Site Visit - First thoughts

I visited my new home for the next two years. The village is small with less than 100 people and 7 compounds. I have the second smallest village for a peace corp volunteer in The Gambia. I live in a compound with my host father and his brother. Each of them have two wives. There are a bunch of kids and it is extremely difficult to figure out which kids are part of my compound and which ones are part of others. Even my older host brother who speaks good english could not remember everyone when I made the family tree with him.


The area is extremely deforested and even the village has few trees. The villagers do very little gardening, but a few have some casava plants ( a plant of which you eat the root, similar to a potato). The village has a lot of cattle, and one of my host brothers is a sheperd for my father's herd. Everyday they come through the center of town to fetch water from the open well. The water table is so low that they hook a donkey up to a rope. The small boys then run with the donkey away from the well to draw up the water. It is fasinating to watch.


I do not know most of what goes on in my town, but I have two years to find out. Within a short bike ride are a school and a few villages which are all included in my work area. There is a lot of flexibility as to where I can work. Once I familiarize myself with the area, I can decide where I want to work and what projects I would like to do. Possible projects include alley cropping, gardening, soap making, poultry, bee keeping, fruit drying, and much more. Currently I am interested in live fencing, woodlots, and grafting, but I will need to learn what the villagers want, and what I think is feasible. I will try to blend their interests' with my own.

I am back in the Kombo area for the next week where we, the trainees, will visit government agencies, NGOs (non governmental organizations), and Gambian Associations such as the Beekeeper's Association to learn about the groups with which we can work and support. If I pass the language exam on monday, I can be sworn in on December 7th and become a Peace Corps Volunteer. I head to site on the 9th.