Yesterday was one of the most amazing and memorable days of my life! I felt like I was in a dream, watching an idealized version of what I’ve always wanted America to be, coming true before my eyes. And I could barely believe it was happening even as I watched it unfold, because even though I had an ideal of America in my mind, I never dared to believe that it could really come true. I know

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything on this blog, but it isn’t just because I’ve been too busy or too lazy to write. I’ve been meaning to write for a long time now, but for some reason I could never bring myself to sit down and start writing. It’s not because I’ve been unhappy or have nothing to say, and for a long time I didn’t know what it was exactly. But just recently

In the past two months I've had a couple of successes and failures. I guess that both are bound to happen when you start trying to get something done. Failures: 1) The Global Awareness Club that I tried to get started at the high school crashed and burned. The first week 30 kids showed up, the 2nd week 5, the 3rd week 0. I waited in the classroom for an hour until it became obvious that nobody

In the media they often mention that the coming food crisis will affect the entire world, but that the worst impacts will be felt in Africa and Asia and especially in those developing countries that depend largely on imports for staple foods such as rice. The Gambia fits that profile perfectly: it is an African country, poor even by African standards; it is small and has little industry. The main

I was hoping to write a long blog entry before heading back to site, but I just don't have it in me right now. I just finished a week of in-service training, and it was great! I learned about everything from beekeeping to fruit tree grafting. I even got to harvest my first honey from an African beehive (imagine killer bees, but more aggressive). It was so much fun, and I only got stung twice!

Here's a couple of entries from my journal, to give you some idea of what my day to day life is like, and how much it varies: Thursday, March 27, 2008 I really had to write today because today marks my being here 6 months in The Gambia. It's kind of hard to believe that 1/2 a year has passed already since I came here. For so long it seemed like time was moving by so slowly and it made 27 months

I'm starting to feel more comfortable to life here. One of the biggest adjustments I’ve had to make to life here is to learn to take things slow. There are a lot of hours during the day where it gets just too hot to do anything but sit under the shade of a nearby tree. This is supposedly still the cool season, but my thermometer got up to 105F the other day, so I am afraid for the hot season

I've been at site for a month now, and it feels good to finally be settling in somewhere. I can finally unpack all my bags, put up pictures, paint and make my house feel like my home. Of course, even though I've unpacked my bags, I still don't have anywhere to put all my things because I haven't been able to buy any furniture except for a bed and 2 chairs so far. So all the things laying on my

I've been in The Gambia for 10 weeks now and I have experienced and learned so much in those 10 weeks that I can't even imagine how much I'll learn in 2 years here. Training is almost over, just 2 days left, and then I'm off to my permanent site of Kaur for the next 2 years. Training has been an incredible experience. When I first met up with my group in Philadelphia for our pre-service

I have less than one week left before we finish training and swear in as Volunteers and then head off to our sites for the "3-month challenge" (where we don't leave our sites for 3 months straight). I have so much to summarize about the last 10 weeks, that I don't even know where to begin, so I won't... for now. I'll post a long blog entry sometime this week which will summarize as much as

For the next 27 months, this blog will be about my Peace Corps experience in The Gambia. Right now I'm just running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (minus the blood), getting last minute things in order and generally just feeling anxious, nervous and excited to begin. I leave in just three days and I really have no idea what to expect, except that I know that these are going to be