Back to The Gambian paradise

It's been a while but I am back in The Gambia.  I have been back here for about 3 weeks.  My journey back from the states was interesting I flew into Logos, Nigeria.  Which I think everybody should do once in their life.  As I was leaving that glorious nation they call Nigeria a couple women decided to get in a fight as we were taxi onto the runway and take off.  Part of me was not surprised as this is Africa.  We did make it successfully to The Gambia two hours late.  I was greeted at the airport with no luggage as someone forgot to pull it off the plane and it continued onto Dakar, Senegal.  I wouldn’t get my bags back for two weeks.  I was greeted at the airport by my two brothers and father.  They all said how much they missed me and gave me big hugs.  As we got in to my village bush taxi and push started it and exited the airport I noticed about 20 young men standing in the middle of the road and start walking towards the bush taxi.  I was somewhat sleep deprived so I didn’t realize it until they started yelling my name but it was all the soccer players and my friends from my village.  I was completely surprised and was at a loss of words when I saw all of them.  Deep down it made me feel good to know that many people wanted to come and pick me up from the airport.

Right before I left the states I was somewhat anxious, because I knew as soon as I got back to The Gambia I would have a lot to do and be very busy.  The opposite side of that is, the busier you are the less you think about your family and the emotions that come with that. 

Small boys trying to get in my house

Salif



Being dirty is being happy

I had about 2-3 days to be in village and get over the culture shock of being back and trying to knock the rust off of my local language skills.  After those couple days I went to work on the preparations for about 30 Peace Corps Volunteers from 10 other West African countries to come for a week long Food Security Conference. 

Me presenting

Field Trip

The conference went well, it was great to see what other volunteers experiences are like and how the countries vary. 





After that was finished I hustled back to my village and started working on a project I have been planning for about 8 months.  I want to build a tree nursery and have villagers come and be trained in correct fruit tree growing practices and proper grafting techniques.  While I was in America the funding came through and so now I had to hustle and go purchase the fence posts and fencing and start the work.

Mixing cement

The last week my brother and I have dug about half the posts and got them cemented into the ground and purchased the chain link fence.  I had an unexpected infection in a finger and had to come to the dr for the past couple days then I leave Monday for a week long trek around the country checking on other volunteers food security projects.

Fence posts





More fence posts

As a side note a fellow volunteer has come up with a website about the bitter tomato.  I was co author of the haiku, take a look at the website. 

My sisters eating lunch

  

America America

I am back in America.  I got the news a little more than a month ago that my older brother would be getting married memorial day.  With this unexpected news I had to make the decision of whether to come home for the wedding or not.  I quickly decided that there was no other choice but to come home.  I started the daunting task of trying to find the cheapest possible ticket home.  A direct flight from Africa to America is expensive so the alternative is to get a flight with many stops.  I ultimately settled on a flight itinerary for Banjul, The Gambia to Brussels, Belgium to Montreal, Canada to Toronto, Canada then my final destination of Portland, Oregon.  I was excited I had never been to either one of those Canadian cities. 
I held the news from my Gambian family until about a week before I left.  As soon as I told them they instantly asked if I was coming back.  I reassured them that I was coming back and I started preparing for leaving.  This includes packing up anything and everything I wanted to bring home for gifts, and things I may not need for the remaining 10months in The Gambia. 

Brother and Wife

The siblings

The news that I was going to America spread throughout my village like wildfire and people started coming up to me with request of things they wanted from America or even the request of taking them to America with me. My response to most of these request to accompany me on the journey to America was to ask them if they has money for the ticket and they usually response was “No,” or I would pay for them, I would respond with “no, if you can fit in my bag you can go.”  Most people laughed and would walk away but some people said ok they would come later.  In the end no one ever came to be part of my luggage.  Some requests from friends and villagers were as simple as maybe a shirt or a pair of pants.   Some of the other requests where shoes, an American wife, watches and even a car, I would response to these request with a “maybe, or I’ll try.”

The next obstacle was to figure out my mode of transport to the airport with my two large bags at 9pm. My host brother and I went and talked to the village gelly driver and he said he would take me to the airport with all of my stuff.  When people would ask what time I would leave the village and how I was getting to the airport I would tell them the village gelly is taking me and they would more than welcome to come along with me. 

The evening of my departure I took a bath ate my final dinner and halfway through dinner the gelly showed up at our compound and we started loading up my luggage.  People started showing up to say goodbye and make the journey to the airport with me and my host mother, my two host brothers, a cousin, and a few friends.  As we were leaving the village people e come out of all their houses and said good by and yelled and waved to me. 

I made it to the airport and checked in said goodbye and waved goodbye to everyone one last time and told them I would see them in a few weeks.  My flight went well, but I had to get out of my airplane retrieve my luggage and go through Canadian customs with it then put it back on the plane go through security and get back on the same plane to Toronto.  One hour later I had to do it all over again except for US Customs. Then put it back on another plane and go through security again.  Both times I had to run to catch my plane because customs took so long.  I made a mental note as to never take that itinerary again where I have to fly to Canada first. 

About 15 minutes before we arrived in Portland the pilot came over the loud speaker and said there is a bad thunder and lightning storm over Portland that we can’t land and we don’t have enough fuel to wait the storm out so we are headed to Seattle.  It had been about 25hrs of traveling so far so I didn’t care I figured what’s another few hours.  We landed in Seattle refueled and returned to Portland.  I got off the airplane to big signs and all of my family smiling and crying to see me.

The Fam

Rehearsal TriTip dinner

Naming Ceremony again

I have been to a couple Naming ceremonies in my village the last couple weeks.  The first one I went to I got some of the pictures developed or “washed” as they say here and gave them to people.  Now whenever I go to a ceremony or pretty much whenever people see me they ask me to take their picture and develop it for them.  There are people that come to different ceremonies and take pictures and sell them for usually 15-25 Dalasi but I found a place near the Peace Corps office that will develop them for 10D.  So people are much happier to pay less and I do it for them.   



My host mother and I



Two of the three sisters Doobali and Narra

Sister number three Naakoo and her family

 

A couple of older women

Last Wednesday there was another naming ceremony and I went to it.  I am friends with the mother and her sisters and so I pretty much just took their picture and the pictures of whoever wanted one for the entire day.  I did manage to sneak myself into some of the pictures. 

Naming Ceremony

One of my best friends in my village wife just gave birth to a baby girl.  Monday was the Naming ceremony and it was quite the party.  I brought out a brand new “completo,” for the event.  I was even called out to dance for all the women.  They started singing me a song and I couldn’t resist. 

Me and Cutty, Yaya's sister dancing

Showing them how to dance again

Below are a few pictures of some people at the ceremony. 

"Baby Sue"



My aunt and "baby Sue"



Me and Fatou and baby Fatoumata

My cousin Ie and Fatou

Here is a picture of my cousin’s one month old baby boy “Ousman.” 

Baby Osman

Forest Work

Las Sunday was village work in the community forest.  This means in theory one person from every compound should show up and work. Well in reality 15 men showed up and we all went to the forest and cleared about a 15-20 ft path on the boarder of the forest to protect it from bush fires.

finished clearing

We only worked for about 3 hours because the sun was hot and people started to get tired.  Halfway through we got breakfast.  Breakfast included juice, bread with either butter, mayo or chocolate spread.  I went with the chocolate and a half of butter.

Breakfast

Overall it was a success, we cleared about 300 meters.  We still have a lot left to clear but slowly we will get it all cleared.

The workers

February

I have been busy lately, and I have been packing my camera around a little more.  First my brother and I spend a morning pruning some of our families’ orange trees as some of the limbs were dead and not producing fruit.  By pruning them next year the new growth will produce fruit.   

PaKonte working

We had an audience, and by their faces you might thing something bad was happening but it was fine.

The onlookers

Later the same day I was in my garden and one of the small kids ran back and yelled “Forday Forday Drumoo” which is a giant bush rat, so I followed them to the side yard where my brother had caught it. 

Lion Vs. Drumoo

 It wasn’t happy about being caught and Lion was also trying to get his share of it.

 

The final hour

He ended up killing it and giving it to my two younger brothers to skin and prepare.  They just boiled it with jimbo, onion and some salt.  I went to the bush for the day and when I got back in the evening they had ate it all and nothing was left for me. 

Skinning is a family activity

I got my new Bee Suit a few weeks back and have gone beekeeping in it three times since I have gotten it.  It is amazing!! It fits me perfect and I can move and bend without getting stung.  I can even swing a machete and cut brush in it without it tearing or getting stung.

Yes, I brought a Hickory to Africa

Yayah and Edee

There are a couple wild hives in the bush just outside my village and so my friend Yayah and my brother Edee decided to check them out.  Edee found one of them so he wanted to go and get some honey.  It is still soon after the rainy season and swarming period so the bees haven’t been real productive.  I told him that there might not be much honey but we could go and see. 

Beehive

The first hive was in an oil palm tree that had fallen into a cashew tree.  They climbed the cashew tree and smoked the hive some to get them to move off of the comb to see if there was any honey.  There wasn’t enough honey to harvest it so we all decided to wait a few more months and see if they would work a little harder and make us some honey.  

Yayah and Edee in the Cashew tree

The next hive was on my father’s land where he grows rice on part of it and the other part he leaves as a forest.  The hive is one of the largest I have ever seen.  It is hanging in a large Senegalese Rosewood tree.  Both Yayah and Edee climbed the tree and smoked it but this hive also didn’t have enough honey to harvest.  I cleared around under it and we called it a night.   

The large hive in the Rosewood

Friday night after my beekeeping and a nice cold bucket bath I went into my family’s house.  When I went in they were eating fresh bananas so I joined them and chatted and ate fresh bananas.  My mother split a banana and gave a piece to one of my brothers but the piece she gave was the one that my youngest brother Salifuu wanted and so he through a small tantrum that he does sometimes.  I had my camera showing my father the beekeeping pictures so I snapped a quick picture of him. When I showed everyone they all laughed except him. 

The Happy Camper

385 days like a weeklong dream

I have been here a while, as I sit here relaxing having just finished making and consuming my now world famous gut bomb skillet; it made me stop and think about the last year and where I came from to where I am now and what I have accomplished.  I came into Peace Corps with low expectations I told everyone that if I can make one person’s life a little easier than I have succeeded.  I accomplished my goal early on in my service.  I figure everything else I do is just a bonus.   Some people here don’t want your help or they will stop and listen or see what you are doing and continue to do things the same way as their grandparents and parents did things because that’s the only way they know how.  I don’t know if it is fear, lack of critical thinking or just plain “I don’t want to listen to this white stranger.”  Either way its fine with me, I believe and know I can’t change the whole country and fix all the problems that are in this country but if I can continue to improve a few people’s lives and make it easier than I am happy. 

I remember after that long 30 some odd hour flight from Chicago to Banjul via Brussels finally arriving at the airport and being so excited and then walking off the airplane and wondering why the engine exhaust was being funneled so close to where we were walking out of the airplane but then I realized quickly this is the glorious  weather of West Africa.  I remember telling people that work for Peace Corps here in The Gambia that “I’ll never be cold here,” well, over the past month or so I have either wore pants, long sleeve shirts or hoody sweatshirt with socks either in the morning or at night nearly every day.  I can’t believe it, it’s in the 70’s and I’m cold.  Just today I wore a local scarf around my head walking to a meeting we had, I wore it all day.  I told a friend I was with “I can’t believe I am wearing a scarf in Africa.” I don’t know how hot it was but right now at 8pm it’s in the 90’s and I don’t feel hot.  It is amazing how your body becomes acclimated to your surroundings. 

Over the last year I have had highs and lows, been so sick that I wanted to come home and been so hot trying to sleep wondering how people sleep in the heat.  On the other side I have had some wonderful moments.  I feel like have been adopted into a second family.  I have a couple teenage sisters that are surprisingly a lot like teenage girls in America and sometimes I just stop and laugh at the eerie similarities.  I have a couple small toddlers that every time I get off the bush taxi at my house they scream “Forday naata, Forday naata,” which translates to Forday is here Forday is here.   As they are running towards me with their arms out and then come crashing into my legs and try and carry whatever bag or box I am carrying, even if it is 50lbs. 

Overall, I am happy here I have finally settled in and loving it.