So the rains have come again and farmers have started planting their groundnuts. The days of 110 plus degree weather are gone for now! The worldwide food crisis is being felt here as the price of rice is steadily increasing. This time last year it was around D600 a bag and now it is up to D900. They say that by this time next year it could be triple what it is now. People just won't be able to afford it. No way. To combat this we are encouraging people to do more gardening and trying to give them more access to NERICA rice seed (an upland variety of rice that grows well here) so they can grow more for themselves instead of having to buy it. Hopefully we can get the seed in time...

There has been a gas shortage in the country for the last few days and half the taxis in Kombo weren't running and people were lined up at gas stations waiting to fill up. Nobody seems to know why but apparently there is gas today so that means I can get back to site tomorrow! Yay! I need to start work on my garden, pass out some NERICA seed and get things ready for my mom to come visit! (She flies into Dakar on July 11th!!)

I should be back in Kombo again around July 4th. I miss you all and can't wait to see you in, oh, 6 months!

Love,

Mandy

So we are back after 10 days in BEAUTIFUL Sierra Leone. The country is obviously still recovering from the war that ended in 2002. You can't spend 10 minutes on the streets of Freetown without seeing a UN vehicle drive by. People are friendly but much more reserved and more easily angered than the people back here in The Gambia. It wasn't uncommon to see an amputee in the Freetown area. But 10 days isn't enough time to make fair comparisons between the two countries. We spend a day in Freetown before heading up country to Kabala. We originally wanted to climb Mt. Bintumani in the northeast but figured we would miss our flight home if we tried to do that so we settled for some hiking around Kabala. It was thrilling to be in a country that has topography and year-round greenery.

The highlight of our trip was the ride overland to Kabala. It was 7 hours in a bus and was a great way to see the countryside. The most relaxing day was our second to last day in the country when we just sat on a beach all day eating pineapple. So much pineapple and avocado. Yum.

So our trip also had a few lowlights. In Kabala we stayed in a small guesthouse and were the only patrons there and also the only tourists in town. The accomadations were nice and in a beautiful location surrounded by mango trees on the outskirts of the village. We were paying for running water but the pump broke on the second day so we deicided to talk to the manager about reducing the price since we would have to fetch water ourselves from the well. That evening, after enjoying the Manchester v. Barcelona soccer match in town, we came back to the house to talk to the manager. We were all sitting around when we heard some yelling in the back. It sounded like a woman was really upsetting and hysterical. We didn't know what was happening because it wasn't really very loud and it was in Creole. But we didn't really think much of it because people yell at each other here all the time. Maybe she was being beating. It isn't that surprising. The manager hurriedly ran back to see what was going on (which, looking back, was a clue that something was really wrong). We just took this as our cue to leave (We had planned on meeting an NGO worker for beers). An hour later, sitting at the bar a block away, we started to hear something that sounded like death wailing. In The Gambia, when someone dies, the people mourn their loss by performing a bone chilling wail. But, this sounded a little different and we honestly couldn't tell if they were wailing or still celebrating the Manchester victory from the match earlier that night. Soon we were tired and headed back to our guesthouse. On the way, we ran into the guard from the NGO house. He informed us that the owner of our guest house had been murdered an hour previously. This was the fighting we had heard and the murder most likely occured right before we left the house. The owner, a young man and son of the former chief who had helped us fetch water that afternoon, was stabbed in the neck by his girlfriend. Apparently they had a child together and she wanted to get married but he didn't and it sounds like there was another woman involved too. We were obviously really upset and scared but were reassured by the fact that the police had already taken the woman into custody and we had absolutely nothing to do with the murder. We still took all our things from the guesthouse and spent the rest of our time at the NGO worker's place. None of us slept well. The wailing didn't stop until 2am and started again at 6am. Two days later we headed back to Freetown. Upon arriving at our cheap accomodations, we were informed that one of the rooms we had previously stayed in wouldn't be available for another hour. One hour? That's disgusting. So all four of us ended up sharing the air-conditioned suite. Yay. That evening we went to go check email. Chey had a quick message from our boss, Rod, that said, "A Slok plane went down in Ghana. Were you on it?" Well, obviously not, and what the hell did he mean by "went down"? Doesn't that mean crashed? We quickly texted Rod for clarification. The response came an hour later - "Don't worry about it anymore." Well, that didn't do anything to ease our concerns so we decided to go to the Slok office first thing in the morning. That night we played Scrabble and, I'm not joking at all, timed prostitutes and their clients. Apparently the establishment also rents by the half hour. Anyway, in the morning we went to the Slok office to confirm our flight home....and find out what really went down in Ghana. This is how the conversation went:

Mandy: "I heard that there was a problem with a Slok flight in Ghana last week. Can you tell me what happened?"

Slok lady: No eye contact accompanied by nervous laughter..."It was just a minor problem."

Mandy: "What kind of problem?"

Slok lady: More nervous laughter..."Just a minor problem. It is fixed now."

Stephanie: Losing patience... "What KIND of problem?"

Slok lady: "Just minor."

Mandy: Also losing patience..."Ok, but what KIND of problem?"

Slok lady: Nervous laughter and eye rolling.

Finally another agent in the office told us. The exact plane that we were on earlier that day had continued to Ghana and on it's return flight from Ghana to Sierra Leone something CRACKED and they had to turn around and make an emergency landing. Well. Apparently it was fixed because we were on that exact same plane coming back to Gambia last week. We didn't crash. Yay. So much for paying extra for that ticket...

But it was a fascinating adventure and I would do it again.

Mom, I'm safely back in The Gambia now!

Love,

Mandy

So tomorrow morning I'm heading out to Sierra Leone for 10 days of yet-to-be-determined activities that may include hiking, snorkeling, and eating lobster meat. This is my first real vacation so I'm super stoked! A few days ago we visited the Sierra Leone High Commission to get our visas. While waiting, we casually inquired as to the best airline to fly to get there, as we hadn't yet purchased our tickets. The man mentioned Slok Air and Belleview but failed to mention GIA, a third airline that we had just learned offered the cheapest flights from Banjul to Freetown. So, I asked, what about GIA? The man, obviously struggling to be diplomatic, said, "Well, their planes come from Cape Verde...and they do this (simulating a propeller with his finger). And we like people visiting our country to be safe so I would say Slok is our number one choice. They have big planes and they maintenance them." Well, we forked over a little extra money for plane maintenance. Hope that makes you feel better mom. :)

Well, I promise I'll post more when I get back!

I miss you all!

Love,

Mandy

A tad late but here comes a little taste of Christmas in The Gambia courtesy of another PCV.

On the 12th day of Christmas the Peace Corps gave to me:

12 Children crying

11 Donkeys braying

10 Thousand rams a-dieing

9 Cows blocking traffic

8 K left to village

7 Flat-tired geles

6 Bumsters hissing

5 Rock-filled bean sandwiches

4 Men sitting brewing

3 Host mothers laughing

2 Million ants in my hut

1 PCV's Christmas in The Gambia

Happy Holidays! See you all next year!

So I haven't updated this is in awhile I know. It just seems like everytime I sit down at a computer I feel like I have ADD and start thinking of other things that I could be doing instead. Like eating cheese. Then I go do something else. Like eat cheese.

So, I'm super excited that my baby brother is coming to visit in less than 2 days! Tomorrow I'm headed up to Dakar to spend the night and meet him at the airport at 5am. We will head to my host village for Tobaski, another PCVs site for Christmas (His host family is part of the 10% non- muslim minority here. We will be eating pork.), and then down to Kombo for New Years. I haven't seen anyone from back home in 15 months! I hope he doesn't get diarrhea for the first couple days at least...

Back in village I helped the womens group write a proposal to CRS for a loan to do a sheep fattening project. With the loan money they were able to purchase 5 rams and 2 ewes. The rams were fattened up and sold for the Tobaski holida, the loan will be paid back, and the ewes will be kept for breeding. This is a really profitable little project. You buy a ram for D1500 a few months before the holiday, fatten it up, then sell it for D3000. I was at the weekly market in Brikama Ba a few weeks again scoping out rams with my VSO friend Evie. We stumbled upon this big drama. Some sheep herders from Senegal had brought in a bunch of rams to sell in Gambia but didn't have any of the proper documentation with them. They were in the middle of a huge argument with the Livestock Services official when we left. Yikes. I haven't heard what ended up happening. Every Muslim family, if they can afford it, should get a ram to slaughter for Tobaski. This means that the hundreds of rams for sale outside the Department of Livestock Services in Kombo right now will be gone in just over a week. Liver, testicles, or brains anyone? Yum yum. I'm also working on a garden well project in my area and waiting to hear back on a grant I just submitted. I have mixed about it that you can read about below...

I hope you all read the article I just posted about aid money coming into Africa. It is a hot topic of discussion among the PC community here and it is common to hear PCVs side with the economist interviewed in the article. Personally, I flip flop on the issue, depending on the day and what's going on in my little Gambian world. On one hand, I've lived here for a year and seen the problems (ie corruption) that NGOs have here and feel that a lot of money is wasted. Where exactly did those World Food Program beans go? The kids ate them, right? On the other hand, I feel that there are problems plaguing this country that deserve or require outside assistance. Lack of education/ignorance is the biggest problem in my eyes and the key to tackling other issues. The main beef I have with money coming into the Gambia is the way it is handled. There are too many projects that just seem to throw money at people without proper needs assessment which results in failed projects or the money just disappearing. A lot of people seem to take aid money for granted. Last week someone actually said to me (in Wolof), "You know, Hawa, you should really try to bring some money into this community because if you don't, the people here will say that your work isn't important and that Peace Corps isn't important." Well, that's not what PC is here to do and he seemed shocked when I told him that some PCVs don't think that we should even write grants for projects in our villages because it is giving the impression that we are just like all the other toubabs who toss around money here. But like I mentioned above, I am writing a grant for a garden project. Assume this project happens, it will be really interesting to come back here, say, 10 years down the road and see the state of the garden. There is surprisingly little evidence of PC being here for the past 40 years which is the root of my discouragement. But if the money is there for the taking, I would rather use it for my project and be involved in how it gets spent instead of just sitting on the sidelines watching it go to waste. When I bike down the road near my village little children scream at me asking for pens, money, bottles, cell phones. Everything. Many people here think that all white people have money, can magically get them a visa to America, or take their child to America no problem. There is no discussing it and you can't convince them otherwise. If I say I don't have money they just laugh and say that I'm good at cracking jokes. Usually I can brush off the comments, questions, and assumptions but sometimes it just all adds up and I have to go drink a double gin and tonic or two in Basse.Life's rough here but I'm loving (almost) every minute of it. I miss you all!Love,Mandy

Yes, cousin Ray, I will. Soon soon. Here's another one:

DER SPIEGEL 27/2005 - July 4, 2005 URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363604,00.html

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

Choking on Aid Money in Africa

By Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke

I will post again soon I swear! In the mean time, here's something to ponder....

DER SPIEGEL 27/2005 - July 4, 2005 URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH AFRICAN ECONOMICS EXPERT

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.

If I Kick Myself in the Face Now,

Then I'll Just Be Even More Upset

Because My Face Will Hurt:

A Series of Haikus

By Allison Hoff

Oh, the Gambia.

I did not know where you were.

Hooray for Google.

Butt loads of children,

Asking me for some candy.

Put on some pants first

(OR I carry a stick (I couldn't decide :))

Please kids, wash your hands.

Fine, just don't eat the goat shit.

Okay, don't touch me.

I can't speak Wolof.

What the hell are you saying?

I'll just smile at you.

Now I am engaged.

Sorry. I can't marry him.

MAYBE BECAUSE HE'S 55 YEARS OLD AND ALREADY HAS 3 WIVES AND 18 CHILDREN!

I'm just not that into him,

but thanks for the offer

and I hope you spend the afternoon in peace.

I need something sweet.

There are cough drops in my med kit.

This can't be healthy.

Experiences at work:

Yay, Gambian time.

We're only 4 hours late. TO OUR OWN MEETING.

Let's write this report!

Wait, no one can speak English.

Wait, no one else types.

That's cool, I'll write it.

Sure, I know what I'm doing.

Shoot me now.

OK, so I know I haven't updated this in a really long time. Sorry mom. I've been distracted by trying to prove that white people can work in the fields. Oh, and watermelons are back in season so I guess "chalit naa." In Wolof, this means that I got distracted by food or ate so much that I forgot about something. I try to eat them as frequently as possible. I hope this doesn't mean that I'm "chaliting" all the time. The other day I was biking home along the road in the middle of nowhere when I came across this boy who I'd seen before killing squirrels. Not that weird in itself but he is usually followed by a pack of dogs. (One day the boy was all excited because the dogs had just killed a baby bush pig.) Anyway, I stopped to say hi and asked him what he was up to. He replied, "I'm looking for birds. Umm...I mean I'm selling watermelon." I looked around and didn't see any. I asked him where his watermelons were and how much one was. He ran into the bushes and came out with one big watermelon costing 15 Dalasis. Quite cheap. A little voice in the back of my mind said that he had stolen it. But I really wanted watermelon and it was so cheap so I bought it. It was delicious.

So the soy project was a failure this year. The seeds weren't viable and not even the government research institute that we got the seeds from in the first place could get them to grow. We planted 4 kilos at the school in the next village over from mine and 3 plants germinated. A friend in village planted 1 kilo and got 12 plants. He's going to save the seeds and plant them next year. Efforts once again focused towards getting new seed from outside the country.

My latest project has been working with Amie, my host mom, and a local extension worker, Dauda, on recording the amount and type of sesame being grown in the region. Record keeping can always be improved here. I'm learning a lot about sesame growing in the process and about 61 hectares are being grown by people in my village alone. In recent years, sesame has replaced groundnuts as the cash crop for farmers. Dauda and I always have great conversations. Most recently we were comparing sesame fields around my village and discussing soil fertility. He pointed out that fields are like pregnant women, they need nutrients to produce healthy and abundant offspring. I'm not sure if I like thinking of women as sesame fields that will be sown and harvested but he did have a point. And sesame is a womens' crop here so its not they are being sown and harvested by men, right? Haha.

I haven't heard the hyenas in a couple weeks. But just talking about them makes me feel like I'm in a horror movie. You know the Ghostbusters film with the giant mutant dogs? It's kinda like that. So, they keep killing sheep and goats. Last week 7 sheep and 3 goats were killed in the forest about 3 km from me. Good thing I've never seen one in the wild here. I think I'd pee my pants. My host brother, Babu, has this creepy story about driving a horse cart in the bush at night on his way home from another village. For about 1 km, between 2 small villages, a hyena followed him. The moon was bright so he could see it the whole time. Jeepers Creepers.

After the sesame harvest starts at the end of this month I'm going to be super busy helping weigh and record it in my area. Amie is a national executive committee member for NAWFA (Natl. Women Farmers' Assoc) and she will be the middle woman between NAWFA and the farmers - weighing and purchasing sesame in the area. My goals for the project this year are improved record keeping and receipt giving. Last year we didn't have receipt books so we just did it very informally on scraps of paper.

I'm going to go buy some cheese. I never thought I liked cheese that much but I find myself craving it constantly here. Is that a sign of some nutritional deficiency or did it just take coming to Africa to make me realize my love of cheese?

Hope you are all doing well!

Love,

Mandy

So tomorrow I finally get to go back to site! After a staph infection combated with a nice little antibiotic cocktail, my leg thing, origin still unknown, is healed enough to go back up to the heat and humidity of the Central River Region. I should have email access again next time I'm in Kombo which will most likely be for my birthday (September 24th in case you forgot, mom :) ). Wish me luck planting soy and not wounding myself!

Much love,

Mandy

Is it funny that some of the best pork I've ever eaten is in a Muslim country? I think so. Last night some of us went out to dinner at this place in a dark alley called "Marie's" and, well, we ate pork. 5 kgs of it to be exact. At D75 a kilo I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. Gin and tonics for D15? Seriously. That's like 50 cents. I love the Gambia and Gambians love 50 cent. Haha.

We had a language test last week and I scored Advanced-Low. I was pretty pleased with the result. The levels are Novice-Low/Med/High, Intermediate-L/M/H, Advanced-L/M/H, and then Superior. I still have trouble understanding what's going on if people talk fast, but when I speak quickly to an English-speaking Gambian they usually don't get what I'm saying. It works both ways.

I finally have soy! A fellow PCV, Karissa, and I finally tracked down some seed at the government research institute. About 75kgs! Some of it is going to go to the poultry association near me, some to volunteers, and some to schools. We need to plant it really soon because the rains are already here. I'm still optimistic about the project for this year but not convinced that the type of soy we have is suitable for this region of the world as it came from Ohio. I think it would really be worthwhile for us to check into getting other varieties from Ghana or Togo. We're planning to pursue those options further at the end of the summer.

Back at site I've also been trying to link up individual farmers in my village with the UK based Horse and Donkey Project. http://www.gambiahorseanddonkey.org.uk/ Donors in the UK sponsor, well, a donkey which is then lended out to a needy Gambian farmer to use in the fields. The farmer attends a 2 day training on proper donkey care and maintainance and then gets the animal. The health of the animal is checked up on periodically and the farmer is responsible for providing feed and shelter for the animal. It appears to be one of the more organized organizations I've come in contact with. I've already hooked up 3 men in my village with donkeys and have plans to help write a couple more applications when I get back to site.

So I'm still stuck in Kombo until this leg thing heals up, at least until Saturday. I'll try to get a picture up sometime soon but the pics aren't on my camera so I've got to track down some people. It's a lot better. Now instead of a hole in my leg the size of a quarter, I just have an open sore a little bit smaller than a quarter.

Assuming I get back to site relatively soon to plant some soy, I'll be going overland to Dakar with Jen and Cheyenne for a little mini-vacation at the end of the month. Jen's sister is coming here for a week and then flying out of Dakar so we are all going to take her there and then just hang out in the city for a few days. Border crossing here I come!

I'm going to be working on updating the Poultry Manual for the incoming Ag-Fo group. They should be arriving around the end of September. That's so soon! I can't believe I've already been here over 9 months! The time is going by so quickly I feel like my head is spinning.

Hope all is well back home! I miss you all and think of you often!

Love,

Mandy

Well, I guess it has been quite awhile since I've updated this. Hope you haven't forgetten about me back home! I've eaten so many mangos in the past 2 months I couldn't even count them. They are everywhere and cheap and so goooood. Watermelons in a few months!

It has rained twice in my village already and everyone has gone to the fields to plant cous, corn, and peanuts. Right now is the start of the "hungry season" as all the food stores from last season are starting to run out and people don't have enough money to buy food. It's also the time of year when there is a big spike in the number of malaria cases in the region. I've got my Mefloquine, mosquito net, and bug spray all in place!

I've been working on continuing the soybean project that was started by Peace Corps last year. The original batch of beans was shipped here from the US and distributed among a bunch of schools throughout the country. Each school got 20kg of seed with the idea being that after they harvested they would have to give 20kg back to PC and would get to eat/sell whatever else they had on top of that. Well, there were 4 schools in my area that reported fairly decent harvests but it turns out that they ate ALL the beans they harvested, including that 20kg. Now we are having a horrible time tracking down seeds to plant this year. I finally found a school up near Basse that didn't eat the beans and was willing to give me 20kg. I spent 8 hours in a gelegele to get them but then I had to go to Kombo the next day for an infection on my leg so the beans are with the Divisional Livestock Officer for my region. Hopefully they will get distributed while I'm stuck here waiting for this festering wound to heal! (It is said to resemble an infection caused by a burrowing insect and I had to have it drained. Gross. I'll try to post a picture sometime.)

I've been continuing to advise my host family on their poultry project. The main area of concern was the chicken feed which my host brother insists on making himself. I was having trouble convincing him of the importance of fish and oyster shells in layer feed. He said it was too expensive but his birds were producing at less than a quarter of the rate they should be and the egg quality was very poor. Well, the Divional Livestock Officer came to my village to make feed and told him he either needs to make the feed correctly or take all his birds to the bush and burn them and stop doing poultry. I think he was really offended but now he listens to me. :)

I've started doing basic Wolof literacy classes in my village and its harder than I thought it would be. I've never really taught before and it is hard to know what the most effect ways are in going about it. Some of the women pick up things really quickly and some just don't seem to get it at all. That also makes it harder. I don't want them to get frustrated and give up.

I'll be in Kombo for at least the next week for PC meetings and until this gaping hole in my leg heals....so email me and I'll write back!

I miss you all!

Love,

Mandy

Uploaded a few new photos! You should be able to see them here:

http://washington.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2138377&l=6f6e6&id=10706286

So I'm finally back in Kombo after 4 months in my village in the Central River Division of the country. I've been in The Gambia almost 7 months? Really? The time is going by so fast I can't believe it. We're down here, well, to eat food that we can't get up country, like cheese, and because we have an in-service training next week where we will be learning about fruit tree grafting, bee keeping, and small ruminant/livestock production. Kombo is cold!! Well those of you back in the northwest would think it was hot at 75F but after I've been sweating in my heat rash in 100F weather in village I need a fleece and hot chocolate! Kombo has the hot chocolate but I didn't bring a fleece. Brrr. In village I've started sleeping in my backyard because it is too hot inside my hut to be comfortable.

You want to know what have I been doing with yet another large chunk of time without updating this blog? Well, I've been helping my host mom weigh sesame (over 17 tons of it) and calculating how much money each farmer will get for their product. My host mom is working with an NGO here to pay farmers. They are getting D11.50 per kilo of sesame. More money than groundnuts! On to the chickens! We've sold all the broilers and are now focusing on the layers which should commence egg production within the next month. I'm currently looking into alternatives to fish as a protein source for poultry feed because the cost of fish is very prohibitive to most people here. Often fish is left out because of the expense and the birds don't grow as fast or as a large as a result of the protein defiency. One possibility is soy but from what I hear, farming attempts here last year weren't too promising.

Last week my family compound had a naming ceremony and wedding ceremony in the same day. There was so much food and dancing and laughing it was ridiculous. My host brother, Modou, took a second wife. Her name is Yamai and she is from a neighboring village. Modou didn't meet her until a week before the ceremony as my host father, Mbarra, arranged the marriage. Quite different from courtship in the US, eh? The naming ceremony was for baby of another host brother, Iliman, and his wife, Fatu. They just had their second child, a little girl named Fatumata. She is absolutely gorgeous! ("Rafet na torop!" in Wolof).

The mangos are starting! Yum yum yum! I bought 3 giant mangos in village last week (Dad: I would compare them to Kents in size and delicious flavor) for D5. That's like 15 cents. Yum yum yum! Ci kanam tutti dinaa lekka mango bes bu nekka=Soon I will eat mangos everyday! I eat a lot of eggplant here too. I'm pretty sure I used to think it was disgusting, but it tastes so good cooked up with some coconut milk, curry paste, and lentils. Oh, and chicken. Its good. Be jealous.

Come visit me! Eat mangos or watermelon depending on the season!

I think of home often and miss you all!

Love,

Mandy aka Awa

Happy (very belated) Holidays!

Well I've been in The Gambia for almost 4 months [editor's note: 5 months actually, because snail mail is soo slow!] and at a site for 5 weeks [again add another several weeks to that]! The time is flying by! My host family is quite large--I have 3 host moms and 3 host brothers that live here with their wives and children. There are about 30 people in my family compound including all the children. It took a while to learn all the names...

I spent Christmas at the Taiwanese Agricultural Mission about 20 km down the road from my site. Several of me fellow PCVs came and we made beef stew, played Scrabble and just relaxed for a couple days. The next week was Tobaski, the big Muslim holiday. My family slaughtered 2 rams and a goat and more than once I ate a piece of meat and I wasn't sure where on the animal it originated. But it was all tasty! My host mom and I had matching outfits made for the holiday and we paraded around the village eating meat and visiting people. Everyone was dressed up beautifully in vibrant fabric and all the women had new braids in their hair. It was quite impressive!I usually wear pants in the village and sometimes I'm told that I should wear a skirt because I'm a woman, but it seems more important that I wear earrings and a necklace at all times. When I don't and someone calls me on it I just tell them I'm a man that day and they seem to enjoy it immensely.

My host mom just got another batch of chickens from Dakar. This time broilers that should be ready for market in less than 2 months. The layers should start producing eggs around May and my host dad is currently building a coop suitable for laying birds. A couple of weeks ago we made chicken feed here. We have a milling machine in my village which helped the process but it is still difficult to mix 1 ton of feed with just shovels and manpower!

The weather is starting to heat up a bit--my host mom tells me that the cold has gone and soon Gambia will be very hot. Right now it is only hot if I stand in the sun. The heat will come but then so will the mangos!

Hope all is well back across the Atlantic!

Much love,

Mandy

Well, it has been brought to my attention that maybe a few of you want some more details on what exactly I've been doing in West Africa for 2 months....

Training kept me crazy busy! We split our time between training village and Tendaba Camp, this fanny-pack-wearing bird-watching tourist mecca with a swimming pool. We had language classes, cultural sessions, and technical training. I loved training village and my host family was so welcoming! I was really sad to leave and ended up trying to hide my tears. I hope to go back and visit sometime next year when I can actually talk to them and not sound like a child. I really enjoyed the language part of training. It is so different (and better) than trying to learn a language sitting in a classroom staring at a book. It is so amazing how much faster you can pick it up when you speak it everyday and actually have to use it to get what you want...like buying a slice of watermelon and filling your peanut butter jar at the bitik. I'm now at Intermediate-Low language proficiency, which pretty much means that I have basic survival skills in the language and I can express wants and needs (like watermelon and peanut butter). Our last big training event, at the end of November, was going to visit our permanent sites to meet with our host families, scope out the village, and, supposedly, stay 3 nights in our future house. But when we pulled up to my family compound my house consisted of walls and doors...no windows or a roof or a pit latrine! I ended up staying with my site mate, Allison, who will be living in a village about 10km away from mine. My family seems really motivated to finish the house though and I'm really optimistic (and curious) to see what it looks like when I arrive this weekend. I had my first real taste of long distance public transport here when we had to get back to Kombo on our own for the first time! It's looking like it will be a two day trip every time I want to come down to the capitol from my village! The distance isn't very far on a map but bad roads, waits at ferry crossings, and bush taxi breakdowns are big factors. Alison and I walked 2 hours from her village to mine, which is right on the south bank road. Since the the south bank road is so bad, we figured our best bet was to catch a vehicle going east to Georgetown, cross up to the newly built north bank road and head back west from there. Well....we waited at my village for 3.5 hours before a bush taxi came that barely had room for us. We spent the night in Georgetown with some fellow en route trainees. The next morning, after loading two sheep on top of a bush taxi, we took a ferry across the river. By 8:30 am we were well on our way down the north bank road. 8 hours, another ferry crossing, and another bush taxi change later, we rolled into Kombo! Well, that did include a stop for watermelon, roasted peanuts, coconut, bean sandwiches (AMAZING), and frozen juice in Farafenni, but still, it was a crazy long day!

The last few days we've spent shopping for our houses (and playing Scrabble at the beach, watching movies at the PC hostel,and eating Snickers bars). So far I've bought a gas stove, a foam mattress, a ton of food that isn't available upcountry (like lentils, juice, olive oil, pasta, spices, soy chunks, coffee creamer), toilet paper, and a CELL PHONE. That's right! Completely unexpectedly I'll have cell phone reception at my village! (If any of ya'll miss my sweet voice you can get the number from my parents...). I won't have internet at site though so write me letters!! I hope you are all doing well at home! I still miss eggnog lattes!

Much Love,

Mandy

I've uploaded some photos! Here's the link:

http://washington.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098296&l=d4d4c&id=10706286

Love,

Mandy

Well, I'm finally back to the Kombo area, where the capitol is. Training is almost over and it has flown by...I can't believe that I've already been here 2 months! Our swearing in is on December 8th and then on the 10th we go to our permanent sites. I'll be in the Central River Division on the south side of the river close to River Gambia National Park and Georgetown. I'll be doing a lot with small scale poultry production and working with a large women's group. My host mom/counterpart, Ami, recieves chicks from Dakar and raises them intensively to sell in local markets. I'll also be in the heart of watermelon production country! The watermelon season is just coming to end though...but I'm looking forward to next year! The people here drink a lot of Attaya, this green tea that they add butt loads of sugar to and sip out of shot glasses. It is really good but I feel sick if I drink too much of it. What else....I feel giddy after not having had internet for so long...I just recently got over dysentery! A few of us bought some guavas and were so excited that we didn't think to wash them... They were soooo delicious at the time but oops, big mistake. Flash back to the Oregon Trail...all four of us ended up with amoebic dysentery and had to take antibiotics! I've gotta run but I'll write more later in the week!

Things that I would salivate over recieving in a care package:

*food

*deflated soccer balls (I have a pump and needles but left the ball I brought with my host family during training)

*powdered chai drink mix/crystal light

*cereal/granola (it's really expensive here)

*dried fruit/fruit leather

*pesto

*pictures of you

*letters telling me what you are up to at home

Dama nama suma nit ni (I miss my people.)

I miss you all a ton....almost as much as I'm missing an eggnog latte. Drink one for me!

Love,

Mandy aka Awa

My favorite Wolof phrase so far...it means "I am on it slowly, slowly." Today was our first real adventure outside of the facility that we've been staying in during training so far. We went to the market at Serekunda and took public transport to get there. It was quite similar to the taxi/vans that I used in Cape Town. The market was amazing and I bought some cloth for a skirt and some cola nuts (which are really bitter and I don't like them at all) to give to my host family when I get to my training village of Saaresamba on Friday. I love this place more and more each day, and I even had my first bout of Gambian diarrhea today! Woohoo! I get to take my second Mefloquine anti-malarial pill tomorrow. So far there have been no nightmares or hallucinations... Today at lunch we had to eat with only our hands (well, right hand only) to practice for when we'll be in village eating with our host families. I'm quite messy. Oh well. I'll just take an extra bucket bath in my cozy little enclosed pit latrine. We have a naming ceremony on Monday where each of us will recieve a Gambian name that we will be called by. Our host families will dress us up, and according to one of our trainers they will want us to dance. Ummm...I hope they aren't expecting too much as I only have the ability to slow dance. Right, Abe? Remember senior prom?

As some of you might know, Gambia is 90% Muslim and Ramadan is happening right now which means that most of the people here fast (no food OR WATER) between 5:45am and 7:04pm everyday. I'm excited for the end of Ramadan at the end of October because there will be a big feast and each family will slaughter a goat.

This will probably be my last post and email access for awhile so please send me snail mail!! Hope all is well back across the Atlantic!

Much love,

Mandy

I'm officially in The Gambia! Yes, it is hot and humid but it is gorgeous and lush and smells so good. We spend much time each day sitting under a giant mango tree. Too bad the mango season has already passed...well, for the most part...one of my fellow trainees did get bonked by a falling mango... I found out yesterday that I will be learning Wolof during training, along with only 3 other trainees, in the village of Saaresamba in southern Gambia, about 180km from where I am now in the capitol of Banjul. Friday, October 6th we leave for the villages. It will be 5-6 hours of bumpy driving. Apparently the roads are paved but riddled with potholes. The food here is really good. Lots of rice, amazing fish, onions and tomatoes. It is hard to get used to drinking room (or outside) temperature water all day long but I'll survive...assuming I drink enough. That's all I have time for now as we're going to the beach!

P.S. If anyone wants to write me a letter, make sure you write "AIRMAIL" on it or it will take forever to get here. (Or if sending a package (mom) , send it by air as well. I think the air option is the second cheapest. Apparently if you choose the cheap option is will take months to get here...not 4-6 weeks like the post office will tell you.)

Hey all,

I've finished the staging phase of being a PC trainee. Lots of ice-breakers, formalities, and paper work...blah blah blah. Tomorrow morning we go to a clinic to get our immunizations which include yellow fever, meningitis, hepatitis, rabies, typhoid, maybe a few others I'm forgetting about, and we start our malaria prophylaxis. Then we're pretty much off to the airport from there! There are 24 people in my group and we're all environment volunteers. Everyone is extremely friendly and brought just as much luggage as I did...what a relief! So, for the first week in country I'll be staying near Banjul, the capital, and I should have access to email a least a couple times. After that we're headed 150km up-country (up-river) to our training site called Tendaba Camp...apparently it is also a tourist camp so you might be able to find a website but I haven't tried. We'll be splitting our time between the camp and host families. I'm told that there is internet access at the training site, but no promises, especially because of the inconsistent electricity. Anyway, write me letters! I'll post more when I can!

The time has almost come! Sunday, September 24th I fly from Portland to Philadelphia via Dallas. Yeehaw. We have staging/immunizations in Philly until Wednesday morning, the 27th, and then I will be off to The Gambia, starting with a bus ride from Philly to JFK airport in NYC, a 7.5 hour flight to Brussels, and a 7.75 hours flight to Banjul, The Gambia via Dakar, Senegal. I won't actually touch down in The Gambia until 5:20 pm on September 28th.This morning I spent a good 3-4 hours organizing my luggage and weighing and measuring it. It turns out that it is harder to keep everything within the linear dimensions than under the weigh limit. I'll end up taking about 60-65 lbs of goods for two years!! What am I taking? Here are a few interesting tidbits from my packing list:

*solar panel to charge batteries for my digital camera

*30 pairs of underwear

*The Diva Cup. It's a feminine hygiene thing. Some of you will think it is gross/weird. I think it is intriguing and potential very useful whilst traversing the globe. www.divacup.com

*Travel Scrabble. Of course.

*A Field Guide to the Birds of The Gambia and Senegal. I haven’t really liked birds since taking an avian museum specimen prep course at UW. Whenever I look at a bird I feel myself holding a scalpel and stuffing it. But apparently bird watching is fabulous in The Gambia so I thought I’d give it a try.

*A bottle of garlic powder. Just in case I can’t get it there. I LOVE garlic.

*A small collection of fishing paraphernalia. In case I have time to use it whenever I’m not doing whatever it is that an “Environmental Extension Agent” in The Gambia does.

*Duct tape. For shits and giggles and whatever else seems necessary.

*A Nerf football. Will Gambian children like American football? I have also included a soccer ball that I suspect will be more popular...

Well, I’m pretty much really, really excited to leave! A part of me is thinking I’m crazy for wanting to do this but that’s part of what thrills me about this adventure. This is an amazing opportunity to live in another culture half a world away from home and really try to make a difference. I can’t imagine anything else that I’d rather be doing at this point in my life.

I think I’ll spend my last day at home with my family. Maybe I’ll watch the UW football game and hope that the purple and gold send me off to Africa in style and high spirits…well, maybe I’ll have to do that for myself. I’ll watch the first half.

Anyway, farewell!!

I leave on September 24th! What an unreal, fabulous birthday present! I'm in the midst of a packing frenzy. I can bring 80 lbs. total for the 2+ years I'll be gone. How to prioritize....