Morocco and Spain

It's 10:58 AM, the clock is counting down. In 13 hours I will be boarding a plane to Morocco. This might possibly be one of the best days I've had so far in Peace Corps. Well maybe not the best day but pretty damn good. I'm not going to lie, this is a much needed vacation that I've needed for a long time now. Village life plus some of the Gambian people can just wear you down to nothing. I haven't blown up at anyone yet but with any luck this trip will help me rejuvenate my will and stamina so that I can continue to deal with the frustrations and problems that bombard me every day of my Peace Corps service.

There's not a whole lot more to say now but you can be sure I'll post once I return to The Gambia...

And I'm back! Sorry for the long wait. It has been about two weeks since the original post but if your reading this for the first time then it probably appears to be seamless. In any event though I had an excellent time in Morocco and Spain. The trip didn't go off without a hitch unfortunately. There were some mishaps along the way which happened actually from the very start. Barcelona is where the problem occurred.

Alex (my buddy who traveled with me) and I didn't feel the affects of this problem until we actually arrived in Marrakech, Morocco which is were our first four nights were spent. You see the problem was our baggage. It never made it from our plane in Barcelona to our connecting flight. As you can imagine this isn't how we wanted to start our trip off but nevertheless its what ultimately happened. What ensued thereafter was us calling Spanair (the carrier who lost our luggage) on multiple occasions, making trips to the Marrakech airport, and probably worst of all, living for four days in stinky smelly clothes that we of course had to keep wearing day in and day out because that's all we had.

That first day we gave Spanair the address of our hotel and they said our baggage would be delivered in the next 24 to 48 hours. After the third day of no luggage we began to become a little anxious about the situation considering Spanair had told us they sent our bags to Morocco but didn't know to what city or even what carrier took them. Laying on our hotel bed Alex and I began to contemplate the possibility of going our whole vacation without any luggage. It would have been possible, luckily we had all our valuables, money and passports on us instead of in our bags so we were ready to go on if that's what it came too. Finally our bags showed up on the "radar" if you will. Turns out they hadn't even left Barcelona yet, it was day three and they were being sent on day four. So on our final attempt we went to the airport again and our good luck came through for us, the bags arrived!

-post unfinished-

Happy 4th Of July

Happy birthday America.

Hey all, did everyone have a good time on the 4th, hope so? I ended up having a great time. My boss through a party at his place and invited all the volunteers over. I got there a little early to help barbeque the chicken and pork, there is nothing like barbequing on the 4th. It was a potluck so everyone brought a dish. I have to say, the food was excellent. It definitely beats my average meal of rice with one of three sauces that I normally get.

Not a whole lot to say about the party though. Everyone seemed to be having fun. At about 9pm we all went home. Some of the volunteers are musically adept so they met up back at our Peace Corps house and started playing. We had 5 guitar players and 1 harmonica player. We all sat around while they played together, it was really nice. I've always like the sound of acoustic guitar.

I will leave you with a Gambian proverb to ponder; "Slowly slowly you catch the monkeys tail."

Africa At Its Best

Well I hope some of you where able to read the post before this one. I was just updating you all on the condition of my big toe. It's infected. So I left off by telling everyone how I was taking antibiotics and that everything was going to be OK. Well as it turns my infection continued to get worse, my toe started to swell up along with the joint, adjoining toes and foot. My medicine was supposed to take a few days to kick in so this wasn't worrying me to much. There are a few nurses who are Peace Corps volunteers who were telling me it looked like a staff infection and that it was good I had an appointment with the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO).

Finally the day came when I got to go into see the PCMO. A happy day for me because my foot had been paining me so much I new somehow she would make it all better. Barbara is her name and she didn't heal me instantly but she did drain out the puss from the wound and bumped up my medication to amoxicillin. I think its doing the trick.

Moving on to a different subject, I was in a male auction. The health sector of Peace Corps put together this fundraiser to make money and one of the things they did was auction off many of the male volunteers. They went around and had restaurants donate a dinner for two to the fundraiser and then that was given to the auctionee and the person who bought them.

It was a big hit, they made a party out of the whole thing with food, drinking, a raffle and of course the auction itself. The bidders, mostly women but some men, were getting really into it. There was roughly 35 men who got auctioned off and my turn for the runway came somewhere in the middle. I got to admit I was a little nervous to go out there and strut my stuff. It was all in good fun though and once they started announcing me and talking about my profile there wasn't time to get worried so I just had a good time.

One of my good friends Mai ended up buying me for 525 Dalasi which I thought was a little spendy especially since we only receive 4,000 Dalasi a month for our living allowance. Most of the guys went for somewhere between 400 and 650 Dalasi. The next night we went out to dinner, everything was good and we lived happily ever after.

There is more to come... (people are waiting for the computer)

There Is a First For Everything

Some of you might know the game ultimate frisbee, it's played a lot on college campuses as well as here in The Gambia amongst the volunteers and other NGO employees. It's a really fun game so I like to get out there and play also. There's usually a lot of running involved and normally I wear shoes but last time I forgot my shoes back in village (we play in Kombo) so like many of the other players I just went in bare feet.

To no ones surprise me feet weren't really that tough and about half way through the game were covered in blisters. The blisters didn't hurt to bad so of course I kept playing, making them worse I'm sure. I figured a thorough washing with soap and water would be enough to stave off infection. This worked up until the time when my feet became infected.

It was nothing to serious at first, just a little tenderness, I figured my body could fight it off. Next thing I know my left big toe is starting to throb! Yeah, it didn't feel to good but still I was optimistic I could handle this annoying little infection. Up until this point I had never needed to go into our medical office here and I wanted to keep it that way. Since I had gone so long without help I was starting to pride myself on how healthy and strong my body was.

Nonetheless this infection on the bottom of my big toe started is hurt pretty badly. Its kind of weird though because the skin was relatively clear in the sensitive area under my toe which got me thinking that maybe my blister was deeper under the skin that I'd thought. This happened to be the case, unlucky for me because it was just festering the whole time. So I proceeded to do surgery on my foot with scissors from my Letterman and needles from my sowing kit. After much time and pain from probing and cutting I was able to get in there and puncture the blister/infected area. Quite a bit of puss came out which I thought was a great sign. I'd released the pressure, removed the puss, cleaned and bandaged the wound. To my dismay the healing process didn't begin like I though it would.

This entire ordeal was taking place in my village. Luckily I had work to do in Kombo so I traveled into town the next day after draining the wound. I'm glad I did because the infection actually got worse, go figure. Everything became sore and sensitive again and my toe started to swell up. This was the straw that broke my dreams of curing this thing on my own. That same day I called the Peace Corps Medical Officer, PCMO, and told her the situation. Now I'm taking antibiotics, eurithromyacin. The infection isn't beaten but I think the odds are with me now. I'm going into see my PCMO tomorrow also, maybe she will give me per diem or something.

So that was kind of a long story. I'd like to say that the story is finished, but I'm not going to speak to soon.

Chillin In Kombo

Village life; it can be filled with "sunshine" and then it can be filled with "rainclouds." I really do like my village but sometimes people can just irritate me. I have a few projects that I'm working on with my village. They always look to me when they have questions, which is fine, but I'd love it if they could take initiative and do things on their own. That's what I'm dealing with right now, it is wearing on me more I think because we'll start planting soon and that's when I'll really find out if the projects are going to be successful or not. Right now the community tells me they will be able to help plant, weed, put up fences, etc. but until the time comes I really don't know what to expect. As of now, this is the first project I've ever done with my village.

So as the title says, I'm relaxing in Kombo right now. I had to get away for two reasons, one was what I mentioned above and the second was taxes. Yes you heard me right, taxes. My host father decided not to pay the Alkali (village head) the compound tax in January and now after many attempts to get the money the Alkali is going to the police. That very day I was leaving to come into town my host brother came up to me and explained the situation and asked me if I could pay my rent early so they could pay their taxes.

I politely declined to pay early for a few reasons. The biggest one was that I pay rent to food and food alone. So if this money ended up going to taxes, who is paying for my food? Secondly, I think that after 5 months my family would of been able to save up the small amount owed to pay the Alkali. It is simple money management that they refused to do which is why I don't feel I should bail them out. I hope I'm not coming off as to cold hearted. It's just that when I see my family spending money on unnecessary things I feel no pity when they can't afford to pay off old debts.

So in the mean time I sit and relax. Cheers.

In Service Training (IST)

Good evening all! Sorry to keep you all waiting, I just looked at the date and it's been almost a month since I last posted. Don't blame me though, I try not to spend to much time in Kombo (the land of electricity and computers) because I already spend a lot of time away from my site and my host family.

It is time though, man, site was wearing on me for a little while there right before I came in. Once I'm away from my friends, the Internet, and good food for a long time I start counting down the days until I get to come into Kombo. I'm a happy camper now since coming into town. Our Agfo group is having our IST right now so everyone is reunited again, at least for a week and then we'll all be back at our sites. I hadn't seen one of my really good friends since training, 4 months ago. We have cell phones though so all communication isn't lost at least.

IST is good though, we are mainly focusing on beekeeping, tree grafting, planting nursery's, talking about what species are good for this and that, and lots of other details such as grant writing and acquiring funds for projects we're are doing.

So far we have gotten through the beekeeping sessions, it's been a lot of fun. We talk about the different hives used, how to harvest the honey, what tools are needed plus a lot more and then all of us are required to go out and harvest a hive with a trainer. If you are allergic to bees you don't have to go. Everyone did really well though, of course most of us got stung but you can't really expect to go beekeeping without dealing with stings and such.

Today we covered tree grafting and I got to say it's complicated. By the end I was starting to understand it better but the theory and then the actual process of grafting one variety of tree onto the other is very difficult and takes a lot of technique and skill to master. This is something I want to bring back and teach in my village. There are many advantages you get from grafting and it really doesn't cost anything except a little bit of know how and time. I don't think I will try to teach the entire village, only select individuals who show me they are motivated and really want to learn.

As far as other news goes I am in the process of planning a vacation. Morocco isn't to far away from The Gambia so with any luck I hope to go there at the end of July or early August with a couple friends. We would have to fly there, I don't have enough time to take an overland trip, although that would probably be a fun way to do it. Besides that I got nothing booked, the only thing I do know is that I want to surf in Morocco and I will be there for around 10-14 days.

My host family is doing well besides my host father who has been sick for the past few months. They keep telling me he has malaria but I want to say it's something else. He hasn't gone to the hospital and the medicine they have for him isn't labeled and I couldn't tell you what it's really for. Most Gambians think that if the medicine comes from the U.S. or Europe it is a cure all so they don't even bother to figure out what it does. They just expect to get better once they take it.

I want to thank everyone who has been sending me letters and care packages, especially Auntie Mo, Aunt Mary, Aunt Karen, and both Grandma Brooks and Grandma Ward. If I forgot anyone I'm sorry but be assured that I appreciate everything that is sent my way!

And with that, so long and farewell!

St. Patty's Day

For St. Patrick's day I decided to take a little trip up country to my friends place in YBK. Quite a few volunteers from my group were posted there and since I hadn't seen them in a while I had a good excuse to go. Alicia, who lives at YBK was hosting St. Patty's day for all of us. In total there was about 15 people from our group that came and I must say it was a blast.

Since I didn't want to leave my site for to long I only went up to YBK for 3 days. For those that are unsure, that really means I traveled two days and got to sit down and have some beer for only one. It was a short trip but definitely worth the time spent getting there.

The first evening everyone was dead tired from traveling but we hung out none the less. Later that night a dead half of a bush pig (the stomach, back and both hams) was brought to us from the Hunter Alicia had hired. The pig wasn't skinned, eviscerated, or butchered and being so tired with full darkness fast approaching we decided to wait and do the grisly job in the morning.

Sunrise came early the next morning and none of us were really in the mood to butcher a pig but it had to be done so we got started. Alicia had gone to school and taken classes on butchering animals so she was kind of our expert during the whole experience. Her, Bjorn and myself were the ones who partook in the slaughter. I was a little apprehensive at first just because I'd never done anything like it before but really I had a good time taking out the entrails, the skin and then finally the meat. For some reason I felt more manly afterwards, it was great.

Before Alicia, a volunteer named Frank lived in YBK and he had built a big stove/barbecue in the back yard so once we had that thing burning nice and hot we threw both hams on. They were huge so we couldn't fit the rest of the meat on at that time. Little did we know, the rest of the pork wasn't faring so well without ice or refrigeration to sit in while it waited to be cooked. After a few hours the hams were finished and I have to say they looked absolutely delicious but they weren't really anything to special, you could even say there was something a little fishy, if you will, tasting about them. We had paid for the pig though, so whether is tasted good or not I was going to eat it, and I did. Dad taught me well, clean your plate, even if it means the possibility of getting food poisoning. Grandma Ward would be proud I think.

Meanwhile, back at the barbecue we had the rest of the meat cooking, it was in smaller pieces than the hams so they cooked much faster. All our efforts at cooking some delicious pork went to waste though, apparently since it had sat out much longer unrefrigerated it all went bad. Just imagine eating pork that has the consistency of feta cheese with a really funky taste, it was a little disturbing. Besides just a little nibble to try out the meat none of us ate any of the remaining pork.

St. Patrick's day was a success though, everyone had a really good time and I even brought some wine that I brewed and was sipping on that. The recipe wasn't to complicated, 100% grape juice, two spoons of sugar and some yeast. After 12 days of fermenting I had my Gambian Merlot. The next day came too soon and after half a day of riding in the gelegele and an hour hike back to my village I was home again.

Where does the time go? Don't ask me, I've been in The Gambia for 6 months now and it feels like I just got here yesterday.