Sleeping at the PC office!!!

So Shayla, Amanda, Jenni, and I all decided to just spend the night working on the computers here at the PC office. With the PCV meeting here tomorrow, the computer lab is pretty full during the day, so we just decided to stay over so that we do not have to wait in line to use the computers. Plus, we saved 90 Dal not staying at the stodge.

The main thing that I wanted to do tonight was work on my pictures. For whatever reason, PC decided to disable the "right click" on all of the computers, so the whole process was taking FOREVER!!! I decided to just bring my computer back next month and use wireless in one of the restaurants. We have a place where we like to eat, and the place next store to it does not block their wireless Internet, so we're free to use it as much as we want. I probably will not be back here until July. Because of the 4th of July, and various PC meetings, I will be spending a lot of time here in Farjara in July, so I am going to try to stay at site all of June. So for the present time, my pictures are "out of order." I have some really great pictures to show, and I organized them pretty well. Hopefully by this time my house will be ready to go, so I will also be able to show those pictures off as well. Look for some great pictures in July!!!

On Saturday, Shayla, Jenni, Amanda, Steven, and I all went to the Roots Festival in Banjul. The event was held at the "22nd of June Field." The whole day was great!!! There was a parade with some really entertaining performances. I took some great pictures of it all. My favorite group was the "Bumbsters Rehabilitation Group." Bumbsters are men (and sometimes women) who show the tourists around, and basically function as paid escorts. This group is looking to stop these men from really being sex workers, and teaching them to put their "talents" to other more positive uses. Before the parade, President Jammeh drove by the stadium in his hummer. Jenni and I ran up to him along with about 100 other people. All we wanted was a really good picture of him, and we ended up in some sort of riot over the cookies packets that he was throwing out. Jenni quickly moved to the side of the group, but I figured that I could hold my own, so I stayed. It seems that Jammeh spotted me in the group, and he started throwing all of the cookie packets in my direction. People where pushing and shoving, so I was having a really hard time catching a packet. Finally I just boxed someone out, and jumped up in the air for the cookies. Another guy had the same idea as me, and we both caught the cookies mid-air. Neither one of us wanted to let the cookies go, so we ended up sort of struggling, and then we literally ripped the cookie packet in half. I also got some really nice pictures of Jammeh. Later, Jammeh made is grand entrance into the stadium, and we all got some really great pictures of him. Both Jenni and I wanted a picture of him on his red leather couch, so we moved up close again. We were wondering what was taking him so long to get up there, when I realized that he was actually walking around the stadium shaking hands. A security guard offered to let us pass the rope to make sure that we actually got to shake his hand, but we decided to just wait with everyone else. As he got closer people really started to push. I boxed them out, and also tried to help shield Jenni. We both stuck out our hands, and he looked at us strangely, and shook our hands. I was really excited to shake his hand because his hand may very well be the only hand of a President that I ever shake. Jenni totally one-upped me, because she had previously shaken his hand the week before. We skipped back to the group all giddy, and we were really happy that we had decided to enter the mob. After that we all had to go to the bathroom, so we went in search of one. We were walking past the President's Palace, when some of the guards called out to us. Everyone here seems to know that we are PCVs, so they are usually pretty nice to us all. The guards asked us if we needed any help, and we said that we were looking for a bathroom. I made the comment that we were really looking for any place where we could squat. He told us to wait a minute. I assumed that he was going to take us somewhere with a little privacy where we could do our business, but then he opened the door, and told us to come in. We were taken to a really nice room with leather couches, and a TV. One at a time we were all lead to a "real" bathroom. We were so impressed with the waiting room that we all began taking pictures. Then one of the guards walked in, and started posing with us in the pictures. He then told us that we were in the same room where Ambassadors and other important people wait to be cleared to see Jammeh. One of the guards told me that I was fat (the story of my life here), and that he knew a woman who was fat just like me. I said "oh really, she must be an American too." He said that this woman was "active" because she could run 4K. I then somehow ended up challenging him to an arm wrestling contest, but I never got the chance to follow through because it was finally my turn to use the restroom. Once inside I started taking a lot of pictures of the place, because I figure that things like this may not happen a lot. I returned to the room, and we all left in search of something to eat. As we were walking around Banjul, one man walked by and told me that I was "too long." I then said, "gosh apparently not only am I too fat, but I guess that I am too tall as well." We ended up eating random things that street vendors were selling, and then we went back to the stadium. We stayed a little while longer, but then we all started getting harassed by men, so we figured that it was time to go. We went to the car park and tried to catch a gili, but every time one came people would fight their way on, and we (I) really did not feel like getting pushed. We decided to try our luck with a taxi. There were five of us, so four people had to sit in the back. I road shotgun, so the others had to squeeze in the back. The taxi driver wanted to charge us extra because there were five of us. Some people wanted to get out, but then I pointed out that it would be more expensive for each person if we spilt up. I also pointed out that the real reason that he wanted more money was because we would probably get stopped in the Police check point, and we would have to bribe the officer because we had too many people in the car. As we approached the check point Jenni decided to duck down, and everyone in the back sort of stretched out over her. We all then began talking to the officer to distract him. The whole thing ended up working, and the taxi driver was really thankful to all of us. We were taken back all the way to the stodge in Farjara instead of being dropped off at another car park, and being forced to haggle our way into another taxi. The whole day was great, and I was SOOOO glad that we all decided to go.

The cats. Without going too much into it, I decided to let the cats go. I couldn't take being around them anymore, so I took them to the bush to "run free." I really have no idea what became of them, but I'm guessing that a monkey ate them. My family thinks that the cats were given to a "good home," but if I told them what I really did, they really would not care.

Village is going very well now. I started working with the nursery school in a "kiddies corner" thing at the library. It's really actually a total train wreck because the kids really do not speak English well, and I do not speak Mandinka well. Grade one is made up of five-year-olds, and that was the day I was left all alone without a translator. We ended up spending the hour taking turns dancing in front of the class. It wasn't really very educational, but it was a lot of fun. I spoke to a teacher from Canada here, and she said that one one really knows how to read, so I am going to try to work on reading and phonics with the kids. They do not have to take any tests until after grade four, so the kids can get that far without really being able to read. I'm thinking about working on some English/Mandinka stories to help the kids learn how to read. I'll probably work on that over the summer break so I'll be ready in the fall. I've also been attending the village football games. I find football to be pretty boring, but it makes the people happy so I go.

Two weeks ago we all traveled to see Shayla. I had to travel the 10 minutes to Brikama (aka "B-Town') and then I had a four-hour ride on the gili. Amanda had gone into Farjara with me the day before, so she spent the night, and we headed out at first light. We got into a huge fight with the gili apprentices over Amanda paying to put her bag on the top, and we ended up losing. We fought hard though. The ride was really long, and we got super dirty because the paved road ends like 20k after my village, so we spent a great deal of the trip four wheeling in the gili. The trip was actually pretty fun. Every time the gili stopped at a Police checkpoint, we got something to eat. We even ended up purchasing water bags that were made by someone in their house. The bags looked pretty dirty, but we thought "why the hell not." Really the worst that could happened would be sour stomach, and that happens at least once a week anyway. We finally made it, and then we hung out with Shayla and Jenni. On the way home after the weekend was over, surprise, surprise, we got in another fight over Amanda's bag. This time it turned out that the guy giving us problems was not even an apprentice, so we spent a lot of time yelling at him for nothing. The real apprentices told us to just put the bag under the seat. The driver also tried to over charge the two of us, but we put him in his place as well. The gili was pretty full, so we all moved some random bag out of the way, and got comfortable on the seat. As we were pulling out of the car park, some guy came running after the gili. Turns out that the bag belonged to some Police officer that felt he was entitled to save seats. He got mad because I was "in his seat," and he tried to make me move. I then informed him that one cannot save a seat on a gili, and politely that he was shit out of luck. The apprentice told him to sit down, and he started yelling at us to move down. We all squeezed together, and there really wasn't a lot of room for him to sit. He kept screaming for us to move down, but there really wasn't anywhere to go. He then told Amanda and I that we were fat. I then responded (in English), "You know you're right. We're fat, lazy, and we eat a lot, but we still can't move down anymore." I also then started shouting things in Mandinka along the same lines. People on the gili started laughing, and basically told the man to sit down. We finally got going, and then about 2 hours into the trip all hell broke loose. The same man got out at a checkpoint to smoke, and when he got back in one woman started yelling at him for wasting our time. He yelled back, and then the woman's friend got into the argument as well. Amanda and I started saying things like "you tell him," and the gili driver had to pull over and tell the women and the man to stop because they were getting other people on the gili into it as well. Finally a soldier got on the gili, and the group calmed down. The rest of the ride was fine. We were all really crammed tight, and all super dirty. Apparently the people that wrapped themselves in towels had the right idea. The two of us kept giggling about it, but they were clean when we reached Brikama.

I talked about the "car accident" in the previous blog, so I really do not think that I have too much else to say. Things are going well, and for the most part I am really happy. Everyone has their tough moments, but that is just a part of being a PCV. The best part of all is that I have the chance to read a lot of books over the next two years!!!