At the zoo! I went back to Africa and saw the monkeys. Here is the view from my back deck. Its the mountains as well as Lake Union---beautiful.

Our Mariners tickets! whoop, whoop. we were so close. :)

Went to the mariners game for Easter, Candi received free tickets from her company so we took advantage of free seats behind home plate. The mariners lost but it was still quite the adventure. It was abass’s first game as well as my little cousin Willys. We got our picture with the Mariner Moose!

Things are going well, life is good, God is good. We’ve been keeping busy, now that summer is right around the corner I have been planting flowers, lots of them! Our new place is great. We have been feeling very blessed lately. Abass is still in school and I was just offered an awesome job, now i just need to get out there and start exercising! yikes! its still freezing out. I’ve posted pictures, hope you enjoy.

Afterward, we enjoyed McDonalds ice cream cones! :)

Sorry it’s been so long since I last blogged. This blog is not over yet… although I thought about ending it and then starting a new one? What do you guys think? I am no longer in The Gambia… but marrying a Gambian, well… it’s almost as if we are still on a journey. Since coming back to the US, I have had an easy time adjusting back. At first it was a bit tough, I was worried I was going to be homesick for Africa, I was worried that I wasn’t going to adjust well back to the society, but since being back I have been so busy, there has barely been any time to think about how much I miss that place. As many of you already know I got two jobs within a week of being back. I started working a lot so I could save enough money for Abass—who was yet to arrive. He is here now! Yay! We have had an amazing journey of us figuring out “America” together. We moved out of my moms and now we have a place in Seattle. I am still working, Abass is going to nursing school and I am still trying to strive for that job that brings me fulfillment. – trusting that God will provide something great. We live in a great place and I am excited about the opportunities that the city is going to bring us, it’s so exciting and scary at the same time. I thought I would post some photos so you can all see what our house looks like so far….keep your eyes on this blog cause it isn’t going anywhere.

The time has come... I finished my service and now I am back home. There are a lot of mixed emotions that come with that considering I spent almost 3 good years of my life there, The Gambia has a special place in my heart. I trust that God has a plan for my life though and I knew it was time to go when I left.

Being home is a new adventure in itself. I have experienced culture shock in my own country, little things including:

*I am still calling people to come and eat with me, (in The Gam one person never eats alone, there is always at least three people around a food bowl eating) while I do this no one understands... but then I just have to laugh at myself too.

*Whenever I see someone I asking them how their "home people" are and if there is "any trouble with them" -- well, I think these are good questions but they mostly stem off of Gambian greetings-- you always ask people this, even if they are strangers.

*I am suffering from really dry skin here... my body is not sure what to do with Washington's weather.

*I was shocked to see how CLEAN America is.... its so nice.

*I have wanted to walk everywhere I go around town but the weather is so COLD.

*My stomach is not very strong here... adjusting back to American food has been tough. I run to the toilet after ANYTHING I eat.

*And coming from a girl that had 8 speeding tickets (don't worry I am a good driver), now that I am back, even my mom driving at a high speed was scaring me. She had to drive 10 below just so I could feel safe. -- that's kind of funny.

But like I said, I am doing well. I am home now so I have just been applying to jobs and still trying to work out as well as spend time with family and friends. Its weird to see how much I have changed. As I was flying home last week I was sitting on the plan thinking to myself one good story that I would tell my family and friends about the Peace Corps, perhaps about teaching math to 8th graders or a story about my village. As I was thinking of a story I couldn't help but think about the story in my heart.... how The Gambia and its people changed the story of my heart. How they imprinted my life and changed my perspective on things. This is the story I will tell. The Peace Corps was a wonderful opportunity, I am so grateful and blessed to have become apart of that.

I am happy to announce that Abass and I have added a new edition to our family. We are now proud owners of a chicken (still yet to be named). The chicken came into our lives after we discussed purchasing it from a friend.

Abass constructed a little house made out of random brick that was laying around near our part of the compound. Our chicken will have free range during the day time but the house is built so the street cats won't disturb her at night. We have no plans in eating our pet just yet.... we are hoping she will provide babies first so we can have more chickens.

My faithful blog followers all know by now that I love to give shout-outs to special people and things in my life. This is one of them.......

Sorry to my cousin Candi and all those "faithful" Seahawk fans.... but I want you all to know that I am SO EXCITED my team has made it to the Superbowl! I know we are going to crush the Chicago Bears--- there is no doubt in my mind. I became a huge Packers fan over 5 years ago, so I dont want any of you to think I have just jumped on the banwagon.... it all started when I met Mason Crosby in Texas at his home while I was selling books door-to-door. Then I started dating Aaron Rodgers and the rest has been history. I love the Packers win or lose. I am so excited they have made it this far.... I know they are going to take it all the way.

As many of you know, now that my Peace Corps work is finished and I am still living in The Gambia, I have decided to spend my time volunteering with The Gambia Red Cross Society. I have been working here for over two weeks now and things are going great. I am gaining a lot of experience into my future work endeavors, plus it keeps me busy so things are good. I thought I would post a photo of me and my friend Lamin at our desk.... just to give you guys a little idea of what my office looks like. I am working on strategy plans for the society and also being able to assist in creating a resource center for the regional main office (I will make sure to post photos of that later). These positions give me a lot of internet access so while working, I have also been able to start applying for jobs online back home. I just applied for my first government job and felt like I jumped a mountain, took me a week to apply. I have now kicked off the beginning of my search for a government job in the States.... wish me luck. Things in The Gambia are going well. Abass and I are doing great we are both healthy and strong. Married life is going good.... nothing new to report there. I will try to keep my blog more updated now that I have internet access at my finger tips. I hope you are all doing well. Love Jessi

Photo #1-me and my mom on llagor Island in Senegal.

Photo #2- me, my mom and Jillian in front of the Renaissance statue in Dakar.

Photo #3- Merry Christmas! eating our christmas dinner.

Photo #4-Abass feeding the monkeys peanuts.

Photo #5-Me feeding the monkeys

Photo#6- Me and Abass touching an Alligator.

Photo#7-Jillian, Abass and I out at the club in Senegambia.

Here is everything in between. I love having a camera now. I hope you all enjoy the photos… here is a little bit of being married and a little bit of my mom and Jillian’s trip to The Gambia. Overall, it was wonderful to have them. Abass and I spent new year’s in Dakar, Senegal, which was wonderful. … we saw Akon! Now we are back in The Gambia. Abass is working back at the market and I am still trying to find something that keeps me busy around here. Wish me luck. I am hoping to volunteer with the Red Cross just to keep busy. I am sure I will keep you all posted on my life. :) I hope you are all well.

God is good, all the time. Like I said in the previous blog… I am now married. :)

Yes, it is true, I married a Gambian man-what was I thinking, you ask? I am thinking that I am so blessed to have found an amazing man like Abass. Like I said, Abass and I had been dating for a long time, marriage is something that we had been discussing for a long time before getting hitched. It wasn’t something we both just jumped into without thinking about. Rest assure everyone that I have found an amazing man.

The wedding was everything I could ever dream for and more. I was so lucky to have my mom and childhood friend come and join me for the occasion from the States. The wedding was African… as African as it could get. We had traditional dancers, singers and lots of people to feed. The whole thing was great, I really enjoyed myself. I had a lot of my Peace Corps friends that really helped out with the wedding that I will be forever grateful for…. I was so blessed to have all my Gambian/Peace Corps friends and ‘family’ that could attend. (my mom has a video of the ceremony—contact her if you want to see it. :) I have enclosed some of the photos as well. I cant wait for you guys to finally meet him. Right now we are both still in The Gambia but hopefully soon we will be coming home.

Where has the time gone?

This blog is not finished…. Because I am not finished. :) Let me just back up a bit because so much has happened since I last blogged.

I moved away from my village Dec. 7, 2010--that was an emotional experience all together. The place I had poured my heart out at for 2 years, worked, gained knowledge not only about me but others and the way that life moved around, leaving the village was hard…. It was emotional; I cried- of course… but I knew once I left the village I would still have so much more to look forward to. It’s interesting now; almost one month later since I left the village to sit back and think about my last week’s there…. My feelings, emotions and my thoughts while in the process.

I was a wreck. I made sure to take lots of pictures, but at the same time it was sad for me. In this blog I have included some of those photos of my last week. When I do finally get home, come and ask me to see my other pictures and videos (I would love to share them). Leaving my host family was the hardest for me. I have become so close with my little sisters, watching them grow, mature and become little women that it was tough for me to finally hug them goodbye. My bike! Geez, as funny as that sounds, I found refuge in my bicycle, once my Peace Corps service was finished I had to give it back and that was even rough for me.

I have been very blessed to have done some amazing things so far in my life. Joining the Peace Corps was always a dream of mine ever since I was in college, so the fact that I had done it… conquered it (even though there were many times I thought I just wanted to go home) and completed it with a ‘life changing experience’ was amazing for me. Joining the Peace Corps is something I will never regret, it was just like my book selling days when I sold for Southwestern—I believe it is an experience that I will look back on and say, “wow, I was crazy… and look how much stronger that experience made me.” Living in the bush of Africa, learning their local tribal languages, integrating, wearing silly African clothes, smelling funny most of the time and making friends that are of a different religion and color than my own is something I will always be so grateful that I did. What an experience! I recommend the Peace Corps to anyone that is interested.

I knew once I left my village it wasn’t going to be the end of my involvement there, I truly believe that the Peace Corps is for a lifetime, in some way or another I will always be a part of my community there and I will eventually return back.

As many of you know, especially the ones closest to me, I had planned on marrying Abass. We had planned on getting married after my Peace Corps service and eventually me moving to the city and living with him at his compound. We set our wedding date for December 17, 2010—(currently I am typing this message and I am now a married woman! :) ) So I also knew once I left the village that my mother would be waiting for me in the capital with Abass and his family. My mom came!!!! Not only was my wedding something amazing to look forward to, the fact that my mom had come and I hadn’t seen her for 1 ½ years was so exciting. My emotions were up and down…. :) but I will end this blog with pictures and start the next to let you all know about the wedding. :)

Fukaji (fuu-ka-jye)…… it’s a wolof word but I am not really sure on that? Here in The Gambia we use it as the word to describe used clothing that comes from Europe or America. The clothing floods the streets, shops and markets with sellers selling these used clothes in The Gambia. Sometimes you can find some good things… most of my clothing besides my African clothes are from fukaji because I lost so much weight while I was here. I have really nice jeans that I picked up for a dollar, tee shirts that are from H&M for less than 20cents. It is like a thrift store on the streets… its nice. Anyway, these clothes are shipped here in bundles and then distributed once the sellers buy them to sell.

Yesterday Abass and I were walking through Banjul when we ran into a truck load being distributed… it took photos and thought I would share.

In my opinion, these western clothes are not only sweeping the nation, they are also changing the culture and influencing the people to look more western and adopt our culture. You don’t see many Gambians in the city wearing a lot of African clothes unless it’s a special occasion. Anyway, it is interesting… what do you think?

Here are some other photos of the beach as well. I am having a good time with my new camera. I know many of you are hanging out in the cold snow, while I am still enjoying the sun. :)

Here are some other photos of my life here in country. The camera arrived!!!! Thanks Toni and momma for hooking me up. The new camera is awesome. Enjoy the photos!

TOBASKI came and went… but all the stuff in between was once again another year of awesomeness. This was my third tobaski in The Gambia, Third!!! Can you believe it? Man, the time here has flown by so fast. I know I have talked in extensive about this Muslim holiday in the past so I thought with this blog post I would just post photos so you guys could see yet again how fun this holiday is…. :)

I typed this November 2, 2010

If you guys don’t know by now, its best that you do…I AM COMING HOME SOON!!!! And I am very excited. My Peace Corps service is ending the 14th of December 2010… which means they will pick me from my village and take me to the city. That is almost in less than a month!!!!!! It is a month earlier from my original COS date that I had planned but I had also planned earlier on possibly extending here, staying for another year …..little did I know that the Lord had a different plan for my life and I will be coming home around April . Its weird to think that my service is almost finished. Even though I am ending in December, I wont be coming home until around April. But still!!! That is coming up! Time flies… seriously. I thought I would write this blog about a few things… things that I have learned here about myself, things that have stayied the same… things that I want to carry on and also my dreams . Honestly speaking, I don’t believe I am the same person, this has been an amazing opportunity in my life… I am excited to come home and see all of you once again, but I am scared, nervous, anxious, excited, happy and all the above to come home… its going to be like a whole different culture shock.

Things that have changed

· My patients

· My view of time

· I love Lebanese food, dried fruit, nuts, ect

· A broader variety of music

· More communal feelings instead of independence

· Appreciation for my family and friends

· Ideas on development have broadened…

· My thoughts on other beliefs and religions

· Trying to understanding Gods calling

· I feel like I have learned a deeper meaning of mself

· I have become a woman

· Enjoyment of reading books, exercising, eating healthy

· Appreciation for freedom to vote and speech

· More reason

· Simplicity in life

· More familiar with bodily issues and first aid

· Realization that my life has a calling

· I am going to register as a Democrat now. Sorry my old Republican party!

· I AM IN LOVE

Things that are still the same

· I still love Dordt College

· Strong belief in education

· I still like to plan ahead

· Still organized

· Still like chocolate

· Laughing, crying, cracking jokes

· The smell of gasoline

· Farting when I feel like it

· Brushing and flossing my teeth

· Still a BAMF

· still believe that having a Positive Mental Attitude is key in life.

My dream and plan as of now….

· Go home and be closer to my crazy family!

· Get a diplomatic job with the government, maybe working with international people.

· Be a good wife, bare about 15 children for my Muslim husband

· NEVER FORGET TO SMELL THE ROSES

I typed this October 28, 2010

Hello followers, a lot of stuff has been happening these days in the village. Where to begin? I brought my computer to the village so I could keep up on my blogging a bit better, I felt that lately I’ve been pretty bad at keeping you all updated on my life here. So here I am, but it is a good thing I type fast because I am always trying to preserve my laptop battery. There is no power in the village, but within my two years here I have luckily picked out the people that have solar and can help me keep my laptop charged.

Let’s see, today I wanted to blog about DEATH. What an awful topic you all think huh? It is awful, but it’s a reality and it is something that I have seen and heard quite a bit of lately. Yesterday my counterpart and I had planned a long day of traveling, our time was overdue to go and check upon the Junior Achievement youth and see how their businesses were performing. (If you guys remember last time I told you about these small business development enterprises that I helped create by giving out loans with CCF…. Well anyway their loans are due in December) because their loans are coming to a close we thought it was wise to go and check up on their businesses. I had my books and records in hand, ready to catch a bush car to take me to these other villages along with Sam (my counterpart). He asked me if I wouldn’t mind to stop off at his grandparent’s compound, he explained to me that his grandfather had just passed away that morning and they were going to do the burial after the 2pm prayers. The stop was to be on our way to one of the villages we had to see. Of course I told him it wasn’t a problem (thinking this would take 30minutes tops). Little did I know that I was going to be sitting under a mango tree for the next 3 hours while my counterpart went with all the men in the village to take his grandfather to the burial grounds and placed him in the ground.

Now I am reasonable…. If my grandfather died (which I hope that NEVER happens-I LOVE YOU G-PA) I would want more than 30 minutes to grieve and spend time with my family. … but one of the crazy things were that he just left me as soon as we arrived. I sat under this tree for a long time without seeing him, hearing from him… everything. I could hear people crying in the distance, many people passed me on their way to the funeral… but I felt because I wasn’t addressed in the formal attire, my place was to just stay under the mango tree. I just sat there under the tree thinking that Sam was to arrive any moment but he didn’t until 3 hours later. I missed lunch-very wrong! Who leaves someone to go hungry for 3 hours under a tree?

So during my time of sitting yesterday… I thought I would blog about death. Let me just add that once he finally I arrived I did not complain, I didn’t say anything… I just said I was ready when he asked if I was ready to go.

So I said I have seen a lot of death lately… let me explain. Well first off the most recent, this old grandpa of my counterparts. 2. I saw a goat that had just given birth but its baby was dragged off by wild dogs—that made me really sad. 3. My friend Pabi had a wild parrot that he kept as a pet and it died ---go figure. And 4. I smash cockroaches about everyday… along with any other bug that tries to scary me.

When it comes to humans, maybe this is just a HUGE cultural difference, but it’s interesting to me how Gambians grieve when they lose someone. In the case of a couple funerals that I had attended it usually is that the men and women wear nice clothes, they sit in opposite sides of the persons compound…. Ok wait, let me back up. For example say grandpa Lamin dies in the morning… all of his children will call and inform the family members and friends that same day. Some of the young men will go to the grave site to dig a hole for the body before hand, then they will contact the man in the village that keeps the coffin box-they will keep the body wrapped in a white sheet inside the box until it is time for burial. Once every one is ready, they all go to grandpa Lamins house and sit around… the men on one side, the women on the other. Depending on the wealth status of the family, someone will be passing around kola nuts (typically eaten by elders and is very bitter) along with pounded rice (which taste nice). People will be sitting around going into the house to see the coffin, consoled the family and so forth, the women are mostly keeping silent or are crying. Then once it is time… they bring out the coffin box all the men gather behind it and pray while the Imam (religious leader) leads them. Once the prayer is finished the men only take the box to the burial grounds to place the man out of the box and into the ground in his sheet. (Now I have actually never seen this because women are not allowed to go to the burial grounds but this is what I hear happens there). Once the men leave the compound with the coffin AUTOMATICALLY the women start whaling and crying uncontrollably. Sometimes you see even women roll around screaming… like they are about to die too or something? They do this until the men come back… it usually takes about 15 minutes. Then it is finished. Everyone goes home…. You don’t hear mention of it again and people just except that that person has died. The End. Different huh? When small babies die, whether it is at birth or they are a couple months old, most of the time people just pretend it never happened… they bury the babies in their own compounds and depending on the families is whether or not they do a ceremony or not.

As far as the animals… the goat with her baby, my friend and his bird, the cockroaches in my backyard that come out of my toilet… there isn’t much people do here for that. Death is something that happens here a lot in some weird way it is just a part of life.

I typed this October 27, 2010

DEVELOPMENT IS HAPPENING!!! I thought I might not see the day to declare this on my blog…. But I have seen it!!!! And I am so excited to write you all and tell you about my life and what is going on in my village! In previous blogs I have talked about the borehole in my village that is salty—boo! Saltiness is gross and people don’t drink the water, leaving Sibanor with a huge water problem. The strain and overuse of the current pumps has caused a massive problem in the village. During my PC service, I have made it my mission to work on elevating this problem along with the villagers-it’s my village, I love it here, I love the people and my village is important to me… plus easy access to clean drinking water is a must! We have had a lot of bumps over the year and a half that we’ve have been working on it… but God has his time for everything! It is coming together… the organization that I found in the United States –Friends of Penyem (FOP) has declared that they are sending the money to fix the borehole. My village has come together fundraising (on their own!!!) I just helped them organize… which means they are taking initiative on their own… which means there is sustainability!!! And so forth… plus things are happening where we have collected D20,600 = $ 800…. It may not seem like a lot of money to you… but it’s a whole lot here. We are keeping the money at the local credit union to make sure it is safe while we continue to collect more. We are hoping by patronizing the local civil servants and Gambians that live abroad we can collect more money to the account. With the account money we are hoping to not only fix are water problem but also extend the taps within the village.

We are having meetings, we are appointing people to tasks, money is being collected, questions are being asked, and awareness is coming full circle…. Plus, I am still calling, calling and calling the organization to come out and test our water tables, measure distances, place their machines, check the solar and so forth….the ball is rolling!!!!

Right now everything is falling into place (it’s exciting, yet sad because my time is almost finished and I will not see it completed). But I feel the village is really taking it into their hands and they will see to it that it’s completed. It’s exciting to see people come together, work and do something about their future. I have to say that even though this development has taken a LONG TIME…. It is still happening and its amazing to be a small factor in the progress of it taking place.

Ever since I was a small kid my parents and family a long with my friends always told me that the sky was the limit. BLAH.... what a cliche', but IT IS THE TRUTH! Hearing it so much helped me believe it and following all my dreams of traveling, college, Peace Corps, etc.

I am in town for my COS conference, it is a conference that Peace Corps facilitates for us volunteers that are getting ready to close our service and head back to the US to get a better understanding of things in the US. I really didn't know what to expect going into it but I will say 2 days later after sitting in a small crammed "conference room" from 8am-8pm I have a better understanding and NEW ideas for things I want to do once I finally arrive home.

They trained us on resume prep, writing our DOS's (description of service) and how to look for jobs along with saying goodbye to family and friends here.

The end result....... I want a government job!!! And I want a good one. perhaps working with international people? Maybe working for Peace Corps recruiting from the States and then jump off of there and stem into a career with a sister organization working with people that want to help developing countries. Either way, I am going to pursue a lot of different things. The sky is the limit...... WHY NOT?

Tomorrow I am heading back to my village. I plan on taking my laptop, that way I can blog about things at random and you all will have more stories to read. My ma also said she sent me a new camera in the mail... so hopefully that comes soon and I can post more photos for you guys. :) I love you all.

I know I have been bad at keeping this thing updated lately. It just seems that the time keeps flying by and I barely have time for myself...let alone time to think up a story to type on my blog. So first off i just want to apologize. SORRY!! I know a lot of you read this and you like to hear updates in my life, so let me see if I can recap and fill you in....

Let me reassure you all that things here in The Gambia are going very well. We are just finishing up and rainy season and things are starting to get really hot again! yikes... this is the time of the year when the heat rash and nasty bumps in your skin come out. Wish me luck! If you guys can remember last year I suffered and had nasty worms in my body around this time that tried poking out and gave me hives really bad. This year i am hopeful that my body has been around the block a few times now and nothing major will happen.

Where to start this blog?!....?! Work in my village is going well. It is all starting to wrap up now that my time is almost finished. :) I will finish up everything in my village come December and then move down to the city for a while before coming home finally. My primary project with the borehole in my village just received some great news from an organization in the States that promised they will fund our repairment of the machinery. :) This is VERY exciting! I have been working with them for a while, at first i thought it was a for sure thing, then they backed out... now they have emailed me and promised they are in and promise the completion of the project.!!! :) it is exciting. I don't think I can say "its exciting" as I am. As far as my secondary project with the Junior Achievement program-small enterprise development. 3 of the 10 have already paid back their loans ahead of schedule while 3 other groups I believe will be ready by the time the 6 months is finished. As far as the other 4 groups it seems they are still dinking around and not taking the loan seriously. Unfortunately for them it is going to be very hard for them later. Their loan repayments are due in December... so once those are in, that is when i am going to end my service at my site. YAY!!!!!

Lately I have been keeping busy replacing myself with another volunteer. Peace Corps put an education volunteer at my site. She came in the middle of September, her name is Eileen from Washington DC. she is positive and all around pretty awesome, so I have enjoyed hanging out with her. Once I leave she will be in my village til June 2011 and then she will head back to the States. Her primary focus is on Early Childhood Development so, it has been interesting to show her around, introduce her to great people in the village and gain a friend.

I think that is about it for site.......... honestly, since my time is almost finished there, I spend most days just hanging out with families that I have really enjoyed over my 2 years there. I am really going to miss that place once I leave... but since work and everything is still going at full speed, its keeping my mind off of leaving just yet.

I am in town this week because I have my COS conference! COS (close of service) it basically means that I am a bad ass and the light at the end of my amazing journey here is in reach. This week I hope to create some great memories with people from my group, laugh and learn how to perfect my resume, that way when i move back to the States I can get a good job. hire me! I love how this picture captures every ones dream..... to be hired with an amazing job. I thought the picture was funny. I am hoping to work in Seattle when I get back for an organization that works in or for developing countries doing human resources or PR.... that's my dream anyway. And I am going to chase that dream till I get it.

I should get going, I will try to blog again throughout the week since I am in town.

I was sitting in my house last night reading a book...nothing too exciting... this is usually how I spend my evenings, winding down by reading a good book and then falling asleep. I don't have electricity so most nights I sit in my house in the dark with my headlamp shinning on my book. As I was sitting on my chair I heard the normal lizards and mice running above in my ceiling... nothing new.... so I continued reading, with my headlamp only on my book. I have a big hole in my ceiling, the panel is too small which leads a gap in the roof from me and the rodents up there. I have never had a problem with this before.... so it wasn't until I heard something very strange and saw shadows flying above my head that I started panicking.

What the heck? I looked up shining my light and saw something swooping down and all around in my house.... I started screaming, fell to the ground and crawled out of my house. With my host father, mother and neighbor friend running over to my rescue, I tried explaining to them through all the excitement that something was in my house..... a bat! but I didn't know the word for it in Mandinka so they just took big sticks and fiercely went in my house as I ran into my parents house.....They shortly after came for me and told me that the creature had flown out and was gone. They did their search for the creature in the dark, so it wasn't very accurate.

Just when I thought I was in the safe zone, I thanked them all for helping me, I locked my door and told them I was going to bed. I sat back in my chair and decided to call Abass and tell him about this crazy event that had just taken place. As I was sitting there, literally about 4 minutes after I closed my door and said good night.... the bat reappeared!!!! it flew right at me and I was screaming my head off. I hung up with Abass and bolted to my bed hiding under my mosquito net, my father heard me screaming again and tried to come and help me again... but I had locked my door... so he watched me as I bravely crawled for the door and tried unlocking it so he could come in.

This was big. Abass kept trying to call back but every time I answered the phone I was screaming or hollering about the bat that was messing with my peaceful evening, it was scary. In the end, my family finally got the bat and killed it. Abass and I were talking on the phone about it later laughing.... he said, "Jessi, its a good thing I wasn't there. " I asked why and then he told me he would of been on the next car out of the village. hahahah.... I have a very brave man. hahaha...

This stranger in the night scared me... but made me realize that still I am hardcore.... shoot, I live in The Gambia.

Its Ramadan.... blah, blah, blah. I have been eating secretly in my house while people all round me are fasting from sun up to sun down. I was trying to be tricky the other day and eat a can of soup without anyone knowing, but my can opener was being a tricky and stopped working on my last twist of opening my can. So I stuck my finger in there and thought I would be able to pry it open the rest of the way to get to the goods... in the middle of prying open my can, it SLICED ME! like a switch blade... it took out my finger.

I was screaming!

In the end, people came to my rescue and people found out I was trying to eat. BUSTED.

The funny thing about this blog is that after I got cut, the blood was spewing from my finger and like a Gambian I grabbed a cloth and covered up my finger. Instead of grabbing a band aid out of my med kit, I just took this piece of cloth and tied it around my finger for the rest of the day. It wasn't even until later that I realized what I had done.... hahaha. I have become a Gambian now.

As far as my finger... its still in tact and slowly getting better. If my camera hadn't of taken a crap on me, I would of taken a photo of it to show you.

Hello followers,

Welcome into my life in The Gambia once again, currently we are trucking through a fist full of rain day in and day out. Things here are going well. Coming from Seattle, every time it rains here I get all happy and fuzzy inside. The rain is nice… it cools down the humidity and it also fills up my buckets so I don’t need to run to the pump and fetch my water all the time. Call me lazy but fetching my water is a chore… waiting in a long line and then pumping it…. It takes work—and I am always happy to skip that process.

So my life here is busy. With every day that passes I am either running out to work with the business group or I am offered to work out in the fields with the women. Right now the women in The Gambia are busy with their rice fields. Every day they are walking kilometers to their fields that are close to the river. I have been propositioned to participate in this rice activity but always happily decline knowing full and well how difficult their work is. I went a couple times last year to weed their fields but even the walk alone out to the field is enough work for me, let alone bending over for hours tending to rice. Am I getting lazy? Or is it just that I am getting smarter? Haha, I don’t want to go out there and strain my body to do that excruciating work. But let it be known EVERY TIME I see a woman going to the field I always shout—“ Ning badta” which in mandinka means, “keep up the great work”. I think later on when the rice is coming to be harvested I will go out there and help, but right now the water in the fields are ankle deep and I always think about the weird bugs that will try to suck into my body from the bottom of my feet. Gross! So I just settle to say good job and try to avoid the paths they walk on while walking out to the fields. That way they don’t try to convince me to go with them.

So I usually just ride around on my bike and wave to people that I pass. The thing with riding my bike and it being rainy season is….. BIKE+RAIN+UNPAVED ROADS+HUGE POTHOLES+CARS DRIVING BY= Jessi getting splattered with mud many times. Haha… let me tell you—I was cruising down the road on my bike the other day and I came back to face with a gelli driving by at a top speed. I pulled my bike over so the car could pass me, thinking that the mud from the car’s tires wouldn’t be able to get me muddy…little did I realize that I pulled over right next to a puddle and right when the gelli passed it splatter muddy water all over me. I just stood there, at first I was soooo angry—I thought I had out smarted the car and really it got me! But then as I sat there I realized how funny life here is and everything is going to be just fine. Another funny thing about that is once the little splatters of mud dried on my clothes they turn this orange color…kind of red… looking like period spots on my clothes. Haha… when I gave my host mom my laundry to do she just looked at my skirt and said, “o, you had an accident” at first I didn’t get it… then I understood and spent about 5 minutes trying to explain to her that it was mud from a car passing me on the road and not me bleeding on my clothes.

The rainy season is beautiful though, with the rain comes the grass and everything that was once brown turns green again. When it’s green you hear more and different kinds of birds that you didn’t hear before. You see fields that were once field with nothing become crops and allies for peoples staple foods here in The Gambia, like peanuts, coos (millet) and rice. Besides the mosquitoes and humidity, this is a wonderful time to be in The Gambia right now.

Anyway, life is trekking along and I am feeling happy, healthy and terrific.

Greetings from The Gambia! The rainy season is in full speed and everyday is a mix between tons of rain and then tons of humidity. Back and forth… rain, humidity, rain, humidity…. My body doesn’t know whether to be cold or hot? You can only imagine how my skin is dealing with the two different changes of weather. Yuck! But either way, let me allow you a walk into my life here….

Things are going well. I have been keeping really busy. Things in my village are booming. As some of you may recall I was teaching business and basic economic classes to young adults (previous sponsor children) (their ages range from 17-30years old) from my village and surrounding villages. They went through this business course offered by Ding Ding Bantaba (the affiliation to CCF in my village) for three good months. At the end of the three months they were offered the opportunity to take out a D10,000 loan—equivalent to $380 USD to start a small enterprise business. Some of these youth started their businesses and my job has been to go around supervising with my counterpart their businesses. They are in a 6 month stimulation process right now where after the 6 months they are expected to pay back the loan. Some of these groups have created some wonderful businesses in their villages. In my village a group of girls in the program came together with their loan money and created a women’s beauty shop, in another village they have started selling fuel for vehicles that come through that way and need gas. Another village has started a breakfast and dinner restaurant, while another has started a bread bakery shop. It is great to work with these guys and see their progress; overall there are 10 different companies that I oversee. Every couple of weeks I go and check up on their business books, I remit their money, ect. Its part of the community development work that I have been working on and I really enjoy it.

For a while I was feeling a bit uneasy, not really sure of my direction or what I wanted to do… but I started working with this man named Sonku and things have been great. He is very dedicated to working for the youth and being around him is contagious. He is always willing to get me involved and right now he is keeping me busy. So work is going well.

On another work note, I have also been working in my village in try to help fix our borehole that supplies the whole village water. Right now the water is salty and people don’t like using the water unless it is for domestic use. This is still leaving my water with a huge shortage, considering the pumps and wells cannot sustain the whole village. Relying on the taps is big, but having a salty borehole makes things a little more difficult. There is an American organization called Friends of Penyum that is willing to help my village but I am very skeptical of white people coming in to drop money and then take off. I know their intentions are very good… but living on this side of the tracks I see how harmful it is when people do that to “help” and then the village eats the money, misuses the funds or simply doesn’t appreciate them because its again another hand out to Africa.

This brings me on the topic of development--- why is Africa so crippled? They keep reaching out their hands saying give me, give me, help me, help me, I’m poor, I’m poor…. But this is a never ending cycle—poverty, I feel like is a disease here and it is very contagious. People are so willing to sit and wait here… waiting for someone to help them out of their poverty… but they are never willing to pull themselves out of it. Why would they if maybe someday someone else does it for them? So how do you develop people? It’s hard to try an empower people that are crutched by their own thoughts or the way they were raised… now, I am not saying that all Gambians are like this. I know many Gambians that are kicking butt and doing great things… but the majority of them like the people from my village are waiting for a hand out. Very discouraging and sad to see.

So, I have been working with my village development committee on ways to come together as a village and create some sort of fundraiser or someway to create funds to help this American organization help our village. I am telling them the organization is requiring at least 15% community contribution, whether it is with money or people volunteering for the labor…. I want my village to work for their borehole to be fixed… then maybe next time they will take care of it and it won’t break so easily. --- Sustainable development!!!! Getting people involved in their own needs…. Not just me. I am fully aware it’s wrong to lie to people and tell them they need to come up with a 15% contribution… but I want to make sure they are committed and motivated for their own development, not just someone else. Any thoughts or ideas?

On to another story that is happier---- I am now pretty much new best friends with the President of The Gambia. Let me explain, he just finished up his tour where he goes around the country talking to the people in different villages about development and problems that they are facing. I think it’s a wonderful idea. He made it to a village near mine…. I went a long with another PCV to go see the event… I dressed up in ALL green (the president’s political party color) and I had a t-shirt on with a huge picture of him on it that says “Thank You Mr. President”. When he drove by me in his hummer I was waving and screaming like a crazy person A.P.R.C!!!! A.P.R.C!!!! (the president’s political party) and he stopped his car and ordered a military man to give me biscuits. I was so excited I almost crapped my pants with excitement. Life here keeps getting more and more interesting. I love it.

Picture #1 my little sister Isatou playing in my rainboots. Picture #2 the rain streeming from my front porch.

I am not sure if its my fault or yours... But, I had my birthday!!!! I TURNED 24!!!!! and I received NOTHING. :( ok, ok... I got a package from my mom and a birthday card from Barbara but they are my mothers... they are obligated. My birthday was in May. I thought maybe you had all forgotten to put the letters and such in the mail early, so maybe you put it in around my birthday date... but its almost been two months later and I am receiving nothing still. Boo.

I guess I just have to realize that I am getting older. :( my birthday isn't as cool anymore as it once was. In fact, I didn't even do anything for my birthday this year myself... I became another year older and I didn't even eat cake or ice cream.

Its been almost two months and I am still hurt about this... Every time I come down to the city I run to my mailbox hoping to receive a letter or something and every time for the past 4 months.......................................... NOTHING. Blah. Maybe I should celebrate my birthday late. Its better late than never... right?

Yes, this is a guilt trip.

pictures, pictures, pictures... one of those is of my backside giving musicians some money.

Well as you know I have been all over the place, here and there... up and down.... I have had my cousin come and visit me here in The Gambia and then right after her leaving, I jumped on a plane and headed for Eastern Europe. Overall, I am still alive and I am still doing well. :)

Backing up a bit, because I know it has been a while since I have last blogged, things my way are going well. Projects in my village are shaping up; I am starting to do a bunch of individual projects on a smaller scale with people all round me rather than in the large groups that I was doing earlier in my service. Now I am planting trees and teaching children and young adults the importants of nursing and caring for the small seedling. I am also venturing into bee keeping independently and hoping that people will watch and learn from me. As far as my emotions, I have been up and down all over with ideas and feelings towards projects in my village. So far the overall feeling is still good. I have realized that I still have over 8 months left in The Gambia and I need to open my eyes to different oppertunities instead of focusing them on certain organizations and certain people. Now I am a free bird and I am trying new things.

Having my cousin Candi in The Gambia with me was another experience all together. In the end I believe she had a great trip which I am thankful for... but during the trip there were many times I wanted to strangle her. To Candi's credit, she had never been outside of the US, she had never visited a third world country, let alone imagined what peoples lives were like in one... so I have to say she was pretty brave to step out and get on the plane to come over here. During her stay we encountered a lot of challenges-- me mostly, always trying to figure out how she could be comfortable and enjoy her time. She had a lot of problems with the food, the weather, my pit latrine, speaking the tribal language, how money worked here, transportation and such. It made me realize how well over the past 19 months that I have adapted here. I will give her that... the food here is an acquired taste, its definitely something you have to get used to. The weather.. well, that is something you just have to deal with, it is always hot. My pit latrine, well, I cant help that i have coakroaches living inside of my hole in the ground. As far as speaking the language, she tried... but was easily overwhelmed when things did work with body languages. Transportation-- she was killing me with this one--- hated walking everywhere (which is just what I do) and she hated ridding bikes, boo! Overall, like I said, I think she had a great time... during one of the days in my village I took her out so she could visit some of my gambian friends, at the end of the day once we reached my house she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me that she couldn't believe the living conditions of my friends houses... with their children running around with no shoes or clothes on. I simply had to remind her that it was just the way of life here.

Once Candi skipped back to America, I jumped on the next plane to Budapest, Hungary with my friend Kasey (another PCV in The Gambia). This trip to Budapest was something her and I had planned a while back so it was nice to finally leave Africa and GO! Instead of boring you will all of the overwhelming feelings and homesicknesses I felt in Europe, I have made a bullet point show for you all to read instead. During our trip we covered 3 different countries in 10 days. We started in Budapest, Hungary---made our way to Bratislavia, Slovakia---- then to Vienna, Austria--- and back to Budapest before heading home. (in fact, I am still in Budapest..we leave tomorrow morning to head back). When we first arrived, man did I feel overwhelmed. Bright lights, fast cars, clean paved streets, overwhelming amounts of white people...ect. I didnt like it. But as the trip progressed further, I started to get back into the swing of things, shopping, eating out, ect. So, here are the highlights for each country:

Budapest, Hungary-*There are a lot of neo-gothic buildings and they are very interesting.*People are NOT friendly*The roof tops of the buildings are beautiful.*There are BIG extremes between the rich and the poor people here.*There is a lot of rich history here.*Wash baths in the city-nice but expensive.*Easy to move around the city.*They have beautiful hills that over look the city and are easy to climb.*At night time the city is extremely beautiful.*Besides the sites and historical monuments, there isn't much to see.

Bratislava, Slovakia-*Reminded me a lot of Seattle.*The night life is very fun.*Very good looking men.*Easy to get around.*Our hostel was amazing there.*Things were very cheap there.* The buildings there were cool, but nothing exceptional.*People there were EXTREMELY friendly.*Ciggerette smoke everywhere! sick*Not very touristy at all, which was nice.* We got a lot of free rides on the tram.*I got food poision there, the food tasted wonderful going down, but coming back up was awful.

Vienna, Austria-*People very friendly.*Very touristic--signs and streets were very well labeled.*Lots of rich music history there.*Lots of shopping centers.*Beautiful churches.*Everything cost a lot of money!*McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks was there!*The roads were a bit crowded and confusing to understand.*People spoke German!!! I was reliving 7th,8th,9th and 10th grade all over again*Bums all over the place... reminded me a lot of Seattle too.*The streets were very clean.

So, there you have it. My overview of the different countries. I would say that Kasey and I got really lucky a lot of times... we met great people, her mom paid for a lot of our trip (thank you again Erin!) by booking our hotels, hostels and giving us great ideas on things to see in the different countries... it is hard to do that on your own when you have limited access in Africa. I ate all those bad things for me again at Starbucks, McDonalds and KFC... but after this time I realized-- it wasn't for me anymore. I don't want to ever eat or drink that stuff again. ? why? After every time that I ate it... I felt sick, like there were rocks in my tummy. I am going green now, only putting good stuff in this body of mine. Life is good, I am here but I feel like I am there... I am ready to go back and start plugging away at saving the world. :) I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Later gators

well blog followers where should I begin? I know I need to be blogging... I must admit that I have been slacking a bit. Life here on the home front is going well. I am just ending my vacation with having my cousin Candi coming from America to visit. She will leave tomorrow and then I am off to Budapest, Hungry for a little vacation of western culture. I will try to post more photos and such when I have more time and get back.

I have started to take a new direction in the work that I am doing in my village. After my CCF disaster, I decided to take more of a Forestry approach to the work around me. Once I arrived back at my village, I went around taking to farmers about their orchards and such. I have started to plant a variety of trees in poly-pots in my backyard and I have been experimenting with Bee Keeping as well. Life couldn’t be any better, I am experimenting with new work and I am feeling a new sense of belonging in my village. I had decided that my village is good, maybe it just didn’t know how to use me. So now I am just running around starting new work ideas for myself. Photo#1 is my chicken Tori- She had two babies recently but they have already been snatched by the big vultures :( I plan to kill Tori when Candi comes.

Funny Story #1

The other day I had met up with one of the cashew orchard men in my village, we rode our bikes out to his orchard, after spending most of the morning chasing cows and such away from his fruits he sent me home with some fruit before the sun got hot. As I was strolling down the path on my bike with cashews in my right hand cupped to my chest (I didn’t have a bag), I hit a soft patch of sand. I lost my balance on my bike and went flying off eating the sand and road rashing up my arms and legs. I just layed there in the sand for about a minute laughing at myself. Life here is funny. Photo #2 I love these children

Funny Story #2

Before I joined the Peace Corps, most of you all know that I used to sell books door-to-door for the Southwestern Company. I spent two summers in the blazing hot sun of Texas building my character and having a blast helping parents provide books for their children to help them with their homework. Two weeks ago I was asked to help in the Gambia’s campaign to “Kick Polio Out of The Gambia”. It intels people walking around compound-to-compound in teams of two, giving children in those compounds three droplets in their mouths and then marking their left pinky-finger to signify that they have been vaccinated. Photo #3 This is a picture of my arm after I fell from my bike. You cant tell but my arm is banged up.

The funny part about this story is mostly the cultural difference between The Gambia and America. I would come up to the compound with my partner, we would ask the children where their parents where and when they replied out… we would approach them and stick the medicine in their mouths anyway. Then we would mark their compound and be on our way to the next. It wasn’t just once or twice but many times that we would just vaccinate children without their parents present and we would just leave. Hahaha.. I guess its just one of those things you should have been there.

Another Story:

On to other news, I have started the “CANDI COUNTDOWN!” My cousin Candi is coming in less than 12 days and I am really excited for her arrival. She is flying into Dakar, Senegal and I am going to go up there and fetch her and bring her back to The Gambia. She is going to be here until the 29th and then when she leaves I am going to fly to HUNGARY!! I am really excited for her arrival and I already have her whole trip planned. I will make sure to post many pictures of it all and keep you all updated.

Alright, I should get going now. I have a lot of stuff today. Photo #4 This picture is for Lauren, its a picture of your friends! :) they wanted me to take the photo for you to see them.

Hi Guys,

I have been in Kombo for a while (the city), it’s the land of internet and wonderful food… Things here are going well; I first came down for leisure but found me engulfed in participating in environmental education for some new volunteers. If you guys remember right, a while back a group of new volunteers came to country and I received an environmental volunteer as a site mate (someone close to me). The village next to mine has a lot of forestry needs and it was great to receive volunteers with those skills. Well, about two weeks or so into her service she got really sick and Peace Corps ended up sending her home but the needs are still there, so I decided to participate in the training. Being a “health community development volunteer in this country is much different than an agforestry volunteer. This week has been jammed packed with a bunch of really useful information that I am found applicable to this country. I am excited to implement these new ideas to my village. Some of them include bee keeping, cashew plantations, creating a solar food dryer for food preservation, ect. I think it is going to good. This week has been great, although I can see myself becoming overwhelmed by hanging out with too many Peace Corps people for so long.

I am here until the 18th of April and then I go back to village so if you want to email me or anything, you can do it and I will be able to get back to you soon.

Picture#1 Snow in The Gambia!!! yay! yeah right, its actually ash from burn piles along side the road.

Picture#2 The river coast

Picture#3 People transporting goods on the river

Picture#4 Entering on the ferry

Picture#5 me and Jas in the car loading on the ferry.

I have had a crazy week… wrapping up this manic march month, I must admit things here have been a bit overwhelming, crazy, emotional, fun, exciting and most of all unforgettable. A couple words to sum up my month would be that I have just been “keeping it real”. Let’s see, like I told you in the last blog post that I wrote, the‘Positive Jessi’ was back in action and ready to take on The Gambia. I am still around and I am doing well.

Overall, my health is fine. I am healthy as an ox… going strong. Physically I have been trying to run more, eat less and continue to pursue my 2010 goal of taking my health more seriously. But with the weather steaming up as much as it has here in The Gam, running in the heat has become a bit wretched. The rash under my armpit has started to flare up a little! Boo! But I think if I keep walking around with my arm in the air to let it breath a little under there, maybe the bumps will start to go away. I will try it and keep you updated. Haha. Ok, moving onto my mental health, that is getting better. I started noticing myself becoming a bit stressed about stupid little things that were popping up in my life. Mentally, I have to remind myself to wake up every morning and tell myself that I eat problems for breakfast. Nothing can get me down; it can just push me to the next level, which is ultimately what I want to keep doing with my life—moving forward.

This past week I went to Abakoh it’s a village in The Gambia that holds the largest nature reserve. I was asked by a fellow PCV to come and help build a firewall around the nature reserve. The nature reserves was having issues with the community because people would sporadically throw their trash over the fence line and dump their things on the Nature reserves grounds. In the past they have had issues with the trash catching fire and spreading. So to prevent an even larger fire or issues that could arise NGOs, PCV’s and other local Gambians came together with machetes and rakes all around the fence line of the property and cut about 30 feet of bush, small trees and little debris to prevent an even larger fire in the future spreading to the nature reserve. I thoroughly enjoyed walking around with a machete hacking way at bushes and debris… not only was it nice to get out and do something that mattered, but it was also nice to feel the power in my hands of the large knife hacking away at the bushes. After about almost 6 hours of work, we retired our rakes and such and sat down to eat some good Gambian food. It was fun.

As many of you know, my friend Jasmin is one of my best buds here. She had some issues with Peace Corps not too long ago when they sent her to South Africa for some back pains that she was having. It ended up that she had a herniated disk and was given the choice to come back, live in the city and forget about village life or she could just go back to America. She chose to come back and stay in the city. So today we woke up very early, piled in Peace Corps transport and headed up country to the bush to collect her belongings that she had left in her hut months ago. Once we arrived we were ambushed by the little children just wanting to touch her because they were so happy to see her. It was a bit overwhelming to try and pack up a house, pack up a car and help your friend say goodbye to the people that meant the most to her in her first year of service. Overall, we managed to pack it all up, receive many prayers from all the old women and then wave goodbye to a little chapter of her life. It was a bit sad, but overall not a bad experience. On the drive home we encountered many things, like crazy people at the ferry terminal—I even ran into one of my friends from my village that was pretty far from where we were, so that was exciting for me. We took a lot of pictures of things around us and over all just had fun.

Life has been good; I thank the Lord each day. Honestly, I know I am lucky to be here, I know what an experience this is for me. I just thank you all for following along and supporting me along the way. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Hello followers.

Well, were to begin? I thought I would let you all know that “positive Jessi” is back in order these days. Back with some fire… ready to kick some butt. Wow, now that I have reread my last blog post I have seen the ugly side of me has reared its self out and now I have kicked it to the curb. Its not to say that it might never come back again, because it just might…. But I sure hope it doesn’t come back for a while. Things here in The Gambia are going ok. Since the last post I reevaluated my goals, wrote down everything I was grateful and decided after my mom told me I wasn’t welcomed home that I was stuck here for another 10 months so I had better start making the best of it. Here I am… just trying to keep it real. On to new news cashew season is right around the corner, but the oranges are fading out. Boo. I can’t complain much, through all of this dust and such my body has broken out in any rashes lately, its just puffy eyes from my contacts irritated by the dust. . Anyway, I should get going. Just wanted to say that I am doing much better than when I last wrote.

I typed this March 18, 2010

I think I have started to lose my focus here. When I first got here I told myself repeatedly that I wasn’t going to be able to save the world, that I needed to measure my success with small things like children’s smiles or the fact that I can speak the language. But somewhere along the line I have got ahead of myself. It’s easy with international development to want to save the world, especially here in The Gambia there is so much work to be done, it’s easy to want to “save” the people. I have learned through my 17 months of service that no matter how hard I try, and try, and try and try and try... you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to be helped and you most certainly can’t save the world with lazy, corrupt people.

Without trying to blame my outward accomplishments (which at times doesn’t seem like much) on other people and the way they run their organizations. I have come to the realization that I can’t change anything here in The Gambia except myself, the way I see things and the way I approach problems and issues that arise in my life. I’m reminded of one of the books I used to read when I sold books door-to-door for Southwestern. It is called Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill. In the book it says, “We are masters of our fate because we are masters, first of our attitudes. Our attitudes shape our future.” This quote has made me remember that even though I want to blame others on the reason why I don’t have a plaque here in TG with my name on it, the outcome of everything I do here is up to me and my attitude. I have forgotten the whole reason for being here is not to change things or “help” people. Some of these people just really don’t want help… but being here has to do with loving and serving others.

So why am I getting all upset that after a year in this country I am finally realizing that some of the things I do here are useless. I sat my coworker/boss in my village (not affiliated with PC) down the other day and I asked him to give me more work because I was feeling like I had a lot of free time and that free time was making me feel crazy. He said to me, “Aminata, why are you complaining?” and I told him it was because I was an American, I liked to work and I wanted to work and make some sort of difference while I was here in The Gambia. He said to me, “Well, if you want to work so badly, just go back to America then.” First off, I couldn’t believe he had said that to me… second off I left his office, got back on my bike and rode home crying, thinking to myself “why don’t I just go back to America?” I could start paying off my student loans, I could see my family, I could get a job and do work that really counts, I could help my country and the people in it rather than these Gambians that don’t really want my help. I was just feeling really down. Then I had to remind myself that I am here to serve people. If they don’t really want my help, well then piss on them. But is that making a difference? No. My PMA book says that, “when our attitude toward ourselves is big and our attitude toward others is generous and merciful, we attract big and generous portions of success.” Of course I want to attract success. But do you think that I am focusing too much on making a difference?

Onto another story of how twisted my life here seems these days, I went to the tap yesterday to fetch my water. I was there waiting for maybe an hour before it was my turn to fetch my two buckets. Then another hour came and passed before it was my turn to fetch for a second time. My little sister was supposed to stand guard and take my turn as I carried the other two buckets that already had water in them home. My turn was coming up, so I assigned my little sister to fill up my mother’s buckets while I carried mine home before it got dark. When I came back from dropping off my buckets I asked my sister if she had fetched my mother’s buckets on my turn and she said no because one of the woman wouldn’t let her. That woman was fetching her water on my turn... so I went up to the tap, waited until she filled one of her buckets and then told her and it was my turn to fetch, I explained to her that my sister was supposed to take my place but she had failed. The lady told me too bad. So when her bucket was finished I put my bucket there, she proceeded to move my bucket and put her other bucket under the water, I took her bucket and put mine back. Then she started yelling, she pushed me and I pushed her back even harder… she fell to the ground. Then she got back up and started charging at me, then I started swinging... next thing I knew the women around the tap were holding us apart from each other I was screaming in English and she was cursing at me in Mandinka… I was pissed, the women at the taps are crazy about water, shortly after that I went home with my bucket full of water before the tap turned off because it was dark. Once I got into my house I started crying again… in America I would never have to fight over water, in fact I wouldn’t have to sit and wait for hours just to fill up a bucket. This place really sucks sometimes.

Ive been wearing my glasses a lot lately. The dust in The Gambia is really multiplying now that the dry season is in full speed. The weather here is hot, at night I roll around in my own pool of sweat for hours before I am able to fall asleep, its really miserable. My ma sent me a squirt bottle, that way when I am hot I can spray myself with water… its amazing. Its little things like cold weather at times that I miss in America. L Not to mention with all of this dust comes dirty skin and pimples, yuck! I was telling one of my German friends in village today that I was feeling a little down in the slumps these days and he said to me, “Jessi, it seems like you are experiencing culture shock.” I sat there laughing for a little bit thinking to myself, yeah right. I have been here for over a year now, how could I be experiencing culture shock… I just miss my family that’s all. But after a while I thought maybe he was right? Something is wrong with me… I am just not sure what it is.

Hey followers, sorry it has been over a month since I have last updated. Ive been in my village, no internet. :( boo. Now that I am sitting here and having internet I feel too lazy to sit and write about all the crazy things that have been happening to me. I thought I would enclude some photos.

Photo#1 My banana tree finished fruiting! I will have you know that I was a good person and gave away all of my bananas to my neighboring compounds-- everyone needs fruit in their bodies.

Photo #2 Isatou, my sister... she is the funniest thing around. She was begging me to try on my glasses, so I said fine... it was so funny that I had her pose for a photo.

Photo #3 This is me and my toma (the baby that was named after me) three months old now and still cute as a button.

Photo#4 Isatou again... she had a stuffed animal toy strapped to her back like a baby. She is so funny.

Anyway, sorry I am not writing much, a lot is going on in my life these days, over all things are fine. I am keeping my head above water.

Picture#1 My two favorite girls in The Gambia-Jasmin and Kasey. Picture#2 Dakar beachPicture#3 DakarPicture#4 Kasey and I with the trophyPicture#5 The team! yeah!

WAIST 2010 has gone down in a huge victory for The Gambia—we won the softball championship. After 37 years, The Gambia took home the trophy for the first time. I would just like to proudly say that I was a part of the team. J I spent a total of five days in Dakar, Senegal—four of those days were spent working up to win the championship. Honestly speaking, it felt good to win, it felt good to be a part of something so big, it feels good to be a champ and it felt good to get away. … Especially to get away to DAKAR, Senegal.

--------------WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT SENEGAL----------------

1. Dakar is beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

2. They speak French, so everyone has a love language coming out of their mouths when speaking.

3. Parts of it seem like a mini America.

4. The Peace Corps Volunteers there are great.

5. Good food, good ice cream

6. Its WAY more developed than The Gambia

------------Crappy things about SENEGAL---------------

1. If you don’t speak French or Wolof (local language) then you are screwed

2. The money is difficult to figure out, coins, bills, and more coins? It’s confusing.

3. Taxis in the city cost a lot of money.

4. A lot of homeless people on the streets at night.

Most of my time in Dakar was spent playing softball, but overall the trip was fun and well needed. Jasmin and I stayed with a really amazing home stay couple that hosted us in their house. They were third grade teachers at the international school in Dakar. The feed us, bathed us, gave us great company and over all were just really wonderful to us. I felt like I had a really well rested and wonderful weekend.

Anyway, made it home safe and sound, now getting ready to head back up to village tomorrow, start digging my head into the ground and start working again. One more year here and I am ready to dominate this place. I hope you all enjoy the photos.

Photo 1- me dancing :)

Photo 2- this is how I feel

Photo 3- swiming in the beach

Photo 4- I stopped the taxi I was in to take this photo. I love it.

These days I ride the waves. Just yesterday I went to the beach to jump and thrash myself around in the raging waters.

Honestly speaking though, things here in TG are going well, I am still alive. 15 months in!! whop! whop! Lately, I have been feeling like a wave with emotions. Some days I go up- everything is great here, I am happy, life couldn't be better and then other days I go down-where I start thinking, wtf am I doing here?

Peace Corps says this is normal, questioning my service after a year. So don't think I am going through a break down or anything... I am just feeling like how normal people feel.

I actually went to a beach party yesterday with Abass and his friends. He can't swim so we had a great time jumping around in the waves. As I was trying to fight off the water from my eyes I was thinking to myself, "self, you should blog about how this experience is kind of like your life these days. " So, here I am, typing out how my life is like waves.

I thought I would include some photos of my life these days. Enjoy.

I went to a video club last night aka-- a medium size room pack full of men watching a soccer game. Manchester United vs. Manchester something else? haha

Picture me, (the only woman) sitting on a bench surrounded by about 150 crazy soccer fans. If there is one thing that Gambians love, its soccer. These people go crazy over it. Ask any Gambian and they will tell you all and more about their favorite team....

I was invited to go with a friend to watch the match, I am in Kombo so there is electricity for these video clubs. I thought to myself, "self, you should go!" so I went and it was great.

I don't watch soccer much, I have never really been a fan of it.. I couldn't even tell you how long a game last for. But last night I was one of them, except for fun I decided to cheer for the opposing team--Manchester something else? :) I like the color blue :) (the color or their jerseys). So last night was great. I stood on my bench shouting GOAL!! or DEFENSE! or COME ON!!! haha.. my team lost :( boo! but it was great. It was fun, I walked home laughing the whole way. People thought I was nuts.

Photo #1 Me and my toma! Aminata :) 1 month old

Photo #2 Mom, this is for you, Mr. Badjie and his bike.

Photo #3 My friend and her children... I love them.

Photo #4 My host mom and sisters-minus Isatou

Photo #5 Me and my sisters minus Isatou

Hello followers,

LIFE KEEPS MOVING--- this is my new theme for 2010. I was talking to one of my friends in my village the other day about life here in The Gambia, I was explaining to him a minor problem I was having (now I don’t even remember what it was) and he said to me, “Aminata, it doesn’t really matter, life will keep going on.” He was so right, I went back to my house that day and thought about what he had said. Life will keep going on. Then I went to the school last week, I was talking to the headmaster (principle) and he was telling me about how four 7th graders were dropping out of school this semester because they were pregnant. Four 7th graders, two 8th graders and six 9th graders. Seriously?

I asked him what he thought the cause was to this high rate of young girls getting pregnant and he said they probably just wanted lunch money. He then explained to me that young girls receive money from older men, perhaps soldiers, or random people passing through our village and when the men give them money they expect something in return. I was ferious at this, I just kept thinking about how young these girls are, now they are pregnant and getting ready to birth children when they are just children themselves. Obviously they didn’t use a condom, so who knows if they caught a disease as well as a baby in their stomachs? I was so angry, this is a huge problem here in The Gambia. Young girls are never taught to dream big, they are told if they can cook, clean, fetch water and be submissive, they will be great wives. To me—t his is bull crap. But either way, Life keeps moving. Leaving this country falling into the endless cycle of poverty and uneducated people. If you are uneducated, how can you help your country? Either way, life keeps moving.

I also had a thought and reflection the other day on sustainable development. --- When NGO’s (non government organizations) and other people come into the country just to fork out money to “help” it doesn’t help. You are crutching the country more than you are ever helping. To come in, for example- fork thousands of dollars out for pumps and wells and expect the people to just use and appreciate the pump is a ridiculous thought. Unless you sensitize them (inform them of the do’s and don’ts) informing them that its THEIR pump- these people will USE and ABUSE these pumps and when they’re broke –shoot! O’ well, because to fix it “we are Africans and we are poor, life here isn’t easy, we have no money for that.” Yes, well it is true, they don’t have the money all at once to fix it. One thing that’s messed up is people need to come together, create a fund and in case of a problem there is money for the project. That way there is an accountability and the pumps are theirs and not the white peoples. I have seen this even in my own village. The pumps are broke, the taps are salty, well because their was no fund for the water to sustain the project when something went wrong…. People are suffering without water waiting for a white person or someone to give them money to fix it. NO, NO, NO…. its frustrating to see this. How can you help this country when people are crutched?

Either way, LIFE KEEPS MOVING. Somehow people keep moving on here, young girls keep getting pregnant, drop out of school and are continuesly pushed down and told they won’t amount to much around here except being great wives, along with their other co-wives and having many children to serve Allah.

On a lighter note, I am still alive and well. Sorry to write this post and be so frusterated, I hope it gives you a different glimpse into my life here. Things are peachy, but not always. :(

Because of popular demand, I have decided to update my blog. :) After all it is 2010 already. (Lauren, wink, wink).

Where to begin? Its 2010 and it still feels like 2009, except I went to buy some groceries to take back up to my site yesterday and I only purchased healthy things for myself—working on that new year’s resolution I told you all about (taking my health seriously). 2010 is good so far, every time I think about it being 2010 I am struck with the realization of how fast time has really flown by here since I came in 2008.

Sometimes to feel good about myself here I let my hair down (I just got it cut) and I pluck my eyebrows. In light of the welcoming of new PCV’s I did both. New PCV’s recently from the States have joined our group and as a veteran PCV I went with a clan of people to take the “newbie’s” out to show them a good time in Kombo. There are 35 new volunteers that just swore in last Friday. They had a huge welcoming party the night of their ceremony, we made jungle juice, ate hamburgers, ect. and everyone had a great time… me included except I wasn’t drunk like everyone else L. The reason being…. I am on heavy medication. Backing up a little----rewind----- I told you all that I plucked my eye brows for this special event, well, I plucked them and the doctor told me that I must have got some dirt in one of the pores because I had/have a huge assist/boil on my eye lid where I plucked my eyebrow. When I say huge, I mean huge. Tis the excuse of not taking any pictures of the night (I hope to forget what my eye looks like currently). This assist at first looked like a big painful pimple, so of course I poked at it…. (BAD IDEA) don’t do that. With my dirty little fingers I made it worse and it got really big, so big I couldn’t open my eye one day! Sick huh? Well, since I have been taking this medicine it’s been getting a lot better… I have continued to heat compress it and slowly, slowly it is getting smaller.

Anyway, so I went out that night with a big bump on my eye, all the locals that I am friends with asked me what was wrong with my eye and I just made up some really cool story about fighting an alligator up country to make me feel cooler rather than saying that I just plucked my eyebrows. :) O’ life here in The Gambia.

Because I am in Kombo this week along with a bunch of other volunteers we have been getting together to have softball practice. In February I am going to participate in an annual West Africa Peace Corps Volunteers softball tournament. It’s where PCV’s from all over West Africa meet in Dakar, Senegal to play in this tournament against each other. Team The Gambia is serious about this tournament… I guess last year they were dropped out of the tournament because of a silly mistake and this year it is not going to happen… so we have been practicing. And man does it feel good to play (my body is aching). Haha… but it’s only because I haven’t played in forever… and I am not really good in the first place. Ha-ha... but anyway, I am sure I will keep you update on that later (I can’t really talk about the tournament, other West African PCV’s could be stalking my blog and trying to scoup out dirt on my playing skills) This game is very serious…

So, New years? It was good. I spent it with Gambian friends in the capital of Banjul. We went to the park and danced the night away at a music concert held by the famous kora player Jelliba. I watched fireworks and it was great… the whole night was really fun. Had a New Years kiss at midnight too… :)

Things with my new toma (the baby that was named after me) are going great. I am still in love with her. :) She is getting so big… but she is sleeping a lot these days. Last week my friend Binta (the mom) let me babysit her… I took her home to my hut and had her sleep on my bed while I cleaned my house and such. It was so great, although once she started crying I was relieved that I could take her back next door and give her back to her mother. I am not ready for crying babies yet. :)

Alright, Today I am going back up country so I better cut off this post and get myself ready to go. I will try to post more another time.

Well, where to begin? I am in Kombo so I have the Internet! yay! Just thought I would blog and tell you about a few things happening to me around this place.

First just to update you all, my family is still infested with the head lice. haha... sick huh? There isn't much I can do about it. At first I was really freaked out because I thought that I was going to catch the head lice myself, then one of the missionaries in my village told me that their head lice is different than white people head lice... and then she reassured me that I wouldn't catch it. This was wonderful news because I have been really paranoid lately, scratching my head, thinking the bugs were in there growing and hatching their eggs...gross huh? I guess its just in my sisters hair. -- good to know :) I know you're thinking, "Jessi, help your host mom get rid of it" but I can't. To expect my host mom to take the time out of her already jam packed schedule to wash everything, spend money on spray to spray her house... and then dig through all her kids hair? nope, not going to happen. Plus not to mention all the kids here play together, if she gets rid of it now, its bound to come back right away.

Moving on, my Christmas ended up being not too bad. I met this Gambian that has spent over the past 10 years living in the States, he came back to visit his family for the holidays. His parents go to my church in village, he is Gambian but very American as well. We spent the afternoon together and he caught me up on American politics, the economy and random news about things I never hear about. (most of the time I have no clue what is going on in the world) Anyway, the missionaries in my village invited me to have lunch with them and it was really nice. In the afternoon I made popcorn over the fire with my host mom, and stirred up some kool-aid for all the neighbor kids. Since I live in a Muslim country, people here don't really celebrate... so I thought it would be a good opportunity to tell my neighbor kids about Jesus... turns out the kids just wanted more and more popcorn... they didn't want to listen to anything. :( So, I ended up having them sing Jesus happy birthday and then they all went home. Haha.. And my favorite sister (Mariama--in picture) came for Christmas holiday too from my first village way up country.

Another story... My neighbor lady finally gave birth last week. She delivered two very healthy babies. (Binta and her babies in the picture) One boy and one girl. She ended up naming the girl after me... (which is an honor here in The Gambia) When you have someone named after you its called receiving a "toma". I have a toma!!! and it is great. The duties include buying the baby outfits every once in a while-- basically loving the child as if it is my own. Let me just tell you all, that both of these babies have stolen my heart. They are beautiful... I was holding Aminata (my toma--in the picture) and i was thinking to myself, "self, this is going to be nice one day"--- don't worry, its not going to happen anytime soon. But one day, I know the Lords got something good planned for me and I am going to have lots of babies. :)

So, I came into Kombo today because tomorrow is New Years Eve and I want to spend it in the city partying up and down the strip that most tourist frequent.... I figured it would be fun meeting new people and seeing fireworks on the beach. My girlfriend Jasmin invited me to go out with her tonight. Some guy she knows invited her to go out to this touristy dinner, watch a music band and enjoy live Gambian entertainment. She didn't want him to think it was a date so she invited me to go along... we use this trick often, when I need her she comes with me and when she needs me, I go with her. Strength in numbers, that way if things turn out awkward with the man, we have each other to laugh with... :) So anyway, I invited my gambianamerican friend to come along and we all had a really great time. The live entertainment included this Gambian man sticking 3 nails up his nose. no joke! It was weird. It wasn't no magic trick either, I saw the nails go in and I saw them come out. It was freaking... probably some witchcraft stuff or something, I am not sure... but it was weird. Anyway, I enjoyed myself.

Moving on, tomorrow is New years eve.... and I have a lot of new goals for myself here in The Gambia. One, exercising more... that is for sure. I guess I will have to get back to you on all the other ones. :) Anyway, I hope you all have a good new year! yay! 2010! weird. Its weird to think of how fast the time flies by here. I miss you all.

Picture #1 The huge group of people packed in the little church I attend.

Picture #2 The bride and groom :)

Picture #3 Me and Kasey (one of my best friends here) before we went out on our date to get Pizza in Kombo.

o yeah, how could I forget.... today my host mom looked at me and said, "Amie, my head itches, can you look at it?"

yeah, thats right.... my whole family has head lice. hahaha, sick huh. I said, "o no, Fatou Jammeh, there are bugs in your hair and you have to stay away from me." :) hahaha... then I ran down to the shop and bought a can of bop (kind of like Raid) and sprayed my whole house. hahaha sick.

Christmas is coming! I will probably not check my email again before New Years, so I just wanted to post and wish you all a merry, merry christmas. I plan on spending christmas in my village making popcorn over the fire and teaching my family and neighbors christmas songs. :) I won't be at home :( but it should be fun. We are going to make kool-aid! "american juice"-- Gambians love it. :)

I miss you all. Too bad you are all cold in America and Canada! I am still in skirts and tank tops here in The Gambia. :)

I went to a wedding last Saturday, I didn't know the people very well, but here in The Gambia that doesn't matter.---I have been to many traditional Muslim African weddings, but this was my first traditional Christian African wedding and it was amazing. It resembled a bit of the westernized culture with the white dress, vial of the bride, brides maids and groom men in tuxs… but for the most part the wedding was something different.

I arrived early because I was among the church choir that was to sing at the wedding. Time here in The Gambia means nothing, you say something will start at 11am but really it won't start until 1pm. I guess though, for the wedding it does... It’s a good thing I got there early because the church filled up fast and there ended up being tons and tons of people standing in the back just so they could see the ceremony. Lucky me, I got a seat. :)

I don’t think I have enough time to type and write about what a wonderful experience I had in the church watching these two Gambians get married. It was wonderful; I was crying (you would have cried too), laughing, jumping around, singing, ect. Once the bride finally walked down the aisle and was face to face with her groom… the whole church broke out in a traditional clapping, shouting African song. It was amazing… everyone was dancing and of course I was dancing too.

The ceremony lasted 4 ½ hours so… I am glad I had the seat. I just kept thinking, “God has something good like this planned for me too someday.” I am serious; you all better get ready someday because there is going to be lots of singing and dancing at my wedding. I will post photos once I get my camera battery charged. Seriously, the wedding was great, it reminded me what a beautiful plan that God has for a man and a woman when they join together as one.

As far as my singing career, I don't think it is going to sky rocket anywhere anytime soon. I sang this really silly song that goes something like this... "A man, who finds a wife, finds what is good... and receives favor from the Lord. x2 Then the next verse goes like this.... This is the bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called sweetheart for she was made specially for me. x2.

haha.. its a silly song, I think it comes somewhere from the book of Proverbs or something? Anyway, life here is still very interesting.