KT in The Gambia

Last week I visited the village where I will be living for my two-year PC service. It's a village of about 300-400 people on the north side of the river, about 30k east of Barra (across the river from Banjul). It was a great visit and I'm very excited to return in mid December and get to work.  Following my host father to the groundnut fields. Many of the people in the village belong to the Seerer tribe, a group that historically focused on fishing but these days is more likely to be involved with farming. Indeed, this is a farming village. I was there during the final days of the groundnut harvest; cashews are the next crop in the pipeline, with harvest starting in Dec/Jan. I have yet to learn what other crops they tend. They also have a sizeable women’s garden. The garden used to provide a bounty of fresh vegetables for the village but the fencing surrounding it needs significant repairs, causing it to be useful for little other than growing millet because they...

Sadly, I must confess that I find myself thinking that from time to time. I really haven't been craving anything during my month in The Gambia except for a clean, quiet, climate controlled space to hang out in now and then. I think it has sometime to do with the "feels like" status in the picture below.  That and the language learning. It's tough! I need to study a lot! It's hard not to think how much more pleasant it could be with AC and a grande cold brew. Instead, we hold class under the mango tree in our teacher's compound and shift things around every hour or so to stay in the shade.  After class I go home and sit in front of my little USB-powered fan and hope the sweat evaporates at a roughly equal rate to which it forms.  Alas, we're promised that the "cold" season is soon to arrive, and in fact it looks like we may see about a 10 degree drop in temperature over the next week or so. Looking forward to that!  And I'm trying to stay focu...

With 3+ weeks of living in Gambia under my belt, it seems like time to share a few details about what it's like. I'll stick to the basics for now - food and clothing. I already shared a bit about shelter in a previous post. Food: Rice, rice, rice. For most people, a meal isn't a meal if there isn't rice. Sometimes it may be only rice, but usually there is some kind of sauce or seasoning, and perhaps some chunks of vegetables and pieces of meat/fish. Coos (millet that has been pounded into small sand-like pieces) is a staple in some families, a frequent substitute for rice. They were recently harvesting the coos near my compound.  Coos may also be served with sugar and condensed milk for porridge in the morning. Seasonal fruits and veggies are the norm, when there are any. We'll have it pretty good for the next several months, as we are just wrapping up the rainy season and moving into the prime gardening season (Nov - Mar). Later in the spring it is simply too dry a...

Just a quick post while trying to work out some technical issues with my Oregon-based tech support. Here's a photo taken last night by someone in my cohort who brought a much better camera than I did! His house/room is in the foreground.