goingtogambia

I am home. Sorry for the delay in updates. Still waiting for finished pictures of the blood bank….stay tuned. Thanks everyone for your support while I was away. Hope to see everyone soon!

Our funding has been received for the Blood bank and we will begin construction very soon. I will not be returning to the capital for close to two months until I leave which means the pictures will probably not be posted till then but be patient they are coming. And you are all AWESOME for helping The Gambia thanks you!

Here it is suddenly. I remember arriving after twenty four hours of travel and experiencing disorientation at a level I could never have fathomed. There it was. In a land that I had fantasized, feared and questioned for so long. Africa. A land exploited by celebrities, abused by the developed world and formerly destroyed by arrogance and ignorance. As the plane touched down insecurities overtook my enthusiasm. What was I seriously going to do here? Had my mere four years of nursing experience prepared me for a career in completely unfamiliar environment? Thoughts of escaping back to my comfort zone, back to my world immediately flooded my mind. Had I really just dropped everything I knew, dismissed my previous achievements, and left everyone I ever knew for what seemed to be something I was completely naive to?

Here I sit trying to take it all in. To remember what it was like in those moments, when my Dad drove me to the airport, when I stepped off in DC, then in Brussels and finally Banjul. My initial thoughts on the country, the ideas I had on my next two years. The promises I made myself and others back home. Trying to take it all in one last time……

As my two year anniversary in country came and went yesterday I realized what I thought would never happen, has. I remember looking at my group initially and wondering who I would grow close to. It was so bizarre in that moment to look at twenty people and realize I would know individuals like family, and others would disappear before we were given a chance to be more than acquaintances.

When I left my village I feared the moment when I wouldn’t be able to see all of these dynamic people again. The day when I open my front door to a quiet and vacant America. For two years I have been surrounded by a culture that does not allow for privacy only because there is nothing you wouldn’t share with anyone. A village, a family, where communal living took on a new meaning to me. When you sleep past seven and everyone in concerned that you may be ill, when you don’t finish your entire lunch and it is assumed that you are upset with something. Being aloof can not be conceived. Being in a rush is never respectful, and saying less then three words to each and every person you pass by in a day is unheard of.

As I ride my bike through town and try to count how many times I have passed by the same people I also choke up at the thought of this being one of the last times. I embrace to lifestyle of a small town where everyone really does know everyone. A place where I so sorely stuck out when first embarking on, and now pass through with only friends identifying my presence. I don’t know if I will ever feel as welcomed to a community for the rest of my life, and I fear that entering an old land, my home land, will be an adequate replacement for the void this place will leave inside me.

As I went for one of my last runs and a small boy ran up next to me and reached out to hold my hand as I jogged through his village I couldn’t help but try to freeze the moment in my mind. I never want to forget the love that is dispensed here so freely, and the hospitality that can never be understood by anyone that hasn’t experienced it.

I hope that I can bring home some of the traditions of this world. I don’t want to lose the ability to see the uniqueness inside everyone and embrace the similarities that exist globally. If I have learned anything here it is that the world is misunderstood. Taking time to know people, and understand each other is the only way we can ever live with each other. More then the tangible work I have completed here, I know that I have accomplished an understanding for myself of who these people are, and who I am.

As many of you know, I work at Bansang Hospital, a rural,
underfunded hospital about 10 hours by bush taxi from the capital in
Gambia, West Africa. One of the projects I am working on is trying
to increase volunteer blood donation. Blood is not kept in supply in the hospital due to lack of electricity-
causing the deaths of many new mothers and their babies. The hospital is running
on a B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Donor) system which, as you can imagine,
is not effective. We have begun a program of trekking to nearby
villages and registering people as donors. We have also begun a blood
donation and support group at the local high school. Once we saw that we could
actually get blood we decided we needed to do something
about the blood bank and storage facilities. Along with two other volunteers and
the staff of the hospital we have decided to build a basic
blood bank facility, complete with a 24 hour fridge. We are seeking
donations to cover about 75% of the cost and the hospital will provide
the other 25%. Donations of any size are highly welcome. If you would
like to donate or find out more please visit the Peace Corps website
and click on "donors" - "donate to volunteer projects" or click on
this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=635-056

Thanks for taking the time to read about our project. Please send
this email on to anyone you think may be interested in helping and
remember, by donating you are saving babies :-)

Because last week a woman was admitted in labor with a hemoglobin of 2. I have never been more scared for a patient, and since she was the host-mother of another volunteer here it was an emotional case. She looked so sad and helpless as they carried her onto the delivery bed. The doctor rechecked her blood levels and it was true. Is this even possible I asked? I flashed back to my days as a nurse in the US-what was the protocol for a hemoglobin of 2? Have I ever even seen that? The patient here was told the same thing as any other patient needing blood-you will need to find your own donor. If you need blood, you bring your own donor-and you hope they are a match.

The hospital doesn’t have the ability to keep blood on hand because there is not 24hour power. There are also many taboos that avert local people from wanting to donate. Our project is to sensitize the community, encourage them to donate blood, and build a blood bank with solar power so that blood can and will be kept on hand. Along with the sensitization, we will begin a trekking system where the hospital will go out into different villages and collect blood. This will help solve another problem which is getting people to come out and pay for transport to get to the hospital in order to donate blood.

How can you help? We are writing a Peace Corps Partnership now, what will happen is hopefully within the next month it will be posted online with a link and you can donate. What is a partnership? It is a way that people from home can donate directly to a Peace Corps Project, and in trun the host country is asked to match 25% of the raised funds. For our project that means they will provide labor and some materials for the project. The funds are going to purchase a solar refrigerator, and the construction supplies for the actual building. We are just getting the budget finished and with the approval of PC Washington hopefully the partnership will be up very soon.

The woman at the hospital delivered her baby and received one pint of blood. It was a small miracle that she lived. She was discharged from the hospital with a hemoglobin of 4 and given iron pills as the only other treatment option. She could hardly stand and was too weak to even hold her baby up to her chest. She was one of the luckiest and strongest women I have seen in awhile. The #1 reason for death among pregnant women here in The Gambia is anemia. Lets change that! Keep posted for updates thank you-

Yes, I know! It has been months and months…..But I am still here. We unfortunately lost our internet up-country where I live so there probably will not be too many more updates before I leave. I am in my last 6 months now (give or take a couple weeks).  So projects and work in general is taking over my time and my life. As is turns out my replacement will be coming to site in January so there will be some overlapping time. This should be a great chance to work together and get everything handed over properly.

So what am I doing now?
School&Library
Still helping and teaching at the nursing school daily. The students are currently in their community practicals so they are spending 6 weeks in remote villages and learning to practice their nursing skills where there is no hospital or major medical facility. The school’s library is coming along great, we are working to get everything organized, and getting a database up and running so that the books will stay accounted for  Unfortunately computer work is limited with the power supplies so it will be a computer program backed up with paper…..Maybe a little extra work but just want to make sure that once the library is fully stocked it stays that way.
Just want to also send out a thank you to everyone that has helped in gathering and delivering books here. Mainly Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Northern Illinois University School of Nursing, Xavier and Project Hope. To all my friends also you have been great getting books here and to my parents who have continued to help and go out of their way to get things here.
Hopefully the last large shipment will be coming in the spring before I leave with the assistance of GambiaHelp.
Hospital
With the help of The Gambia Red Cross we are working to get a functional blood bank going at the hospital. Right now we are trying to train Red Cross volunteers to collect blood, and planning treks to remote villages where we will inform people about blood donation and encourage them to be volunteer donors. The Laboratory at the hospital currently has three qualified people that take blood so our goal is to first get more people trained and to sensitize the surrounding villages on volunteering to be donors.
The hospital is now running a malnutrition project with a formula (F75). At this time the
Government cannot supply this product or provide training. So we are making new charts, instructional guides and informative posters to help introduce the formula. We are also working to train the nurses on how to prepare, administer and store the formula. Since there isn’t any formal training right now we are working to create standards for admission to the hospital as a malnourished patient. Also creating and reproducing growth charts and monitoring forms that can be used to properly monitor the patient’s progress. Proper diagnosis of malnutrition and its cause is an ongoing project but I definitely enjoy working in the hospital and don’t get much of a chance to be there so this has been really fun.
Garden
Introducing some new vegetables and trees to the hospital garden, also planting some flowers to beautify the hospital grounds.
Village
Since it is rainy season it is also Malaria season. So my village life is usually going to see people and helping them get to the hospital. As peaceful as the rain is……the mosquitoes are killer, literally and I am ready for it to be over. It is also the month of Ramadan so most everyone is fasting from sun up to sun down. Makes the village a very lazy place to be. Most people relax most of the day in an effort not to collapse from dehydration and then celebrate and eat in the evenings. Not too much sleeping. But this just adds to the problem with mosquitoes and malaria since they are worse at night and people are spending more time out and about and less time tucked into their mosquito nets 
Race
Planning for another 5K race for the nurses this time it will be in the town where I live. We are trying to get enough supplies so that everyone who enters will get a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff. Plan is for late January or early February.

And that is what is keeping me busy these days. The time is flying and I will be home before I know it. Will try and do another quick update before I take off.
Thanks for checking in
Miss you all!

check out helpanurse.blogspot.com
this is where my and another Peace Corps Volunteer
that are working together on some projects
will be updating our work.
THANKS :)

Not too much new, besides the ever increasing heat. We broke 120 in February so I have a good feeling this summer is going to be hotter then last. But all is well. And I am learning to manage the heat. I am currently sewing a hammock and will probably purchase another Bamboo bed for my back yard. Sometime in April it will be too hot to ever be indoors so I will start sleeping outside until the rains come………School is going well, we just finished two rounds of practical and theory exams with the students so this weekend I am grading papers fun-fun! Life is good though. I feel settled and at home here, I think the adjusting is finally over. The computers at the school are still up and running well also (which is what I am using right now) and is making my life a lot easier for the time being. The biggest struggle lately has been for fuel, the country runs on generators, and depends obviously on imported fuel. So last week when there was no fuel…..there was no power. But it is back now, and hopefully that won’t happen again. No that life is rather mundane I sometimes don’t know what to write about. Sorry if this page has become boring but if you have questions please email me and then maybe I’ll know more about what people want to hear about………….africa.sarah@gmail.com. OK thanks for keeping in touch talk to everyone soon!

In then months of December through March is the time for circumcision in the villages. The ritual begins with the arrival of the “Kankaran” see picture below. This is a creature who is believed to be the devil. He comes out at night and carries two machetes with him. So sometime around Christmas this man dressed in a wooly mammoth costume started coming around banging his machetes into everything, scaring children(and me) and just being a nuisance. He is usually out from around 10pm-2am screaming at the top of his lungs. At first it did scare my a little bit, especially when he was chopping at the mango tree in my back yard, but after awhile it became comforting. And as the months went on he started to appear during the day, chasing children around the village and yelling…..So with the entry of the Kankaran comes circumcision. I was aware that this happened all at once, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to be all children or just boys and no one was really talking details with me so I didn’t know what to expect. Groups of boys would be taken out into the bush and would return a little surprised and I figured out what was going on pretty quick. But what I didn’t expect was when I came home one day to find the one year old girl in my compound wearing a special “diaper”. The babies mother brought her into my house and told me that a lady had come from the next village that day and had takes a bunch of the girls and circumcised them. I didn’t think it was going to happen and I guess I was being naïve. It only happened one day for the girls, and I didn’t know how exactly I wanted to handle it. I decided to tell people who asked how I felt about it, and to help anyone who wanted to clean and prevent getting infections………….It was very strange and definitely uncomfortable. Technically Female Circumcision has been outlawed here, but it is still happening throughout the country. The problem being it happens when no one is looking, and those who are know to look the other way. What I found to be surprising when I started talking with women is that they don’t understand why it is bad. Many women see it as their passage way into womanhood, the same way they look at the boys entering into manhood…… And not many women feel that they shouldn’t have it done, and are confused as to why “the people at the hospital” think that it is bad. There are some organizations working towards educating people more, and I will be trying to do my part in continuing discussions with women about it. Until then I will know when you see the Kankaran…….you know it is time, and next year I won’t be as naïve.

I wake up in one of two ways. It really depends on the mood of the mosque caller. At the break of dawn the loud speaker at the mosque will send a friendly warning that it is time to get up, "It is time to pray," he proclaims in Mandinka. Some mornings this is nice and immediately orients me to what time it is. The mosque caller will go on to sing the morning prayers in a soothing melodic way and I will go back in and out of sleep peacefully for the remainder of the morning......Then other days it is more the fire and brimstone GET UP AND PRAY OR ELSE, and there isn’t really any singing involved with that call. It is more threatening, so on these days I wake up in more of a panic. I have started to use the mosque call as a predictor for my day. It seems to be pretty accurate, though I think that it has more to do with the psychological damage done when woken up by screaming Islamic demands.
But today the prayers were soft and comforting and so I remained in bed and relaxed thinking today is going to be a good day. I stayed there and read till almost 8am which is pretty late for me these days. I have yet to figure out why the people do not enjoy sleeping in here, but no one seems to. After the mosque call you will here the pounding of rice and coos throughout the village. Most women get up with the sun to start their daily chores. And I don' t blame them I wouldn't want to be out in the sun doing manual labor either, but then again getting up that early just seems impossible. So when I finally role out of bed and open my front door I already know what my host family is going to say...... "You slept late, ohhh you can sleep too much....." and then we exchange morning greetings and I go back inside to get ready. Not that I should even use those words since getting ready here involves even less effort then my routine did at home. And if you didn't know my routine at home......well I wasn't exactly high maintenance. So I throw on some cloths wash my face and grab my bag and my bike and head out. I have stopped having breakfast at home mainly because my host family cannot understand why I don't want to eat the reheated rice we had for lunch and dinner the day before. I use the excuse that I have to be at work before breakfast is ready............It seems to work though I think they are on to my developed hatred of rice.
Some mornings a nursery school child comes over for a ride to school, most mornings that is...........So as I round the corner there she is sitting with her 2 dalasi ready for school. The nursery school is next to the hospital, it is a small single room brick building that usually is crammed full of anywhere from 50-100 preschool age kids and one or two teachers. So I sit her on the back of the bike and off we go. Some days I love her company, other days she wants to tell me all about something that I cannot understand what with her 4 year old vocabulary and my lack of translational skills for even the best Mandinka. So on those days I just ask her to count something like frogs or cows to keep her occupied, and keep me off the hook of asking WHAT???every minute or so as we ride along.
So I drop her off and continue on to the hospital, today is clinic. So there are already 50 some women waiting with at least one baby a piece tied to their back. The clinic is outdoors under a pavilion; in the front are two tables, one for screening and weighing, and one for immunizations. Each child is weighed and then given whatever combination of vaccines they are due for. I help out with whatever they need, some days there is plenty of help so I can be a resource, and then other days like today there are two people, including myself. But I have gotten use to the system and we go on with the day. Sometime around 1pm the last baby is vaccinated and we can pack up for the day. I usually wonder across the street and grab a snack (probably a banana or a boiled egg) those are about the only options, or fried bread, sometimes a bean sandwich.......anyway before I leave I check in at the nursing school to see what the schedule is like for the week. Right now both classes of students are in clinicals and some are in the capital for a rotation, so there are only lectures on Wednesdays until March :) This has been a great break for me and I've had a chance to catch up on some other things I have been working on. Since the mother and baby clinic is only on Monday and Friday I take the other days to write lecture notes, or help out with the computers at the school, but for today I am heading home because there isn't much to do and the power has already gone off for the day. So I ride back to village grabbing the school child on the way.
After lunch (which is the only meal I am eating with my host family now)-once again my hate for rice- I try to work on language-I have been trying to translate stories into Mandinka to help with my language skills. It is nearly impossible since the direct translation for most words does not make sense in the context that I want to use things in. I cannot explain this language mainly because even now it does not make sense to me, but reading the stories gives me something to do with the kids, and even adults like to listen since nearly 90% of my village is illiterate. So this afternoon I am working on that for awhile.
Since the weather is still cool I go for a run most evenings, I run to a village that is maybe 4K from mine. There is a group of old men that sit under a tree about halfway to the other village, and they have learned my name so now I get chanted at "Fatty, Fatty, Fatty," everyday as I run past. Fatty is my local last name, along with about 75% of my village. Everyone here is Fatty, and every time you great someone you say their last name, so needless to say when old when are chanting Fatty at me everyday it gives me a little extra encouragement............in a good way, and most days I laugh a little if only they knew..........After my run I fetch water and bath, the cold season is great down to one bath a day and only having to go to the pump for water one time.......I love that. At night now we have been listening to (and occasionally watching) the African Cup. It serves as a great geographical lesson every time. I have put my National Geographic Africa map outside so people can find where the countries are that are playing each other. Gambia did not qualify this year.......but Senegal the country we are surrounded by is there. Most people have no concept of how large Africa is, or even understood that all of the countries playing in The Cup were actually in Africa. I had a long discussion the other night with my host brother who was certain Angola was in Europe. The confusion most people have is trying to understand how Gambia can be so small? Hard to get the concept of the World across to people who have never left this country.
Sometime around 9 I go inside and read a little bit before I pass out, but not before wondering what kind of mood the mosque caller will be in tomorrow............

Santa Brought Giardia,
So my holidays have been interesting. Starting with the Muslim Holiday "Tabaski" which
fell the week of Christmas.....This beings the biggest Holiday in The Gambia so somewhat
comparable to the Holiday season in The States. What happens is The men pray most of the
day and then
as tradition goes each family kills a ram and eats it. My host family killed a goat and we
ate it
for breakfast, then killed and ate a ram for lunch (for two days) and on the third day they killed
another sheep and we ate that. Somewhere in the middle of it all I became pretty sick.
Just your average puking session followed by hours hunched over the latrene. But by Christmas
Eve I was feeling pretty good so I headed to a friend's where were planning to have
our American Style Christmas. On the 100k (5+ hour) car ride we were in a van with a woman
I am sure was suffering horribly from AIDS. She couldn't sit up so everyone was leaning
against her to keep her in her seat as we traveled on what has to be the bumpiest road in the
World. Once we reached her village and it was apparent that she couldn't walk my
friend and I carried her to her home and put her to bed. It wasn't exactly the happiest way to
start Christmas but after we arrived to our friend's village everything seemed better. Her
house had a Christmas tree ( fake and 1 foot tall) but it was the first decoration any of
us had seen. So though it was about 85degrees, and we had to walk 2 miles through the desert, it
started to feel a little like Christmas. Let me first say that we don't eat a whole
lot of dairy here, and by that I mean never. So after we all started to dig into the
Velveta Cheese appetizer dip my stomach blew up and I was down again. But with all the
pumpkin pie and chicken and potatoes and cranberry sauce I just couldn't stop eating
even though I felt like I was giong to die. I spent the night outside to put it nicely,
and the next day curled up in a ball on the floor swearing I would never eat again. But all in
all it was worth it. We watched Home ALone:) and painted another volunteers house since
he was gone for the holidays. It was good to be with friends, especially friends with lots
oof gas-x. After a trip home that was more painful but less memoorable then the trip out
I visited the hospital and got a wonderful antiparasitic to clean out whatever was living
in my gut and trying t kill me. I'm Feeling much better now and I lost 7 pounds over the
holidays who else can say that?

GAMBIA HELP http://www.gambiahelp.org/
Update on the donating books…………Thanks to anyone who responded or expressed interest in helping to collect nursing text books. I found an awesome organization that donated over 30boxes of books called Project Hope. They even shipped the books domestically for me to another organization called GAMBIAHELP. Gambia Help was started by a returned Peace Corps volunteer and is helping to send books, computers, and other supplies to this country. Since they are sending containers here quite often they were willing to help me get the books to Gambia. But I did promise I would write to everyone I know to try and get them some support for their shipping costs. Since they get most of the things they ship donated the fundraising for shipping the containers is done on a personal level. It costs thousands of US dollars to ship these containers and anyone interested in giving a little $$ to a good cause should definitely visit the website and look for ways to help. If you think you have a little extra money the easiest way to help is to go online they even have paypal..... or to mail a check. When you visit the website there will be several different ways to donate, if possible to include "help with shipping” http://www.gambiahelp.org/d_form.html
Thank you everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been a long time since I have written and I am sorry for that! Thanks to all of you who have not lost interest or given up on me……………..I am still here and still very much alive So quick update on things here. I have been spending most of my time helping out at the nursing school. It is difficult to explain what takes up every minute of everyday but somehow the days fly by and I am hardly sitting still. I try to teach one or two days a week. The way the school works is by blocked periods so usually one of us will teach for a day on several topics for several hours. And this gets very exhausting especially because preparing for a lecture without many resources can take forever. But aside from teaching I am trying to help the students learn computers. We have about 8 computers at the school that were donated, most of which work pretty well for word processing and simple tasks. Most of the students have never worked on computers so I do really simple classes on Microsoft Word, and am trying to help them learn how to prepare Power Point presentations for when they do projects. Aside from the school I spend my time volunteering at the clinic and either screening babies for their vaccinations, helping with the distribution of medications, or helping with record keeping and updating. Most days I go to the hospital around 8 and leave around 1 or 2. Then I go back to village, we usually eat lunch around 2:30-3:00. Then I usually relax with my family for a little bit and help with things around the village. Most of the “education” I do around village is very informal. But now that I am not so much an outsider, and more just another villager most people come to me for medical advice. I probably bring on average one person a week to the hospital for various reasons….. My main focus with the villagers is teaching wound care and proper use of medications. It is a huge problem here, what happens is the villagers go to the hospital, are handed three or four baggies of unidentified drugs with a I or II…. written on the bag as to instruct them on how many times a day to take the pills. So I would say the majority of the people do not take the drugs correctly, or finish out the course of the meds. I am trying to help bridge the gap between a somewhat structured healthcare system, and completely uneducated villagers. As I said before helping with informal education and just explaining things to people is a lot of what I do and probably what I think is my biggest and most useful job. There are still many local beliefs and traditions that you have to deal with when villagers are sick, this being one of my biggest struggles. Many times a person will go to the hospital but won’t take the medication at all because of the stigma that is associated with western medication. The home remedy for a cut or scrape in village is to rub dirt or mud on the wound to stop the bleeding. A person with seizures is taken to a local healer where they are given a necklace or bracelet to ward off the evil spirits that are thought to be causing the “fits”. Living in the village gives me a chance to get to know people and to just explain the way things are done in America. A lot of people are interested and I try to be as non-offensive as possible. So, when villagers want to get their wound cleaned and dressed they will come to my house and then we have a fun little first aid lesson. It is pretty fun and that really is the stuff I love more then any of the formal work I do. IN the later afternoons and evening I usually work in the garden and or go back to the school for a night class. The electricity at the hospital and school is on from 9-12 and 6-12 so anytime I do want to have computer class it is usually in the evenings when power is on. And then back to home for dinner around 8 or 9. Then I usually read or write a letter and fall asleep sometime before 10…………Pretty exciting life I know……..But I am definitely becoming more of a morning person there is hardly a day I sleep past 630. And the weather has cooled off significantly so going for a bike ride or jogging at least every other day is also something I am really trying harder to do. So those are my weeks. I don’t usually go to the hospital on weekends unless I am just bringing somewhere there to get treated. So I either visit with other volunteers who are close by or relax in village. And that I guess is what I do here……………………

Three….or was it four weeks ago my brother came for a visit to The (wonderful) Gambia. After a grueling 24+ hours of flying and laying over in various places he took four or five different cars, vans, and I think a donkey cart too to come and meet me half way between Dakar and my village. I found him on the side of the road at an Immigration office looking like he might not make it much longer………….and that is how it began. I then put him into yet another car that would take us three more hours up country to where we would take two ferries and eventually another two cars and one more horse cart to my village. No complaints at this time….well not too many anyway…….
For the first twenty-four odd hours he recuperated in my hut. Mainly sleeping and drinking his highly bleached and filtered water. After his rest I took him around the village to meet EVERYONE, and you do have to meet everyone or they will come and meet you. Two day of staring blankly at the villagers faces and he decided to learn a little Mandinka. My host family was very welcoming and possibly liked him more then me, but honestly what family doesn’t  During the time he was in village we were having a soccer tournament between different teams within my village. Since it is the rainy season we usually got drenched during some part of each game, but I think he had fun at least he pretended well. In village we had a good time just hanging out with my host family and laughing at things I forgot were funny. Apparently its not normal to have a conversation with your neighbor while using the whole in the back yard you call a toilet, I had forgotten this………..After about a week of wonderful village food I started to hear a question on a daily basis that being “ When are we going to the ocean?” After I tortured him successfully with rice and fish sauce for breakfast lunch and dinner everyday we decided to buy a chicken for one dinner. To buy a chicken you don’t exactly go to the freezer isle and pick out the best dated fresh chicken. It was more like you go to a market bargain with a guy for his live chickens then tie their legs together carry them around upside down while you finish your shopping take them in your car home then let them run around for a bit before you cut their heads off….pluck their feathers….and well the rest is about the same as any other chicken meal………..put it in the oven at 350degrees right? RIGHT…….I have to give him credit he did a fantastic job of putting up with the monotony of village life and the harassment from the natives. He helped when we had to donkey cart my host-mom to the hospital for Malaria, and went to the peanut fields one day though I am not sure if he did work there or not……hmmm. I took him with to clinic three days and we weighed babies and screened them for immunizations………its more thrilling then it sounds I swear………..and after being vomited, peed, and well you can imagine-d on he was done with that, as was I (I can usually only go to clinic once a week or I loose what is left of my sanity). Our main mode of transportation was my bicycle which thankfully comes with a messenger bag rack on the back where I would site while her would ride the 3K to the hospital, in 100+ weather. Some days we bummed rides, and some days we walked, but everyday we found a way to get around. All in all it was a good time. We spent the last five days relaxing at the beach and touring the capital area. Any by touring I mean eating as much food as we could find I think he still lost about 10pounds…..possibly more but that is another story for another day…………..and ends in another country…………….to be continued

After a few days of emailing everyone I know for books I have decided......
If you have books........mainly Nursing Textbooks, drug ref, Anatomy/Physiology etc......and you want to donate them to a Great cause that
being nursing students in Africa that do not have books and have no way of getting them. Send them to my parents.....oh I forgot to warn them.....they are running a book drive and they don't know it. I am going to have them collect the books at my home in The States, while I work on funding to cover the shipping costs. Somehow we will get books here, oh and if you just have money then I will be hitting you up for that soon when we get this fund going...........thanks for keeping in touch
for their address please email me
africa.sarah@gmail.com

My host family:
I guess I have never really explained who I live with. My compound which is the fenced in area around my house and my host family’s house where I live…..is made up of about 8 people. This is extremely small I would say the typical compound has between twenty and thirty people and some with many many more. My host family is made up of a mother who is in her 40’s and widowed. Her children that live there are 24 year old oldest son who is technically head of the household since his father died. Then there are two sons in their 20’s who live in the capital and work as welders. The next oldest is my 14 year old brother and then 13year old sister and 8year old youngest sister. The oldest boy is married and his wife and their baby who is 8months lives there also. The compound is not to different then a household at home. But many compounds are different. Since polygamy is big here many men have two to four fives and 20-30children. Not kidding this is common. My host family is actually a rarity. The house that the family lives in has three rooms and three double beds. All the girls sleep together. My younger host-brother sleeps on the floor My host-mom has her own bed and so does the oldest son where his wife and the baby sleep sometimes. His wife actually just started living with them about 3 months ago. After you get married it is not typical for the wife to move in right away. And years after you are married you will have a wedding. They have been married for two years now and have a baby but still have not had the ceremonial wedding. (hopefully while I am here though cause it means good food)…….Behind their house is a cooking hut which is a smaller version of mine and is where they keep the firing burning and do all the cooking. They also have some rabbits in the back yard that they are trying to bread and sometimes they eat them though I haven’t had any yet…..The family owns two donkeys, four goats, and a couple sheep. Some chicken and ducks roam around too but I am not sure whose those really are. And that is my compound. For work my host-mother sells smoked fish and onions at the market on Tuesday and Saturday. My brothers farm peanuts and coos. And my host-brother’s wife does all the around the house stuff….which is a lot since she does everyone’s laundry by hand, prepares meals for all of us, works in the garden, fetches water, and takes care of the baby….she hardly sits down. No one in the family goes to school and though I am working with the kids to get them to read…..pushing for education is a very difficult thing. Many children will go to Qu’ranic school but will learn not much more then religious studies. My village is only 2K from the basic schools but there is a very poor attendance rate. Children are needed around the house for chores, and now that it is farming season many of the children work in the fields. I would like to try and change this but it is very hard to walk the line between developments and still be culturally sensitive. OK hope that paints the picture a little better………..

Though I love it here I am missing home everyday.......Of course the grass is always greener.....though the grass is REALLY green here with all the rain, home seems like such a nice though right now.

AND right when I didnt think I could go another day without a familar face my brother calls to tell me he is coming best news I have had in hmmmmm6 and a half months:) So many more pictures to come the internet just cannot handle uploading pictures so I am going to send my memory card home with my brother and leave it to my parents to upload some more pics here......Sorry I have been lazy in that department but my patience cannot handle the dial-up speed that is the internet here :)

miss everyone ....till later

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My mom asked some things in her last letter so let me answer them here so everyone can enjoy :)
What thrills you the most about your life right now?
**Honestly I like having a job where I know if I don't do it no one else will. Kind of scary but defiantly rewarding........
What things do you do in your spare time?
**Hmmmm well meeting up with other volunteers is probably my favorite things, it is hard to label "free time" though because it is all free. I never really HAVE to be anywhere. There are no sick days, well there are definitely days when I am sick.....but you know what I mean. Everything is work, and work is my free time. So I guess the only time I am not doing work is when I am hanging out with other volunteers....though we are mostly talking about work, and projects, and ideas......so that is kind of work too.......The other day after I walked a 6year old to the hospital to get Dwormed cause her mother had traveled and her dad well he just wasn't going to take her--I took a fairy to cross the river (this takes anywhere from 10 minute to 1 hour) to dress a ladies infected foot ulcer. When I was riding my bike home during a wonderfully refreshing rainfall I said out loud "I think I will get an office job when I get home"
What is your favorite new food?
** I am embarrassed to say that my favorite local food is Benechin ( rice on oil) it is really good.....and really good for you, especially with extra MSG
makes it spicy and I have always likes spicy food....But a close second is a spinach style sauce they make out of leaves from Casaba plant and that goes on rice....it is good and a little better for me
We eat rice meals everyday. What happens is we eat a big late lunch around 2pm, then eat the left-overs for dinner around 9pm and in the morning they heat up whatever is left over.....I have actually grown to really like this part cause some of the rice gets burned and it is crunchy what a treat!!!!
What is the most difficult thing you are facing?
**Definitely learning the language. And if it isn’t hard enough to learn....there are three main languages with several other variations and smaller indigenous languages. So I am constantly struggling to communicate....it s getting better and I am now getting tutored by a nurse from the hospital so hopefully soon. There is definitely a part of every day when I wish I could say something..........and I just can't
What do you enjoy doing with your family?
**Mostly we just try and talk. I made my 15year old brother a book so he can learn to read. It is hopefully going to teach him English and how to read at the same time.....so we have reading time everyday. My little sister and me (she is 7) usually hide out in my house at night especially now that it is raining a bunch and we color. It might be more fun for me then it is for her I haven’t decided yet........Those are the two I see the most.

The day I lost it................So after preparing a nice powerpoint presentation on Diabetes I got to the nursing school to find out that they didn't have power....and this is a common problem but I am trying to get them to use power point more now since they have the set up just really don't know much about the program..................anyway they power never came as is doesn't and so I stood in front of 50 people and talked about diabetes for an hour, not really effective especially because of my accent and language skills...............but hey i tried. I then had to cross the river and meet some friends in a neighboring village but as I was rising my bike up to the fairy it left, and though it was only inches from the shore they refused to turn back. Yea there is no bridge just a fairy and one that only crossed every hour or so.....So I waited in the HEAT of the day, and finally crossed. Only to face the same problem on the way back and then get thrown into a paddle boat that I was sure would sink before it ever crossed the river.........only to then get stuck in a rainstorm on my bikeride home. And as I biked into my compound with tears mixed with raindrops I really thought yep I am loosing it. When my 15yearold host sister said she had to go to the pump so I decided hey I am wet I will go with you. And as we are filling up out buckets of water the torrential down-poor began. And since my 15 year old sis cannot speak a word of English we don't get to talk a lot, but we do laugh a lot. And we laughed A LOT it was the only thing that stopped my horrible day:) & it was the most fun I have had in a long time. We just played in the rain and tried to fetch our water and spilled everywhere and yea I cannot really explain why it was fun but it was....................
Work is going good have been pretty busy the last weeks as school is closing for a month in August. Finished up with some lectures on Diabetes and Heart Attack......and a little on IT ( yes what i know is a lot for here though I can barely run a computer).
The rain is here and I got a free rain shower the other night it was the cleanest I have felt in a long time.
And now that the rain has come my garden is starting to rock. There are about 60 Moringa trees onions,cucumber, tomatoes and carrots hopefully going to see watermelon soon and eggplant :) Life in the village has become much easier. After I returned from Kombo I felt much more at home there and though I had a nice 5day run of dysentery......things are going pretty good. The rain is awesome I have started to look forward to the days when it is overcast and rainy....and the sun makes me sad......looks like i might have to live in Portland again someday:)
I always have a million things to say and then I finally get time to sit down at the computer and my mind goes blank. Thanks everyone for the packages and letters I feel very loved. The time is flying It has been 6 months already I have no idea how....I still feel like the newbee and already there is a new group here finishing up their training. Sooo strange.
Will try and write more soon keep intouch.......
also check out the Bansang hospital online if you google it and THE Gambia you should find it.
Also check out The POINT and The Observer they are the Gambia's newspapers and they are online lots of interesting stuff going on...............

How to make Brownies in The Gambia
First take a trip to Kombo....this is an 11hour gellygelly ride....three boat rides and a huge headache. Then go to the “grocery store” and search the isles for some sort of box mix that only requires ingredients you can actually find here.......Then put the mix in your box of outgoing mail and wait one month for it to be delivered to you by Peace Corps. (this is how you get any groceries up country). When the mail is delivered you have to find someone with an oven......after much searching you realize you have found an stove but there is no gas.....So you try to get a ride to a place with gas....this is only 30K away but in The Gambia that is a lifetime. So you wait and try to get a free ride and when you think it is never going to happen and you are riding home in the rain one day the Customs Officers flag you down to ask you to go to their football game.....Of course you go it is raining and what could be more fun.....conveniently your friend with the gas tank is in that town. So you take a ride in a pick up truck that is questionable with the guys from customs (who are good upstanding citizens) and it is poring rain but you are thinking......it is going to b worth it!!!! After a 90minute football game....in the rain....you politely ask if you can go and pick up a gas tank from your friend's...No problem.....So now (after a long long car ride home with many many stops including the local prison where I ate dinner you have gas)......But you are missing the connector. OK time to find the missing piece. After two hours of wondering around town asking everyone and their brother (literally) for the right piece you give up. Back to the hospital where you ask every staff member if they have gas and finally you find it. The missing piece there it is but it is stuck. And no one has tools. So across the street you find some construction workers and they come one by one to try and get the connector off. YES FINALLY you get the piece but only to go back and realize that the oven is broken.....after many many attempts. So you make a dutch oven using random borrowed pans and two empty cans you take out of the neighbour's garbage. And one hour later you have brownies.......So worth it..........