50th anniversary

Well this is just shameful - a whole month without a blog! Well, it's been a busy time, with all of our 50th anniversary events, lots of year-end admin work, not to mention the stress of merging programs/leadership with our large neighbor (I'll save that for email if you're curious).

On December 5th, we celebrated 45 years of Peace Corps in The Gambia (country agreement signed Dec. 5, 1966) and had a final year-end celebration of Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary globally. It was a fantastic day, starting with a march down Kairaba Avenue (the main business street of Fajara/Serrekunda where our office is located). I've never had more fun marching in a parade! We had the Gambian Police Band leading us and I've now connected with some brass players who are hungry for fingering charts I promised to supply. We marched down to the US Embassy and held up for the Ambassador to join us. She and I walked together waving our flags for the mile-plus route, leading 150 Peace Corps volunteers, staff and partners in matching T-shirts carrying homemade banners for every region and mini Peace Corps flags. This photo album is just a few shots and video I could steal along the way.

50th Anniversary

During the afternoon we held a fair demonstrating Peace Corps' work in The Gambia at West Park in Serrekunda with live music, dancing, booths and kids activities. 'Peace Corps in the Park' was complimented by a 50th Anniversary photo exhibition we mounted at the Alliance Franco-Gambienne, running from Dec 3-14. Finally, we premiered our very own homegrown documentary film (directed/edited by volunteers) at the Alliance that evening, with speeches by yours truly, the US Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission, and followed by volunteer open mic late into the night. Our Country Director was gone for 10 days, so I handled his duties including leading the parade, speeches, etc -- it was fun, though a ton of work in addition to all the logistical stuff I was already responsible for. We saw ourselves on the national news every night last week and the whole day was great public outreach for our programs in The Gambia. There is a of support here for Peace Corps.

With the Tamharet holiday (Muslim New Year) following our 50th celebration (Dec 6), the small workweek remaining was tight. 10 staff and I headed to Senegal Monday the 12th to plan our upcoming joint Pre-Service Training --- we were up there all week, just returning yesterday. The trip had a comical start as our Toyota Coaster Bus had a battery issue, so we gave it a running start, literally, with everyone pushing the bus out of the Peace Corps parking lot until the ignition would take hold and start the motor!  This was followed by the 11-hour overland journey to Thies, Senegal (not even all the way to Dakar). We waited 3 hours for a ferry (the usual hassle of crossing the River Gambia), then crossed the border with ease (the usual stop in two border buildings for stamps and interviews both on leaving Gambia and entering Senegal), and before we knew it we all had Senegal "Orange" SIM cards and were exchanging our new mobile numbers on the bus. 

It was a fun ride with the staff, including the high-intensity political discussions, shared food, and collective efforts at not getting lost. Roads were a bit better than in The Gambia, but still plenty of stretches of pot holes and unpaved highway -- ah, the joys of traveling overland in West Africa! We weren't quite as brown (covered in dirt from sandy wind blowing in) as we get on Gambian road trips, but we were happy to arrive, needless to say! We were welcomed warmly by our Senegalese counterparts and everyone had a bit of culture shock as we enjoyed eating out at a French restaurant and experiencing a more-developed country.

I promise I'll have more news after the holidays -- I certainly have a lot on my mind these days!