hurricane heather

Alaska meets Africa

I LOVE the rain storms here (and not just so I can wear my Xtra Tuffs)! The last two nights we've had pretty violent wind and rain – it's like the rainy season just wanted to wait until September before it unleashed its full fury. With the lack of thunder and lightning in Alaska, it's a treat to listen to a good storm again. I thought the midwest was tops, but it's got nothing on The Gambia. Last night just one single thunder clap lasted 30 seconds and began with a crack as loud as a bomb. And then there's the sheer amount of water dumping from the sky, which is unlike anything I've ever experienced. Both nights when I've heard the rain I've gotten up to shut windows, but last night I missed one --- one critical window in the living room. I woke up to not just a little water, but half the room covered with water that lapped over my toes when I sloshed through. An impressive amount to come through one window! But it does indeed rain sideways, so it must've been placed just right to receive the full shower...

some staff at swear-in party (Xtra Tuffs concealed)

I had a few volunteers staying with me since it's the swear-in weekend of the new class and everyone's in town. (My place is overflow lodging when the transit house is full.) This morning I was going to make them pancakes, but instead enlisted them to cook while I mopped up the pool in my living room. Not a bad deal, though, to be rewarded with pancakes and papaya after a good clean-up job.

new volunteers swearing in

So, our new class of volunteers just completed their 9 weeks of pre-service training and were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers yesterday. Every class has it's own asobi (the matching fabric) and they look stellar in theirs. The volunteers who assisted in training also had a special asobi for the event, but with a little something special on top. They crafted hats and fascinators (a la Royal Wedding) Gambian style. Can you pick out the gelly gelly fascinator in the picture below?

volunteer trainers with 'fascinators'

happy staff! (including full tummies)

In other news, Ramadan is over and everyone's eating again. Well, except those who continue for another 6 bonus days (worth a year of fasting, apparently). Koriteh (Wolof for Eid al-Fitr) is the holiday to break the fast and occurred on Tuesday this week, after the crescent moon was sighted Monday night (or was at least declared). We had two days of national holiday and there was a lot of celebrating, praying, eating and children roaming the streets asking for saliboo (alms). I heard small candies were an acceptable gift, so it was a bit like trick or treat at my place. But I do owe my neighborhood kids – they helped me chase a chicken out of my compound last week that darted through the gate one day. (My parents actually got to witness this via skype since I was sitting on the front porch talking to them when the excitement began.) I will miss all the informative Ramadan commercials on TV – I've been learning a lot. Actually, one of the most interesting ones, to me, was a water conservation message that showed the divine return on good deeds such as turning off the tap and saving water. Could this work in the US?

Haddy, my Wolof tutor (and other PC staff behind)

The two days off were bliss, as one came with an unusually cool morning (not 80 until 8am). I took advantage of the lack of traffic and took a long bike ride out to Bakau and the wetlands area between Cape Point and the Banjul highway. Nice bird-watching and morning greetings with the locals. I'm even getting decent at timing my Wolof greetings from a moving bicycle so there's enough time to be polite and get in about three exchanges (whereas a quick Hi would do in the US).

Onward through September... I've got my sights set on my “fall” (in Europe) vacation coming up October 2^nd, so bring on the rain, wind, heat and humidity! I can take it!

Oops! almost forgot to include the world's smallest pineapple, recently plucked from my garden!