"What made you want to join the Peace Corps?"
The long and short of it is... during my junior year of college at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where I studied to get my bachelor degrees in political science and economics, I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. I studied at the University of Copenhagen for my full academic year as a part of an "International Political Systems" program. The way my class schedule worked out, I had each Wednesday free and wanted to do some type of volunteer work/service to fill my time. I ended up working with the Red Cross in Copenhagen, and I ended up working in a special program they had designed to try to help refugees and assylum-seekers who were in Denmark. I basically spent my Wednesdays working with refugees, primarily from Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, Syria and Egypt, teaching them English and basic skills they could use to promote their efforts looking for a job in Copenhagen. I fell in love with this work, and was extremely touched at how I was able to build such strong relationships with people from Iraq and Afghanistan who had fled their homes and lives because of being at war with my own country.
So when that academic year was finished and I was back at Luther for my senior year, I decided that I wanted to postpone my original plans of pursuing law school and spend some time doing more work, specifically development work. I already knew I wanted my experience to be long-term, and not like a 6 week internship. I also knew I was interested in working overseas. The Peace Corps offered the best option for work overseas, long-term, with only a bachelor's degree. I ended up taking a position working specifically as an "agro-forestry volunteer." But the bulk of my work isn't actually focused on agriculture itself as much as it is focused on micro-business development in an agricultural setting. So, for example, one of my biggest projects has been working with bee-keeping; helping run trainings for the men and my area to learn how to begin the process of bee-keeping themselves.
"Did you have to learn any languages? Or have you learned any since you've been there?"
The Gambia has three main ethnic groups, the Wolofs, Mandinkas and Fulas. Gambia itself is actually an "English speaking country" from the days when it was a colony of the British empire. However, once you get out of the bigger towns, it becomes quite apparent that most people don't know English, and if they do, they still probably speak their own tribal language a majority of the time.
The village where I live and work, Chargel, is about 3/4 they way east into the country. If you look at a map of Gambia, my village is about 10k east of Bansang, or 40k west of Basse. My village is very rural, and there are very few people in my village who speak English. The main ethnic group of the part of the country where I live is teh Fula tribe, so I speak Fula.
As a part of our training, before we actually become volunteers and begin our service, we are required to meet an "intermediate-medium" level of language ability in whichever of the three languages we were assigned to. We are all assigned to learn the language of one of the major ethnic groups, depending on where we will be living. So I speak Fula, and I actually speak it pretty well, since most people in Chargel cannot speak English.
"Do your family and friends support you?"
Yes. My parents, family and friends are very excited about the work I'm doing. Of course my mom is always a bit concerned about my safety... after all, Gambia does have heyenas, leopards, crocodiles, hippos, baboons, bush-pigs, several kinds of cobras, other poisenous snakes and insects, and it's very, very hot. But, my family and friends know I'm really enjoying this experience and encourage me to enjoy each day as it comes and to not rush through this experience, planning for whatever will come next. Sometimes I have a bit of a hard time "stopping to smell the roses."
"What do you do in your free time?" and "What is the food like?"
Well, I guess that depends on how you see "free time." Technically, the entire two years of my service are left up to me to get to know my village, assess their greatest needs and the projects with the greatest potential, and pursue programs that I think would be in the best interest of the community as a whole. That kind of work-structure means I can basically do anything I want. So, a typical day of mine is something like this...
I wake up at about 5am, when the roosters and donkeys start waking up. As The Gambia has a predominantly Muslim population and my community is entirely Muslim, at 6am we have the morning "call to prayer." By 6:30 I can hear the women working to prepare a breakfast of either ground millet (think bird-seed) or boiled whtie rice. I turn on BBC world news (radio) around 7, to see what is going on in the world. We have breakfast around 7:30 or 8, and then head out to the fields to take care of whatever work there is do be done. During the rainy season (June-Sept) the morning work usually revolves around the fields, such as planting and weeding. The rainy season is followed by the harvesting season (Sept-Dec), where each morning is spent harvesting the crops, gathering them and preparing them to be stored through the year. The rest of the year is the dry season (Jan-May). This is the time of year when we will work to repair fences, build new houses (out of mud bricks), put up new roofs (out of grass) and take care of the work that is best taken care of when it is dry.
Usually the morning work is done around noon, and we have a lunch of white rice and peanut sauce (think boiled peanut butter with onions, peppers and fish added in).
Most afternoons are usually too hot to work, so this is what I consider my "free time." Sometimes I use this time to wander the village (of about 800 people) and chat with the men and women about what they are up to. I try to keep a good feeling of what the village has going on, in terms of births, weddings and such, and they enjoy knowing that I'm interested in their personal lives. This is also when I usually have a good chance to bounce ideas around to see if development ideas I have (such as bee-keeping) is something the men and women there would be interested in. They will also share ideas they have with me, and I will get a good feel for projects the village is probably most likely to pretend to be interested in (because they don't want to tell me I have a bad idea...such as trying a new crop), as opposed to ideas they will actually be interested in (because they know many people in the community will benefit from it...such as when we had a training/demonstration to make a mosquito repellant cream by boiling local leaves.)
Once the sun starts setting, I wrap up my conversing and head to the football (soccer) field to meet up with the local guys and either train or play against the guys from a neighboring village.
Once the sun sets I head back to my hut and my host family. I will usually spend the evening just hanging out with them, chatting about stuff we did during the day, or projects coming up. I usually ask alot of questions to try to have a better understanding of what's going on, such as holidays and special events.
But, some afternoons, if it's just too hot to be out wandering or if I want to have more "down" time, I usually read. I probably get through about a book a week, and I had a great time reading the entire Harry Potter series with practically no interruption, and no waiting for the next book to come out!
I also hang out with the little kids. They teach me games and songs, and I teach them the alphabet and stuff like that. I usually just end up getting laughed at, but we always have a good time.
"Best and worst part of what you do?"
Best would be getting to build relationships and friendships with the people in my community.
Worst is probably the overall climate. During April and May the temperatures will get to be about 130-140F, with humidity, and that is just very, very unpleasant.
"Is being in Gambia lonely?"
No. Sometimes I practically crave interraction with other Peace Corps volunteers so that I can have a conversation purely in English, and at a level I am more accustomed to. But I wouldn't say that I am ever really lonely. As far as that goes, I've never really been homesick either.
One big reason may be because I have a dog named Khiva. She is a GREAT friend to me, always keeps me up-beet and enjoying the moment. It's completely against the norm for Gambians to have dogs as a pet, so it has been a great experience for me to teach them how to treat a dog as a friend, and not just an animal. She has been a great asset to my time here, and it's probably thanks to her that I enjoy it so much, even on the down days.
"Do Gambian people have traditional clothes or do they dress "like us"?"
For the most part, they have traditional clothes. I encourage you to check out the pictures on my blog (the "My Pictures" link) to get a good feel for the kinds of clothes they wear. Most of the fabric they wear is imported, but the styles for the clothing are done by local tailors. Almost each town, no matter how small, has a tailor who can sew the traditional clothing for men and women.
On the flip side, it is becoming more and more popular to wear "American" clothes. It is really easy to find knock-off soccer jerseys, and what basically amounts to iron-on shirts with pictures of people like Britney Spears, 50 Cent, M & M, and the Dixie Chicks. Something I've noticed alot of but don't fully understand the process of is that apparently the clothes that gets donated to places like Goodwill eventually end up getting sold by local "store owners" here to the Gambian people at rather expensive prices, as they make a business out of "dressing American."
As far as answering questions directly about the culture and Peace Corps experience, I'm going to need to put a bit more thought into how I answer those so that I can relay a full answer without writing a book. But I really do encourage you to check out stories and pictures on my blog, which help relay character-building experiences I've had and different things I've learned about the culture and way of life here. There's a ton on my blog, so even if you just skim through the different months you should be able to come across a few things here and there that help answer those questions. And quite honestly, those are questions I'm still learning the answer to, day-by-day.
"Are you interested in continuing your volunteer work in Africa after you finish this time in Gambia?"
My service in the Peace Corps ends at the end of November, 2009. I'm interested in going to graduate school to study "conflict and security resolution" or "state-building." And I'm also still interested in going to law school. (preferably at the same time) But before I continue to graduate school I'd like to work for a year or so on a refugee camp, learning about refugee camp management. This is an area/field I have a great interest, but would like to get some first-hand experience in before I head back to school. Down the road I would like to work with running the day-to-day logistics of refugee camps and resettlement projects, specifcally in Middle Eastern and North-African countries.
Thanks for your questions! I hope these answers help you get a better understanding of the work I'm doing and the life I live here.
Thanks again! Until next time, take care.
