my cat had a kitten. things are pretty adorable around my house lately.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
i went to the canada of africa. and it was awesome.
so i recently took a little trip to Senegal for a softball tournament, the West African Invitational Softball Tournament. i am not very good at softball, but i am very good at sitting in a bus for 8 hours and then enjoying the more advanced nature of Dakar. What does Dakar have that Gambia doesn't, you may ask?
well. let me make a list.
1. real paved roads that are regularly maintained
2. sidewalks...which is good because when the road is nicely paved you can drive really fast.
3. street signs. and speed limits.
4. MALLS.
5. ice cream.
6. urban planning
7. beer other than julbrew
8. confusing money
9. trampolines on the beach
10. marines. apparently they guard the american embassy. in countries where the embassy might actually be threatened.
11. grocery stores that sell produce. even apples. APPLES.
so there are a lot of other differences, but these are the ones that really stuck out in my mind. also, fairly early on in my trip i decided that Senegal is the Canada of the Gambia. the similarities? Senegal has french-speakers, lots of plains/empty flat spaces, it's to the north (ahem. and the south) and therefore significantly colder (which was awesome), and they have a superior health care system. the rest is basically the same. it was not unlike going from america to canada. i dubbed Senegal "Canagal," which is really fun to say. I also tried to speak in a canadian accent whenever possible. i think others got tired of hearing "round-abooot" instead of round-about, but trust me, it was funny every time.
dakar is a nice city, but i think i'm a village girl at heart. I don't know if i'll ever go back. but i loved it. if you want details, you'll just have to ask.
well. let me make a list.
1. real paved roads that are regularly maintained
2. sidewalks...which is good because when the road is nicely paved you can drive really fast.
3. street signs. and speed limits.
4. MALLS.
5. ice cream.
6. urban planning
7. beer other than julbrew
8. confusing money
9. trampolines on the beach
10. marines. apparently they guard the american embassy. in countries where the embassy might actually be threatened.
11. grocery stores that sell produce. even apples. APPLES.
so there are a lot of other differences, but these are the ones that really stuck out in my mind. also, fairly early on in my trip i decided that Senegal is the Canada of the Gambia. the similarities? Senegal has french-speakers, lots of plains/empty flat spaces, it's to the north (ahem. and the south) and therefore significantly colder (which was awesome), and they have a superior health care system. the rest is basically the same. it was not unlike going from america to canada. i dubbed Senegal "Canagal," which is really fun to say. I also tried to speak in a canadian accent whenever possible. i think others got tired of hearing "round-abooot" instead of round-about, but trust me, it was funny every time.
dakar is a nice city, but i think i'm a village girl at heart. I don't know if i'll ever go back. but i loved it. if you want details, you'll just have to ask.
Friday, February 4, 2011
i'm not going to post what i was talking about, but here's some pics.
hiiiii. the parents have come and gone, it was amazing incredible hilarious, you'll just have to ask them. i'm a little brain fried so instead of writing a wonderful post i'm going to post some of the pictures from the handwashing workshop i did with my school's peer health club.
this is right before they performed the handwashing song. notice Mariama laying down the law with the altos. well, there was no rhyme or reason for how they were standing. so the 3 girls in the corner.
this is my new puppy booby. she attended the workshop as well. she did a great job. until she got underfoot during the drama and somebody tripped over her.
omar's cartoon. note the second panel. yes, that person is pooping. yes, it is red.
yay.
it was a great day and we all learned why handwashing is important. i'm working on the follow-up.
this is right before they performed the handwashing song. notice Mariama laying down the law with the altos. well, there was no rhyme or reason for how they were standing. so the 3 girls in the corner.
this is my new puppy booby. she attended the workshop as well. she did a great job. until she got underfoot during the drama and somebody tripped over her.
omar's cartoon. note the second panel. yes, that person is pooping. yes, it is red.
yay.
it was a great day and we all learned why handwashing is important. i'm working on the follow-up.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
at a potluck, every person brings a dish of food
hi everyone! i know it's been an ENTIRE YEAR since i last posted. i've been too busy ringing in the new year and not having access to internet/free time. when i have one, i seem to lose the other. we are a little over an hour from the moment my creators step into the Gambia. am i excited? yes. is my village excited? yes. are the kids ready to greet them? no.
i tried to have them practice on some of my peace corps friends, and the moment a white person who's not me shows up, they get all shy and look at the ground. and mumble. these are the kids who get up from the mat, announce to me quite clearly (and loudly) that they're going to fart in the house, and then scramble away giggling. i am not quite sure where the shyness is coming from. but hopefully my parents can melt their icy hearts with a football (a soccer ball, my brain gets stuck on the local slang) and their constant presence. pretty soon, hopefully, the only thing keeping them from knowing who's going to fart where will be the language barrier.
in case you are wondering about the post title, it's from an email circulated by the embassy here. they are having a meeting/potluck and apparently they want to make sure nobody shows up empty-handed. it made me laugh. i probably won't attend, but if i do i'm going to bring a dish of food for sure.
i apologize for the short post, don't worry, i have a good one planned (really, i wouldn't lie to the blogsphere) but i need to leave for the airport. here's a teaser:
"these are our wives, our mothers, our sisters, our friends. they are all ladies of the night."
yes you will keep checking for updates.
i tried to have them practice on some of my peace corps friends, and the moment a white person who's not me shows up, they get all shy and look at the ground. and mumble. these are the kids who get up from the mat, announce to me quite clearly (and loudly) that they're going to fart in the house, and then scramble away giggling. i am not quite sure where the shyness is coming from. but hopefully my parents can melt their icy hearts with a football (a soccer ball, my brain gets stuck on the local slang) and their constant presence. pretty soon, hopefully, the only thing keeping them from knowing who's going to fart where will be the language barrier.
in case you are wondering about the post title, it's from an email circulated by the embassy here. they are having a meeting/potluck and apparently they want to make sure nobody shows up empty-handed. it made me laugh. i probably won't attend, but if i do i'm going to bring a dish of food for sure.
i apologize for the short post, don't worry, i have a good one planned (really, i wouldn't lie to the blogsphere) but i need to leave for the airport. here's a teaser:
"these are our wives, our mothers, our sisters, our friends. they are all ladies of the night."
yes you will keep checking for updates.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
it's a christmas soapbox!!! (long post, skip to the end for important stuff)
hiiiiiii.
i will, if all goes according to plan, be heading back to my village after oyster surveys wrap up for the month and not coming back to urban civilization until, and i'm not sure this will actually be possible, January. so i'm trying to get all my holiday/christmas wishes out of the way, all the much better to get those tidings of great joy in early, before everyone else gets in the way.
so of course, merry christmas/happy jewish festival of lights to you and yours, i wish we could all spend it together, let me know what you're doing and have a good one. i'm going to spend christmas in village, something i hadn't originally planned on doing, but so many people requested that i spend christmas there that i had no choice but to concede. it's going to be interesting, for sure, they treat christmas here about like they treat Tobaski, which means that those religiously inclined (so this time, the village's Christians) have a feast of freshly slaughtered meat (pigs instead of rams for Christmas)and everyone else treats it like a normal day, until that night when the parties start. Now, Tobaski is a 2-3 day holiday, which somehow wound up meaning 6 straight nights of parties. Christmas is only one day, and a Saturday, so maybe it will only be 1 or 2 nights. There's no place like home for the holidays, so everyone gets off work and school, even though the vast majority of them aren't celebrating anything. Well, they're celebrating not having to go to work or school, so that means PARTY. the parties here are unlike ceremonies, i think they're most equivalent to concerts. what generally happens is one group of people (friends, football teams, etc) gets together and pools their money to rent a sound system. they charge a small entry fee at the door, and attempt to make back their money before the generator runs out. everyone gets all gussied up in their most risque clothing (short skirts and dresses, generally glittery with leggings that just barely, just BARELY cover the knee) and dances middle-school style, in a circle with their girlfriends/ male cohorts. these events usually start around "9 or 10 pm," which, in Gambian time, means between midnight and one. they run "until mamma calls you home," which, in Gambian time, means until the generator breaks or around 4. those that consider themselves "too old" for that sort of thing either go to concerts (drumming, kora, etc) that begin a little earlier, and end around the same time, or organize beach parties, where they brew tea on the beach and chat. sometimes there is juice.
in my nostalgia for trees and carols, i didn't really have the right "christmas:party" mindset, but i think everyone has set me straight. it's not a day to spend with your family and friends, it's a day to stay up late and listen to Jamaican music, as long as the generator doesn't break (the generator, by the way, breaks probably 4 out of every 7 times a party is thrown). and it will be fun. and what i really like is that everyone knows i'm a christian, and they know that christmas is a special day for me, and it's a good chance for me to share some of my culture with them. it's opened the door for some nice conversations about family and traditions, which helps to ease the pain of being away from loved ones and gives them something to compare to their own. it's fun.
ok. but onto my christmas soapbox. you're not gonna get away that easily. this is the season of giving, and i hope you're thinking about doing just that. i think when every day you are confronted with the after-effects of good intentions turned out badly, you really start to think about what kind of charity helps people, and what kind enables them. it's the whole "teach a man to fish vs. giving a man a fish" idea. it's not difficult to assume all kinds of charity were good. i know i haven't always known enough about where my money was going. i'm not saying that if you give to the wrong charity they're going to use your money to buy bon-bons and fur coats instead of feeding hungry children. i'm just saying if you really want your money to help, i suggest a "first do no harm" mindset.
you can take a hardline on this, or not. it's your money.
charities that give food to people, i am not enamoured with. char ties that give people animals to raise, breed, and eat, beehives and instruction, or gardening aid (ex. the heifer foundation) build their capacity for feeding themselves and reduce their reliance on handouts strike a chord with me. check yes.
i am in favor of any charitable act that helps educate people. esp. if you can send someone to technical/vocational school, because i feel these are often overlooked for more formal education opportunities. chances are, if someone wants to go to a technical or vocational school, they have identified a talent and will be able to find a job in the future in that field. also, donations to technical or vocational schools i think are another under looked avenue of giving, because that helps everyone enrolled, including those paying their own way who may not be able to afford materials. in addition, the higher quality of materials they have to learn with, the more work they will be able to do.
as far as medical charity, i don't know very much. i know that often expired drugs are donated and that makes me angry. also i think it's important, as far as health goes, for people to receive not only pills but preventative education. i don't just mean condoms. i mean handwashing, water purification practices, malaria prevention measures. there are some good ones out there. do your research.
buying products made by groups as a result of micro-finance is generally, but not always, a pretty safe way to go.
the question you should ask yourself when giving is "how will this money improve the recipients life ON A LONG TERM BASIS?" too many money-now charitable donations are squandered, or wind up going towards things that the donor would probably never imagine, or approve of. if your donation can't be measured on a long term basis for indicators of progress, and there's no one in place to do that, maybe you should give somewhere else. i know it's a little more labor intensive, but i think it's the morally responsible thing to do. you don't want to solve people's problems with charity, you want to give them the tools to solve their own problems.
all that being said, if you really want to know who i think you should donate money to this season, it's the Peace Corps. there are these grants called "peace corps partnerships" where a volunteer writes a grant, it's posted on a website, and people donate. there are a lot of different projects up there, from every country the peace corps goes to, so you can pick your passion. no, i haven't done one. i may, and i'll let everyone know and beg you to send your lunch money to the Gambia when i do. but i thought i would plug it anyways, this is the website:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate
You can browse the projects on your own. If you need a suggestion, one of my friends here is doing a healthy babies project i think is pretty cool. her last name is Green, search her.
another, similar website i can recommend is a little more focused: all their projects are on access to clean water and sanitation. you can also pick your own project, a lot of Peace Corps volunteers wind up posting with them:
http://www.watercharity.org/
these are just suggestions from me. you don't have to give to any of them. there are people right outside your door who probably need it. but that's what i really want for christmas, is everyone who reads this blog to do one charitable act, whilst thinking of me. even if you just donate a book to a book drive, or make a small donation to your local vocational school. tis the season, right?
thanks.
p.s. if you want to make my heart burst with joy you'll post what you did in the comments section. or tell me privately.
i will, if all goes according to plan, be heading back to my village after oyster surveys wrap up for the month and not coming back to urban civilization until, and i'm not sure this will actually be possible, January. so i'm trying to get all my holiday/christmas wishes out of the way, all the much better to get those tidings of great joy in early, before everyone else gets in the way.
so of course, merry christmas/happy jewish festival of lights to you and yours, i wish we could all spend it together, let me know what you're doing and have a good one. i'm going to spend christmas in village, something i hadn't originally planned on doing, but so many people requested that i spend christmas there that i had no choice but to concede. it's going to be interesting, for sure, they treat christmas here about like they treat Tobaski, which means that those religiously inclined (so this time, the village's Christians) have a feast of freshly slaughtered meat (pigs instead of rams for Christmas)and everyone else treats it like a normal day, until that night when the parties start. Now, Tobaski is a 2-3 day holiday, which somehow wound up meaning 6 straight nights of parties. Christmas is only one day, and a Saturday, so maybe it will only be 1 or 2 nights. There's no place like home for the holidays, so everyone gets off work and school, even though the vast majority of them aren't celebrating anything. Well, they're celebrating not having to go to work or school, so that means PARTY. the parties here are unlike ceremonies, i think they're most equivalent to concerts. what generally happens is one group of people (friends, football teams, etc) gets together and pools their money to rent a sound system. they charge a small entry fee at the door, and attempt to make back their money before the generator runs out. everyone gets all gussied up in their most risque clothing (short skirts and dresses, generally glittery with leggings that just barely, just BARELY cover the knee) and dances middle-school style, in a circle with their girlfriends/ male cohorts. these events usually start around "9 or 10 pm," which, in Gambian time, means between midnight and one. they run "until mamma calls you home," which, in Gambian time, means until the generator breaks or around 4. those that consider themselves "too old" for that sort of thing either go to concerts (drumming, kora, etc) that begin a little earlier, and end around the same time, or organize beach parties, where they brew tea on the beach and chat. sometimes there is juice.
in my nostalgia for trees and carols, i didn't really have the right "christmas:party" mindset, but i think everyone has set me straight. it's not a day to spend with your family and friends, it's a day to stay up late and listen to Jamaican music, as long as the generator doesn't break (the generator, by the way, breaks probably 4 out of every 7 times a party is thrown). and it will be fun. and what i really like is that everyone knows i'm a christian, and they know that christmas is a special day for me, and it's a good chance for me to share some of my culture with them. it's opened the door for some nice conversations about family and traditions, which helps to ease the pain of being away from loved ones and gives them something to compare to their own. it's fun.
ok. but onto my christmas soapbox. you're not gonna get away that easily. this is the season of giving, and i hope you're thinking about doing just that. i think when every day you are confronted with the after-effects of good intentions turned out badly, you really start to think about what kind of charity helps people, and what kind enables them. it's the whole "teach a man to fish vs. giving a man a fish" idea. it's not difficult to assume all kinds of charity were good. i know i haven't always known enough about where my money was going. i'm not saying that if you give to the wrong charity they're going to use your money to buy bon-bons and fur coats instead of feeding hungry children. i'm just saying if you really want your money to help, i suggest a "first do no harm" mindset.
you can take a hardline on this, or not. it's your money.
charities that give food to people, i am not enamoured with. char ties that give people animals to raise, breed, and eat, beehives and instruction, or gardening aid (ex. the heifer foundation) build their capacity for feeding themselves and reduce their reliance on handouts strike a chord with me. check yes.
i am in favor of any charitable act that helps educate people. esp. if you can send someone to technical/vocational school, because i feel these are often overlooked for more formal education opportunities. chances are, if someone wants to go to a technical or vocational school, they have identified a talent and will be able to find a job in the future in that field. also, donations to technical or vocational schools i think are another under looked avenue of giving, because that helps everyone enrolled, including those paying their own way who may not be able to afford materials. in addition, the higher quality of materials they have to learn with, the more work they will be able to do.
as far as medical charity, i don't know very much. i know that often expired drugs are donated and that makes me angry. also i think it's important, as far as health goes, for people to receive not only pills but preventative education. i don't just mean condoms. i mean handwashing, water purification practices, malaria prevention measures. there are some good ones out there. do your research.
buying products made by groups as a result of micro-finance is generally, but not always, a pretty safe way to go.
the question you should ask yourself when giving is "how will this money improve the recipients life ON A LONG TERM BASIS?" too many money-now charitable donations are squandered, or wind up going towards things that the donor would probably never imagine, or approve of. if your donation can't be measured on a long term basis for indicators of progress, and there's no one in place to do that, maybe you should give somewhere else. i know it's a little more labor intensive, but i think it's the morally responsible thing to do. you don't want to solve people's problems with charity, you want to give them the tools to solve their own problems.
all that being said, if you really want to know who i think you should donate money to this season, it's the Peace Corps. there are these grants called "peace corps partnerships" where a volunteer writes a grant, it's posted on a website, and people donate. there are a lot of different projects up there, from every country the peace corps goes to, so you can pick your passion. no, i haven't done one. i may, and i'll let everyone know and beg you to send your lunch money to the Gambia when i do. but i thought i would plug it anyways, this is the website:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate
You can browse the projects on your own. If you need a suggestion, one of my friends here is doing a healthy babies project i think is pretty cool. her last name is Green, search her.
another, similar website i can recommend is a little more focused: all their projects are on access to clean water and sanitation. you can also pick your own project, a lot of Peace Corps volunteers wind up posting with them:
http://www.watercharity.org/
these are just suggestions from me. you don't have to give to any of them. there are people right outside your door who probably need it. but that's what i really want for christmas, is everyone who reads this blog to do one charitable act, whilst thinking of me. even if you just donate a book to a book drive, or make a small donation to your local vocational school. tis the season, right?
thanks.
p.s. if you want to make my heart burst with joy you'll post what you did in the comments section. or tell me privately.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
this is what fly looks like
i took this one because every single one of these girls had a lovely complet (that means outfit) and prayer shawl. can you see all the glitter?
a glance at the prayer fields, the man in the middle is reading from the Koran
the boys all dressed up
some lovely girls from the hood striking a pose, or, as they call it, "making a style"
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
ram season!
that's right, it's ram-mer time.
next week is Eid al-Adha, also known as Tobaski in West Africa, the Muslim celebration of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his own son to God as a sign of his obedience. luckily for Ishmael (Abraham's son) Allah was merciful and at the last moment allowed Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead. thus, every year on the 10th day of the 12th Islamic month, Muslims around the world sacrifice a ram (or a cow, or a goat, or a camel) to represent the sacrifice Abraham would have made. Each family here sacrifices, and the 1/3 of the meat is retained, 1/3 is given to relatives, and 1/3 is given to the poor.
i was here for Tobaski last year, so i know generally what will go on. here are some givens for a Gambian Tobaski celebration (or as i like to call it, ram season)...
...you WILL see gellys careening down the roadways at full speed with multiple rams and goats tied to the roof...
...you WILL see children petting and playing with the ram they will be eating hours later...
...you WILL be asked to watch everyone slaughter their rams, no matter how many times you say you don't want to see that...
...you WILL have handfuls of ram meat shoved into your face for at least 3 days...
...you WILL have to buy a fancy new outfit and accessorize it with every sparkly piece of jewelry you can lay hands on...
...you WILL not be able to do any work for the week preceding and the week following Tobaski...
...you WILL hear conflicting reports on which day Tobaski actually begins, and find that different villages celebrate on different days...
...you WILL hear at least one story about a family who's Tobaski ram gave them the slip...
and so many other things. i am very excited for Tobaski this year, partially because I'm going to be spending it with my host family and partially because i'm going to make my students dissect their ram hearts (what a perfect time to be learning the circulatory system). Tobaski is a fun holiday, despite it's seemingly somber roots, it's a very happy time. families come together, everyone goes home from the city to visit their villages, and after the prayer fields in the morning it's nothing but a party. it's the one time the ladies get to try and outshine each other without having to make sure they don't look as good as the baby's mother or bride, like at naming ceremonies or weddings. i'll try and get plenty of pictures, everyone is sure to look amazing.
also, i'm very excited to go to the prayer fields, because i missed it last year due to training activities. i might be the most excited about this, because the sight of everyone in my village praying at once is sure to be a beautiful thing. one of my favorite things about observing the Muslim community I live in is seeing how much their faith unifies them. they believe so strongly as a community, it's almost tangible. i know that it will be a very special morning.
and then we get to sit down on the brand new ram rugs and talk about who has the best new outfit.
next week is Eid al-Adha, also known as Tobaski in West Africa, the Muslim celebration of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his own son to God as a sign of his obedience. luckily for Ishmael (Abraham's son) Allah was merciful and at the last moment allowed Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead. thus, every year on the 10th day of the 12th Islamic month, Muslims around the world sacrifice a ram (or a cow, or a goat, or a camel) to represent the sacrifice Abraham would have made. Each family here sacrifices, and the 1/3 of the meat is retained, 1/3 is given to relatives, and 1/3 is given to the poor.
i was here for Tobaski last year, so i know generally what will go on. here are some givens for a Gambian Tobaski celebration (or as i like to call it, ram season)...
...you WILL see gellys careening down the roadways at full speed with multiple rams and goats tied to the roof...
...you WILL see children petting and playing with the ram they will be eating hours later...
...you WILL be asked to watch everyone slaughter their rams, no matter how many times you say you don't want to see that...
...you WILL have handfuls of ram meat shoved into your face for at least 3 days...
...you WILL have to buy a fancy new outfit and accessorize it with every sparkly piece of jewelry you can lay hands on...
...you WILL not be able to do any work for the week preceding and the week following Tobaski...
...you WILL hear conflicting reports on which day Tobaski actually begins, and find that different villages celebrate on different days...
...you WILL hear at least one story about a family who's Tobaski ram gave them the slip...
and so many other things. i am very excited for Tobaski this year, partially because I'm going to be spending it with my host family and partially because i'm going to make my students dissect their ram hearts (what a perfect time to be learning the circulatory system). Tobaski is a fun holiday, despite it's seemingly somber roots, it's a very happy time. families come together, everyone goes home from the city to visit their villages, and after the prayer fields in the morning it's nothing but a party. it's the one time the ladies get to try and outshine each other without having to make sure they don't look as good as the baby's mother or bride, like at naming ceremonies or weddings. i'll try and get plenty of pictures, everyone is sure to look amazing.
also, i'm very excited to go to the prayer fields, because i missed it last year due to training activities. i might be the most excited about this, because the sight of everyone in my village praying at once is sure to be a beautiful thing. one of my favorite things about observing the Muslim community I live in is seeing how much their faith unifies them. they believe so strongly as a community, it's almost tangible. i know that it will be a very special morning.
and then we get to sit down on the brand new ram rugs and talk about who has the best new outfit.
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