So...I'm in Africa...fyi

To all who read...friends and family...and/or curious folks-
So I have a myspace blog, and I've kept up on that for the past three months since on left DC...but then again, I really haven't had access to a computer that much, let alone running water and electricity. I attempted doing a mass email, but there's just too many addresses to copy/paste and Internet is slow and usually it costs. So here's my blog. Sounds like I'll have access to Internet more like either once a week to at least once a month. So there you go. I've received a few letters and a package thus far, and they all made my day!! Send more and as often as you can..if you'd like.

So I left from DC on the 7th (some of this info may be a repeat from my myspace blog, sorry). Before I left, I was told, sorry- I was urged, to cut my hair and take out my earrings. So I cut my long hair (but left my bangs) and took out my earrings (see pic(s)). So, there you go for all that hated my hair and/or my earnings. Um...I flew into the capital and stayed in the main capital area for the first week (there were 17 from all over the US that flew over in my training group). Then after finding out what language we'd learn (me- Pulaar), we were assigned training villages. The Pulaar group had 4 trainees (me included). So, we headed to our designated villages, and we stayed there for two months, give or take a week. In those weeks, I stayed with a host family in a compound of 7 huts, in a village with 7 compounds = small village. The other three trainees in the village with me (one + one married couple) each stayed with a different family/compound. We also had a Lang. and Cultural teacher living in the village...who would teach us how to live in the Gambia (hence their title) Life wasn't hard...just different. I woke up every morning at 7, walk to my teachers house to get the watering cans, walked to the pump to pump water for my garden, watered my garden. At 7:30am my host-mom would send over my breakfast, which would either be rice "oatmeal" or coos in warm water...with or without sour milk. Then, we had class from 8-1....which was mostly language. At 1 we had lunch (Peace Corps (PC) paid a village woman to cook lunches for us...which the five of us would each out of a huge bowl with our right hand only, while sitting on the floor = bad ass!). After lunch, it would be freak'n hot and I'd be really full (sorry, lunches would consist of rice, with either chicken, liver, beef or spam), with assorted veggies, with a sauce = I won't be eating rice again when I get home, sorry mom) so I'd take an hour nap. After napping, I'd study, attempt to interact with my family/village. Two of the other trainees were males, so we'd go for bike rides, or climb trees, or do other 'manly' things. The four of us would also by food to make westerns style food (french fries) some nights or have movies nights (the couple brought a laptop). I'd leave a bucket of water out on my back porch all day long, so at 7pm, after watering my garden again, I'd take a bucket bath with the warm water and listen to the BBC. At 8:30pm, my host-sister would bring me my dinner, which would be more rice, and maybe a small fish and some sauce. There is a video that I'll try to post that shows my hut at my training village (which doesn't compare to my permanent site's hut). There is a lot to put in here that happened between the gaps...but I can only type so much here....but more stories will come to me. Oh....my training village was near Tendaba...so google that and you'd find me.

This last Wednesday, we packed up our shit at training villages and had a site visit to our permanent sites!! Holy crap, talk about scary and awkward. I've been here from 3 months now and am at a Intermediate Low on my lang scores for Pulaar...and they want me to visit my village!?! So...my site is near Bansang, in fact 29k away from it (again, google that and you'll find where I'll be for the next 24 months) = middle of no where; AND since its far from the coast, its really hot, fyi....good lord hot!! I had a lang/cultural teacher with me the whole time I was at site; which help ease the awkwardness of me just being able/willing to only say greetings, I'm going to the pump, dinner was good, and i'm tired. My teacher also assisted in negotiating my rent, meals, and laundry for my with my family. My new host family consists of a dad and one mom (which a male having one wife in the gambia is UN-heard off...so its cool in my fam), 2 sisters, and a brother = small family = easier for my to learn their names...or not forget them at least. My hut is one bedroom, round and spacious, 2 windows....WITH a big backward with a mango tree AND its mango season....hell ya!. My hut also has a thatched roof = shit will fall down on me at night but as a opposed to a metal roof, it will be a lot cooler at night. My village has 47 compounds and 1500 people, with a school and only a few water pumps, but we are 1k away from the river. Wednesday, PC drove us out there from our training villages, but I left with my teacher on Friday to go back to the capital area (Kombo) via public transportation = good times but looks like I wont be coming to Kombo very often because it was a pain in the ass. SO...currently I am in Kombo...I have some more classes and have my final language test ( = scary because if I don't pass it with Intermediate Mid, then I stay in Kombo for 2 more weeks to me tutored = I don't swear -in with the rest of the group = not cool....so no pressure there). I swear-in as a PCV on the 18th and then I get $ to buy stuff for my house...then I'm sent back to my village up-country and there you have it. This is my first blog..but I'll be near a computer for the next few days...so I'll think of some more stuff and type it up. Miss home...the Western style of life and the ease of it all.