Man ci kowam ndanka ndanka.

My favorite Wolof phrase so far...it means "I am on it slowly, slowly." Today was our first real adventure outside of the facility that we've been staying in during training so far. We went to the market at Serekunda and took public transport to get there. It was quite similar to the taxi/vans that I used in Cape Town. The market was amazing and I bought some cloth for a skirt and some cola nuts (which are really bitter and I don't like them at all) to give to my host family when I get to my training village of Saaresamba on Friday. I love this place more and more each day, and I even had my first bout of Gambian diarrhea today! Woohoo! I get to take my second Mefloquine anti-malarial pill tomorrow. So far there have been no nightmares or hallucinations... Today at lunch we had to eat with only our hands (well, right hand only) to practice for when we'll be in village eating with our host families. I'm quite messy. Oh well. I'll just take an extra bucket bath in my cozy little enclosed pit latrine. We have a naming ceremony on Monday where each of us will recieve a Gambian name that we will be called by. Our host families will dress us up, and according to one of our trainers they will want us to dance. Ummm...I hope they aren't expecting too much as I only have the ability to slow dance. Right, Abe? Remember senior prom?
As some of you might know, Gambia is 90% Muslim and Ramadan is happening right now which means that most of the people here fast (no food OR WATER) between 5:45am and 7:04pm everyday. I'm excited for the end of Ramadan at the end of October because there will be a big feast and each family will slaughter a goat.

This will probably be my last post and email access for awhile so please send me snail mail!! Hope all is well back across the Atlantic!

Much love,
Mandy