This little toubab went to market...

...and the crocodile pool, and the Saint Theresa Upper and Lower Basic School, and the Come Inn (favored PCV hangout) for a genuine Gambian lager - JulBrew, to call it by its brand name. Our group is out of control with the self-chronicling, so you may have read it all already elsewhere, but yes. I was there too.
Yesterday was a busy day, with Saint Theresa's, more lessons in gastrointestinal upset (both in and out of the classroom!)*, a water-filtration how-to, and a tour of the local hot spots of peril with our Safety and Security coordinator. If all goes according to plan, I will never go out on my own, ever, and will never leave my compound after dark, period. So mom and dad, put your minds at ease. I will be well cloistered.
We're leaving tomorrow for our training villages, and I don't think I'll have much (or any) email access for the next 10 weeks, so if you want to hear of my adventures by the village well, learn my Gambian name, and find out the current bush-rat death toll, please do send a regular letter (address at right).
I was going to try for a grand summing up of my First Week in Africa, Ever, but...what can I say? It's strange. Things look very dreamlike here sometimes. Half a block of tourist-strip restaurants gives way suddenly and completely to pockmarked concrete, sand, and little kids playing soccer. The light is different, especially with a storm coming on. All the dogs look kind of the same. Things like that. Plus, every single interaction here is slightly different from how it would be back home - whether you're talking to a shopkeeper or a random adorable little kid or another American. We're learning the rules, but it's all just different.
Anyway. I'll get back to you once I learn some of the rules. Hope you, my home people, are all there. And all well, too.

*don't worry - I don't have "bad diarrhea," according to the medical officer. But if you have some extra Emergen-C...