After a flight cancellation and an unexpected stop in Guinea Bissau, I made it to Banjul, the Gambia to start my second year of Peace Corps Service. Banjul is shocking. The influence of wealthy coastal tourists is so apparent. There are 2 big grocery stores, a bookshop, and a woman who sells fresh squeezed fruit juice- all near the Peace Corps volunteer house.

I have to fight the urge to speak French to every African I meet and instead focus on toning down my American English. A lot of the Peace Corps lingo is the same, but I'm aware of how much "Franglais" the Guinean volunteers spoke. I keep reaching for the word in English... There are Fula people running shops and vegetable stands and herding cattle, so I can speak with them in Pular, the local language I spoke in Guinea. Apparently, there are Peuhls from Guinea who have settled in the Gambia too. Soon I'll start learning Mandinka, the predominant language in my region of the Gambia.

The Gambian volunteers are very warm and welcoming. They have already invited me to check out the Saint Louis Jazz Fest up in Senegal in May with them. I head up-country tomorrow to the Peace Corps training village, Tendaba, to get a few days crash course in Mandinka with the language trainers who are one week into a new group of health volunteers' training. I'll hopefully be able to bike to my new village from there, check out my new house, and make my Banjul shopping list for next week... cell phone ahoy!