Watch this video on the President of The Gambia curing AIDS. This is so telling of... a lot here. Many people believe this because their president would never lie to them.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30200-hurd_p2623,00.html#
The article that goes with it:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1252349,00.html
Showing posts with label The Gambia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Gambia. Show all posts
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Being away from America, on the outside of the bubble of American life, I've had some major realizations about the culture; the great American way is really bizzare. And it's not the only way, though from the inside it can seem that way.
Here's some major contrasts between here and there:
1. Here, petty/bratty arguing between kids doesn't seem to exist; the culture is not based on individualism and competition, so siblings, pre-teens, highschoolers, everyone communicates with everyone else with relaxed, comfortable respect. Not that there aren't fights, but they seem to be pretty cut and dry.
2. No one avoids eye contact when passing by; (you see this in small town America too) greeting everyone is a cultural must-do. I think it just adds to the friendly neighborly-ness, plus it's just kinda nice.
3. It is a classless society- everyone is on equal terms and everything is shared openly. Anyone who walks by a compound at meal time will be invited (ordered) to come and eat. .
4. People work hard and live off the land; they build their houses out of mud bricks, they grow their grains and veggies, they make tea from bush leaves, baskets from grass, lotion for leftover candles wax and oil, incense, henna, medicine from certain trees, tools from welded metal, furniture from local wood, etc.
All that been said, I see this mass desire for westernization! They ALL think America and Europe are wonderful, they all want modern things... they see money, luxury, 'the good life.' What they don't see is the massive ecological destruction that a consumerist culture brings. They want "development," but they see the replacement and assimilation of native cultures that comes with globalization.
Development: it is a dynamic process of improvement, which implies a change, an evolution, growth and advancement.
Ok, but by whose standards? How should we measure poverty? What is "improvement?" As development workers (if you choose to go that route as a PCV), we get to decide, based on the needs and desires of the communities we serve how we want to measure development. I say it's definitely not numbers in a bankroll or the number of paved roads a country has. To me it's not measured in economic growth but in a community's ability to live autonomously, replenishing the land they use, providing a stable, safe, healthy and happy environment for its population. Development should ensure that a community will be able to LAST, survive, thrive... not to grow in size or monetary wealth, or bring in factories and roads. The thing that America/ westernized civilization never questions is the standard of development... if the more we grow, the more energy we need, the more cars we drive, the more land we need to clear theennnn.... the more global warming we'll have, the more species we'll wipe out and the more resources (water, coal) we'll suck dry. Uh, right? So why would we all world-wide blindly agree that that's the MAIN goal?
My line of thought: money equal a class society equals inequality. Money will never be distributed equally and will lead to more imported goods- stuff people don't need shipped to them on huge petrol-consuming liners, in cardboard boxes whose production caused deforestation in some distant place that can be ignored, or in plastic packages whose production used more oil and gas and whose waste products were dumped into some distant river that can be ignored, all dyed with hazardous chemicals using cheap labor exploiting (probably native) people from another far away "developing community" somewhere far away, whom we can ignore.
I think I'll pass on that, as much as I can. It's not up to me to decide for my village what they want, but I can try my hardest to make them see the value and beauty of their lifestyle the way it is. I can try to make them see the value of their natural environment and the need to replenish and restore their own resources so that they can continue to self-sustain.
Hopefully I'll use the next two years to help replenish the local resources and encourage pride in self-sustainability. And chill out here, enjoying the beauty of this type of lifestyle- a place without money that can provide for itself is a place with no stress, no depression or anxiety. A culture without individualistic competition is a culture of happy, stable and respectful people. People who do physical labor everyday are healthy people who don't suffer from obesity, high rates of cancer, high blood pressure and other diseases of the affluent.
Here's some major contrasts between here and there:
1. Here, petty/bratty arguing between kids doesn't seem to exist; the culture is not based on individualism and competition, so siblings, pre-teens, highschoolers, everyone communicates with everyone else with relaxed, comfortable respect. Not that there aren't fights, but they seem to be pretty cut and dry.
2. No one avoids eye contact when passing by; (you see this in small town America too) greeting everyone is a cultural must-do. I think it just adds to the friendly neighborly-ness, plus it's just kinda nice.
3. It is a classless society- everyone is on equal terms and everything is shared openly. Anyone who walks by a compound at meal time will be invited (ordered) to come and eat. .
4. People work hard and live off the land; they build their houses out of mud bricks, they grow their grains and veggies, they make tea from bush leaves, baskets from grass, lotion for leftover candles wax and oil, incense, henna, medicine from certain trees, tools from welded metal, furniture from local wood, etc.
All that been said, I see this mass desire for westernization! They ALL think America and Europe are wonderful, they all want modern things... they see money, luxury, 'the good life.' What they don't see is the massive ecological destruction that a consumerist culture brings. They want "development," but they see the replacement and assimilation of native cultures that comes with globalization.
Development: it is a dynamic process of improvement, which implies a change, an evolution, growth and advancement.
Ok, but by whose standards? How should we measure poverty? What is "improvement?" As development workers (if you choose to go that route as a PCV), we get to decide, based on the needs and desires of the communities we serve how we want to measure development. I say it's definitely not numbers in a bankroll or the number of paved roads a country has. To me it's not measured in economic growth but in a community's ability to live autonomously, replenishing the land they use, providing a stable, safe, healthy and happy environment for its population. Development should ensure that a community will be able to LAST, survive, thrive... not to grow in size or monetary wealth, or bring in factories and roads. The thing that America/ westernized civilization never questions is the standard of development... if the more we grow, the more energy we need, the more cars we drive, the more land we need to clear theennnn.... the more global warming we'll have, the more species we'll wipe out and the more resources (water, coal) we'll suck dry. Uh, right? So why would we all world-wide blindly agree that that's the MAIN goal?
My line of thought: money equal a class society equals inequality. Money will never be distributed equally and will lead to more imported goods- stuff people don't need shipped to them on huge petrol-consuming liners, in cardboard boxes whose production caused deforestation in some distant place that can be ignored, or in plastic packages whose production used more oil and gas and whose waste products were dumped into some distant river that can be ignored, all dyed with hazardous chemicals using cheap labor exploiting (probably native) people from another far away "developing community" somewhere far away, whom we can ignore.
I think I'll pass on that, as much as I can. It's not up to me to decide for my village what they want, but I can try my hardest to make them see the value and beauty of their lifestyle the way it is. I can try to make them see the value of their natural environment and the need to replenish and restore their own resources so that they can continue to self-sustain.
Hopefully I'll use the next two years to help replenish the local resources and encourage pride in self-sustainability. And chill out here, enjoying the beauty of this type of lifestyle- a place without money that can provide for itself is a place with no stress, no depression or anxiety. A culture without individualistic competition is a culture of happy, stable and respectful people. People who do physical labor everyday are healthy people who don't suffer from obesity, high rates of cancer, high blood pressure and other diseases of the affluent.
So What Are You Doing?
So everyone asks what I'm doing, what I'm up to. I'll try to give some of the cool highlights of my days here...
You know I live in Jamagen, a small village of about 17 compounds- which are extended family groups, basically a u-shaped cluster of mud huts with a common area in the middle, space for small cassava and papaya gardens and maybe a few cows. Because The Gambia is the final destination for about 8 different tribes of Africa, my village is a cool mix of Woolof (what I speak), Pulaar or Fulas, Mandinkas, and another tribe similar to Mandinkas (both from Mali) called the Bambaras. There are also some Serers. My compound is Bambara, but they all speak Woolof and a little of everything like most Gambians. The compound consists of 3 brothers, two of them with one wife each and all their many kids, and their mom- my very old and very cool grandma. Madou is the youngest brother, unmarried now, about 25 yrs old, speaks fairly good English and is way cool. There are 11 kids in the compound, ranging from less than a year to about 18 maybe- they don't know their birthdays or how old they are and are confused when I ask (why would I want to know?)! I hang out a lot with the oldest girl (18?), Sabu, and the two second oldest girls, born 4 days apart from the 2 different wives in the compound (about 12 yrs old i think), Seneba and Nagale. I also hang out a lot with Roxi Bah and her family, (25 yrs?) in the Fula compound next to me.
So a typical day...?
Wake up at 7, push back the mosquito net, go for a jog or a seed-collecting walk, for my hopeful woodlot (more on that later). Come back, rinse off with water from my bucket... yep water I hauled on my head...water my little orange tree and baby papaya shoots. Go join my grandma around the fire-in-a-bowl where she heats water for tea- it's still a little chilly in the mornings here and by that i mean maybe 70 C. One child after another stumble out and wriggle in around the fire, poke each other and the fire with sticks. Two kids put on their uniforms and get ready for school (one girl, one boy, both about 8 or 9). The nearest school is 2 k away in Kuntair, where I will teach 2 days a week General Science to 7th graders- more on that later! I eat breakfast with the women, either rice porridge or coos porridge, in a big communal bowl. Coos is what we use as birdseed in the US (called millet) but it's actually really good, is a healthy whole grain with lots of fiber and anti-oxidants- it's the Gambia's main crop, along with peanuts. My mornings are free... I sweep my house, maybe do a little laundry, and usually hear Roxi call my name to come over. I hang out there for a while, they give me "sour milk" which is milk that has sat in a bowl in a cool place for a day or so and has become yogurt. You add sugar and sometimes coos and it is seriously amazing! Fula's are nomadic herders by nature and even the settled ones usually have a few cows. Some of them say they can talk to cows, which could be a useful skill for me to pick up while I'm here.
Sometimes I go visit the men working in their garden's along Jamagen's awesome tributary, or go with Roxi and my sisters to collect downed firewood from the forest around the river... yep I carry it back on my head haha! It's the season for "bush fruits" or forest fruits, and there's about 10 different kinds of yummy figs, plums, edible seed pods, ect... I've been collecting these too for a fruit tree section of my wood lot! My favorite is called Mam Poto it's sooo good- I also named Roxi's family's little puppy that since he likes to eat them too.
Lunch is always rice with "maffe"- a delicious sauce made from their delicious home made p-nut butter, fish, hot pepper and onion. After lunch it's hot... which means it's prime sittin-around-chattin-brewin-attaya-shelling-peanuts-time.
Attaya is worth describing if you don't already know what it is. All Gambians berw attaya. It's green tea imported from China, pre-crushed up, in a little box, at least a few ounces. They all have their attya sets- two small plastic shot glasses, a tea pot and a burner which is small metal cooker that they load up with embers from their cooking fires and set their tea pots on. A whole pack of green tea goes into the pot and is brewed with water. Sugar is added and the attaya is poured skillfully from pot to shot glass to shot glass to pot to mix in the (digusting amount of) sugar and then to cool it a little. Now half or whole shot glasses are poured, the nearest small child takes a tray with attaya shots around to each adult presently sitting around, who slurps it down and gives it back. 3 rounds can be poured from one batch. This is just a Gambian thing, a nice social luxury that they enjoy, tho it is addicting and can get to be an expensive habit. Some men brew three times a day!
So I chat and hang out till about 5. Then I haul water with my sisters and go to the big women's garden with all the ladies. We water everything (my little garden, plus their many beds of cabbage, tomatos, lettuce and onions). I love this time: all women and girls are there, the sun is setting, everyone's chatting, it's fun. They we go go home, all tired, just as the sun is setting. I take another bucket bath and hang out till dinner... ususally coos with a green sauce (maybe made from the stalks of onions, or the leaves of cassava or of the moringa tree). Often there's fried whole fish which I'm starting to like (protein is protein!) Chicken or goat are for special occasions only and I've never seen beef but peanuts and fish are actually plenty- I feel way healthy!
There's a day in Jamagen! Special days are Saturdays when I bike with another close volunteer in the nearest market, and buy eggplant and garlic and onions for our food bowl and eat been sandwiches and drink coolish Fanta sometimes. This is always an interesting time... but because it's a big market, people come from all over so you do hear "toubab" a little.
Toubab is worth explaining if you don't know about it. It's the term used I think all over Africa for white person, modern person, person with money, person not Gambian. Many volunteers HATE is and made a big deal about not being called toubab. My take is that... well, I am white, I do have money (relatively ok?), and I'm not Gambian so sure. It's usually little kids and I usually respond to their bird-call like squawk with an mimic cry "Child!" One time at the lumo a boy trailed me for 5 minutes squawking "Toubab" and I was so annoyed I turned around and began gretting him in Woolof, which embarrassed him a little and hopefully made him feel rude. The main point is that many tourists give out candy ("minties")/money/pens to the kids so they assume I'm a tourist. If I greet them, or say hey "greet me first" then they get it- they just want to talk to you and hold your hand while you walk around. Once, when I was in another bigger village (touristy) for a workshop, some girls were hanging around, saying "toubab how are you what is your name" and I started talking to them in Woolof- they shrieked and giggled and then one grabbed my hand and said something wonderful (in Woolof) "You're not a toubab, you speak Woolof nice!"...I was elated, I just wanted to hug her and give her minties and coins! So I'm a toubab.
So everyone asks what I'm doing, what I'm up to. I'll try to give some of the cool highlights of my days here...
You know I live in Jamagen, a small village of about 17 compounds- which are extended family groups, basically a u-shaped cluster of mud huts with a common area in the middle, space for small cassava and papaya gardens and maybe a few cows. Because The Gambia is the final destination for about 8 different tribes of Africa, my village is a cool mix of Woolof (what I speak), Pulaar or Fulas, Mandinkas, and another tribe similar to Mandinkas (both from Mali) called the Bambaras. There are also some Serers. My compound is Bambara, but they all speak Woolof and a little of everything like most Gambians. The compound consists of 3 brothers, two of them with one wife each and all their many kids, and their mom- my very old and very cool grandma. Madou is the youngest brother, unmarried now, about 25 yrs old, speaks fairly good English and is way cool. There are 11 kids in the compound, ranging from less than a year to about 18 maybe- they don't know their birthdays or how old they are and are confused when I ask (why would I want to know?)! I hang out a lot with the oldest girl (18?), Sabu, and the two second oldest girls, born 4 days apart from the 2 different wives in the compound (about 12 yrs old i think), Seneba and Nagale. I also hang out a lot with Roxi Bah and her family, (25 yrs?) in the Fula compound next to me.
So a typical day...?
Wake up at 7, push back the mosquito net, go for a jog or a seed-collecting walk, for my hopeful woodlot (more on that later). Come back, rinse off with water from my bucket... yep water I hauled on my head...water my little orange tree and baby papaya shoots. Go join my grandma around the fire-in-a-bowl where she heats water for tea- it's still a little chilly in the mornings here and by that i mean maybe 70 C. One child after another stumble out and wriggle in around the fire, poke each other and the fire with sticks. Two kids put on their uniforms and get ready for school (one girl, one boy, both about 8 or 9). The nearest school is 2 k away in Kuntair, where I will teach 2 days a week General Science to 7th graders- more on that later! I eat breakfast with the women, either rice porridge or coos porridge, in a big communal bowl. Coos is what we use as birdseed in the US (called millet) but it's actually really good, is a healthy whole grain with lots of fiber and anti-oxidants- it's the Gambia's main crop, along with peanuts. My mornings are free... I sweep my house, maybe do a little laundry, and usually hear Roxi call my name to come over. I hang out there for a while, they give me "sour milk" which is milk that has sat in a bowl in a cool place for a day or so and has become yogurt. You add sugar and sometimes coos and it is seriously amazing! Fula's are nomadic herders by nature and even the settled ones usually have a few cows. Some of them say they can talk to cows, which could be a useful skill for me to pick up while I'm here.
Sometimes I go visit the men working in their garden's along Jamagen's awesome tributary, or go with Roxi and my sisters to collect downed firewood from the forest around the river... yep I carry it back on my head haha! It's the season for "bush fruits" or forest fruits, and there's about 10 different kinds of yummy figs, plums, edible seed pods, ect... I've been collecting these too for a fruit tree section of my wood lot! My favorite is called Mam Poto it's sooo good- I also named Roxi's family's little puppy that since he likes to eat them too.
Lunch is always rice with "maffe"- a delicious sauce made from their delicious home made p-nut butter, fish, hot pepper and onion. After lunch it's hot... which means it's prime sittin-around-chattin-brewin-attaya-shelling-peanuts-time.
Attaya is worth describing if you don't already know what it is. All Gambians berw attaya. It's green tea imported from China, pre-crushed up, in a little box, at least a few ounces. They all have their attya sets- two small plastic shot glasses, a tea pot and a burner which is small metal cooker that they load up with embers from their cooking fires and set their tea pots on. A whole pack of green tea goes into the pot and is brewed with water. Sugar is added and the attaya is poured skillfully from pot to shot glass to shot glass to pot to mix in the (digusting amount of) sugar and then to cool it a little. Now half or whole shot glasses are poured, the nearest small child takes a tray with attaya shots around to each adult presently sitting around, who slurps it down and gives it back. 3 rounds can be poured from one batch. This is just a Gambian thing, a nice social luxury that they enjoy, tho it is addicting and can get to be an expensive habit. Some men brew three times a day!
So I chat and hang out till about 5. Then I haul water with my sisters and go to the big women's garden with all the ladies. We water everything (my little garden, plus their many beds of cabbage, tomatos, lettuce and onions). I love this time: all women and girls are there, the sun is setting, everyone's chatting, it's fun. They we go go home, all tired, just as the sun is setting. I take another bucket bath and hang out till dinner... ususally coos with a green sauce (maybe made from the stalks of onions, or the leaves of cassava or of the moringa tree). Often there's fried whole fish which I'm starting to like (protein is protein!) Chicken or goat are for special occasions only and I've never seen beef but peanuts and fish are actually plenty- I feel way healthy!
There's a day in Jamagen! Special days are Saturdays when I bike with another close volunteer in the nearest market, and buy eggplant and garlic and onions for our food bowl and eat been sandwiches and drink coolish Fanta sometimes. This is always an interesting time... but because it's a big market, people come from all over so you do hear "toubab" a little.
Toubab is worth explaining if you don't know about it. It's the term used I think all over Africa for white person, modern person, person with money, person not Gambian. Many volunteers HATE is and made a big deal about not being called toubab. My take is that... well, I am white, I do have money (relatively ok?), and I'm not Gambian so sure. It's usually little kids and I usually respond to their bird-call like squawk with an mimic cry "Child!" One time at the lumo a boy trailed me for 5 minutes squawking "Toubab" and I was so annoyed I turned around and began gretting him in Woolof, which embarrassed him a little and hopefully made him feel rude. The main point is that many tourists give out candy ("minties")/money/pens to the kids so they assume I'm a tourist. If I greet them, or say hey "greet me first" then they get it- they just want to talk to you and hold your hand while you walk around. Once, when I was in another bigger village (touristy) for a workshop, some girls were hanging around, saying "toubab how are you what is your name" and I started talking to them in Woolof- they shrieked and giggled and then one grabbed my hand and said something wonderful (in Woolof) "You're not a toubab, you speak Woolof nice!"...I was elated, I just wanted to hug her and give her minties and coins! So I'm a toubab.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
So I'm back in the Kombo area after only 4 days in village! There was a small problem in Ker Katim... the bidiks (small stores) were robbed by several men with guns. It's kind of a long story, not entirely pleasant...
It's wierd because The Gambia has no money! Ker Katim has no money itself but the bidiks there sell a lot of sugar to Senegal because they're right on the border, and sugar is cheaper in The Gazmbia (especailly if you sell it at night when customs is closed and you don't pay the sugar tax.) They use CEFA, a currency that's used all over parts of west Africa, and there was a lot of money concentrated there in little Ker Katim. I heard on the Gambian radio that 7 million CEFA was stolen. Several men were shot at, two were critically wounded but I think will be OK. When I heard gunshots, I left and went to a near-by village and stayed the night there.
This kind of thing never happens in sweet little Gambia! Gambians are so peaceful... if they were any more laid back, the recliner would tip over. If they had any more of their "peace only" they'd all be experiencing Nirvana... So it's sad that it happened, but I'm excited about getting to my new post, called "Jamagen" which I think, at least in Woolof, means "Peace" (jamma) and "more or most" (gena). So my new site is the most peaceiest place in all of Gambia...
Well happy hollidays to everyone! I'm getting PC transport tomorrow to take me to make the move, then I can sigh and start again. I'll being going even further up country to visit a group of friends for Christmas... can't wait! Take care!
It's wierd because The Gambia has no money! Ker Katim has no money itself but the bidiks there sell a lot of sugar to Senegal because they're right on the border, and sugar is cheaper in The Gazmbia (especailly if you sell it at night when customs is closed and you don't pay the sugar tax.) They use CEFA, a currency that's used all over parts of west Africa, and there was a lot of money concentrated there in little Ker Katim. I heard on the Gambian radio that 7 million CEFA was stolen. Several men were shot at, two were critically wounded but I think will be OK. When I heard gunshots, I left and went to a near-by village and stayed the night there.
This kind of thing never happens in sweet little Gambia! Gambians are so peaceful... if they were any more laid back, the recliner would tip over. If they had any more of their "peace only" they'd all be experiencing Nirvana... So it's sad that it happened, but I'm excited about getting to my new post, called "Jamagen" which I think, at least in Woolof, means "Peace" (jamma) and "more or most" (gena). So my new site is the most peaceiest place in all of Gambia...
Well happy hollidays to everyone! I'm getting PC transport tomorrow to take me to make the move, then I can sigh and start again. I'll being going even further up country to visit a group of friends for Christmas... can't wait! Take care!
Thursday, December 07, 2006
It is the eve of our swearing-in... the eve of our baptism in the murky croc-infested waters of PCV-dom! We will be born again as fully prepapred, totally trained and highly skilled PCVs... or something close-ish. We're all feeling pretty nervous about shipping out to our respective villages- partly nervous-excited, partly peeing our pants scared nervous (perhaps I should just speak for myself on that one). But we're ready for sure- this week has been tiring.
Our week has consisted of breakfast at 8, a few last mintue training sessions and LOTS of shopping. We've been browsing the little grocery and electronic marts on the few kilometer walk to the beach, trying to get stuff to cook with and to outfit our houses with. Our shopping lists include cell phones, shortwave radios to get our precious BBC, paint for our white washed plaster walls in our mud hutts, stoves to cook with and fruit trees to plant in our yards, seeds for out gardens, all manner of solar things, mattresses/pillows, ect.
The markets are amazing to me... you walk down the streets and everyone has their little cubby hole, selling whatever it is that they sell... fabrics, veggies, cell phone, cola nuts, brooms, fish... then you make a turn into the maze of alleys just jam packed with smiling Gambian sales people. Gambians are just so cool too, so laid back and they love to chat so it's a good place to practice language. I can't help looking around and just loving it all... humanity is sweet. But it's been a bit exhausting trying to anticipate everything we'll need for the next long while. We can shop at local markets in our villages, but of course they won't have much beyond the basics so we're stockin up.
What's NOT exhausting is the beach... there are four or five of us who make the walk about every day. The beach is really nice, the water is beautiful and the waves are really big... perfect for trying to body surf. That amounts to me jumping into an oncoming wave, getting pummeled like a sock in a dryer, giggling and swallowing a pint of delicious sea water... standing up, coughing, sputtering and repeating.
So... I'm trying slowly to upload picutres to Photobucket. I will also link my freind Karissa's pictures to my blog. She's a great photog. and should have some interesting pics.
Well guys this might be it for a little while! I will be off on Sunday to Ker Katim, where I'll spend my first three months trying to find my niche in my family and my village. A little about my project ideas:
In the North Bank, deforestation is devastating. My host dad, the progressive Woolof that he is would like to start a tree nursery so that he can sell trees for firewood and for building things- so I'll be trying to figure out how to start that. The other thing I know I'll be working on is writing a grant to get a water pump or a water catchment system in Ker Katim... they have two small wells, both open with no pump and both 30m deep! So water is hard to come-by, meaning it's hard to garden and to grow fruit trees, ect. Also, I'm hoping to work with another girl in a neighboring "big" village on the All School Tree Nursery Competition... it's all about the reforestation, and I am a big ol tree hugger. Can't wait! I will report back after our a few weeks in village, with some details of my project idas.
Write me, email me if ya want, send me news from the sates! Send me chocolate, send me CD's, send me pretty pictures of your smiling faces for my walls. I love you all, smooches.
oh, and crossword puzzels.
Our week has consisted of breakfast at 8, a few last mintue training sessions and LOTS of shopping. We've been browsing the little grocery and electronic marts on the few kilometer walk to the beach, trying to get stuff to cook with and to outfit our houses with. Our shopping lists include cell phones, shortwave radios to get our precious BBC, paint for our white washed plaster walls in our mud hutts, stoves to cook with and fruit trees to plant in our yards, seeds for out gardens, all manner of solar things, mattresses/pillows, ect.
The markets are amazing to me... you walk down the streets and everyone has their little cubby hole, selling whatever it is that they sell... fabrics, veggies, cell phone, cola nuts, brooms, fish... then you make a turn into the maze of alleys just jam packed with smiling Gambian sales people. Gambians are just so cool too, so laid back and they love to chat so it's a good place to practice language. I can't help looking around and just loving it all... humanity is sweet. But it's been a bit exhausting trying to anticipate everything we'll need for the next long while. We can shop at local markets in our villages, but of course they won't have much beyond the basics so we're stockin up.
What's NOT exhausting is the beach... there are four or five of us who make the walk about every day. The beach is really nice, the water is beautiful and the waves are really big... perfect for trying to body surf. That amounts to me jumping into an oncoming wave, getting pummeled like a sock in a dryer, giggling and swallowing a pint of delicious sea water... standing up, coughing, sputtering and repeating.
So... I'm trying slowly to upload picutres to Photobucket. I will also link my freind Karissa's pictures to my blog. She's a great photog. and should have some interesting pics.
Well guys this might be it for a little while! I will be off on Sunday to Ker Katim, where I'll spend my first three months trying to find my niche in my family and my village. A little about my project ideas:
In the North Bank, deforestation is devastating. My host dad, the progressive Woolof that he is would like to start a tree nursery so that he can sell trees for firewood and for building things- so I'll be trying to figure out how to start that. The other thing I know I'll be working on is writing a grant to get a water pump or a water catchment system in Ker Katim... they have two small wells, both open with no pump and both 30m deep! So water is hard to come-by, meaning it's hard to garden and to grow fruit trees, ect. Also, I'm hoping to work with another girl in a neighboring "big" village on the All School Tree Nursery Competition... it's all about the reforestation, and I am a big ol tree hugger. Can't wait! I will report back after our a few weeks in village, with some details of my project idas.
Write me, email me if ya want, send me news from the sates! Send me chocolate, send me CD's, send me pretty pictures of your smiling faces for my walls. I love you all, smooches.
oh, and crossword puzzels.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Middle of October 2006
Hey Everyone,
Hello!! Let me just first say that I am really missing you guys and I wish I could hear your voices! I’m going to send this letter to my Mom, and then maybe she can type it into an email – letters are fairly expensive to send, because we’re now living on Delassi and we’re living on the equivalent of other Gambian life-costs. So… we have D900 (=$30) until November 1! I bought a beer on the beach (D40), required cola nuts to bring to our host families (1/2 kilo, D160), some dates (D5), whisky (D50), and 3 ½ letters worth of stamps (D120) – D375 total. I still need laundry soap, toilet paper, etc., so it’s a tight little budget.
So! We’re all here, staying in dorms at this little training center. We’ve been split up into language training groups: 15 are learning Mandinka, 6 are learning Fula, 4 Woolof – that’s me! Although all 3 languages (and several others too) are spoken all over the country, there are concentrated areas of each. Woolof is the main language spoken by the Senegalese (which makes me happy because I can travel to Senegal and get around) and is concentrated in the more urban areas, like around the capital (Banjul) here and in the north-west part of the country. So, not to speculate, but it may be that I’ll have some electricity or at least closer access to it. We won’t get our assignments for a month or so more.
During the next 10 weeks, the 4 Woolof’s and our teacher will be living with our individual host families in Sare Saamba – a very rural village on the Sought border of Senegal. Mostly in Sare Saamba, we’ll be learning Woolof. Every other week, we get together at camp Ten-da-ba (look it up on the net, its cool-http://www.moxon.net/the_gambia/tendaba.html) and have more learning sessions – stuff (also, all our agriculture skills and classes, bee keeping, etc. a.k.a “sweet skills”) less geared toward language, like filed trips, cultural stuff. So we’ll be going back and forth between Sare Saamba with our language groups/Ten-da-ba with everyone.
Woolof is so cool. It sounds very Caribbean. This is my favorite phrase so far. It’s part of the extensive greetings. Goes like this: Naka leegey bi? (Knock-a lee-gay{stretch this syllable out}?) May ci kawam, ndanka, ndanka. (Mong cheek o-wam, n-donk-a, n-donk-a {emphasis on donk}). And it means – “How’s your job?” And then (best part!) “I’m on it, slowly, slowly.” This is a standard line in their greetings, if that tells you anything about the culture!
Our training center is a catholic mission owned place, very small but pretty with lots of flowers, trees. The birds here are amazing! My roommate Katie and several others are into birding and bought the one and only Gambian bird book. I might like to get into that a little at my site.
We’re training just outside Banjul (BAN-jewl) the capital (only 30,000). We have toilets that flush sometimes, some electricity, running cold showers. It is so f’ing hot/humid here, and our room doesn’t have a fan so at first it was hard to sleep. We take cold showers right before bed, then lay around dripping into your pillow. But it’s better now, I’ve been sleeping like a babe – during the day there’s a nice maritime breeze.
I got my first bout of stomach troubles today, but I think it’s from eating the cola nuts yesterday. We were all walking through the market, supposed to buy cola nuts to bring to our host families. It was crazy, pretty exciting – but we all were wondering what was so cool about them ,because people give them as thank you gifts, celebration gifts, can I marry a few of your daughters gifts, everything… and they’re kind of a stimulant of sorts (I haven’t really felt anything, so I guess it’s subtle, but I trust them!) So, we all started chewing on them, even thought their gross, we wanted to be Gambians, Their tubers and they taste like little raw potatoes. Any who, we didn’t wash them and so…I got a little sick.
The food here is just a scotch monotonous…rice, hard white bread, over cooked but yummy veggies and meat in spicy really good sauce and fried fish…everything with palm oil, kinda greasy. Yuck-o “porridge” for breakfast, spam sandwiches (oh, sorry “corned beef”) for tea time, yogurt and papaya/watermelon for dessert.
We’ve had some really awesome training…I’m so pumped up about all the possibilities for projects. The Gambia has a constant growing season, and endless crops they haven’t taken advantage of…just tons we can do here, seriously…more about all that later, but I’m excited. Our trips have taken us also to a mosque, an eco-tourist resort (sweetest site placement ever!), a little mini-zoo run by a hippie-Belgium man with three wives. This naked son ran around with us carrying harmless giant pythons around his neck…that was a great time. My fear of snakes is dissipating, as is the needle fear…which I think is so cool.
More about my interesting group of PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers) later. Ok, I love you all very much – I’m loving every moment of this ride, learning and soaking up so much. Please write, and tell me details of that’s up with you. Also, sending money instead of goodies is wonderful (smaller bills!).
Love,
Steph
PS If you want to send me packages read the package link on my blog. Stuff that can easily fit in a padded envelop: spices (cumin, pepper, et.) powdered Gatorade, CD’s, Pictures PLEASE!! (laminated), etc.
*Possibly later: protein/fiber powders, bird book, binoculars
* Speakers!! Maybe that can work for my CD player & IPod Shuffle. Card reader for my camera (though one guy does have one, so let’s wait on this).
*Solar powered battery charger (batteries here suck and I don’t wanna keep buying and throwing away – which means dumping down my pit latrine.
Hey Everyone,
Hello!! Let me just first say that I am really missing you guys and I wish I could hear your voices! I’m going to send this letter to my Mom, and then maybe she can type it into an email – letters are fairly expensive to send, because we’re now living on Delassi and we’re living on the equivalent of other Gambian life-costs. So… we have D900 (=$30) until November 1! I bought a beer on the beach (D40), required cola nuts to bring to our host families (1/2 kilo, D160), some dates (D5), whisky (D50), and 3 ½ letters worth of stamps (D120) – D375 total. I still need laundry soap, toilet paper, etc., so it’s a tight little budget.
So! We’re all here, staying in dorms at this little training center. We’ve been split up into language training groups: 15 are learning Mandinka, 6 are learning Fula, 4 Woolof – that’s me! Although all 3 languages (and several others too) are spoken all over the country, there are concentrated areas of each. Woolof is the main language spoken by the Senegalese (which makes me happy because I can travel to Senegal and get around) and is concentrated in the more urban areas, like around the capital (Banjul) here and in the north-west part of the country. So, not to speculate, but it may be that I’ll have some electricity or at least closer access to it. We won’t get our assignments for a month or so more.
During the next 10 weeks, the 4 Woolof’s and our teacher will be living with our individual host families in Sare Saamba – a very rural village on the Sought border of Senegal. Mostly in Sare Saamba, we’ll be learning Woolof. Every other week, we get together at camp Ten-da-ba (look it up on the net, its cool-http://www.moxon.net/the_gambia/tendaba.html) and have more learning sessions – stuff (also, all our agriculture skills and classes, bee keeping, etc. a.k.a “sweet skills”) less geared toward language, like filed trips, cultural stuff. So we’ll be going back and forth between Sare Saamba with our language groups/Ten-da-ba with everyone.
Woolof is so cool. It sounds very Caribbean. This is my favorite phrase so far. It’s part of the extensive greetings. Goes like this: Naka leegey bi? (Knock-a lee-gay{stretch this syllable out}?) May ci kawam, ndanka, ndanka. (Mong cheek o-wam, n-donk-a, n-donk-a {emphasis on donk}). And it means – “How’s your job?” And then (best part!) “I’m on it, slowly, slowly.” This is a standard line in their greetings, if that tells you anything about the culture!
Our training center is a catholic mission owned place, very small but pretty with lots of flowers, trees. The birds here are amazing! My roommate Katie and several others are into birding and bought the one and only Gambian bird book. I might like to get into that a little at my site.
We’re training just outside Banjul (BAN-jewl) the capital (only 30,000). We have toilets that flush sometimes, some electricity, running cold showers. It is so f’ing hot/humid here, and our room doesn’t have a fan so at first it was hard to sleep. We take cold showers right before bed, then lay around dripping into your pillow. But it’s better now, I’ve been sleeping like a babe – during the day there’s a nice maritime breeze.
I got my first bout of stomach troubles today, but I think it’s from eating the cola nuts yesterday. We were all walking through the market, supposed to buy cola nuts to bring to our host families. It was crazy, pretty exciting – but we all were wondering what was so cool about them ,because people give them as thank you gifts, celebration gifts, can I marry a few of your daughters gifts, everything… and they’re kind of a stimulant of sorts (I haven’t really felt anything, so I guess it’s subtle, but I trust them!) So, we all started chewing on them, even thought their gross, we wanted to be Gambians, Their tubers and they taste like little raw potatoes. Any who, we didn’t wash them and so…I got a little sick.
The food here is just a scotch monotonous…rice, hard white bread, over cooked but yummy veggies and meat in spicy really good sauce and fried fish…everything with palm oil, kinda greasy. Yuck-o “porridge” for breakfast, spam sandwiches (oh, sorry “corned beef”) for tea time, yogurt and papaya/watermelon for dessert.
We’ve had some really awesome training…I’m so pumped up about all the possibilities for projects. The Gambia has a constant growing season, and endless crops they haven’t taken advantage of…just tons we can do here, seriously…more about all that later, but I’m excited. Our trips have taken us also to a mosque, an eco-tourist resort (sweetest site placement ever!), a little mini-zoo run by a hippie-Belgium man with three wives. This naked son ran around with us carrying harmless giant pythons around his neck…that was a great time. My fear of snakes is dissipating, as is the needle fear…which I think is so cool.
More about my interesting group of PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers) later. Ok, I love you all very much – I’m loving every moment of this ride, learning and soaking up so much. Please write, and tell me details of that’s up with you. Also, sending money instead of goodies is wonderful (smaller bills!).
Love,
Steph
PS If you want to send me packages read the package link on my blog. Stuff that can easily fit in a padded envelop: spices (cumin, pepper, et.) powdered Gatorade, CD’s, Pictures PLEASE!! (laminated), etc.
*Possibly later: protein/fiber powders, bird book, binoculars
* Speakers!! Maybe that can work for my CD player & IPod Shuffle. Card reader for my camera (though one guy does have one, so let’s wait on this).
*Solar powered battery charger (batteries here suck and I don’t wanna keep buying and throwing away – which means dumping down my pit latrine.
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