Hey Everybody

So I know my posts have been pretty upbeat so far, as I didn't want anyone to worry about me unnessesarily. But I've been extremely unhappy here. I never thought I would miss home and my friends so much. I also didn't think some of the cultural differences, especially between men and women, would bother me so. Teaching is a nightmare. I feel completely untrained and not ready to teach a class of 50. So i've decided to come home. It would be better for me and the people that have to put up with me around here. I don't think i'm meant for overseas living. So I'm sorry if this lets anyone down or disappoints you. I tried my hardest and made it through some tough experiences and i'm just ready to be home. Thank you for all your prayers, letters, phone calls, and e-mails. I wouldn't have lasted as long as I did without it. I'll be updating this again when I know more details about my arrival in the states.

Court

School was supposed to start on Monday but what ended up happening was slow motion registration. The kids trickled in from 8-10 and then they registered and paid their dues and then stood around for hours talking to their friends while us teachers sat under a mango tree chatting.

Tuesday we took attendence, i'm a homeroom teacher for an 8th grade class, and then the kids cleaned the classroom and we continued to sit around for the rest of the day.

Wednesday the kids brought tools, hos, rakes, cutlasses(machetes), and were instructed to clean up the school grounds. So I had to stand by the area my class was cleaning and keep them working. I can't say i felt too comfortable standing beside a field as black children worked away in the boiling hot sun, of course it's still rammadan so this is all while they are fasting. Then the kids weren't working hard enough so some of the male teachers grabbed branches from the tree, taking of the leaves, and coming over to where the students were shouting about flogging. I was like uhm there's no way i'm doing that. But they didn't hit the kids, thank goodness, and later talked about how they want to phase out using corporal punishment and just use it as a scare tactic. I'm hoping that's true and I won't have to witness it!

Today we took attendence and then had a staff meeting while all the students sat in their classrooms probably bored off their asses for like 4 hours. At the staff meeting i found out what i'll be teaching and it will be 8th grade math and computers. I was actually given a choice between math and science and i chose math. It really is easier to teach. Although it's harder for the kids to understand I think I can do it. The teachers here are all really great. They have some good ideas for school improvement and seem eager to implement them. They were also really worried about over loading me, something PC warned me about, and so i'm starting slow and will add more classes if I can. I'm also going to be a part of some of the clubs the school has: peer health counseling, agriculture, child protection club, pe club, and social club. PLUS they want to build a library so i'm going to try to help them out with that in the future. I'm starting to feel like i MAY actually make a difference!

As the title states, next monday will be my first day of actual school teaching. I'm starting to get a little nervous. Hopefully i'll be a good teacher and all that!

Lately i've just been working on getting myself set up and getting to know some people. My family is really nice and helpful and really wants me to consider myself one of the family. My house is holding up well. It's so big I still can't fill all the space. But today I bought curtains to try to dress it up a little! I am hooked up to the electricity now so I have a few lights and can charge my phone and ipod when i need to. It's a pretty sweet set up.

Yesterday I started my garden. So far i'm growing squash, cabbage, sweet peppers, and carrots. We'll see if anything actually grows! As I was working on it my dad came out there to help me weed and asked me if I had seen inside the little shed that's in my backyard, did i mention my backyard is huge? I said no I hadn't seen in the shed so he opened it and it's a freaking toilet on one side, like an actual toilet and a shower on the other with an actual shower head. I was in shock. Of course they don't work, I think they were set up as wishful thinking for the future of running water. But I'm still amazed that there's the potential!

I'm really enjoying Basse. It's like the best of both worlds. There's ice cream, beer, burgers, fries, electricity(sometimes) but it's much safer than the capital area. I lucked out on this one.

Over the last few days I've been biking a lot I biked about 75K, a good start i think. It felt so good to be moving my body again, now i want to ride my bike every day, i suppose that's a good thing huh? Anyway i've babbled enough for one day, I still miss home a lot and hope everyone is doing well!

So this entry is going to have a lot of errors and i'm sorry about that but the keyboard sucks horribly and i'm pressed for time...Gambian internet cafes are an experience.

By the title you can probably tell i'll had an interesting last few days huh? To start with when we finally got to my site on Sunday night, completely exhausted for 13hrs in a car on the horrible roads, my house was in not so good shape. There were lots of frogs, crickets, lizards, and many pools of water, my own little swamp environment. i didn't really complain too much i was too tired, so we unloaded my stuff and they took off to take the next girl to her site. About an hour the driver/maintanence man showed up again and said pack your stuff up it's time to go you can't stay here it's uninhabitable. of course at this point i had decided to completely empty my two huge trunks in order to re-organize. lol so i threw stuff in the trunks, bags, and whatever else i could find in five minutes and off we went. i stayed the night at the basse transit house that night. The next day i just kind of hung around waiting to find out if they could find a better house for me.

monday came and went and still no luck but I started thinking about being proactive about things. i said from the start i wnted to be in a bigger town and Basse is a bigger town. So since i didn't have a house if i found a house and a school that would let me teach they would probably let me stay right? So that's what i did with the help of my fellow volunteers. We found a house and a job teaching 10th grade science here in Basse. So all the stuff i said and pictures i put up about Suduwol doesn't matter because i'm now in Basse!

But my house here is great it's two of the huts like the Suduwol house connected with a middle lobby thing. it's huge and idon't know what to do with all the space! Anyway my time is about to run out so i better get this posted but that's for all your responses, things are looking up here!

Well it couldn't last forever. Tomorrow I'm off to my village to get all organized and ready to start teaching. haha I don't even know what day school starts! I found out I passed my language test and was officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Pretty sweet huh? It was a long time coming but I'm finally done with training and can maybe take a deep breath (maybe). I have mixed emotions about leaving because it's been really nice having electricity and internet and all the goodies of being in the capital. But it's also nice to be out in the middle of nowhere where I can do what I want and just relax. I'm totally excited to set up my house and start cooking on my own. The best way to reach me in the next 22.5 months will be mail, e-mail, and calling my phone in case of emergency. I get mail once a month, will try to travel and check e-mail 1-2 times a month and will have my cell phone on during the day most days. I hope everyone has a good start to the school year and miss you all a bunch!

PS: KT you didn't even have to add your name when I read your comment I knew it was from you! Oh and no I haven't cured AIDS yet and will keep you updated about the other projects I get started! Miss you!

PPS:

Some people have been asking about what to send me that I'd like...

-Scissors

-duct tape

-aerosal bug spray

-old clothes/books/ect you don't want and I or the Gambians can use

-Gatorade powder-nonexistent here

-granola bars

-gummies of any kind

-parmesan cheese, lol impossible to find

-pictures of the people at home

-markers

-sharpies

That's all I can think of now, but I'm sure i'll think of more, thanks a lot!

Courtney Smith, PCV

U.S. Peace Corps

P.O. Box 582

Banjul, The Gambia

West Africa

220.766.7766

Today was another day in the Kombo area of The Gambia. We had class all morning then our last language test right before lunch. It was tough as usual but hopefully I passed. If not I don't get to swear in as an official volunteer on Friday =(. That would definitely suck. I'm starting to get really excited to start teaching and for a community secondary project. I'm thinking I want to work with any NGOs that will work with me on a bed net project. It seems that access to bed nets and convincing the people that it's worth it to use one would help drastically decrease the number of deaths from malaria, the number one killer here. Hopefully I'll be able to get something going with that in the next year. I got a package from my mom today and that was great. I also got a letter from her and from Amanda. I miss the people at home so much at times it's pretty rough. But I still know this is what I should be doing and can't wait to make my mark!

court

Today I finally arrived back in the Kombo, urban, area. It took us 3 days to travel but I've now officially traveled from one end of the country to the other. I've tried to update my blog as much as possible so hopefully this will give you some insight to my training village experience. I'll update more if I can but I've to be brief as there are always people waiting to use the computer. I miss everyone at home and I hope you're all doing well!!

Today was the first day of model school, where I got to pretend to be a teacher. I've never been so overwhelmed. It was hard for so mnay reasons. The morning was completely unorganized as I'm learning a lot of the school system is. i taught for 2 hours and felt like I'd just run a marathon at the end, it was completely draining. I was definitely near tears. This has really been a rough last few weeks for me. After that we had to come back and have more training sessions. At about 4 pm they said oh and if you have any issues you need to bring up to the head person do so now because we're telling you your final sites by 6pm. yeah, i had a minor heart attack. But I hadn't changed my mind so I didn't go talk to her. In the initial interview I said I wanted as urban as possible. close to the coast, and by a hospital so I could volunteer.

I am placed in the second farthest site inland, almost to Senegal. I am in a rural town and i'm not near a hospital. In essence my initial reaction was pissed off. I found out it's a Serahule village (not Mandinka, the language i've been learning) then I was more pissed. But the good things are that it's a richer village, being further inland I can travel surrounding West African countrys. It's about a half hour ride to Basse and the girl there before me loved it. Also I'll be at a basic cycle school grades 1-9 so I'll get to interact with the younger kids more too...

So last night I woke up for about 2 hours off and on. I kept thinking bugs were on me, turns out I wish I were that lucky. When my alarm went off I didn't want to wake up so I rolled over to give myself 5 extra minutes. I felt something on my arm and jerked away, looked ot see and I figured it was just my stuffed animal. I looked arounda a little more an saw a mouse scamper across my net presumably up onto the frame above my bed holding up the net. But then there was no mouse to be found up there. That's when the little fucker ran back down onto my bed. It was trapped under the net with me. I'll throw in here that I was of course trying to scream the whole time but couldn't. I had no idea what to do so I went with my first instinct and punched it. lol. I may have hurt it's leg at that point because it started running away with a limp. I didn't want to touch it again so my next weapon of choice was my head lamp. So I threw my only light source at it. lol thankfully that made it flp on it's back spasming. So i got in my bag and got out my coffee cup, trapping him. I slid my journal under him and flipped it over to make a cage. I had no idea what to do with it so I secured the lid and took my bucket bath. By the time I came back to cehck on it it was dead. I took it to class in a baggie to show everyone. My LCH said she'd come by and talk to my family and see what we can do. But I'm pretty terrified to go to sleep tonight...

HAPPY 4th of July!! So last night I couldn't sleep well. no there aren't rats at Tendabe but I'm so used to waking up to them at 2am that I woke up then. So I was pretty tired and grumpy all morning. Then someone brought up the fact that it's the fourth of July and I realized I was missing out on all of the things that my friends are doing. the parade, carnival, the fun pot luck at Jen's and all that. An hour later people were shouting and screaming, turns out there was a hut, 2 down from ours, completely engulfed in flames

At first I didn't know what to do I mean it's a building on fire 15ft in front of me and everyone was yelling and crying. After a minute or two I pulled myself together and saw that a lof of Gambians had found water containers and us PC people were standing in schock. Then a bunch of us snapped into action. We grabbed whatever we could find that would hold water and ran to the swimming pool to fill it. Then the men would throw it on the fire and we would run back and get more. it was exhausting but what can you do when there are limited fire stations. Halfway through the fight we saw a man drug out of the house with saliva pouring from his mouth. At first I thought he had been in there the whole time and my stomach churned.

It registered in my brain the next second that his skin and clothing hadn't been burnt, most have been smoke inhalation. Thankfully the PC med officer is here to train us and she was able to help him. It was a display of true compassion and human emotion as the entire village and us put this fire out. One of the realext experiences I've had in a long time if that makes any sense

I was hit with the realization of my own selfishness, a feeling of being a tiny tiny speck in a very big world. As I was feeling sad and full of slef pity, a hut was on fire rocking someones world.

That night we had a party thrown for us for 4th of July with free alcohol. We drank and danced and had a great time. When I was walking back to the room I passed the pool and there were 12 of my fellow volunteers swimming butt naked in it. Haha I couldn't resist having my first skinny dipping experince be in the gambia so I jumped on it.

Well i've pretty much reached my breaking point for the rats in my house. I was awakened at 4am this morning by a large chunk of plaster falling off the wall where it meets the roof. The plaster fell and hit the ground right at the head of my bed because a rat was pushing his way through the wall to get in. I thought he had found a way out after that because I didn't find him. Then I heard a crash in my front room and got up to see a rat had knocked over my water bottle. I then spent 3 hours trying to get him out of my freaking house. Well at first I was trying to kill it by spraying it in the face with the bug spray in my left hand and then hitting it over the head with the can of bug spray in my right hand but that didn't work and I got tired so I just wanted him out. Hopefully patching the holes and putting out more poison will help.

Communication with the locals is still hard. I ca get to a point with generalities but then I hit a wall and run out of things to say. yesterday we went to Soma, a larger city with a market, some electricity and lots of people. There were 2 good things about my trip

1. I got to see my friends that are at other villages, Marie and Liza are the best!

2. I got a delicious ice cold pineapple fant...felt amazing

Yesterday we also gave mini-lessons to a group of teenage boys. I taught them about HIV/AIDS. It was actually pretty cool, they all listened really well and had a lot of questions. They actually showed up at my door later to ask more questions. I have a lot to learn about teaching though, hopefully the rest of training will help with that...

Last night didn't get much better. After I read a little and looked through my picture album I fell asleep for about 1.5 hours. I woke up then to a donkey making that weird noise they love to make. After a few minutes I was able to fall back asleep for a couple hours. At 3:40 I woke up to a squeky sound. I turned my headlamp light on and it showed me 3 mice chilling on the wooden frame above my bed that holds up the mosquito net. I pretty much had a minor heart attack and started crying again...

GPI was nothing compared to this...I don't think i've ever been so terrified in my life. We were the first volunteers to be dropped off at the training village and no one really knew what to expect. I kid you not my heart stopped for a second "oh fuck I'm being dropped off in the middle of The Gambia."

Our LCH, language and cultural helper met up with Doug Becca and I. He took us to his compound and led us into his hut. We each chose random keys and children swarmed to carry our luggage. Did i forget to mention the kids? There are children everywhere and they all want to hold my hand or touch my hair or just stare at me for hours. To tell you the truth I don't mind them at all, they are so eager to talk to me and teach me new words, it's great. As I approached my compound my fear arose again, covered in sweat I said hi to my host moms, so much for a good impression. The kids brought in my luggage, expecting nothing in return. They left and I fought back the tears, I started to do inventory of the trunk they left with necessary supplies but I couldn't even function. I was completely and totally overwhelmed, I still am. I left to find the other trainees compounds and see how they were doing I found Becca with a boy's help. She was putting together her water filter and unpacking, although overwhelmed she was at least functional. She must be stronger than I, or at least she hides her fear much better!

We all met up with our LCH later and he gave us some lunch, Bennechin-absolutely delicious! I tried attaya for the first time, it's amazing. I'm going to need to learn to brew it asap. It's like a shot of espresso times ten haha. Then we went back to our rooms. I set up my mosquito net and water purifyer. For the water we have to purify it through a filter system and then add a couple drops of bleach. I don't know how I feel about drinking bleach but if it keeps me healthy I suppose I must. We then walked to Kwinella, a neighboring (bigger) town, there we bought rope to secure our nets. Then we walked back to give Kola nuts to our host father and I sat outside with my host mothers. It's so hard right now because I don't know much language....

Today we had class all day again. It was really hard to get up because yesterday was so relaxing. I'll probably end up going to bed way early. We learned a lot about what our lifestyle will be, what problems we'll face, and what we'll need to change in order to adapt to that life. The food will probably be a lot different even from the different food we've been eating already because the village i'm going to is 4hrs inland. Also we won't have electricity or running water so I'll have to adapt to that. One of the volunteers demonstrated how to take a bucket bath, pretty hilarious. But i guess that will be my life shortly.

Then we went to lunch and learned to eat with our hands. It may sound strange and unsanitary but it really isn't bad at all. Everyone washes their hands, then you sit around the big food bowl and everyone has their own little area of food. You eat with your right hand and do not touch the food or the bowl with your left hand. The left hand is for wiping in the restroom, I bought toilet paper to take with me. Also you can't lean over the bowl because it is unsanitary to mix food from your hand back into the bowl to possible mix with other peoples food. So while it still may look or seem to you like it's "savage" to eat like that it's actually not bad at all and I don't think disease is spread much through the food bowl. I'm learning so much about the culture, I never knew that people lived this way, it's great!

I also had 2 hrs of language training in the afternoon in which I learned numbers and currency and market phrases. We are going to the market tomorrow morning, I plan on buying some fabric to have traditional garb made for me...can't wait!

After the language lesson we got our cameras and went to a crocodile pool. I took lots of pictures so don't worry you'll see them soon! At first was a history and culture museum of Gambian people and things. There are things called jujus that do various things, for example one is a hoof of an antelope and it kills the person to whom it is pointed if the pointer wants it to. There were also the ceremonial costumes that are worn at circumcisions and stuff like that, they actually still use them so I can't wait till i'm in village! Then we saw the crocodiles and I petted one, there's a picture of that too. But I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos, thank God for the malaria prophylaxis! So I headed back to the air conditioned bus but those mosquitos just love me and I can't stop itching!

That's the update I have for today, it was a pretty fun day but I'm exhausted. Hopefully tonight I can go find a cold pop at the store and sit back and play some oregon trail. haha doug brought it on his computer and i'm hooked!

Sundays are our free days and we get to do whatever we want, within reason that is. This morning we went to the grocery store and I was surprised by the amount of products that are the same as those at home! They have my conditioner there! But there were also a lot of things that we dont' have at home. A pack of 6 of toilet paper was 110 dalasis and the conversion is 28/dollar so it's not too cheap. Especially since we only get paid 900 a month. I bought a cold pop ~20 dalasis and that tasted amazing. haha imagine how delicious it will be when I get back from being in a small village for 11 weeks! On our way to the computer lab a car drove past us with a goat strapped to the roof. The car was full so I guess they just decided to strap him on, it was sad he was baaing the whole way! In an hour or two we will be heading to the beach to lay out and eat pizza and do touristy things. haha can't wait for that! Also tomorrow night we get to go to a crocodile ranch where we can actually touch them, Court I'm sure you're glad you're not here! But anyway people are waiting for the computers again so I should be considerate. I still haven't gotten any mail so get to writing!!

Court

So training is pretty intense. We have it 6 days a week from 8-6pm. It is a lot of seminars and a lot of hard work. I have started learning Mandinka and it's hard but fun. It's good to stay busy and be learning. On the 22nd I'll be heading to a training village to live with a host family to integrate with the family and learn more language, culture and teaching methods. From what I hear training is the hardest and it's downhill from there. So I'm hoping that's the case. I suppose I just need to have faith that I'll make it through and everything will be okay. It's hardest mentally. I'm not a big crying in public type of person but I definitely have over the last couple days. It's hard to change everything about your surrounding and be overwhelmed 24/7. I think after a month I should be more adjusted though. Anyway I have to go but I hope everyone is well and I'll try to update again soon.

Courtny

Hey Everybody,

I don't have much time, there's 4 computers in the office for all 20 of us to use! But I wanted to post and let everyone know that I made it to Gambia alright. The flight took forever but I made it and it wasn't tooo painful! I get to get some sleep tonight but have training everyday but sunday 8am-6pm. So I may not be able to blog much in the next few months but will try to as much as I can. I may be able to get a cell phone tomorrow, there are some more details about it that I'll share when I know and have the phone but it's possible that you'll be able to contact me through the phone. But I have to go for now. Oh yes anyone who comes here has to have legal proof of a yellow fever vaccination. Thanks for the posts, Bethany I'll check out your blog later when I have more time thanks for writing!

Court

Today was the second day of a long week of training. Marie and I just went to dinner at a really delicious Italian restaurant in DC. I'm going to miss some of these foods a lot! Tomorrow morning I have to be in the hotel lobby by 6:55am so I can go with my group to get some vaccinations. The only one I know of is Yellow Fever, so that should be a blast! After that we're checking out of our hotel and then heading to the airport. We'll be sitting around the airport for about 5 hours then waiting for our flight to Brussels. We get into Brussels at 7:30am the next day so I pray to God that I'm able to sleep on that flight but I might be too excited/nervous! Then our flight to Gambia leaves and we should be there by 6pm on Thursday. So it'll be a looong next couple of days! I'm getting really excited but I miss people already! Once I'm in Gambia I'll be in Banjul for a week and then we go more inland for training camps. It sounds like it will be really intensive and hard but a good experience and since I'm just out of school I hope it will be easy to slip back into study mode. I sure hope so! I hope everyone is doing well, thanks Jen and Laura for writing!

Court

Yesterday we arrived in Washing DC and had about 5 hrs of training. It was hard to say good-bye to my mom dad and step mom but I made it through and arrived in DC safe and sound. It still hasn't quite hit me that I'm leaving for Africa for 27 months. I haven't really cried yet but I'm sure when it happens it'll be like an emotional breakdown. I'm using Marie, one of the fellow trainees (who is amazing), computer so I have to go but I wanted everyone to know i'm well!

Courtney