Birthdays and Brushes

Can you tell I'm a big fan of alliteration? Well, the big ol' b-day came and went. Still not exactly sure about the whole "quarter of a century" thing, but the celebration around it was at least entertaining. As I had envisioned in my head, I baked myself a spice cake with cream cheese frosting (don't worry, I wanted to bake it myself- I miss baking). Also on the menu for the party was a homemade snack mix full of oaty cereal stuff and caramelized pretzels (thanks Erica!), oatmeal cookies, pasta with veggies and homemade sangria with fruit (well, made with box red wine, box fruit juice, and ginger ale "lime drink"). It was a good spread. Kind of difficult to transport back on a gele-gele, but with my really awesome and helpful friend's help, we made it happen. They even decorated my house and it really felt like an American b-day party. A lot of my site mates came to help celebrate, as well as some up country friends from my health group. My host family came over for a few minutes to taste the goods. I've noticed a lot of the time when we share "American" food with our host families, they Gambianize it by adding mayonnaise, Jimbo aka MSG, or put the contents on bread, but this time they gobbled up the snacks. Guess it's hard to flavor up oatmeal cookies. Thanks again for all the birthday cards and care packages. It really meant a lot to be able to open them on the day.


Speaking of care packages, my aunt from Dallas really followed through with the toothbrush and toothpaste request from last time. I opened her package to find, amongst the Mike and Ikes and Burts Bees (of which I can officially say I have enough of now to last the next two years), about 200 individually wrapped and pre-dipped in toothpaste, toothbrushes. After running into one of my site mates and discussing with her my new toothbrush distribution dilemma, we decided a demo was in store. So that night, during the regular gathering of neighborhood kids at my host family's TV, I brought one of the toothbrushes, asked what it was called in Mandinka and told the crowd my aunt sent me a lot and that I wanted to show them how to brush their teeth. Some of the guys said they already knew how, but I shot back with the "but if you come, I will give you one" line and the next morning kids I hadn't even seen were telling me they were coming to my class. To prepare for the demo, I wrote a little song to the tune of "This is the way you..." and took it to work to get help translating a few words I didn't know. By 5:30, there was a swarm of kids outside my compound where, fairly quickly tooth brushing became the coolest thing on the street. I did my little demo, then handed the swarm their own toothbrushes and told them that I was going to sing my little song while they brushed their own teeth. It went a little something like this:






































I ka da josi, tenne tenne

I da ku, I da ku

I ka da josi, tenne tenne

Ni kunun ta


I made sure to emphasize the importance of returning the toothbrush to the package it came in, because I could just see 100 plastic bags blowing about around the compounds. Since no trash system is installed, littering becomes first habit. It was all over in about 30 minutes, but the next day I asked a girl how many times she'd brushed her teeth and even though I'd said it should be done at least twice a day, she answered 4! Marilina, you would be so proud! I have enough left to do another demo and plan on breaking out in the song every now and then to keep the spirit of teeth brushing alive.


The next evening, I went to go hang out with the kids again and found only my mother, Tida lying on the couch, fanning herself from mosquitoes. I asked where everyone was and she said they were at the wedding that was happening a few compounds away. I was all ready for a quiet evening of writing letters, but decided to throw on a skirt and wander to the "knot tying". I immediately recognized a bunch of my neighbors, who were all dressed in the same fabric for the event (this is called an asobe) and was taken in and welcomed. It had been going on for a while already, but the bride was still washing and getting ready so there was a bunch of sitting around to be had. Then all of a sudden, a taxi pulled up outside the compound wall and a huge crowd migrated from the house to the taxi and I later realized that the bride was in the middle of the crowd. Then the taxi started off and people started shouting "manno bito! manno bito!" which translates to the knot tying and began following the taxi, where the destination turned out to be her husband's compound. It was already pretty late, and I didn't know where we were heading, but my neighbor, Awa, was with me, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. When we got there, the girls started shouting "Mariama came!!!" and pulled me into the dance circle where I busted out a few moves and took this picture of my friend, Kaddy and her son, Alhagie-Modou. Still not sure who or where the bride was (the grooms rarely come to these events), I asked and they pointed out this figure completely covered with a white cloth laying on a mat, surrounded by sitting family members. Next to her was a calabash, gourd bowl where dancing attendants can throw money. I tossed some money in, took note of the covered bride, said my goodbyes and was accompanied back home by Awa.


Work with the support group is fairly slow at the moment. We rescheduled a board meeting, only to have no one but myself show up for the rescheduled one. A few of us are still working on getting the cashew orchard started and plan to re-plant the polypots of germinated cashews next week sometime. I also had this idea of promoting the "Teryiaa" CD on one of my favorite radio stations to listen to online, KEXP. One DJ has a show called Best Ambiance on Monday evenings where he play music from Africa. I finally got the literature together they suggested one sends when trying to get airplay, and sent him the info through email and a CD through the mail. He responded the next day by saying he was really looking forward to receiving the package and that he'd visited Gambia twice and studied with a kora player here. I can only hope that this will lead to good things! (like you guys tuning into Best Ambiance on Monday evenings from 6-9 and hearing a song from Allatentu Support Band and saying "Hey! that's the group my really awesome (insert relationship to me), Courtney, works with! Wow, that music is kick'n. I must buy that CD!") By the way, a link to KEXP is on the link list to the left of the page as "Good Music".




I'm taking my first vacation in a few weeks. I'm headed to Greece with a good friend from the States and we are going to spend a few weeks in Crete, practicing Ashtanga with a great man my Norman yoga teacher studied with. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked. Over the next two weeks, I'll be working on getting stuff together to bring, as well as helping out on clinic days, singing about brushing teeth, transplanting cashew trees, helping my new education volunteer site mates feel welcome (congrats to swearing in guys!) as well as giving tips to new urban volunteers (Yes it's normal to want to punch that boy who just cursed you out in the face. No you don't have to greet everyone you pass like they ingrained into our heads in training- you'd never make it to work!)



I still miss you guys a tons and look forward to mail day and keeping in contact with all as much as when I first left, so keep em coming!

E Ning Barra

So there's sort of a running joke in PC Gambia that it's difficult to live as an urban volunteer based on the current PC living allowance. Supposedly we get supplemented accordingly and I definitely get help with my rend from the office, but I also definitely spend most, if not all of my monthly stipend of the equivalent of about $170. Those of you who knew me fairly well in the States may remember that I was pretty thrifty or at least prioritized my spending. I am also a big fan of "saving for the future/rainy day," but when the rainy season lasts half the year, I get a little jealous of those volunteers who boast saving 1/2 their salaries for spending money on vacations, while I'm setting aside money for my electricity and water bills. Don't get me wrong, I definitely purchase my fair share of cookies on a regular basis and access to a fresh market to supplement my diet with nutrients most can't obtain in their villages certainly outweigh the 30 Euros I might save for that vacation to Europe. And in the end, even though we are doing volunteer work, PCVs still earn more per month than most professions in Gambia such as teachers, farmers, gele drivers and even business professionals, allowing us to partake in our vices. While some enjoy over indulging in fabric purchase or helping keep the Jewlbrew Brewery in business, I prefer to support my local market by buying things that use "current", things that people donated to that developing country clothes drive (I swear half the stuff I've seen would probably sell for what it costs to feed a family for a month at one of those vintage boutiques back in the States. Tracksuits anyone? *Oh! The irony!*) and of course cookies and fake Nutella.

But I digress... Anyway, last week, one of my up country friends came up with the idea that maybe urban PCVs should think about taking a side job, such as a Gele Aparantae (the young boys who aggressively pursue you in the car parks, assuring that there is always one seat left just for you and that the car is leaving now NOW!, only to find it half empty and leaving now later), to supplement our income a little (but I know we really aren't allowed to take on extra income). The slightly unnerving part of it is that I actually pictured myself shouting out one of the destinations while hanging half way out of a gele for a good 30 seconds. Then I started thinking of other odd jobs that one might wish to pursue for a little extra pocket $. So here is a short list/description of work we probably see on a daily basis, but fail to recognize and appreciate for its contribution to the Gambian economy.

Sooooooooooooo, E Ning Barra, Baake! Thanks for the work guys!

1. Gele Aparantae- Most could probably receive a legitimate ADD diagnosis, and as much as they strike my last nerve on some days, these young men most certainly cannot be labeled lazy or falling down on the job. Thanks for insuring I get dropped at the next junction!

2. Personal Assistant aka Small Boy- These guys have been known to preform errands across the gamete, from an Attaya (green tea) run to the bitik to calming their younger sibling by slinging them on the hip, these kids would go to the ends of the earth of told to. Thanks for the water!

3. Attaya Brewer- I probably would get fired for not putting enough sugar in. Thanks for keeping the young guys who are out of work content and contained for the afternoon!

4. Bean Sandwich Lady- They sit at their stands people watching and talking to their fellow stand mates until their product is finished. they must have an incredible amount of patience to remain there throughout the day. Some bring their knitting, but I think there could be a PC literacy project for the education volunteers hidden within the Bean Sandwich Lady population. Thanks for helping me obtain an adequate amount of protein in my diet at an affordable price!

5. Hair Plater- These girls have got hair braiding down to a science, not to mention an art. Even though I've unofficially taken on the role as hair cutter among our health group, the pig tail style-inverted french braid is about as fancy as I get. Thanks for making every one's hair look beautiful for every occasion, especially weddings and naming ceremonies!

6. Construction Man- From creating blocks out of mud from the solid ground to build houses, to constructing wells, thanks for putting a roof over our heads and water at our disposal!

7. Farmers and Herdsman- Their working hours coordinate with the sun, which makes for extremely long and exhausting days during rainy season. their harvest nourish our bodies and give us energy to carry on our daily tasks. Thanks for putting in so much effort to keeping life's cycle moving!

8. Prayer Caller- I'm pretty sure you have to be male and a Muslim, but the more I think about it, the more it seems it could be the prefect supplemental job. Who wouldn't like to sing out in Arabic over an intercom system 5 times a day, having the rest of the day to pursue other engagements? Only down side I can think of is that when I looked at the clock this morning when I hear the first prayer call, it read 4:45am. do you get to go back to bed after you've praised Allah? Thanks for helping all the practicing Muslims stay on schedule with their prayer times (and those not-practicing Muslims without watches stay on time for their 2 or 5pm meetings).

Sparkles, Saints and Soda

This key chain was given to me by a family friend before I left for Gambia. It is one of my favorite things I brought and was decided by other friends on the Basse trip that the ideals that the key chain may represent to people of Mexican heritage are pretty much encompassed in this tiny trinket; thus the title of Sparkles, Saints and Soda.

First off, per request of a friend, here are the coordinates to my house and work in Brikama, Gambia on Google Earth:


13 16'54.09N
16 38'53.19W Home

13 16'25.85N
16 38'54.31W Work

I put in the link to upload the program on the left side of the blog.


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Question: (That one's for all you Office fans out there)


Why has it taken me a little longer this time to want to create my next post?


Answer: I have a few theories that most likely reflect my current point in service. Theory A: Things no longer appear "news worthy", thus reflecting on my excellent integration to my Gambia PC experience. Theory 2: I am in a "trough" period in the service according to a PC paper entitled to something of the effect of "Peaks and Valleys: a PCVs Guide to the Emotional Time Line of Service", where it is normal to spend the entire day in my house reading, where possibly the only thing I may accomplish is making my bed, only to get right back in it to spend the rest of the day with my book. Theory Z: There are too many exciting things going on in my life and it's too hard to keep up with them and transfer them to a hard copy such as a blog. Hopefully it's a small combination of all three, but I'd love to get input from you guys back home.


Now on with all the exciting things that are going on in my life... The Basse trip last week was an adventure for sure. It was really nice to get to see the countryside during the rainy season from the comfort of a crowded gele. Thanks to the pot-holed-excuse for the south-bank road and zero bridges, the most popular route to get to the largest town at he end of the country is to take the north bank road, along with a series of crowded ferry crossings. I traveled with my urban town buddy, Allison and our first stop was to visit and stay the night with a friend in our group who lives in a small Fula village, several K from the main road. It was neat to see where and how she was spending her time in service, but I have to admit, it was a little overwhelming not to be able to speak to the people in her village and after the morning of traveling, cordially "greeting" most of the compounds in the village (she knows most of their names- it's that small) was pretty tiring, not to mention it took us about 45 minutes to walk to the pump to fetch water maybe 300m away. The next morning, at which we were 5 in number, we took a horse cart to the main road to catch a gele, a series of ferries and small taxi rides, eventually arriving at our destination of the PC Basse transit house. The town of Basses reminded me of a small-one horse town in middle America; one street lined with a few restaurants, corner shops, a bank , and a barbershop, but accompanied by the iconic bean sandwich ladies, a small fresh market and fabric shops, all of which are pretty standard in urban Gambian towns. Most of my health group gathered in Basse that weekend, recreating a mini reunion. We ate soft served ice cream and visited Chris's (one of my Kaif village training mates) banana plantation in his village near Basse. After an unsuccessful attempt at contacting Kaddy, I've decided that the low-harassment and almost toubab-free shouting definitely merits another visit and possibly even finding a reason to take my work up there for a few months.

On the return trip, we decided to take the south bank road (something I will consider very long and hard about doing next time I'm thinking about traveling- you will have to be a VERY special person to convince me to take that path again) to stay with a friend in Bansang, then with a friend who was about to return to the States whose site was near the town of Soma, a common destination point for my training group in the CRR (Central River Region). **Flashback sequence begins** Ahh, Soma, a town I loathed the first time I visited 5 months back...on foot- only to discover a false claim of cold drinks and what we thought at the time was a hiked up toubab price of a gele ride back to Kaif. No Sir-ee, we weren't going to cough up the D15, reduced from D20 because we were told by our LCH that the fair was D10! So we returned by foot, walking in total about 22K in the mid-day sun, as empty handed and more sadly, empty hearted as we had started. **Flashback ends**

Our gele ride from Bansang to Soma was "there only" as the locals say and we are now too familiar with further false claims of a gele straight to Soma, where the only 2 people in car going that far were two female toubabs while the rest of the gele was boarded by Mandinka women traveling to a naming ceremony in a town about 40K short of Soma. That said, we were basically bribed to pay a unsettling additional amount of fair simply to to be taken as far as the place where maybe, if we were lucky, we could catch the last gele to Soma. Fortunately, we were lucky, even luckier were we to sit in front of the only publicly intoxicated Muslim in the CRR. Last straw for me, or at least I thought. For when we finally arrived shortly after dusk, our only choice was to pay D75 for a town trip (a taxis usually about D5) to our friends village about 3K away. It was around that moment that we decided since PC would be picking her up soon, we would keep her company and avoid any more public transport with the hopes of getting a ride the rest of the way home with PC. Thankfully it worked out, so we probably ended up spending the equivalent, bribes and all, to what we would have spent going north bank, of course without all the excitement.

This week I've been settling back into the work routine. Last weekend, I hosted a little dinner party for some site mates. Complete with fresh ingredients like ginger and green peppers from the market, a street-roasted chicken and a couple of boxes of white wine. With the support group, we traveled to the village of Busura, where our farm land is, to poly-pot about 100 cashew seeds, later to be transplanted to start the cashew orchard. This week I also partook in the clinic OVC scene again, as well as participated in an ARV education workshop put on by the HBC program. I'm always pleasantly surprised to see the turn out of participants who come to further their education on living a healthier life-style, whether affected by HIV, TB or other ailments, despite the "per diem and lunch provided" mentality. At least people are getting the information through some capacity. I was also proud to see that several of my support group members are actively participating in anti-retro viral therapy. One of the criteria for Hands on Care to provide ARVs to patients is disclosure. Soon I am planning to talk to one of the sisters to see about taking on a patient in the HBC program. My role would be a volunteer to check up on a patient to make sure they and their care takers are adhering to their medical plan assigned to them by HOC.

I've received some really nice birthday cards in the mail from a handful of people. Of course I've already opened them even though it's not till next week. Thank you for all the kind thoughts and words. It appears the birthday party scheduled for next Friday is going to be a little more than a small gathering of site mates with cake and ice cream. Some friends from my health group are coming down from up country, so I'm really looking forward to that. Then the following weekend, the new education group swears in and officially, officially, we'll be in the rotation of non-new volunteers. I think the new agro-forestry group comes late September.

I think I've posted some new photos since the last time I posted a blog, so look at those if you get a chance. I miss you guys!