Thursday, June 17, 2010

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.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

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.