oh the gambia...been here a year

Hello folks! I know it has been a long time since I’ve typed something out. Know and understand that I would have liked to type a little blog for ya ‘ol sooner, but the internet nearest to me—Bansang—is not reliable and is dial-up. Remember dial-up? The ancient way of checking your email? Yeah, very slow. I can get maybe two emails out within one hour time, if that. I’ll post when I post. I will post when I go to Kombo/Banjul, where the internet is free and much faster. I only go to Kombo when my ‘to-do’ list is long enough, due to the fact that it costs 1/8 of my monthly allowance roundtrip to go there, then paying for food and going shopping while I’m there. I now have a phone that is able to have internet access, so I can email you from the bush but that’s about it. Hang on if you haven’t read a blog in a while, I’m busy working. J
I local councilor in my region came to me after a meeting and told that he had a colleague who was working with PC to fix their village road. He wanted to see what I could find out what that PCV was doing, so possibly we could get help with our road. My village (which I cannot name on here) is 9k off of the main road. The road to my village is dirt and sand. When the rains hit, the road at times is nearly impassable for vehicles; when the hot season hits the winds blows the entire road’s sand everywhere but on the road. Somehow addressing the road has been a concern of mind since day one of me living in my village. Villagers living that far off the main road have only one clinic—in my village—which only has a nurse and a few medical supplies. While I’ve lived here, one person has died from complications because they could not get to the nearest hospital in time.
After finding out what PCV was working on their road, I did some research. Turns out the volunteer is in my region, and has applied for Engineers Without Borders (EWB)http://www.ewb-usa.org/ . Turns out the EWB team was coming in January for an initial assessment of the road and to do a health assessment. The PCV—Kellee—invited me to meet and help the EWB team when they came. Kellee’s village is populated mostly by Fula’s but their dialect was a little different than mine, but I got by with my Pulaar. Their team consisted of a university professor and three engineering students. The prof and one student assessed the road, and the two other students worked on the community health assessment. The road survey consisted of using GPS tracking every 50 yards over the length of a 10k road. The GPS data, I am told, would be taken back to their university and put onto a cad computer program to show all the different elevations and bad parts of the road. During the survey, I asked the university professor many questions…I wanted to know as much as possible so I could get a similar group to come out to fix my road. At the same time, I acted as translator of the team, which made me feel proud to show up my language skills. Saw a big family of monkeys cross the road, and then some dried hippo tracks as well…nature is exciting!!!! I was nice to interact with American’s fresh off the boat. Kellee was busy doing the health stuff for the team. It was a good experience. Glad to be of service. Kellee is an extendee and is almost done with her third year here. She leaves in May and the EWB tea has just started. It will take them a few months to come up with a few plans to reconstruct and fix different parts of the stretch of road. The team need a liaison at the village level, and Kellee’s village will not be replaced by a new volunteer for a while. So I made the huge commitment for the second year of my service ( I have officially been gone for a year this past week, oh wow). The village is not far from mine, I speak the village’s main language, and I’m interested in road construction at the village level here.
I went back to my area to talk to my people about the road. We set up a meeting to discuss how to approach the application process and to form a committee to sensitize the community about the road being fixed. Well, at this meeting, the people has other plans and just asked me to find them funding for other project. Thus, I’m not sure if my road will be fixed…but I’ll help fix the other road.
In my last blog, I mentioned harvesting of the groundnuts. Well, the people—we call them the ‘Cooperative’ and its funny to hear Gambians say that word in English—came and are now buying. Funny this is is the Cooperative buys the groundnuts right outside of my compound, at the outskirt corner of my village. All the area’s villagers come to my village to sell their groundnuts. For most people in my community, the main source of income comes from selling their nuts. A vehicle containing two armed policemen, a driver and two Cooperative workers came to the area where men bring their nuts. In the back of the truck was a metal trunk. The trunk contained 600,000 dalasi (Gambian currency), which is 20,000 USD. All of this money was gone within a week. More money came soon. This means there is/was about 40,000 USD floating around the area I live in = the villages will have enough money to sustain them until next harvest, that is, in theory. That’s a lot of money. The nuts will be brought to Bansang, where they are put on a barge, and then shipped to Banjul harbor and sold on the international market. I think the US buys from here; you may be eating peanut butter from nuts grown by my host brother.
My teaching at the school dropped just after the holiday break started and never picked up again. The Headmaster at my school just keeps asking for money/funding and that’s something I don’t want to do/give/find for them. It’s a good thing that the groundnuts are abundant, for another simple reason—my sweet tooth. After eating rice and coos all day, I need something sweet. I resorted to eating peanut butter sent from home. But that only lasted a few days. So I bough locally made peanut butter. I put it in a jar and mixed it with local honey. Oh wow is that good! I just eat it straight, spoon full after spoon full until I can’t move and have to take a few tums.
So congrats to us all American’s, we have a new leader. On that day he took office, I was listening to his speech on the BBC but was interrupted and had to assist in the finishing touches of building a pit latrine. I stayed in my village and didn’t travel to Basse or the US embassy in Kombo to watch the event on TV because I wanted to answer any questions my fellow villagers may have. Gambians LOVE Obama. I have scene, and purchased, locally printed Obama posters. Babies are being named Obama, and streets and roads are being renamed ‘Obama road’. People here say that he will bring change to the world and The Gambia, and I respond with ‘if god wills it’ (inshallah). And I do truly hope he does change; we know the globe needs something to happen soon.!!!
My pet goat, TJ, is still alive and kicking. I talk to it in Pulaar, which makes my host mother laugh. I joke with my host father about the goat being stubborn. I talk to TJ in both Pulaar and English but the punk doesn’t listen. Before I left for Kombo to type this up for you all, I think my compound gave me a puppy. I’m not sure. I’ll keep you posted. I don’t want a dog, Gambian dogs are dirty.
Just before our Christmas, we had Tobaski here, another Muslim holiday. This is the big big holiday where each compound has to kill a, preferably, a ram (but a goat will do if you can’t afford a ram), and eat meat all day long. My family bought a goat, I help slaughter it, no worries. We used most of it. Are the head. Ate the feet. Liver, ribs, and whatever else was edible. We don’t eat meat that often beside dried or fresh fish, so we ate what we could of the goat. I was given my own portion of fresh, and still warm, meat and I cooked it my way. After a little while the everyone got dressed in their new clothes that had to have made and went to pray. After prayer, we ate. I was invited to many many compounds and ate meat over and over again. I swear my body went into protein shock. I usually have to drink a protein shake and eat tuna sent from America to maintain a healthy lifestyle but on that day I ate straight fresh PROtein. Simply amazing.
The other day I was at another volunteer’s house visiting. He speaks Mandinka and is in a Mandinka village. But near his village is a Fula village, so we went there. Every time I am in a Fula village, I greet and then ask one question, “Do you have milk?” (A hebi kedam?) The rains have ceased thus there is less greenery for the cattle to eat, thus less milk production. The village said they didn’t have any. So we sat with a few families to shoot the breeze for a bit. As we got up to leave, because it was getting dark, one man said stop and wait a minute. The man came back in 10 minutes with a covered bowl, and handed it to me, the fellow Fula. The bowl was still warm. We took home to bowl and opened it: fresh cows milk. We pour it in cups and added chocolate milk mix. Instant surreal moment, drink straight fresh chocolate milk!!!
I may add more to the post soon