Obama comes to The Gambia (in poster form). Jackie (a SUPER good friend) worked on the Obama campaign in Alaska and sent me this poster. Everybody you meet over here has heard of Obama and are SOOOO excited that he is the president now.

The fulas (my language and ethnicity) are the cow herders over here. And they too support Obama.

The rainy season had ended and now the harvests are in! And after the ground nut harvest, we collect the ground nut hay. The nuts grow underground and the green, leafy part of the plant is what we call "the hay". Above you see the hay being hauled back to village on a donkey cart to feed the horses and donkeys (and a few lucky sheep and goats).

Youssifa, Mussa, Allison and Adama all had horrible, infected hands from working in the fields separating the groundnut hay from the ground nuts. They use sticks to separate the material, and developed blisters from the work. They did not clean the wounds well and ....got nasty infections. So I took them to the hospital and now do their dressings in village every other day. The picture was taken the day we went to the hospital to drain the puss from Youssifa's hand

Youssifa and Mussa after I bandaged up their hands one morning. I guess all those years of being around my mother (the nurse) had finally rubbed off! Thanks mom.

Tabaski is here!! This is like a Muslim version of Christmas. If you have enough money, you buy a ram. If not, you go for a goat. The streets of town were lined in sheep 3 days before the festivities waiting to be purchased ...........and then slaughtered.

The cold season is officially here!!! This is Fulo sporting his wool jacket in the morning. Yes, it has gotten to about 65 degrees at night and even I am putting on my fleece jacket in the morning AND evening brrrrrrr.

The BEST advertising I have to seen to date. I got this picture on the ferry on the way to the capital. Best to read it out loud. All the vehicles in the Gambia are second hand, so this van probably originated in England, and then was shipped over to Gambia.

Amadou, the man in purple spotted me at our market and INSISTED on taking me and my bicycle back to village, despite the fact that the horse cart ride is 1.5 hours and i can bike the distance in 45 minutes. But what the hey! Me and my bike got a free ride back to village.

And a few more Obama photos.......

Fatou, a lady that makes American style dognuhts at the 'luumo' (weekly market).

Mariama, the first baby named after me (now there are 5) also supports Obama. She can now WALK!!!!

Brian is a fellow PCV in my group who needs to get a real job and write professionally. Go read his blog. Time well spent.

One of my favorite entries:

http://thegambiaisreallyhot.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

In late August, three Gambian PCV's and myself headed up to Dakar, Senegal to do a 4.5 km swim called Traverse Dakar-Goree. The objective is to swim from the mainland (Dakar) to the island of Goree. It was AWESOME!! There were about 20 PCV's from Senegal and the four of us from Gambia that made up the Peace Corps team. About 500 people participated total. Here we are on the beach getting ready for the event to begin.

Stripes is in the pink suit and I am the one to her right adjusting my swim cap.

The start of the swim. Again you can see Stripes and myself getting our feet wet. In the background you can see the LARGE cargo ship to the left of the island of Goree. The small boat and canoe are support for the race. The girl that organized all the PC team won her division and has an elaborate trophy for her efforts. Congrats Megan!

October was an incredible event-filled month. I returned from 'Toubabadou' (where the white people - Toubabs) live. I got to visit Croatia and Germany with my mom and aunt. We visited with people we have not seen in 20 years. We got so see our old house, former classmates, neighbors and friends. It was nothing short of amazing. To be back in my old 'stomping' grounds and eating things like 'chivapcici' was the best way to celebrate the year mark in my PCV service.

The day of mom & Aunt Kathy's arrival. We had quite the official welcome for them. On the right is Brigitta, the most wonderful lady ever! She organized the welcome effort and got half of the town to show up for my moms arrival. (I arrived a few days prior to my mom....that is why i look so clean). My mom is on the right of me, and my aunt is on the left.

Croatia is beautiful!! I now fully realize why it is such a tourist destination. Take a look at Picasa for the rest...

Reuniting with my old best friend, Katica in one of the many coffee shop/bars in Vrboska. She is also the only one with out husband/kids just like me! Right behind us is our old school. It is embarrassing, but quite true that I have lost my ability to speak Croatian. Thank goodness all of my old classmates can speak EXCELENT English. I had the chance to hang out with 5/6 of my old classmates!

Our old house. It is hard to describe what it was like to see it again. Sad, happy, nostalgic - all rolled up into one. The house is still in remarkably good shape for being vacant for the last 20 years. We used to live on the level with the arched doorway. The guests lived above, in the back, and below.

One of my most favorite spots when I was a kid. I would spend hours trying to 'fish' right here with a hook and stale bread as bait. Never caught any fish, but would always try!

Visiting Germany with mom & Brigitta. It was so incredibly cold. I had to borrow almost all the clothes I had on!

Then after an incredible 3 weeks in Croatia and one week in Germany it was time to return to my second home, The Gambia. Returning was more difficult than I expected. Not because I did not want to go back, but because I missed my flight in Germany. I took a bus to the correct airport and finally left Germany, then took another series of buses to travel trough Spain, finally making it to Madrid just in time for my flight to Morocco. Whew! Made it. Then I had to wait overnight in the Dakar airport swatting away the mosquitoes, so I could pay a 'normal' fare to the car park, because at night they charge outrageous fares. Then I traveled 7+ hours in a hot, dusty, cramped 'set-place' or station wagon back to Gambia. Now I really made it back. Soooo happy to be back with my family, back in my familiar hut. Two girls in my compound spent two hours helping me clean everything up (a lot of debris collects from the thatched roof). After everything was spic and span we had dinner and I went back to my hut because a gentle rain started to come down. After dark, I went to bed, excited to get a real nights sleep in a real bed. This was going to be fantastic! In the middle of the night I wake up to a very loud crash. I reach for my flashlight to see what the noise was. At first all I see is a lot of dust in the air, so I get out of my mosquito to get a better look. I survey the scene and I realize that two of my four walls have crumbled. Luckily they fell toward the outside, otherwise I might have been under some rubble! Then I wondered what to do. It was 2:30am and I know my whole compound is asleep. But I know that if I wait until morning, everyone is going to be able to see me sleeping in my bed! So I put on some clothes and open my front door. My brother happened to be walking back to his house! I asked him to come into my house to have a look. He was quite surprised and woke my mother up immediately. He told me I could not stay in my house, and that we would move my mattress into my mom's house and I would sleep there. So I did as he said. the next morning we surveyed the damage, and all the men in my compound went to work cleaning up the debris. It is very common for houses to fall in the rainy season. There are 6 other houses in my village that have crumbled this year. Including another house in my own compound. This year the rains were much heavier than normal, so we had more houses come down.

Bocar in blue on the left, my bed behind him, Usuman with the shovel, Issah and Hablai looking on.

Then the PC housing crew came out a few days later and re-built my house in about a week! While they were working on my house, I continued to live with my mom in her hut. So now I can say that I am 30 years old, and still living with my mother! I have always wanted to be able to say that.

My re-built house!!!!

After my house was re-built things went back to normal. The rains are over and it is time to harvest! The coos (millet) gets laid out to dry in the sun before it gets put into 'storage'. They keep the millet on the heads until you want to eat it. Then you have to pound it 3 times. Once to get it off the stalk, the second time to take the hull off of the seed, and a third time to pound it into a powder. Then it is mixed with a gel made from tree sap and 'steamed'. This process usually takes 2-3 days to complete.

Sarjo laying out the coos to dry. At this stage we call it "goudje"

While the coos lays out to dry, chickens, goats and donkeys come by to sneak a snack. It is every ones job in the compound to 'shoo' the animals away. You do this by yelling 'ACHAAA' loudly.

My field corn! Corn is primarily a snack food. It is the first crop that is harvested after the rains. Corn breaks the 'hungry season' everyone is overjoyed to have some good food to eat! In late afternoon all the 'small boys' from your compound run out to the corn fields grab a few ears off of the stalk and run back to the compound. Then they gather some hot coals and place them on a tin container. Then they place the corn right on top of the coals to 'cook'. This process blackens and heats up each kernel. Then you eat!

Corn is also used to a lesser extent for the coos. When the women in my compound prepare coos or "lechery" they use 3/4 coos and 1/4 corn powder. They pound the coos and corn separately, and then when both are a fine powder, they mix them together for dinner & breakfast.

The peanuts, the main cash crop of the Gambia are also being harvested right now. This is my mom, Jabu, in Salif's field pulling up peanuts.

Hablai leaning on the peanuts and my brother Salif on the right.

Here you can see the big heap of peanut plants with the peanuts still attached. They are placed here to dry and will be separated later. This is my brothers only source of income for the whole year, he supports 7 people.

Upon my return from Europe, I have started a new activity for the kids in my village. Some really great friends sent me a coloring book and some 'twistables' crayons. Kids in Gambia have never seen a crayon before, let alone know how to use it! So I now invite one child per day into my hut and let them choose one page out of the coloring book, and then they get to color and keep the page. Here you see Salimina with his completed page. You can see that every square inch gets covered with color. They LOVE IT! Now the adults have started to ask if they can have a turn too.

For Halloween a few of us got together at Stripes' place. I biked the 40km to her site. She lives in a big town that had a functioning peanut factory back in the colonial days. The old factory is right on the river and has a big boat dock. She organized a dinner, haunted peanut search in the factory and camp out on the dock. We even dressed up a little, here is my best cow-girl stance. The shirt came all the way from Kansas!

I will do my best to bring you up to speed on my life for the past few months. As some of you may know, my personal life back in the states has taken a dive, so I was concentrating on other things for a while. But now I'm back and ready to tell you some stories.

Pirogue Ride

The most dramatic item is I (possibly) got pick-pocketed! I was not hurt, and did not know that it even happened till much later. Josiah (a sitemate) and I were headed in to Kombo because one of our friends was COS'ing (Close of Service). We reach Barra, (where the ferry takes us to the south bank), to find out that the ferry was not running. We heard about this on the radio, and the ferry was supposed to be out of commission several weeks ago. Needles to say it was not a surprise to see that they finally got around to doing the work now. We follow a crowd of Gambians to find several pirogues waiting to take people across the river. Josiah and I survey the scene: Concrete dock, 4.5 foot drop down to the boat, waves pushing the boat up and down against the concrete dock. People being lowered down into the boat by other people. Sketchy to say the least. Seemed very unsafe. If you missed the boat, you would get pinched between the boat & the concrete dock. We decide to examine other options. We follow other people to the 'beach' where we find 2 pirogues about 15 yards out in the water. This seems like a much safer bet, we just have to get wet. No problem. There are several bumsters (young men calling you "hey boss lady, I will help you") trying to get you to get on their shoulders and they will wade out to the pirogue so you don't have to get as wet. (Most Gambians are very afraid of the water) We insist that we are OK and will wade out to the boat. We have to carry our bags over our heads because the water is chest deep. This is where it gets difficult. There are about 4 bumsters with Gambians on their shoulders trying to climb up to the ledge of the boat, this ledge as about 3in wide and 14in long, just over my head. So I get clobbered trying to get up on that small ledge, people are kicking and pushing and shoving because there is limited space on the boat, and many, many people trying to get on the boat. Luckily, Josiah gets on and takes my bag so I have two hands to try to pry myself up onto the boat. Eventually, I succeed, with only minor bruises. Later I realise that my wallet is missing from my pants. Before wading out, I separated my money because if I lost my bag, I wanted some cash on me, and if I lost what was on me, I had some in my bag. So I still don't know if my wallet innocently swam away in the confusion, or if someone pickpocketed me. We get on to the boat and feel a sense of accomplishment. I look around and notice that there are 46 people on the boat when we realize they can't get the motor started. 20 minutes later a police dingy boat trades engines with us. Then one of the men pour diesel into the gas tank, but also manage to pour some on the spark plugs as well, so the second engine is a no-go. Ten minutes later the men in our boat talk a second pirogue into towing us across. Yay! It works and we are on our way.....until the second pirogues engine stops about halfway across the river (it is 2-3 miles across) then they get it working again and we complete the crossing of the river only to discover twice the number of bumsters on the Banjul side of the river all trying to get us to jump on their shoulders. Since this is Gambia, single file lines do not exist, and everyone wants out of the boat immediately. So instead of stepping out on to the ledge we used getting on to the boat, everyone rushes to one side of the boat, and it almost capsizes. The boat was at a 45 degree angle - no joke! No matter how many times we told the bumsters "NO", they would not move out of the way so we could jump down. Eventually Josiah jumped down and kicked a bumster in the head on the way down. Luckily for me they moved out of the way a little so I could jump into the chest-deep water after handing Josiah my bag. By the time that we got to the shore we were feeling like we accomplished something that day. And only two people vomited in the boat on the way over!

A pirogue loaded down with vegetable oil in front of the ferry (on a day the ferry was running)

Battle of the Mice

In true Gambian fashion, when constructing the floor to my hut, the men in my village used one bag of cement instead of the required 2 that PC supplied them. They chose to add twice the amount of sand, so someone else can use the 'leftover' concrete. This causes the cement to be be very brittle, and break easily. The mice in my village have done extensive testing of the concrete in my hut, and have decided they like it ALOT! Each time I leave my house for a day or two - I find a new mouse hole! It is really fun to find their new home each time I come home. To date I have patched 14 holes, and counting! So in an effort to help her daughter, my mother sends me some mouse traps. That should help! Weeeelllll the mice over here weigh less (just like the children) and were not heavy enough to trip the spring. My strategy? I keep feeding them peanut butter in the mouse trap until they gain enough weight so they trip the spring! So far I have caught one. I think I need to come up with a new strategy, so I am considering getting a cat. The problem will be to convince my family not to throw things at it. (they tend to kick the dogs and throw things at the cats to get them to go away).

First DEAD Mouse!!!! and the hole he built in my house.

The President Comes for a Visit

His excellency, Dr. Alhagi YaYa A. J. J. J. Jammeh visited my work place on his yearly tour called "Dialogue with the People" He arrived in his stretch H2 Hummer from Silicon Valley, CA. Upon his arrival he thew cookies from his oversize sunroof and greeted the people with a smile and a wave. His entourage of people included about 250 cars, a military convoy including 45 soldiers, several machine guns, AK-47's and riot helmets. He was escorted into the 'garden' section and was told about all the trees in the nursery. He took a liking to my pigeon pea (a tree used as a windbreak, is nitrogen-fixing and produces lots and lots of beans) and upon the completion of the day asked one of his men to take me to my village so I could give him some pigeon pea. It was a hair-raising experience being driven at 70kmh up the sandy road up to my village, but I made it, and gave Jammehs' men some of my pigeon pea seed!

The Presidential Hummer (he has 3 of them)

Nell came for a visit!

My first visitor in the Gambia!!! Nell braved the heat & the local food and made the trek up to my village to see my site after spending a few months in Senegal. Unfortunately she got a little sick at my site, but she made it out OK. Good luck up in PDX!

Nell checking out the gardens at the Stodge.

Traverse Goree 2008

Thanks to the other Nell in my life, I have developed a really liking for open-water swim events. As of now, I am planning to travel up to Dakar for a 3k swim out to the island of Goree in late August. There are 2 or 3 other PCV's who will do the adventure with me. Stay tuned.....

Rice/Food Crisis

As you may have heard, there is a serious rice shortage thanks to a series of reasons attached to the western world. This is really affecting The Gambia. PC has even had regional meetings to help us develop strategies to deal with the shortage. To give you a frame of reference, a bag of rice was 500 Dalasi when we arrived in country last September. Now it is 750. The president is currently subsidizing the price of rice and promises that it will not be more than 1,000 through this September. After September he will no longer subsidize it. PC is estimating that it will triple by next September. My brother makes about 1000 Dalasi a month at a really good job. Some people think that there might be riots next year at this time. I am fairly lucky to be leaving with the Fulas because we eat millet (coos) for 2 of our meals a day and we only eat rice for lunch, but other groups like the Mandinkas tend to eat rice 3 times a day. Maybe it will not be as bad as people think... PC is encouraging us to show intercropping (corn, beans, squash) and telling people to plant rice, and then sell it.

Buy a Man

Nurse Sarah & Nurse Kelly (two PCV's) have been on overdrive last couple of weeks getting ready for their fund raiser. They held a male auction (with a free dinner attached) to raise money for stethoscopes and books for nursing students. They even auctioned off the PC Director Mike!!! They raised close to 18,000 Dalasi in one night.

Jon, the MC for the evening (in Gambian drag) with our big boss Rodney. Rodney made the best enterance of the evening on his motorcycle!

Bjorn, one of the men for sale....trying to get a better bid.

No I did not go to the moon, but we did just complete IST, or in service training. Including beekeeping. Here is Lindsey posing as a moonwalker. A few of us got stung, but not me!!! Yay.

Stephanie (most recently from Bend!) and I with a tuna we purchased for 180 Dalasi, or 7 Dollars!

Jon (from PDX), his handelbar mustache, and a wrap skirt celebrating St. Patty's day.

Mark (from Iowa) to my left and Brian (from New Hampsure) below me. More St. Patty's fun.

This is an RCH Clinic (Reproductive and Child Heath) I sit at the bench you see here and help Andrea (from Maine), my sitemate, out with these events every two weeks. All the women dress up in their best compolets (or outfits). Here the babies 1.) get weighed 2.) get shots like Polio, DPT, and supplements like Vitamin A. She speaks Mandinka, and I speak Puular - so between the both of us we can ask questions like: When was your baby born, what is your husbands name, what village are you from, where is your ID card..... becasue no one speaks English here!

Yay for SOLAR power! Here you see my back door and my I-Pod charging off of the sun.... THANK YOU KELLY!!!

The biggest news from village is that now there are three baby girls named after me now. Yes, that brings the grand total up to three. Two in my compound and one across the street. My village seems to average at least one new baby a week. I'm not sure if this is baby season, or this rate will keep up year-round.

The last month I have spent most of my waking hours in my compound hanging out with my family. This means literally sitting outside (1) staring at the sand (2) shelling peanuts (3) drinking Attaya (4) reading (5) shelling more peanuts (6) practicing my Pullar (7) shelling more peanuts.

The least weak got a little more exciting because I was summoned by the director of Chamen Agricultural Center. He sent word to my village that I should come down on Monday for a special meeting. So I hoped on my bran-new charcoal gray Trek 3700, put on my helmet (PC requirement!) rode through the sand for 20 minutes, rode on the road for 5 minutes and reached Chamin. Much to my surprise I found another toubab at the center! He is a VERY enthusiastic man from Bangladesh with a PhD in Horticulture. Did I mention this man is industrious as well? He wants to get 10,000 trees planted this year. So far there are about 1,500 seedlings planted in poly-pots in the nursery. We will out-plant them at the beginning of the rainy season. Last year he acquired 300 banana trees from the FAO (part of the UN) and this February we will plant all the the suckers (or offshoots) that have sprouted next to the base of the trees. I will plan on coming to the center on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to help out. I think I will learn a thing or two around here. The center also has just started a garden with squash, cucumber, and eggplant. The Dr. also is experimenting with a hybrid potato that might stand the heat in The Gambia (his PhD work was is seed technology). In addition to trees and gardens, the center has about 200 hectares of land that includes peanut, corn and coos fields. And about 40 small ruminants (goat & sheep) and about 40 egg-laying chickens. The Center has bran-new leadership & a bran new goal. This goal is to become financially self-dependent. Their goal is to raise crops, vegetables and animals to sustain the center. The theory dictates that if the center is financially successful, people will naturally be interested in their activities and will come to the center to learn & replicate their efforts on their farms.

Other activities have included going on trek around my village to visit 9 surrounding villages & do a bee survey. There are many colonies of wild bees in the bush surrounding each village, and many Gambians harvest the honey. There is a PCV placed with the National Gambian Beekeepers Association who has asked his follow volunteers to find out what type of honey collection activities are happening in the villages, in an effort to get beekeeping started in more areas across the country (a very profitable venture). It is likely that I will help Buba (my counterpart in village) get his apiary going.

I have heard that many of you have sent letters & care packages - THANK YOU! I look forward to receiving them!!! Mail has been a little backed up because of Christmas. I will e-mail you and let you know if something has come through to my corner of The Gambia.

In other news, there is a chance that I will head to Senegal next month to compete in the West African International Softball Tournament (WAIST). Woo-Hoo! WAIST will be in Dakar, which is a real African capital complete with clubs that play real African music (my real motivation for heading north). WAIST is a competition between Peace Corps (Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Gambia, Mauritania), US Marines, various NGO's, Ex-Pats, and US Embasy staff. There is a good chance that we will be 'hosted' by various staff from the Embassy & other Americans living in Dakar. I will let you know how it goes!

Since y'all have had Christmas already I have started to think about what would be nice to have over here........ If you feel the urge you can send me a care package. I have added a section under my photo of things that would be nice to receive. Please feel free to venture off the list as well. My mom has been using the USPS international flat rate boxes (I think they are the best deal she has found)

Please send me letters too! I would love recent photos & news of home.

I have been in my REAL village for about two weeks, and a lot has happned! To start things off one of my host mothers (Sarjo) gave birth to a baby girl 3 days into my stay in village. It happned durring the night and slept through the whole thing! I had ABSOLUTELY NO idea she was close to giving birth, at my estimate she was about 7 months along. My other host mother, Ramata should be due really soon as well. This was Sarjo's 4th child - she is 26 years old. Ramata is working on number 7 - she is about 35 to 40 years old. To add to the excitement of having a bran new baby in the compound, that afternoon I find out that the fater is naming the new girl after me! (in Gambia the father chooses the childerns names) This means that at the naming ceremony I will be responcible for brigning a very nice gift, and I will be expected to provide food for the big party. In addition to providing treats, I will be responcible for giving the child gifts over her lifetime. A naming ceremony usually happens one week after the birth and the new name is kept secret untill the ceremony (sometimes the mother does not even know the name). Unfortunately they were not able to have the naming ceremony the following week because it was Jouleday (or Tabaski) a Muslim version of Christmas & Haloween rolled into one. You ask for charity (candy or small change) and slaughter a ram or goat and eat that for the next 3 days. They eat it all including the tail! Remember to save the testicles to make a bag later. No joke. Also - FYI everyone likes organs like heart and lungs much more that the 'meat'. I have been trying to find pieces connected to bone to eat. After eating goat for several days straight (for every meal) I have never been so thankfull for the fish that I had been eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I'm excited to pick fishbones out of my mouth as opposed to steering around the stomach linning or rugge!

I mentioned that the naming ceremony was delayed due to Tabaski, but then there was another turn of events. My host father died the day before Tabaski, we had his funneral on the day of Tabaski. Immagine doing Christmas & your fathers funeral on the same day. Since my father was the Alkalo (or mayor) of town it was a HUGE funural. There was an influx of 200+ people into our compound. As most things in The Gambia, funurals are a gender seperated event. The women gather in his wifes house and the men gather in his house (same compound). You can fit 10-15 people in a house, and the rest of the people gathered in the outside areas of the compound. The men go to the mosque for prayers (most of the day) while the women are sitting in the compound. Close to dusk they bury the body. Again, since I am a female, I was not able to see this part either. So I sat in the compound with the 70 or so women and children while the men prayed & buried the body.

When I go back to village it will be interesting to see how the town 'elects' a new mayor, and to see how/when that will happen.

In other news, as you have guessed I'm in Kombo for Christmas. That means that I had to get here on my own - this time with out Peace Corps transport. Alex, Mai and I decided to join forces & take the trip together. Good thing we did. We gathered at Alexes house the night before (creating a small scandal due to gender differences) we have been told to call the Gele-Gele driver the night before to request a 'pick-up'. Since Alex lives in a small remote village, there is one Gele-Gele that will come through his town at 5am upon request. We placed the call the night before (even having a villager make the call to ensure the message got through in Puular). The next morning we rise a 4:30am, pack our stuff and go outside in the FREEZING COLD and wait for 2 hours. We finally go back inside to warm up and wait some more. (these things eventually show up). We talk to Alex's host father and he calls the Gele-Gele driver - to find out that he is NOT coming. OK. We decide to walk to a neighboring village to the north that should have a gele coming through. We get to that village 20 minutes later to find out that it had just left. Supposedly there will be another one coming in the afternoon. It is 8:30am now. The 3 of us debate what to do. We find someone in that village that will take us via horse cart to the road for 400 Dalasi (INSANE PRICE) and decide to walk back to Alex's village and try to catch a horse cart to the main road from there. 20 minutes later we get back to Alex's village, explain our situation and try to find someone in village with a horse cart (usually this would be offered for free because he lives in the village). To our surprise a villager offers a horse cart for 250 Dalasi (INSANE PRICE). We debate what to do and reason that walking that distance would take us about 2 hours and it is getting HOT & we have BIG bags to carry. So we felt it would be inappropriate to haggle to reduce the price with a village member (there are only 7 compounds) so we decided to pay for the ride. 45 minutes later we reach the main road. We spend the next 40 minutes trying to flag down a gele-gele. We successfully (all 3 of us!) board a gele-gele at 11am. We make it to the ferry - which is insanely crowded because everyone is returning to Kombo from the Tabaski festivities. Then we walk to the 'garage park' to catch the first van/bus. Craziness ensues! There are SO many people trying to get on each van that comes by, but there are only a few spots open on each van. People are pushing and shoving and elbowing and crowding to get into the vans even after they are driving down the street. We are not sure what to do. Do we: 1.) push & shove our way into a van? How? It is next to impossible. or do we 2.) pay WAY too much for a special 'taxi'? Finally Mai makes some friends while trying to get on several different vans and they help us get into a van (they shove others aside and make a wall so we can get on). We thank them and feel horrible as we drive off with out them. We then get to the next garage park and board a second van & make it close to our destination by 3pm! We buy a DELICIOUS frozen Tamarind juice from Gam Juice and eat our frozen treat as we walk the rest of the way to the PC house. Whew! We made it. Any other time, this trip would have taken us about 2-3 hours total. Later that night we find out we should have paid about 40-50 Dalasi for the horse cart from Alex's village. Live & Learn!

Tommorow I take off for site. As I mentioned before, that means that I will be out of e-mail (or blog) range untill March sometime. To keep you occupied untill then check out "Jon" under my 'friends' section. He has VIDEO up on his blog of life in training village!!! Jon is ultra creative & funny- he even went to film school in LA. So I suggest you take a look - you might even see me.

I become a REAL PCV today. We swear-in in a few hours! As a special treat I added a few photos below so you get to see what training was like. Well have have to get going....the Ambassadors House is calling!

Getting ready to head to the 40th Anniversay of PC in the Gambia. I got to see my very first 5-star hotel in the Gambia. Guess how we got there? PC drove us there in an old city transport bus from Spain, complete with spanish grafitti! Now we all know where Spain sells their old city busses!

I just LOVE my family in training village. We sit on this bench every night and chat untill dinner is ready. Then we try to keep the flying insects (and bats) out of our food. Early morning in the Sabaly compound. The open door is my mothers 'bitik' or convenience store. You can buy laundry soap, candles, cigarettes, tomato paste, DD batteries, sugar, and minites (cough drops that everyone thinks is candy)

Karamba. Describing him as a livewire is an understatement. Photo cred: Jon.

Sunrise over Fula Kunda. I just HAD to add my 'ultra classic Africa' photo.

Soon it will be tabaski; where 26 people will be cramed into 18 seats, and everyone will have a live ram straped to the top of the gele-gele. just remember to close your window, since you don't want to be peed on!

breakfast: pounded coos, sour milk and sugar

My house in training village

One of our FAVORITE pastimes is to identify & document really great signs. Who would not want to be an Ex-pupil @ St. Joseph's? To see more go to my Picassa site.

I have found out that the free version of flicker will only let you store 200 photos, regardless of size, so I have migrated over to Picasa. For now you will have to look at the first 200 photos over at Flicker and then check out Picasa. I should have known that Google would have had a better product. Grrrr. Please go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/klavcevic

Hello! I have finally had some time to compress my photos, and upload them! This is not all of them so stay tuned for more. When you go to view them on Flickrs site they will be in reverse cronological order. To see them go to:http://www.flickr.com/photos/klavcevic/

Soon I will be heading out to the bush for 3-month challenge. This means that I am to stay in my village the whole time without leaving. The rules are that I can go to market, see people, but must spend every night in village. So what does this mean for you? PLEASE Send me a letter! I would LOVE to get mail to catch up & find out what is going on in the States. You could also include things like newspaper clippings or magazines or photos (i would just love some current photos of friends)! Woo-Hoo reading material!!! I will have PLENTY of time on my hands to return mail in your direction. SO if you want your very own Gambian postage stamp - just write to me! The other reason for my request is that there is a good chance that I will not see a computer during this time, so snail mail might be my only option for communication. I have received a few letters and packages from mom - and most things take two weeks to get here. I am posted to the north bank of The Gambia, near Farafenni. You can find it on Google!

Swear in as a PCV! (If I pass the third language exam that is) . Side note: Please take a look at Jesse's blog because she is having very similar experiences to mine AND is a FANTASTIC writer. Her way with words blows me away. I have also added five more blog links to my page - Suzi, Mark, Alex, Ryan and Leslie, Bjorn are all volunteers in my group - some of them have great photos posted! And most are much funnier than I so take a look.

I have just returned from site visit. This is where we get a sneak peak at our new homes for the next two years. My father is the village Alkalo (think mayor), his brother is the Imam (think Muslim priest) and my house is a stones throw from the Mosque! That means I will be waking up with the call to prayer over the VERY LOUD speakers at 5:30 every morning for the next two years. 'Tis OK since dawn is around the corner & I go to bed between 8 & 9:30 every night.

My official welcome to village came from Chuck Norris himself! The first evening there my host sister (Mymuna) asked me if I was going to see the 'tele' - imagine my surprise when I walk to the Mandinka compound to find 70 villagers crowded around a small television watching Chuck Norris kicking butt! Chuck's video turned out to be skipping a little too much so we switched to watching a movie from Mali - (no one in village can understand the language) but it was fun! The family has a healthy generator that powers the TV. When I return to village I will find out if I can charge my Ipod & cell phone at their house!

Hello! I have returned from training village safe & sound! Since I am not a fan of duplicating work, and I'm sure you would like to know what my life has been like over here, please go to http://alexthegambia.blogspot.com. His mom has transcirbed his letters home and posted them already!

In other news, we had Thanksgiving at the US Ambassadors house last night! Wow - quite the party. The BBQ'd 50 chickens for us! And someone smuggled in cranberry sauce in on their luggage from the US. It was the first time that we got to meet all the other volunteers in country. I met a couple of folks that will be within 20 Kilometers from me. Did I mention the Ambassadors' pool overlooks the ocean? Yes, it was tough to take in, but I managed.

Things are going really well over here. I have passed two language tests, and have one more before swearing in. Tomorrow I head to site (where I will be for 2 years) to meet my family, see my house, make arrangements for a food bowl, laundry and rent. I will bring Kola nuts to my family, the Imam(Muslim priest) and the Alkalo (mayor) to get things started off on the right foot.

After my 3 day visit to site, I will return to Kombo (the capitol area) for about 2 weeks for more training and swearing in! Also - I will get a cell phone soon! It will be easy for me to receive calls, but not place them. It looks like getting to a computer will be much more challenging than I anticipated, so please be patient!

Letters come through in about 2 weeks time - thank you MOM! I will receive mail once a month on the PC mail truck - along with my free subscription to Newsweek International. So if anyone feels like writing me a letter.....I will write you back - just be sure to include your mailing address so I can write you back (because I forgot to make a master list 'o addresses before I left the states)

All in all things are WONDERFULL and the PEOPLE are AMAZING, and it is starting to feel like home. I miss you all, and (if you feel like it) e-mail me with updates from home and tell me what is going on in the rest of the world.

Today my life will become a little more Gambian. We load the busses and head out to our training villages for the next 6 weeks where we will live with a family, eat their food, use a pit toilet, take bucket baths outside and really learn the language. We will also be getting ALOT of technical training. I should know how to: garden, make compost, compost tea, beekeeping, how to start a nursery, learn 25 native trees & their uses (and latin names), and how to fix my new Trek 3700! I'm not sure if I will have computer access durring this time - so if don't hear from me it is OK.

There will be five of us trainees in my village, each with a different family. Most of our time will be spent with our LCH (language and cultural helper) from PC. They are FANTASTIC! Some of the nicest people I have ever met. They each speak about 8 languages. Crazy.

I appologize for the lack of photos - but the computers are SOOO SLOW that I have been here for an hour and still have not uploaded a single photo. BUT please look at Alex's site http://picasaweb.google.com/alexander.silvester because he was able to get a few up yesterday.

We have packed so many activities into the 6 days that we have been here, and I have been guaranteed that it will not stop. Thus far we have learned what language we will learn. I am learning Pularr (which is spoken by the Fula people) "Hono mbaada" to you all! (translation -How are you?) All the languages are phonetic so there are no spelling tests!!! Woo-Hoo. In addition to safety training, learning cultural norms, how to eat out of a communal food bowl with our hands, going to the BEACH, we have gone to a BAR already! We had the chance to meet up with 20 or so currently serving PCV's. I learned many things - one of them being that Gold Bond medicated powder is a MUST over here.

In other news about 1/3 to 1/2 of our group has gotten sick already. Including me! But I am OK.

On Friday we head out to our training villages where we live with a family and go to language classes every day.

The bugs are bigger (HUGE spiders) the plants are lush and we found a long worm in the shower this morning! Photos coming soon.... The people are SO FRIENDLY! We have had a fantastic experience thus far. We had our placement interview in the morning, more shots in the late morning, lunch and then a trip to the PC office to put our valuables and cash in a safe. There are several current volunteers guiding us around town & who will help us with training later.

It is 48 degrees in Brussels today with patchy fog on the ground. All 24 of us have arrived safe and sound. Perhaps a little sleep deprived (it is about 2:30am US time / 8:30am Brussels time). We have a four hour lay over and then off to Senegal, then Gambia. I have heard that they will meet all of us at the airport and help us go through customs. Then we go out for our first Gambian meal! We are all VERY excited to get our first breath of air in Africa and to meet all of the PC staff.

Staging is complete. Today we covered cultural sensitivity, how to take social hints from others and preformed a few skits interpreting that information. At 6am tomorrow morning we depart from our hotel to receive a battering of vaccinations! WOO-HOO. Then we take a bus to NYC to board a plane to Brussels. Then off to Africa. Then it will be real.

My next communication should be from Banjul, The Gambia. (In a couple of days.....so stay tuned)

The first day of staging went well! There are 24 very friendly and excited individuals ready to head out. Most of our group consists of recent college grads. We are a mixed bunch with about half & half female and male. There are a couple of us in our late 20's or early 30's. There are also two married couples in our group, one well into their careers and one just out of college. The day was spent completing icebreaker games, talking about why the PC was started, safety, and going over our anxiety and goals. We have a full day of material tomorrow and then we get out shots EARLY Wed. morning and head to NY for our flight to Brussels. We will leave NY on the 26th and arrive in Banjul on the 27th.

Hello from Philadelphia! I have reached our staging site - YAY! I have an AWSOME roomate from Hawaii. It is good to have my first PC frend. Staging officially starts in about 45min. So this will post will be quick.

The last two weeks were spent riding a little (before I got sick) and eating lots of good food (and beer) A big thanks to Jeff for letting us use his pad over in Bend for a last few days before I headed out.

In true Kristina fashion I spent my last 24 hours in Corvallis franticly packing. Maybe I will learn not to procrastinate so badly. (a life lesson I still need to learn). I finally got my bags down to 50 lbs. and 36 lbs. - and broke the scale trying to accomplish that goal! Then Josh and Logan took me to the airport at 3:30am! Whew.