Looking like a jockey never looked so good.

Looks like a made a new friend...


This man looks crazy but he had some amazing dance moves and singing skills. If I ever have a fast internet connection I will try to put some video up. Now, on to the blog...

I got to test my host mom’s affections and hospitality for me recently. She’s a great person, just a little older than me, laughs all the time, and loves any type of social event. She is pictured below btw. Though we live in the middle of no-where, she works in the fields, and spends most of her days outside I think she could still be considered a bit of a girly girl. It’s odd that of everyone I could get to take me out there, she happened to be the person.


I have been telling my host family that I want to go out to the rice fields to see them since the rains started. They all kinda laughed it off but I was finally able to persuade them and my host mom (Bana) said she would take me out there when she got back from weeding in the bush. Every time I talked about going out there everyone told me about the water. “it’s so deep!” “It’s freezing and disgusting!” “There are bugs in there that will come up and bite you!” None of this really scared me away but even we walked out there one woman showed us her bleeding battle wound from this rice field creature. When we were getting to the beginning of the stream we finally saw the thing they were trying to scare me away from. They said “Fanta come look come look! You want to go out there?” What was this terrible creature of the underworld that has my family fearing so strongly for me you say? A leech. I’m not stoic nor Bear Gryllis or anything but I was a bit underwhelmed. Leeches don’t even hurt, it’s not something to completely freak out about. I looked up at the women around me, said it was no problem, and got scoffs of exasperation.
A funny part about all this is how little I knew about rice fields. I imagined that it was a lowered pool of water with dry raised banks. It’s not. As we walked we slowly got in more and more water and deeper mud. When the mud was getting to our ankles I thought “I wonder if it’s going to be like this the whole way. . .” We went from ankle deep, to calf deep, to sometimes hip deep. Grass surrounded and sometimes the path would open into lily pad laden open areas. The mud was deep so we would trudge through the sharp grassy areas so we wouldn’t fall.
Before I get into anything more I want to go over my dress for this occasion. Women wear a mix of things. I saw one woman putting on socks to go out there (seemed like a good idea), another with pants and cloth with string holding it tightly to her ankles and waist. I took a more German approach by wearing bright yellow soccer socks, strap sandals, and capris that I eventually tucked into the socks (fierce?). My host mom wore her normal complete which she promptly got dirty by falling in the mud when we weren’t even 3 inches deep in water. This was the start of a fun afternoon for me, and a lame one for her.
After 20 minutes of walking through the grass and water we finally got to my host grandmother. She was surprised (not just by my awesome fashion sense) and kinda just went, “so you are here now....thats nice”. My host mom seemed a little worried since, as mentioned before, she isn’t very outdoorsy after all. We headed back after just a short time because lurching in ass deep water is probably not on the Peace Corps list of helpful health techniques. On our way back there was a point when my host mom shouted “Fanta! (my Gambia name [I know, like the drink, hilarious...]) move move!” I moved, looked to my pant leg that she was staring at and saw the strings of my capris but my host mom thought it was a leech swimming vigorously for me. She yelled out and started to haul ass back. Mind you, we were still hip deep in slippery mud and water. I wasn’t able to stop her to tell her that it wasn’t a leech until we were on dry land.
I plan on going again so I can get some pictures but for now I am going to wait a little while to make sure I don’t pick up some dirty mud/water disease. My toe has been hurting all day. You know what that means, looks like I might be leaving this country sans one toe.

Here are some more random pictures from



This is my host mom doing her sisters henna tattoo to look foxy when she goes back to her new husband and compound.


This is a shot of my village during a dust storm.


The moon after a dust storm.


This is the river during the dry season. Great for the environment, right!?


One of my host mom's and a neighbor pounding.


My fingers after getting the henna done. They do it on the feet and hands for special occasions.


This is my hut. Pretty classy, I know. I have a better roof now too.


This is me and Kane's attempt to put me on his back like the women here do with their babies. It worked, but was terribly painful for Kane.


Gettin' yur hur did is a bit more extreme here.


They really love Obama here, or at least use him as a marketing ploy all the time.


This is my house getting a new roof.

Getting a new well in our compound. They seriously dug this thing in two days. That is so fast. It took me forever just to get my compost dug.