Last Friday

So I visited the NAWEC office this week. Nawec is the NAtional Water and Electrical Company, I think, and is responsible for a good number of the frustrations felt by citizens of our fair town. They said that the operating schedule for the public electricity is eight a.m. to two p.m, and five p.m. until three a.m. It's done on Gambian time, so those are very rough numbers, but has been remarkably reliable - within an hour or so - most days.
  Today I'm back at my local internet cafe, trying to get some emailing done through a thick web of delays and problems. Now, though, perhaps it's working. I have written a couple of other entries, which I'll upload today, god and network willing.
  It's a strange feature of volunteer service, how most of us lose touch with people back home to a significant degree. When I'm in the volunteer computer lab, we often comment about how we love to get emails, but don't write back enough to justify many people writing to us. It's probably a combination of the frustration of the internet here, the difficulties in relating this experience, and in relating to what's going on at home in the same way. All of which is a long sort of apology for not writing to all of you who I should be writing to. It's just such a pain in the ass to do at the moment. With a more regular internet connection, even if it weren't fast, I'd be better. I promise.
  The fasting continues. It's gotten harder the last couple of days, the heat is back - we haven't had any rain in maybe a week now - and I'm starting to suffer a bit. Yesterday I played basketball, which seemed like a bad idea and probably was. It's hard to drink more than three or four liters of water and eat enough food in the time before going to bed. Tonight I might stay up late just so that I get super hydrated and full - two full meals I'm hoping. Yippee, to stay up late! And eat!
  Two of my schools are hoping to re-connect to the public electricity next week. They both had connections when there was power previously (two years and some back), and just need to be upgraded to whatever Nawec is doing now. The other school is also hoping, but a bit unrealistically in my opinion, as it will likely cost them about 20,000 dalasis that they don't have. But, the world works in mysterious ways.
  The internet is as flaky as ever, and I have little confidence this will actually get posted today. I should write an entry that is just a blow by blow saga of connecting here. It'd be interesting to me at least.
  Now the lab "technician" is using a hand vacuum to blow air (into the server??), and I'm recognizing that I'm getting a little too caustic to be near human beings. It's time to break fast in a few minutes, and I have to go home. One post published in the two plus hours, so I'll consider that success and come back soon.

Another one I wrote before and couldn't post

It's so much easier being back at this as a second year volunteer. Having gone through the cycle of seasons once, knowing what to expect, and knowing what range of unexpected things are likely to appear - a wide one, that, but still somehow comforting. And probably I'm more comfortable with the unknown these days. I'm certainly more comfortable here, more comfortable with myself. And that was one of the big reasons to do this adventure, to be away from everyone again. The chance to be forced to be myself, on my own, and figure it out. So, I'll put a check in that box, and realize it will uncheck itself over time, need more attention down the road.
  Some of the things that are easier: 1. knowing that after the rains end, as they seem to be doing, October will be hot but then it's gone, and we are back to the beautiful cool and dry. Only hot for a few hours a day, and not sticky very often at all. Heaven, in other words. 2. Knowing that I can take care of myself, nutritionally, healthfully, and mentally. It wasn't something that I particularly worried about (on a conscious level, at least) before coming here, but I realize now that I wasn't sure I'd be able to thrive here. 3. Having established relationships in town, in my compound, and with other volunteers. I have a big group of friends here - different groups really, Gambians, Peace Corps, and other people - and that certainly makes it more fun. It's certainly easier to do things, even though I find myself busier than I'd like most of the time. A good problem to have.
  I am keeping the Ramadan fast, which entails not eating or drinking from the morning prayer until the evening prayer. I get up at five to eat something and have water, then go back to sleep a bit before starting my day in earnest. The hard part is in the evening, from fiveish until half past seven or so when we break fast. It's a thirsty and supine time of day, makes me wish we were farther north so that the sun would set earlier. In any case, tea and bread with a bit of something is what the compound people eat then, followed by dinner between nine and half past. I think I prefer breaking fast with just water and less food, otherwise I can't eat dinner. Really, it's the water that I miss - I am forcing myself to drink about four liters between dusk and going to bed. But, so far (this is my third day fasting), the most bothersome part is the sleep cycle disruption. I'm not sleepy after eating a big meal, or perhaps know that I shouldn't just sleep, and then to get up at five is a bit rough. I'm enjoying it though - it feels like a good connection with the community, some insight into how they are getting on, and makes me more understanding when a headmaster falls asleep while we're meeting - even while he's talking.
  Our electricity continues to come on regularly - it seems to be two cycles of between five and seven hours each - which makes my life a lot nicer. I've recently started trying to organize a bunch of music on my hard drive, and having power to run my laptop whenever I choose is sweet. It makes me realize how many steps there are between no electricity and what we have back home, though. Like having a single water tap in the compound, the Gambia is taking small steps forward, with a lot of sliding back going on as well. Development is a strange animal.
  Thinking of home a lot these days - Henderson Harbor seems to have infected my brain, this is the first time I've ever not been there for a year straight - and hoping to buy tickets soon to fly home for the holidays. Hope everyone is well, and be in touch soon.

Sunday Afternoon

The rainy season is still hot most days, but there are the occasional cool days, and that unpredictability is delicious. We are near at the end of the rains, probably going to end in two or three weeks, with fewer and fewer storms as it goes along. Just when my gutter has gotten on track.
Soon it will be the hard heat of October, humid and hot in one last sweaty blast. It's not that the heat is as hard as I thought it would be, but it's more tiring than anything else, and it's also Ramadan. No one from my compound saw the moon last night, but today was the official start in most places, so the fasting has begun without us. I'm planning to join in this year, we'll see for how long. Perhaps after a week I'll be hating it and start eating on my own. But it's an interesting time to be here, and a good point in my service to do it - as adjusted as I'm going to be, and in relative fitness from a summer spent eating well. Food and nutrition are such a part of life here, I enjoy the basic-ness of it.
Two days ago was the presidential election. Yesterday it was announced that Dr. Alh. Something or other Yaya J. J. Jammeh won again, probably by a ridiculously huge margin. I'll not discuss that, but both days were peaceful to my knowledge, and people were excited about the process. Hopefully schools will open tomorrow, perhaps (probably) the day will be declared a national holiday in celebration of the victory. It would be a good time to really get started with the school year, which opened almost a month ago.
One great benefit of the election, to me at least, is that we now have public electricity in Fara Fenni. It has been on every day I've been home, usually for more than twelve hours at a time. So, I'm able to have my computer on a lot more, and thus write during the middle of the day, at home, more easily. The solar panel is good, but not strong enough to charge my batteries very quickly if I run them all the way down. The public electricity, however, is great at charging them, and if it keeps staying on so much, I have as much power as I could want. All sorts of new ideas spring to mind!

it's way too long, maybe read it in parts

Once upon a time - the eleventh and twelfth of August actually - the trainees came to visit me in my house in Farafenni. They were on "volunteer visit", where a trainee stays with a volunteer for a few days, ostensibly in order to see their work and life, but in effect as a break from the training program and a chance to see how volunteers are at home. It's tradition to take good care of the trainees, have a party or something, get them good food, etc. My site is uniquely suited to this as it’s the biggest town around, and I have friends with actual paying jobs, generators, etc. So, when the trainees showed up, I had made some plans.

A volunteer in Kaur, about 37 km down the road, was also hosting a trainee, and I asked him to come over, and I think some other people showed up from somewhere as well, so we had a rowdy gang of nearly ten of us drinking and carrying on in the best ex-patriot gone wild fashion. For the second consecutive training, we returned someone worse for the wear, but happy enough, I hope. We also visited the lumo (weekly market) in Farafenni, as a group of about seven, which was enough for two horse carts. Thus, of course, we got them to race. It was good times, not quite Ben Hur, but suspenseful navigating various kinds of traffic (pedestrian, taxi, truck, goat, donkey, etc.) over the two km route, and ended in a neck-and-neck slow trot finish. The horses here are visible rib skinny, so one feels a bit cautious asking for more than very slow progress.

After that I packed up my bike for my two-week trip to Kiang for model school and the end of technical training. I decided that I would rather bike the fifty? something kilometers instead of using gele-geles over that road, it is nearly as fast, involves much less waiting, and seems to be easier on my back somehow. This trip was ill-fated, though, as I didn’t get an early start (adventures at the lumo) and waited for lunch at my compound, then it was hot hot, so I waited a bit longer, got away around 3:30 or so.

A fun ride to the ferry was followed by an hour of watching the single ferry running be unable to make it into the landing canal because the current was stronger than the engine. They would find a line, try to steer in, and get pushed out of the way – it happened a few times before they got it sorted. Then, when they landed, the ferry got wedged behind one of the two new, big, beautiful ferries tied up next to the shore. Not in use, those two. So, after they finally unloaded – a process that included inching a huge and massively overloaded Senegalese truck down with me fully ready to run when the thing toppled over and applause when it didn’t – the boat was stuck for another half an hour before they worked it back out and to the main river. We made good time across, I was thinking that my trip was not in jeopardy, and they must have been trying to make up for the screw-ups. Which they accomplished by running hard aground less than one hundred meters from the landing, along the side of some mangroves. By this time I had had a chance to get to know my fellow passengers a bit, and was chatting with three Italians who were traveling in Senegal and transiting the Gambia on their way to Casamance. So, we hung out in the late afternoon sun – it was around six thirty at this point, if memory serves – sweating and pondering if we could get through the mangroves somehow, and trying to communicate with any words we could find in common. One of them knew a touch of English, helpful. I had packed everything into a series of plastic bags, so thought I could somehow just throw my bike onto a mangrove branch, hope for the best, and drown on my way to shore. So, I didn’t do that, and finally the ferry crew got us unstuck – perhaps the tide came in a bit farther.

Getting away from the ferry terminal is always a joyful moment, back to the freedom of my bike and the less diesel-y air of the road. This time, however, the terminal was completely flooded so that whenever a vehicle drove through, it sent a wave washing over everyone’s feet. I usually travel in Chaco sandals, great for everything. This time, I was wearing my running shoes as I was hoping to do some training. So, feet soaked with water foul in ways I don’t want to remember, I walked away from the ferry, feeling quite defeated. Good times!

I made it to Soma about the time the sun was setting, and had to figure out if I would rather stay there, sweaty, dirty and everything, or try to cross the Kiang road in the dark to get to Tendaba. Naturally, being a class A idiot, I continued on. It was a breathtakingly beautiful ride into the sunset, gorgeous cloud formations coming in – and predicting rain. Which was the only thing I hadn’t had go awry on this trip, so of course, it rained. I bounced through the potholes and splashed through the puddles for a couple of hours, getting to camp around nine, tired but somehow happy that I’d fought it out and knowing I had a good story for someday.

The next two weeks were the high point of education technical training, as the trainees taught model school in the mornings, with students from the surrounding villages coming in to sit as training dummies – but real, live, surly, and uncooperative ones – and tried to focus through talking head sessions in the afternoons. It’s good experience, the only way to really understand the various problems endemic in the school system here, but painful and tiring at the same time. I went through it last year, and was able to commiserate with them and pick up their spirits when they were too low down. This included helping them to coordinate a couple of parties while they were there, and the group proved themselves much more ready to let loose than others have. More good times.

After all of that, I biked to Bambako, the village where I spent training last year. The next morning a group of about eight of us went across to Sare Samba, a wollof training village that is seven or so km from the road and consequently hadn’t gotten visits from other trainees. It’s a beautiful spot, a nice village surrounded by millet and corn fields in a very gently rolling countryside. I spent two days there, studying some wollof and enjoying village life. Then I went back over to Bambako for a big soccer match amongst the boys – little kids mostly – played with a ball that I’d bought for them. They also had a “program”, which consisted of a rented/borrowed generator, a speaker, and someone playing some tapes at highest possible volume in an unused classroom at the tiny school there. I stuck around for three minutes longer than absolutely required by etiquette, then went home to sleep and biked back to Farafenni in the morning.

It was a great trip, good to see so much of Kiang again – it’s the least developed area in some ways, and where I first came to love this country. And good to feel strong and healthy enough to spend some time biking around in the heat that is our constant companion for another month. But just one more now!

After that, I spent nearly a week at home, fixing up things and generally getting back to square one. After that I came down to Kombo to get about my business, and to meet up with Sarah as she flew back from her two month trip. We went to an odd resort near Kartong, about thirty (?) km south of here, where we didn’t pay anything for lodging, but bought all of our meals there and had a great couple of days on an isolated beach. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but a cool idea. I think it is in the process of being built by a group that participates in the annual Amsterdam-Dakar rally race, who come to the Gambia after the race to donate their cars in an auction for the schools. Pretty cool, really.

I returned to the Kombo area for the last week of training, culminating with the swearing-in ceremony for my new pals last Friday and a big party that night. Working on training was a great experience, has helped me rediscover some motivation and given me a lot to think about and look forward to in the next year. My time is already growing too short! I feel as though I’ve just gotten settled, gotten my feet and shoulders squared, and I know that very soon I’m going to be facing my end of service conference and what comes next. Perhaps that’s the biggest difference between the first and second year – two years seems like a longer time as you try to adjust, deal with all of the seasons and events and transitions, but once you’ve gone through all of that once, you realize that you have less than a year left, and with the way that projects and time unfold here, you will be gone before you know it. African time, long afternoons and brief months, somehow it’s at the heart of the difference between this continent and other places I’ve been.

In any case, this post is way too long, but it’s an attempt to catch up, to make up for so many weeks I haven’t posted in the last few months. I am hoping to change that, to get back to weekly posting. I would love to hear from people – I know I’ve been bad at emailing but hope to also fix that.

reasons why I miss the internet

Music

Understanding

Stuff - twice, because that story is too good to only read one time

Holy Biscotti

So I just looked at this site, and considered the excuse that I was going to post*, and then realized that I've become such a stereotypical "blogger". And I'm sheepish about that. Just realized and became sheepish, that's all I'm saying.

Things here are tearing along, and I have a long post in the making, but not complete. It will be soon, and then here it will appear. Until then, you get the news that I bought a box-load of supplies to send with the mail truck that leaves in the morning. Mostly food for surviving the upcoming Ramadan. I'm planning to fast some, but probably not the whole time, and I want to always have food available so I can snack at night and whenever if the urge strikes.

Also, how freaking cool is this? That's one of the things I miss most about the world (apart from my people) - reading about all sorts of cool ideas and happenings. Here I just have to read books and ponder life in its own pace, without the overstimulation of the internet.

* - the national telecom monopoly has been having massive problems and was preventing any sane person from connecting to email. PC volunteers could still sort of get it, but only by waiting an ungodly amount of time and performing small ritual blood sacrifices. And stuff. The rest of the internet was basically unavailable.

Argh! Viruses and me

So I know I am supposed to know this stuff, and be prepared. And I sort of am - I backup important data and keep things in secure configurations. Sort of. But this one I picked up has ruined a lot of data and applications I keep on my usb drive - not permanently crippling, just annoying as anything and time consuming to counter. So, I may be doing that instead of writing the post I meant to put up.

Like I said, argh.