Whatever Gets You Through The Night

This is going to be my last opportunity to use the internet for a bit (maybe), so you get an update on life stuff.

Family

We have a large family now, there is a grandmother, a couple older brothers, a younger brother (post high school), a sister in law, twin our age sisters, and a younger sister(starting high school). There are two young boys (one of the twins kids), a school age girl, and twin baby girls (the other twins kids), and a quiet boy (sister in law's kid).

Our family is really nice, super helpful, and fun to be with. There is a 6:30 till noon screaming habit the babies have, but malnutrition and Africa temperatures will do that.

I am sad to report that Gambians in our part of the country don't sleep outside, so no more under the stars slumber for us. It is something that I will miss until we are able to have the means to do it in Merica.

Work

High School: Lot's to do there, I have been struggling to get the internet connection back up for a while, it should be working when I return. There are an endless stream of computer things that everyone thinks I know because I am white (white people are born knowing such things). The PTA is back in action after 5 years, and together we are gonna put up a fence for the agro science classes. Going to the National Library to see if I can train get a few people trained, so they can train all the rest.

Nursery School: Creating codes of conduct, syllabus, helping train the absolutely untrained teachers, and helping them write grants for school improvements. Maybe some live fencing.

Primary school: Computer lab, it's in shambles right now and needs to be put in working order. Kristy is trying to find funding to ship some books from our old library in Perrysburg to the school, but the bill is like $300 so we are going to have to be creative, (like causally mentioning it on a blog, send me an email if you know someone to help) there are some traditional avenues that we are going to look into.

Village Development Committee: Haven't heard from them, yet... we are expecting to find some work with them too.

Don't Call Me White

Integrating to our new site has proved to be far more difficult than in Kaedi. Our former home was a city that was home to Peace Corps training for 8 years and therefore they were quite used to the pale people walking around and for the most part ignored us.

Essau is a different story. The Gambia is subject to a great deal of tourists, these tourists have created a culture where the "toubabs" are givers of things; pens, candy, or money. They do it in rude ways, throwing the items into busy roads to avoid the scrambling children. In turn the people here are rude to the people of European decent. No matter how many times I am told that it is not an insult, a quick judgment on who I am based only on the amount of pigment in my skin is an insult. It's racist, and I hate it. This term and mentality was applied in RIM but was faded when they realized I was not giving anything. We doubt it will happen any time soon, all white people look the same.

The idea that this is offensive is an American moral standard, we do not appreciate beggars, and anything that singles another person out only because of ethnicity is wrong to us. I am judged only on my pallor and not on the strength of my mind or the convictions in my soul.

Many people do not like this behavior and it is I possess the problem because I refuse to let this part of me be compromised.

The people I work with are kind and walk around the issue of being white as to not offend me. We are slowly initiating my projects at my schools, and I hope to actually make an impact.

I have, as promised, posted pictures the album is titled First Month, The Gambia. I know it's not witty, it's late and I'm tired. I hope you enjoy them.

p.s. Don't worry about my comfort level, this is normal here. I think that the whole toubab thing is a personal battle I have to foster ethnic tolerance here in The Gambia.