Peace Corps Journals / Gambia, The / all updates

Picture update

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:17:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
Moroccan dinner to welcome the new VSO volunteers in SomaThe hot and sweaty group (typical gambian photography skills at work here)Second attempt at french toast this time with strawberry apricot "co ...
12 reads

World Food Program School Garden Trainin ...

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:34:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
Last weekend we went back to our training village to participate in a World Food Program (WFP) led training to support the creation of school gardens. The WFP already provides oil and rice to schools ...
8 reads

Quack?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:27:11 +0800

(Gambia, The / Chris In Africa)
Shameless stolen from Mike a friend living up country in a village called Diabugu: “Funny things happen here because of language. Two weeks ago Kasey was at my compound and was talking about ho ...
27 reads

La la la la... pictures

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:04:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Life Is A Daring Adventure..... Or Nothing.)
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 writ ...
22 reads

Oops...Hello again

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:00:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What's Next?)
I knew it had been a while since I posted a blog but I didn't realize it had been since November. I'd like to apologize all at home who look to my blog for signs I'm still alive and kicking. I'm more ...
4 reads

Making a Duck Pond

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:14:12 +0800

(Gambia, The / Get Excited!)
First of all let me clear up a confusing issue. I know any ornithologist reading my blog have cringed every time I wrote the word ‘duck.’It seems that my feathered friends are not ducks. They are ...
11 reads

On Development Definitions

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:20:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Afro-Photo)
One of the enduring constraints in the quest for development in Africa is so fundamental that it is often overlooked by institutions charged with assisting African communities to increase their income ...
8 reads

you better believe i'm tan.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:25:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Location: The Gambia)
against my best efforts (sunscreen sleeves hats avoiding the sun) i am a toasty brown (at least for me being so fair-skinned). people in my village joke that soon i will look like one of them and ...
12 reads

Lost and Found

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:25:03 +0800

(Gambia, The / Chris In Africa)
I was not feeling very good a few weeks ago when I had an infection. The infection was located behind my ear. This was better then last time (located on my nose) but still painful. I was determined to keep up with classes so other things were put on the back burner such as updating [...]
1 reads

Food

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:55:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Adventures in The Gambia)
Probably the thing I get the most questions about is the food so I thought I would make a post about it. I eat what my family eats so that means rice or millet- plus oil usually fish usually ...
1 reads

Baby in a bucket!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:55:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / A Panda in The Gambia)
One day I come out of my house and look over and there is a baby in a bucket. Her mother Binta was washing clothes and Tida got put in the bucket for safe keeping. So cute!
12 reads

Kankurang

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:25:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / A Panda in The Gambia)
"Masquerades play a very important and pivotal role in Gambian society. They include the Kankurang of the Mandinka the Kumpo of the Jola the Simba of the Wolof tribe and the Mamapara. Each masquera ...
8 reads

Life in Village

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:43:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / A Panda in The Gambia)
These are just a few of my many wonderful family members. These are some of the fun stuff you see in the village everyday.I make lunch with my sister about 2-3 times a week I am getting pretty good and hopefully by the time I get home I can make some pretty good Gambian food.
14 reads

Food Poisoning 2.5

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:12:14 +0800

(Gambia, The / Matt Carte's Blog)
Ok well just in case any of you care since being in country. I have had food poisoning twice. The first time was back in Camp Tendaba. Camp Tendaba is where we went for group training back when I was in training village. It seems so long ago when I put [...]
16 reads

Untitled

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:58:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / 2Bluesheep)
SlkfjsdljfLaksjdlskdjfkjdfAlskfh dklsdfjkjsfdkj.This past week or so has been kind of a pisser. Want to hear? Alright so I wrote a few weeks ago about having discussed condom use with the students at ...
7 reads

Sleeping

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:33:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Lindsey in The Gambia)
Written on March 3rd 2010So there are lots of elements of sleeping here that I find amusing. First every night without fail at least one and usually a number of my host siblings fall asleep outside ...
8 reads

Sweeping With Fatou

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:24:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Lindsey in The Gambia)
Written on February 28th 2010So for the past week and a half I have completely packed up and emptied my house. The roof of my house has been torn off (think thatch piles and a stick frame) and replac ...
15 reads

A Celebration of Normality

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:18:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Lindsey in The Gambia)
Written on February 28th 2010In celebration of feeling normal here are somethings that no longer elicit a profound response from me.* pit latrines* eating rice three times a day[this doesn't mean I p ...
6 reads

The Gambian Lemonade Stand

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:07:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Lindsey in The Gambia)
Written on February 18th 2010So I just got back from walking around Kerr Jarga with Mberry and Menghe selling "naan mbourou"--"drinking bread." Which is pounded rice baobab juice sugar and milk in ...
13 reads

Blogs are so in right now.

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:11:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Afro-Photo)
The Internet seems to have evolved significantly since I first forfeited my access to computer technology 2 years ago. There has been an explosion of content on the net so much quality analysis and ...
5 reads

"Hostess With the Mostest".... ...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:44:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Lindsey in The Gambia)
Written on February 14th 2010Lately here I've been going to a lot of naming ceremonies (ngente). A week after a baby is born here the family has a huge celebration--inviting the entire village and ex ...
5 reads

A Little Love From Africell

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:24:27 +0800

(Gambia, The / a little hungry)
Hey everyone sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've had a lot of things happen in the last few months which kept my mind a bit too occupied for blogging. I will detail some of it in future ...
0 reads

A Little Love From Africell

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:03:00 +0800

how Bing travel search lies

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:05:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Adventures in Living)
So I was just trying to buy airplane tickets to fly to England for spring break and thought to use Bing.com having read an article about how they are trying to beat Google in certain types of searc ...
9 reads

Picture Update Part 2

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:25:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
Posed picture from the circumcision ceremony I wrote about earlier. Sorry for the poor quality - it's a picture of a picture.The two boys honored in the circumcision ceremonyNew tri-color braidsSide ...
14 reads

Picture Update Part 1 (in which it appea ...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:57:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
We cooked ebey ourselves! (with some assistance from host sisters)Masaman chicken curry with sweet potatoes irish potatoes and bell peppers - our guest of honor loved it!Key lime pieThe chefs with ou ...
8 reads

THE WINDMILL: An American Tradition

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:14:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Mary E. Trimble)
Windmills helped define the American West. Although in many parts of the country we tend to think of windmills as an old-fashioned method of drawing water from a well they still are widely used today ...
6 reads

Reflections (written March 2)

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:55:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
DISCLAIMER - This post is not overly culturally sensitive or politically correct. Remember these are only my views and do not represent the views of the US Government. Also please do not run off t ...
2 reads

We feel so loved! (wwritten March 1)

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
Our much-awaited mail run finally came today and let me tell you it felt like little kids on Christmas morning!! Chocolate and cookies and cake and magazines and three kinds of tea and dried fruit/v ...
1 reads

Our wall of happiness (written March 2)

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
We had been sticking pictures on our wall with duct tape but as it gets hotter the pictures have been falling off with increasing frequency so we decided it was time for a new approach. Our lovely ...
0 reads

More on gender roles (written February 28)

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:48:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / What Better Place Than Here, What Better Time Than Now?)
Today I got my hair braided again (this time with really fun colored fake hair) and while I was getting it done several people came by and asked me who bought the fake hair for me. I responded that ...
0 reads

Groundnut.m4v

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:49:33 +0800

(Gambia, The / YouTube)
Author: arodio Keywords: Added: March 5 2010
0 reads

My parents' visit my 2nd term of school ...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:54:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / A Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia)
My mother father and brother visited from Dec. 28th to Jan. 10th and they had a wonderful time. Being the hardened travelers thatthey are none of them got sick. We traveled up country by boat andsa ...
18 reads

Points of light

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:02:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Yahya Gambia)
In January I finally got to go hunting something I’ve been wanting to do for over a year now. I went out in bush one night with a friend of mine a teacher named Saho and a few other volunteers ...
7 reads

Gambia 2010.m4v

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:23:39 +0800

(Gambia, The / YouTube)
Author: arodio Keywords: Added: March 4 2010
1 reads

2 things that make me feel like a teacher...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:45:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / The Gambia on One Blair a Day)
...and I'm not sure how I feel about that:1. To celebrate Literature Week we made posters of The Books We Love (and why). I just finished making a sign for our display. It says "What's at the heart ...
25 reads

Hip Hop Anonymous

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:08:52 +0800

(Gambia, The / Matt Carte's Blog)
(Big Daddy Reference) (I know somebody out there did not get it and I felt bad so yea. Go watch it I enjoyed it) Meat here is a crap shoot. If you are in village it is even sketchier. I have eaten hippo since I arrived at site. I could not tell [...]
8 reads

Health Nuts and The Generally Sick

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:08:03 +0800

(Gambia, The / Matt Carte's Blog)
Ok Peace Corp The Gambia (PCTG) does a great job of taking care of us. They give us an awesome med kit that is fully stocked with all kinds of fun treats. They will hook us up with Gatorade (your hard earned tax dollars at work my friends) and believe me I used [...]
13 reads

Radio Silence

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:31:11 +0800

(Gambia, The / Chris In Africa)
I’m home from WAIST and back to teaching. I haven’t been in the mood to write about my time in Dakar because I’ve been feeling bad. I got myself a little scratch behind my ear that t ...
4 reads

this one's for the ladies

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:52:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Location: The Gambia)
but fellas listen close. march 8th (monday)is international women's day. it even has it's own website: http://www.internationalwomensda y.com/. it's a little heavy.i am planning on going to the basic ...
12 reads

What I does every day

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:54:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / The Gambia!)
Due to popular demand I am going to give you all a little insight into my average daily routine. Obviously the time specified for each event is the calculated average over the last 213 days 17 hour ...
1 reads

Step Up

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:51:55 +0800

(Gambia, The / Matt Carte's Blog)
Ok I have been debating about this all week and i have decided to run with it. You will see why in other posts but as far as this post is concerned. I say step up and by that i mean. I want to be the volunteer with the most visitors. That is right i [...]
14 reads

Gonna Be Some Changes

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:07:15 +0800

(Gambia, The / Matt Carte's Blog)
Ok I have several new posts to get up here and in the interest of not having access to internet very often I have chosen to have this blog site post periodically. This does a couple of things one. It allows me to appear like I am actually here more often than I [...]
7 reads

Book Review: Counting the Cost by Liz Adair

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:59:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Mary E. Trimble)
Counting the Cost by Liz Adair captures the essence of love: not always practical often destructive but present and undeniable nevertheless.The fast-moving story takes place in 1930s New Mexico. Whe ...
0 reads

Untitled

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:10:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / 2Bluesheep)
and here's just some other pics i felt like throwing up on the blog. some kids playing in the yard. my best friend and me rocking some corn rows
3 reads

Nonverbal Communication

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:54:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / 2Bluesheep)
MAN its hot outside. Our cold season this year was like a week long. Now its back to hot and dry with strong harmattan winds blowing from the northeast. The wind isn’t cool and refreshing though ...
2 reads

Whatsoever a man can do yadda yadda yadda

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:52:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / 2Bluesheep)
Hey all. So here’s something that I’ve found difficult. It seems to be coming up often lately so I figured its worth writing about. The issues of women’s equality and empowerment is one that ma ...
19 reads

C-J Greenhouses Now on 2 Continents

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:06:21 +0800

(Gambia, The / Stateless Machine)
A few days ago I finally got a lovely package from the Americas. In addition to having a fabulous back pack that’s already served an important purpose of transporting booze from point a to poin ...
15 reads

The New Year

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:25:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Peaceful Travels)
Greetings from West Africa and Happy New Year!The New Year started off with a bang. Tavi and I went up-country to meet up with some of our friends to celebrate New Year's Eve and it was a great time. ...
9 reads

These are a few of my favorite things...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:10:00 +0800

(Gambia, The / Ramble On...)
Raindrops on roses? Whiskers on kittens? Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens? No these are not a few of my favorite things but I will tell you some other things that are on the list!Lucia's ...
9 reads