Hey everyone!

I'm visiting some volunteers in the thriving metropolis of Kerewam, and they just so happen to work with an NGO that just so happens to have generator-powered eletrcity and internet at night! So, I only have a quick minute but I have checked me email and letters are on their way soon soon.

My new site in Jamagen is pretty wonderful. I've been there about a month now, and have experienced Tobaski, the biggest Muslim holiday and Tatti Bon, the Muslim New Years. Both were fun 'cultural experiences,' though even my protien-starved appetite couldn't hang with the Tobaski food bowl. They kill a ram, as per tradition, and eat every little part... my food bowl looked like an 8th grade text book picture of the inside of a cell... over here, the golgi apparatus (piece of ram stomach) oh! and over there the endoplasmic reticulum (intestine). But the beautiful 'kompliets'- matching skirt and shirts- the awesome booty shaking from the women and girls, the kids dressing up in their best- SHOES (gasp!) and hats for the occasion, was all a very cool few days. One very cool kid in my village doned his black leather platform boots (think euro-tech dance club style) for both the holidays.

My days are filled with trips to the women's garden, to water my own little plots and help the other women water theirs. That is always the highlight of my day, seeing all the green stuff growing, and all women of all ages are there chatting and drawing water while the sun sets behind the roon palms... yes it is nice!

The rest of my day is down time, which I fill with a lot of visiting compounds, chatting, and shelling p-nuts. I'm working hard on my Woolof, and have a tutor now- the alcalo's son who is very patient but the language barrier complicates things so much! I think it's safe to say that language does not come easyily to me but I am trying and I do love Woolof- I tell them that their language is 'pretty' and they laugh at me! Also, my compund, like maybe half the compunds in the village actually speak Bambara (a Mandinka dialect, from Mali). To me, they speak Woolof, but to each other, when we're sittin around shelling p-nuts and what not, they speak Bambara. That makes things a little harder since I love hanging out with them, but I'm in the process of getting a Mandinka study book and will learn it too... ndanka ndanka (slowly slowly) they tell me.

I give myself plenty of alone time at night, when I read and write letters, and occasionaly listen spare some precious battery and listen to music. Biking, though, is the best personal time thing! I've gone to visit several of my neighboring PCV's and it's so great to see the landscape like that. It is deforested, but it really is beautiful and just refreshing to see some new sights, to pass through new villages and spend a few hours with another (native) English speaker! Ahh...

Today I rode to Kerewam, to meet up with the 3 other PCV's here and use the computer. I typed a letter that will go out to schools inviting them to participate in the All-School Tree Nursery COmpetition- something I'm stoked about. Schools grow trees and then out-plant them in their community with the rainy season. They compete to gorow the most and the widest variety for garden tools and other cool things, which is a big deal for them. Every lower basic school has a beautiful garden, growing vegetable to sell and to have cooked in their lunches- they're all great gardeners and the teachers are strict about watering the garden. So it's a simple step for them to start a tree nursery there and to keep that watered as well. It's a cool project.

I have also pretty much decided that I'm going to try teaching in Kuntaya, the nearest school 2k away. They desperately need teachers, and I'm very curious about the Gambian education system. Education, done right, directly correlates with development and is such a direct way to influence kids. Though I absolutely don't want to just teach English and watch kids go off to Kombo (the city area) to find work and live a western-style life there, I think it's possible to teach students to value their culture and also to value knowledge and to be curious. I have seen how separate village life and school life are- there is no parent participation what-so-ever and almost a resentment between teachers and villagers. Teachers have lived in Kombo and see village life as a step down. They call them country people, or fana fana. At the same time, isolated parents downplay the importance of school and see it as a luxury. Even though school is free for all girls in The Gambia, most don't go- they are needed at home or just aren't encouraged. So we'll see, with my horrible Woolof and their horrible English...! I'm not sure, but the rumor is they need an 'arts and crafts' teacher- fun!! They're so creative here- I've seen awesome drums made out of empty tomato paste cans, plastic bags and wire as well as flutes made out of papaya stalks.

So all is well! Hope all is well is the big U.S. and that spring is coming soon for ya!

love,
Steph/ Yassin