I’m near the end of my training, staying at Tendaba Camp, which is allegedly a birder’s paradise. We took a long trek through the bush (14.5 miles), aptly titled ‘Marathon March’. (Okay, so maybe it’s more like a half marathon). We started early in the morning and walked through Kiang National Forest. This was no ordinary hike, for what it lacked in elevation changes it made up for with the searing heat, shin-deep mud, and flooded rice fields that required a bit of a swim. This is all the more interesting because our Gambian guide, Lamin, couldn’t swim. It kind of baffles me that in a country that is almost entirely a river, its people can’t even dog-paddle.

Along the way, we saw a lot of baboons. The alpha male in a troop can be pretty scary. All in all, The Gambia is a really beautiful country. I hope to see all of it before I’m gone.

Here we go......

The river on the horizon

There's something in the trees.....

A collective effort to rescue our Gambian guide

A Slice of Training Village Life

Wow......what a journey it’s been. As I begin writing this, it will be exactly the second time I have turned on my computer. The not so crazy thing about it is that I could be perfectly content not doing so, except that I would not have a medium to share my experience with all of you. I’ve been here exactly one month, and currently my situation is the following:

The only sources of light available to me right now are my flashlight, the moon, and the computer screen.

I just ate some really good Durango, followed by a bucket bath.

I am living in a Mandinka training village.

I have no clothes on.......and I’m still sweating (let your imaginations run wild)

I can hear my host family outside...........Gambians don’t sleep.

I’m 10 lbs lighter.

There are a million things I could say right now that would be cool and super interesting, but I’ll focus on something that happened kunung ko (the day before yesterday). About 7:30 am, my fellow trainees and I hopped aboard a Gele-Gele, or bush taxi, for the first time. A Gele ride is about 2 steps beyond a spin in Fred Flintstone’s car, but with the same level of passenger-per-cubic foot economy that some of our Latin American friends employ in America. At one point, we had stopped to pick up a few passengers, and I heard a bleating noise. Goats are as populous a people here, so I didn’t think anything about it until I realized that the noise was coming from the roof of the Gele. Yes, for an additional charge, you can bring your most prized barnyard animal to your destination. Our Gele ride took us to Soma, which is a big market town. On our way back a funny thing happened. We had just dumped off a few passengers, when suddenly 10 minutes later we came to an abrupt stop. My language trainer, Adama, was yelling at a man, in Mandinka, walking down the road in the opposite direction. He came to the Gele and she handed him a bag of raw chicken. Apparently, one of our other language trainers, Bakary, who had just gotten off, left his chicken. Adama had told the guy to return the chicken to Bakary on his way back to wherever he was going. And Bakary got his chicken. That would not work in America on sooooo many levels. Hahaha....

--Stevo (Junkung Ceesay)

Here's a picture of some important people in my village during my naming ceremony. The Marabout (fortune teller) is in the center.

Here's a picture of Junkung Camara (now Ceesay). My host father and the Alkalo (Chief) is in the blue.

Here's a picture of the good ole' pit latrine... where my personal hygiene takes place. It's a lizard fiesta.

And here's my hut, home to ants, rats, and the occasional gecko.