Last Week

I had a good last week. Saturday morning, I planned to ride my bike to Basse so that I could spend the day here before taking the bus down to Kombo. However, Malcolm's village played mine in soccer on Saturday night so we had to stick around and watch that first. That didn't change that we still had to catch a Sunday morning bus, so after the game and dinner we put on our headlights and rode about an hour down the road from my village to the village of Sare Alpha, where our buddy Selina lives. We stayed with her and at 6 in the morning got up and hit the road to Basse, caught the bus, and made Kombo Sunday night. Monday and Tuesday was an event called All Vol. They just have all the volunteers come together, and in the morning some administrators will go over small things that everyone needs to know, like phone numbers  or password changes. Then the afternoon volunteers would have the option to visit people from other groups and listen to presentation about projects they are working on. After the conference most people went to the beach. I caught an ultimate Frisbee game at the MRC. Monday night we caught the USA Ghana world cup game, and then Tuesday night we had an open mic. It was a fun couple of days, and it was good to come together and see everybody. It made me realize that I was part of a bigger group, instead of just someone living in the bush. I actually really like the feeling of living alone in the bush most times, so I guess the group thing helped remind me who paid for my ticket here. Wednesday morning most people hung around and watched movies and talked. It was tempting to delay my return for another day, but I knew the party was over and it was time to get home. I caught a mid day bus, and made it back to Basse late Wednesday night. Yesterday, no one else was around the house, so I took time to wash clothes, write some blogs, clean up and organize my locker, make a bag to be delivered by the next vehicle, trim my beard, eat some beef jerky, listen to music, drink coffee, get on the internet, etc. Strangely enough I didnt sit still very much yesterday. Since that's one thing I have to do alot of in the village, I didnt want to leave this morning without having relaxed a little here to ease the transition of going back home. Thats probably the hardest thing is going from town where you can find things to entertain yourself, eat, and spend money on, and then going back to the village where you have to create all your time for yourself. Conversely, having that time is what makes it really great there, but the adjustment can be a little tough. I do have my bike here with me, and knowing that I get to ride home makes it alot funner than when I will be sitting in the car park all afternoon waiting for a vehicle. It's going to be 106 today, so Im gonna take some time in the shade this afternoon at the Basse house, then head out this evening. Ill try and stay in the village for most of the next month. I'll be leaving for Japan soon, so Im going to try and spend all my time in the village until then. I want Zabeth to meet a hardened bush resident when I show up, not some suburban commuter! 

Water

There are several wells throughout the two villages, because this is all people had for drinking water for a long time. To get water from the well, you just drop a bucket down the hole, dangle it, and then pull the rope back up. This is actually one of my favorite activities, but I can see how a full life of it would get pretty tiring. There is now one hand pump and the school, so you literally just crank a big lever and set your bucket under the tap. But, the pride of the community is actually a project that the volunteer before me did. It’s a solar powered pump, and storage tank that sits about twenty feet off the ground. Twice a day the tank will fill, and then it will go out to three taps in old Sami, and at least one tap in new Sami. I don’t get my water there so I actually don’t know how many they have. When the pumps turn on all of the women, will grab their big pans and their bidongs- twenty liter jugs that cooking oil is sold in- and fill up all of the containers they can. They will just keep making trips from the pump to home until the pump is turned off. I have three bidongs, so I generally fill up two of them each day and carry them back to my hut one in each hand. Everyone else is stronger with their head so they just carry pans up there. When they get home they put the drinking water in a big clay pot called a jibida, which helps keep it cool. Other than drinking water, you need water for bathing. Water for watering your garden in your backyard. The kitchen always needs water for cooking. The donkeys and cows need water. Then you need some water for washing dishes after meals. If the pump turns off before you have water for all of these things its okay, because you can just go to a well and pull some up any time of day. Some people actually prefer drinking well water because they think its cooler, and don’t like water that has been run through the holding tank. For me at least its safer to drink water that comes straight from the ground. When women do laundry they also use a lot of water, Instead of bringing it all home, they will just do laundry right next to a well, making laundry time and pump time also a pretty fun social time.

Sami Koto

So after you make it to Garawol on the gelly and are riding your bike down the road to Sami Koto here’s what you’ll find. The main road actually dead ends right into the small village of Sami Kuda. Sami Kuda means New Sami, and is actually separated from Sami Koto (old Sami) by a football field, the English School, and some crop land. There are a little under 800 people in total in the old and new part of the village. The reason for the split is… well I don’t know exactly but you can imagine. The new part of the village actually has their own governing structure, which means their own Alkaloo and Village Development Committee. There is only one English school, and one Arabic school though where both parts of the village send their kids. So its all one village, but its kind of in two parts.
Everyone is pretty much a farmer, and all the land that surrounds old and new Sami is used for growing crops, kind of like a halo around the town. The men grow millet, and they have just finished planting all their fields. They will start work after the first rain. The women do all of the peanut planting, and they will have just started planting because we had our third good rain last night. Since the men start after the first rain, they will have a longer season, and can grow another round of millett, and usually corn on their extra land. Millett is the main staple crop for Sami, and we eat it every meal along with peanut sauce. The extra peanuts can be sold after the harvest, but the millett is all for home consumption. Almost every compound in the community has at least one person who is working abroad, so they will send money home for rice. Our compound is all millett though.   

Fathers Day

In an example of the relationship I have with my dad, I spent the Father’s Day on Sunday not calling or writing, or emailing him, but rather grinning from ear to ear as I opened and went through a package he sent me. Its an example of our relationship because he was the one looking out for me and going out of his way to send things that cheered me up, and I got the joy on a day that was supposed to be for him. Now, instead of calling or writing you can bet that Im sitting on the porch in the middle afternoon smoking a cigar and drinking a cup of coffee.

Im doing alright. Its partly because of the packages, supplies, treats and reminders of home that you ( and everyone) has sent me, but its mostly because you taught me responsibility (when you didn’t let me get away with alcohol in high school), accountability (when you were there waiting on the back corner of Edgemere Elementary every day when school was out), frugality (everyone probably has there own story), and resourcefulness (making me a hat rack out of a baby gate).
And mom, all I do here is go around and talk to people. It’s the same thing you do in El Paso. My goal here is just to know as many people in the village as you do in El Paso. It was always tough going to Smokeys because we could never just sit down, we had to meet and talk to all of your friends. Now, when I have to get up and walk through the village to pick up a candle, and I know that Im gonna have to talk to about 100 people before I get there, its not such a big deal. And you know how you always made us drive across town to eat at a shady Mexican place, and wouldn’t settle for something close to home? Well now I have no problem walking into a corrugate lean to and sitting on a bench next to a bunch of strangers, and sharing a huge bowl of rice with them.

You guys taught me everything, and each day it helps me to get by, understand, and generally enjoy myself living with people speaking a different language in a place I never knew existed.
Thanks

 This is the back door to my hut with my Follow me to El Cosmico sticker above it.

 This is everyone walking from Old Sami to new Sami when we were going to throw change at the bride.

 This is my brother Ibraima with his wife's sister a couple of nights before the wedding.

 Sirra laying on the ground, covered up, and somebody picking money up for her.

 Me, Bilali Jallow, and my brother Bakary one night around the wedding.

 This is what the car park in Basse looks like when your getting a vehicle.

You just walk up to somebody, tell them where your going, and they point you to the right vehicle.

Disclaimer

I need to write a disclaimer for my blog to let people know that the things I write dont represent the views of the United States Government, or of the United States Peace Corps. Likewise, no information I convey represents the views or opinions of the Gambian Government. The things I write are however intended to honor the love, guidance and support that my friends and family in the US have given me in encouraging me to come here. And all of the good times, experience, and learning I have been able to do here has been facilitated by the new friends and family who have welcomed me here in the Gambia, so it is my intention to share with everybody how grateful I am to them for everything. Thanks!

Getting To and From Sami Koto

Im pretty happy that I am so close to Basse, so if I want to get to there here is what I have to do: First, I will bike south for about 15 minutes to the town of Garawol. Luckily there is another volunteer there named Alicia. She will let me leave my bike in her house, and then I can walk to where the vans are parked in Garawol. The vans are actually called gellys. They are huge vans that are hollowed out, and then reconstituted with bench seats, so they can generally hold at least twenty people. Where you get on and off is called the Car Park. From Garawol, maybe two or three vans will leave each morning at six am, so I can either ride the night before and stay with Alicia, or leave at about 5:30 am while its still dark. The road that runs through Garawol is all dirt, and is actually perpendicular to the main highway, so when the gelly leaves it drives due south to Sudowol to meet the main highway. From Basse, the main highway is also not paved but there is alot more traffic than on the small road to Garawol, so the gellys will find some good ruts to drive in. The roads often meander across the road, so your just as likely to be on the right or left side. Its not a problem though because in the morning all the traffic is headed towards Basse. The trip takes about an hour and a half, and with no problems you can be in Basse by about 7 30 am, which is enough time to get on the public bus that will leave for all the major towns at 8, or to have some coffee and an egg sandwhich while you wait for the internet cafe to open at 9.
After the gelly arrives it will start running around Basse, picking up supplies from town that are needed in the village. Mostly its things like cement, bags of rice, maybe some special wood, beds, dressers, or mattresses. But if there's anything else that you need to get back, the gelly will load it all (for  a fee) and bring it back.
To get back to the village you can head to the Basse Car Park around 12, and hope that the vehicle is full of both freight and passengers by 1 pm. If its not full, or still has errands to run then you will be sitting in the car park until everything is ready. Or if it was all full and ready to go and has left without you, then you can wait for the next one which usually leaves around 5 pm. If I hear that theres no more gelly's to Garawol, then I will usually look for the ones headed to Fatoto or Koina. Those two towns are farther east down the main highway than Garawol, and I can drop at the junction and walk in about half an hour back to Alicia's place for my bike, pick it up, and ride the last fifteen minutes home in time for dinner.