Peace Corps - The Gambia - 2007/09

In case this info hasn’t gotten around, I thought I would post an update of my life after leaving The Gambia.

 I wasted no time getting up to speed when I got back in September.  The first week back I bought a car.  The second week back I accepted an offer to work for Brocade Communications, which develops enterprise class data network technology.  The third week back I made an offer on a house which is about a ten minute walk from work.  I closed on that house November 17th.  On November 26th I met the love of my life, Valeria.  Valeria is orginally from Ukraine, but has lived in the U.S. for ten years and is now a U.S. citizen.  We are like two peas in a pod.

To all of the volunteers I trained with and met, I miss you all dearly and wish all of you continued success with Peace Corps, and your lives as RPCVs.

Take care!

Brendan

On Monday, September 10th, I tendered my resignation from Peace Corps service in The Gambia. This decision was not made lightly, but I feel was best for the Peace Corps, my Gambian counterparts, and for my own sanity.

I want to thank my fellow volunteers; it was a joy getting to know you and training with you! I also want to thank the Peace Corps staff in The Gambia and Washington D.C. for giving me such a wonderful opportunity. I wish things had gone differently, and I will miss all of you very much.

Best of luck to everyone!

Sincerely,

Brendan

On Tuesday I was reassigned from Farafenni to the capital, Banjul. I will be working at the Department of State for Education (DoSE), helping support their Educational Management Information System (EMIS) database, as well as anything else I think I can help with. I have also been asked to work with QuantumNet on occasion. They are The Gambia’s first (and currently only) ISP.

Today I familiarized myself with commuting to DoSE from Fajara. Tomorrow I will be moving my things from the Peace Corps transit house to an apartment I will be sharing with another volunteer.

That’s all for now.

Today I swore-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV).  I took many pictures and hope to post them later today.  There was an amazing spread of food afterward.  The event took place at the American Ambassador’s residence.  It’s very very scenic there, with loads of palm trees and nice flowing plants.  ***Disclaimer:  The scenery below is not indicative of most of The Gambia.  So don’t think I’m living in a tropical paradise. ***  We met the new person in charge of keeping the Embassy running (Deputy Chief of Mission).  I asked him about his work and how he came to be in foreign service.  That is something I’m going to look into.  As I mentioned earlier, the new ambassador won’t arrive until later this year.  He is a former Peace Corps Country Director (http://www.thepoint.gm/headlines2210.htm).

As you can see from the attached picture we are a diverse bunch. States/countries respresented include Hawaii, Colorado (2), Wyoming, South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Russia, Illinois, Ohio, Washington (2), Wisconsin, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida (2), and New York.

Well, after having had a fabulous buffet lunch, I’m off to an amazing dinner back at the transit house here in Fajara.

Bye for now!

I’m almost done with PST. I’m currently staying at the Peace Corps transit house in the Banjul area awaiting the official “swearing-in” on Friday, August 24th. The ceremony will be at the American Ambassador’s residence. Unfortunately, we are between ambassadors right now. So an administrative person will be standing in. I will return to my permanent site on Sunday. Speaking of which, on August 14th I traveled to my permanent site: Farafenni. It is on the north bank of the River Gambia, about halfway up the river. It is approximately 2k from the Senegalese border. It’s a dusty town, but has electricity, and I have a water tap in the compound. No more trekking a hundred yards to fill buckets. Farafenni has almost everything one would need to survive here, and there is a Sunday market (called a lumo) which is the biggest in The Gambia. That one attracts vendors from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, The Gambia, and Guinea Bissau.

The primary languages spoken in Farafenni are Wollof, Mandinka, and French. Sadly, I think my high school French is as good as my Mandinka right now.

There is another volunteer here. His name is Grover. He is from Kansas, and attended Kansas State University. He now knows I’m a Husker fan, but no ill feelings..lol. While visiting Farafenni he took me to the MRC (Medicial Research Council, http://www.mrc.gm/) facility in town . They have been in the Gambia since 1947. There are a group of researchers there working on bed net technologies, and identifying the different types of mosquitos here and what their behavioral patterns are. We met a few of the researchers. They are staff from Durham University in northern England. I hope to find some IT work with them. Three months from now the Durham people will finish up their work here, and a new crew will come in who are researching malarial medications.

To date, I’ve lost twenty pounds. We’ll see if that stays off in Farafenni. They have some tasty (and probably fattening) egg sandwiches. In fact, those (and bean sandwiches) are common all over The Gambia.

I promise to post a few pics here soon. I didn’t take a whole lot in training. I was too stressed out. But there are some good ones.

Bye for now,

Brendan

I don’t have my camera on me, so no photos for now, and maybe not until after Pre-Service Training. If all goes well, Swearing-in will be August 25th.

Currently I’m at the Gambian Pastoral Institute (GPI). I am learning Mandinka. This is one of the three major native languages in The Gambia. I am also learning about Gambian culture.

Friday, June 22nd, I will travel up-country to a village called Bumaari. I will live there with two other trainees who are are also learning Mandinka. I will have a host family during that time. In Bumaari I will complete my language, culture, and technical training.

This service is going to require one heck of a cultural adjustment. It’s hard in ways the Army wasn’t, most notably the cultural isolation. I’ve only been here a week but feel I’ve been here a month.

My Gambian trainers have been so nice. I love them all! I promise to post pictures of them when I get the time. It’s amazing how much we’ve already done in a week. I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed and can’t wait for some downtime at some point just to soak it in.

Bye for now!

Brendan

They said staging would wip on by, and it did.  Good thing too, because I’m ready to touch down in Banjul.  I’ve added some pics I took in DC on Monday, including Peace Corps Headquarters, the World War ll Memorial, National Mall, and the half of my volunteer group that didn’t go for sushi.  All volunteers in this Gambia rotation are either math and science, technology, or teacher trainers.  My roommate, Bill (standing below me in the group picture), is now a former Lockeed engineer.  His specialty was cramming satellite electronics into smaller and smaller spaces.

Today I had what will probably be my last Indian and Thai food for quite a long time.  I also got to meet the new country director for Peace Corps The Gambia.  He will officially arrive there in July with his wife.  He also comes from a computing background, as does the new country director for Senegal.

Tomorrow we get shots, head to the airport, and fly out at 5:35pm EST.  Approximately eighteen and a half hours (and a couple of stops)  after that we’ll be touching down in Banjul.  I’m so looking forward to being there and finally meeting everyone involved.

OK,

I know this is kinda lame, but I hit the weight limit on packing.  After reading numerous packing lists and talking to a few RPCV’s, I ended up skirting 80lbs.  Oh well.  I’m sure I’ll be saying the same thing everyone else has regarding how they didn’t need to pack so much.  Better to be safe than sorry I guess.

I hope any volunteers in my group that read this are living it up this weekend!  I look foward to meeting you!!!

My apologies if these brief  posts are more suited to Tumblr than WordPress.  I think it’s going to take me a while to learn the art of long blather.

I drove back from Santa Fe, NM, to Broomfield, CO, on Wednesday, May 3rd taking the back way (aka HWY 285) all the way. For those not familiar with that route,  it is certainly not the fastest, but the scenery beats the I-25 route hands down. Total drive time was maybe seven hours. I’ve included one pic I took coming down from Atalaya Mountain east of Santa Fe, and one from 285 looking toward the south end of the Colorado Sangre de Cristo Mountains. That photo doesn’t do it justice.

Thanks to Patty, Tom, and everyone at the State of New Mexico. It was a pleasure working with you! I will miss you!

Now, back to packing the stuff staying and the stuff going

…until my last day here in Santa Fe.  I was begged into staying until May 18.  Being that the next day is my birthday, I guess I’ll really have a reason to celebrate.  Nothing against this charming town, but it’s not home.

I’ll post some pics of my visit to Trinity Site and The Very Large Array soon.

Come onnnnnn weekend!

Follow-up:  Disposable camera pics don’t translate well into digital photo CD pics.  They we’re freakin’ horrible on semi-close inspection.   Suffice it to say the quality didn’t meet my minimum requirements for posting.  That’s what I get for not bringing the 7.2 megapixel camera.