P.S. I love The Gambia

I just returned yesterday from a trip to The Gambia. I went there with a few other volunteers to study beekeeping. The Gambia was absolutely great and was really different than Senegal. The people there speak English so it was immediately easier to relate to them. Also, The Gambia does not have Talibe' (the kids that go around begging for money to give to the religious leaders). The weather there was cooler and the people were a million times less aggressive. I was only there for 4 days so maybe i dont have a complete view of what life is truely like there, but from what i saw, i loved it. The travel guide books label The Gambia as "Africa Light" and i can completely understand why. Whe we were walking down the street, we rarely had anyone call us Toubab and not even one time did someone appraoch me and ask for a gift. Dont get me wrong, i like Seegal, bu going elsewhere for a few days made me realize just how tough it can be to be a foreigner living here. I tried to explain this to some of my Senegalese friends and they got very upset and offended. They think The Gambia is completely the same...and to them, it probably is. I think that many Senegalese people will never understand how hard it is for white people to live here because simply...they are not white. When i am with Senegalese people, i am not treated the same in public as i am when i am alone or with other white people....really its sad. Immediately when we crossed back into Senegal yesterday we were hassled. There were 4 of us waiting in the car for others to come and fill it up. The car needs atleast 7 people in it before it will hit the road. Along came 3 men and hey told us that they would not get in unless the girls moved to the back seat. The back seat is dreadful and is very tiny; however, we moved just so they would get in and we could leave. As the car started moving, one of the men began talking about us in Wolof and saying that our friend did not deserve to sit in the front seat. They all continued assuming that we could not speak wolof.... me having the big mouth that i do, decided i wanted to call him out. I politely tapped him on the shoulder and said i speak Wolof and what he was saying about my friend was rude. He immeditaely started yelling at me telling me i couldnt speak wolof. He spoke Sereer and so do i so i started speaking in Sereer because i can speak that better and he just continued to yell at all of us and say we couldnt speak the local language and it was none of our business... i finally ended the conversation by saying something in Sereer that doesnt translate to English...but pretty much i was telling him it wasnt important and Allah was watching. When someone brings Allah (God) into anything here, the table always turns and people immediately panic... after this, he shut up. My friend in the front seat that was being insulted was mad at all of us girls for starting an arguement, but i felt totally happy with the results. Women in this culture NEVER stand up for themselves and i loved it that 3 girls did exactly what they teach women to never do here. The man was wrong in what he said and he needed to be corrected. I think by sitting there and not saying anything, we would have just reinforced his ignorant behavior. Maybe next time, that man wont just assume white people cant understand him... and i know next time, i wont give up my seat for anyone! This little fiasco happened immediately after we got back into Senegal. This just made me realize how nice taking a trip to Gambia was. I livevery close to the border and think i will be visiting more often :)
So back to the bees.... the classes were great and i left there with all the knowledge necessary to be able to start my own bee hie. We learned how to make a homemade hive, how to attract the bees, how to harvest their honey, and how to maintain a colony. The classes were intense but i thoroughly enjoyed it all. I was even able to suit up in safety clothes and go out and harvest honey from a live colony. It was scary but i managed to not get stung.... many others were not so lucky. The bees can actually sting through the safetly clothes. Also, after we were finished harvesting the honey, the bees followed us around and we had to walk about a mile and wait about an hour before we could take off the suits. Many people ended up with several stings because the bees hide in places on the suits and then attack when the person is undressing. All in all... i love bee keeping and plan to start it in my village asap. It is dangerous but if classes are taught properly, it is a great way to generate income. I have 3 farmers that are interested in beekeeping so i plan to go back and teach them what i have learned.
I am going back to the village in about an hour. I have a million things to get done. Work has been booming since the rains will be coming in about a month or so. In the next week, i plan to start having latrines dug in the village. I already recieved the funding and just need to buy the materials and have the pits dug out. My village will be receiving 15 latrines. I also plan to plant 2000 peppineres... i have been putting this off long enough! I WILL get this done this week. I also need to do some major work in my garden. It royally sucks. I am the worst gardener in Senegal!
I hope all is well at home. Big shout out to Jory and his class for hooking me up ith school supplies and other fun things for the kids...they loved it all!

bees, bees, bees

Last week, I had yet another bad run in with cashews. I ended up with a rash covering most of my body and a trip to the doctor. I am FINISHED with cashews for the rest of my Peace Corp service....Anyway, things are good now and i just returned from a much needed week in Dakar. I spent most of last week entertaining two guests... a Tostan volunteer and her friends from Rome. They came to the village and stayed for a few days and then we headedto Dakar for the weekend. I think they both enjoyed time in the village but realize now how hard life can be there. I am glad they came. I had a wonderful time with them and it was nce showing of some of the things i have accomplished here thus far.
Tuesday I am headed to The Gambia with a few other volunteers to study about beekeeping. There has been quite a bit of interest in working with bees from the villagers and i think it will be a great way for me to do agriculture work in a different way than just gardening. I will be in Gambia for about 3 days and have been told i should have all the knowledge neccessary to be able to get started when i return. I am really excited about this little trip and hope to come out of it with some new prospects for work.
Things are really starting to pick up around here workwise. The rains should be coming within the next month and a half. Everyone is planting their gardens and starting tree peppineres now. I have a goal of planting 2000 trees using peppinering (tree sacks) before the end of May. I also have a goal of direct seeding 3000 trees during the month of June. I have collected a LOT of seeds for the women's group in the village. After the first few rains, we will be planting seeds for trees that will grow and make live fences. This will elliminate a lot of animals eating in the gardens when they should not be. Also, a live fence is completely sustainable on its own. So there is no need for outside funding or replacing the fence in the future. This live fence was something the volunteer before me worked on a little and the women are really passionae about getting it growing. It will take a few years before it will be ful grown but there is no better time to start than now!
I will be all over the place in the next few months. I will try and take some cool pics from The Gambia and send them out soon. Take Care.