Thursday, June 26, 2008

Not much here

Not much going on here this week, no big plans for the weekend either, except an
end of the year program at school that Fatou Bintou invited us to on Saturday. I'll let you know how that goes. I was supposed to go up country with the college on trek this week, but it got canceled due to fuel shortages. So, with my scheduled cleared because up until a day before we were supposed to go I thought we were going, I haven't had much to do this week. Next week I will be playing proctor (policewoman) to the students taking end of the year exams at the college. Should be interesting. But at least this time I will have just about 45-50 students in a room instead of my class size of 75-80. I will be helping to plan the preschools "graduation" tomorrow and next week as well. Andy and I are trying to get our plan on for "vacation" later this summer with a friend. Well, hope all is well.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Library night

So, just wanted to quickly update how the library thing is going. So far it is continuing well. I have since decided that I needed some sort of organized system to teach the children how to put the books in some sort of order, facing the right way, etc. At first I had the kids put them in alphabetical order by title... but that was very difficult to keep straight, even though I employed the ruler technique where they stick the ruler in where they are taking a book out and know where to put the book back because the ruler is there sticking out, they didn't quite get it, and had a hard time consistenly using it. So, last night before the enslaught of children came to return their books and get new ones, I decided to put tape on the spine of the books and numbers them. In no particular order. Andy saw this and was like... um... what good is that? But I tried to explain that it doesn't really do them much good to use the ruler system to keep them in alphabetical order if it is only helping me,.. for my minds sake that they are in a logical order. I want them to be able to use some system and to keep it in some sort of order. Last night they did well, they made sure to put the books in number order and even made sure that I wrote down the number on their library card of the book they checked out. I was really happy that it helped tremendously with them putting the books back with the spine out! Yeah :) Oh, also another pcv made this great life size "book" out of sheets that she had sewn together... it is where you can put it on a person, so they become the "book".. since she is great in Mandinka and was staying the night at our house this week I asked her to do a little presentation to the kids in our compound. It was really good, she talked to them in local language, demonstrating with the person that was wearing the book, how to treat them, where the front, back, spine, title, etc is.. they really enjoyed it. So, for now that is how things are going. Progress. Slowly slowly.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Yeah yeah

Well, it's official we have been in The Gambia now, one year, and 4 days.

I have been thinking of a sort of year in review, but it is so hard to put things into perspective and look back at what has happened over the past year, when it doesn't even seem like it's been that long. It also doesn't feel like everything that we've experienced actually happened to us.

I was going back and reading some entries in my first journal, it is so great to see the progression of things. Things that surprised me, or I found interesting are just commonplace now. (women with babies on their backs, the market craziness, gelley rides, etc.) I don't think I am to the point where I don't see those new things, but I just see them, and think, yep, that's that. In encountering new situations I find myself more able to take it in stride as they say. I guess that is what happens when you come to understand more about all the things that come together to make a particular culture.

I can't go through and analyze everything from the past year,.. my mind is not capable of it! We (you and me too) can go back and read the blogs. And one day maybe I will type up my hand written journals, but not now.

I can analyze the way I feel about myself now and my perspective on life here.

Making the decision to come here has always felt right. But I do realize that I have grown up to be the kind of person that can move to any town and feel like, yeah, this is good. Before coming here I tried not to have any ideas of what it would be like, and I think I did a pretty good job of doing that, ( I just felt anxious to find out what it was like, but did not speculate before hand)

I can't name how many times I have thought to myself in the course of our time here, this is where I am supposed to be.

I feel like I am a more confident and open person. In areas of work I have a deeper understanding of what I thought from an American perspective and from my education. This was one of the reasons I wanted to come here, (and the reasons I will travel more in the future). I wanted to be one that could genuinely understand why the things and ways I teach are important. And what can happen, and what it looks like when those aren't used or aren't happening. Not that I completely understand it all of course! But I am extremely aware and interested in those things, and want to study them more in the future. Childrens development, and the influences of culture in learning are in full view for me here to watch and experience, because I am in a sort of twilight zone of being somewhat acculturated but still an outsider. And I am thankful that I had the background that I do before coming here and think that the experiences here will be useful for me and my career in the future.


In work, I have had to become the master flexibility. Like navigating the market, I can change direction with whatever is happening at the moment, (that's how things work here if you don't already know) This is a useful skill that I think will help me in the future. And though I am still on toubab time when there is a meeting, or somewhere I have to be, I am much more casual and understanding of the people that don't follow mono chronic principles of time. It is just me, I will always be on time, but you don't have to be.

In daily life here I have hundreds of exchanges between people I don't know, and people I do know. Being able to have the social standards of greetings and the common conversations that go on, I feel free to say hello to strangers, and more comfortable in unfamiliar situations. This has carried over even when talking to other pcv's and so I feel like I am more social, (but still not spectacular).

From being here my confidence has grown. Being stripped of familiarity, having to learn what kind of things are essential to me being me, what kind of things are important to me, etc. have all contributed to this.

I feel very comfortable and at home in our living situation. Some days I come off the streets feeling a little harassed, and tell myself in my mind that I am definitely going to have some alone time today, but then I come in the compound, greet people, drop my things on the floor and immediately want to interact with our family and other people in the compound because I feel so comfortable in the space.

I think the comfort factor is also heightened because I am here with my husband. To us, it is just another part of our lives.. this is it,.. we are not waiting around for this to be over to start our real life,.. and say later,.. "yeah, I did that little stint in Africa" . /What we will say is , "we lived there for part of our lives". This is probably hard to understand, but sometimes I get the feeling from other volunteers that they are just enduring, waiting for the time to go by, trying to do things that pass the time, until they get to start really living again (when they go back to America). This is a part of my career, a part of my life with my husband, and thats that.

My pastimes here have also helped shape who I am becoming. With no television, I have taken back up reading with a vengeance, and though my eyes are the worse for it, I think my mind and perspective have benefited. Without the common American life distractions like tv, shopping centers, driving, unnecessary (but somehow "necessary") materials, the list could go on and on, I find myself more able to think clearly, and I have achieved the amazing feat (for me) to just be able to sit on my porch and think... with nothing in my hands, nothing to read, just sitting and thinking. As a result of all this thinking, I feel more sure about what kinds of things I like, what kinds of things I don't, what I personally think on many different topics, etc.

In college I got a little bit more of the "life lesson", "If you don't do it, who will? and when?" But here I realize it more and more. Even though some people find it harder to get things done here, I have had the freeing mind set that if I can't buy it, or find it, I will make it, get it made, etc. This happens daily, with school supplies, materials, things for our house, gardening, etc. I don't need that premade thing I can buy at Target, I can use a thing meant for another purpose, (find it on the ground even) reshape it, and wala! Its re-purposed! This makes me feel much less constricted and lets your mind get more inventive and creative with what you have.

The next year, (actually starting now, until we leave) seems to be shaping up to a whirlwind of activities, and I am going to be undoubtedly more busy next year, that I ever have this year. I only hope that I won't miss out on quality time with our family and the people here that we will sorely miss when we leave. I can't believe it is happening already, but some of the kids, when we are just sitting spending time together will, out of the blue, beg us not to go. Right now I feel thankful that I can say, "don't worry about that now! We still have a whole year!" But I really don't know what I will say when our time here is dwindling away.. What will I say? What will I be able to promise, to keep some sort of connection? And will I be able to do it?

I could go on and on, (and I might later) but on that note, I just want to say that being here for this portion of my life has always felt right. It feels like it is good timing to help me become more me.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Rain!





Yeah Yeah Yeah! We got rain! Yesterday evening was very humid and hot, and there were storm clouds in the sky. We woke up in the middle of the night with strong blowing winds. Then the rain broke loose. At first slowly, and then letting it all out. It had all the trimmings of a good storm too, with good peals of thunder and flashing lightning. Andy and I got up out of bed to tend to our plants in the back. We didn't want them to get pummeld by the rain, but they were also in danger from getting toppled by the winds. The rain falling off our our roof was milk chocolate brown. Andy noticed when he looked at me while we were standing under the corrugate roof in the back and said, hey, your dirty! It was also cold with the rain and the temperature suddenly dipping. Today on my way to work at the nursery school I surveyed the damage from my seat on the gelley. There are major puddles (in some places more like small lakes!) everywhere. There was also a big billboard sign that was torn up. The winds must have been really bad. Our power went out for a little while, but then amazingly enough came back on.
I was a little worried about a certain kitten last night. The story goes like this. The same cat that had kittens before, had another set in our shed. There were three of them. Because we have gotten some new neighbors on either side of us now, like last time she needed to move them out of the shed before they got too big. In the corner of our compound is a pile of rumble of concrete blocks from when a portion of the concrete block fence just fell down in the middle of the night. The day before yesterday I kept hearing a very faint meow when I was walking around the compound, but just thought it was the kittens in the back. So yesterday I was hanging out in the compound, playing with the kids, when they all started screaming and running towards the concrete rumble pile. I looked, and there was this little kitten, all scraggly, frightened almost to death, shakily standing on a piece of the rumble, as all these kids came running and screaming at him/her (?) I made sure I got there first, swiped it up, before they could frighten it back down into the ruble, and took it into through our house, (with a whole group of kids following me), closed and locked the door, (so they wouldn't follow me through the house) and took the poor little kitten to the shed where it was born, and was living until recently. As I did that, it was meowing its head off, and I could hear the momma cat meowing for it. I just put the kitten down, closed the shed door, and went away. I figured that the cat would know the place, and hear the kitten, and come and get it again. I went and checked if it was still in the shed about 15 minutes later, and it was gone. The only way out is from the top of the shed in a space between the corrugate and concrete blocks. So, I think my planned worked! :)

Well, more on the "library" thing on the home front. Last Saturday I went to the carpenter and showed him my drawing for the bookshelf I wanted. He said that it would be done Monday. Now, living in Gambia, on Gambian time, I totally didn't believe him when he said that, and even though I had a chance to go check on it on Monday, I didn't. I went Tuesday, and he wasn't there. So, on Wednesday I got home from the school, and got Adja to come with me to see if it was ready and it was! So we carried it home. That night Fatou Bintou and Alieu helped me organize the books. Fatou B. wrote the alphabet out on pieces of paper the size of flashcards. We spread them out on the floor in alphabetical order, and then I went through each book, and held it up for them both to see. They looked at the first letter of each book title, and then put it under that letter in a stack on the floor. Once we had them all done, Fatou B. put them in the bookshelf. yeah! The kids have already starting checking out books. They have a colored index card which they wrote their names on and I have stored in a box (old platex wipes plastic box actually), and then the title of the book they checked out and the date. I decided that I would let them come and check out and return books one day a week. We started on Tuesday, so next Tuesday they will come to return the one they have and get a new one. The great thing is, that since Tuesday, a few of them have come over with their books to share something they have notice about them, get help with reading them, etc. MoLamin came over yesterday (he is almost four yrs. old) and Andy and I were sitting on the couch, and he came over and showed Andy a picture in his book, (it was of a dog chewing on a shoe) and he said, (in Mandinka of course) Look! This dog.. He is chewing on a shoe! Like he couldn't believe it and got such a kick out of it. And then he flipped through a few more pages, and then went back to his house. Alhagie and Dembo both came over at different times last night to sit there with their books, trying to read, while we helped. They are all very enthusiastic about it, and I hope it lasts. But right now everything is going good! We shall see what kind of shape the books come back in. Though we reiterate every time, no water, no food, etc.. with the books.
My plants have been growing slowly slowly, but hopefully they will soon get a burst of fertilizer.... Because Andy and I have been preparing to try a fertilizing technique, by making our own urea. How do you do this you ask? (do you really want to know!?) We take what is called a bidong here (big plastic container that originally holds vegetable oil) and fill it up part way with water, then pee in it (instead of our pit latrine) until it reaches a certain level...let it sit for 2 days then, apply to the soil! Wallah! Cheap home-made urea. The only thing is,..for woman it is a little bit trickier (of course). But a funnel can (and was) made out of a liter water bottle, so it all worked out fine. :) Tonight, we will get to try our first test with it. We plan to use it on the plants I have been working on in the back, and also on some of Andy's trees in the compound. To be able to demonstrate how fertilizer helps the plants, we will have ones we use it on and ones without. We figure, if they see the difference with their own eyes, it will be easier to then explain that we did the above process and we just poured watered down urine on the soil.... We'll see how that goes!
Well, this weekend I plan to get a some curtains hemmed to goes across the front of the bookshelf to help protect it from the dust. I'm running a training session at the end of next week at the nursery school so I will be preparing things for that next week, and maybe some this weekend. I want to make something in the solar cooker, but haven't decided what yet. I have also started Atlas Shrugged.. Andy got it and I started to read it,.. he said something about 13 years bad luck if I didn't finish it once I started it).. so the challenge is on! But man, the type is so tiny!