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.
*****************************************************************
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!
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.
*****************************************************************
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!
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