Manoo

pronounced "Mah-NOH"

Rice harvest time. Lots of work! Per usual, I was hanging out with the neighbors, but not allowed to help, because ultimately I would mess up the rhythm of the pounding (true enough, I'm terrible at pounding), but the ladies said "Faatu! go get your camera! Tell the American people about rice farming!"

Well, people of America, here it is. Rice was planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and now is ready for harvest. The ladies go and chop the tops of the stalks off, then pound them to get the kernels off. Then, all the kernels are pounded with a mortar and pestle to remove the hull. it's lots of work, and it amazed me how little rice resulted. rice is a staple food in the gambia, but really, most of it is imported. the family across the street eats three 50 Kilo bags of rice a month, and there is no way they planted and harvested enough to last them. despite some really creative land uses, people plant in tiny little unusable areas AND big rice fields, there is not enough land, and not enough people willing to cultivate in order to be fully sustainable for the amount of people in the country. its a scary problem.

Whoa! One Year!

This coming November 6 marks my one-year anniversary in The Gambia. How about that? In some ways I feel like I just got here, and others it feels like I’ve been here much longer. What I guess is strange is that instead of counting up, now things may feel like a count down. Scary! But otherwise this anniversary is cause for celebration. Out of the 25 volunteers in our training group, 22 remain. Quite an accomplishment, I think.
What else have I accomplished? This is always a difficult thing to assess, and can either be depressing or comforting, depending on my mood. My motivation for joining Peace Corps was mainly for personal development, and to be helpful and friendly in any way I could to the community into which I was placed. With such vague goals, how could one help but to be successful? Honestly, I’m proud of what I’ve done. I’ve lived in a culture very different from my own, and adapted myself to it. I’ve become functional in a foreign language, though sadly I think I will always be able to hear and understand far more than I can express in response. I’ve made many friends and valuable relationships. I think I’ve been helpful in working through the grant-writing process with a community group, and I think they could do it on their own in the future. I hope I’ve been helpful in encouraging young people to make healthy choices, and to think critically. I hope I’ve been a good example of a friendly American, who knows how to do hard work. I hope I’ve been able to provide alternate perspective in conversations. Hell, I hope I’ve been able to share with people as much as they have shared with me.
Some personal qualities that I’ve found here, and value, is that I find my capacity for joy is much greater, or perhaps my threshold for it is just lower, but either way I can find happiness and reasons to laugh in the smallest of situations. Small things, like cold watermelon, can make me immensely incurably deliriously happy(The reverse can also be true, unfortunately. Huge variations in mood, even throughout the course of a day isn’t instability. Its just Peace Corps, and from my research, we all go through it). That said, I find I have more patience here, even when things are rough, and have been better able to focus on the things that I have control over, and accept the things in life over which I have no control, thereby letting them go. This has lead to a lot less stress. I hope these are skills I can retain when I return home.
What do I miss most? Anonymity, hands down. I miss being able to leave my house and blend into the crowd. I miss sitting on a street and people-watching without being stared at or approached. But I suppose there is plenty of time for that later.
I don’t feel like making this some big heart-searching moment, and if I did I don’t really want to post it on the internet. But hey, 12 months down, 15 more to go.

Oh man though, I’ve never had a pedicure in my life, but I think I could go for one when I get home. Because seriously, someone has got to turn these hooves back into feet. ;-)