So the past few months have brought me from Jali, up to Dakar, then to Pennsylvania for a month, back to Dakar, over a long bumpy road returning to the Gambia, then to Jali, an unexpected trip to Pretoria, South Africa for the entirety of February, then back to good ol’ Gambia. Needless to say, it’s been quite eventful!
Over Christmas when I went back to PA, the women did a remarkable job preparing their new garden for the dry season vegetables! It’s BEAUTIFUL. Then I was back for a week or so before leaving for South Africa. After returning to Jali after SA, I was a bit surprised that no progress had been made to fix the 5 dried up wells in the garden. As you probably know, these were just dug last March. So frustrating…
After a lot of “back and forth” on how we can solve this, the garden committee agreed to meet the following day between the 5pm and dusk prayer. I was waiting at the bantaba- the village meeting area as the men trickled out of the mosque and the women from their homes. A small group had formed, and small chat filled the air, “Oh yes, today is very hot”, “My kids, they are all fine.” Etc, Etc. I was pretty excited, mostly because I’d been trying to organize a meeting all week. We begin chatting about who we were still waiting for when one of the elders comes over and makes an announcement: “My wife is cooking a goat which we have sacrificed for charity. Everyone come eat meat.” As I begin to say, yes, we’ll all come AFTER our meeting, I quickly notice that I am the ONLY one at the bantaba as the group of people scurry to the goat party. How can I compete with that? Meeting adjourned.
So it was postponed until after dinner the following day. The next day, I quickly ate my dinner and headed over to the meeting spot. I told the committee members that if, and only if, the meeting happened TODAY, I would bring a treat for everyone. I’d been looking to share a large bag of double bubble gum that I’d gotten in a care package and this seemed like an appropriate occasion. We all pray to signify the beginning of the meeting and I distribute the chewing gum. Note to future self: Wait until AFTER the meeting to give large quantities of gum. Understanding Mandinka at night is challenging enough, not being able to see people’s mouths moving and facial expressions- which is really important! Now add the slurs from gum and loud chewing sounds- I’m done for…
After a few more lengthy meetings, we were able to hire a contractor to dig each well a bit deeper with the help from a local Koranic Reading fundraiser, ABARAKA Organization in Spain, and Appropriate Projects (http://appropriateprojects.com/taxonomy/term/7). I am confident that this garden will now last the Jali women many many years!
12 April 2010
02 November 2009
Dehydration induced conversations.
The past few weeks have been a busy time in village. The rainy season is over and harvesting is in full bloom, so everyone has been out in the rice, peanut, millet, and findo farms collecting their crops. It's tiring, but more rewarding than plowing and weeding because you can see you're labor actually paying off!!! My host, Fatoumata and I go out to her fields and have such interesting conversations while cutting handfuls of rice. I thought they would be fun to share with you all.
1. Nursing homes:
Me: "In America, people are often too busy to take care of their parents, so there are homes that only old people live in."
Fatou: "(Shocked facial expression) But you're parents take care of you for so many years, they feed you, cloth you, pay for your school fees, and help you get married! How can you just leave them alone?
Me: "True, but you know, people work outside their own villages, so if they're parents need help, they would have to wait all day for their kids to get home."
Fatou: "What does the village chief think of this?"
Me: "America is different."
2. Disciplining Children
Fatou: "Why don't you go to the school anymore?"
Me: "Going to school makes me sad because the teacher's hit the kids. If the kids are afraid to go to school, then they can't learn. It's not fair to them."
Fatou: "If they don't hit the kids, they won't listen and then won't learn anyways."
Me: "When I was little, and did something wrong, my parents or teachers would just make me feel bad. Maybe they would say they were unhappy with me, then I would feel sad and learn my lesson."
Fatou: "Can you teach Jali kids to do that?"
3. Remarriage
Me: "Binki had to remarry after her husband died, but she doesn't live with him or talk to him at all. Why did she have to get married again?"
Fatou: "Binki didn't want to get married, really... but it's not her decision. It's the elders."
Me: "That's not fair! She shouldn't have to get married if she doesn't want to."
Fatou: "Gambia is different."
4. Sunburn
Me: "Fatoumata, you are so strong, out in the fields for hours, how can you take the heat?! It truly hurts my skin it's so hot"
Fatou: "The heat, yes, it's big. (She feels my arm). WOW! You're skin really is hotter than mine! Where is your sun oil (lotion)? Go sit in the shade."
Me: "If the sun is too strong, it can burn my skin, it hurts!"
Fatou: "Like when you pick up hot coals and your fingers hurt for a few days?"
Me: "Sort of..."
5. Over-population
Fatou: "Here in Gambia, people want to have 20 kids, it's a blessing, and then you have more help on the farm."
Me: "But if everyone has 20 kids, how will they feed them all? Then, you'll need to build more houses and will have less land to farm on, so growing enough food for everyone will be difficult."
Fatou: "No, it doesn't work like that..."
Me: "Oh?"
Fatou: "Lamin says we're out of rice." (PS- they have 6 kids)
I'm sure there will be more to come! The rainy season has ended so can finally sleep outside again. We're starting nursery beds for the dry season garden! And planning a field day for World Aids Day at my school! Keep in touch! Thank you for all the letters and packages, I am so blessed to have so much support, thank you.
1. Nursing homes:
Me: "In America, people are often too busy to take care of their parents, so there are homes that only old people live in."
Fatou: "(Shocked facial expression) But you're parents take care of you for so many years, they feed you, cloth you, pay for your school fees, and help you get married! How can you just leave them alone?
Me: "True, but you know, people work outside their own villages, so if they're parents need help, they would have to wait all day for their kids to get home."
Fatou: "What does the village chief think of this?"
Me: "America is different."
2. Disciplining Children
Fatou: "Why don't you go to the school anymore?"
Me: "Going to school makes me sad because the teacher's hit the kids. If the kids are afraid to go to school, then they can't learn. It's not fair to them."
Fatou: "If they don't hit the kids, they won't listen and then won't learn anyways."
Me: "When I was little, and did something wrong, my parents or teachers would just make me feel bad. Maybe they would say they were unhappy with me, then I would feel sad and learn my lesson."
Fatou: "Can you teach Jali kids to do that?"
3. Remarriage
Me: "Binki had to remarry after her husband died, but she doesn't live with him or talk to him at all. Why did she have to get married again?"
Fatou: "Binki didn't want to get married, really... but it's not her decision. It's the elders."
Me: "That's not fair! She shouldn't have to get married if she doesn't want to."
Fatou: "Gambia is different."
4. Sunburn
Me: "Fatoumata, you are so strong, out in the fields for hours, how can you take the heat?! It truly hurts my skin it's so hot"
Fatou: "The heat, yes, it's big. (She feels my arm). WOW! You're skin really is hotter than mine! Where is your sun oil (lotion)? Go sit in the shade."
Me: "If the sun is too strong, it can burn my skin, it hurts!"
Fatou: "Like when you pick up hot coals and your fingers hurt for a few days?"
Me: "Sort of..."
5. Over-population
Fatou: "Here in Gambia, people want to have 20 kids, it's a blessing, and then you have more help on the farm."
Me: "But if everyone has 20 kids, how will they feed them all? Then, you'll need to build more houses and will have less land to farm on, so growing enough food for everyone will be difficult."
Fatou: "No, it doesn't work like that..."
Me: "Oh?"
Fatou: "Lamin says we're out of rice." (PS- they have 6 kids)
I'm sure there will be more to come! The rainy season has ended so can finally sleep outside again. We're starting nursery beds for the dry season garden! And planning a field day for World Aids Day at my school! Keep in touch! Thank you for all the letters and packages, I am so blessed to have so much support, thank you.
Harvest time in Jali.
Modeling my Halloween costume for the kids! Hilarious!
Ousman being cute.
Roasting marshmallows! The kids LOVED them!
My namesake, Habie Kuyateh, the women's group president, Daranding (Iya for short) Drammeh, and Halimatou taking a break from harvesting rice.
Fatoumata didn't take a break all day despite working in the hot sun for 8 hours. I told her my skin was not as strong as hers, I'm beat after 5!
Harvesting rice.
Ousman and I
Lisa came to visit for the weekend- drinking juice and making collages.
Thanks for the care package! The kids pretend they're cars.
18 October 2009
Sept: Fasting, Lobster Skewers, and Brake-less Busses in Dakar
As my host family waited for the moon to appear on the eve of August 21st, the Islamic holiday to mark the month of fasting, I nervously remembered that I told them that I would try fasting with them for the first week. This entails: waking up at 5am to eat porridge and drink tea...going back to sleep until 9am, doing low-energy labor until 3pm, avoiding grumpy, tired, hungry, dehydrated people until 7:25pm, and then eating more porridge tea and possibly bread. Welcome to Ramadan.
The only thing that kept me sane during this time was knowing that I was going on vacation to Ghana half way through Ramadan! We were held up a bit in Senegal waiting for our visa's to process, but we made the most of it, wandering around the HUGE city of Dakar (population about that of Gambia!) We ate Lebanese, Ethiopian, the Chinese food and gave eachother "trip names". We were now Pierre (James), Juanita (Tavi), RJ (Alex), Trinket (Annie), and Ezmerelda (Maggie).
Landing in Accra, Ghana was so exciting- despite the terrible jet-lag (that's for you mom...) we headed right to the beach- of course! The water was COLD and refreshing, I forgot what cold felt like! RJ and I went immediately into the water; diving through waves and body surfing; it was picturesque. Then we started noticing lots of trash floating in the water, RJ found a diaper. But we had the whole beach to ourselves- heavenly. Afterwards, we are informed that no one swims in that water because it is full of raw sewage. We lucked out: no E. Coli or unidentified skin infections.
Ghana is just at a different "development" level than The Gambia. There were overpasses, sidewalks, recycling bins, tourism, and locally made products like chocolate and liquid soap (I was just very impressed by the soap...) The street food was out of this world: fried plaintains, yogurt, donuts, eggs, beans, oh man. Thinking about it now makes me miss "Red-Red"-plaintains with beans and a little bit of oil. Oh yes, and they had various meats on skewers- beef, octopus, lobster, sausage. We went from protein deficient to protein overload in the matter of two days.
From Accra, we visited Hohoe- SO SO SO beautiful- we walked to Wli Falls and swam under the tallest waterfall in Ghana. The mist off the falls combined with the wind pierced our skin. It was a crazy feeling. We also hiked up the tallest free-standing mountain in Ghana, Mount Afadjato, - which was a harder one-hour hike than most of us thought it would be! We met some Ghana Peace Corps Volunteers and drank dark beer in Hohoe for a few days before heading northwest to Kumasi- one of the largest markets in West Africa. We bought pretty batik/tie-dyed fabric and beads! We went on a day-trip from Kumasi to Lake Bosomtwi, a sacred lake in Asante country. It was serene, quiet, and peaceful- perfect after a few days dodging traffic through the market.
From Kumasi, we headed south to the beach and stayed in Heaven. Well, if heaven was on earth, it might be in Butre beach. Beautiful, CLEAN, refreshing, quiet beach away from everything. About every ten minutes, one of us would say something like, "can you believe we are just sitting here on this amazing beach?!" or "I'm transferring my Peace Corps site to this hammock..." It was hard to leave Butre Beach, but we did get to Cape Coast for a day- thank you Uncle Sam and Mama Vic for letting us stay at your beautiful home for our last night in Ghana! When I go back to Ghana, I would love to spend more time in Cape Coast, home to the large slave house, which was a sombering experience. The town was rustic and energetic and since it's right on the beach, seafood galore!
Gambia could learn alot from Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah. In 1960, he made education and healthcare a priority and free for everyone. That has given them such a strong framework to success now. Obama recently visited Ghana, his first trip to Africa as president, which Ghanains were very proud of. There were just as many American flags and pictures of Obama as were Ghanain flags and pictures of their current president Mills. I felt particularly proud to be American while in Ghana.
We ALL forgot our cameras except for the wonderful Pierre and Juanita, so check out their blog at http://peacefultravelsoftaviandjames.blogspot.com for more details on our trip and to see some pictures!
The only thing that kept me sane during this time was knowing that I was going on vacation to Ghana half way through Ramadan! We were held up a bit in Senegal waiting for our visa's to process, but we made the most of it, wandering around the HUGE city of Dakar (population about that of Gambia!) We ate Lebanese, Ethiopian, the Chinese food and gave eachother "trip names". We were now Pierre (James), Juanita (Tavi), RJ (Alex), Trinket (Annie), and Ezmerelda (Maggie).
Landing in Accra, Ghana was so exciting- despite the terrible jet-lag (that's for you mom...) we headed right to the beach- of course! The water was COLD and refreshing, I forgot what cold felt like! RJ and I went immediately into the water; diving through waves and body surfing; it was picturesque. Then we started noticing lots of trash floating in the water, RJ found a diaper. But we had the whole beach to ourselves- heavenly. Afterwards, we are informed that no one swims in that water because it is full of raw sewage. We lucked out: no E. Coli or unidentified skin infections.
Ghana is just at a different "development" level than The Gambia. There were overpasses, sidewalks, recycling bins, tourism, and locally made products like chocolate and liquid soap (I was just very impressed by the soap...) The street food was out of this world: fried plaintains, yogurt, donuts, eggs, beans, oh man. Thinking about it now makes me miss "Red-Red"-plaintains with beans and a little bit of oil. Oh yes, and they had various meats on skewers- beef, octopus, lobster, sausage. We went from protein deficient to protein overload in the matter of two days.
From Accra, we visited Hohoe- SO SO SO beautiful- we walked to Wli Falls and swam under the tallest waterfall in Ghana. The mist off the falls combined with the wind pierced our skin. It was a crazy feeling. We also hiked up the tallest free-standing mountain in Ghana, Mount Afadjato, - which was a harder one-hour hike than most of us thought it would be! We met some Ghana Peace Corps Volunteers and drank dark beer in Hohoe for a few days before heading northwest to Kumasi- one of the largest markets in West Africa. We bought pretty batik/tie-dyed fabric and beads! We went on a day-trip from Kumasi to Lake Bosomtwi, a sacred lake in Asante country. It was serene, quiet, and peaceful- perfect after a few days dodging traffic through the market.
From Kumasi, we headed south to the beach and stayed in Heaven. Well, if heaven was on earth, it might be in Butre beach. Beautiful, CLEAN, refreshing, quiet beach away from everything. About every ten minutes, one of us would say something like, "can you believe we are just sitting here on this amazing beach?!" or "I'm transferring my Peace Corps site to this hammock..." It was hard to leave Butre Beach, but we did get to Cape Coast for a day- thank you Uncle Sam and Mama Vic for letting us stay at your beautiful home for our last night in Ghana! When I go back to Ghana, I would love to spend more time in Cape Coast, home to the large slave house, which was a sombering experience. The town was rustic and energetic and since it's right on the beach, seafood galore!
Gambia could learn alot from Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah. In 1960, he made education and healthcare a priority and free for everyone. That has given them such a strong framework to success now. Obama recently visited Ghana, his first trip to Africa as president, which Ghanains were very proud of. There were just as many American flags and pictures of Obama as were Ghanain flags and pictures of their current president Mills. I felt particularly proud to be American while in Ghana.
We ALL forgot our cameras except for the wonderful Pierre and Juanita, so check out their blog at http://peacefultravelsoftaviandjames.blogspot.com for more details on our trip and to see some pictures!
04 September 2009
The past few months...
Tijan, my agriculture counterpart and a farmer as we intercrop cashews in the weeds and peanuts.
Marathon March- since I live in the Kiang region, I got to go with the new trainees on a 14 mile/23 km hike through mangroves, rice fields, and some of the few hills in the Gambia. This was just at the beginning.
The new Education Volunteers on a boat trip along the River Gambia.
Ousman coming in my house. He hasn't peed in my house in months!
Binki and the kids as we fill in the stagnant water in front of our compound.
I just love this picture, too bad my foot is in there...
Naming Ceremony in Kuli Kunda village. The village elder just gave Ousmalia his name.
Stuck in the mud. This looks alot more promising than previous stuck in the mud experiences I've had thus far...
My friend Jessi and I at Obama-Rama open mic on 4th of July.
Women dancing in the rain in the garden.
The UNDP people came to check out the women's garden they had funded. Dancing and singing in the POURING rain!
Ousman and Halimatou.
Heading to the rice fields.
Women plowing the group rice field.
Running race around the mosque.
The kids who hang around my compound all day.
Impromptu garden meeting around the well.
Daranding Drammeh, weeding in the women's garden. It's amazing how GREEN it got after months of dust....
Ousman in my hat. He's so cute!
Coming back home, Halimatou on my back and Ousman in the background.
Mmm...coos with leaf sauce...Bon Appetit
Jarra Sameteh - my counterpart's daughter playing in the dirt05 July 2009
Just a glimpse...
Beach at Brufut- What a GREAT 4th of July!
Tesito - building a dike around the women's rice fields
Well construction in the women's garden.
I just got a new camera, so will be able to take more pictures for next month!
04 July 2009
Happy Independence Day!
Hope you are all enjoying the summer festivities; BBQs, fireworks, lightning bugs, watermelon, and being around friends and family! We had a party of our own this afternoon with American food and a baby pool at our boss' home. It was so nice to still get to celebrate the 4th despite being an ocean away!
The past few days, we've had an All-Volunteer conference where we were able to share project ideas, new PC administration rules, and talk about our experiences thus far as PC volunteers in the Gambia.
One initiative that we, as a whole, are working on is a Malaria Bed-Net Campaign. While I was living in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I remember being frustrated at mosquito net distribution efforts because (a) they distributed them in the city, where people have more access to resources and disposible income, (b) they would distribute them with no education, and (c) donors thought that if everyone had a mosquito net, malaria wouldn't exist. This was very frustrating.
Now, I am living in a rural area of West Africa where people cannot afford bednets, they can't even buy them within a 5 hour radius. Although people are aware of malaria and the risks involved to some extent, more education is definetly needed. Medical services are scarce in rural areas and local medicines can only go so far in prevention and treatment of Malaria.
I'm not a big fan of fundraising and asking people for money, but supporting bed net distribution and sensitization is something that you can help with from home. Against Malaria is working with current and past PCVs in The Gambia to, hopefully, bring a whole container of low-cost, insecticide treated nets here for distribution. We will be helping with education and sensitization along with the distribution of nets. Also, a generous donor has agreed to match our donations dollar for dollar. Each net costs less than $5, so with the match, $5 can buy 2 nets. Epidemiological studies have suggested that for every 20 bednets used 1 life is saved.
You can donate at http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/maggierudick . Thanks for your help!
The past few days, we've had an All-Volunteer conference where we were able to share project ideas, new PC administration rules, and talk about our experiences thus far as PC volunteers in the Gambia.
One initiative that we, as a whole, are working on is a Malaria Bed-Net Campaign. While I was living in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I remember being frustrated at mosquito net distribution efforts because (a) they distributed them in the city, where people have more access to resources and disposible income, (b) they would distribute them with no education, and (c) donors thought that if everyone had a mosquito net, malaria wouldn't exist. This was very frustrating.
Now, I am living in a rural area of West Africa where people cannot afford bednets, they can't even buy them within a 5 hour radius. Although people are aware of malaria and the risks involved to some extent, more education is definetly needed. Medical services are scarce in rural areas and local medicines can only go so far in prevention and treatment of Malaria.
I'm not a big fan of fundraising and asking people for money, but supporting bed net distribution and sensitization is something that you can help with from home. Against Malaria is working with current and past PCVs in The Gambia to, hopefully, bring a whole container of low-cost, insecticide treated nets here for distribution. We will be helping with education and sensitization along with the distribution of nets. Also, a generous donor has agreed to match our donations dollar for dollar. Each net costs less than $5, so with the match, $5 can buy 2 nets. Epidemiological studies have suggested that for every 20 bednets used 1 life is saved.
You can donate at http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/maggierudick . Thanks for your help!
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