some pictures

It has been a while since I have been able to access internet. I began this blog on February 18th, when I was in Dakar. I had access to high speed internet, so I decided to post some pictures, but then I ran out of time to type anything to go with them. When I returned to The Gambia, I went back to Fatoto and that is where I have been for the past 4 weeks or so (I had planned to come sooner, but was delayed by several things, which I'll describe later). I was quite excited to get to Basse so that I could do some shopping and finally finish this blog. Since these things required money, however, I needed to go to the bank first. I had been living off the travel money that had left over from my trip to Dakar, but it was running very, very low. So on Thursday when I arrived in Basse, I came to the bank first thing. And wouldn't you know it? The bank was closed for a holiday. Thursday was the Prophet Muhammed's birthday. And then, as it turns out, Friday was also a public holiday because of Good Friday. And Monday will also be a public holiday because it's the day after easter. On Saturdays the bank is usually open, but who knows? Perhaps they will take another day off to celebrate the fact that they have three holidays in a row surrounding a work day... I swear, Gambians and their holidays. It constantly amazes me. The country is 90 percent Muslim and they need to close schools and buisnesses on Good Friday and Easter. So on Thursday, I realized that I only had 9 dalasi (that's about 45 cents) and no access to any other money for 5 days. Even in a developing country, it's tough to live off of less than a dime a day. Luckily, I ended up finding a buisness that would cash my check for me (which is why I can afford to come to the internet tonight).

So here are the pictures that I posted from Dakar last month. Dakar is the capital of Senegal (the country which surrounds The Gambia). The event I attended is called WAIST (West African International Softball Tournament). It is a softball tournament for whoever would like to particiapte, but Peace Corps volunteers make up most of the participating teams. It's a great opportunity for Peace Corps Volunteers from different West African countries to gather and let loose, or just relax. Some people are there to play serious softball. Some people are there to meet with volunteers from other countries and share ideas for projects and plans in their communities. Some people go just for fun. I was there for a little of all it all, I think. It was my first opportunity to take a trip out of the country since I came to Africa, and that, in itself, was a good enough reason for me to be there. I played on the "social" team for The Gambia (we also had a competitive team, but due to my lack of talent and experience in softball, the social team was just fine for me). Here is our group picture. Our "uniforms" are mesh shirts in the colors of the Gambian flag. The mesh shirts are supposed to mimick what we call "bumsters." These are the guys you can find on the beaches of The Gambia. They wear these tank-tops and lots of large, glittery necklaces. They are there to meet tourists with the hope that they may either get some money from them or, if they are very lucky, trick them into marrying them and bringing them to the UK or the States. Bumsters are one of the things almost all of us volunteers hate about The Gambia since we are all mistaken for tourists and therefore prime bumster targets. Since it feels good to laugh about it instead of getting too irritated, this year, we were the Gambian bumsters.

I also had the opportunity to do a bit of site seeing. Dakar is huge and historic. We took a boat trip out to an island that was originally a major hub in the slave-trade. It was an interesting trip and the island quite peaceful. Here are some pictures....

Dakar is a huge, bustling city (about the size of Washington D.C.), so it was quite a change from village life. In many ways, it was culture shock all over again. I've become so accustomed to my life as a peace corps volunteer that it was a little disorienting to be reminded of the life I lived before I came here... citys with tall buildings, highways, houses with mowed lawns, inernational foods, etc. Housing accomadations for all of the Peace Corps Volunteers were provided by the staff members of the US embassy. They were kind enough to open their homes to a burly group like us. The man I stayed with, Craig, not only opened up his home to us, but also allowed us to use his internet, washer and dryer, and anything else we needed... he even treated us to several delicious meals! He was interested to hear our stories. He seemed amazed that anyone would willingly live for two years without electricity or running water (especially air-conditioning). He certainly made me feel welcome and gave me a different perspective of life in an African country... so if you are reading this Craig... thanks again for everything! It was a wonderful experience!

Since I've been back in The Gambia, I've been very busy with school and family events. I believe I mentioned the birth of Samba and Susana's son in one of my last blogs. (Samba is my brother and the head of our compound). The baby was born before my trip to Dakar, and it tradition to hold a naming ceremony one week after the child's birth... but my family delayed the ceremony until after I returned to Fatoto. The new baby is named James, after my father, and in honor of my family. The naming ceremony was quite an experience. It was held on Saturday, March 8th, but the preparations for it began two days earlier. After school one day, I was taking a nap to escape the heat when I was woken up by the sound of pounding. This is not an unusual sound since all families use large morals and pestals to pound their food, but this was A LOT of pounding all at once. I left my house to find a group of at least 40 women gathered around, taking turns pounding the grains needed for the ceremony. This was just the start of the preparations... for the next two days, my compound was full of people helping with various tasks. It's incredible and inspiring to see how the whole community contibutes time and resources to an event like this. There were hundreds of people at the ceremony. I had a wonderful time. There was traditional Fula music and a DJ (equipped with a generator to power his huge speakers and system) providing entertainment. My family slaughtered 3 goats and dozens of women sat around all day cooking for for the mass of people gathered. I socailized and danced all day. All of the staff from school came, as well as many of my students and two of my toubab friends from Basse (Liza and Sarah, a VSO). I have many pictures, some of which I hope to post next month from Kombo.

The other thing that's kept me so busy has been school. I helped teach at a teacher workshop in Fatoto on March 1st, which I found to be fairly successful and very rewarding. I did a session on lesson planning and another on teaching and learning aids. Thanks to Bess Adcock, my old mentor teacher from the states, I was equipped with a bunch of useful materials for creating teaching aids. Thanks Bess! There are 3 school terms in The Gambia, and we just finished the 2nd term. The end of the term was supposed to be April 4th, but, at the last minute, they decided to change the end of term date to be March 20th, so that the break could fall over the easter holiday (once again, Gambians and their holidays). The best part of that decision was that we were notified with about 2 weeks left in the term, and all of us had to change our teaching plans, schedule last minute tests and make-up work, and deal with all of the usual things that come along with the end of a school term. In addition, I've still been teaching extra classes after school, and trying to continue science club events.

And on top of all of this, the hot season has begun. For the sake of curiosity, I put my thermometer directly in the sun the other day... the highest reading is 124 degrees F, and after only a few minutes, it soared above that mark. It's too hot to sleep in my hut, so I've been sleeping outside in my back yard. I had a special "bed" made and I just bought a sponge to put on it. It's quite nice, really. the mornings have still been cool enough to go running, so I have still been able to exercise, but I'm starting to get worried that they won't be cool enough for long. The true heat hasn't even come yet.

The good news is, mangos are on the way. They are getting bigger and bigger on the trees... they should be ripe in just a few more weeks! I'm very excited.

Well, that's it for now, I'm going to finish before I get kicked off this machine... more to come later!

Salaam Malaekum... it has been a while since I have been able to update my blog, I think. The weather is beginning to get hot again. In fact, we're heading right into the "hot season." I'm not looking forward to it. The heat is worse as you get farther up-country (like say... Fatoto and Basse). One peace corps volunteer who lives in the Kombo told me that when he visited Basse last hot season, he was wearing a new hat. After walking outside in the heat for a few hours, the glue melted right off of the rim, ruining his hat. I rode my bicycle to Basse yesterday after school (I left around 11:00 am), and by the time I arrived here (about 1:15), anything that could melt in my bag, did melt (deoderant, soap, etc.) And it's not even close to how hot it will get, from what I've been told over and over again now... so enough of that talk...
Good news!!!
My "sister-in-law" just had her baby. It's a little boy. We are naming the baby "James," after my father. I think I've now officially become part of my family here. It's quite an honor to have someone named after you. The whole village is excited as well. Everyone is talking about "Tokara Baba Maimuna" (or "Maimuna's father's name-sake.") It's definitely been a happy week in Fatoto. He is such a beautiful little boy! We will be having a naming ceremony in a few weeks, when I return from my trip to Dakar. Right now, I am at the beginning of my travels. In a few days, I'll be heading to Farafenni, then on to Dakar from there. My first trip out of the country since I arrived. And I hear that Dakar is an actual city... I'm curious and excited to see it. Hopefully, I will have more pictures and updates soon...

Here is something that I wrote in my journal about a week ago, and decided that it was a blog-worthy entry. So I typed it up and posted it along with this message.

Feb 2nd, 2008
I think the strangest thing about my life here in Africa is the feeling of duality… the mixture of “new” and “old” ways of living. I admit that one of the reasons why I wanted to come to a place like Africa was because of the appeal of living a simpler life – no running water, electricity, car payments, etc. – having to fend for myself and, in the process, hopefully finding a deeper connection to the earth and all of its basic processes… In many ways, I have found this, and I am happy in that sense. But what I didn’t expect was the side that “development” brings to the duality. The Gambia is an “undeveloped” nation… this is true…. But it has been in the process of development for decades now. The Peace Corps just celebrated its 40th year anniversary here. This means that well-meaning philanthropists and volunteers like myself have been working with people of The Gambia for a long time now. One of the results I see from this is that “development” here is viewed as a process of “catching-up” to the rest of the western world. The Africans see what the westerners have from the news, music, and travelers like myself – and they want these things – but they don’t understand the processes that developed nations went through to get to this stage. When America and Europe were developing, they didn’t see it as “development.” They were just searching for ways to improve their lives and at some point in the process, they became “developed.”
As a result of this difference in how development is approached, my “peaceful return to the simple life” is often disrupted by moments that seem out of place or just plain strange. Picture this: I am sitting with my family members who are singing and dancing to Fula music. Goats, donkeys, and chickens pass by at random. Someone walks over to the well to draw water for cooking dinner – then a cell phone rings to the tune of “Jingle Bells” (I once sang the words to jingle bells for them after hearing that cell phone ring. It struck me as absurd in the 100 degree heat. My sister had chosen the ring for its upbeat tune… she had no idea it was a Christmas song).
Or how about walking down a dirt road, passing women in brightly colored “compolets” with trays of bananas stacked high on their heads. A boy on a donkey cart passes me, going in the opposite direction. The sun is bright and the birds are everywhere (The Gambia is lacking in the kind of wildlife that makes us think of Africa due to hunting and loss of habitat, but birds are still in abundance)… then, a BMW comes pummeling past us, American “gangsta” music blasting.
These are the strange and slightly disorienting experiences I find myself in often. Some of them are just plain funny. I have often run to fetch my camera, hoping to catch the ironic moment on film.
Like the picture I took once in training village. Everything was new and funny then… Liza and Josiah called me out of my hut to show me a scene: The boys in my host family were in the process of attaching a medieval-looking plow to a large, underfed bull. Behind them was the village with all its different huts. Between the huts and boys with the bull, a shiny new American SUV had just pulled up. “Which of these things does not belong?” they asked me. We had a good laugh. I snapped a picture, and just shook my head.
Sometimes these dualities make me laugh – sometimes they make me want to cry. When I was first told that I would be teaching science, I pictured myself in a primitive classroom, teaching things to students that could, hopefully, improve their standards of living – like health related issues or the importance of environmental cleanliness. I have been teaching these things and more, but not in the way I would have imagined. I expected certain difficulties, like a lack of resources, but what I didn’t expect was the task of teaching students a western style curriculum without any of the resources provided in a western-style classroom. I have all the familiar trials a new teacher in America might experience: learning the “ways” of a new school and a new group of students; planning and teaching new lessons – many of which are topics I have never taught before; grading papers and dealing with absent and sick students who have to make up assignments or tests… but I have to do these things without a computer, an overhead projector, a photocopier, or resources to consult when I can’t remember the details of the topic I need to teach. The chalk board is my only means of teaching my students. They have no science textbooks, so they come with blank notebooks, and I give them whatever information I can, knowing perfectly well that I don’t have enough time to give them all of the topics they are required to learn… even if we did nothing but copy notes all day, with no explanation (which is what many teachers do here)… we still wouldn’t have enough time to cover it all. So I am thankful for the chalkboard, although I feel as though I am constantly battling with it. It is a concrete slab that has been painted black. The surface never gets completely clean, no matter how hard I try to erase it (I discovered early that using water will also eventually wipe some of the paint off of it too, so I quit that method). A while back, the school was given a shipment of chalk that was never meant for a chalk board… it was too hard, so it scratched the surface when you used it, and the writing was too light for the students to read. It took me twice as long to write anything, and since I had to press harder with this chalk, it actually made my hands tired by the end of a class! Now we have regular chalk again… thank god… but it’s still a battle sometimes… you can tell when the chalkboard wins, because I’m covered in chalk from head to toe by the time I leave school…