Thursday, January 17, 2008
Pictures
I'm sorry it took so long to get to the computers but as you can read in my logs that although Gambia has the best communications they are not always reliable and cut out or just do not work at all. I've tried putting up the most important pictures but because the internet is too slow here I did not have time to put them in a slideshow on the bottom of the page so navigate the picture website and you can find other pictures not on this site. I'm having a great time and I would love to come back here again if I got the opportunity to do so.
Day 14
Day 14 1/16
Last night was a very disrupting sleep, strange noises with Josh sleep talking and knowing the creature was still in the room prohibited us from getting our sleep. We went to breakfast and had an oatmeal like texture with banana flavoring with bread. Then we went back to our room where we were to get ready for the day, but there were a few problems the night before so we could not take showers. As we were getting ready for bed last night we flushed the toilet and it started draining extremely slow. It completely drained but within a few minutes it starting coming out of the shower drain back onto the bathroom floor. We told the owner in the morning right after breakfast and he cleaned it up but did not fix the problem, but he did contact the plumber for us. While in the room getting ready we saw our creature. This creature has been present in the room since we have been living there, but we have become accustom to him. At first we thought it was a huge cockroach; this however was not the case, it happened to be a mouse. The mouse ran out from Josh D’s bag and immediately everyone was on top of their bed. We then saw it run into the other room where Justin and I originally moved out of. We moved out of that room because the creature was content in the couch located in that room and it did not have a functional light that we could use at night. So anyways the mouse ran into the other room and we decided getting ready to visit the Peace Corp would have to wait. We opened the door took the couch outside hoping he would be inside of it and our problem would be solved. As we were opening the door the neighbors asked us what we were doing and I asked her if we could borrow her broom to get the mouse out. She gave us a hand broom and a neighboring boy got the regular broom. We shut the door to the other room so as not to let the mouse back into the other room. They saw him shoot behind my bag so I said that I would move it. As I began to move things around Matt grabbed my drum and began to beat on it. I pulled by bag out of the corner and the mouse began to climb the wall. The boy knocked the mouse off the wall and began swatting at it trying to kill it. We were armed with 2 brooms, a hammer, a trashcan, and a towel. It scurried across the floor where it was first grazed with the hammer which knocked it slightly off balance. Next came the small broom which pushed it close to the door. All along the boy was swinging the large broom with killing force and Matt continued to beat on the drum. Justin somehow caught it in the trashcan as it made a dash for the open door, and the neighbor boy grabbed the tail of the mouse, swung it around, and the story of the creature ended as it was thrown off the ground. So now we could get ready to go to the beach followed by a visit to the Peace Corp. At the beach we studied our map and notes to get ready for the test on Saturday. We then went to the Peace Corp where we met some volunteers. Jonathan, our guide, was involved in growing crops in rural areas. He majored in film making and was a very interesting man with a good sense of humor. We asked Jonathan what the term Tubob meant. He told us that it means White Person or Foreigner but it not meant to be derogatory. He said that at times he takes it as a derogatory statement and doesn’t appreciate the children calling him that. From the Peace Corp we went to the fruit liquor place named Kim Kambo. This place was originally run by people from Belgium but they sold the place to the British because they fell in love with tourists and moved back to the tourists homes. The alcohol produced there is from the cashew trees. The fruit of the cashews is squeezed and made into a very poor quality wine. This wine is distilled to get straight alcohol where they later use fruits to flavor and dilute the alcohol. We did some testing of 4 different types I enjoyed most of them but was only willing to buy 2 bottles at 300 dalasi per bottle which is 15 dollar for each. Hopefully we are able to get the bottles back into the states without breaking, and because they do not have labels on them we can simply say that they are fruit juices and will not be questioned about them. After Kim Kambo we went to the Serekunda market which was pretty busy. Many of the markets are used by locals to get supplies they need and are not so much made for tourists as we have seen before. People did not approach us as much as they had done before, I’m not sure if that is because they knew we weren’t buying or they just didn’t care. We went back to the house and went back to our room where we discovered some of the damage the mouse had actually done to our room. He ate part of a chewy bar, a pack of crackers, a Snickers, and some of the paper protecting our sand paintings. Later we had dinner at 8 which consisted of Fried Chicken, French Fries, and Cole Slaw. Tonight we are going out to African Queen a restaurant/bar where the owners of Kim Kambo said they would be tonight giving out free samples. Today was a very good day, we got rid of our creature and had some free time to relax, but it was not too relaxed that we didn’t get anything accomplished today.
Oh dad, guess what? Remember that sink you just got rid of at the office? We have them here except yours may have had them beat because you had hot water on one side and cold on the other, they have only cold water. So now you have taken one more step up from a third world sink.
Last night was a very disrupting sleep, strange noises with Josh sleep talking and knowing the creature was still in the room prohibited us from getting our sleep. We went to breakfast and had an oatmeal like texture with banana flavoring with bread. Then we went back to our room where we were to get ready for the day, but there were a few problems the night before so we could not take showers. As we were getting ready for bed last night we flushed the toilet and it started draining extremely slow. It completely drained but within a few minutes it starting coming out of the shower drain back onto the bathroom floor. We told the owner in the morning right after breakfast and he cleaned it up but did not fix the problem, but he did contact the plumber for us. While in the room getting ready we saw our creature. This creature has been present in the room since we have been living there, but we have become accustom to him. At first we thought it was a huge cockroach; this however was not the case, it happened to be a mouse. The mouse ran out from Josh D’s bag and immediately everyone was on top of their bed. We then saw it run into the other room where Justin and I originally moved out of. We moved out of that room because the creature was content in the couch located in that room and it did not have a functional light that we could use at night. So anyways the mouse ran into the other room and we decided getting ready to visit the Peace Corp would have to wait. We opened the door took the couch outside hoping he would be inside of it and our problem would be solved. As we were opening the door the neighbors asked us what we were doing and I asked her if we could borrow her broom to get the mouse out. She gave us a hand broom and a neighboring boy got the regular broom. We shut the door to the other room so as not to let the mouse back into the other room. They saw him shoot behind my bag so I said that I would move it. As I began to move things around Matt grabbed my drum and began to beat on it. I pulled by bag out of the corner and the mouse began to climb the wall. The boy knocked the mouse off the wall and began swatting at it trying to kill it. We were armed with 2 brooms, a hammer, a trashcan, and a towel. It scurried across the floor where it was first grazed with the hammer which knocked it slightly off balance. Next came the small broom which pushed it close to the door. All along the boy was swinging the large broom with killing force and Matt continued to beat on the drum. Justin somehow caught it in the trashcan as it made a dash for the open door, and the neighbor boy grabbed the tail of the mouse, swung it around, and the story of the creature ended as it was thrown off the ground. So now we could get ready to go to the beach followed by a visit to the Peace Corp. At the beach we studied our map and notes to get ready for the test on Saturday. We then went to the Peace Corp where we met some volunteers. Jonathan, our guide, was involved in growing crops in rural areas. He majored in film making and was a very interesting man with a good sense of humor. We asked Jonathan what the term Tubob meant. He told us that it means White Person or Foreigner but it not meant to be derogatory. He said that at times he takes it as a derogatory statement and doesn’t appreciate the children calling him that. From the Peace Corp we went to the fruit liquor place named Kim Kambo. This place was originally run by people from Belgium but they sold the place to the British because they fell in love with tourists and moved back to the tourists homes. The alcohol produced there is from the cashew trees. The fruit of the cashews is squeezed and made into a very poor quality wine. This wine is distilled to get straight alcohol where they later use fruits to flavor and dilute the alcohol. We did some testing of 4 different types I enjoyed most of them but was only willing to buy 2 bottles at 300 dalasi per bottle which is 15 dollar for each. Hopefully we are able to get the bottles back into the states without breaking, and because they do not have labels on them we can simply say that they are fruit juices and will not be questioned about them. After Kim Kambo we went to the Serekunda market which was pretty busy. Many of the markets are used by locals to get supplies they need and are not so much made for tourists as we have seen before. People did not approach us as much as they had done before, I’m not sure if that is because they knew we weren’t buying or they just didn’t care. We went back to the house and went back to our room where we discovered some of the damage the mouse had actually done to our room. He ate part of a chewy bar, a pack of crackers, a Snickers, and some of the paper protecting our sand paintings. Later we had dinner at 8 which consisted of Fried Chicken, French Fries, and Cole Slaw. Tonight we are going out to African Queen a restaurant/bar where the owners of Kim Kambo said they would be tonight giving out free samples. Today was a very good day, we got rid of our creature and had some free time to relax, but it was not too relaxed that we didn’t get anything accomplished today.
Oh dad, guess what? Remember that sink you just got rid of at the office? We have them here except yours may have had them beat because you had hot water on one side and cold on the other, they have only cold water. So now you have taken one more step up from a third world sink.
Day 13
Day 13 1/15
Today we visited the US embassy. During our visit to the embassy we experienced the most security that we have gone through since being to an airport. Luckily we were told to leave almost everything at the house and the only item we needed was our passports. After visiting the embassy we went to lunch were we had a hamburger followed by ice cream. I wish that we were eating more authentic foods compared to the American types of foods. We are still being bothered daily by locals asking for a couple dalasi, even little girls of the age 5 beg me for money. Children also call us Tubob, I think it might be a racial slur of some type but we haven’t figured it out yet. I went to use the phone today but I was told that it was out of service and I asked him whether or not the phone would be fixed today and he told me that it might be fixed by tomorrow. So I went down the street to another telecenter and used their phone. It took approx 1 minute to even here a ring on the other side of the line. Our brochure says it has some of the best communications in all of Africa but they seem to very unreliable. After stopping at the supermarket we were able to relax for the rest of the day and catch up on journal entries and update pictures for other people to see what we have been doing. Sorry my entries have become shorter and shorter, but the first couple days here were packed with activities. Also things that may have seemed very unique and unusual to me the first couple of days have become routine events.
Today we visited the US embassy. During our visit to the embassy we experienced the most security that we have gone through since being to an airport. Luckily we were told to leave almost everything at the house and the only item we needed was our passports. After visiting the embassy we went to lunch were we had a hamburger followed by ice cream. I wish that we were eating more authentic foods compared to the American types of foods. We are still being bothered daily by locals asking for a couple dalasi, even little girls of the age 5 beg me for money. Children also call us Tubob, I think it might be a racial slur of some type but we haven’t figured it out yet. I went to use the phone today but I was told that it was out of service and I asked him whether or not the phone would be fixed today and he told me that it might be fixed by tomorrow. So I went down the street to another telecenter and used their phone. It took approx 1 minute to even here a ring on the other side of the line. Our brochure says it has some of the best communications in all of Africa but they seem to very unreliable. After stopping at the supermarket we were able to relax for the rest of the day and catch up on journal entries and update pictures for other people to see what we have been doing. Sorry my entries have become shorter and shorter, but the first couple days here were packed with activities. Also things that may have seemed very unique and unusual to me the first couple of days have become routine events.
Day 12
Day 12 1/14
Today was another travel day where we were going to leave Tendaba camp and go back to Muhammad’s house near Banjul. The journey home was not near as bad as the ride there. My butt stayed in contact with the seat the entire ride and I even fell asleep for a little while on the ride back. We stopped at Sultan Sweets for lunch at 3:00 and we learned that we would later be eating dinner at 7:00. We would be eating traditional African cuisine which I was excited about. Our meal was to be at Yuro’s house, he is the owner of the bus company that we have been using while in The Gambia. His compound was very nice and one of his wives actually initiated the party for us. For entertainment he had some dancers and drummers. The dancers again insisted that we participate but they were very willing to teach us dance moves. Dancing was extremely tiring because of the exaggerated movements required for their dancing. Our party did not last too long which was nice because we were tired. I noticed at the end any food that was left over went to the drummers and singers. They simply put the bowl on the ground and they began to use their hands to get what food they wanted. I know being tired comes up a lot in my journal but the fact is that while sleeping I do not sleep well and am consistently tired.
Today was another travel day where we were going to leave Tendaba camp and go back to Muhammad’s house near Banjul. The journey home was not near as bad as the ride there. My butt stayed in contact with the seat the entire ride and I even fell asleep for a little while on the ride back. We stopped at Sultan Sweets for lunch at 3:00 and we learned that we would later be eating dinner at 7:00. We would be eating traditional African cuisine which I was excited about. Our meal was to be at Yuro’s house, he is the owner of the bus company that we have been using while in The Gambia. His compound was very nice and one of his wives actually initiated the party for us. For entertainment he had some dancers and drummers. The dancers again insisted that we participate but they were very willing to teach us dance moves. Dancing was extremely tiring because of the exaggerated movements required for their dancing. Our party did not last too long which was nice because we were tired. I noticed at the end any food that was left over went to the drummers and singers. They simply put the bowl on the ground and they began to use their hands to get what food they wanted. I know being tired comes up a lot in my journal but the fact is that while sleeping I do not sleep well and am consistently tired.
Day 11
Day 11 1/13
We had our breakfast which consisted of bread, a hard boiled egg, cheese, and ham. Bread is served with every meal no matter if we are in Senegal or The Gambia. We noticed that the bread had an unusual crunch to it, but we realized it was only ants that had been baked into the bread. After breakfast we walked to the primary school where we were welcomed by the singing children, who formed 2 lines that we were to walk between. When their song was over, children automatically attached to both hands of each person in our group. If another child wanted to hold our hand they were often shooed away by the children that were currently holding our hands. The school consisted of four classrooms with grades 1 & 2 combined, 3 & 4 combined and grades 5 & 6 were separate. When we visited each room the children sang/performed a song for us. Although it was a Sunday there was a 99% attendance just for our arrival. Certain parts of the school shocked me the most; these were the cost of the school which was 15 dalasi for an entire year. ($1 =20 dalasi) Another shocking scene was their library, it consisted of four cases that were no longer than ten feet long and the whole library was not filled, even with its small size. I talked with some of the children and asked if they enjoyed school and they told me they loved school and enjoyed learning. Many of their parents realize that getting their children educated is their only hope of having a different life than what they have now. We left the 80 children at the primary school and headed to the kindergarten which consisted of 2 classes, one of 6 children and the other of around 30. The reason for the large difference is that the large class is operated more of a day care and the other smaller class is more like kindergarten. One child in the kindergarten caught my attention pretty quickly. I noticed that this one young girl had two different color eyes, one was brown the other blue. As we left this school we were going to walk about 1 mile to a peanut storage facility. At this time we were instructed to leave the smaller kids and only the older children were allowed to follow us to the factory. The area relies on the production of peanuts for their income, but it acts almost as a double edge sword as in they produce many peanuts but still have to import peanut oil. This is because they do not have any factories there to extract the oil or turn the peanuts into a profitable exporting good, they simply sell the peanuts in their natural state. Walking from the peanut storage plant back to the camp, our group size about doubled because of all the children that were attached to our hands. Also while on this walk we learned of a soccer match that was to be held right by the primary school later in the day. The match was to be the US vs. The Gambia. We were not too sure about this match up at first but we held our own and won in a shootout. Again the pitch was completely different than what we are accustom to, being that it was sand with patches of tall grass and one whole sideline was burnt due to a fire the previous day. Before the soccer match we gathered many of the school children, their teachers, and some of the leaders in the village and gave them some gifts. The gifts included school supplies, 2000 dalasi, and through funding of Justin’s church 80% of the children were to receive new school uniforms. Uniforms are a necessity for the children to attend school, if they do not have a uniform they cannot go to school, and if they do go to school without a uniform they will be sent home. It was interesting to see how much little things mean to these schools. Just by giving pencils, pens, and other school materials the children and the community was very thankful for our donations. Later in the evening we attended a bonfire. This bonfire was run entirely by the children through scouting which was one of the extracurricular activities offered at the primary school. They sang and danced around the fire and performed multiple skits. Few adults were there and the ones that were, were either teachers at the schools or parents gathering their children for bed. It was very interesting to see such young children run an entire event with such little interaction from the adults.
We had our breakfast which consisted of bread, a hard boiled egg, cheese, and ham. Bread is served with every meal no matter if we are in Senegal or The Gambia. We noticed that the bread had an unusual crunch to it, but we realized it was only ants that had been baked into the bread. After breakfast we walked to the primary school where we were welcomed by the singing children, who formed 2 lines that we were to walk between. When their song was over, children automatically attached to both hands of each person in our group. If another child wanted to hold our hand they were often shooed away by the children that were currently holding our hands. The school consisted of four classrooms with grades 1 & 2 combined, 3 & 4 combined and grades 5 & 6 were separate. When we visited each room the children sang/performed a song for us. Although it was a Sunday there was a 99% attendance just for our arrival. Certain parts of the school shocked me the most; these were the cost of the school which was 15 dalasi for an entire year. ($1 =20 dalasi) Another shocking scene was their library, it consisted of four cases that were no longer than ten feet long and the whole library was not filled, even with its small size. I talked with some of the children and asked if they enjoyed school and they told me they loved school and enjoyed learning. Many of their parents realize that getting their children educated is their only hope of having a different life than what they have now. We left the 80 children at the primary school and headed to the kindergarten which consisted of 2 classes, one of 6 children and the other of around 30. The reason for the large difference is that the large class is operated more of a day care and the other smaller class is more like kindergarten. One child in the kindergarten caught my attention pretty quickly. I noticed that this one young girl had two different color eyes, one was brown the other blue. As we left this school we were going to walk about 1 mile to a peanut storage facility. At this time we were instructed to leave the smaller kids and only the older children were allowed to follow us to the factory. The area relies on the production of peanuts for their income, but it acts almost as a double edge sword as in they produce many peanuts but still have to import peanut oil. This is because they do not have any factories there to extract the oil or turn the peanuts into a profitable exporting good, they simply sell the peanuts in their natural state. Walking from the peanut storage plant back to the camp, our group size about doubled because of all the children that were attached to our hands. Also while on this walk we learned of a soccer match that was to be held right by the primary school later in the day. The match was to be the US vs. The Gambia. We were not too sure about this match up at first but we held our own and won in a shootout. Again the pitch was completely different than what we are accustom to, being that it was sand with patches of tall grass and one whole sideline was burnt due to a fire the previous day. Before the soccer match we gathered many of the school children, their teachers, and some of the leaders in the village and gave them some gifts. The gifts included school supplies, 2000 dalasi, and through funding of Justin’s church 80% of the children were to receive new school uniforms. Uniforms are a necessity for the children to attend school, if they do not have a uniform they cannot go to school, and if they do go to school without a uniform they will be sent home. It was interesting to see how much little things mean to these schools. Just by giving pencils, pens, and other school materials the children and the community was very thankful for our donations. Later in the evening we attended a bonfire. This bonfire was run entirely by the children through scouting which was one of the extracurricular activities offered at the primary school. They sang and danced around the fire and performed multiple skits. Few adults were there and the ones that were, were either teachers at the schools or parents gathering their children for bed. It was very interesting to see such young children run an entire event with such little interaction from the adults.
Day 10
Day 10 1/12
We woke up early again for a long bus ride. Along the ride we stopped at a nice resort for a break from all of the bashing around. The trip was very bumpy and at times we were about 6 inches off of our seats. Again we were better riding off road than on the road. We passed some construction which consisted of a grader and a roller. They simply scrape it smooth and roll over it hoping all of the craters will disappear which does not always work. We made another stop in another small village where we picked up some fabric that will be used in making the uniforms for the children in Tendaba. Anytime our bus stops we are approached by children who want anything we have to give them. There was one boy in particular who caught my attention because he was wearing mittens. I thought it was quite funny and thought to myself…Who sends mittens to Africa especially to an area where the nights only drop to 50 degrees at the coldest. I originally thought that we would be camping out as in roughing it at this camp. As we arrived I quickly realized that we would not be roughing it and in fact the camp facilities included running water, plumbing, and electricity. I would have preferred sleeping on the ground compared to what we were given as in a concrete slab with a foam mat. This was not comfortable and within 20 minutes it was as if I was sleeping on concrete. Before the sunset we went on a boat ride along the Gambian River. The river was very wide and it took us about 20 minutes to cross this river. The boat ride was a bird watching tour of the surrounding area where we saw trees that grew down to the water where they created roots once touching the water. Our boat was made of wood that was hand built in the camp with an engine mounted in the rear of the boat, it reminded me of an enlarged canoe without paddles. While on the ride we got off the boat to see a baobab with a dug out hole where bush pigs sleep at night. While on the ride we learned that the area around the camp is known for its production of peanuts. After dinner the camp held drumming, dancing, and singing. Their way of performing is completely different than what we think of in the US. We were expected to participate in the rituals and to show appreciation to the leader we were to dancing into the middle and raise his stick. Their dancing style consisted of stomping and swinging their arms, it was almost how a little kid dances but in a much more controlled way where the dancers keep the rhythm with their feet. Keeping the rhythm with feet entails raising them off of the ground and stomping them back down as your hands and arms match this rhythm doing other motions.
We woke up early again for a long bus ride. Along the ride we stopped at a nice resort for a break from all of the bashing around. The trip was very bumpy and at times we were about 6 inches off of our seats. Again we were better riding off road than on the road. We passed some construction which consisted of a grader and a roller. They simply scrape it smooth and roll over it hoping all of the craters will disappear which does not always work. We made another stop in another small village where we picked up some fabric that will be used in making the uniforms for the children in Tendaba. Anytime our bus stops we are approached by children who want anything we have to give them. There was one boy in particular who caught my attention because he was wearing mittens. I thought it was quite funny and thought to myself…Who sends mittens to Africa especially to an area where the nights only drop to 50 degrees at the coldest. I originally thought that we would be camping out as in roughing it at this camp. As we arrived I quickly realized that we would not be roughing it and in fact the camp facilities included running water, plumbing, and electricity. I would have preferred sleeping on the ground compared to what we were given as in a concrete slab with a foam mat. This was not comfortable and within 20 minutes it was as if I was sleeping on concrete. Before the sunset we went on a boat ride along the Gambian River. The river was very wide and it took us about 20 minutes to cross this river. The boat ride was a bird watching tour of the surrounding area where we saw trees that grew down to the water where they created roots once touching the water. Our boat was made of wood that was hand built in the camp with an engine mounted in the rear of the boat, it reminded me of an enlarged canoe without paddles. While on the ride we got off the boat to see a baobab with a dug out hole where bush pigs sleep at night. While on the ride we learned that the area around the camp is known for its production of peanuts. After dinner the camp held drumming, dancing, and singing. Their way of performing is completely different than what we think of in the US. We were expected to participate in the rituals and to show appreciation to the leader we were to dancing into the middle and raise his stick. Their dancing style consisted of stomping and swinging their arms, it was almost how a little kid dances but in a much more controlled way where the dancers keep the rhythm with their feet. Keeping the rhythm with feet entails raising them off of the ground and stomping them back down as your hands and arms match this rhythm doing other motions.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Update of pictures and blog
For the next couple of days we will be at Tendaba Camp and hopefully will take some really nice pictures. When i get back from the village hopefully i will be able to get all of the pictures loaded onto the computer and update some of the pictures for everyone to see. Most of the pictures i have taken lately that you have not seen yet are of the beach, monkeys, and some random things. I really enjoy the children here although they follow us around like we are celebs. Hope everyone is having a wonderful time at home and we miss you all.
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