Rain!

Yes, rain has finally come to The Gambia. Everyone says that if the rains don't come by June 15, they're late. On June 14, suddenly the clouds opened up and let it out. It was really nice. It's been stiflingly hot lately and instantly everything cooloed down. My compound has a covered porch area that runs all the way around so everyone sat on the porch outside their houses and watched the rain. One of my host moms took advantage of the downpour to wash her baby in the roof runoff.

The next day was a travel day, and I kind of began to see the disadvantages of the rainy season in The Gambia. Huge puddles had formed everywhere (can you say malaria?). In the Brikama car park, people had to wade up to their shins to walk into the market. It was pretty gross trying to pass around these huge brown puddles and attempting to stay dry.

Now it's been a few days since the last rain. It's hot and sticky all over again, but the skies have been grey for a while now so I'm hoping for some more rain to cool things down, even if it means puddles.

Picture Post

Here are some boys from my village making cement bricks for the new Lower Basic School garden wall. The last wall was washed away by the rains since it was built pretty poorly, so here is the second go around.

Here is one of my host dads in his cashew orchard. He's seperating the fruits from the nuts. After spending a few days in the cashew orchard, I can see why cashews are so expensive. I have also discovered that I am pretty allergic to raw cashews.

Mom, I thought you'd like this one. This is the road I live on. I have yet to encounter a landmine, but I'll keep you posted.

In which Annie dons the beekeeping suit once more

I'm back in Kombo to do in-service training, and I have to say that so far this has been some of the coolest technical training Peace Corps has given me.

Yesterday we learned to process honey and wax (this is awesome because it's fun and you get to keep your end results), and also how to weave grass hives (I'm a natural, if you were wondering).

Once it got dark, we put on our bee costumes and tramped into the apiary. We were at an organization called Siffoe Beekeeping Association that kept their bees in a cashew grove in what kind of looked like bee prison, with about 30 hives locked up in a long row building with a barred front. I worked on hive 26. It was hot and sweaty, and I managed to accumulate a pretty impressive helmet of bees (I am chalking this up to the fact that whoever wore this bee suit before me was definitely wearing cologne). Being out there with african killer bees is pretty exhilerating though. We probably worked on our hive for about two hours, cutting through cross combing, taking out old hive and capped honey, and just investigating the world of the bees. I was also impressed because in the Gambia most of the bee keepers I've met so far have been men, but one of the people from Siffoe in my group was a woman. It's nice to see gener empowerment in the Gambia.

After closing back up the hive, we took our big buckets of honey comb and just kind of wandered in the forest in the dark for a while trying to get all the bees off our suits. This takes a long time. I learned my lesson last time I went beekeeping and got stung twice while taking off my suit. Patience. Patience. This time I am proud to say I was sting-free. I just loved the bees.

Variations on a Theme: Gambian Men Trying to Get my Attention

Toubab women in the Gambia get a lot of cat calls. A lot. Here are just some of the many that have come my way recently:

Hi! Hi! Hi! Hello! Hi! Hi! Hello! Hi! Hi! Hello! (Continue until out of earshot)
I love you!
Hey, beautiful girl.
Hello Toubab! What is your name?
Yo, come talk to me.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, I just want to talk to you. So can you come talk to me?
Toubab! How are you?
Hey, boss lady!
Hey, Chinese-o!
Hey, Chinese boss lady!
Hey, Chinois (I think at least 60 percent of all Gambians think I am Chinese)

These are just the ones I got on my walk from the car park to the internet cafe today. I wish I could remember more because some are pretty classic and hilarious, but unfortunately when you try to hard to ignore them they just go in one ear and out the other.

Sharing

Since being here, Ive started suffering from some major sharing issues. Gambians have a really giving culture, but they also ask for things much more than Americans are taught is polite.

I like your pants... Give them to me.
You have two pairs of socks? You should give me one.
And of course... Toubab! Give me money!

All this asking for stuff has started to make me hoard things. If I buy some cookies, they stay hidden in the house and I try to be quiet when I open the package... Okay, okay, its not that serious, but Im definitely trying to figure out how to balance the scales.

My newest strategy is just to ask Gambians for things I like too. I like your skirt, give it to me. Hasnt worked yet, but Im sure one day it will pay off.

Honestly, that sort of giving-taking culture has its benefits. When you go to visit someone just to chat, you can walk away with a bag full of oranges, like I did today. So I just try to remember that yes, they are asking for more than usual just because Im a toubab, but if I just ask for things back its not only my burden to bear.

A few unrelated pictures

This is my dad and my brother who was born on the very first day I moved in. My brother always has that kind of pained expression on his face.

They draw on new born baby's eyebrows... Flattering? Ummm....

Laundry. I don't do this as well as Gambians so I've stopped trying.

Work? Yes, I do.

So you might all think that I spend all day every day drinking attaya and fetching water, but I promise that I've actually managed to find work for myself. I haven't been at site too long, so most of these projects are in the very beginnings, but here are some of the things I have been doing:

1. Teaching forestry lessons - This is actually a pretty easy set up for me, and I think a more useful one for the village than if I really did just go teach forestry. Instead, I have been working with the students training to be foresters at the forestry station to make lesson plans, which they then go teach at the middle school and the primary school. I think this is more effective for lots of reasons: the foresters get some practice doing the things foresters in the Gambia are supposed to do, the students are taught by people they can look to as role models, and the forestry students are better in local language than I am. We just did our first lesson about bush fire prevention, and the next one we're planning will be about how to start a tree nursery. Which leads me to...

2. Gambia All-Schools Tree Nursery Competition - This is a country-wide competition that's run jointly by government offices and the Peace Corps. I'm studying up to take over the Regional Coordinator position once the older batch of volunteers goes home. Basically, it's just schools competing to see who can plant the most trees in the most organized, creative, useful ways. Then they can sell what they produce, and win prizes. To get started, I went to the awards ceremony at the first place school in the Western Division. It was quite an event, complete with a Howard Stern-themed tent (oh, the things that somehow make it from America), singing women hijacking the microphone, and some verrrrrry interesting speeches.

3. Tutoring math and science - This is just what it sounds like. I'm working with a young man in my village to do a few hours of classes every weekend to help 9th graders pass their end-of-the-year qualifying exam. This is a bit more challenging than I thought because it's really a struggle to teach fairly complicated science when foundations like reading aren't really there. I could say a lot more about this, but I won't because well, let's keep it neutral.

4. Rehabilitating the womens garden - This is a slow, slow, slow process because it involves money and frankly, projects that involve money usually flop so while I think this is a great idea and should happen, I'm a little wary. There is a large space in my village that has basically been left to fallow for upwards of 10 years because the original (donated) borehole and generator broke. So there's no water there. And no fence really. Those are two major issues in this country. But there have been some offers for help in terms of funding and seeds made, and the village seems behind the project, so I'm proceeding slowly, slowly.

5. Computer help - Okay, I don't really even know computers that well but when people see toubabs they think computer genius. So all the places in my village that have computers (skills center, middle school, nursery school) have called me in to help with things like switching their computers out of swedish, teaching typing, helping them do fancy borders... Luckily these are for the most part things that I can do.

I have lots of other project ideas but for now I'm kind of letting the Gambians steer my direction because I haven't been around long enough to know for sure if my ideas are good, useful, realistic, sustainable...