Ghana Vacation

After two weeks in Ghana, it's a bit bitter sweet to be home. It's great to be able to speak the local language again, to know how much a taxi really costs, and to see all my friends. But man, Ghana was really great. A good example of development that's working in The Gambia. Here's what we did:

We need to tighten it up: Arrived in Dakar with high spirits. After some happy hour drinks at a nice bar, and a really delicious meal of Korean food, we headed to the airport where we learned we were... not convenient.

So we stayed in Dakar for two more days than we planned, organizing our visa to Ghana, visiting the museum, attempting to speak French and Wollof, and eating really delicious food (Ethiopian! Lebanese!). The second attempt at bording the plane was, thankfully, successful. Off we went to Ghana.

Akwaaba: We spent the first two days in Accra, a city that's incredibly clean (by our standards, I guess) and has side walks and restaurants and dark beer. Ghana is good. We spent our time just exploring the markets, eating street food (I can't say enough good things about the street food in Ghana), and lounging. Not bad. Then we were off to Hohoe, in the east. Public transport in Ghana is also nice. As a rule, if it looks like the seat was designed to fit three, they actually put three (you hear that, Gambia?). In Hohoe we stayed in a hotel where Maggie broke the bed, hung out with some really nice Peace Corps Ghana volunteers, and did a lot of great hiking. We hiked to the top of the highest peak in Ghana, which was not so high but a good wake up call for how out of shape we are. We also did a nice walk to the highest waterfall in West Africa. Really impressive, with lots of bats hanging from the rock walls around it. We also ate some fresh cacao fruit, which tastes absolutely nothing like chocolate. Our cab driver on this portion of the trip was named Baby Rasta. You can't get away from them in West Africa, I guess...

Beads, Stools and Fertility Dolls, Oh My!: From Hohoe it was off to Kumasi, where we stayed in a really nice Peace Corps Transit house. Kumasi itself was really congested, and we had an interesting day where we accidentally wandered into a real shanty town while looking for a market that was supposed to resemble a shanty town. Woops. But once we found the market the crafts were great. I came back with more batik fabric than a girl really needs. We also went to a cultural center with a nice museum, walked past some people serving grilled bats (I'm brave, but not quite that brave), ate a ton of pineapple and frozen chocolate milk, and walked and walked and walked. We celebrated Alex's birthday with guacamole and homemade pina coladas, and took a day trip to a holy lake where people believe their spirits go to visit after death. People traditionally paddle on this lake with planks instead of boats, and instead of paddles they use calabashes cupped in their hands. We drank palm wine (ick) and went swimming.

The Egg ate the Papaya... I think: After Kumasi, we slowed it down by staying at a really nice place on a really deserted beach for a few days. Just over a hill and down the beach was a restaurant that served BURRITOS! We went there twice. Two days of swimming, walking, and eating.. What could be better? We also went to a nearby fort. I was more impressed by the village that housed the fort, where they had loudspeakers blaring a soundtrack for the entire village. Interesting. After the beaches at Butre, we headed to Cape Coast, a tourist hub that's famous for its old slave fort. You know you're on a Peace Corps budget when you skip the main attraction because you don't want to pay 4 dollars... Maggie hooked us up with a free place to stay in Cape Coast, which worked out great. Uncle Sam and his wife Victoria live in a big house on a hill overlooking Cape Coast. They took us out for a drink and fed us a nice breakfast and generally were really excellent hosts. Cape Coast was great for finishing up souvenier shopping, seeing the fort (if only from the outside), and eating lobster (this is where that extra 4 dollars came in handy). We also went to Kakum national park, which is a really excellent example of ecotourism working well in Ghana. They have really high suspended bridges that take you up into the rainforest canopy. A touristy but totally cool experience. We also saw Korateh going on in town. Even though Ghana is a generally Christian country, we still saw plenty of Muslims out celebrating the end of Ramadan. In general people in Ghana seem more open to dancing and making merry than Gambians, so the parade was much more festive than I imagine the celebration was in The Gambia.

Welcome back, suckers: And from there, it's all a blur. We took a midnight flight out of Accra, ended up on a bus back from Dakar that had no breaks, finally forced them to give us back half our money and let us off the bus, rented a sept place, raced to the ferry but didn't make it in time, took a big fishing boat across the river, haggled for a taxi for too long, and finally ended up back at the Peace Corps house in Gambia. It's not easy.

Pictures coming soon, but the internet connection is slow... So you'll have to wait. Be back in town in a couple of weeks so hopefully then.

At Work

Here are some pictures I was able to get of some recent work events. And you even get to see my face in one of them!

Here is me making neem cream, a natural mosquito repellant, with the health group in my village. After making it the first week, they decided they would continue to make it every week and sell it by the spoonful to villagers. Success!

Close up on neem cream: soap, tea made from neem leaves, and oil. My next experiment is trying to make it smell nice by infusing the oil with basil or eucalyptus.

Gmelina stumps that we planted for One Man, One Tree village tree planting day. I think maybe 200 people came out to plant trees, and probably about 4,000 trees were planted that day.

Preparing the gmelina stumps.

Planting the trees.

Who lives in my compound

Here's a run-down of the people who I see every day in my compound. Just in case you were wondering.

1. Nfansu - My host dad, the one who you give the "gifts from the road" to when you come home, which means he's the one in charge. He's featured in some of the pictures down below (sorry, no new pictures for a while while I sort out some camera issues). He grows cashews, has one tooth, and likes teaching me Mandinka proverbs.

2. Satou Dabo - Nfansu's wife. I think 4th down the line. She's quiet, nice, and has a baby that was born on the very first day I moved in to Jatta Kunda, which is supposed to be good luck. She does my laundry, and is probably the best cook in the compound now that Tida, my brother's wife, moved to Banjul.

3. Bubakary - Satou's baby. now about 7 months old and learning to stand. Mysteriously never bothered to learn to crawl.

4. Jere - Nfansu's younger brother. He used to sell used toubab clothes all over the country, but now just hangs out with his donkey and farms. Sometimes he tries to speak to me in Serahuleh, but all I can say is Peace Only, and that doesn't get me so far. He still has all his teeth.

5. Satou Toureh - Jere's wife. Definitely the dominant character in the compound as far as I'm concerned. In the mornings you can hear her berating all the kids for not getting up on time. She also is the buffest, and works in the rice fields from morning to night. That is not pleasant work. Has on occasion overcooked the rice until it is one giant glob... She also thinks that the time I said I liked coos sometimes but not all the time was hilarious and tells people about it all the time.

6. Mama - Nfansu and Jere's "mom." Mother is a loose term in Gambia, so she might just be their mom's sister, which is my guess because she's definitely old, but she doesn't seem old enough to be their real mom. She's pretty blind and just sits around all day outside her house.

7. Suleiman - My host brother, I think he's about 25. He lives in the house next door to me, and once asked me to be his girlfriend but has luckily since dropped that aspiration. He works all day either in the bush or at the big corporate farm in the village. Can always be counted on to bring me a mango or a potato.

8. Yusufa - Another host brother. He's 14 and just finished 9th grade. Now he works all day on the men's farm. Just a nice guy, speaks decent English, brews some good attaya.

There is also a rotating cast of characters, like my host sister and her two cute kids who moved into the compound next door recently, some host brothers who come home on weekends and during school breaks, and other people who's relationships I can never quite figure out. But those are the stable people who are there basically every day. That's a pretty small compound as far as Gambian compounds go, and quiet. I feel pretty lucky.

Where I've been, what I've been doing...

Just a quick update because lately the internet has been really frustrating to deal with. Would like to put some pictures on here but I think today is not the day.

Here's how I've been spending my time lately:

1. Tree Nursery Competition Trek: I've been going around checking out the schools with tree nurseries in the Western Region. This has been really cool, since some of the schools are doing really amazing jobs. It has also made me want to pull my hair out. You try getting a vehicle from the Gambian Forestry Department some time.

2. My own tree nursery. So far my village forester and I have planted 200 mahoganies and 50 ebonies. We're still waiting to see if the ebony trees will germinate. Fingers crossed since this is a really rare tree.

3. Project proposals. Everyone in my village wants something done so I've been teaching people how to write their own project proposals. Maybe someday my village will have a nursery school bantaba, a new water system at the middle school, and a large scale tree nursery. Inshallah.

In other news I'm planning a trip to Ghana with my friends Maggie and Alex. My first vacation since coming to the Gambia. We're set to go in September. Hurray!

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.