So I haven't updated this is in awhile I know. It just seems like everytime I sit down at a computer I feel like I have ADD and start thinking of other things that I could be doing instead. Like eating cheese. Then I go do something else. Like eat cheese.
So, I'm super excited that my baby brother is coming to visit in less than 2 days! Tomorrow I'm headed up to Dakar to spend the night and meet him at the airport at 5am. We will head to my host village for Tobaski, another PCVs site for Christmas (His host family is part of the 10% non- muslim minority here. We will be eating pork.), and then down to Kombo for New Years. I haven't seen anyone from back home in 15 months! I hope he doesn't get diarrhea for the first couple days at least...
Back in village I helped the womens group write a proposal to CRS for a loan to do a sheep fattening project. With the loan money they were able to purchase 5 rams and 2 ewes. The rams were fattened up and sold for the Tobaski holida, the loan will be paid back, and the ewes will be kept for breeding. This is a really profitable little project. You buy a ram for D1500 a few months before the holiday, fatten it up, then sell it for D3000. I was at the weekly market in Brikama Ba a few weeks again scoping out rams with my VSO friend Evie. We stumbled upon this big drama. Some sheep herders from Senegal had brought in a bunch of rams to sell in Gambia but didn't have any of the proper documentation with them. They were in the middle of a huge argument with the Livestock Services official when we left. Yikes. I haven't heard what ended up happening. Every Muslim family, if they can afford it, should get a ram to slaughter for Tobaski. This means that the hundreds of rams for sale outside the Department of Livestock Services in Kombo right now will be gone in just over a week. Liver, testicles, or brains anyone? Yum yum. I'm also working on a garden well project in my area and waiting to hear back on a grant I just submitted. I have mixed about it that you can read about below...
I hope you all read the article I just posted about aid money coming into Africa. It is a hot topic of discussion among the PC community here and it is common to hear PCVs side with the economist interviewed in the article. Personally, I flip flop on the issue, depending on the day and what's going on in my little Gambian world. On one hand, I've lived here for a year and seen the problems (ie corruption) that NGOs have here and feel that a lot of money is wasted. Where exactly did those World Food Program beans go? The kids ate them, right? On the other hand, I feel that there are problems plaguing this country that deserve or require outside assistance. Lack of education/ignorance is the biggest problem in my eyes and the key to tackling other issues. The main beef I have with money coming into the Gambia is the way it is handled. There are too many projects that just seem to throw money at people without proper needs assessment which results in failed projects or the money just disappearing. A lot of people seem to take aid money for granted. Last week someone actually said to me (in Wolof), "You know, Hawa, you should really try to bring some money into this community because if you don't, the people here will say that your work isn't important and that Peace Corps isn't important." Well, that's not what PC is here to do and he seemed shocked when I told him that some PCVs don't think that we should even write grants for projects in our villages because it is giving the impression that we are just like all the other toubabs who toss around money here. But like I mentioned above, I am writing a grant for a garden project. Assume this project happens, it will be really interesting to come back here, say, 10 years down the road and see the state of the garden. There is surprisingly little evidence of PC being here for the past 40 years which is the root of my discouragement. But if the money is there for the taking, I would rather use it for my project and be involved in how it gets spent instead of just sitting on the sidelines watching it go to waste. When I bike down the road near my village little children scream at me asking for pens, money, bottles, cell phones. Everything. Many people here think that all white people have money, can magically get them a visa to America, or take their child to America no problem. There is no discussing it and you can't convince them otherwise. If I say I don't have money they just laugh and say that I'm good at cracking jokes. Usually I can brush off the comments, questions, and assumptions but sometimes it just all adds up and I have to go drink a double gin and tonic or two in Basse.
Life's rough here but I'm loving (almost) every minute of it.
I miss you all!
Love,
Mandy
