Region 5 celebrates its independence

Check out part of the long march past the regional governor. I wonder who the Gambian military band is homesick for.

Wetting the Bed

I’m in Kombo now, as I usually am when typing these things: down for a workshop, a school visit, and the new health group’s swearing-in…and in the meantime, enjoying the variety of dairy products (cheese, yogurt and ice cream, all in one day!) and the weather. Here, there is a breeze for most of the day, and it even gets cold at night. The island is a different story. “Mind-fryingly hot” is one way to put it. Another barometer: I think the flamingo is melting. (Happy belated St. Patty's, by the way.)

I can’t really tell you what I do between the hours of 2 and 6 every day, because the linguistic and cognitive parts of my brain are pretty much shut down then, maybe so the lizard part can make sure I’m sweating enough. There’s not much you can really do when it’s a hundred-and-I-don’t-even-want-to-know degrees out (and in), but I’ve come up with a few small ways of dealing with the upcountry oven:
1. Shade. After some searching, I’ve found a tree that regularly has girls sitting underneath it – a minor triumph in the land of women in the kitchen (or at the pump, the market or the rice fields), dudes in the shade. The hair-braiding teenagers aren’t my favorite company, and they don’t have the tiny radios and enormous draughts boards usually found under the men’s trees, but at least there’s a breeze. Sometimes. And visiting other volunteers at their sites has reminded me that it’s good to be out in the neighborhood.
That said, sometimes you just have to be inside and away from other people. In which case, it’s good to try the following:
2. Upon entering, immediately strip down to no more than a wrap skirt and bra.
3. Take a bucket bath.
4. Powder.
5. Take another one.
6. Powder some more.
7. Lie on the floor and moan.
8. If all else fails, wrap whatever it is you want to keep cool in a wet cloth. This works pretty well on my water bottle, water filter, and head covering. So when I woke up in the middle of the night, sweaty, miserable, and unable to move outside (guest on the new bamboo bed), what did I do? Well, dunk my top sheet in a bucket and get underneath it, obviously. I expected to have dreams about the Titanic or something, but no. Slept like an amphibious baby. If I can find or construct a towel big enough to cover my house, and then hire a team of small boys to throw buckets of water on it at regular intervals throughout the day, I think I’ll be good to go.

As promised

Look at that, I'm leading a workshop!

And blonde. And looking kind of funny. What did I tell you?
Lydia's blog, http://lydia-travels.blogspot.com/, has some more pix of the coiffures (mine and, of course, hers). You can also see what color it was at WAIST, before the chlorine in the American Club's pool got to it, at right...

Oh, and Patrick, bless him, has put up a bunch more pictures on flickr. I've updated the link at right so it should actually take you there to see them. More Manneh Kunda! More Face-to-Face! More pictures of buildings and monkeys! Who can resist?

Anyway, I've done a couple of these workshops now, making big books with lower elementary teachers, and they've gone pretty well. Here's the showing-off picture from the second one, at Sololo Basic Cycle School...

I want to start working more steadily at Sololo, and with the handful of other schools in my area that are reachable by bike, focusing on K-2 teachers with math and literacy. That's what the bullet point in my Action Plan says, anyway. Time to get out of the office more, right?

This past week, though, I've been down in Brikama to plan for spring Face-to-Face (mass teacher training in Janjanbureh over Easter break). I jumped ship to the maths department, and, well, we'll see how it goes. I was the only toubab and the only lady (my teammates' word, in case you think I'm putting on airs :) of the 8 of us, so there were some...differences in what we expect from the planning and from the classes. But I'm excited to teach time and statistics and all kinds of mildly humiliating counting songs (it's the accompanying dances that make them mildly humiliating!). And it looks like all kinds of good people will be coming to the island then - Rachel and Colleen to teach, Kristy for an afternoon of low-resource science experiment trial runs (woo hoo, chalk and soda cans!), Ade from Wings of the Dawn to see how his shipment of soccer balls and teachers' guides are being used, Philipa and her dad...oh, it looks like I really Will have to kill a cow, so many honored guests I'll have.

and for my next blog...

It will be called shallowinthepeacecorps.org, and will be filled with the things I really spend 80% of my waking time and brain power thinking about: food, clothes, hair, fixing up my house, and pedicure tips. In reverse order: it's good to save your laundry water in the big wash basin and use a scrub brush, pumice stone and the obviously-yet-mysteriously named Ghana Soap (it comes from Ghana, said the lady in the market, as if that explained everything) to try and tame those nasty puppies. I think the leftover Omo and grease probably helps too. And since I've already borrowed a stool from my family, and I'm sitting in the shade, and sometimes Reines d'Afrique (RFI's answer to The View) is still coming in over the radio...it's pretty much spa day in my ghetto backyard. (Complete with pink flamingo and out-of-season Xmas lights--thanks, Mom!)
Clothes: well, protracted back-and-forth with my tailor (!) about some pants that are at the same time far too large and far too small. 2 pairs, each too large and too small in different ways. It took about 2 weeks to sort it all out, and I ended up with one pair in a fabric different than the one I bought, with 4 perfect holes in the shin area. I figured that was ahead enough to warrant me quitting. No wonder I'm scared to get a complet made. But it's coming. Maybe with a mermaid skirt and some rosettes. I'm in Basse now (hence the interwebbing), and I'm gonna look for a nice wax print. Maybe with footballs on it.
Hair: Speaking of spa day...here's my ghetto backyard/institut de beautay, with Miss Lydia overseeing my transformation into...a blonde! Pictures to come the next time online, but in the meantime be reassured that I'm already having more fun. And that I look kind of funny. On the agenda for today: Phase 2: Purple.
Fixing up my house--eh, I'm running out of time, but it includes a patio. I know, geez.
As for food: usually I'm obsessed with questions like, Is it okay to like mayonnaise, Jumbo msg cubes, and hardboiled eggs on bread This Much? Have I gone too far when, instead of playing Freeze to Death/Burn to Death (a no-brainer in any case, now that the hot season has rolled back in) or Marry/Option 2/Chuck with people, I try to decide which sandwich ingredient I would give up...and I can't? Because they are each integral to the sandwich! And yet at least 2 of them, taken individually, are quite disgusting! This is the stuff that usually keeps me occupied while I'm waiting for a gele or whatever.
But sometimes I get a little boozhier and go to the market to check out all the Fresh Local Vegetables, and how lovely they all look, and how wonderful they'll look in my still-in-process Educational Alphabet book, so...shoutout to Karina and kitchenplay.blogspot.com, and here's what was on offer this week. (Don't eat the bitter tomatoes. They're yucky.)

Coming up, when I'm back online and have remembered my flash drive: Proof that I do work, too!
In the meantime, keep it shallow.

aaah!

I'm near a computer again in an office that's set up like an office (the kind that I'm, you know, used to. With staplers, even!). Back in Kombo for PC Thanksgiving/all-vol meetings/general hoo-ha, and I've posted all of 5 more pictures on Flickr (see right).
Lots of things going on in my island fastness--or island slowness, depending on the time of day, my energy level and that of others. Lots of other things just being. I'll write more when I'm not impinging on someone else's computer time - bottom line, I'm still figuring out my job at the Regional Education Directorate, meeting people, getting geared up to do my first training next week and then work at the face-to-face training program for teacher trainees over the winter holidays. That means, in practice, for the past few weeks, this is what I do: I go to the office from 9:00-12:00, when the power shuts off until the evening; I hang out, see if anyone is there, maybe read something with a title like "Rural Community Resource Centers," "The Gambia Handbook on Early Grade Reading Abilities (EGRA)" or "Where There Is No Artist" (thanks, mom!) and wait for something on the printer or one of the computers to break. Then I go to the other room, swear at the computer or the printer or both, try to coach the secretaries who are posted there for a few weeks through fixing it, and go back to my book. Or maybe send some text messages about getting more books. Or going on school visits. Or what bitiks on the island have cheese (currently, two!)
In the afternoons, I hang out with my family and complain about the heat--it's cool at night, but plenty sweaty in the afternoons still--have lunch, then retreat to my front room to read and make teaching aids - including an alphabet book that I'll post when I get a clean copy on my usb key, and some other things that I'll try to take pictures of at all-vol. (We're trying for a teaching aid show-and-tell, oh dorky joy!) Also, projects like...my Halloween costume. Which I've already posted pictures of. Priorities, much? Again, thanks mom, this time for the Sharpies, and I promise that I've also used them for things that will benefit Gambian children more directly. Although the costume seems to have brightened some local Gambians' lives considerably, judging from the laughter when I went out the door in it.
Last week I was out and about a lot, visiting schools for the All-Gambia Tree Nursery Competition, looking for seedlings that hadn't been eaten by goats and were reasonably well-protected against further attacks. Didn't get to see too many classrooms, but I did get the luxury of a ride in a Forestry Department 4x4, which at least let me see the outside, and the administrators, of some of the remoter places in Region 5. I'm starting slow. But I think I'm feeling my way. And I'm definitely enjoying myself. Maybe a little too much when it comes to the Sharpies.

Almost gone, again

I'm heading out to my permanent site on the Island of Janjanbureh (!) tomorrow, and I've put lots of pictures on flickr (link at right). Some text too. Enjoy!
I've got to be short here, but I think I'll have some internet access up country, so keep tuning in.
PS-I'm now an official volunteer. Nice!

Back from training village

...where a lot happened, but I was not eaten by goats. Or by anything else, except the odd mosquito and (for pretend) my favorite small child, with whom I had the following daily conversation:


Me: Mmm, I am hungry!
Fanta: I am Very hungry!
Me: Where is Fanta??
Fanta: Where is Mamjara?? [that's me, here, now]
Me: Here she is! [Pretend eating.] Mmm, Fanta and rice.
Fanta: [Pretend eating.] Mamjara meat is verrry tasty.
Both: mnam mnam mnam


Um, yes. You have to take what language practice you can get, and all I have to say is, the people of Bumari are remarkably patient with their bumbling Americans.


Anyway, pictures!



At the local football field



My friend Becca on our group's marathon walk




More marathon walk





My house in village (the end with the tie-dye, not the Pokemon.)

I'm back in the capital for the last week of training, so watch this space for updates on the last couple of months.