Hey all, sorry for the delay in writing.  I haven’t been THAT busy, but just unsure of what to write about and if it would even amount to enough to put up.  But, I figured that it would probably be wise to keep on top of this at least a little bit before my life turns upside down when I start medical school.

So far, my transition to living at home has gone pretty well.  I have had ups and downs, but I am still thankful to be home and to have plenty of people around me supporting me as I process this experience and what is next.  I am overwhelmingly blessed by such awesome people surrounding me, who have encouraged me and helped me spiritually, and through words and a helping hand/voice.

Since I’ve been home, I have really enjoyed being able to tell my story in different contexts.  I’ve found perspective change in being physically apart from my friends and colleagues in Gambia.  Thank you to everyone who has been patient enough to listen to me and endure my processing of my experience.  I am more aware of and have more of a passion for helping other returning missionaries to process their time when they come home, and how to support them before, during, and after their time of service overseas.

Also have had the honor of going to the wedding of a friend and one of my cousin (two days ago).  For my cousin’s wedding, this afforded me the opportunity to clear away the cobwebs on my violin and play with my mom and brother for the wedding prelude.  :D  The wedding also meant that I got to see a lot of family from all over (TX, MI, and the Netherlands).  So much fun surrounding a wonderful celebration!

As you might imagine, coming home after such a long time away isn’t an easy process.  The things that have been hard to process have been (in chronological order):  the size and speed of things here, missing my friends in Gambia, boredom, and job search.

a market stall

more market

The first week or so, I was pretty overwhelmed going to stores that had so many options.  In Gambia, there were markets that you would buy most things at, but nothing was anywhere near the size of stores here.  It was stressful to go to get anything from any store; I made it my goal to get in and out as fast as possible and not focus on the huge variety of items to purchase.

dear friends! who says we can't have fun?

Then, I started to think about my friends in Gambia, both in Sibanor and in other locations.  I began to miss their company and presence in my life.  I had to say real goodbyes to them, not knowing when I would see them again, after having building strong relationships with them and having many shared joys and struggles.  I thought about what they might be doing on any given day without me, and thinking about their heat and having covetous thoughts.  Case in point, one of the days last week when it snowed, my friend Margit had sent me a message in which she expressed her surprise that it was snowing and saying that she had been thinking that she wished she could fit into the refrigerator in Blue House.  About the same time, Cheryl sent me a message saying that it was regularly getting up to 113°F in Chamen!  All the while I have been in the frozen tundra called SD. 

at the beach with good friends!

I’ve started to get bored as I’ve been hanging out at home.  I’ve kept busy exercising and helping Mom out around the house and with shopping and such, but otherwise unable to explain what I had spent my day on to anyone who asked.

Initially when I came home, I thought I would get a job back with my former employer.  I knew I would be paying my student loans until I start medical school.  This has turned out to be a non-option.   This caused me a significant amount of stress in trying to figure out how to proceed with the situation presented me.  Though disappointing at first, I have come to see that God had a plan through the struggle.  I have been asking around for babysitting jobs and they have been coming in.  I have a couple possible part-time jobs, so I am excited to see this all come together.  I am by no means “rolling in the dough” but I am getting by, and am learning the comfort of resting in my Heavenly Father’s plan for this time.  I am really learning the meaning of Paul’s words to the Philippians, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (4:11-13).

Conference – written Feb 24
I had to start some of my goodbyes during the conference that we had.   I was surprised at the emotion that bubbled up as I had to say my formal goodbye to the whole team.  Most I would see again in the next few weeks, but some I had to say goodbye for the last time.  It seems strange to be saying goodbye and honestly not know if I will ever see these wonderful people again.  But as a good family friend always says, “it is never goodbye, it is always see you later” with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Being flexible again

I had to be flexible with my schedule for my vacation.  Initially I was going to go visit my friend Cheryl in Chamen first, and then go to Senegal, and then to Sibanor for my final goodbyes.  God had a better plan though.  I first went to Sibanor and had a wonderful but busy few days saying all my goodbyes to people in the village and to some of my teammates.  Then I traveled to Senegal to the school where almost all of the kids on our team attend.  Following that, I traveled to Chamen and then to the coast for a couple days before I flew back to the US.
Sibanor – written Feb 24
As I am saying goodbyes in my village, I am realizing how much I really will miss the people here.  At times I felt like I didn’t belong here and was doubtful if I would actually be missed.  But, as I’ve gone to visit people for the last time and wish them my final goodbye, I’ve been amazed at the sadness and grief that some have showed.  I was especially touched that my language helper/coworker cried when I came to say goodbye because most people here don’t cry unless someone dies.  It makes me sad to say goodbyes when I know that I’ve just gotten to the point that I might have an impact in this culture, and makes me realize the necessity of long-term commitment to make any breakthrough.
In the culture here, it is extremely important to say goodbye well.  You have to let people know ahead of time when you are leaving, as well as saying a proper goodbye when you actually leave.  You are usually meant to give a goodbye gift, especially to the people you know well.  This has been pretty easy considering I don’t have a whole lot of room in my suitcase, so I can give away clothing I won’t take home or other various items that I don’t mind leaving behind.  I’ve been forced to the realization that I cannot be attached to stuff.

Senegal

The road to and from the school was the most adventurous part of the trip.  There are some spots that you can hardly go over 5mph because the potholes are so big, or the road is not paved all the way.  There were big chunks of the road that were wonderful, but the bad parts were really bad.  It was really fun to watch out the window and see how different Senegal is from Gambia.  First of all it is strange to see a lot of similar things but with French signs, as well as different modes of transportation.  In Gambia, there are mostly small 5-person cars or 18 passenger vans that serve as transportation, but in Senegal, the majority of the transport was by “sept-place” (station wagon seating 7) or tour bus.  They also greet in French, so they could pick us out as Gambian when we would use the traditional Arabic greeting “Salaam malekum.”  Even though I took 3.5 years of French in school, I did a terrible job of adapting to the language.  The last couple days I started to get my “French brain” on and could start to function there.

The school was really fun to see.  The kids and teachers and atmosphere were really welcoming.  I was very impressed, and it encouraged me that sending kids to a boarding school is not the end of the world and can be a wonderful experience for the kids.

To Chamen

taxis

a sept-place (not the ones I rode though)

My trip back to Gambia was the worst experience of public transport in my time abroad.  Public transport is much more expensive in Senegal than in Gambia, and I almost didn’t have enough money to make it to Gambia again.  I ended up being fine, but not knowing so much French didn’t help my case.  I felt much more at home when I made it back to Gambia and could converse easily and feel more at home.

a typical Fula village - it was a compound with roofs like this that caught on fire

On the last leg of the journey in Senegal, the sept-place I was traveling in came across a small village in which a compound had caught on fire.  The air and the thatched roof were so dry that the flames burned very fast and high.  Our driver pulled over and all the men in the vehicle got out and ran to help put out the fire.  The old woman in front of me started wailing.   From the time that we stopped to the time that it was finished was about 10 minutes; in that time, the people fighting the fire went from about 10-15 to 100.  It was surreal to watch all that happen before my eyes.  I don’t think there were any casualties, otherwise I’d have gone to see if I could do anything, but our vehicle left very quickly.  I would have taken a picture of the fire, but my camera died the day before and I didn’t have the right adapter to charge it at the school.

In Chamen

I spent almost three days in Chamen had the most wonderful relaxing time.  Cheryl and I had a lot of good talks about life in Gambia, my going home, and everything in between.  I also got to help some of the ladies with some creativity in jewelry making.  Even at home I like to do beading and being creative with wire, so this was a blast.  It was really like vacation.

Traveling towards home

To travel to the coast, I had to use public transport again (this time it was a lot better because I was in Gambia).  I also traveled with a national who was going the same way I was, so it was very nice to have his help.  During that trip, I used pretty much all modes of transportation:  first I rode on a serretto (horse drawn cart) for the first time.  Then I rode in gelly-gellies to get to the ferry.  I rode the ferry and then took another gelly and then a little taxi until I was finally at headquarters.

At headquarters

For my last two days, I mostly finished up with packing, shopping, and finalizing of a bunch of details.  My last afternoon I went to the beach for a bit to soak up those wonderful rays before trekking to the frozen tundra called SD. 

shopping is always an adventure!

Blessings to you all.  Thank you for reading, and am looking forward to seeing you all again!

Cooking Gambian style

Before I take my leave of this wonderful country, I thought it would be good to get some experience with cooking some Gambian dishes.  I really have enjoyed a lot of the foods that we get on a regular basis, so I thought I would maybe be able to share some of those dishes with you all when I get home.  A month ago, I got to try cooking domoda aka. Durango with my language helper.  We used spam and it turned out very nice.  This is the first dish that I tried (even before I arrived!) and I like it very much.

A couple weeks later, I was told that there was an opportunity to learn a dish that my language helper doesn’t make.  I was super excited, so I tagged along.  We did not end up making that dish, but made domoda again.  This time was a lot more exciting though because we had to kill, pluck, and clean a chicken in order to make the dish.  That was an experience in itself.  Margit really wanted to kill the chicken, but since there was a man on the compound, he had to kill it (otherwise it compromises his honor).  Margit still got to pick out the chicken and hold the wings and feet while the chicken’s throat was slit, so she was happy.  She had me make movies of the whole process which are quite hilarious.  The files are too big for me to put up, but you will have to ask me to show you them when I get home.  Margit is speaking in Dutch, but you can get the idea of what she is saying anyways.    I do have some pictures too so I’ll give you a bit of a taste of getting to cook.

plucking the chicken!

Washing

Being that we only have solar power, I’ve already mentioned that we have a kerosene fridge.  In addition, we are unable to have a washing machine.  I’m sure many of you are curious to know how it gets done without a washing machine.    We actually have a woman who comes and does our washing several times a week.  She arrives around 7am to wash the clothes and hang them out to dry in the sunshine.  In the rainy season, this was a little more difficult.  Then in the afternoon/early evening, she comes to do the ironing.  Everything gets ironed:  towels, skirts, shirts, everything.  They do this with all of their clothes as well.  It’s not an OCD thing; they actually benefit medically from this practice.  Especially around mango season, mango flies like to lay their eggs in drying clothing.  If one does not iron all clothing, when the eggs hatch, they like to burrow into your skin and come out when they please.  Doesn’t sound very pleasant huh?  Thus, I am okay with the practice of ironing everything.  The coolest part is that she uses a charcoal iron.  I think it is pretty amazing that they can iron their clothes and not burn them with this contraption.

Don’t think that this is all easy for me though.  Our washing lady (any for that matter) does not wash our underclothes.  I don’t blame her one bit, but it means that about once a week I have to wash my underclothes.  By hand.  And then hang them out to dry.  When it isn’t mango season, I can hang them on the line outside, but otherwise, I have to hang everything inside wherever I can find space.  That is sometimes an adventure in itself.  Anyways, no pictures on this one… don’t think you’d want to see it anyways. 

Countdown:  3 weeks until I fly!

bantaba (meeting place) in front of the clinic

eating around the bowl - yummy benichin

me being artsy on the road outside of Sibanor

sometimes Gambia looks like SD

SP is my cuddle-bug

American night!

Every week, we have a designated day to pray or hang out as a team.  In the last year, my team has been taking one of our fellowship nights to learn about other team members’ cultures.  Since I’ve been here, I’ve heard about German, Swiss, Dutch, and Brazilian cultures.  It is super fun to see how each group perceives his/her own culture.  Everyone seems to light up when they are talking about their home.

Last week, was my turn to lead the culture night.  I had to come up with food to prepare and what to share.  Since America is pretty huge and diverse, I chose to focus closer to home and the places I like to go.  I prepared a bunch of different pizzas for the food:  buffalo chicken, BBQ, Hawaiian, cheeseburger, and cheese (for the picky eaters), and served it with Coke and M&Ms.  Although pizza isn’t considered to originate in America, I personally think that we perfected the technique and so they got to try very Americanized flavors.  Everyone liked it and several asked for the recipes for some of the pizzas.

For my presentation, I had my team start by saying what they think of when they think of the States (foods, people, general impressions).  Then I showed them pictures of my family and my home (house, city, state) and the places and activities I like.  I received my Christmas package from my family a couple weeks ago with this year’s marching band show.  Since this was a HUGE part of my high school experience (and so many people have a very dull version as their mental picture), I showed them the video.  They were blown away.  I got goosebumps (way to go band – even from a video – that is pretty impressive).  Then showed them pictures of my alma mater (they had to ask what an alma mater was…) and the med school I’ll be going to next year.

At the very end, I had them play a game called Four on a Couch (some of you may be familiar with it – if not, ask me when I get home b/c it is kinda hard to explain).  That turned out to be an even bigger hit than the food and the marching band show.  Everyone got really into it.  We played long hair against short hair (my mentor has short hair so she joined the boys to make even teams), and long hair won both times (I will admit that it was a pretty close game though).

Dressing Wounds

As a general helper, I get recruited to do all sorts of odd jobs on top of my normal responsibilities.  One of the things I’ve also had the opportunity to learn is how to dress wounds.  It’s not very hard, but it was a little overwhelming to start.  I had observed a couple times before, but never had to do it myself ever.  The nurses definitely threw me right in and made me learn.  It was awesome.  It was just like the saying “see one, do one, teach one” (the motto for overseas surgery), but on a much less scary level.  Here there are basically three kinds of dressings:  sugar, iodine, and an ointment for really badly infected wounds.  For wounds that are not infected, we use a sugar dressing (to give the tissues energy to heal , and for wounds that are, we use an iodine dressing (to kill any bacteria that would be hiding there so that the wound can heal more effectively).

The first day I did dressings, we also had patients who were involved in a road accident.  It was a very minor road accident: no stitches or major treatments were needed, just some scrapes and bruises, but it made the day a little more exciting.

This last weekend, I also was called on to do some dressings.  I was a little unprepared for my first patient though.  She was an under 5 girl who had fallen in the fire and had major 3rd degree burns to her thighs (~5-6% of her body surface) with blistering.  They had been dressed previously, but even the process of removing the previous dressings was excruciating for her.  I hate being the bad guy.  It was bad enough that I was pretty sure it was beyond my capabilities, so I asked the doctor on duty if there was more pain relief we could give her or anything.  He definitely agreed and took her to the doctor’s room to put her under ketamine anesthetic and removed some of the blistering and admitted her until she could walk again.  He didn’t end up dressing the burns, but just put an antiseptic on the burns so that they could air out and heal faster.  It was really cool to watch her change from a girl screaming in pain to one that would give me high fives the day she was discharged (<5 days).

This weekend, please be in prayer as I try to figure out some details so that I can wrap up my job of making the HIV care database.  The first format that I made it in was incredibly frustrating and limiting, but changing it is also a big hassle.  Computers are frustrating.  I can now empathize with my dad when he comes home from working with computers all day.

Countdown:  less than 40 days until I fly.

The Big Move:

As you may have noticed in previous posts, I was meant to move to a compound last month.  This ended up not working out.  I am bummed out, but I am glad now that I am still in Blue House.  Despite not moving outside of the clinic compound, I have moved… to a different room in Blue House.  We just had a new girl move into Blue House who is a doctor (Rachel).  The room that I was in is a more convenient room for doctors to be in so that it is easier for the watchman to come wake her up if she is on call.  So here are the before and after pictures of where I call “home.”

before - bed to the left

before - desk

new room. desk on my right

“Bambu”:  No doubt, when you think of Africa you have some picture of a woman carrying water on her head with a baby strapped to her back.  At least here, that is no exaggeration.  Women carry tons of items on their heads.  I’m impressed over and over at their strength in their necks to be able to do such a thing.  That is one thing that I haven’t really tried and don’t really plan to because I it isn’t necessary and looks too uncomfortable to me.

Here, when a woman has a baby strapped to her back, it is called bambu-ing.  It is rare that I ever see a baby not on its mother’s or grandmother’s or older sister’s back.  They can cook, farm, and do about anything with a baby strapped on.  From very young the girls are taught how to do it with younger siblings even if the baby is half their size.  I always thought it looked like a comfortable way to carry a baby, so I got to try it out a few weeks ago.  I was at a wedding and was holding a baby for her mom for a while and my arms were getting tired, so I stuck her on my back.  It really was comfortable for me, and she even fell asleep.  I carried her for almost 2 hours and didn’t really get tired.  I only had to stop because she got hungry and I couldn’t help her solve that problem.    I will definitely use this when I get home.  It really is easy and comfortable.

Thinking about home:

For those of you who weren’t counting down yet, I am getting close to being done with my time here.  As of now, I have 4 weeks of working left.  I still have to work on handing over my responsibilities and soaking up all the tropical medicine tidbits I can while I’m here.  Then we have a week of meetings and fellowship with the team to work out visions and goals for the year.  Following that I am taking two weeks of holidays to visit people and say my goodbyes and prepare for going home.  Then I will fly at the end of my holidays.  I will then go back to the US headquarters to have a debrief time for 5 days.  Following that, I will fly home.  So, if you’d like, you may start your countdown.  8 weeks and counting…

Clinic needs:

In the time I’ve been here, I’ve become aware of the enormous challenges of living and running a medical clinic overseas.  There are staffing issues as well as supplies issues to deal with.  We are all praying for these needs to be met, so on behalf of my team, I am asking you all to pray as well.

Since it is dry season, our staffing is not so desperate, but rainy season is coming, which means more infections and a busier clinic.  Between now and then we are also looking at losing up to 4 staff members and only gaining 1 in replacement, and the staffing is already difficult with the current people.  Recruiting from other institutions is impossible because we cannot offer better salaries then them.  In the past, we have held nursing training on our compound, but at the moment, we have no nurse tutor and none in the foreseeable future.  So if you can pray for this need to be met, that would be awesome.

One of our other big needs is for a new ambulance.  Our current one is quite old and not so reliable anymore, and we have to use it frequently to transfer patients to larger hospitals for any surgery or complicated treatment.  It is also used to transport staff to and from treks to smaller villages to provide care to people who cannot get to our clinic.  We have an estimate for a new ambulance which would be approximately €39000.  We already have raised €25000, so there is still €14000 needed.  This translates to about $18500.

During the day, I am also not burdened to watch the sky all the time.  I don’t have to worry about going out and getting stuck in a downpour anymore.  But I do have to think about trying to stay out of the sun in midday because it gets quite hot if you are not in the shade.  I am getting a nice tan though.  I will really stand out among all the pale South Dakotans when I come home.

During rainy season, everything was green.  There were almost forests of grass everywhere.  As the sun dries everything  out, the grass turns a golden color and gradually withers and is scorched by the sun.  Also the dust starts to cover everything.  It is a dull red color, and as it settles on the trees, it almost looks like Christmas… red and green with gold surrounding.  Very beautiful.

Now, almost all the crops have been harvested.  There is still some cous left and some rice I think, but the groundnuts and corn are all finished.  We have been eating plenty of watermelon and bananas lately too.  The harvest was good this year.

The one unpleasant thing about dry season is the dust.  Although it is pretty on the trees, whenever a car drives by the clinic, a cloud of dust follows making it almost impossible keep anything clean.  We have to be very careful with computers so that the dust doesn’t damage the hardware.  We also breathe in a lot of dust as well.  Usually a couple times during the day I have to blow my nose to clean the dust out of my sinuses.  It’s pretty gross.

Other than the dust on the leaves, it didn’t look or feel like Christmas at all to me.  I’m used to having a white Christmas and it was very strange to have a hot one.  Even though it was very different, it was really good.

A couple weeks before the holiday, we had our staff Christmas party and we came up with the theme of snow with the reference text being John 20:29 since relatively no one here has ever seen snow.  The decorations were snow and the cards for the staff had snowflakes on them.  Since I was in charge of the cards and the decorations, I made a LOT of snowflakes.  I had help with them, but I was so sick of them by the end.  After the party, we hung the snowflake decorations up around the clinic and ward.  They really turned out nice, but I’m glad they are done.

Margit with our SNOW

The day of the party, we also showed Narnia 1 for the staff in the evening.  It really went well and it was really interesting to watch it with the people here because they really get into the movie.  They especially like battle scenes – they really cheered for Aslan, and didn’t laugh at the same jokes that we did.

Then on Christmas, we had a big service at the church.  There were tons of decorations up and everyone was dressed up very nicely.

all fancied up

We got started a little late and then we sang for 45min- 1 hr.  Then each conceivable group there got up to sing a song.  It was a lot of fun.  There was plenty of dancing too.  Finally Dr. Jamie preached.  Awesome experience – one to remember forever.  But the service was 3 1/2 hours long.  That is record breaking for me – though I’m sure many of you all can top that .  After the service we all moved to Jamie and Debbie’s compound for lunch.  The ladies had all worked very hard to cook it.  They started the previous evening at about 6 to cook.  A bunch of us had come for 3 hours and chopped carrots and green beans and potatoes and onions and garlic.  The onions were a pretty miserable job – for about 30 minutes, we were crying.  Anyways, the meal ended up being really good.  It is called chicken yassa (one of my favorites) and it was served with noodles rather than rice.  Delicious.  Afterwards, some of the youth people went to the preschool to play soccer with a group that was visiting us.  Since it was only the guys playing, we girls sat and chatted and watched.  When it got dark they started a campfire and played some games and shared testimonies  under the stars.

The following day was Sunday, so we went to church.  After the long service the day before, I was less excited for another service, but it was good.  When I got home, I gathered together the Christmas gifts that I had to give out and went around to give them out.  That was fun.  Then in the afternoon, we had a smaller Christmas party planned for just the single people with our station leaders and their baby daughters.  We started with coffee and nice Swiss Christmas cookies (all homemade).   So yummy.  Then we played a game of Rage.  For those of you who play Up and Down the River, it is similar to that but with extra cards that make it a lot more interesting (thus the name is Rage).  I was winning for a while in the middle, but ended up in 3rd place in the end.  We are all competitive so it was a ton of fun.

playing cards - lisa, simeon, david, james and margit

After that, we made dinner – meat pastries with salads with ice cream for dessert.  Over dessert, we asked our station leaders some deep questions and got to hear their story of how they got to be where they are now – the short version, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to hear it.  I’ve really enjoyed hearing my team member’s stories in bits and pieces.  I am privileged to work with such amazing people.

on the beach

lisa, margit, me

counting down with our sparkling grape juice!

For New Years, a bunch of us went camping at the beach – the same one as we went before.  This time, we mostly hung out on the beach, had some cool conversations, and played in the waves the majority of the time.  The waves were amazing.  They looked pretty intimidating but we had fun playing in them.  A couple people got scraped up a little by the waves, but otherwise it was all good.  At midnight, we had a countdown and then we had some non-alcoholic champagne, lit off some fireworks, and then some of the more adventurous members of our group went for a New Years swim.  So much fun.

We are all dressed up for Tobaski!

Here in Gambia I seem to be experiencing my share of intercultural holidays.  In the last month in particular, I’ve had the opportunity to celebrate Tobaski (a Muslim holiday I had never heard of  previously).  The holiday is preceded by Ramadan by a month or two, and is a celebration as big as Thanksgiving and Christmas in the States.  Both Ramadan and Tobaski are key times for families to come together.

My original plan had been to have holidays and be at the coast for the day, but the prospect of not getting to see how my village celebrates Tobaski was too disappointing so I went back to Sibanor and postponed my holidays, and I am so glad I did (though I am sorry for misleading many of you that I would be available to chat then).

Tobaski is a day on which each compound kills a ram to atone for the sins of the family for the year.  The tradition stems from the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac.  Weeks before the actual holiday, when I was going to visit my friends in Chamen, I got to cross the ferry from Banjul to Barra on the north bank.  Since there are no bridges spanning the entire river, this is the only method to get from one side to the other.  That was an experience in itself, but as a result of upcoming Tobaski, the thing that you noticed the most on the crossing was the amazing amount of rams being transported back and forth on the ferry.  Rams being herded between cars, rams on top of gellies, rams in flatbed trucks… rams everywhere.  During my two ferry crossings, I am positive I saw at least 1000 rams total.  A little  amusing to see the creativity needed to transport these animals.

some rams that escaped their herder long enough to take a drink from a puddle outside our vehicle

The actual day was not super exciting.  I was invited to a friend’s house to eat the afternoon meal with her family, but everything else was just on the fly.  On the way to lunch (all the way by the market), I stopped at my language helper’s compound, had juice, and chatted with them for a while.  It is really exciting that I can start to communicate with people in Mandinka.  I can carry on a reasonable conversation (quite limited in what I can say, but understanding is going way up).    Lunch was benechi (rice with a little tomato paste cooked in, plus meat and vegetables on top) with plenty of goat meat.  I ate a whole bowl, only to find out 20 minutes later that another friend had a bowl of food for me to eat!  I was too stuffed though.  Then I went to the compound of one of my American friends who had visitors and hung out with them for a while (and also ate MORE food!).  Later in the evening, I went walking around town with a big group of friends and got plenty of pictures of people dressed in their new Tobaski outfits.  Pretty much everyone gets a new outfit made for Tobaski.  Many of them get matching ones for several people (didn’t get pics of this… sorry).  It is so cool.

Because of the heat, I almost forgot about Thanksgiving.  Luckily, I remembered the day before and had already bought “Thanksgiving food” to make.  On Thanksgiving Day, I had the day off from work so I started cooking at 10am and had dinner ready for seven people at 1pm.  I made baked herb chicken (a recipe I had to improvise on because I didn’t have all the ingredients), mashed potatoes, stuffing (from a mix… don’t get too impressed), corn, green beans, and cake for dessert.  Although it wasn’t exactly traditional, it turned out very nice and everyone enjoyed it, and there weren’t even leftovers (except the cake) .

This year Thanksgiving was a little different for me because I was celebrating it with my “family” here who hail from Australia, Holland, and Switzerland.  None of them had never celebrated this holiday before.  I had to explain the history behind the holiday and some of the traditions that we have with it.  I felt a little funny having to explain something that is totally culturally normal at home.  We read a scripture before eating and then each said 5 things we are thankful for afterwards.  We had a good time and I am thankful that they were so willing to try my cooking and participate in this cultural activity.

For those who were highly disappointed about not seeing the monkeys and lizards, here they are…

I've been trying to get a picture of one of these since I got here, but they are too fast most of the time

Margit reading at the beach

Before I even left for holidays, I had a TIA moment during our day of prayer and meetings.  Margit (midwife and fellow Blue House resident) and I were on for worship and for one song, we wanted to make it upbeat and have a drum as part of the music.  There aren’t really any drummers in the team though, so I was volunteered to do the drums while another flute player played what I would have played.  For the record, I have never played the drum in my life other than banging on my steering wheel or knees.  I have enough music experience though that they thought I could do it.  As we were preparing, I thought someone had said that there was a drum at headquarters, and so I didn’t bother to try to bring one down from Sibanor.  I come to find out the morning of that there is not a drum there.  Hmm.  That was a pickle.  So we found a bucket.  A green and yellow 2-gallon bucket.  So for the first time, I drummed… on a bucket…for worship.  Hope that joyful noise was music to the Father’s heart.   TIA.

Janjangbureh (Georgetown)

For three days of my holidays, Cheryl and I went further upcountry to Janjangbureh, and stayed at a camp right next to the river.  The accommodations were very pleasant and homey.  We spent a lot of time reading and just hanging out together.  The second day, we decided to go on a canoe trip on the river.  There was one canoe that the staff usually used to ferry guests to and from the island, so we asked if we could just take it out for a couple hours.  The river was so calm.  The tide had just come in, so there was little to no current at all.  It was like boating on a pond.

canoeing on the River Gambia - still as a pond!

It was lovely to hear the birds chirping all around and the loudest noises were our oars moving through the water.  The canoe was very solid, and only let it maybe a gallon of water over the three hours that we had the boat out.  When we returned, we decided to go for a walk to give an equal workout to our legs and then sat and read by the shore, watching the monkeys and lizards come and go around us, until the sunset came.

The view over my book - both worth looking at for a while.

reading and eating groundnuts by the river. The head-tie is more culturally expected up-country.

About that time, the staff were getting set up for dinner, so we decided to go take our showers before dinner was served.  I went to close the curtains, and found that a frog had made the journey into my bed.  We chased him out the door (along with a couple more that had wandered in and were hanging out on the floor.  The threshold of the door was too high for them to jump over, so they hid in little holes at the corners of the doorframes.  In an attempt to scare the frogs further into the holes (and ideally outside), I slammed the wicker door behind them.  I thought that business was finished so I went for my shower.  I had just started to get wet when the water pump died.  I hoped it was only a temporary thing, but it persisted, so I asked Cheryl to go ask for a bucket of water to wash with.  She goes to the door and tries to open it, but because I had slammed it, the door had jammed, and she couldn’t get out.  Then she sees that all the frogs had re-entered the room and were all hanging out on the floor.  I had to come help pry the door open with a pocket knife.  After a couple minutes of wrestling with the door, we finally got it open.  Cheryl went to ask about the bucket and returned.  A few minutes later, the bucket of murky water arrived; complete with fish.  I decided it probably wouldn’t be very nice to try to shower with a fish in the bucket just in case I ended up pouring it on my head instead of the water.  Thus ensued the battle of trying to get the fish into the toilet.  This fish was a fast little guy and it took us five minutes to extract the fish from the bucket.  By this time, we had figured out that the water was river water (thus the fish and murkiness), and I decided that I wouldn’t quite feel clean if I showered with river water, so I opted for waiting to shower for the next day.  This wasn’t the end though.  We still had to chase the frogs out once again before bed, and stuffed the holes that they disappeared into with a towel so they wouldn’t return in the night.  TIA on steroids!

On holidays, got to visit Chamen as well to see what my friend, Cheryl does there with the skill center as well as what the other nurses do in the nutrition center there along with working to develop agricultural diversity in the area.   Chamen is a small Fula village that is in a very rural part of Gambia.   My friend Cheryl is working with ladies there to them started with small businesses (tailoring and making soap now). The house they have is very nice with plenty of room and a nice garden.  The downside of working in a rural setting like this is no running water and no refrigerator.  This means I got to experience the world of the squat toilet and bucket shower (though I mostly got used to that in Sibanor), and learning how to prepare enough food, but not too much to worry about leftovers.  They do have a “refrigerator” which is a large jar with a pocket around the mouth where water sits.  When the breeze moves over the water, it cools the water, making the inside of the jar slightly cooler than room temperature.  We measured it one day when the room temp was 36°C, and inside the jar it was 28°C.  You have to be a lot more creative in that setting.  A nice challenge

the walk through the "magic forest" to get to the toilet and shower

I decided as a result of visiting them there that I am super spoiled to have running water in Sibanor.  I also feel more prepared for moving into a family compound next month.  I’m still nervous to move, but I think it will help make my experience here more complete.  I only have three and a half months left, and I want to make the most of it.  I want to emphasize that it is no less safe than when I stay in the clinic.  I will probably be even safer with a family.  The compound is extremely nice, and is not too far from the clinic.  I now even have a bike so it will make it easier to get to and from work in a timely fashion.    As I prepare to move, please keep me in your prayers; that I would have a good experience with their family and that this experience would be a blessing for those around me.

Also thanks to those who have been commenting and letting me know what you would like to hear.  I am on it trying to get some of that typed up and put up.  I don’t want to put up too much at one time though, so you will just have to be patient.  Keep sending the ideas and let me know what you like hearing about.  Thanks for all your prayers.

the campsite - the boys got the little black tent, girls got the orange and brown one.

After we set up the tents, we went to the beach (even though the sun had set for the evening) and went for a swim in the ocean with the fabulous waves.  The moon was full so we could see really well even though the sun had set.  After swimming, we got out and built a fire on the beach and made baked potatoes with garlic and beef jerky in tinfoil.  Once they were cooked, we melted a bit of cheese with it too.  Very tasty except for the bits of sand that sneaked in.  Then we hung out and talked on the beach until 11 while we made s’mores (none of them had ever had a s’more before!) for dessert.

When we finally decided to go to bed, the guy in charge brought us to use a shower.  Then we walked back to the tents to get set to go to bed.  The boys in the little tent and the girls in the big tent (what gentlemen!).  As we were getting ready though, Mez all of a sudden sees a HUGE crab crawling over her stuff!  We didn’t scream too loud, but the boys came to rescue us and toss the crab out.  We thought about cooking it and eating it, but it was too late to cook and eat it at that point, plus, our cooking pot was way too small to fit the crab in it.  Oh well.

Saturday morning, we woke up about 7:30 and lazed around the campsite making breakfast and chatting about our countries (James and Mez:  Aussies, Simeon:  Swiss) and other various things until about noon.  When we finally decided to head out, we decided to try to rent bikes for the day so that we could travel further.  The lodge we were at didn’t have enough for all of us, so we walked up the beach to another lodge to see if they had enough and would give us a good price.  They had set prices that were too expensive for us so we settled for taking foot transport.  We walked down the beach to the Senegalese border (a river).  The guys walked ahead of us girls and we had an awesome conversation about all sorts of things.  I’m very sad that she was only here for a month visiting because she would have been an awesome person to get to know better.  Once we got to the river we walked inland to the coastal road and stopped for lunch at a restaurant (on the river).  Although I would like to say that the meal was wonderful and we had an awesome time there, that would not be true.  I would honestly have to say it was the worst meal I’ve eaten since arriving here.  There was sand in the dough so every bite was crunchy and the cheese tasted funny.  Everyone else was able to finish their pizza, but I had to give the second half of mine to Simeon to finish.

Mez, James, and Simeon; pizza on the river note the half eaten pizza in the foreground.

After we finished, we walked back to our campsite via the coastal road and grabbed a few groceries for dinner and breakfast in the town.  On the way, we asked each other random questions like “if you could be a fruit, what fruit would you be?”  It was a blast.  We are all pretty different so we had a lot of crazy answers but it was cool to get to know all of them better.

When we got back to camp, we quickly went for a swim as the sun set (I didn’t get any pictures of the sun setting on the beach ).  The waves were bigger and we swam out further, because it was so relaxing to swim after walking all day.  Then we made a fire and made our dinner of tapalapa with potato and mayo as a filling (actually quite good, especially compared to lunch).  We continued asking each other random questions during and after supper, but got tired earlier so headed for bed after taking a shower.

Sleeping in the tents was not the most comfortable arrangement but I slept much better the second night (I was exhausted from walking and swimming).  As anyone who has gone camping knows, it’s not very comfortable to sleep on the ground, and I am pretty bony, so it’s almost impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep.  The other thing that made it hard to sleep was worrying about rain coming in the middle of the night.  Rainy season is leaving, but it still means that rain is possible.  To make it worse though, we had set up camp under palm trees that rustle like pouring rain when the wind blows through them.  I had left a few things out to dry so I kept thinking that I had to get up and run to grab them in the middle of the night and rearrange our bags to keep the rain from leaking into the tent, but it was only the wind.  Whew!

Sunday morning we woke up and had porridge for breakfast (yum!), and then had church on the campsite.  We sang songs and had a discussion for the teaching part.  Then we chatted until about noon when we packed up and got a private gelly to take us to the tourist area (pretty close to headquarters) to get good pizza and dessert at the supermarket before taking the gellies back to Sibanor.  The weekend was awesome, but it was exhausting.  I’m glad I went, but I’m glad I got to sleep in my own bed that night.

my completo. been meaning to put this pic up for a while to show you what I've been wearing