be a good way for women to generate some extra income. The ceremony was very nice and the food was unbelievable. I've never seen so much food here. I ate as much as I would at a typical thanksgiving meal. It was delicious. And then, to top off the day, a group of current volunteers gave us a cook-out in the evening... they grilled hamburgers and chicken, made guacamole (with home-made chips), salads, even cookies! I cannot even express how wonderful it was. Even after all the food we ate for lunch at the ceremony... I still managed to fill up a huge plate at the barbecue and go back for seconds too. Sorry to keep talking about all the food, but it really was amazing. Especially since it's going to be a really long time before I see anything like that again.
Tomorrow, we move back to our permanent sites and begin our "Three month challenge." The general idea behind the three month challenge is for us to all get to know our sites and communities as much as we can. The first three months are the most important for this, and volunteers may be tempted to spend most of their time with other volunteers instead of with their family and community members. So we are not supposed to spend the night away from our sites unless we have to. Luckily for me, Basse is only an hour ride by Gile Gile (public transport), so I can go for the day if I ever need something there. And one volunteer is only 10k away from me, so I can ride my bike to see her pretty easily if I need a break from village.

The trip tomorrow should be interesting. There is one vehicle transporting six of us, and all of our stuff. I have no idea how it's going to work, really. We have all done a lot of shopping here in Kombo. We have huge trunks, mattresses, and other random items like gas burning stoves. And to top it off, our vehicle is taking the south road, which is in really rough shape. We took the south road on our site visit trip and had to stop a few times because some of the things on top of the car fell off. My stop is the final stop, and we have over 445 km to cover before then. It should be fun (ha ha).
This may be the last time I have email access for a while now. I do plan on visiting Basse occasionally, but I'm not sure how often I will go there. Once I get set up at site and begin a routine, I will have a better idea. I am so tired of packing my things and moving around. It's all I've done since I've left the states (and even before then too... I made two round-trip moves in my car between Colorado and the East coast in five months before I moved to Africa). So this whole "three month challenge" really doesn't seem like much of a challenge to me right now. I can't wait to just stay put for a little while. Perhaps I'll feel differently in a month or two... but right now it just sounds wonderful to me.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Last day as a Trainee

Well, I passed my language test and tomorrow I will swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Today we visited a "reptile farm," which was really interesting. This French guy has a bunch of reptiles that he has collected, mostly by himself, from different areas of the Gambia. You can go to his "farm" and get a tour of them. He also has a huge pelican, a monkey, and a baboon that he rescued and brought to his farm. Some of his rescued animals will be released back into the wild, and some will not. Here is a picture of me with one of the Pythons. It was nice to get a lesson on Gambian reptiles. This guy really knows his stuff. I've seen so many different kinds of lizards here that I wish I could identify, but when I ask someone, I usually just get the word for "lizard," and they can't tell me what kind. It's times like those that I really miss Google. I haven't seen any snakes yet besides the I saw today. The Gambian's are very afraid of snakes, and usually kill any they see as quickly as they can. They think that most snakes are venomous, but really, in The Gambia, there are very few poisonous snakes.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Language Woes

Today was my final language evaluation. We are required to meet a certain level on our final test, or we are not allowed to swear-in on Friday as Peace Corps volunteers. I did really good in my last two tests, but I'm a bit nervous about today. If I didn't do well enought, it means I miss the swearing-in ceremony (and all of the festivities that go along with it), and then I stay in Kombo an extra two weeks with extra language training before going to my site. Everyone says I have nothing to worry about, so I shouldn't let it bother me. But it's hard not to. After all of this work, I'm just ready to get training over with and begin my job. So today has been a bit stressful. Hopefully I will find out tomorrow.

A few people have emailed me asking for my mailing address. So here it is:

Kristy Campbell
c/o Peace Corps
PO Box 582
Banjul, The Gambia
West Africa

The Peace Corps has recommended that anything you send be sent through air mail, and "air mail" should be written on the outside of the letter/package. It is more expensive, but despite what the post office tells you, anything else could take over 4 months to get here (the post office will say 4-6 weeks). If you are sending packages, the bubble envelopes are cheeper to send... and, when asked to name the contents of the package, just say "school supplies." Once I get back to site (which, assuming I passed this test, will be in one week), I will be getting my mail once a month when the Peace Corps driver goes on mail run. So it's kind of luck of the draw. If your letter/package arrives to Banjul right after mail-run, it has to wait for the next month.

As far as care package ideas, trail-mixes and cliff bars will always be welcome. And even though I haven't begun my job yet, I do know that one thing I'd like to do with the teachers in my community at some point is work on creating teaching aids for lessons. Because of lack of resources and time, most teachers do not have visual aids for lessons or any kind of hands-on activity to do with students. Classes consist almost entirely of lectures with a chalkboard. The students take notes, memorize the material, then take a test. Once I get to know some of the teachers, I'd like to encourage them to make some learning aids for their classrooms that they can keep for themselves. At one of our training sessions in Tendaba, I drew the periodic table on a rice bag with sharpies. It took a long time, but now I have a fairly permanent learning aid to use, and I can leave it here when I go for other teachers to use. I came up with the idea from model school, after learning that the 9th grade students in The Gambia are required to memorize the first 20 elements in the Periodic table, but only their atomic number and symbol. And their textbook does not give a diagram of the periodic table at all. I finally found one in a chemistry textbook, but many schools cannot offer chemistry as a class on it's own, which is why I'll be teaching General Science. So, getting to my point here... Anything you can think of that might help me create learning aids... sharpie markers of all sizes and colors, duct tape, scissors, old magazines, spare materials, etc. I'd welcome some pre-made educational posters too... but part of my goal is to help them learn how to make these things on their own... so I'd like to try to use local resources as much as possible (like the rice bags...they are awesome for posters!) If I just give away posters, then what happens when they get ripped and torn to peices?... they can't just get another one somewhere. But if the posters are simple enough, we might be able to use them to replicate copies.

So that's it for now. Hopefully, the next time I write, I will be bearing good news of langauge test triumph (I hope). Thanks again everyone for all of your support!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

I was finally able to work out the computer situation, which involved bringing Liza's computer to an internet cafe so we could access the file I typed on it... but here it is... it should sum up my training pretty well.... (We for-warned. It's a long passage)

Here are some thoughts I was able to type up while attending training sessions in Tendaba, where we have access to power, but no access to the internet. When I eventually get to an internet connection, it will be when we return to Kombo after training, and spend one week before moving to our sites. At that time, I will be competing with all the other internet-deprived trainees for computer time at either the Peace Corps headquarters or the internet café. So hopefully, this will save me some time (and money).
July 25th, 2007
So where to start… I have so much to say! For the past five weeks, I have been living in Jiroff, which is a Fula/Mandinka village in the Central area of Gambia, just a few kilometers south of the Gambia River. My home is a mud hut with a corrugated tin roof. My “bathroom area” is a fenced-in back yard with a covered hole in the ground (a pit latrine) and another area where I take my baths from a bucket. Bucket baths are my favorite part of the day. I love the feeling of bathing outside with the breeze and the birds flying overhead. I prefer a bucket- bath to a bath tub-bath, really. You may not believe it, but it is quite nice. I take one in the morning to help freshen up after a hot night of sleeping under my mosquito net, and another one after the hottest part of the day is over (usually sometime after 4:00). I fetch my own water for bathing and for drinking, and yes, I even carry it on my head. I don’t claim to do it well, but it is easier than carrying it by hand… most of the time, that is… I have been known to soak myself more than once trying to lift the bucket on top of or off of my head. Well water is fine for bathing, but before drinking it, I filter it and add a drop of bleach.
The two other peace corps trainees in Jiroff are Liza (who is a fellow Appalachian State graduate!) and Josiah. Our first week in Jiroff, we were given Gambian names at our naming ceremony. My Gambian name is Maimuna Bah (pronounced “my- moon-uh”). Sometimes, it is shortened to Muna. Liza’s Gambian name is Tida Jawo, and Josiah’ name is Demba Bah. Names are very important to Gambians. They are all named after someone else, which means that you hear the same names over and over again. Your namesake is called your toma (in Mankinka) or your tokara (in Pulaar). Anytime you meet someone new with the same name, you immediately have a connection to that person. Then there are certain family surnames that are “jokemates” to each other, so anytime you meet a jokemate, it’s yet another connection. For example, my surname, Bah, is jokemate to the Jalo surname. Just a little while ago, I walked to the bitik (small village shop) and began chatting with a Fula man. When he found out I was a Bah, he laughed and said he was a Jalo, and we instantly were able to joke. I told him Jalo’s have big heads, and he told me Bah’s eat too much. That’s how Gambians joke. I’m finally starting to get used to it… they LOVE to joke.
My family is large, but not as big as some families, because only one of of the men in my compound has more than one wive and he only has two. Families get really big with multiple wives. One Peace Corps Trainee I talked to has over 20 brothers and sisters. I’m not really sure how many I have because a lot of the people I refer to as siblings are really cousins or second cousins. The father of my compound died several years ago, so his eldest son, Mombano, is now officially the head of the compound, and therefore, my “father,” but I only just met him for the first time a few days ago because he works outside of Jiroff and comes back for visits. The next oldest brother, Ebou, would be considered my uncle by American standards, but here he is also my father. In Gambia, your father’s brothers are also your fathers, and your mother’s sisters are also your mothers. So therefore, any of their children are called your siblings, not your cousins. Your father’s sister is your gorgol (Aunt) and your mother’s brother is your kaw (uncle). The children of your gorgol or kaw are your dendiraabes (cousins) as well as your jokemates. (In the same way different surnames joke, different family members have joking relationships as well.) And just to add to the chaos… Ebou and his wife, Juma, pretty much call themselves my brother and sister instead of my mother and father, because Juma is two years younger than me, and Ebou is older than me, but not by much. Their children, Bintu and Lamin, are like a niece and nephew to me. So are you all thoroughly confused yet? Good… welcome to my life… and to make matters even more confusing, pretty soon now, I will be starting all over again with a new family (and maybe even a new name). My closest family members have been Juma and her children (Bintu and Lamin), and my cousin (or brother?? I’m not sure), Abdoulei, who is now back at school in Kombo. I am hoping to post pictures of all of them if I have time on this blog.
Here are some things I’ve had to get used to about village life.
1. All the farm animals. The village has goats, sheep, donkeys, chickens and roosters, cows and bulls, and horses. The animals roam freely. The goats and donkeys love to sit against walls where it is shady during the day and dry when it rains. This usually means my front porch is a favorite sitting spot. Occasionally, in the morning, I open my door and wake up a goat or sheep that was sleeping right in front of it. It also means I have to sweep the poop off of my porch a few times a day. And they make noises at all times of the day. Have you ever heard the noise a donkey makes? It really sounds like some sort of prehistoric dinosaur. It was a little unnerving at first. And oh yeah, roosters crow at ALL HOURS of the day… not just at dawn. Whoever came up with that obviously never lived with roosters.
2. Being the center of attention wherever I go and whatever I do. Anything I do seems to be interesting. Since its too hot inside during the day, I like to sit under a tree somewhere to study or write letters. You wouldn’t think that would be a very exciting thing to watch… but just walking out my door and sitting down usually draws a crowd. Sometimes, it’s really helpful if I’m studying and would like to practice some of the new vocabulary I just learned, but sometimes they want to help so much that I never get anything accomplished. And sometimes, they just sit silently and watch. We’ve started calling it “Toubab television.” And that’s in our village where everyone knows us now. When we get on our bikes and ride over to the next village, the children stop what they are doing and chase after us shouting “Toubab! Toubab! Toubab!” I’m finally beginning to understand why they do this. The kids are so accustomed to trucks with tourists traveling on packaged tours coming through these villages handing out candy and balloons like they are featured on some sort of parade float. So anytime they see a white person, they’re hoping for something free. They always ask for pens. That must be a favorite give-away item.
3. The lack of any sort of waste disposal department in the Gambia. While they tend to keep their compounds very clean (the women sweep the animal droppings and trash off of the ground every day), there is just nowhere to put their trash. So it all gets dumped on the ground outside of the village. Then the children go through it and make toys from things. I have seen some awfully creative inventions. I’ve learned that you can do just about anything with bottle caps, empty tin cans, flip flops, and worn-out fabric. They also love to play with old batteries, which is why I’ve begun disposing of my used batteries in my pit latrine.
4. Bugs and spiders. Big ones. Lots of them…. Still getting use to them. Luckily, I haven’t seen a live scorpion yet, but I’m watching out for them. One of Liza’s brothers brought a dead one to show us, and we saw a huge dead one on the road the other day. So I know what to look for, but hopefully won’t see too many of them.
5. The roads here are something else. If anyone comes to visit, you will see what I mean. On the south highway, most of the vehicles don’t even use the actual road… it’s easier to just drive on the side of it. I even have a hard time riding my mountain bike over them. Right now, Peace Corps transports us to most places we need to go, but we’ve had some “practice” with public transportation. Public transportation consists of standing on the side of a road and waiting (sometimes all day) for a gile gile, in which you squeeze as many people as you possibly can (I counted 25 in our 16 seat van). This is how I will be getting from place to place on my own after training is over. The last trip I took in a gile, I was sitting almost on the lap of the Gambian next to me. Forget a need for personal space. I suppose I’ll get used to it. It would be a bit more bearable though if the trip wasn’t so bumpy.
July 27, 2007
Right now, I am in the middle of our two week training session at Tendaba. Today is Friday of the first week, and it has been a busy week. We began our first week of “Model School,” which basically entails gathering students from the surrounding areas who attend Kwinella school (which is close to Tendaba), and “teaching them” for two weeks. It is the Peace Corps’ way of introducing us to what it is like to teach in a Gambian classroom before we actually have to do it for good. It has been a valuable experience in many ways, but it has made for a very hectic and confusing week. We were given our teaching schedule about a week before coming to Tendaba, and were told to begin planning lessons and creating teaching aids for our lessons. They told us to keep in mind that the students possess varying English skills, and we might want to consider using textbooks that are two to three levels below the grade of the students to plan our lessons (We were given Gambian textbooks to use as planning resources)… and that was all the information we were given… so I knew that I was teaching 8th grade English and 9th grade science, but I didn’t know if the students would have paper or pencils, if there would be chalk boards or anything at all… I just had to pick a few ideas and go with it. It has certainly been a challenge, but I enjoy it too. We’ve all been able to share ideas, which has helped me tremendously in planning. So each day this week, our schedule went like this: we taught at model school from 8:00 until 12:00, debriefed on the day until 12:30, drove back to Tendaba, ate lunch, then finished the rest of our own training courses for the rest of the day until dinner… including more language training, first aid techniques, health tips, and how to do various repairs on our homes once we get to site (such as fixing screens, windows, doors, and filling in cement cracks in our pit latrines). In addition, we took our 2nd of 3 language tests on Tuesday, and on Thursday we held a four hour workshop to meet with our counterparts for when we get to our sites and begin planning our first three months of service. And now, just incase this week wasn’t enough, we are leaving at 7:00 tomorrow morning for a 25 km hike called the “marathon march” aka the “march of death.” I think it’s safe to assume that we will all really deserve a break by the time Sunday comes around. I am really looking forward to the hike tomorrow though… supposedly we’ll all be just tromping through the mud all day long, but we will probably see baboons and monkeys, and possibly hyenas. I’m definitely bringing my camera.
Since we met with our counterparts yesterday, we all now know where we will be posted. It was an exciting day. I am posted in a town called Fatoto. I will be teaching science at Fatoto senior secondary school (grades 10-12), but I was told that I may also be working closely with the primary school in Fatoto as well. I’ll know more on that later. So you may be wondering where in The Gambia Fatoto is… well, if you happen to have a map of The Gambia with you, just simply follow the Gambia river almost as far east into the country as it goes… almost all the way to Senegal, just south of the Gambia River (it’s much narrower here)… and there you have it… I am the farthest posting in my group, and I may very well be the farthest posted Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia (the farthest, that is, from the coast, and the capital). Although I may be far away from most members of my group, there are several Peace Corps volunteers posted near me, including Liza, who is posted in Basse. Basse is one of the larger towns in the Gambia, and it’s only about a half an hour trip away from Fatoto. Fatoto is a large village which is very close to the river. At that point, the Gambia River is no longer a salt river, but is fresh water, and I have been told there are three hippos living near my town!!

Long before I came to Africa, I wondered which things in my life I would miss the most… so here is a list of things that I have come up with…
1. Cold drinks of ANY kind. We have figured out that if you wrap your bottle in a wet cloth, it keeps it from getting too hot. I wouldn’t go so far to say it keeps it cool, but it’s much better than very warm water. We like to joke about “putting that drink on water” (you know, like you would say, ‘put it on ice’) ha ha ha
2. Fabric softener. All I can say is line-dryed underwear is just not the same. For that matter, truly clean clothes would be great too. Luckily, I pay my family to wash most things for me… but sometimes, I wash my clothes myself, and I’ve only been somewhat successful at getting them truly clean. Not to mention all the extra buckets of water that I have to haul from the water pump in order to do my own laundry.
3. Fresh vegetables. Sometimes vegetables in any form are hard to find, but even when we have them, they have been cooked to the point that they are more like a sauce than vegetables. I am taking multi-vitamins to make up for the nutrient deficiency, but I miss raw foods!!
4. Internet access… this, I have mixed feelings about, because it’s nice in some ways to feel a little disconnected. But there have been several times now, that I’ve really wanted to google something… like when I was planning for my lessons for model school… I can’t just run to a computer and look up ideas, or definitions, or anything at all.
5. Mountains. I live in a flood plain. Enough said.
July 31, 2007
Still in Tendaba now, and I’m ready to finish this week and get back to Jiroff for my final 10 days there. The marathon march went well, but later in the evening, I managed to get sick again. That was on Saturday, and it is now Tuesday, and I haven’t completely recovered. In fact, I’m missing model school today because of it. At least, I have a fan in my room here. Getting sick in the village is rough enough, but trying to recover in a hot hut in the middle of the day is worse. I probably just ate something I shouldn’t have. That’s the thing about being a trainee. You just have to go make due with what is given to you. In the village, I eat breakfast and dinner with my family, and the Peace Corps provides our lunch. We do not have the option to cook for ourselves, so we eat whatever is given to us, whenever it is ready. That means dinner is usually served around 9:00, which is pretty late for me. Here in Tendaba, we get a little bit more variety of foods, but they tend to use milk and butter in some of these recipes, so I have to be careful about what I eat. I’ve been very excited to get eggs here, but the Peace Corps medical officer thinks it might be the eggs that made me sick on Saturday… so I guess its back to plain bread for breakfast, since I can’t have the butter or soft cheese they serve with it either. Sometimes I dip my bread in sugar… I know that’s bad, but plain bread gets old after a while. I eat plenty of rice, bread, and sugar. My diet does not lack carbohydrates…. That’s for sure! When I get to my site, I am going to cook most of my meals for myself. I might do lunch with my family, but that’s it. I’ve gotten lots of cooking suggestions from other Peace Corps volunteers. We’ve even been given a cookbook with recipes that have been put together by previous volunteers. It will be a lot like car-camping for two years since I’ll be cooking with a gas stove, but I’ve cooked some pretty delicious meals that way before. I’m looking forward to it.
Here’s a few events from training that I’ve been wanting to share:
  • I spent my 29th birthday in Jiroff. Liza and Josiah cooked me an “American” dinner of macaroni with tomato sauce and garlic bread. It was delicious. My birthday happened to fall on a weekend that there was an event going on in the village. The villagers were up drumming, dancing, and singing late into the night. I watched for a little bit. Me and Josiah even got in the circle and danced a little. Oh, how funny a dancing Toubab looks to a Gambian. There was a full moon and everything. What a way to celebrate a birthday. The next day, some of the other trainees from nearby villages biked to Jiroff and surprised me with a birthday “cake” (crackers with nutella), some packets of flavor mix to make juice from water, and three nails (I’m saving these up for when I get to my permanent site). It was a very nice weekend.
  • Tendaba camp is a “rustic” tourist community. The Peace Corps uses it for training sessions, but other groups use it as well. The last training session we had here was for four days over fourth of July. In the afternoon on July 4th, one of the huts caught on fire. We were all in the middle of a training session when we heard the news. We ran out to see the straw roof completely consumed with flames. The Tendaba staff and members from the surrounding community were frantically running buckets of water from the swimming pool and tap to pour on the fire. After the shock of the situation wore off a bit, I grabbed an empty bucket and began to help… we all just grabbed whatever we could find and started filling our buckets with pool or river water. They managed to put out the fire before it spread to the other huts, but most of the woman’s possessions who was staying in that hut were completely ruined. At least no one was hurt. I kept thinking about my brother, Eric, who is a firefighter. They don’t have big fire trucks here. This is how it’s done. I wondered if he would have done anything differently. Later that evening, despite the events of the day, the Tendaba owners gave us a GambiaAmerican 4th of July cook-out. I felt that was pretty amazing after all they had been through that day. That is the Gambian way. They always make you feel welcome. What an intense day… fourth of July in Africa. Instead of fireworks, we fought a fire.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Training

So here I am, back in Kombo, after two months in "the bush." I though I was thinking ahead, and I typed up some information to post to my blog from a friends laptop when we made one of our training trips to Tendaba, which has power (sometimes) but no internet... but now there's some sort of conversion problem, so I'm back to square one. I am going to post some pictures for now, and then possibly come post the rest later.

These pictures are from our naming ceremony in Jiroff. All children go through a naming ceremony the week after they are born. They shave the baby's head, give him/her a name, and then celebrate for the rest of the day. Ours was a shortened version of this, without the acutal headshaving. They just held a razor to our head for effects, then gave us our names, then made us dance a little bit. My Gambian name is Maimuna. My fellow Fula trainees are Liza and Josiah... their Gambian names are Tida and Demba. We were dressed in Gambian clothes for the occasion. The woman in the picture with me is Juma, my "sister" and good friend now. I am also close with Juma's daughter, Bintu. Here are some pictures of Bintu.







Here, I am learning how to brew attaya with my "cousin" and friend, Abdoulie. Attaya is a green tea that is brewed in a small kettle over hot coals. They add a whole lot of sugar to it, so it is very sweet and very strong. There is a mixing process between the kettle and the glasses, which the Gambians have turned into an art. The whole attaya process can take hours (It usually does). It is an opportunity for people to sit around and socialize, especially during the heat of the afternoon, when it is almost impossible to get any work done. But actually, you see attaya being brewed everywhere all the time.
Here is my Jiroff family, the Bah's, or at least as many family members as I could pull together for a picture. Now that I have moved to my permanent site, my surname is Njie, but I have kept the name Maimuna.




I wanted to share this picture because it shows why sleep is sometimes hard to come by in the village. This is a picture of my front porch at night. The animals roam the village freely... and they make noises throughout the night.



I just really liked this picture of some of the village boys with these really cool African flowers.






Me and my Appstate girls at one of our training sessions in Tendaba.





So that's all on training for now... I'll have more soon!







Thursday, June 21, 2007

Not much to post today... in fact, I have to hurry back to a bike training session. Yes, I will be getting a bike... I can't wait. And like everything else with the Peace Corps... I'm sure most of the session will be an OVER STATEMENT of how to be safe. We've spent a lot of time on safety and security, but I'm glad we have. I'd rather be too prepared than not enough. I would like to say this though. If anyone is thinking of sending a care package, I would love anything that might be considered "comfort food," like the packets of soup that you just have to add water to make chicken noodle soup... or some crackers. I would kill for a saltine cracker right now. It's funny, I loved the food when I first got here, but now it's started to get a little rough on the digestive system. Simple food would be good to have... granola bars are also hard to come by. So that's it... Next time I post will be from the bush!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Today we visited two gambian schools. It was quite an experience. I am starting to get very excited about the next stage in my journey... village life will be very different. I have been learning about how to filter and treat my water, how to recognize and treat different diseases and conditions, and how to travel safely. By the way, I need to make a few corrections to earlier blogs. I mentioned that the Fula people are the third largest ethnic group in the Gambia, but they are actually the second largest behind the Mandinka. They are not predominant here in the urban areas though...but they will be more so as I travel upcountry. So sorry about the misprint. Also, the town I went to a few days ago is spelled Bakau, not Basau. I get a little confused with the accents around here sometimes. I will try to post one last time tomorrow before I dissapear into the bush on Friday!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Another day

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Words cannot describe exactly how I feel right now, but it makes me feel good to try, so here I go. Today began like most of our other days so far. Cultural and language training, safety and health awareness, one more round of immunizations... my body is pumped full of immunizations at this point... At the end of all of this, we took a trip to the crocodile pond in Basau, which is not far from where we are staying in the Kombo region. The crocodile pond is very historic and mystical to the Gambian people who believe that the crocodile symbolizes fertility, and come to the pond to pray and/or bath in it one cannot bear a child. There is also a small museum with various African artifacts and historical summaries from different Gambian time periods. The crocodiles are tame, and allow visitors to pet them... so here is my snapshot of petting the crocodile. However, take this picture with a grain of salt, because the true experience of getting to the pond was worth more than a picture to me. In fact, I had my camera out, ready to take a picture, and decided that there was no way to truly portray the streets of Basau with a photograph... so I put it back in my purse. This was my first image of what it really means to be in a third world country. The homes of these people were crudely constructed of corrogated tin and stacked upon each other very closely. The streets were crowded with people of all ages, goats, dogs, and trash. A small stream filled with trash and what smelled like a sewer... and probably was... ran beside the road. Since the crocodile pond and the museum attract tourists, the children come running to you asking for gifts and money. They are used to seeing Toubobs like us, which is the Gambian word for foreigner or outsider. We drove our air-conditioned Peace Corps van through these crowded streets, each of us taking in the sight of it all. Then we got out of the van, went into the museum, took a bunch of pictures and read a bunch of information. Then we each waited in line to have our picture taken petting the crocodile... then we walked back to the van, got in, and drove off. Many of my fellow trainees have traveled to very poor third world countries before, but no one had seen a sight quite like this before. I believe that this is why the Gambians are wear such bright, beautiful colors and act so happy all of the time. They have to add a little bit of color to their lives. This experience has run deeply through me. I am determined to do something to add a little bit more color to the lives of even just a few...

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Training



Life has been intense since I arrived here. Everything is so different... the sites, the sounds... even the smells. It's hard to describe the smell, but do you know how your nose tingels a little bit when you burn insense? It's kind of like that, but different. The food has been delicious so far, but I'm told I should eat it while I have it, because once I go to my village, I'll be eating mostly rice and simple sauces. I've been eating fresh mangos everyday. I took this picture of one of the mango trees in our compound here when I was feeling artistically inspired.

The most challenging aspect of PC training for me right now is language training. I am learning a language called Pulaar, which is the language spoken by the Fula tribe. It is the smaller ethnic group out of the three main groups in Gambia. The other two are Mandinka and Wolof. Out of all twenty of us volunteers, there are only three of us learning Pulaar. The rest are being trained in one of the other two. So far, I we have spent hours on learning greetings. Greetings are very important to the Gambian people. You may spend five minutes going through all of your proper greatings before you actually have a conversation. There are general greatings like"Salaam Malaakum," which is spoken in all three languages. Then there are different greetings for morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Pulaar is very beautiful to listen to. There are a few new sound that I am having trouble with, but I hope to learn them all with plenty of practice. All of us traininees have been walking around using greeting after greeting with whoever will talk to us. Most people speak several different languages around here. You most commonly hear English, Wolof, and Mandika, but I also hear French and other Gambian languages from some of the smaller ethnic groups. It is incredible to me how normal it is for Gambians to speak two or three languages fluently. Not many Americans have that opportunity. My language trainer's name is Ide. She speaks 5 languages fluently. I am constantly in awe of it. She will be coming with us to our training village and living in the village for 10 weeks with us. We will each be placed with a different family. Part of our language and culutural training will be from them, and part will from Ide. We will also be making trips to meet up with the other PC trainees and train in our skills. There is so much to take in... sometimes it is a little overwhelming!


Today we have the day "off," so we will be making a trip to the beach. Last night, we went out to a local bar, and were able to have a few drinks and meet some other Peace Corps Volunteers who live close by. It was nice to let off some steam after such an intense day in training. It is hard to believe that I have only been here a few days. So much has happened. I am not sure how often I will be able to update this in the upcoming months. Right now, I am at an internet cafe because I cannot upload my photos at the Peace Corps headquarters. And since all of us trainees are here in town right now, there's usually a long line of trainees and PCV's waiting to use the computers there. I will try to update when I can though. I finally have some gambian money and stamps though, so I will begin writing letters soon!
These are some local kids I came across at the mosque yesterday. They love to pose for pictures!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Correction to yesterday's blog: I was not emailing from the American embassy... it was the Peace Corps headquarters. They both happen to be on the same street though. Right now, we are back at PC headquarters just putting some items in the safe... then I go for my interview, where they will begin to determine which job I will be assigned to. I have met many Peace Corps Volunteers so far, and many PC employees as well. I went for a run this morning with two other PC trainees, and we were joined by two gambians... just running down the road in their flip-flops. It kind of made me laugh at myself to think of how I've spent so much time and money on all of my sports/outdoor "gear." These guys just need flip-flops. We will continue with our series of immunizations today (Oh BOY!), and other activities as well...