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)