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...

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 20^th 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!!!

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 40^th 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.

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!

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!

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!

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.