It's now official.

 

I did it I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer.  After two months of intense training I was able to say my oath and earn my pin & certificate as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  Today was a great day, our ceremony was held in the beautiful backyard of the United States Ambassadors house overlooking the beach and ocean.  We were surrounded by current volunteers, our whole trainee staff, and important Gambians.  All 18 of us all dressed in the same Gambian attire had made it through the tiresome days of long lectures, through the food poisoning many of us got, through the language tests that we all felt we would fail and through the long days of waiting for our transportation to arrive, it was a great day of accomplishment and relief that the last two months was all worth it. 

Last day in Sare Musa

I thought that today would be easier than it was.  Today was the last day spent in my training village (Sare Musa).  I spent most of the day sitting around with the family chatting and taking pictures.  Lizzie, Michael, Becca and I all decided to out on our Gambian ceremony attire and parade around the village and say our goodbyes to everyone.  Everyone seemed so excited to see us in our complets and wanted to take photos with us and of us.  Since it was my last night here I had decided to buy a chicken for the family to eat for dinner.  I sat around and helped my sister-in-law prepare the meals and chatted with the family.  We all gathered around as I played the film Monsters University on my laptop, which they loved and laughed at so much.  Since it was in English many of them didn’t understand what was being said but the pictures was good enough for them.  I decided to stay up later than usual as well as the children even though they had school the next morning.  Everyone seemed very sad and told me that I shouldn’t leave and I should just stay there for the next two years.  I told them thank you for everything and that I was going to miss them but I would be back to visit often and then headed to bed.  Sare Musa is crazy and full of energy but it is a great village in which I will definitely miss. 

 

Model School Presentation

Today we went to a school and held a presentation on a health topic.  The topic that Lizzie and I choose to discuss was Personal Hygiene and Hand Washing.  We prepared our presentation with visuals on rice bags and props such at a bucket water and soap.  We discuss the importance of why, when and how to wash your hands.  We taught the children a song to sing while washing their hands and had them practice it.  The children all seemed engaged in our presentation and really enjoyed it from the smiles on their faces.  We made sure that there was participation involved and questioned them in the end so that everything was clearly understood.  Lizzie and I had a great time doing this activity with the kids it really shows that the little things such as hand washing can make a difference.

Our Lovely Garden

One of our activities during training is to learn how to build a garden.  Our garden was held in my host family’s compound.  My host father worked really hard on building a fence to keep all the animals out.  We planted three garden beds and build two compost piles.  We transplanted mentu (tomatoes) and botanse (eggplant).  We direct seeded carrots, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, peppers and okra.  This was a great learning process and our garden is doing well.  The days that I was gone in training my host mother would help water it because when we leave to our permanent site it is theirs left to be cared for.  I can’t wait to build my own garden in my backyard because it will probably be the only source of vegetable for me to eat.  

Visit to the School

During my three days at site visit I was able to meet many people.  I met the Alkalo, Imam, Tradition Birth Attendant, teacher from the local school and many others.  One day I decided to walk to the school to check it out and some of the children were on there break eating their snack.  I introduced myself to them and tried to speak to them in the local language, I told them to sing and dance and they did.  I decided to whip out my camera to snap a photo and the whole crowd went crazy pushing and shoving to get in the picture knocking eachother down, it was hilarious.  I showed them the photo and then decided to go on my way home.  I told them goodbye but somehow they didn’t get it because they all followed me home singing and dancing all the way to my compound.  I arrived and sat in front of my house thinking of a way to get rid of them.  I kept saying you guys need to get back to school but they just stood there and starred at me.  Finally one of my host brothers came out and yelled at them to leave and they all squirmed out back to school.  It was funny.  Kids you just got to love them. 

 

Suddu am he Sare Alpha

This is a picture of my house in Sare Alpha.  My little hut.

Patience

One thing that I have learned from being in Africa so far is patience.  I now have the skill of waiting patiently especially for transportation.  Today we are on the journey of visiting our permanent site for a few days.  We just finished a two day workshop with our community representative and are heading to meet our new village that we will be living at for the next two years.  My community representatives name is Amadou Jallow and he is a community health nurse that lives in Sare Alpha.  He is a very nice guy and I know he will be fun to work with for the next two years.  We headed out from Jenoi where the workshop was held around 8 oclock and had been waiting to catch the bus for about 4 hours.  Many buses had come but there was never enough room to accommodate all us trainees so we kept on waiting.  We finally caught a bus at noon and headed to Basse which was about a 3 to 4 hour ride.  This bus ride was very bumpy and scary at times.  You see in Africa there are many animals such as goats, sheep and cows that like to cross the road while taking there time so many times the bus would have to honk or swerve around them which does slow up the ride.  There was one point where the driver had dodged a heard of goats and the bus almost tipped over, many people screamed and were mad at the driver.  I like to describe the public transportation just like a ride in an amusement park.

With my Host Brothers from Training Village

This is a picture of my host brothers and I in Sare Musa.  We were out watching our older brother play football (soccer), starting from the left is Mamadou, Me, Abulai and Gibi. 

Day of the Big Snake

Today was just a regular day of learning to speak Pulaar in class when some people from the village came and told us that they had caught a huge python from the farm.  Me being afraid of snakes really did not want to go see it but from the excitement and the word of how bug it was I knew it was a moment not to pass up.  I did make sure to ask if it was dead or alive before I ran over there and since it was dead I decided to go.  We walked over and they brought it out for us to see, the snake was big and very long.  They said that they had seen it while there were out at groundnut fields and killed it.  Gambians are terrified of all snakes no matter it being poisonous or not so they always just kill it.

 

The day I recieved my Gambian Name

Today was a great day filled with laughter, clapping, singing, dancing and smiles surround everywhere.  I got up and took my bucket bath and headed outside to have breakfast with my family.  Today was a day that everyone had been waiting for because today was the day that each of us were to receive our Gambian names given to us by our family we were staying with in our training villages.  After finishing up my breakfast my family gave me the clothing attire that I was to wear for the ceremony.  It was a dark blue think wool dress that I put over the clothing I had on.  The wrapped a hair piece around my head, drew me some black eyebrows and put red lipstick on my lips and then I was ready to go.  We then headed to a section of the village where it would be held.  When we arrived there were so many people from the village cheering and smiling as I took my seat next to the other trainees.  All three of us girls had on the same attire and Michael being the only male had on his attire.  We sat there for a while melting in the hot sun surround and hovered over by the village people starring at us waiting for the ceremony to start.  Finally we moved location and the ceremony began.  Each one by one we kneeled on a mat while having our heads shaved, they then chanted some words in the local language and the announcement of our Gambian name was reviled.  When it was my turn they called out “Jenaba Jarjue”, and the crowed clapped and yelled in excitement.  From that moment on I was no longer to be called Selina Green.  The ceremony was finished with singing, dancing and taking many pictures with my host family, other trainees and the village people.  It was a great day, one that will never be forgotten. 

 

 

October 18, 2013

The day after Orientation we had to wake up early at 8 o'clock and check out of our hotel to catch the bus at 8:30 which was going to drive us all the way to the New York JFK airport.  As we drove out of Philadelphia and into New Jersey we were hit with bad traffic due to an accident on the highway.  I guess the accident was so bad that they blocked off the highway which put us at a complete stop for over 2 hours.  There were many ambulance, fire trucks, police cars and helicopters flying around that made us get restless and we began to worry if we would make it to our flight on time.  Our flight was to leave at 5:15 so luckily we made it in time to the airport with about one hour to spare.    

Our first flight was about 7 hours long which took us to Brussels where we would catch our connecting 6 hour long flight Banjul, The Gambia.  For the first flight I did not get any sleep at all, I have no reason why, It sucked, I just couldn't fall asleep.  In between flights we had a 4 hour layover and I thought I would possibly get some sleep then but still no luck.  I guess I was just excited for the journey that was ahead of us.  On the flight to Banjul I finally got some sleep, Yayyyy.  It felt good.  

 As I got off the plane in Banjul I could feel a big difference in the air because of the humidity.  My skin began to feel real sticky, it'll get some getting used to.  We all had to go through customs and show our passport, Proof of Yellow Fever Vaccination and explain the reason why we were there.  We then all grabbed our luggage then all 24 of us hopped in the Peace Corp van and drove to the Peace Corps Transit house.   

Orientation Day in Philadelphia

So today we had a 6 hour Orientation about the Peace Corps.  We learned who we are and what we do as volunteers.  It was very informative and fun.  We did lots of activities and skit scenarios.  There is going to be a total of 18 of us traveling together to The Gambia.  Most of us are either Health volunteers or Environmental/Agriculture volunteers.  The volunteers have come from all around the United States, we have Chicago, Atlanta, New Jersey, California, Hawaii, Colorado, Texas, Seattle, North Carolina and Washington DC volunteers going to The Gambia.    I am even more excited about this experience and all the things that lie ahead of me.  Below is a picture of the group of volunteers that I will be traveling with to The Gambia.

  After our orientation ended we all got together for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen which was a great way to end our last night in the states.  Our plan for tomorrow is to wake up early and check out of our hotel and a bus is going to take us to airport in New York where we fly out to The Gambia.

Arrival in Philadelphia

I have arrived in Philadelphia for my Peace Corps Orientation.  So far everything has gone well.  My first challenge is carrying all the luggage around by myself and finding the hotel.  I got this.