Doin' Work!

Salaamaleekum! Peace be upon you ALL.

I hope you all are enjoying the end of summer and embracing the coming of a beautiful season, FALL!  It was always my mom's favorite season and now that I don't have seasons, I'm starting to see why she always appreciated the seasons so much.  It's always summer in The Gambia....

I made "Peanut butter balls" for my family!!

Well, I'm never really sure what you guys want to read about.  Do you all enjoy hearing about what projects I am involved with or about Gambian culture?  I've tried to alternate my entries to keep in interesting, but I guess I just treat my blogs like I do my journal; I attempt to blend frustrations with excitement, business (work and projects) with pleasure (my personal journey).  Anyhow, shoot me a quick line if you want to hear more of one thing than the other.  I'm up for suggestions and/or criticism (there's an anonymous option) ;)

At this state in my service, I am continuing to dip my hands in multiple, small projects, trying to feel out where I belong and what makes me happy.  I had a sort of.. realization, recently.  It hit me that I signed up as a health volunteer, no matter how much I wish I had the same training as the environment volunteers.  So.. for a few days, I just sat in my huge.. maybe took a stroll through the bush.. thinking hard about what I want to pu tin/get out of my time here in Africa.

The cous and corn are now taller than me!

Conclusion: I am a teacher at heart.  Many people have told me that I'd make a killer teacher, and when I think about when I taught yoga and swimming in the past, I was so happy!  Knowledge is sustainable, and since one of the main goals of the Peace Corps is sustainability, maybe I should take what I'm good at and enjoy and turn that energy into WORK.  So I've come to the conclusion that I want to focus my energy in health education - which incluces environmental education (WIN WIN)!



Neem cream cooking demonstration at the clinic!


Recently, I taught my village about "Neem Cream".  Neem is a tree here in The Gambia that is known for deterring termites and - get this - MOSQUITOS!  Mix some neem leaves with soap, oil and boil it all together, and BAM you have mosquito repellant.  We've decided to call it "Diwi Yow", which translates to mosquito oil.  It really works, too!  My counterpart and I held a cooking demonstration to teach people how to cook up some malaria repellant.  Surprisingly, men attended the session as much as women did (very rare here in Bati Njol), and they were so very thankful - SO WAS I!

Cutest. Kid. Ever. On way to Koriteh Prayer!

Also, I've been helping out with the National Nutrition Surveillance in my village and 4 of the surrounding villages.  Using the height and weight measurements of kids under 5-years old, we could gauge their level of nutrition.  Later, we will sit down with the mothers of the "severely malnourished" kids to council them and give them nutritional supplements for their kids.  My goal, if my counterpart has a little extra energy, is to try and push the use of Moringa leaves in the food bowl.  Gram for gram, Moringa has:

• 2 times the protein and 4 times the calcium as in milk
• 4 times the Vitamin A as in carrots
• 7  times the Vitamin C in oranges
• 3 times the potassium as in bananas

Once again... MIRACLE TREE!  It's nickname is also "never-die" because it grows in the harshest of climates and conditions (aka Africa).

Lastly of the small projects is CAMP GAGA; this is different from the other camp I wrote about.  At the end of this month, me and about 15-20 other PCV's will meet in Basse (eastern most part of The Gambia), to guide young women to speak up about environmental issues.  We will blend environmental education with lifeskills (confidence, healthy decision making, etc) for girls aged 14-16, in grade 8 & 9.  STOKED. I'm teaching a reuse/recycle activity, getting the girls to think about how they can creatively reuse materials before we "throw them to the dogs"; we will attempt to make picture frames from old scraps of fabric and twigs, which is tooootally do-able.  I even made a dream catcher from trash... go figure!

Well, I will let you all go FOR NOW ::evil laugh::.  The next entry will be energy packed, for I have BIG plans for the women in Bati Njol!  I guess I'm really doing what I'd hoped and knew I would be doing all along.  Mom was right... "projects will come, don't stress."  Mom always knows best! 

I let the kids get creative with my hair - MOHAWK!

Thank you all for following my blog and sending snail mail/packages.  Aum, Peace, Love!

Ramadan!

Salaamaleekum! 

For those of you who are not so familiar with the traditions of Islam, I wanted to write a small post about Ramadan!  This year I am participating in the fasting, alongside my village, the rest of the country, and most Muslims on this Earth (oh yeah and the Peace Corps volunteers who live in Islamic countries)

When the moon is seen the first few days of August, the month long tradition (and requirement for Muslims) of fasting begins.  This is a time of turning our energy, thoughts, and bodies toward God.  From sunrise to sunset, absolutely nothing "sweet" can enter the body.  This includes the following:

* food or drink (ANYTHING you can think of in this category is not allowed)
* saliva... yes it's true.  I try and keep my guard up for the stray spit that may come my way throughout the day!
* incense, or anything artificial that may be sweet to the senses

ALSO not allowed:

* sex (ouch)... I can sympathize with the people on this one haha!!
* cigarettes, or really any sort of addiction the person may have..
* attaya - I previously touched on this phenomenon in The Gambia, see previous blog postings for details.

SO, from 5:40am to 7:40pm, the people in my village cannot partake or consume anything that may turn their attention away from God.  I love the idea of spending more thought-space and energy on God, and this isn't the first time I've done a fasting for this purpose; however, I have never participated in this type of fasting and am extremely grateful to be participating in such a challenge!  I have altered the fast a little and am still consuming water when needed, but all else I am staying within the rules (this is considered cheating by all men of my village, and I get heckled for it everyday...).

At 5:00am, I wake up with the women and men of my compound to eat a rice porridge filled with sugar and sour milk (ewwww, avoid!).  Once full, I stumble back to my bed and passsss out for a few hours.  My family, however, gets ready to farm for the rest of the morning - from around 7:00am-12:00pm on average.  This includes sowing crops, weeding the fields and all the intensive labor involved in farming/agriculture.  I still believe that Gambians are robots and have no idea how they stay moving without food OR water while working so hard.  After farming, the men mostly take the "rest of the day off" and lay around.  The women continue with the day, doing laundry, watching the kids, cooking for the people who are not fasting (kids, pregos, elderly, special cases), preparing the break-fast meal, and MAYBE catching a nap in between all these chores.  I have the utmost respect for all of the Gambians who are fasting, but DAMN the women have it hard.

I'm sure I haven't hit all the details.  I know the praying is prolonged and more frequent throughout Ramadan, and I just recently witnessed the most beautiful occurrence last night.  It was about 10:30pm, and my whole family was lying out under the stars.  Just as I started to doooze into dreamland, my whole family got up together (men and women) to pray under the stars.  It is very rare to see men and women pray together here, so it was quite entrancing for me to watch.  My father led the prayer, alongside my mothers, sisters, wives (brothers wives), and daughter.  It was a very humbling experience for me and made me very happy to be here in the Gambia - it EVEN makes being called "toubab" bearable.  Islamic prayer uses a series of movements and prostrations; these were all done in sync by my family which was SO beautiful.. too bad it's rude to take pictures during prayer or else I would have been alllll over that!

So far, the fasting has been fine with no problems.  The first few days were hard, with trying to farm beside my family and not eat/drink (i don't want to drink in front of them).  After the initial shock, my body has adjusted and I find myself thinking less and less about food throughout the day.  HOWEVER, come 6pm I start counting down the minutes until the sweeeet foodbowl of veggies, fish, meat (on accident, when I can't tell what it is), and rice.  I love breaking fast with my family with bread and coffee.  I feel healthy as ever, cleansed in mind, body and spirit. 

For those of you who are curious, find a Muslim buddy to fast alongside - I'm sure they would appreciate your efforts to become God-conscious and understand a tradition of their beautiful religion.

Look mom, I'm a Peace Corps volunteer!!

Salaamaleekum!

Greetings to everyone.  All is well here in Fana Fana territory.  I am writing this blog to let you know how much I officially feel like a Peace Corps volunteer and am HAPPY at the same time!  I know you all will feel my energy in this one, because it's just about to burst out of me, along with rice and cous... because I have been consuming in them unreal amounts - HAH!

did i tell you i got purple WEAVE??



even my 5-year old daughter can farm! awww she's cute.

So, updates YES.  The project I may or may not have mentioned before has officially completed it's first stage.  In case I never wrote about it, I will brief you.  For the past month, I have been organizing with (mostly) women in my community to plant 2,300 moringa trees (see previous blog about this miracle tree) and 150 cashew trees in our women's garden.  Along side these beauties, the women have already broken ground, broken a sweat, and planted hundreds of vegetables ranging from hot peppers, sweet peppers, lettuces, cassava, okra, and the list could go on and on.  There are 100 plots of about 15 meters by 10 metes - each compound (household) getting one plot to do with as they wish.  Veges are great and all, but there are hundreds of reasons to plant trees alongside veggies, as they complement the soil and our bellies HA i'm clever!

seeeeeds! oh how i worship the moringa...



measuring for seed placement. such hard workers!



my brother sowing corn in Senegal (it's only 1k from my village)



After a few meetings, the women agreed to sweat alongside me, putting all 2,450 seeds in the ground in an orderly fashion.  We used an alley cropping (just gooogle it) method to aid in soil enrichment and erosion prevention, along with various other purposes.   We just finished the plantings a few days ago, and now we play the waiting game.... THE RAINS HAVE YET TO COME!  This is unheard of.. last year the rains came early June, and now it is heading in August.  They women have resorted to rain dances and praying to the Gods for a slight chance of rain.




a rain dance!  i didn't think they really existed - hah!

 This project is a long-term nutrition education project.  The health benefits to moringa, alongside the thousands of vegetables the women are already planting, will be an amazing chance to educate Bati Njol on the benefits of keeping the foodbowl colorful instead of selling all of them in the local Lumos!  Once the trees come up a few meters, they will be more likely to take ownership of the them, which will hopefully help this project be a success.  Anyhow, I'm super stoked about it already and I can't wait to see what happens!!!

and and and



Outside of the gardening project, I have recently had the opportunity to bring out my inner camp-counselor!  The Forum for African Women Educationalist of The Gambia (FAWEGAM) has been holding a week long camp for young women in 9th-11th grade.  This camp is intended to allow the girls to realize their potential as bright, educated, confident young women to balance having a family with having successful careers.



20 of The Gambia's most beautiful, inspired, and inspiring young women (oh yeah, and 3 PCV's!)

Our camp has been filled with field trips to visit sucessful Gambian woman who have come from the same places these girls have (mostly in traditional villages up-country), who tell their stories of determination, struggle, perseverance and success!  It's been incredibly fun and educational at the same time.  When they are not learning about gender-roles, female and male anatomy (OH MAN that was a fun session), and other life skills, we are making Gambian-style jewelry - BIN BINs (see picture below), coloring like 5-year olds, dancing and having a good ole time at camp!! 

Waist beads that MOST every Gambian woman wears (i'll explain later, remind me.. eh?)

Beads, Beads, everywhere!  I love camp.

It made me realize how much I love working at camps and being around the youth of this beautiful world.  Education is sustainable.  These girls will never forget this experience.  Some of them have NEVER been out of their regions of the country. Some of them have NEVER spoken out about issues such as careers, gender-roles, sex, marriage, etc etc... THIS IS AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY FOR THESE GIRLS!  I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity.  Of course, they were all kinds of shy in the beginning... but I had to change that IMMEDIATELY; I made them all get up and dance haha!  Even the American Ambassador came out for the opening ceremony, and her words of advice were this "IT IS NOT OKAY TO JUST BE A HOUSEWIFE!" and she even pointed a definitive finger at the girls.  By the way she used to be a Peace Corps volunteer and helped to fund this camp (so awesome)!

so....

I wanted to let you all know that I am busy, I'm happy, frustrated at times, but I'm being a Peace Corps volunteer - we all go on this roller-coaster ride of emotions.  I'm doing what I always knew I would... helping to educate, motivate, laugh, dance, learn, and make an impact on those who I am surrounded by.  Thank you to all of you who motivated me to do the Peace Corps.  Mangi ci kowam, ndanka ndanka (I'm on the work, slowly slowly).

The community health nurse and I working in the garden!

So, just a reminder that I LOVE snail mail.  My address is right over -------> thurr.  Write me some darn mail, don't be lazy. 

You all inspire me.  Peace & Love.