Q & A

Q: What did you decide on as your project?
A: Ask me this question again in a year and maybe I'll have an answer.  The way projects work here, I'm pretty much placed in an area and it is up to me to work with the community to choose/ design projects that the area needs.  So far, I have done a bit of work on different things so I'll throw a few of my posabilities out there: doing environmental education with the school, working on woodlot project in the area with an NGO and the forestry department, working with the forestry department on education or starting a community forest in the area, working with the ag extensionist in the area on education programming, doing education work in village, convincing people in my village to plant trees, etc....  There are lots of things I could do and its all up to me.  We'll see how this plays out.

Q: Have you had any wildlife encounters?
A: I have gotten to see monkeys.  They live near my house. I've gotten within about 20 yards of them. Other than that, no real encounters with wildlife.  I have encounters with domestic animals frequently.  I have had many close encounters with chickens and I had a cow eat part of the fence of my bathroom.  I woke up at 3 in the morning to the sound of chomping on my fence.  It happens a lot so I didn't respond at first, but it sounded like a lot of fence getting snacked on so I jumped out of bed and ran out to scare off the cow. I didn't notice anything wrong with the fence until the next evening when I went out to take a shower and I was exposed stomach up through part of the fence.  After a couple days that finally got fixed.  It's happened one more time since then, but it was a small enough hole the second time I could fix it myself.


Q: Have you made friends with the locals?
A: Well, I definitely have people to hang out with and joke around with.  I sit around with the women in my village a lot, but I don't know that I would really qualify anyone as my friends quite yet.  Probably my best Gambian friend is my 13 year old host sister Adja.  She and I go places together (meaning I follow her around) and we joke around and act silly and have races.  As I get better at the language I'm sure I will develop real friendships, but I have learned that you can have a great deal of fun with people you don't really understand.  And I think that, as people, we understand each other more than you would imagine without needing to understand the words being said.  I'm not lonely. I have a whole village to hang out with.

Q: Why did you punch a chicken?
A: I was out with my village cracking peanuts by the road.  That's a normal afternoon activity and the chickens often discover that everyone is there and want some peanuts for themselves.  They often try to sneak up and steal off of someone's pile.  One was sneaking up to my pile and I went to shoo it away with my fist full of peanuts.  Because of my catlike reflexes, I was too fast for the chicken and ended up punching it a little bit before it got out of the way.


Q: Has a donkey been a mode of transportation for you yet?
A: Yes ma'am. No one but small boys ride donkeys, but donkey carts are pretty common.  I've only been on one once.  In training village, I hitched a ride on one on the way to my friend Casey's house.

Q: Have you danced at the discos?
A: Yep.  Supposedly I'm pretty good.  Who knows!

Q: What is the music situation in your village?
A: No one really plays an "insturment" but people will beat on pretty much anything that sounds like a drum.  People sing all of the time and the girls dance a lot.

Q: What's the weather like? (I'm just giving a general response to weather questions here)
A: Right now it is hot and dry.  It's not as hot as I thought it could be, but there is still a good deal of the hot season left, so I still might be impressed.  I am also in the western half of the country, which is a good deal cooler than the eastern portion.  Most days just feel like a hot summer day in the southeast US.  Maybe a little hotter but less humid so it balances out.  I spend a lot of time sweaty and gross, but that is to be expected.  It hasn't rained even a drop since December and even then then, the only rain I saw was just maybe 30 drops in my yard.  I won't see rain until June.  There are 4 seasons here, but there are always 2 seasons happening simultaneously.  Hot, cool, wet and dry.  Right now I am in the hot and dry seasons.  The weather here allows for an almost constant growing season.  Any area that can be watered can be planted with crops in the dry season.  Larger scale agriculture only happens in the wet season because you don't need to worry about watering your crops.  They plant rice, millet and peanuts in Salliyaa.

Q: What do you need?
A: Letters!
Honestly I don't really need anything.
If you want ideas on stuff though:
Granola bars, Cliff bars, etc are always a safe bet.
M&Ms (especially peanut butter)
Pictures
Flavored tuna packs
Beef jerky
Newspaper clippings
Magazines
Memory card with a case for sending back and forth
Suprise me...even if I don't want something you send (which is highly unlikely, I'm sure one of my friends does)

Learning from other people's packages I have compiled a list of things not to send as well- things for my host family (I need to make it very clear to them I am not here to give them stuff- only help), stuffed animals, peanuts (I eat these every day anyway), a christmas tree, etc.

Thanks for all of the questions.  I'm always glad to get questions to answer, so post them as a comment on here or facebook any time.