life as a process
Of course, as time passes, more things begin to take shape. It’s a process that reminds me of getting night vision after spending time in a brightly lit room. Things look very different once you have taken the time to let yourself settle down and get your bearings. I suppose this is an admission, to myself at least, that I was overly anxious to be finished with the moving-in process and onto what is next. Now I see that it takes time, and even if this were an American city I would still be figuring out the best grocery stores and hardware stores, not to mention growing a group of friends. So, I suppose I should allow time to take its course here, and have faith that good things will happen if I let them.
Work is certainly picking up – I have another school to work with now, and I am tackling actual problems at the high school, and it generally feels like there are things for me to do. I have met with all the major players in town – representatives at least – and I think I have a good feeling for who is interested in playing ball any time soon. The new school I am working with is supported by the Anglican mission, in a relationship I don’t yet fully understand. They are a small school with only nine total classes (but nearly 450 students), and have resources behind them for things like a computer lab. They even have a separate generator for it, and nine working computers. It’s very promising, and hopefully I can figure out how to clear the last hurdles to get the lab functioning.
I am also getting to know the community a bit better, and have been playing basketball with some kids / young adults at a youth center. I just realized I am old enough so that males who seem like kids to me might object to being called that. Oh well, it had to happen sometime.
Other details from the past week… went on a quick trip to Kalagi, which is on the south bank, about twenty kilometers, and more than an hour’s travel, west of Bambako (my training village). I got to hang out with three other volunteers and a German undergraduate who is volunteering with a Catholic mission. I even have some pictures that I am going to try to upload. I also visited another IT volunteer in Soma, and saw some of his problems. It was fun to work together, and good to see another set of issues from the ones I run into every day up here. Other than that, it’s been a lot of groundnut (peanut) paste sandwiches and sweaty cooking as Ramadan grinds toward an end.
I’m going to a party on Georgetown Island this weekend – a combination of Halloween and send-off for the environment group that departs at the end of next month. We will be celebrating on a boat on the mighty River Gambia, and hopefully there will be much fun and hilarity involved. It doesn’t quite feel like Halloween here, no trees are losing their leaves and the temperature is stuck at hot, but hopefully a big group of volunteers getting together will provide the ambience. Or at least an interesting day trip…
Love to all, Zac
Work is certainly picking up – I have another school to work with now, and I am tackling actual problems at the high school, and it generally feels like there are things for me to do. I have met with all the major players in town – representatives at least – and I think I have a good feeling for who is interested in playing ball any time soon. The new school I am working with is supported by the Anglican mission, in a relationship I don’t yet fully understand. They are a small school with only nine total classes (but nearly 450 students), and have resources behind them for things like a computer lab. They even have a separate generator for it, and nine working computers. It’s very promising, and hopefully I can figure out how to clear the last hurdles to get the lab functioning.
I am also getting to know the community a bit better, and have been playing basketball with some kids / young adults at a youth center. I just realized I am old enough so that males who seem like kids to me might object to being called that. Oh well, it had to happen sometime.
Other details from the past week… went on a quick trip to Kalagi, which is on the south bank, about twenty kilometers, and more than an hour’s travel, west of Bambako (my training village). I got to hang out with three other volunteers and a German undergraduate who is volunteering with a Catholic mission. I even have some pictures that I am going to try to upload. I also visited another IT volunteer in Soma, and saw some of his problems. It was fun to work together, and good to see another set of issues from the ones I run into every day up here. Other than that, it’s been a lot of groundnut (peanut) paste sandwiches and sweaty cooking as Ramadan grinds toward an end.
I’m going to a party on Georgetown Island this weekend – a combination of Halloween and send-off for the environment group that departs at the end of next month. We will be celebrating on a boat on the mighty River Gambia, and hopefully there will be much fun and hilarity involved. It doesn’t quite feel like Halloween here, no trees are losing their leaves and the temperature is stuck at hot, but hopefully a big group of volunteers getting together will provide the ambience. Or at least an interesting day trip…
Love to all, Zac
posted by Zac at
1:31 PM
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