To all-
So I have been here in The Gambia for almost two years (it will be two years beginning of Feb).Crazy to think that I am living and working in Africa, still to this day I have surreal moments where it dawns on my again again that I am here. I am currently attending a 3 full day Close of Service (COS) Conference here in Banjul, regarding what I can do in the future with my experience and reflecting on the past two years. Crazy. Where did this time go? I know my parents are happy the time has gone by fast. After the conference I am supposed to wrap up all my current projects, hand over projects to other PCVs or my Gambian counterparts, and not start any new work or continue working. Hard to go from working nonstop for two years, no weekends, working on project plans and presentations write-ups til 10pm, and dreaming in Pulaar about work or my host family--to not working and just chilling. This will be tough. My father raised me with a strong work ethic, sitting and breathing will not be easy. But I am sure I can utilize that time to do some personal research for myself for grad school and personal curiosity (eg sitting in my village reading).
I had the Engineers Without Borders come to my area again this month to work on the bush road reconstruction project I took over a year ago from the PCV who applied for this project. The engineers altered their plan to focusing on well/water pumps in the area. Their road project proposal was not approved by the EWB big bosses, and the NGO on the ground we are 'lacing' with seemed to have taken over the road project to take credit for themselves. Overall the EWB's visit was a positive one. Together we taught 8 villages how to repair their bush road after it was fixed, as well as surveyed all water sources in those 8 villages. EWB will now attempt to find a way to bring up water from the ground easier and in a cleaner way. It was that time that a new PCV was posted in that area, so I handed the project over to her.
Another new volunteer is posted near my village, only 8k away. I got her started playing HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention films at her local middle school. The films are made by Africans for Africans in local language, so we showed the films in Pulaar and English for the students. We had our local nurse facilitate and explain the material, as well as field questions. The school's headmaster assisted as well. "But Travis, how do you play educational films in a rural area with no electricity?" you ask yourselves. A willing and motivated Gambian who has a tv, dvd player, and a small generator allowed us to borrow his prized possessions to show these films for free, as long as we provided fuel. "But Travis, who paid for the fuel, I bet that is costly?! And we know you make only $250 a month there" you now ask. Well, this headmaster is VERY motivated to assist both the school and the community he works in, so he bought the fuel out of his own pocket (equiv of $4 for two litres = 2 hours of film time)(and the usually never EVER happens here). Overall, we showed 2 short films in both languages and had many questions from the students. I feel that knowledge is as sustainable as one can get, as no one can take that away from a person, so this project went well. We then did a similar undertaking with the films but showed it to representatives from 3-or so surrounding village members and younger kids. The adults took well to the material, as we showed it in local language, and discussed with them in local language the material to ensure they understood. Cute to see young men ask question, and you can tell they are blushing. ha. Overall, I got my new sitemate started on sustainable work in her area.
I planned a grass-weaving bee hive demo in my village for Feb 9th for 3 PCVs in my area to do in my village, I hope that goes well.
During that time I will be en route to Dakar, Senegal because my head boss (country director) is sending me and 2 other PCVs from The Gambia to attend the annual West African All-Volunteer meeting in Dakar. (I was nominated to go) There, I will be presenting my bike-pedaled powered millet milling machine as an 'applied technology', and my liaisoning project between PC/The Gambia and PC/Senegal...which I hope after this meeting could spread to West Africa-wide! fingers cross. If this happens, I may have started a link between all PC West African countries.
Grad schools applications are done on my end, just waiting for all materials to be sent from other sources, and then waiting to hear back. Scary, my entire future rides on 4 schools accepting me or not, for all careers I want to get into require a MA degree.
The picture above is from when the EWB team was here. The NGO we are working(ed) with found an orphan monkey, and we tried to find it a new family in the bush. Being a fellow primate, it was friendly. Luckily, PC requires that I have all my rabies shots. I think it's a good pic.
I'll try to write more soon.
love you all
t
