Meaning to read this... then maybe I'll write something about it, maybe not. Yep, I'm still alive if anybody is reading ;-) Life in Africa is good... no video game violence that I've seen, and plenty of confusion over how the Virginia Tech shootings could have happened - at least for people at work understanding both the size of the campus and U.S. gun laws given their impression of how regular

Take a look at this article: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1168172.ece What is described in that article is exactly what happens 5 minutes walk (and closer) from my door.  It is the reason why I don't like spending much time on the beach, and the bane of many volunteers because of the droves of young men looking for a score.  The word used to describe the men here is "

So it is hard to believe it but I've now been here a whole year... and new group of trainees is in and Zac and Colleen are busy training them up (corrupting their minds I'm sure - see their blogs).  The traditional dinner out with them will happen tonight, so I'll get a chance to how they're doing and re-remember how completely confused I was and how big everything seemed to me at the time.  At

It's that time of year again.  There's a crash like a bomb dropping or maybe it's just one of the neighborhood cats in heat... nope, it's a falling mango!  You can tell by the distinctive roll down the tin, followed by a >thunk<.  By and large this is a good thing.  It means at almost any time of day, and especially after rain storms, you can walk outside and grab a grapefruit or mango.  My

Here's the article in Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/1 From article: ''When you look at the numbers, there is a tremendous amount of datathat supports the supposition of election fraud,'' concludes Freeman.''The discrepancies are higher in battleground states, higher wherethere were Republican governors, higher in states with

So, the rainy season is now upon us.  The reasons I know this is that: The roof leaks in two places, luckily not above the batteries (zap!). Colleen's back fence blew down (check her blog when she gets around to it). The lock on our door froze up because of the wood expansion, so when I got home me and the neighbors had to break our way into the house. This involved a very heavy steel ladder,

Here are a selection of maps showing where The Gambia is. Where The Gambia is in Africa. The Gambia All maps courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin and are in the Public Domain.

So, I’ve gotten a little bit lax on the blog updates… What’s been happening here… well, there was the attempted coup, the African Union meeting is coming up, and I’ve been putting in my time as a commuter. Our house has evolved a few “versions” as us geeks like to say, and now we’re at v2.1. Amongst the highlights, we’ve grounded the power (2 independent poles in the ground connected to the

DinnerSo I'm sitting around at my place waiting for the latest batch in what I think is giardia to "pass" and listening to and reading world news. What do I stumble upon? Dog Food for Kenya amongst the many other interesting stories of the day. But this one just strikes me, because the other day I was listening to a BBC correspondent grill a Kenyan MP about why he wasn't interested in receiving

Figured I'd throw a picture of myself up here. I know I've got that rather unflattering one up below, but I like this one better. Colleen took it while I was at her place - notice the decorative* socket, there are light sockets & bulbs to go with it. * Decorative in the sense that she doesn't have power. Used to be power there, but no longer, the town generator kicked.

So I've been promising to post a picture of our power setup for awhile and figured I should actually do so already. We've managed to get an internet connection as well, which is big. The local cellular company just started offering it, and the connection is selling like hotcakes, so it was hard to get ahold of one of the modems. But now we've got it and even though the connection is slow it is

Yes, this picture is me and a few other PCVs standing around the "camp fire", e.g. the trash heap, burning plastic along with many other items that shouldn't be burnt. The problem is, there isn't really another option here right now. Every day I wake up in the morning with the smell of burning plastic in the air. It is a big problem, and there aren't that many easy solutions. There are a few

So I keep putting off getting a picture of the power setup on here, but I promise I'll do so soon. But since I've got a free moment I figured I'd describe the power setup I've currently got going. City power to our house is sporadic, but not bad. We've not really logged it, but I'd say we have power somewhere between 75-85% of any given day, on average. I don't think there has ever been a

A friend of mine here is in the process of writing this - a Wolof <-> English dictionary / translator. Wolof being the language that I'm attempting to learn. He's doing it in Ruby which as of late has been my programming language of choice to learn more about. I especially am liking it on Rails. This weekend we might have a multi-player gaming party - yep, a geek is a geek is a geek.

So it becomes more and more difficult to communicate experiences here back home and feel like it might have a chance of coming through accurately. But I suppose that is what needs to be tried. Over the past couple of weeks I have visited remote schools here that don’t have a source of clean water (let alone a tap) or a pit latrine (let alone working toilets). Many receive food via the world food

Sooner or later I’ll get around to finishing off the entry on my daily life in Sare Samba and start in on one for Banjul/Kombo. But short of that happening I just wanted to put in a note about the commute here. Side Note: I’m writing this, sitting in my house watching one of the peacocks that lives here preen it’s feathers. In case anybody doesn’t know, peacocks make the most god-awful sound

The other day I was talking with a friend/co-worker here and we got onto the topic of going to America. He’s been to the US three times and has returned each time, to the surprise of everyone he knows – whether that be friends, family, or co-workers. There is an expectation here that if you get a chance to go to the UK or the US (especially the US) that you’ll skip visa and stay. The thought

The wanuck, place of much quality squatting time. The "teapot" was my cleaning method of choice, a plastic teapot filled with water. The wanuck also included an open space on the other side of the fence from the toilet/shower area which was where I hung my clothes.

A road near Sare Samba. Such are the conditions of sand roads during the rainy season. This was on the way back from Soma to get cooking supplies for our going away party in Sare Somba. I didn’t end up going along because I was needing to spend some quality time with my wanuck.

Main road between Kombo and Soma. It is one of the worst patches of road in The Gambia. The government has plans to replace it, but it is unclear when that will be able to happen.

So, since moving to Kombo, the most heavily populated part of The Gambia, my daily routine has shifted significantly. It is amazing the difference between the two places, so I figured I’d illustrate this by putting up a normal day of activities for me in each location. While I was in Sare Samba, 7k off the “main” road [see main road picture], which is one of the worst stretches of road in The

This is a pretty typical day in Sare Samba, sitting around drinking ataya and chatting. Ataya is extra strongly brewed chinese gunpowder tea served with lots of sugar and in 3 rounds.