"The Gambia is on it's way to becoming the Silicon Valley of Africa."

That was a quote from a t-shirt I saw in village...

Wow! I've been in country for over three months already. Time flies by so quickly! Things are going SO WELL at my site. I'm loving the area- it's beautiful and the people are very friendly. My main job right now is to meet people and just get myself out there in village, so I usually walk around every day just sitting, chatting, and cracking peanuts with different families. I have cracked more peanuts in the past 3 weeks than you could ever imagine. I actually had to stop one day because my thumb became raw. But I've been making some friends and hanging out with my host family.

My host mother, Faatumatu is 7-8 months pregnant, so she's going to have a baby real soon! I'm SO excited for that- to have a newborn around. But she is still working so hard- women- oh man, they work hard! I taught the little kids in my compound how to make those paper fortune tellers, I thought, what a great idea, we can draw pictures in them and they are made of paper, so if they break, no prob...well, they were a BAD IDEA. I've had hundreds of kids wanting me to make them for them, and when the one's I've made rip, the kids are in tears. Maybe I'll just go back to thumb wrestling, after I regain feeling in my thumb from cracking peanuts that is ;)

The women's garden is going really well thus far! When I first got back to village, I informed the women's group that the funds were in the account and the fencing materials are on their way so we could start clearing the field. The next day, over a hundred women came out and the day after that, 150. We cleared 3.5 hectares of land in 2 days- amazing! I thought it would take weeks! The next week, everyone- men and women came out to build the fence, right now, it is almost finished, and this Thursday, we will complete it. Things always come up though- the fence was supposed to be finished last Thursday, but some babies were born and I think there were some funerals as well. Apparently, the well design that was originally decided upon is unreliable, so right now, we are looking into alternative options. I'm sure that will all work out in time. Domanding domanding- slowly slowly!

This weekend, I went camping on a beach in an area called Kartong. Delicious food, good company, swimming in the ocean, and sleeping in the sand. What else could I possibly ask for?! Life is good. Well, back to village tomorrow morning! I'll continue to write!

Take care!

P.S. I got a few emails/letters asking me if I got my head shaved...they just symbolically pretended to shave our heads at the naming ceremony, but I've been thinking about it! Having my head shaved would probably be nice in the hot season...hmm...Sorry to freak you out Grandma Rudick :)

P.P.S Here is a video from our swear-in ceremony! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3-dVJoAgkQ&feature=related