Here I am

Hello again from Fara Fenni! 26 Sept 2005
I am here at Quantum Associates - the internet cafe I have been using, writing into a blank document because they won't connect to the ISP without a third customer. Ah yes, life here has its charms.
But, being the industrious Peace Corps volunteer that I am, I have spent some of the time writing text messages to my friends, and now I am trying to write to all of you.
Things here are great, and show lots of potential to continue to be that way. Life is so much about attitude, and doing the little things well, and I feel like I am learning how to stay afloat here without too much splashing or clawing to the surface.
Not that the challenges I hoped to find aren't here, they are just somehow easier when expected, and when the days other pieces aren't too demanding. Yesterday was the day of the big lumo (weekly market) here in town, and I went with Woman, who came up Saturday afternoon. It was the biggest weekly market I have ever seen, located nearly halfway to Senegal on the outskirts of town (the border is that close). I think all the vendors did as much or more business in CFA (the currency of most if not all of former French West Africa) as dalasi, and there was certainly a lot of business being done. I had gotten a shopping list of sorts from Awa Ndie, who is in the role of my host mother, so had some work to do instead of just taking it all in. I was able to find all the items, and didn't get overcharged for them too badly. The meat was the biggest challenge. I probably got overcharged there, but I almost lost my breakfast as well. The butcher had quite a bit of meat around, including a hanging side of mutton in the sun, and quite a few different bits of viscera that he was willing to include. I had a choice of steak or meat and bone, and since we always eat meat and bone, and since it was less expensive, I got that. The whole process involved quite a bit of whacking and smashing and very little in the way of sanitary concerns. I had gladly left the meat for last on my list, because I was in little shape to do anything but trek home afterwards.
So I have a new goal - to be able to go to the lumo comfortably, get all of the things I need and not be exhausted by the project. It's an amazing confusion of trucks, donkey and horse carts, 50 kg bags of all sorts of vegetables, vendors of every sort, and people from the two countries piled on top of each other. It's the kind of thing that I came here to experience, get my fill of, and also the kind of thing that makes me appreciate Wegman's that much more.
I am starting to think I will not get on the net today, so I have found a spot to save this file, and hopefully I can retrieve it later on.
In the sporting news, Gambia was doing brilliantly in the Under 17 World Cup, in Peru, until Friday night, when they played disastrously again the Dutch and fell 0-2. That, coupled with a rout by the Brazilians of Qatar, left them out of the quarterfinals. Sadness befell a nation that had been held rapt by their Scorpions - the team's nickname. It is a lot of fun to be in a place that appreciates football/soccer so much.
Saturday night Woman and I cooked dinner together, making a vegetable stirfry on top of rice noodles – a brilliant change of fare from the Gambian diet, and made a bit more local by the addition of fresh groundnuts (the local term for peanuts). The groundnut crop is just starting to come in, and eating them so fresh is a treat. Sunday morning we made scrambled egg sandwiches – a combination of one of my favorite morning foods with the local idea of how to serve eggs. They were two great meals, and having Woman up to visit really made the weekend.
Tomorrow morning I am planning to bike to Njaba Kunda – I think I mentioned it the last time I wrote. It will be a challenging morning, I hope to leave around dawn, and get there before 9AM.
As I wait for the internet connection, which is extra slow today, I search around for more topics. The mail service from here has proved to be a challenge. Rates are tripling on the first of the month, which might be met with some outcry, but I have seen very few Gambians have anything to do with the mail system. I have also been trying without success to mail a letter for almost a week now – Pen Pal, if you are reading this, I will get it sent somehow! – but the post office here reminds me of something straight out of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. They have an outer room with all the vaguely familiar booths for dealing with customers, but they are empty and may never have been used. There is only a sign saying ‘No Entrance’ ‘Official Staff Only’ – but when I call out a greeting, a man replies from some room, and comes out to tell me to come back there. His office is bewilderingly hot, covered in papers and parcels, with a scale in the corner where he told me to weigh the package I wanted to send. I think he charged me the rate that goes into effect at the end of this week, though this happened a week ago today. And since then I have been unable to find the place open. All in all, the sort of thing I expected here, but that doesn’t remove all the frustration I am finding.
On Saturday morning I took my bike out for a first ride – went north to the border, and then south to the ferry and back home, all in about 75 minutes. It was great to get some exercise, and also to realize that both are so close. In a few months, once things are settled down, I may seek permission to go to Senegal for shopping and general exploration. We will see. And next weekend I am planning to bike to the ferry, cross the river, and go to Soma to hang out with Woman, Ani, and their other site mate. Ani is a second year education volunteer, also doing ICT, and I am interested in seeing what he does that I can learn to do here. All in all, things go very well. I haven’t run into any snags of particular venom, and I am happily sweating away here in Fara Fenni. I would love to hear from people, and now – 30 minutes after connecting – I see that I have email! Cheers everyone, Zac

Fara Fenni again

So here I am in my second experience with the Fara Fenni internet connectivity (at Quantum Associates), and this time I have been here for more than an hour and a half before the connection was even available. Gamtel - the national phone monopoly - is having a problem with their dial-up server. So this place connected to another, better, isp called QuantumNet. We visited the QuantumNet headquarters last week when we were wrapping up training, and it is a breath of fresh air. A properly run (by my American standards, at least) company, with real profits and potential. And they seem to be trying to do their part for the country as well. Their biggest problem is Gamtel, which is unresponsive, abusive of power, and probably everyone's biggest problem in the arena of communications. Anyway, my education continues...
Things here have been going well as I settle in and get my feet wet with work. I am taking things as slowly as I can, trying to meet people, assess capacity, etc. Basically I don't want to commit to anything to involved before I know what it is I am getting into. The principal at the upper basic school (middle school) is also new, and seems like a good guy. The vice principal is a little more demanding, and I am not sure how I feel about him quite yet. I have yet to have another meeting with the principal at Njaba Kunda Senior Secondary (high school), because he couldn't get transportation into town yesterday for our meeting. I am planning to go over to Njaba Kunda next week, to see what's up and have an official visit as a volunteer / work thing. I also want to test out how feasible it is to bike there, and enjoy that challenge. It should be a fun, muddy 27km. [If I haven't ranted about the road, and the issues with transport, between here and there, then here it is: The roads in this country flat out suck. That should probably be all capitals. And the road between here and Kerewan (halfway to Barra, where I can get a ferry to Banjul) is the worst in the whole country. If you took a very bad dirt road in America, made it three times wider, and then drove heavy trucks on it for 15 or 20 years through big rainstorms and whatnot, it would still be better than this road. I think if there were ever a war with Senegal, they should schedule all the battles on this road, as a way to improve it. I could rant for hours about it. I spent nine hours trying to get back from Njaba Kunda last time - those same 27 km. Snails crawl back faster than that. I am done ranting.]
Things with my family are going very well, my Mandinka is recovering from the time in Kombo, and I am adjusting to the dialect here. I cooked my own dinner last night for the first time, a treat but not necessarily one I will do as frequently as I thought I might. It's just hot to do and a little wierd to not eat with the family when I am there alone. Saturday night Woman (aka Colleen, or Mariama) is coming up, and we will cook something. Sunday is the big lumo (weekly market) here in town, which is a big deal. I should get some more supplies, see what's happening, etc.
One of the biggest benefits of having a phone now that I am at my site is text messaging. I never really thought that would be a part of my Peace Corps experience, but life is what happens when I'm making plans. For example, I was planning on having two other volunteers here in Fara Fenni with me, a married couple, but the day I came here, I found out they had decided to early terminate (after having been here only three months). That took a day or two to get used to, but now I am fine with it. Not that I don't get lonely, but I keep busy, try to get out to practice language and meet people, and do my thing. Actually, I have more things to do than time to do them at the moment, and I am not even reading very much. (That's one of the issues some volunteers face - they slip into books and don't interact with human beings for months at a time.) Anyway, this paragraph is all scattered, but I think it conveys some of what it's like as I settle here.
I think I am going to be able to post this finally, so I will take my leave. Love to you all, unless you are a random person I haven't met, and then only kindness.

photos

uploaded some photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/69931133@N00/

ramble on

I am tired tired tired, and wrote another email that I thought would be able to stand in for a normal post. Some of the prompting questions were comparing this to when I lived in Japan, asking about diet and amenities, asking about music, and talking about technical work that we had discussed in the past...
===========================================

I am about to move to Fara Fenni permanently - I officially became a volunteer yesterday - and go away from the office and fast internet and all that. Not that the internet is fast here, just that it's not mind killingly slow.

This is easier than Japan in terms of mental whiplash / culture shock - because I did that first, because I have been to West Africa before, and because I am older and better equipped. But, the lack of amenities is hard in a whole different way. I have to figure out how hard keeping some balance in my diet will be - big picture things like protein and fiber.

At our swearing in ceremony, we had a Gambian musician called Joliba, which felt like the first real exposure to great live music here. He is probably the most famous player around, singing and playing the kora.

[...]

As far as what I am doing with the schools, it is much more at the level of getting electricity working for the labs, then training them to be able to turn on the machines, and nothing fun at the level of programming or thinking about applications. I am alternately excited to get to work on some of these issues, anxious about trying to settle into the community and make my life livable, and hoping to learn more language and culture and do the immersion thing. But money is a bit of an issue right now - I haven't been able to get to any of my funds in the US, and after buying a cell phone, I am going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel by late November when I can get access to my paycheck again. But, I am a Peace Corps volunteer (!) - some part of it has to be dealing with a bit of financial pressure. I am glad to be able to call myself that finally - it has been a long road getting here.

I am completely rambling, and so will be done.

===========================================
I would like to post more details about swearing in, but that may have to wait for another time.

my mailing address

Zac Shepherd, PCV
c/o Peace Corps
PO Box 582
Banjul, The Gambia, West Africa

So you can send stuff there if you want.

Me, an adult again

That's the feeling I begin to have as I approach swearing in, the end of training, and having my life in some sort of order. I bought a cell phone today. Suddenly, I realized I am carrying a wallet with money and identification, a cellphone, and on the way to the office earlier, my computer. I had stepped back six months, into adulthood and out of the trainee / high school student state that had defined most of my time here. Not that it was inappropriate for us to be treated as babes, only frustrating. So, here's hoping that I can be a functioning adult in a small developing country with some success. It certainly won't quite be the experience I thought it would, but it is amazing and rewarding none the less.

I have added a couple other volunteers' blogs to the links list at the right, so maybe check them out for some other words on what happens in this occasionally insane part of the world. A few other members of my group have websites, so I will add those as I find them.

The post following this I wrote a couple nights ago, on my laptop, and posted it today with a different date. So that's that.

Money is suddenly spent on a different scale, and my budget needs to be within the edges of reason. One issue is that I know that I have money in dollars somewhere, and if I want to use them, I only have to figure out how. But so far, I have been trying to keep on the Peace Corps budget, and not blow it up too much with personal contributions. But that may change as I try to implement solar, we will see.

I have been futzing around in the computer lab for a while now, and dinner is served, so I am going to go eat.

the other night I was ranting

So I feel like I have nothing to write about - a problem I was worried about some time ago, the potential for this place to become "normal" to me to the degree that nothing jumped out as a subject to describe to people far from this reality. We - the trainees - are staying at Gambia Pastoral Institute again. Soon we will no longer have the title 'trainee', and will probably be the 'new education volunteers'. Then that will change in its time. GPI, as it tends to be called, has a generator that they run in the evening from around dinner time to 10:30, or earlier if it has an issue like it does tonight. So, I write on my laptop and its battery. Before the generator died, it had some fits and starts - one of the reasons I spent 550 dalasi on a voltage stabilizer yesterday. Another was that I saw two computers have their motherboards blown at our model school training, due to spikes in the generator's output, allegedly. So, electricity is a constant consideration - in a way it reminds me of the surf in Hawaii. There are times when the electricity is on, people (well, geeks at least) get excited to make use of it, and there are times when it's off and people go about their normal lives. Generators, solar, batteries, and the rest can extend the metaphor in a way - attempts to balance the power, to surf on the vagaries of electrons' flow through the grid, and be able to get where we want to go. It's a limited analogy, but I can't think of another way to describe what it's like to have random electricity.
In Fara Fenni, the family I will be living with has just purchased and started using a small generator for running lights and a tv with vcr. “Maria” tops the list of desired programming – a soap opera from some Latin American country, poorly dubbed into English, which has already been shown in its entirety to this country a few years ago. I can't really convey how bad the quality is, but it's worse than anything I ever recorded with a vhs camera in my youth. Especially anything starring Amos the cat. But, the upside is that I may at some point have a wire coming into my house, which would allow me to charge a battery and run my laptop with some regularity. So, I won't complain about Maria too much.
Gambians want electricity in their homes for three main reasons that I have seen so far: lights, fans, and tvs. The first two make total sense to me, the last very little. Increasingly, they want to charge their cellphones, which is more the type of thing I will be wanting to do – juice for battery operated gadgets.

more photos

I am too tired to write a proper post, but I put some more photos up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69931133@N00/

One set from the naming ceremony, one photo from a hike we did.

Pics of me included by popular demand. Ha!

Site Visit

I am in Fara Fenni, staying in my house for the next two years, on "site visit" as a part of training. It's a big town - more than 20,000 inhabitants - with none of the village charm of Bambako. The transition will be a big one, from training, from seeing all my friends so much, from the family and people I had in Bambako to this new situation. For the first time in my life, I feel like a kid from the sticks coming to the city and really disliking it. But, I am sure this will pass, I will get settled and start working. Tomorrow I am going to Njaba Kunda to see the senior secondary school (like high school in the States) there. I will be working with them to get power and get their computers working. All of the senior secondary schools in the Gambia recieved Pentium 4 desktop machines (either 10 or 20 of them depending on the size of the school) but some of the schools can't afford the generators to run them. I would love to work out solutions using solar power, but it does seem quite feasible here yet. I am not sure solar is ready to power desktop computers anywhere (or maybe desktop computers aren't ready to run on solar power). In any case, that will be a good challenge for the next couple years, and perhaps the school in Njaba Kunda has bought the generator they said they were going to buy and we can start working with a few computers this month.
Next week is the end of training and then swearing in. I will be an actual volunteer at last. Most of us are itching for training to be complete, but I am more ambivalent. Training has been easy and fun for me, and I recognize - especially now that I have been here a couple days - that we are about to start the challenging part. All the same, it will be nice to have the training wheels come off, and to get back to being more of an adult. And to get into the final transition for a while. My house isn't all that I dreamed it might be, but I will be able to make it nice and do a lot of the things I have been wanting to do. One of the great things about Fara Fenni is that I will be able to get almost anything I need here - there is a good market and we have a lumo (weekly market/ farmers' market) on Sundays. Also, being so close to Senegal will probably have advantages, assuming they ever reopen the border. It has been closed for two weeks at least because of a dispute over an increase in ferry charges. Some say the Senegalese are too used to pushing the Gambians around, others say that the ferry is used mostly by Senegalese going to Casamance (the part of Senegal south of the Gambia) and that a 100% (roughly) increase in fares is exorbitant. Hopefully the border reopens soon, as carrots and cabbage, to mention only two things, have disappeared and prices for other items are on the rise.
It's been a half an hour now and I still haven't been able to login to my email. The entire country of the Gambia has an 8 megabit connection to the rest of the world. That's the same as some businesses have in the States, here shared by a nation 200 miles long. Reportedly, it's supposed to triple sometime soon - it may have already, but the internet cafes are pretty terrible in terms of speed. That, and they all have internet explorer and no Firefox. I am planning to work with the people who run this cafe, so maybe I will be able to upgrade their machines and help them with some of the details.
So that's a bit about a bit. On Saturday morning I am off to Kombo for a week of enjoying the life there, getting sorted out before returning here as a volunteer and getting to work. It promises to be .... something.