Some Gambian guests at our transit house that taught me how to cook domoda.
Domoda: Peanut butter, spices, onion, beef, bitter tomatos. Boil together over wood fire to make a sauce. Eat with rice.
A candle in my house after being gone a few days. Proof that I do not exaggerate about the heat.
Ant hill by my pit latrine. There were thousands of ants in this frame but they moved to fast to show up in the picture.
Fool moon from my back yard.
My home
Front porch
Beautiful African Ebony tree that shades my house, drops sticky fruit in my backyard, and attracts fruit bats.
The front room: spare bed, food trunk.
Front room
Office BBQ at the old groundnut factory on the river Gambia. Ester, VSO volunteer from the Phillipines, and Binta, Finance Manager.
I don't know this boy's real name, but we all call him Batman.
Preparing the grill
The Silk Cottonwood tree at the old groundnut factory where I sometimes spend a hot, lazy Sunday.
Dory at 6 weeks
Dory at 2 months
Tabara, one of my host sisters.
Tabara and Dory
Dellam and Diamanka, my host parents.
My small garden with a rat trap in the middle. It caught 6 rats which had been destroying my garden. It also provided some extra protein for my host family.
The compound entrance.
The two huts that my landlord rents out to travellers.
The main compound. The caretakers, my host family, live in the small room on the left. The rest of the house is always locked except when the landlord is visiting from Kombo.
My house again.
Ambassador Wells swearing-in the new Health Volunteers.
The Health Volunteers singing the swear-in song.
First day of In Service Training (IST) for my AgFo group. Peace Corps likes acronyms too much.
Cashew fruits in a bucket. They are SOOO good!
Learning to make wicker beehives from local materials.
Me and my beekeeping homegirls. Thats me in the red gloves throwing the gang sign.
One step for man, one giant leap for beekeeper kind
This really was the actual front page of the biggest Gambian newspaper. I guess its better than "PC Volunteers CIA Agents", but it doesn't inspire confidence when this is front page news. Notice the other headline: "Hippos Destroy Rice Farms in CRR". I'm not in Kansas anymore.
Kenyan Top Bar (KTB) Hive
KTB with basket
Daden Hive
Learning how to make grass beehives
Learning how to make a cheap and easy tree guard for seedlings.
Allison, my site mate, in full beekeeping gear (minus gloves)
Preparing for battle
Cutting my birthday cake. Right now I'm thinking "I don't want to share!"
"Keep your hands away from my cake; I have a knife!"
I kept the cake for myself, but I let everybody lick the spatula.
More sessions at In-Service Training (IST). Peace Corps likes acronyms too much.
Mai with some Hawaiian flare.
Dinner last night of IST
No, this is not what I usually eat in village... which makes it taste that much better!
No, that is not a dead dog. It is my dog passed out with a mango seed in her mouth panting in the heat.
It's cute, once you know it's alive.
The AVISU water tap, where I fill my water badongs (those 20L yellow jugs) every day.
Kaatim and Sorie, two of the micro-enterprise agents
Binta, Finance Manager, and Malick, Agricultural Extensionist
Joseph, the VSO volunteer from Kenya. He was looking so sharp this day I just had to take his picture.
Ali "The Tree" Ceesay, Literacy Coordinator
Joseph posing in typical bumster fashion.
Emmanuel Mendy, Director of AVISU
Solo, Security Guard, and all-around good guy.
Carbonizing the millet husks for the compost. Carbonizing means just slightly burning. The pile has to constantly be turned to prevent the millet in the center from becoming too burned. Carbonizing the millet releases nutrients for composting, but burning too much will destroy all the nutrients.
The women trainees turning the pile.
The location for the bokashi training: under the neem tree in the Jannehkunda community garden.
Adding more fuel to the fire.
A girl watering her family's garden beds.
Breakfast: Bean sandwiches and tea
My feet: this dirty about 90% of the time
showing the women what part of the plant to look for when making Fermented Plant Juice
Mixing sugar with the plant material to help it ferment.
Dance break. I wish we danced in meetings back home.
Mixing the compost.
After a hard days work, we relax in the shade until the sun goes down.
More dancing.
Kaatim making ataaya, the super sweet green tea that Gambians drink every day.
Buya with some fellow Gasamances (they all share the same last name).
The main road through my town.
I always wonder where this door is supposed to lead.
I tried knocking but no answer.
Batman with a friend.
Apparantly this guy fell into my bath buckt while trying to get a drink of water. He was not happy.
