I'll be home for Christmas

Hello everyone. In case you have not heard yes indeed I will be home for Christmas. I was just recently (yesterday) medically seperated from Peace Corps. Which means that I am coming home because I was just so dang sick here. I hope to see and hear from you all soon so please contact me and keep in touch. And remember, just because my Gambian experience is coming to an end it does not mean the adventure is ending....

Update on the Gambia, coming up on year 2!

Hello everybody, I thought since I am slacking so much on blogging I would give an update. I understand that most of my blogs are not very informative, but those of you who want to remain updated tend to write me letters of which I respond. Thank you for all the packages and letters of love, I appreciate them very much.
First bit is the yesterday I took the GRE in Banjul. I am trying to maintain some sense of a life after Peace Corps because eventually it will come. I want to be ready and since it is extremely difficult to get things done quickly while living here I thought one less thing to worry about. I went with several other volunteers and to my surprise there was one Gambian university student who took it as well. He was obviously intelligent with a background in Chemistry, but it still got me thinking about the American education system versus that here in the Gambia.
Granted, my Wolof is not great at all and there are many times everyday when I can not truly express what I want to with my words, or I have to say I feel tired instead of stressed, but overall I am extremely thankful to speak English as my first language. Some of the questions on that test were words I did not know, some I simply did not remember and some I have never heard of before. I am personally thankful to have studied in the American school system where a 4 hour standardized test, although grueling is normal and expected. It is not the first one I have taken. However, for many education systems that rarely take tests and never 4 hours ones I felt a bit of sympathy for. For those Gambians that successfully go to university or graduate school in the U.S. congratulations. It brings with it so many more challenges that I now understand.
In other news on November 6th my group and I will have been in country for 1 year, which means we are almost 1/2 way done with our service. It is crazy to think about. Although on 120 degree days where the heat brings a haze to the air, time tended to drag on and some days seemed like weeks, there were also weeks that seemed like they flew by. Now in retrospect the first year seems to have gone by quickly. Even though it went is almost over I am extremely happy to be in my second year. For several reasons; I feel like now I have a better understanding about how the system works and the culture and little challenges will now become norms to me. I feel that even though my language is not great, I still have a base in which to communicate with people. I am mostly excited about work. I hope to launch into it and now that I know who my motivated counterparts are, I can hopefully compliment the work they are already doing well. This is all very idealistic, but none the less, it is exciting to realize that soon enough I will be counting down months.
Several things I am looking forward to: Tobaski, a huge Islamic holiday falls around my birthday so I hope to do something fun for that in November. In addition, we will have another all-volunteer conference in November where all volunteers get together to discuss work and life here. In December I hope to take a mini-vacation. I would really like to go to Mali so that would be fun to look forward to. I currently work with a Bambara from Mali who is a marabout (traditional healer), he is from Mali and always talks about its beauty.
Mostly I am just excited for the cool season which will be coming in November, cooler nights when I need a blanket and a jacket to keep warm. Nights where people light a fire to keep warm before dinner. Nights when I will see my breath as I try to bathe in the cool evening air.
I know this is not super informative and it seems impossible to give a really detailed description of my life lately. Just know I am thinking of every one of you and appreciate your continued interest in my work and life here. Happy Halloween!

Festivals...Work....Breaking Fast

Left: My younger brother Ibu hard at work. He is training to become a tailor so he has a foot-pump sowing machine in our village to practice.

Below: My 'niece' Fa Sowe. She is almost 3 and all dolled up for the Prayer day. We slaughtered a goat and she is looking on...

Me in my Gambian complet. All Gambians wear colorful fabric and get new skirt and shirts for holidays. The end of Ramadan was marked with a huge 3 day celebration beginning with prayer day, also known as Koriteh. People prayed in the morning and then ate lots of meat and good food for the rest of the day. It was like eating more than thanksgiving, people just kept eating because for the first time in one month, they could.
I was busy and not able to go get my own fabric so I had my host-mom Fatou go pick it out for me. I put it on and immediately felt like a Christmas ornament. I guess I am just missing the tinsle. Overall, it was a good holiday but I am happy people are no longer fasting, the end of Ramadan also marks the approach of the cooler season here.

Pictures!

This is me with my mom on the left and the kids Binta and Abilay. I have something wrapped around my waist and that is Ousman! (a baby)

The right is of girls in my village getting together to pound nette. It is a fruit within a pod that comes from trees in our area. You have to de pod them and then pound, sift, and wash them before sale. We gave them juice in exchange for their help because there was so much to do.

My mom Fatou who is sifting the Nette. The pounded part of the fruit creates this yellow dust - which gets everywhere.

This is me and my main counterpart Maline. We are transplanting trees and the nursery! Yay for reforestation!

These are just a few pictures of my life here in the rainy season where everything is green.

I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to send a letter if you want to know more.

Morocco and thoughts....

Hello everyone-

I went to Morocco for my first vacation from the Gambia. There were some highs and there were some lows and it was not a vacation but more so an adventure. I went to Madrid Spain and we traveled to Fes, a PCV (peace corps volunteer) village in the mountains and went to Marrakesh. Enjoy!This is a typical doorway of a mosque in Fes. The details are amazing!

Oh how much I love and miss mountains! They are truely amazing! We - my friend Sheila who I went with - and the PCV climbed it and camped at the top. It was really amazing!

Sheila and I went into an art gallery and when I saw this painting it really represented what I think of now that I have been to Morocco. The women are all veiled, only the young girls do not have to wear the full burka. It was simply a see of faces with eyes looking out at me.

Oh course went ended our trip in Spain! This is a beautiful cathedral in Malaga Spain.

Two countries so close to each other and yet so completely different. How does the world manage to be as diverse as it is? Despite all of the travel that a human being can physically experience, how do people manage to adapt to other cultures so effectively? Well, after being in the Gambia for 8 months I now realize that there are different levels of integration and adaptation. Some things come easily enough like the smile and hug of a child and others are difficult and at times can even seem impossible. For those moments when life seems impossible I want to thank my family and friends for their love and support. Without it I would be a bird without wings.

My new thatched roof for my mud hut

Yay! I got a new roof - who wants to see it? Mostly the questions I am getting is what do you do to make one? I have some pictuers to explain and show the process, I hope you can see all the work that goes in to it.

This is us sitting in a row of grass that we were weaving together. My older brother behind me had to buy the grass from a nearby village and we layed them down in a long row the length of a wall of my hut (which is square). We then took branches from another tree that has strong bark, soaked it in water to make it weavable for awhile. Then when that bark dries it is strong and will hold the grass together. Female onlookers: my sisters Binta left and Xawa right.

This is my house from my backyard with my old roof taken off. The beams underneath were there and since there was no termite rot we were able to reuse them. We simply put the new grass over the beams like we were unfolding a pinwheel cookie. It is all layered. It took us 4 days to weave the grasses and then one long day or take off the old roof, move out my stuff and put on the new one. It was a long process but I have a new roof! Although, I still have rommates (4 mice). Take care and know that I will just be waiting for the rains.

So what is she doing in Africa???

So, I am sure many of you are wondering what I actually do with my days. I have written a little about culture differences and how things are done in the Gambia (a.k.a. the food bowl, polygamous families, living in a muslim country and what the heck is cous again?)

Now I want to let you know what I do on a day to day basis and a glimpse into what my life is like here now.

I wake up to the sound of my sisters pounding cous for the day - it is 6:30 but the sun is up and so is my family. Gambians eat breakfast late so the morning is my American time. Thanks to all the love and support I have received some coffee and I eat my bowl of oatmeal in the morning. Breakfast is my time as I awake to greet the day.
Even though Gambians eat breakfast at 9:30 a.m. the day will be hot by 12:00 so I am off on my bike to the nearest village where the central nursery is. As I leave my village I am telling everyone I am leaving for work and will not be back until lunch - but by then "the sun will be too hot," they say. I bike into the next village and am surrounded by greetings, it took me 3 months for everyone to not call me toubob and call my Soxna (my Gambian name) instead. It feels so nice to be known.
I come into the gate of the nursery which is 4 hectres and has three huts for training centers - it is a huge success. The NGO (non-governmental organization) I work with started 14 years ago and a lot of sweat and determination went in to every seedling in the nursery. It is one of the most successful environmental NGO's in the country and I am proud to be a partner. Just a little background, my NGO was started by Gambians and is maintained by Gambians, it works in over 17 villages and has many orchards and woodlots some successful, some not; but all are aware of the terrible rate of deforestation in this country. We are currently working on being self-sustainable which is one of the hardest feats for any NGO, especially in Western Africa.
I greet the two old men who are caretakers there and come every morning and night to water the over 100,000 seedlings we have. Together they remind me of my grandma and grandpa - one is a fiesty person who will die with his boots on even though he has a bad hip and gives all us youngin's problems for not working hard. The other is the best teacher I have ever had and is helping me learn Wolof and learn about trees of the Gambia.
Sometimes my two counterparts come who are fieldworkers and the director of my NGO. They are all amazing people to work with. I spend my time digging beds, stuffing pots to sow seeds in and of course sow seeds. I water the garden, I talk about deforestation problems, but mostly I sit and talk about whatever topic comes to mind. I really enjoy my 'work'.
I bike home by lunch 2:00 p.m. and eat with my family and then during the hottest part of the day I sit under the mango tree drinking attaaya and hanging out with my family. The rest of the day is either within my village with friends or with my family.

Although I really do enjoy my work, it is not an idealistic amazing place to be all the time. I reason I signed up for Peace Corps was to receive a challenge like no other and to see if I really could hack it as an anthropologist. Some conversations I have include; the effects of climate change and deforestation, globalization and the development of Africa as a whole, the world food crisis and how many of my villagers will not eat in a couple months time because they simply have no food. They also include; my role as a woman and how my job is to be married and have children and yet I am trying to help the people of the Gambia at the age of 23, while being single and childless. Amidst all of these questions I think to myself, what can I possible do to help people??

But then I realize, I am not here to 'help' people like we as Americans think of it. I am not here to give aid. I am here to give only the little knowledge I have and the hugs I share with children. Namely, I am learning more here than I ever thought I would and realizing how important the little things are in life. My most valuable work is making friends and laughing with people who have never really known a 'toubob'. If I can plant trees in the meantime, the better the world will be for it.

I have a lot of learn during my time here. I just want to say thank you to everyone who wrote a letter or sent a package or even an email of love because I have so many ups and downs and lessons in one day. My brother Jeff said, "people ask me what you do Jaclyn, and I do not really know." My answer Jeffrey is living.

If you want to send a care package but do not know what to send me.....

Here is a list of things that I would love to receive as many of you are amazing and asked what to send me.
- Coffee (I brought my french press and I would love to use it)
- Seeds (My garden is horrible and I need good seeds)
- vegetables include but are not limited to:
Carrots, Lettuce, Basil, Tomatoes, green peppers, any other herbs used in cooking that could handle tropical tempetatures, I would also like to try strawberries.
- Vegetables to cook with: this includes dried sun dried tomatoes, corn, peas and green beans are also not vegetables of the gambia so they all would be delicious to cook with.
- National Geographic - any new, old or anything just because I miss it so much
- Newspapers - Any and all. Local papers are great and so would be the star tribune but also even New York Times simply to know what is going on in the world and have some intellectual conversation.
Pictures - this is anything from postcards of what the snow and fall season are to pictures of those I love to show my family and friends in village.

Thank you all for the packages and letters I appreciate them so much and I hope that you all are getting mine in return. Love and hugs from the Gambia!

More pictures....

More pictures of the people I love:

Left: My small brother Abilay -

age: 3

Occuptation: playing

Shared interests: making funny faces and hugs

My sister Fatou who is 15 and in the picture doing laundry. She is such a great person to be around.

Update with Pictures!

Hello everyone-

I first want to say thank you for all of the warm wishes/letters and care packages. The giardia is subsiding and I am feeling really great physically. The hot season is in full swing now with people sitting around and chatting during the afternoons, which means they also get up earlier. I have become a morning person - it is not like me.

I am currently in the city doing a technical training. Everyone from the 25 of us have completed the three month challenge and we are all still going strong at site! Yay! I was one of them and even though life will not change for me day to day, I feel proud to have completed my first three months as a volunteer, especially since I am happy and healthy.

I have some pictures that I will describe and finally to share, I hope you all enjoy them.

Above:

My grandmother Gor Gor is what people call her

She is super sweet and in this picture she was shelling peanuts

Left: The back of my house (hut) it is thatched roof and square and under the best mango tree in the village.

Oh my life is always surrounded by POO

So, as if the Gambia has not changed me in enough ways as a person, it has now changed the way my body digests food also. Yes folks I have giardia. It's nothing to be worried about beyond the parasite I had a year ago, but not even 6 months in to country and I am already filled with more critters! At least I am not constipated! I am currently being treated by the Peace Corps doctor and watching movies until I re-coop and the medicine can kick in. Take care, and the next time you are on the toilet think of me.
Love and hugs from Gambia,
Jaclyn

The not quite hot season

As I am approaching the end to my three month challenge, I realize as each month passes how quickly it goes, and yet as with traveling anywhere there are so many things that happen in one day that it seems like 3 rolled in to one.

I recently received a lot of love and support from home, which is greatly appreciated. Sadly, I am still at the adjusting phase, and I am learning new things everyday. My language is getting better, my relationship with my family is becoming strong and I am slowly slowly learning all the work there is to be done.

Right now I have over 700 poly pots for trees, including one for live fencing, African Mohagony, Orange and Bean. I hope that some of them work out because watering here is not done via hose. I have to pump and fetch the water myself. Although I am proud to say I can now carry my own water on my head, which is quite an achievement for someone who has never done it before.

The temperatures are rising and I am usually sweaty by mid-morning with 6 hours of sitting ahead of me until the evening, and it is not even hot yet. Thankfully I constructed myself my own 'bantaba' which is a shaded structure made of branches and dried grass; tied together by wire. I hope I will get to sleep outside soon, I miss it so much from Outward Bound.
I hope to update my blog with some pictures soon, and my camera usb connection will be coming shortly in the mail. I know it is really hard to envision all of the things I am describing.

I am mostly updating my blog because I heard that on CNN have been reports about the Gambia, in a negative light:

Gambians 'taken by witch doctors'

There has been questioning of Gambians by Gambians to find "witches" and bring them in to questioning of their practices. Many people are working against these acts and it is not effecting me at all, but if you heard about it on CNN, know I am fine, safe and well.

Source BBC.

DO NOT WORRY!!

On the positive note, I am staying busy and drinking lots of milk straight from the cow. Yum, I love being a Fula! The months of April and May are the 'hot' season here; I am in the 'cool' part of the Gambia because I am closer to the ocean and I am still sweating. So needless to say my body has not acclimated completely yet.

Also on a positive note I had my first conversation in Wolof the other day that just flowed. I was speaking to an old man who happened to 'naturally' talk slow and I understood 80% of what he was saying and could respond to him relatively well. Even though we did not talk about anything earth shattering I felt so happy to have had that 20 minute conversation.

That is all I have for now, and as the Wolof's say "Jamma Rek" Peace Only!

Random Things I love about the Gambia

- Greetings, every time you see someone new you give/receive a series of 10+ greetings even if you only left them 10 minutes ago. It is so personal and it gets me talking to complete strangers that I would never think of talking to otherwise
- My village is amazing! It is super small 18 compounds (families) one well and lots of cows. They are Fula's the ethnic group that originates from Guinea but they are beautiful people. Just recently when I was sick my family was extremely caring and awesome about the fact that I was sick. People are really friendly and I feel so safe.
-Communal everything: communal food bowl, communal spaces, communal and open to any passing stranger. I can just wonder around and eat with people, chat for hours and practice language without ever worrying I am holding someone up.
-Slowly Slowly is the motto here and pace of life, and most of the time it is fabulous because it is like living in the woods, as long as our basic needs are met each day, a.k.a. we eat and fetch water, everything else will happen inshallah (God willing).
-The climate so far is great, the sky is completely blue with the oldest trees I have ever seen in my life, the best sunsets ever and the sun always shines during the dry season.
-The respect and importance of family, it is humbling to be told get your ass up and give it to your aunt now now!! I love it.
-I have my own garden, one with karrots and I spend some time each day shooing the chickens out of it, it is pretty funny because really I am scared of them.
-The dancing, the wolofs and fulas do this butt/foot work with their dancing, it is acceptable to dance anytime of the day and for any reason. I sometimes bust a move in front of all little girls at the pump and it creates a lot of laughs and is perfectly acceptable and within seconds I usually have a very organic drum beat on a water container (badong) or bowl turned upside down.

Sick but now oh so well!

Hello friends-
I have no idea what I ate or drank, but I got food posioning this weekend and came in to Kombo to get medically taken care of. The med unit has real campbell's soup and an amazing American nurse who takes care of all the volunteers so well. I am back to normal and hope to be back in village tomorrow. Just to update you on a few of the things happening lately in my world of village.
With Febuary in full force it means the cold season is ending and the next hot ten months of my life are about to begin. The day before I got sick I took a 70 km bike ride to another volunteers site for a break from village, and the country is long and beautiful. Even though there is a huge deforestation problem here and a serious lack of water table, there were gardens sprouting up around the North Bank which means there is hope for some edible yummy vegetables!
I am working on my own garden in my compound, I already have a bed with carrots in it and some moringa trees (moringa is the medicinal tree that helps add nutrients to a lot of their food) it is also called the never die tree as a slang name because it is really easy to grow and take care of anytime of the year. It is an on-going thing for me.
I will try to publish some more things tomorrow, it is a very random update and I just wanted to say hello and share some thoughts.

Picture

So this is me during the marathon march, Christmas Even 2008 we walked 27 km and this was one of the views. There is no elevation in the Gambia so this overlook was huge.

Overall, life here is great, I am doing well and taking it minute by minute slowly slowly. I am excited for swearing in, we will get to eat burgers! I am also really pumped to move to site and have furniture and spend 3 months making a home for myself.

The language I learned in Wolof, but my village speaks Pular so I will have a hog-poge of African tribal languages under my belt by the time I leave here. I am still going through lots of ups and downs, and one of the few things that is getting me through my day are letters/packages and love from home so thank you all for being so supportive.

The Gambia is a tiny country in West Africa for those of you who have not been able to find it on the map. But it is filled with a mix of cutlures. Mandinka, Wolof and Fulas are the three major ethnic groups and there are also two other ethnic groups prevelent here. I live 1 km from another village that is seperate from my own and mine is Fula and the other is Wolof. Funny how that works huh?

So, in the Gambia families eat from a communal food bowl. This means that one large metallic bowl is brought outside on the dirt and all the women gather around one bowl and all the men gather around another. The bowl is the diameter of a large pizza. We then 'wash' our hands with water, but really we are just washing our right hand because the left hand is used to wipe your butt after pooping. The lid is then removed by an elderly person in the family once everyone is squatting around it (there is not a table, or chairs, literally we just crouch on the ground) and they dig their RIGHT hand into the bowl to eat. The cous or rice is on the bottom and the good stuff, toppings and sauce are in the middle. You have to share everything equally between everyone, my largest foodbowl was with 16 other adult women. And you can only eat from the section directly in front of where you are sitting. It is quite the experience and something I did not anticipate when coming here, but I really enjoy the sense of community.

Gambians also drink ataaya. This is cheap "chinese gunpowder tea" that is brewed in a small kettle over hot coals. The brewing process can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour depending on how much time people have to kill. The leaves are put with water into the kettle and set on the coals, and then the tea is poured into two tiny glasses, smaller than tea cups in another other country. About 1/2 the size of a palm. There is an elaborate pouring process from the kettle to the cups, which is for show. Then the tea is poured back from the cups into the kettle with about a cup and 1/2 of sugar. Mind you the kettle is about 2 cups in size, so it is very small. That is brewed with sugar for about however long you want it to brew and then the pouring again happens into the small cups and then back into the kettle. So essentially you have a sugared drink that people drink from 1 to 10 times daily. There is no shortage of sugar in the Gambia and this is what I will be doing for the next two years, sitting around drinking ataaya and trying to chat with people in another language.

More updates later, yay for the Gambia!

Update!!!

Hello all-
here is my first real update in the Gambia!! I am currently in Kombo wrapping up with training, next week is our huge swearing in at the U.S. ambassador's house. I spent 8 weeks in a training village learning Wolof which is my language. It was difficult because training is very structured with classes in the morning and always go go go. I am definately burnt out and happy to be moving on to my real life for two years.
I just got done with four days of hanging out with the family that will be mine for the next two years. My dad is the village Alkali (chief) and he has two wives, giving me two moms. (Gambia is polygamous). My older brother Abilay is in his early thirties married to a woman who is about my age and they have three small kids, who are adorable. I have three teenaged siblings, one brother and two sisters who have hearts of gold. Then my 2nd mom has a daughter living there who is also my age who has 4 children, so overall there are 7 kids between the ages of 6 months and6 years old. I also have a grandma who is the sweetest woman ever. Children here call white people tubob which is like foreigner and she yells at them and tells them "no! her name is Soxna!"
Soxna is my Gambian name. I had a naming ceremony in training village which was what all babies have and a hug celebration, pictures will come later this week.
My village is small and even though I speak Wolof they are Pular so they have cows and speak a different language. This means I will also learn Pular! The non-language girl suddenly got signed up to learn two African tribal languages! Fulas (ethnic name of Pular speakers) have cows, they are the only ones that do. So since my dad is the Alkali we have lots of them and I get fresh milk every morning. I also have the best food bowl in village, so I am eating better at my site than I was in training village with no veggies, fruits, and fish only.
My village is really sweet so far and even though I have struggled immensely with the language barrier of not knowing Pular I forsee myself as having a great experience. There will be down times as always, but my family is great and my thatched roof hut will be pretty nice one I get furniture this week.
Muslim culture has a holiday called Tobaski, this was three days December 8, 9, 10th when the prophet Abraham was asked to sacrafice his one and only son to Allah (for us it is God) and when it came time for it, Allah replaced his son with a ram. So every year there is a huge celebration and a ram or male goat is slaughtered in every compound. It has the same sense of celebration as our Christmas and was a great holiday to celebrate.
The food is awesome at my new site. Gambians eat this thing called cous. It is not found anywhere but in Senegal and Gambia and has the texture of sand when eaten dry. My family serves it wet so it is great, and highly fibrous! They eat cous for breakfast and dinner and rice for lunch. The food is good but oreas, m&m's, chocolate, dried fruit and sweets are always wanted.
After this week in Kombo I will have this thing called 3 month challenge, it's a challenge to stay at site for three months and basically get to know the people, integrate, get to know the needs of the village and intergrate some more. I will not have internet access so send mail please. After that it should become more frequent to say once a month.
Right now I'm having a high on life moment which I have been having more of lately than not good moments, but remember that there are lots of difficult things I am through so if you receive a letter that is not a 100% positive just know that I am safe and living the roller coaster. There is a saying that volunteers use TIA This is Africa. Life is great and hard and everywhere in between but let me tell you my sense of humor has increased 1000%.
The dancing is amazing! Wolofs dance with their feet in quick motions and it's a full body experience. I am never short on dancing times. Yay!
I know this is a random blog post and not well written, but I will add pictures and more details as they come to my mind, just wanted to update you all since some of you have been left in the dust.
Love and hugs from Gambia!
Jax