KT in The Gambia

Heading home after a day in the groundnut field I've been in village for 2.5 weeks and am settling into the groove. Our first three months in village are a time for integrating into our community rather than focusing on projects/work. Our success ultimately depends on our relationships in the community, so integration is job #1.  It is also a time for figuring out our own rhythms for food, sleep, exercise and generally taking care of ourselves. I've been cooking my own breakfast over a single burner propane  stove (omelet with onion and shaved sweet potato) and taking lunch and dinner with my family. I've also started a 3x per week routine of doing an out-and-back bike ride along the one and only paved road for about 20-25 miles. It is dark from about 7 PM to 7 AM and that doesn't change much with the seasons since we are close to the equator, so it works well with my preferred early to bed/early to rise schedule. And I've been spending a good bit of...

Two days ago (Dec. 5) I was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia along with 38 others in my cohort. With me in the photo are our Peace Corps Country Director, the charge d'affaires from the US Embassy and the Minister of Environment.  We are a proud and happy group!  Yestersday and today were full of celebration, shopping for household goods to bring to our sites, and packing. Tomorrow we travel to our permanent sites to begin our two-year service.  The big adventure begins! I feel so very fortunate for the opportunity to take part in it and for the amazing people who are on this journey with me. I look forward to sharing updates with you along the way. 

Looking down on Rabat, Morroco's capital city, from the Kasbah of the Udayas. I never envisioned that I’d get an all-expenses paid trip to Morocco within my first two months of Peace Corps service, but it happened! Here’s what it took: It should come as no surprise that I experienced an acute case of food poisoning or something like that. I’m definitely not the first in my cohort to succumb and I certainly won’t be the last. But it was unusual in a couple respects. First, the culprit was food I brought from the US! I acquired some dried peanut butter before leaving the states, thinking it would be a convenient protein supplement to bring along. I opened the package to try it out before leaving the US and then left it in my suitcase in my training village for six weeks before reconstituting some to have with my breakfast bread one morning. My troubles started later that day. The second unusual thing was that the symptoms, which included fever, headache and diarrhea, w...