More Human Than Human

It's been quite some time since I took the time to let my readers know what has been happening. It boils down to being in Toubabadou. Let me tell you it is AMAZING!

I know a lot of our fellow volunteers end up prolonging their Peace Corps experience and serving the people they stay another year or even longer. We aren't going to be those people. We had a lot of good times, but nothing significant enough that I would trade more time away from friends, family, and my native culture.

The British Isles were a true pleasure. This leg of our journey home was overwhelming at times, so much diversity and so many people and choices at stores. We stayed with some friends of a friend in London and it was everything I had hoped it would be. The British Museum is officially one of my favorite places in the world. We lost and found our luggage and moved on to the cruise ship.

The cruise ship was another world, we have never experienced such luxury and the contrast between our cruise and our PC service was staggering. We ate a lot, visited loads of places, took a pilates class, and met some interesting people along the way. Due to weather we were not able to visit Northern Ireland or Iceland but it was a great trip none the less.

We docked in NYC, NY. We came in at 4 in the morning and seen the Manhattan skyline and cruised right past the Statue of Liberty all lit up. It felt like the perfect way to come home. We were able to hook up with some former PC RIM friends and stayed with one of their families it was great.

My dad came and got us in NYC and took us to Philly. We reconnected with part of my family and were showered with gifts and spent some good quality time off and on for a couple weeks. We went to South Carolina to visit Kristy's father and found more PC RIM friends over the week we were around. Over a week ago we came back to Ohio gathering things we left behind with beloved friends and family here and there. Soon we shall go Toledo back to where we started, to catch up and move on to the western part of these here United Sates.

In the few short weeks I have been back we have had high and low swings for serious and silly reasons. I have noticed how much people have and how much is wasted without much of a thought. I have noticed both inspired and uninspired individuals living the best they can manage. I have remembered what I was looking for when we left for Africa and why we wanted to relocated out of Ohio. I have realized how much we left behind and how much there is left for us yet to do.

Coming To America

So here it is folks, this is my last post from Africa. Over two years ago, I like many others before me, set out to make a dent in the world. I learned that the world dents you right back. I am a better person for having come and ridden this bumpy road.

I think that the biggest dent in me is the America shaped one. I appreciate my liberties and culture more now than I ever thought I could. I got all teary eyed when I was thanked on behalf of the U.S. govt and for serving my country.


Some stuff, I will miss about PC life and stuff I do miss about home.

I will miss

Slow days
fresh food
big sky's
stars
baobab trees
naps
choosing my schedule
seeing a noticeable difference

I do miss
people
soft things to sit and sleep on
consistency
food
fast internet
being a classroom teacher
America

Thanks for reading, I will post a couple more times about our trip home and the readjustment but there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

I'm Afraid Of Americans

In 1 week Kristy and I shall begin our journey home. Here is a vague outline of our itinerary (a detailed one would be a silly thing to post for the interwebs to see).

Banjul to Dakar - fly to England

Dakar to London - hang out a few days until we board cruise ship

London to New York - pit stops along the way are England, Ireland, N. Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and Canada

New York to Philly

Philly to Baltimore

Baltimore to S. Carolina

S. Carolina to N. Carolina

N. Carolina to Ohio

Ohio to Colorado

Colorado to Arizona - Oh yeah if you haven't heard, we are planning on moving to AZ when we get back, inshalla

The locations in the states are too many for me to write, or I don't know the city's name. Hit us up we will make it a point to see you, but our time (read - money) is limited. How we are going to be getting around in the US is still a mystery, we have no transportation.

Disclaimer - Returning from PC will be an adjustment for us. You will have to be a bit patient with us. We aren't used to a lot of things Americans take for granted anymore. We mix different languages into our speaking. Our mannerisms are going to be different. We don't know what has happened in American culture for the last 2 years, some references are going to blow right past us. We are gonna want to do a lot of the stuff we haven't been able to for a few years. Some of it is gonna spook us a bit, we'll get through it, be patient.

After all this, we want to see you, all of you. We miss you and love you. Any chunk of time away from people makes us grow in different ways. We are still the people you knew and you are still the people we knew there has just been different stuff that has happened to all of us.

Superstar

This is going to be quick and dirty.

Life trucks on a break neck speed living in Fajara with less than 2 weeks until we close our service. I have so much paperwork that I am putting off that it's not funny, yet I do it. I am not looking forward to all that American responsibility, bleh, but I'll take it in stride. I'll have to.

I posted some pictures in an album called Mustaches, Tire Swinging, and Good-byes click on the link or visit the Picasa album. There should be some small pictures on the right hand side of my blog that will take you there. Go look at them now, there will be a test later.

Last Caress

So much of our time as of late has been occupied with "last times". It's the last time we will do this or see this person, it is exhausting and invigorating at the same time.

Although we moved out of our village a couple weeks ago we didn't say goodbye until yesterday. Yesterday we braved the ferry crossing for the third to last time :) and visited our main job sites and our family compound, for the really last time. We shall miss the friends, family, and colleagues that we encountered. It's nice to have some closure.

Essau Senior Secondary was a ghost town compared to how it normally was. There were a handful of teachers and staff members and one or two students lingering around the office trying to pick up their transcripts. As per normal my headmaster was absent, he called and sent his regrets after I texted him apologizing for being late. I thought it was a fitting that the end was consist ant with our working relationship. Kristy and I waited around, shot the breeze and then right about when we were scheduled to leave they called everyone in for a meeting, :) of course. It was rather formal my work was highlighted and anecdotes about my work and friendships were shared. It really was quite nice, and I feel that it went exactly the way it should have. Kristy and I walked away from the experience with some fancy African clothes and a belly full of food.

Essau Lower Basic was a bird of a different color. There were extra people there to send off Kristy and I. This was her primary job site. Cold Fanta's and Coke's were passed out, I got a black current one awesome, and kind words were shared. It was a jovial and warm setting. Kristy even got to meet headmasters of other schools that will benefit directly from her work in the garden and the orchard there. We got some more fancy clothes, that is probably some kind of tradition. When we left we were given left handed hand shakes, a wish to see us again, and walked to the family compound.

The Family wasn't all home but they came when they heard we were around. Pictures that we took (and Shannon took when she was here) were given as a parting gift and they were ooohh'd and aaahh'd over. We chatted, sat, and looked at the garden, my peppers are growing, and the morenga tree has seen better days. Sadly the tire swing was taken down, but only while some construction is happening, inshalla. On parting promises of last phone calls were made and we walked away to find a taxi or gelly.

The familiar cries of "toubab minty" were heard as walked away from our village for the last time, some things won't be missed.

Say Hello To Heaven

In one of my first blog entries I wrote about a sacrifice and loss that our service cost us. Yesterday we repeated that loss. Our two surviving pets are no longer with us in this plane. We deeply regret that we were not able to be there to see them off. I like to think that they were a lot luckier than a lot of the animals I have met here, they were adopted into not 1 but 2 loving homes. They had long, full lives, 15 years, and were one of the things that kept the candles burning on the home front for us. This loss of an anchor makes the pull to the familiar a different experience.

It sucks, we will miss them, Snowball and Beavis were good friends.

Sad days.

The Rain King

Wrapping up is hard to do here. There are a million things to do, we can't take most of our things with us so we have to gift them to our host family,ex-pat neighbors, or fellow volunteers. We have to say goodbye, eat at our friends houses one more time, give hugs, hand shakes. Sometimes the handshake is done with the left hand, it is meant as an insult so that the people separating have to be reunited to rectify the insult, it's not goodbye but see you a lot later. We also have to settle bills, if we have them.

It's a lot harder when you aren't even at site. Our latrine filled with water after a kinda short rain. It honestly was pretty gross, and I will refrain from describing the mess here. Needless to say our small home been rendered somewhat inhabitable. We have been in town for 5-6 day now and our return to site just for an assessment has not been scheduled, yet. PCTG is really busy right now, there are new trainees in country, on top of day to day activities. If our latrine is repairable/replaceable they will do it and almost immediately replace us with, Dado, a volunteer that has her own troubles at site and does a bunch of work in our village. Kristy's projects might have a person to keep a watchful eye on them for another year, that would be really cool.

I mentioned new trainees are here. I get to do a training session with them! I am really happy about it. I volunteered to teach them how to cook American-style comfort foods with Gambian ingredients using the facilities we have here. This will hopefully supplement their dietary needs and give some much needed piece of mind that eating foods your recognize gives us. I will be participating in that at the end of this month.

post script Tomorrow is my 32nd birthday make sure you save all my presents for when I get home. Kristy will have just celebrated her birthday when we arrive, and we like presents.

Tire Swing

Last week after a long series of promises and some convincing that it would be safe Kristy and I installed a tire swing into one of the mango trees in our compound. It very well may be one of the only such swings in The Gambia. The kids love it, they are on it every morning and they laugh and laugh the whole time.

Because such things are so foreign I was not sure how they would react. We had to show the first kid how to use it and the whole time of his own maiden voyage he was silent and he was wide eyed. I thought it was sheer terror. He got off, didn't say a word and he left to join the rest of the family at a naming ceremony down the street. Moussa returned with the other kids from the compound and they spent hours on it afterwards.

Kristy and I are glad that we were able to give a sustainable toy to the family. We have spied some of the neighborhood adults on it, but not really neighborhood kids, yet. Thankfully, the tree the swing is attached to is far from our room and it keeps the kids at a distance where the cries of joy are not overwhelming.

Wish You Were Here

Recently there was a 3 day training event that was dubbed "The Man's Retreat". It was a chance for guys to talk about guys issues in PCTG and for us to teach each other about our manly interests. The whole thing was rather positive. I noticed that now my style of participation is focused on sharing my experiences and point of view rather than taking notes because this close to the end, I am not really starting anything new.

I have started gardening with my host family. It gets me some needed exercise and I really feel the bond growing. It will help supplement their diet and their income. It's the first time in my life I have ever really grown anything. It is something that I want to do when we get home, the experience is gratifying.

I'm in town right now doing some preparation for one of the things I hope to leave PCTG a cook book. I offered to help train the new PCT's on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, cooking in the Peace Corps. I'm going to go to the training villages shop for food make something that will supplement their diets. I'm stoked.

Kristy is on all these committees and has meetings all weekend. She always does important stuff like that.

I'm presently uploading a crap ton of pictures, I have 2 more albums up now and will be working on more if I find time while the interweb is moving along at decent speeds. Here is a link to my Picasa Album in case you forgot it.

I edited the care package page on the Google group. It's sad for me to say this but if you have stuff to send us do it soon soon soon. If you put it off past the middle of June there are chances that we won't get the package. So, don't send us care packages past mid June, this even includes stuff for my birthday. What you can do instead is, take care of us when we get back. We will need a lot of help.

Strange Days

This last few weeks have been a whirl wind of busy. The COS conference was intimidating but informative, there are some pictures that I fully plan on hijacking from another pcv blog
There are more that Ousman posted but, interweb being what it is, I'm gonna leave out the people you don't know.

We successfully held our Study At Home Quiz Bowl. It was a great time, some people won and some people lost. I think the message was heard by the participants and I tried to send it home to the spectators too, but I can't really measure that.

My library project is at a new challenge. We have too many books, and most of them aren't good. One of the problems with charity donations is: when your average Joe doesn't want that dieting book, illiterate and semi-literate kids don't want them either. So if your going to send books, send stuff you would want if you only had 5 books. Back to my story, (sorry for the side rant) We have too many books, I contacted / had others contact about a dozen schools and libraries and hundreds of books will reach thousands of kids through redistribution. I am gonna have find alternative uses for some outdated and unwanted books though. It will be a sad day for books.

I was finally used to do my job as a Teacher Trainer for my high school!!!!!!! This was one of my high points here. I actually was invited to hold a workshop after months of being ignored. I got to about 50% of the staff and hopefully they took away some good info.

That's all for now, see you sooner and sooner every day.

Thousand Mile Wish

We will be staying in a hotel this weekend! I hope it's super nice and they take good care of us. This weekend has a huge focus, going home. It's not as if this isn't often on my mind but this is the time where we officially begin to prepare for our fated departure to the land of the free. We shall be discussing all those scary professional things that exist in the world out there like resumes, job experience, continuing education, and how we can apply the last two years of our lives to all that oh-so-real and serious stuff. PC has some systems in place to quell our fears, most notably the network of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV's). I hope we have some good things planned and we will prolly be busy 90% of the time.

We just requested to be able to participate in the mail run for August, we will be making a 5(ish) day journey through the whole country visiting all the PCV's dropping off the things their friends and family's send them.

Every quarter the North Bank Region, the one we live in, tries to do a large group project. This quarter we are focusing on trying to encourage kids to study at home. We are accomplishing this by having a quiz bowl at our individual schools and giving the kids homework. Inshalla, they will want to perform well that day and will study to not look foolish in front of the whole school, and win prizes. Our day is the 17th wish the kids luck.

It's coming down to the end of our window for being able to receive mail, too much past early June and we may not get what is sent.

Bent

I'm sick, it's a recent development and shall fade soon enough.

Two weeks ago there was a camp for young girls 7th and 8th and their teacher. I was able to help train the teachers in lesson plans that use alternative techniques to pull out creative thinking and use multiple intelligences. The camp was great fun, it was covered by GRTS the Gambian television station and it was obvious that each of us were part of something much larger. Some of those girls left their village for the first time. They learned about AIDS, life choices, leadership, teamwork, drugs, alcohol, and pregnancy. I am proud that I was a part of it.

We just attended a conference that included little to nothing that will effect Kristy or I. It was still exciting to see the beginnings of now policies to make PCTG a well oiled machine.

We covered a recent happening dubbed "The Philip Incident" that is making some of our new policies necessary. There are some unspoken pieces here and if I told you, I'd have to kill you, or you'd be bored outta your skulls and wish I would have omitted it. Regardless, I'm not saying anything about it until I firmly home and jobless.

Now that it's over we will be returning to site until the Close of Service (COS) Conference that will take place early next month. This is going to be just like our conference last year but without all that lovely evacuation confusion. We are going to get to learn how not to be the people we are now and how to be close to the people we were when we got here. We are broken Americans, and there is gonna be some things that we will do to embarrass those around us, more then we would normally have in America. You'll see and I will bring this up again, inshalla.

What it does mean though is that our trip home is planned and we are filling in the fine details. I can for sure say that we will be boarding a cruise that will take at least 2 weeks where will celebrate our anniversary and Kristy's birthday. I'll talk about that more at a later time.

The Fixer

Bloggitty, blog, blog, blog. Things to write about: vacation with the fam, good days, and I am sure I will think of something else, I talk a lot.

Vacation with the fam

It was AWESOME. Shannon, Jeremiah, and Kelly (or Kumba, Yahya, and Maimouna as we dubbed them) showed up early to Dakar by an hour so we were a bit late finding them. I know that I miss home (where ever that may be) and that is a reoccurring theme in my adventure, but seeing them brought it to a sense of reality that was stark and in my face.

We walked and walked and walked through Dakar, the Ile de Goree, the Kombos, and lastly Essau. They were able to show us the beauty and wonder of Senegal and The Gambia that had faded a bit for us. You always get used to your home and it somehow become less astoundingly beautiful. We translated, haggled, laughed, ate, and drank.

There is a lot of wildlife here in Gambia that we had not become familiar with. We seen a billion monkeys, a bush buck antelope, a bunch of crocodiles, amazing birds that I could never remember the names of, hyenas, and even a random snake on the side of the road.

We happened upon a Jewelbrew promotion and entered a competition where we made a great effort, but took a loss to guys who have been practicing for longer than we have been alive.

Before they left they showered us with gifts and we put them on a taxi going to a country where they didn't speak any of the languages :)

Good Days

It's not easy, as they say and I couldn't agree more. I have to force myself to step back and grab hold of the good days. The moments where in my daily life I stand there staring at the horizon filled with mango trees being cooled by a ocean breeze and realise that I am knee deep in a wonderful adventure that has changed me.

I woke up recently to hooting and peeked outside to see owls just outside of our home, this is the second time I have gotten to see wild owls ever (both times here). Owls are becoming more and more rare here, they are believed to be a sign of witchcraft being practiced and are hunted because of the bad omen they bring.

One of the kids in our compound has recently stopped being afraid of me and now lights up when she sees me with a heartfelt "g" which is the name the family calls me. Ironically the letter g does not exist in the Mandinka alphabet.

Forever

Now February is really almost over. We are in Barra making some last min internet searches before we go to Dakar again this weekend. Kristy just bought some garden tools so that the school across the street can start a garden instead of letting it stay the neighborhood dumb.

WAIST, what can I say? It was a bitter-sweet event. Sweet the way that it is always sweet to see PCV's compete in a softball tournament, eat hot dogs, nachos and pulled pork with jalapenos, and the liter sized Gazelles and early morning practice at the club. Bitter in the way that PC RIM was not there, it was quiet and tame (with the same number of people), it was the ghost of WAIST future. We gave it our all made complete fools of ourselves not wearing pants per tradition, played kickball instead of softball one game (it was later won by the Refugees: rock v scissors), and we even kidnapped opposing team members and their mascot. I am proud to say that I was captain of that rowdy bunch of Refugees who's chant was "We're here, we're homeless, get used to us!" It was great to see the old RIM crew and to meet the Guinean PC refugees. We bonded in our mutual experiences and mutual reactions to said experiences. It was good to know that other people feel the same as us.

Shannon, Jeremiah, and Kelly are going to be in Dakar this weekend! My-oh-my! It is almost surreal that they will get to share a bit of our life and see what I write about. There is so much to do and see and so little time to do it in.

We are now in the last quarter of our service, we have to make preparations for our projects to continue without us. Manuals need to be written, to do lists need to be checked off, and that last bit of confidence needs to be given to the counterparts so that they know they can do what we came together for and more after our absence is felt.

Refugee

Days seem to tick by at uneven rates, time truly is relative. Sometimes seconds take lifetimes and sometimes the weeks swiftly pass us by. February has only started and there is no time left. This month will be the one where I work the least during the school year, that is a bitter sweet happening. I want my projects to progress and I have vacation to do too.

I am still organizing the library and working to get the computer teachers to teach a class for the school staff. There is a reluctance to follow through with projects that baffles my work ethic. My librarian really only wants to work when I am present, which saddens me, I have caught her in the storage closet getting her hair braided when she thinks I am not around. My computer teachers complain about not having money but will not host classes which they could earn a supplementary income with. I do have things that go well though, my PTA meetings seems to see self sustaining and held on a monthly basis, we set goals and follow through with what we say.

WAIST is next week, Mauritania and Guinea will combine our displaced forces to create a team dubbed Refugees. Truly to reconnect with our long lost country mates is the major motivation for going to WAIST this year. Gambia PCV's are kinda take it or leave it about the tournament. I know we would be much more pumped had the unfortunate evacuation never happened. I think that it will still be a great time and the hot-dogs with be hot and the beers will be cold.

Also in the works, Shannon, Jeremiah, and Kelly will be coming to visit! Kristy and I are stoked to be able to see a small fraction of our loved ones and to share a bit of our experience here.

I have been lazy and there are some pictures that I need to post, it will happen as soon as it does.

Counting The Days

200 days

200 more days to try

200 more days of being different

200 more days to take afternoon naps

200 more days to dream of home

200 more days to have everyone know my name

200 more days to be a stranger

200 more days to see

200 more days of spending time with my wife

200 more days to be called toubab

200 more days to read

200 more days to haggle

200 more days of frustration

200 more days of having a large family

200 more days of failure

200 more days of success

200 more days of inshalla

200 more days of dirt roads

200 more days of mosquito netting

200 more days of animals everywhere

200 more days of far away

200 more days of hope

200 more days of our 2 room home

200 more days of give me

200 more days of too many languages

200 more days of laughter

200 more days of men holding hands

200 more days of wondering if I can make it

200 more days of making a difference

Paranoid Android

Kristy and I have been trying to use the interweb for a couple weeks now and with the consistant inconsistancies that has been troublesome. We have been well, working to get our Water Charity projects done, you should donate :) here for mine and here for Kristy's. Things are going well I have some new pictures of my project if you want to see what your giving to.

We mentioned a matathon march that we were going to go on with the new PCV's but due to some budget stuff that didn't happen. It was a bummer and the people who did go got lost, such is life.

The holidays came and went and I am glad they are behind us, this year was much harder than the last and we thought of everyone and love you all.

We have run away from a monster called the Konkoran (they beg for money) a few times, they pop up on holidays and are usually surrounded by hoards of people and drumming.

I hope that we can time interweb cafe being open a bit better in the future, take it easy.