I am in town for the election and thought you might enjoy a quick update with my life as of late.
First and foremost, Khiva is still doing well. She has gotten quite big (thanks in part to many dog treats that have made it over here in gift-packages). She's my baby, and she's doing fine.
I'm also doing really well! I'm excited to be going to Guinea this weekend! I am going with 5 friends. We will leave from the town of Basse at the very eastern edge of Gambia, and hopefully reach the place we're staying after about a 36hour car ride... a long, bumpy car ride. We will be there for about 6 days, mostly spending our time hiking and swimming. I mean, it's not easy to hike all day through mountains and jungles and then go swimming in natural streams and waterfalls... but someone has to do it. I'm really excited to finally have a bit of a vacation. Actually, this will be my first real vacation since coming to Gambia over a year ago! I mean, trips into Kombo and to the beach are nice, but I'm still in the perpetual Peace Corps fish-bowl. This will just be a nice break.
After I get back from Guinea I will be mainly just hanging out in village until Thanksgiving, when I will be coming back to Kombo for the annual all-volunteer conference. That should only just last about two days. Then in early December I will be helping out a bit with training the new Ag-Fo and Health volunteers! They get in on the 6th of this month, but I won't really be working with their training until December. I think I will be discussing local farming practices with them. Mainly I will be helping them try to gain a good understanding of what to expect before they get to village in terms of how their host-families and communities approach farming, and also help them think about some ways where maybe they can work to improve farming practices during the next planting season, such as inter-cropping, as well as ideas for fertilizers and pesticides. Kind of crazy that I'm now in the older group. It's been odd to see the volunteers from the year ahead of me packing up and getting ready to go back to the States. Time really does go by quickly!
And I can honestly say that over these past few months I've reached an appreciation and enjoyment with my service here that I didn't actually think possible. I'm not just enjoying it as an interesting and educational experience, or as a great way to get overseas experience. But I'm actually really loving it here. The relationships and friendships I have been fortunate to build with the people around me is unexplainably refreshing and rewarding. You can be sure that not every day is "great," but I truly am having a great time. I'm having the time of my life and truly loving it here.
Last week we had a bee-keeping training in my village. The main focus was on building sustainable bee-hives out of grasses and other local materials. We also spent quite a bit of time discussing the life-style of bees, trying to help them gain an understanding of bee communities and how they work. There were about 30 people who attended from about 8 different villages. In the coming months it will be their responsibility to actually build bee-hives, bait them and set them out in areas likely to attract bees. In a few months time we will have a follow-up training to discuss harvesting, processing and marketing.
(Bah-Fodi using his new training to make a grass bee-hive.)
I'm really excited about the potential for this project. It's something I think the people in my area could really get into, and really benefit from. Check out my pictures for more shots from the training!
With the corn, coos and rice harvested, now all that's left is the groundnuts. This year's rainy season was pretty good. (Even a bit longer than expected.) So now we have been using the mornings to plow up the groundnuts and group them. Next we will thrash them to seperate the nuts from the hay. Then we will collect the nuts for eating/selling, and then collect the groundnut hay for the horses and donkeys to eat through the dry season. The whole process is a bit labor-intensive and will finally finish up mid-December.
Mid-December will be their Tobaski holiday again, which will be fun to celebrate once more. And shortly after that I will be heading up to Dakar to fly back! Several of us are going up to Dakar on the 22nd. Two of us are flying back to the States, and the others just think it sounds more fun to celebrate Christmas in a different place for a nice change. It should be a fun few days!
Then (weather permitting) I should be home for Christmas! I'm sure it will be a bit of a whirlwind during the first few days, but as long as there is coffee I should be ok!
Oh, and a fun random story. Just about a week ago I came back to my compound around 10pm after spending some time chatting with some friends in village. When I walked in I thought it was funny that a bunch of people were walking around the compound garden area with flashlights. I knew something exciting must be going on, and I was pretty sure what it was. To my un-surprise, Lawo had spotted a snake moving around in the compound. A BIG snake! Of course I jumped into the action with my flashlight and machete, scouting out the perimiter of the garden, looking for anything resembling a big snake.
There were about 10 of us looking around until about midnight, but with none of us seing anything, we were pretty sure it was too scared to come out of the garden area. So, figuring we had it trapped, we left the dogs to keep scouting around the garden and went to bed. The next morning we went back to work, trying to find the snake. I asked Lawo how he could be sure it didn't leave during the night, and he explained to me that the snake was coming to try to eat the chickens or ducks, and wouldn't give up too easily. And he was right! Just a little bit later one of the guys scouting the garden fence saw it. The guys jumped into action, and shortly after the snake, which turned out to be a python, wasn't a threat to the chickens or ducks any longer.
It was a fun experience to be a part of. Truly a "Peace Corps West Africa" memory in the making! (And mom, now you don't have to be afraid of snakes around my compound, because we got rid of it!)
Well, that said I should probably get going. But yeah, in a nut-shell: promoting bee-keeping, python in the compound, Obama '08!, Guinea, Thanksgiving, groundnut harvesting, Tobaski and then I'll be home for Christmas!!
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the November weather. It has been cooling down here, too. We are getting closer back into the cold season. It's getting down into the 70s at night. And yes, I've started wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts when it drops down into the 70s. So this year I'll probably be huddling around the fire with everyone else. And the Iowa December weather may be a bit of a shock!
I hope this finds you all doing well. Until next time, take care!
