Cheers

A fellow volunteer did a summary of his time in numbers, and because I liked it..I’m going to be not creative and borrow the idea.

Time living in Africa: 6 months. Holy mackerel, I really can’t believe it.

Time living at site: 3.5 months.  

Longest period of time staying at site: 30 days…It was a rollercoaster as always but well worth it.

Books read: 21 (will publish list later)

                Longest book: Anna Karenina  by Leo Tolstoy

                Shortest book: The Secret life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Times crossing the ferry (not on PC transport): 3 times

                Longest ferry: 1:28 hour

                Shortest ferry: 30 minutes. (this is not the norm- I get extremely lucky)

Birthday Parties thrown with Family: 4

Number of times I cooked popcorn for my family: 3

Number of letters written: 26

Dance Parties: probably around 50

Rain Dance parties: 1 (a perfect day) everyone needs to let themselves go, at least once, and dance, uninhibited in the rain. Please please.

Ramadan days fasted: 24 of 30

Times I wanted to die in frustration on a gelle gelle: a lot, but in the positive there have been some gelle trips that did go smoothly.

In America..

Number of weddings missed in America: 1 (Congratulations Sierra and Peter)

Number of births missed: 1

Number of engagements: 1

Number of times I missed the SAC loves: countless

In Gambia:

Number of weddings I attended: 2

Number of births/ naming ceremonies: 4

IST (in-service training) has just finished.  The most valuable part was the counterpart workshop where my counterpart from site, Musa, traveled to Kombo and trained along-side the volunteers for two days. For one of those days, the environment volunteers went to BeeCause. A beekeeping organization that is very active and effective here in The Gambia. It was inspiring to see the combined excitement of volunteers and counterparts as we learned the techniques behind beekeeping together.  We put on head to toe suits with mesh faces, rubber gloves, and boots, and headed to the hives to get some hands on work with African bees. As it is rainy season, the bees are pretty docile and no one was stung but my hear t was racing a little bit as the first hive was opened and swarms of bees started bouncing off of everyone’s mesh covered faces. My suit was orange and white stripped and I looked like an escaped convict, the pictures are fantastic but not on my camera, so they will come later. Later we learned how to process wax and honey.  I am looking forward to heading back to site to begin an apiary with the men of my village; they are interested in making hives out of bamboo, because it’s natural and plentiful to the area. I’m excited that they are excited, and that it will be tapping into an income generating venture that has not yet been explored. Good Things are happening here in The Gambia.

I am so happy to see everyone from my group again. Africa has been good to everyone, it has challenged us, pushed us, lifted us up, taught us, and spit us back out together in Kombo (the land of food and drink) where we can feel how much each of us has changed. But I also miss the bush. The people grow on you, they have become my people, they aren’t just my host family anymore, and they feel like family. We laugh and argue like family, they tease me for my oddities and I do the same back to them.  I don’t know when this happened but it did and that’s the beauty behind these people, they give to you unconditionally.