Hey guys!! Enjoying fall? The crisp air, the crunchy leaves, there's no season like it right? Well I'm enjoying 100% humidity and sweltering heat of the end of the rainy season, which is charmingly timed with Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting- no eating or drinking from sun up to sun down. So bad moods, low energy and lots of colds and malaria do their part to make this month... not that exciting. Anyway... here's some excerts from an email I just sent my sister that tells a little about what I'm up to now that I'm officialy in my second year of volunteering!

"Well... life here is good... it's a little hard in ways but so amazing in others. I'm never able to be as productive as I want to be, but am also learning to just "be here now" and watch bugs and kids. But I'm always wanting to make the most of my time here... but you know, there are language barriers and cultural barriers ect.. and it's just hard to make anything happen. Last dry season Jamagen (my village) planted a tree nusrsery and that has been my main project I guess... getting those outplanted and working with the village every sunday to put up a fence, tend the field, ect. and it's been as awesome success. Then, I worked with the forestry dept. and others on tree nurseries in schools, as part of that "All-School Tree Nursery Comp" I always talk about, and that was a minor success but had a lot of problems, oh. so many hang ups! Things are sooo un organized here and gambians have a different way of thinking and communicating.... not that we don't get along but working together... sometimes its just a halarious mess. Next, I wrote a proposal to get a few thousand American dollars to do a small project in 6 villages starting soon, with the end of the rains. I haven't heard back yet about the funding. but the project is.. yep, tree nurseries! But this time, not mangos or fruit trees at all, but only fuel wood trees. The Gambia's beautiful forests are all but gone and it's so heartbreaking... most of it is from women collecting firewood. The funds would actually pay villagers for each successful tree they plant... it's based on the Green Belt Project in Kenya which was really successful. If I get that going then I will be so happy... trees, I really love them! The giant baobobs, silk cottons and mahoghanys- they remind me of dinosaurs, they seem like they could seriously just up root and start roaming around, like in the Lord of the Rings. They are magestic. I'm also encouraging the youth group of Jamagen to harvest honey and sell that, and get that organized. That's going well. Last thing, I'm a little nervous I guess and so am dragging my feet on this project, but I want to have kind of a kid's club in Jamagen. Something that mixes environmental ed, arts and crafts, fishing and other sweet skills, and yeah i guess teaching a little English too... I hesitate to teach English and might instead teach reading and writing in Woolof. I hate that assimilation thing, it's what I hate about development work. I know English is good to know and all that, but gosh it just goes against something in me... to come and spread the great Western gospel. So maybe if certain people kids who already go to school want to be tutored in English, then I can do that. But I'm hesitating to start because I don't want to start something I can't finish, don't want to be in over my head. But I'm bout to just jump in.

Speaking of jumping in! I have a new site mate, her name is Philipa and she lives about 3 k away in the same village as Elgn, my other site mate (both teachers)... she's rad, it's so fun to have another girl near by. Well, my story about jumping in goes... it's sweltering hot one Sunday, during Ramadan. Everyone is just laying around fanning themselves. The three of us snapped and decided to break the PC law about not swimming in the river (this is off the record). We bought a watermelon, the first of the season and some cookies and took our bikes to the river. We met 4 small boys doubled up atop some donkeys and they too were going for a dip, so they showed us the way and assured there were no hippos here, only fish. They lead us through some mangrove areas to a nice deep spot and entertained us for the afternoon. Anyway, it was much fun just floating the the brown mostly warm water... reminded me of my days in east Texas lakes. We're schemeing now to build a raft, since there are no skiing boats around. It's nice to go be away from people in nature, you feel almost not in The Gambia. The palm forests all around, the beautiful birds... the cows."

Anyway hope everyone is enjoying. I'm going to Morrocco at the end of October... SOOO excited!