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.

2 comments:

Julie said...

Wow - i'm just getting caught up on your blogs! You are sooo informative and i'm just so glad to hear (and see) so many of your experiences! you are a wonderful communicator! good luck with your travels to your village - i'll be writing you again soon! miss you bunches!

julie :>)

mom said...

not funny kristy. I would have preferred seeing you with a pelican
love,mom