KT in The Gambia

Just a few pics of typical activities in my family’s compound.  My Ba (short for Baay or father) slaughtering a goat with helping hands from Hassan, Dembu and Sarjeko. This pregnant goat was slaughtered after Ba determined that its babies had died in the womb. The goat was otherwise healthy as far as could be determined. If the goat had been sick or injured it would have been hauled to the field for the vultures to eat. My understanding is that it is contrary to Muslim teachings to eat a sick or injured animal. It is also their practice that men conduct the slaughter. The women may undertake butchering but the men ( or boys) kill the animal.  Ah, the cycle of life! A few weeks later here is the two day old offspring of another goat in my family’s menagerie.  Mam Hoja doing laundry. This is how I do mine as well, although I sit on a short stool. I can’t fathom how these women can so easily maintain this position for hours at a time - doing laundry, weeding...

Fetching water for the fields We are officially in the "cold" season now. Yesterday it didn't even reach 90 degrees! Eighty-eight was the high I believe, although it's forecasted to return to the 90s tomorrow. It is also the dry season (~ Nov thru May/June) and a time when there is a 2-3 month lull in intensive work on commodity crops. We just wrapped up the groundnut harvest in Dec and it will be a month or two before the cashew fruits ripen. This is the time of year when the weather and seasonal cycles of farm work are most conducive to gardening.  Gardens are most commonly the women's projects but not exclusively. Gardens provide nutritious food for the food bowl and hopefully produce enough surplus to sell locally, either in village or at the closest market. There are two weekly pop-up markets, or "lumos" within a few kilometers of my village - a small one to the east on Tuesday and larger one to the west on Saturday.  But the...

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...

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...