Saturday, October 20, 2007

Latest news 10/20 - by Lolo (Alex's Mom)

Hello friends and family,
I spoke with Alex this week. If you recall, 2 weeks ago he went to a training village. After 10 days in the same training village as 4 other Peace Corps, living with in a family compound on his own, he went for a meeting with all 24 new volunteers in a tourist lodge by the river (for the tourists that go up river to bird watch). If you want to know the name of place of the lodge, send me an email. Apparently 100-150 people live there and it is a place for tourists that go up river. It has electricity and running water - wow!!! He could take a real shower... after 10 days. But no internet. And there was phone coverage; so we spoke with him 2 days in a roll... The lodge was similar but not as fancy as the lodge we stayed at in the Amazon... They stay at this lodge for 4 days, then go back to the training village. He will come back to this lodge on Nov 5 for another few days meeting with all 24 PC Volunteers.

Latest News:- He seems to be doing well, slowly adjusting.
- He is at his training village, close to Kiang National Park (you can check "Kiang Gambia" on Google Earth), where he will stay for 9 weeks, with breaks at a tourist lodge.

- At his training village, he is has his own quarters with 2 very small rooms (1/4 of his bedroom here) which is part of a rectangular family dwelling. Each quarter has its own entrance and is small (it even makes a dorm room looks large!) and is basically for sleeping. He has a bed, a table, a chair, and a trunk. It does have a concrete floor, washed walls, and screens on the windows (a Peace Corps (PC) requirement) but he still has to sleep under a mosquito net.

- There is a back door that leads to a small yard that has the outhouse, where he has a pit toilet, with cement around the hole and a cover for the toilet. That is also where he takes a bucket and cup shower... (I recommended he shaves his head - it is easier). I guess Japan also has the "squat" toilets...

- They have a covered well for water (also a PC requirement); have to filter the drinking water and some kind of filtering for bath water.

- He eats with the family. He said there is one assigned "Mom" and "Dad" but tons of other people; he has no idea if they are a second family (remember they marry more than once) or the full extended family.

- His main complaints are: the heat (it is similar to the Amazon) and the lack of variety in the food - they have only rice for every meal (or cuscus). The rice is served with some kind of sauce, either peanut, tomatoe or a green one (probably vegetable). Sometimes they have fresh vegetables and fruit (whatever is in season locally). There is occasionally some meat or fish, but the fish are small and very bony. He said some PC volunteers can't eat it; I think he eats everything (Alex is a good eater). But he said he had thought there would be others types of food. I think he also gets milk sometimes. He is taking multi vitamins given by the PC.

- The people he is dealing and will deal with in the assigned place are Fula people, cattle herders, that eat meat... So he gest milk and sometimes meat (not sure if he had it yet).

- He said the language acquisition is hard since it is completely alien. Portuguese and Spanish were easier because he grew up exposed to them. That is mostly what they do in terms of training at the village, language training.

- He said there are 3 trees in the training village; the 5 volunteers with their Gambian trainer sit under the last one every day for the training and she uses a board to write on. The language he is learning is called Pulaar. The training at the lodge every couple of weeks is about agriculture and forestry; they are teaching them about the soil, seeds, etc.

- He hired someone to do his laundry ($6 per month) - this also helps the local people.

- When he goes to his assigned location in December, he will have to agree with his hosts, on how much he will pay for housing, food and laundry and who gets what money. Apparently the money the women earn are theirs and same for the men.

He just found out where he is going in December, on the north, close to the Senegal border. You can check the area on Google Earth, we did it, and get a feel for the place. It is a desert like area, for cattle herders. It is on the north side of the river, about 4 hours away from the capital Banjul (who sits at the mouth of the river). Find the city called Kerewan; there is another river branch going north. He will be up the river branch about 15 kilometers, then west. I don't know the name of the village but it is close to the bigger city just by Senegal called Maka bala mana (Google Earth knows that one, and close to Ker Omar. It will be very hot and dry but he will be close to the capital.

As per John/Dad: "We have to remember how easy life is here in the US and think about what we take for granted."

You can write to him; my first letter got there (actually took around 2 weeks). He said if you write in "red" ink, they say there is a better chance it will get there because they are superstitious and typically won't open it. He said his friends have gotten care packages. He suggested, if anyone wants to send him things, to send him books, especially books about Africa (west Africa preferred): culture, politics, religion, customs, etc, etc. He wants to learn as much about the country and the area as possible.

He wrote to us today with data for the blog but that will probably take about 1 month to get here.

That is all for now. Thanks for caring and enjoying his experiences.

cheers, Lolo (Alex's Mom)

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Alex's address in The Gambia

If you want to write letters to Alex, write to

Alexander Penedo Silvester, PCV
US Peace Corps
PO Box 582
Banjul, The Gambia
West Africa

Keep in mind that:
- Letters will take around 1 month to get there (if they arrive)
- Put postcards in envelopes to help guarantee delivery
- You can send care packages but they could get lost so don't send anything too expensive

I am sure he will love hearing from his friends and family; I encourage you to write.
cheers, Lolo (Alex's Mom)

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Off to Training Village

I am excited to leave for my training village today, which is up river near Kiang National park or forest. I will live with a host family for 8 weeks. There will be four other peace corps trainees in my village. We will live with separate families. Our instructor will stay in the village to teach us about language and culture. I will have my own house, a mud hut, and bathroom, pit latrine. I will not have internet while I am there, but my mom will try to post some blogs I mail home ( if my letters make it).

First Impressions

Some first impressions, but I am not sure how accurate they are because I have seen little of the country and neighborhoods.

- Poorer than I expected.

I knew there was going to be poverty, but I expected some areas of the city to be nicer. So far I have not seen any (I have not been to the tourists' hotels). I thought the US embassy would be in a nice section of the city. At first glance, I thought it was in an average section of the city. The road was good, but there were no sidewalks. Buildings on the street seemed abandoned during construction, and others looked old and falling apart. Later, I learned it was in a better neighborhood because the street had the more expensive western supermarkets and the abandoned buildings during construction belong to people with more money. These people are the ones who can afford to build such big structures. People who own these buildings run out of money and need to work more in country or abroad before they can finish construction.

- Surprised by the lack of sidewalks

So far I have only seen sidewalks in front of the British embassy and some roads in the capital, otherwise they do not really exist. The poorer sections of the city have narrow streets. The buildings are built up to the road with no sidewalks. The only time there is a section of the road separated off is when there is an open sewer running down the street.

- Women wear beautiful dresses all the time

Women wear the most colorful dresses with matching head wraps almost every day. Even when we went through a poor section of the city, we saw a large amount of women wearing these dresses.

If you want to see some of my pictures of Banjul, check my pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/Alexander.Silvester

Clean Hand, Dirty Hand

One of the first cultural taboos I learned was not eating with my left hand. Since I eat with my left hand, I knew I would have to switch, but eating is not the only time a person must use their right hand. Giving or receiving items and shaking hands also must be done with the right hand.

Gambians do not use toilet paper. They pour water onto their left hand and clean themselves. In most of the country, it is difficult to properly wash your hands due to the lack of running water. The left hand is therefore considered dirty. Gambians use a tea kettle to hold the water with which they clean themselves. In our compound, we have tea kettles next to all of the toilets. In the outdoor market, I saw a Gambian wash their feet with their left hand and switch to pour water on their right hand to wash their face.

I do not consistently use one hand over the other. It depends upon what I am doing. For example, when I eat with a fork, I use my left hand, but when I reach into the food bowl I automatically use my right. Starting today, I am going to switch my habits to make sure I use my left hand for certain things while my right hand for others.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Breaking in the Newbies

The Peace Corps tries to allow Peace Corps trainees ease into living on their own in Gambian society. I think they do a good job of not throwing a trainee directly into their site. I am still going through the training process before I can become a volunteer.

I started in Philly where I met the rest of my group, environmental volunteers, going to The Gambia. This initial training gives us the opportunity to learn about the Peace Corps, the country we are going, and help us prepare mentally. Philly gave us a place to meet other people with whom we will be living for two years in a familiar environment.

Next, we flew to The Gambia, and we are staying in a compound near the capital. Here we have many western comforts like running water, showers, flush toilets, and western style supermarkets. We learn the Gambian culture and way of life which helps us integrate when we reach our village. The Peace Corps stresses intergration into the local community to be successful. This place also gave use the chance to meet current volunteers and talk to them.

After 10 days here, we move to our training villages upcountry. I have not reached this stage, but we leave Friday. My training village will be up river near Kiang National park or forest. In the training village we live in a typical small village where we trade many western comforts for pit latrin, wells, and bucket baths, but we live in the village with other Peace Corps trainees. There will be four other volunteers in my training village. Each of us will live in a separate family. A LCH (Gambian trainer) lives in the village too. Everyday we will have a full day of language and technical classes. We live in these villages for eight weeks. Every couple of weeks, all 24 environment trainees meet to learn experiences from each other and gain more training.

The last week of training we travel back to the capital area, Kombo. We have a final language test and if we achieve the intermediate level, we are sworn in at the US Ambassador's House (I hear it has a great view of the ocean), and become Peace Corps volunteers. We then go to our villages where we live for two years. I like the fact that we go through the training process in steps to help us adapt.

Gambians

Our language and cultural classes have been very informative. LCHs (language and cultural helpers) teach us, and all of them are Gambian. The Peace Coorps has a small staff and even smaller staff from America. I think most of the workers for the Peace Corps are Gambian.

The Gambians have many cultural groups. The three larger tribes are Mandinka, Fulas, and Wolofs. I will be learning Pulaar which is spoken by the Fula people. The three groups are distributed throughout the country and West Africa. The Gambia is not divided along tribal lines, but mixed. The groups intermarry and some villages have compounds of different tribes. Gambians live in family compounds which is a group of houses all belonging to the same family. Houses may belong to different wives, parents of the owner, or grownup children. I will be living in one of these houses.

During one exercise, our LCHs told us to write down our conceptions of the Gambia, and the LCHs would do it about America. None of the LCHs have been to America and they are supposed to represent the views of some Gambians. Some examples are the following:

- Paradise, no work, and rich
- People do not get sick
- Superpower
- All have guns
- Never lie
- US like to fight
- Want African husbands and wives

Some of them I expected, but others I was surprised. While predominantly muslim, they are not as conservative as the Middle East and many villages have kept traditional customs.

"Americans never lie." At first when I heard this I could not understand why Gambians had that perception of America. We, as Americans, tell some sort of lie all the time, such as a white lie. After talking to some LCHs, I figured out why. Gambians are friendly, but they come up with excuses for things or say something they do not mean. Gambians joke a lot so I am not sure if this affects things. For example if someone asks for sugar and a person does not want to give it. they will claim they have no sugar even though they do. If they do not want to lend a bike, they will say they have a flat tire. People may ask a person to come to the field, and that person can say yes, later, but it is okay if he never goes to the field.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Snakes, Crocodiles, and Dysentery

These three hardships are things people want to avoid. The past three days I have dodged being bitten by a snake, attacked by a crocodile, and contracting dysentery. I know many people are afraid of spiders, and we have some big scary looking spiders here, but that is one thing we do not have to worry about because The Gambia has no poisonous spiders. We learned this information from taking some field trips around the Gambia to get a better feel for the country.

While there are some snakes to watch out for, we learned that it is not an event that occurs with a lot of frequency. If you leave snakes alone they will not bother you. All the Peace corps trainees visited a Reptile Farm where this French man keeps a lot of snakes and collects their poison to send it to the government to developed anti venom. It is also used as a tool to teach young gambians that not all snakes are bad. Gambian are terrified of snakes and will kill them at first glance if they do not run away giving the snake a lucky break.

We visited one of the many crocodile pools in The Gambia. They are considered sacred and increase fertility if you enter the pool full with crocs, but now they have turned into big tourist sites due to the fact that you can pet and shake a 2 meter croc's hand and back. The owners feed them so much food that they are so stuffed they do not want to move. Even though they say it is safe, I still got nervous when the croc started to move as I shook its hand.

Our body systems are not yet used to the environment here so we have the potential of getting sick. Two members of our group have come down with dysentery and many more have the runs. I do myself a little, but with time we will all get better and it is nothing to worry about. Even the dysentary gets better with treatment. When I go to my village I will have a cell phone, and if I get sick, I can call the medical officer to let them know what is going on with me.

That is all for now, but hopefully I can write more soon.

Monday, October 1, 2007

The Gambia

Last thursday, I joined the other 7,500 or so Peace Corps volunteers worldwide. I arrived with 23 other Environment volunteers in The Gambia where we will spend the next two years of our lives. We left NYC Wednesday night, had a lay over in Brussels, and a quick stop in Dakar, Senegal. Flying into The Gambia, we flew over the capital, Banjul, and landed at the Banjul International airport which is outside the city in the area known as Kombo. We are staying in Kombo for ten days, until Friday. We are about a thirty minute walk from the beach and in dormitory style rooms with a roommate. The compound has flush toilets and showers, but the electricity sometimes goes out and the water pressure decreases about once a day.

The first thing I noticed flying over The Gambia was how green it was. We are at the end of the rainy season (June through October) which could be the main reason for all the lush vegetation. I expected the area to be drier, but maybe by the end of the dry season most plants will die. It is around 90 degrees here, but the humidity is probably around 100 percent. My shirt gets soaked when I walk around, and for the most part, I am constantly sweating.

The Peace Corps has kept us extremely busy with sessions about language, health, security, and culture. It seems like we have been here a lot longer than four days. We have started to visit some areas around the city and will have the opportunity of visiting places such as the market to learn how to barter ( I need lessons because I am no good at it) and the capital.

I will be training for the next three months, and my internet time will be extremely limited because on Friday I am leaving for my training village where I will not have internet access. It looks like I will be writing paper letters for the next 8 or 9 weeks until I come back to the capital area.