Salaamaleekum!  I hope the weather is not too brutal over there, because IT IS HERE.  Waiting, waiting for the rains.  We get a rain storm once every 2-weeks.  The same thing happened last year and most of the crops failed.  DO A RAIN DANCE FOR ME!  I’m serious, try it.  Until the rains, it’s just freaking hot.  That’s what I get for living in West Africa, on the equator!

Hm.. updates.  Let me get business out of the way.  I have A LOT of projects going on right now. 

Most of them involve funding of some sort.  Mostly, I find grants online or through Peace Corps & charities.  For those that don’t follow the requirements of a grant, I have to ask friends and family for money.  Trust me, this is the last thing I wanted to do as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  However, all projects need funding of some sort, and “I ain’t got no money” (story of my life).  I am posting a link to a webpage of a water-charity project.  These women have busted there asses working with me, as I with them.  It’s time to help them out just a little bit more.  Check it out. Help if you have the means!

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/1205  (whoo! Meaningful work!) 

Other news. 
1. The health school is my village is complete.  We conducted final interviews to measure the success of the project in the eyes of the women and village leaders .  Our closing ceremony is on Sunday (PARTY!)  I am going to eat a lot of yummy rice, dance like a chicken with its head cut off, and hand out prizes to all the dedicated women who were involved in the project.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT America, I can feel your love across the Atlantic.

2. Well-projects.  Everyone needs water.  Most people here can’t just turn on a tap and out pours water.  People get their water for drinking, domestic use & gardening through wells.  Yes, like a pulley-system and (wo)man power.  I wish you all could see it.  I currently have 2-different well projects going on to get some people drinking water and water for their gardens. 

3.  Painting.  Been continuing to paint educational pictures and things at my friend’s village.  She is painting in her school, like letter sounds and associated pictures.  I love painting.  It’s quite intimidating, but the second my fingers touch that paint, it’s nothing but fun!  I swear I’ll post pictures on FaceSpace at somepoint soon.

4.  Working with trying to build gardens and whatnot.  Food is not plenty in this country.  I like to see full-bellies and healthy babies.  It takes a lot of money though, so I’ve been writing grants and such.  I’m going to be REALLY good at asking for money when I get back.  You sure you want to be my friend when I come back to America?  Peace Corps Volunteers “ain’t got no money!”

Other than like legit projects, once the rains hit, I’ll be in the field with my family.  We mostly farm cous and groundnuts, but also things like corn & a teensy bit of rice.  It’s.hard.fucking.work.  I wish everyone had to grow their own food, then maybe they would appreciate shit.  I love being so close to my food-source, growing foodstuffs and eating what I’ve grown.  The other day I went out with my family to collect Baobab leaves to put in the lunch bowl.  They are so tasty that I just ate the leaves right off the tree.  Also, bush mango = dank.  It “blocks me up”, but is so delicious – and they’re so plentiful, all over the ground and ready to fall into my stomach.  One of the women who cook in our compound climbed like 30-feet in a Baobab tree to get the leaves.  I didn’t have my camera, but it was EPIC – something I will never forget.

I have about 8-months left and still go back and forth every single day about whether or not I want to extend.  I could live like this for a long time to come, but I have to consider students loans, friends, family and love interests.  I just don’t know if I left that I’d ever have the means to come back, probably cuz “I ain’t got no money.”  Ha, I love sayin that in the way my brother says it (ghetto & southern).

Take care guys.  And for real, check out that link up there ;)  Help a sister out.

Salaamaleekum!

Hope all is well in the States. It’s april, should be rainy there right? Well we have another 2-months until we see even a dew drop.  Man I miss playing in the rain, splashing in puddles; this year I have rain boots!  It’s really hot here right now, it was 91 today and that was the coolest it’s been in a few weeks now.  From 2pm-5pm, I sit in tree eating ripe mangoes and writing in my journal and/or reading books.  It’s JUST too hot to do anything during the day.  People are starting to prepare their fields for the farming season which will last from june-october.

my new toubab baby

The health school just finished its 4^th month, completing Reproductive & Child Health month!  We even painted a whole health mural on the village clinic – it’s beautiful!  Now we move onto Environmental Sanitation, talking about open defecation in the bush, pit latrine maintenance/sanitation, waste water, trash dumping, etc.  It’ll be a dirty dirty topic but oh so necessary!  The last month will be on Malaria in June.  After that, I’ll have to make some more work. 

Time is flying by.

completed health mural in my village

i got a place in the mural! check out the pit hair haha

Every month for the rest of my time here, there is something planned.  I cannot believe in the blink of an eye that my time here will be finished, or will it be ;) I might try to stay here for some time.  I love the simple village life and can’t imagine my life otherwise right now.  A new group of Peace Corps health/environment came into the Gambia just this month, and I want to help them out with adjusting, learning language and creating work.  They spent the last 2-months training in Senegal, and are now officially Gambian volunteers!  With this group coming, it is not only a significant time for THEM, but also for me.  I remember this time last year I was doing the same thing as them – swearing into the United States Peace Corps, with my right hand raised, reciting lines that promise to promote peace and prosperity among Gambians in the hopes of progress and positive change (there’s a lot of P’s in that sentence).  It’s beautiful to take this time to reflect on the last year and look to my future.  I am very happy right now with my service I am just radiating energy.  All of those around me will feel these vibrations – it’s inevitable!

i wish i could look as fly as her! wedding day

I am in a significant time in my life right now, living abroad.  I now have a solid grasp of the Wolof language (well… I’m trying anyways).  I feel COMFORTABLE in my environment. I absolutely love my village and family – I have FRIENDS here and people to infect me with happiness.  I have meaningful work and hopes for more in the near future.  I feel like I am growing a lot, learning as much as possible in my Peace Corps experience.  This is also a personal experience.  I’m taking time to try new things, like crocheting, farming, etc.  I’m happy.

the village painter and a good friend of mine

Well I’ll keep this one short.  Just know, all is well on the smiling coast of West Africa.

Busy Busy is the Working Bee!

Salaamaleekum! Peace be upon you all.

Apologies for the time it takes to write these things.  There’s always much to be said, but when I sit down, I feel like a blog just can’t do this experience justice; but as I always say, I’ll try my best!

Updates:1. Geoff came and went.  Most visitors don’t stay more than 2-weeks – Geoff stayed for a month in West Africa.  Granted 2-weeks were spent travelling to Cape Verde, but there were 2-more awesome weeks spent in my village.  He’ll be the first to tell you that he fell in love with the slow, village life; it’s easy to do when your biggest worries are “I wonder if I’ll have diarrhea today”.  LOL!  Geoff cracked groundnuts, took bucket baths, explored the Gambian bush, and much much more.  OH YEAH, we had a wedding!  It was a playground wedding, filled with drummers and asobes (matching outfits with Geoff and my family).   It was an amazing learning experience to have a guest from America, for him and myself.  I hope it’s not the only time I’ll have a visitor.  I’ll post just a few pictures here:

Geoff running down the side of an ACTIVE VOLCANO!

On FOGO, one of the islands in Cape Verde off the coast of W. Africa



Wedding day matching tye-dye outfits! How Peace Corps lol



My Gambian family and our "asobe"s (matching outfits) for the wedding!



And you thought YOU get dirty on the dance floor!
Wolof women do it right.

"Malick Ceesay" dancing with my wife Jamma Ceesay!

The slow village life, cracking groundnuts - beautiful!



2. HEALTH SCHOOL is more than I could have ever imagined!  We are officially halfway complete, and the women are just getting warmed up.  This past month we focused on nutrition, filled with: weaning foods, cooking demonstrations, dramas, and fun activities.  This past month and next month are dedicated to RCH – Reproductive and Child Health.  March had 2-classes: the importance of RCH & female anatomy (see pictures below).  This next month (April), we are holding 2-more classes on RCH: pregnancy and menstruation & family planning.  In some villages, these would be considered “taboo” to teach, but the women have shown a great interest in these subjects, which make the lessons that much more wonderful.  Lastly, in two weeks, a few of my Peace Corps co-volunteers, as well as the women enrolled in the health school, will paint HEALTH MURALS on the hospital!  We got permission from the village leader to paint, so no need to hesitate.  I will post pictures later!



My host mom showing off her anatomy apron and model!



Teaching about exclusive breastfeeding!
It looks like I'm doing it haha!



weening foods cooking demonstration



"and here is the PENIS"
Anatomy lesson in a muslim country #score



RANDOM UPDATES:

      I got to watch my first Gambian tattoo be done by a woman in my village.  So allow me to explain!  The pictures below are somehow disturbing, but they’re for “cultural purposes” haha, or my sick infatuation with body alterations.  Anyhow, getting your gums (yes, in your mouth) tattooed is seen as a sign of beauty.  I don’t know when they chose that place, of all places, but it is done pretty regularly here.  The only other kind of “tattooing” that is done is called “fula scarring”.  FULA is a tribe here in the Gambia, but the scarring is done by all tribes.  I have done this type of tattooing (see picture below), and it is very common for Peace Corps Volunteers to get these done before they return to America.  Have a look!

she was a bleeder.





stayyyy still, squueeze my hand!

One of my family members doing a "touch-up" on her gum-tattoos

Well, that’s pretty much it.  I’ve been busy busy busy these past few months, with Geoff visiting, travelling, the health school and a few other side-projects.  The time is flying by too fast, which makes me want to stay longer; we’ll have to see if I’m allowed!  Oh, by the way, it’s officially the HOT SEASON.  This means I spend most of my afternoons sitting under a tree, usually doing one of the following: WRITING LETTERS HOME, learning wolof, reading, braiding hair/getting my hair braided, panting like a dog, sipping attaya and juice, and napping.  I would love love love some letters.  It seems people (including myself) have begun to slack off, but please remember that I really really look forward to handwritten love.  You don’t have to write about anything of importance, but write me darnit!  The address is somewhere on the side of this blog.



I miss you all, but I’ve made this place a second home.  I have a family here, friends, and meaningful work.  Peace Corps has been an amazing, life-changing experience for me, and I hope this blog has inspired some of you to go off and explore, have adventures of your own, even if into the woods of your backyard or into a local state park.  This earth was created for exploring and appreciating all the beauty it has to offer.  NOW GO!!