call to prayer

The sounds of evening call to prayer can be quite beautiful. Morning call to prayer, at five ish, are a little bit less inspiring, but taking a bath in the deepening night, as I am serenaded by imams (in a fashion), is pretty cool. Especially when the weather is as dry and relatively cool as tonight.

Life has been a blur lately – no posts in a while are the result. Two Fridays ago I had an experience with a mason that maybe shouldn’t be recorded, but was very “instructive”. That night Woman came up and we went out with two friends who were on the monthly mail run – so I got some letters and packages! Very much appreciated. Then I spent the weekend vaguely recovering from the mason, talking to Woman on Saturday, and seeing some other friends on Sunday. Monday was my last day of work before the trip to Basse, which was a smashing success.

I told myself I would write about the trip up there, which had some classic travel in Gambia moments, but maybe this isn’t the time.

Thanksgiving, though, was a home run; no body missed turkey, the chicken was so good, and almost everybody contributed something to making it a great time. I was there all day Wednesday getting ready for the storm, which blew in that night and lasted through Saturday. We did lots of story telling, reminiscing from training, and hanging out, a great group of people happy to be reunited after a couple big months.

There were board games played, there was wine consumed, and there was lots of recognition of growth in a group which had seemed pretty young when I met them in Philadelphia five months ago. It’s starting to feel like we’ve been here a while – soon we won’t be “the new guys” anymore, as the Environment volunteers are about to swear in and take over that role. There have been many times when I wasn’t sure this was the experience I wanted, that my life was headed in a different direction, but recently things seem to be better, more often. It’s still hard plenty of the time, and it’s still Africa all of the time, but slowly slowly things evolve.

Work is busy, which may be a part of it. I am getting a handle on some projects, and getting people warmed up to working with me. And the one project with a principal who really isn’t bringing anything to the table has officially gone back burner. Yesterday my boss came through, on her trek around to see all the education volunteers. She basically focused my work, cajoled some people, and made other things official that I had been doing on the side. Made my life easier, in other words. The best kind of boss, I have been lucky to work with one or two in the past, and always appreciate them.

Today I played basketball for the first time since mid-Ramadan, and apparently there is a tournament or something on Saturday. I will have to check that out, and let you know.

I wrote a little bit last night, but I was pretty wiped out and it’s a bit sloppy. Enjoy!

yesterday's news

So I jumped ship in Hong Kong, made my way to Tibet. Told em I was a looper, you know, a caddy...

One of my favorite movie quotes

Tonight is a beautiful night, and I am inside a fluorescent lit room, in front of a bunch of computer monitors. How did this happen in Africa? I suppose I will never quite escape geekdom. Tonight it's only more noticeable because I am worn out from my trip to Basse, smashing success that it was, and from waking before five this morning to finally get my ride back to the mighty FF. So I am a little loopy. A little more than usual. FF sounds so much mightier than Fara Fenni to me. I should put up a poll to see what the consensus is, among the seven different readers of this mess.

The hospital has its power back in order, and it seems that these classes with teachers from the middle school are going well. It's certainly an experience for me, working with people who know so little about typing, mousing, word processing, all things that I learned without remembered effort. I am trying to allow them to just figure it out, to find their own way. The problem is confidence – they don't have any, and they don't have enough of a baseline knowledge for me to have much to build on. Gambians mostly “learn” by rote memorization exclusively, and aren't given tools to teach themselves new skills very readily. I am constantly trying to figure out ways to break them out these habits, any suggestions highly welcome…

Mailbag and Christmas! list

For today we are going back to the mailbag... Well, really I have just always wanted to write that. But Polly did send some questions that are useful as a starting place or have been commonly asked. So, here are her questions:
When is the coolest time to visit? ... Also, do you guys have stage houses like Charles did in Segou? Do you have opportunities to gather and have American holidays or just a beer weekend? Do you have ice? Do you eat it? What is the biggest treat you get to eat? Is there any air conditioning in the city? In your house? What do you sleep on?
And my answers:
*The coolest time to visit me here is December and January. Now through mid/late February is the "cool" season. It is still hot by Lakewood standards during the middle of the day, but nights are delightfully cool - I had a blanket of sorts on for a bit of last night, and it will be getting cooler for a while still. The Harmattan winds are a concern, but I have yet to have any first hand experience.
*Yes, we have two houses right now - one in the capital region which is managed by the Peace Corps administration to some degree, and one in Basse, at the far end of the country, run by volunteers. I am going to the Basse house next week for Thanksgiving. We are supposedly getting a third house in Soma - a hour's journey south of here - some time in the next three to six months. Mostly because Soma is a transport hub, and people frequently get stuck there.
*We are getting together for Thanksgiving in Basse because my training group is on "Three Month Challenge" and are not welcome in the Kombo area until that's finished. Beer weekends also happen.
*There is often ice available here in Fara Fenni. I don't eat it, but I do drink cold water that it makes possible. Probably some risk of sickness, but a trade off I am willing to take.
*My biggest treat is often Woman's cooking - she is great at making yummy stuff from local ingredients, and somehow it never tastes like local food. Besides that, I don't have a single thing that I rely on, though the dried fruit my mom has sent is pretty fantastic.
*There is air conditioning in some of the Kombo hotels. Also, here the high school has it in the computer lab, though it doesn't really work. This time of year is dry enough so that I almost never need it, and can sit inside my hut without sweating, except in the hottest part of the day. And nights, like I said before, are cool and delicious.
*No. Not a chance of that.
*I sleep on a foam mattress, on a bed about three and a half feet off the floor. Right at the level of the windows. I am going to try to put some photos of it up soon, though not today.

The other item I wanted to post today is my Christmas List, which I have been considering for weeks if not months, but somehow feel certain that I am still forgetting many important things: (the highest priority items are marked)
#6mm and 7mm hex wrenches - to fix my bike
tabasco sauce
Dr. Bronner's liquid Peppermint soap
#a natural bristle body brush - exfoliating is heaven and very necessary to keep away skin fungus / infections
acidofolus (sp?) - my digestive system needs some good news
"green" multivitamins - I don't know how else to describe them in less than three paragraphs
radio/cassette player OR satellite radio
lever 2000 soap
#Arm & Hammer baking soda toothpaste - yummy
q-tips
philosophy/religion books - Buddhist, eastern, socialist, anything to stir brain cells
#Gabriel Garcia Marquez's autobiography - forget the title, but I am longing to read it
good batteries - AAA in particular
#water bottle cage and water bottle for my bike
speakers for my iPod, so I can shake my booty in my hut
music
letters
pictures - digital is good, film better
Borsari salt
food - dried fruit, energy bars, the usual, or anything unusual
a journal - I have one, or four, right now, but they are filling up
#promises to visit!

Things here are good in general - I wrote a long post the other day which I just put up, with details of my recent activities and thoughts. I have had the good fortune to speak with my parents twice in the past three days, today via Skype, which was a decent price and not much hassle (for me at least!). Next week is my trip to Basse, for a touch of work and a bunch of Thanksgiving, so much eagerness is in the air. And, on Friday, mail! The third Friday has come around again, sweet news. So, life is good and preparing to be better. I will be online again before I depart, and maybe from Basse as well, inshallah.

Love to everyone, and the new email thing is great!
Zac

Monday

Today I am writing from Tahir Senior Secondary School, on Mansakonko Road, in Pakalinding, just north of Soma in the Lower River Division. I am here visiting Ani, a second year ICT volunteer, to try to get some work done on two projects. One with his school and one with mine – both done in “African time”, as I am increasingly recognizing and getting a feel for its attributes. I will save this onto my usb drive – my favorite computer tool thus far in this country, and then hope to post it in a couple days at my (somewhat) trusty internet café in Fara Fenni.

Things here are good – I have been visiting friends in Njau last week Friday / Saturday, and then last night and today here in Pakalinding. The Soma is a transit hub for the south bank, and there are often people here passing through on their way to or from the Kombo region. This Friday is mail run, and then a week from tomorrow, Tuesday, I am heading to Basse, to do some work and have Thanksgiving. My training group is all gathering there – it will be a fun reunion of just us, as the rest of the volunteers are in Kombo for an All Volunteer meeting and Thanksgiving celebrations.

After the fun and excitement of Koriteh, and about two weeks consecutively in Fara Fenni, I was ready for a change of scenery. I think I appreciate the place most when I am not there all the time. Especially when I go to places like Njau, a small village in the North Bank area of Central River Division. Two friends are there, one on the Wollof side of the village, and one on the Fula side. She speaks great Fula, and Chris – my colleague from training – speaks very good Wollof. And no one in town really speaks Mandinka. So, I am the useless third wheel of languages, and a bit fish out of water with the village lifestyle to boot. It was good practice, and I’ll go back, but I was happy to be able to get more food that I like, or just have some variety in the day, when I came back to Fara Fenni. Life here is definitely not like it is in the village, and though I thought I would be missing out, I am coming to capitalize on the benefits of being here, and taking the opportunities I have to get out to other spots as well. I think I want to try to do it every month, go somewhere smaller, and hang out for a couple days.

Then, a trip down to Pakalinding, to catch up with my people there. Colleen (aka Woman), Elizabeth, and Ani are the closest people I have to sitemates, both in travel time and in face time. We went to a birthday party Sunday night for a German woman who was here with the World Food Program. She actually works – as does her Italian colleague (who made yummy pasta that I fear was a bit lost on the hordes of Gambian kids plowing through it, but it was food to them too) – for a European shipping company – like FedEx, I think – whose name I have forgotten. They are allowed to go work for the WFP for three months, keeping their salary and returning to their jobs afterwards. The company actually donates most of the money for their WFP projects, and so is more or less sending along its own labor to distribute the donations. It’s a great program from their side of it. Unfortunately, they end up doing marginally useful things, and spending too much money doing them, in some cases. I don’t really think I am doing much that’s more useful, but I have a better idea about how things could be accomplished. And it’s so rarely one-size fits all. I mean, it might actually be possible to help fix a lot of this country’s problems, if we were willing to spend huge amounts of money and resources and build a lot from the ground up, with people in situations like mine given big budgets after about six to twelve months immersion. But even then, they would have to be trained civic architects, and lots of technical specialists, and all willing to listen and live with the people. We could certainly ease some of the major problems – the roads and the electricity among them – if we did that. But then, eventually, “We” leave, and then what? How do we make ourselves obsolete in that scenario? That’s what I bang me head into at every point – why are we here if what is most needed is for this country to get down to the business of taking care of itself? Or changing so that it can?

And, I think the answer to that question is that we see the people that are a part of that equation. Because life really isn’t about countries and economies and infrastructure and development. It’s really about people, relationships, living. And perhaps we can build better lives in smaller ways, help out in little things, learn to be better citizens of the world by being decent people here. That, and it’s a great chance to get to know ourselves and each other – the volunteers I have met are almost exclusively very good people, some with their issues and approaches, but good people. And it’s a treat to be able to get to know a big group of people who share a big experience and some sort of outlook on life. It’s about both the people that live here and the people with whom we have come.

I think I am done sermonizing now. Mostly, I think it’s written for myself, as I try to figure out some sense from this experience. I know I am lucky to have the chance to do this – both the living in Africa and the exploration itself. Hope you all are well,

Love, Zac

The far side of Ramadan

The past few days have been great, as we have been eating during the daytime as well as enjoying the cultural festivities that are Koriteh. I list them in that order because that’s the order of importance to my life. I guess it’s telling that the cultural stuff takes a back seat, but I feel it’s accurate, because it’s my life and not a vacation I am considering. It just makes for a slightly different perspective on events for me. Like today, I was hanging out around the house, trying to get some projects done and enjoying another day with breakfast and lunch out of doors, with the people. And then I decided I needed to go to the lumo (weekly market), to check for an adjustable wrench. So, I got on my bike, went to one of the biggest weekly markets in the country, and searched around for a while. It was late afternoon, hot but not as humid as it used to be, and pretty much an amazing experience. I didn’t find the wrench, there or in the subsequent “hardware stores” I visited, but I got something that will work for now, and had the kind of time that once motivated me to come to this continent.
On Friday, the first day of Koriteh, I went with some people from my compound to the big prayer event. I even put on the gloki ba (big shirt) I bought in Mali, which is similar enough to the “kafitano”s that the Gambians wear that I got away with it. It was a good thing to do, though it meant waiting in the mid day sun for about half an hour, something I usually avoid at all costs. And I stood up and knelt down when they were doing their prayers, and tried to be as inconspicuous as a six and a half foot, red-bearded white guy can be at a big Islamic event in West Africa.
That day we also took a lot of pictures. It was basically a free fire day for anyone who wanted to ask me to take a picture for them, and some wanted quite a few. I haven’t seen the pictures yet, as I haven’t gotten out my computer, but maybe I will check them out tomorrow and see if there are any worth posting.
Besides all that, I have been focused on eating and taking care of my house. Last week when I came back from the party at the island, I found that I had three new houseguests. Mice, termites, and biting ants. It has taken a week, nearly, but I think I have turned the battle on all three. Wax in the holes where the termites and ants enter, along with vigilance to clean up their messes and mine, has seemed to get them under control. The mice are the bigger problem, but I cut their number yesterday by one. I caught him under a running shoe and did him in, an experience that moved me more than I hoped it might, but in the end I justified as him or me. There is at least one more mouse, which kept me awake for a few hours in the middle of the night last night, perhaps in revenge for a fallen comrade. I hope to turn the corner this evening, and get uninterrupted sleep tonight. And some point soon I am going to put actual cement into the various holes that they have chewed in the “Gambian concrete” used to make my house. If you are wondering about the quotes, come visit me and we can crush the stuff with our earlobes.
Thanksgiving is rushing up to meet us, some of the volunteers are missing fall weather – though the drier air is sweet stuff to me, especially as it means cool nights and mornings; Sheets! – and I am getting that Christmas list ready to post. I hope some of you sent packages in the last few weeks, as mailrun is coming in ten days or so, and it’s now probably too late to get anything to me this month. That and I’m greedy.
Sometime soon I am going to post a list of all the great books I have been reading. It is getting to be a good list.
Love to you all, Zac

A post from Tuesday

A bit rushed and out of sorts today, but want to post something if I can. Ramadan is wrapping up, and either Thursday or Friday is Koriteh, a day of prayers and feasting. Many people travel to their family homes for it, so school is out this whole week. And might be next week for many teachers and students who just don’t make the effort to get back. This is one of the problems with the Gambian education system, where teachers are placed in schools by the central government, and can be sent far away from where ever they call home. Then, when they travel for important holidays, they spend more time on the road, and their returns often do not conform to any official school calendar. So, the breaks drag on, and students don’t want to be in school if the teachers aren’t there, and then a vicious cycle ensues.
But, that feels a little bit like whining, and things have been good. I went to a gathering of volunteers on Georgetown island last weekend, for Halloween and to send off the departing environment sector volunteers, leaving at the end of the month. It was fun, a bit crazed and perhaps too much like college for me, but great to meet other volunteers, discuss work or life with them, and have a new experience. I got lots of pictures, and will hopefully have some ready next week sometime.
I also had a meeting with two people who have come from the Peace Corps Office of the Inspector General to do an audit of the program here. There were nine volunteers at the meeting, one of a half dozen they are conducting around the country, and we had an honest discussion of Peace Corps The Gambia, without too much bitching and with lots of suggestions and give and take. The inspectors were both former volunteers, and were familiar with a lot of the gripes that were expressed. From that meeting, I have come away with a stronger feeling that some of my impressions are true, such as the fact that there are too many NGOs and “development” groups at work here. And that many Gambians are actually dis-empowered by the overabundance of people here giving away money. It is a topic I spent much of my first month at site considering, whether “white people” are doing more harm than good by being here, and by allowing, or encouraging, locals to take back seats in their own country’s development. There aren’t easy answers to this type of question, and I have stayed here mainly because I think the development part of my job is the least important of the three goals.
It doesn’t look like I will be able to post this today, as the internet is bewilderingly slow. But, I think I will post it at some point, as it’s an honest look into one day here...