It's official!

Today we sworn in at the ambassador's house as official volunteers- it was very exciting and humbling. All our language and culture teacher's were AMAZING! On Friday, we head off to our PERMANENT SITES! WOW! Thank you SO MUCH to EVERYONE who send me letters and care packages. I can't put into words how grateful I am to have so much love and support from around the world (including Azerbaijan, Brazil, Iraq, and America- WOW!) Andrea, Nana, Rebecca M, Uncle Tom and Aunt Jose (best care package EVER!!), Alyssa, The Kowalskis, The McFeeleys, Chris, Asher, The NY Mullens, Annie, Kelsey, Emily, Katie Martucci, and Otto- 4 letters from the dog and none from my own parents- I'm so lucky to have such a thoughtful little brother ;) I hope my letters have made it your way, though, I'm sure most are still on their way- slowly slowly!

I don't know how I could possibly sum up the past 10 weeks - I have learned so much and grown emmensly. The Peace Corps has been an amazing experience thus far and I am excited for the challenges to come. Each morning, I begin the day with the sound of the call to prayer over the mosques loudspeaker. I admire people's dedicate to the Muslim religion. It is very peaceful, though, in America, we usually only hear of Islamic radicals- they give Muslims a bad name. There are 5 prayers throughout the day (at sunrise, 2pm, 5pm, dusck, and 1 hr past dusk).

For the past 10 wks, I've been staying in Kaiaf village for my Mandinka language training. We got to experience Tobaski- the biggest Muslim holiday where my host father and brothers killed a ram and we ate it- every piece of it (mmm...intestines and ram brains...). My host father had 2 wives and 11 kids. The kids were so cute and made games out of nothing at all. They played "jump over the stick" and the little girls wrapped up their flip flops in cloth and pretended they were babydolls. I made them a car with my toilet paper cylindars- they seemed to enjoy that!

I left Kaiaf feeling confident to take on my permanent site...a village called Jali about 27km off the south bank road in Gambia's Lower River Region. But then I arrived for a 4 day long site visit and realized I know too little Mandinka to have any sort of productive conversation- but I can greet people really well! "How are the home people?" "They are there only" But I have 2 years to become good at Mandinka! In Jali, I am replacing a volunteer who has done alot of amazing things in the area This is a bit intimidating, but I am very lucky to be going to a place which has had such a great experience w/ Peace Corps; not to mention a ton of mango, pigeon pea, and papaya trees! The women's group from Jali just secured funds to build a community garden which I am really excited to see through. I am also wanting to get into beekeeping, tree grafting, woodlots, and drying mangos- since the mango season produces so many fruits in such a short amount of time. I'm not sure what the 2 years has to come, but bring it on!

Village life has made me appreciate all of life's conveniences for us. Getting water from a well or handpump and carrying it home on my head to bathe, drink, do laundry, and water the garden made me realize how important accessibility to water really is. The women work long hours in the rice fields and then pound the rice by hand to get each grain out of it's shell. It's all in a day's work. Everyday life is challenging, but even though I initially felt sorry, I soon realized that people are happy- they do what they need to do to support themselves and their families and make the most of it in the process. Isn't that what we're all looking to do? Life may be very different here, but love, compassion, generosity, humor, and friendship cross all cultural barriers.

I am about to embark on the "3-month challenge". They encourage us to stay in village for the first 3 months to integrate and get good at language. It will be really hard to have no other english speakers around or an american to relate with, but this is what I came here for- to learn about the Gambia and Gambian people. I will probably not have internet for 3 months, so the only mode of communication will be letters!

Thank you again for all your love and support! Wish me luck in my 3 month challenge!