Alright, settle in everyone, you're going to be here for a while :)
Its been about a week or so since my last update, and
a lot has happened! First off: your questions and comments.
I'm writing this the night of John and Tara's wedding. I was talking with Mom this morning and she said that its cold, raining, thunder and lightening etc. Doesn't sound like great weather, but nonetheless I do wish I could be there for it! I'm so looking forward to seeing pictures (If I can remember my family Net login...hmm...) of the wedding, of everyone running in from the rain etc. hehe.
I think its so cool that Sam is almost here! I'll never forget that a few months ago, Mom knew from Erika, that Monica was pregnant, I new from Monica, and neither of us knew that the other knew! Megan, once the news finally broke, felt completely out of the loop. Again, looking forward to pictures.
The food I am buying I get from a 'Vegetable Stand', just on the side of the road new where the computer classes are. I get the canned baked beanz, chocolate, bottled water, butter etc. from a Supermarket. I have been trying to organize with one of the local Baha'is to go into the market to get meat, but things keep coming up that prevent us from going.
The computer classes started on Monday, and they're going really well. I LOVE teaching, and I'm constantly running around, writing things on the board, waving my arms etc. By the time the last class is finished I'm completely exhauseted, but I love it. Its great too that the students all want to be there, they are trying as hard as they can to learn as much as possible, so for the most part its really easy. I started on the first day just covering the basics of Excel, what a column, row and cell are etc. By the end of the class we had talked about Keyboard Shortcuts, 4 ways to 'copy', 3 ways to 'save', colouring cells, colouring font, and more! I have two sheets of looseleaf filled with a copy of the notes I put on the board, just from the first day! I went over way, way more than I had expected to, and they are actually taking it in too. On the second day of classes I had an assignment for them to work on, which went over all the stuff from the first day. It was pretty basic, but I gave them lots of time, and with a couple of questions and pointers, everyone eventually got it all. Already, I've schedualed a test about the same material for this coming Thursday/Friday's classes.
I have fixed the bicycle, or rather I told the person who was supposed to have had it fixed that it still wasn't working, and he right away told a couple of the younger kids to go and get it fixed. There is a real pecking order here, the older tell the younger to do something, and sometimes keeps working its way down until someone who is barely old enough to talk ends up going to the store to buy bread (for example). It can be really funny sometimes. Anyway, the bicycle is wonderful. Instead of an hour and a half to walk to where the classes are, I can get there in about 1/2 an hour, and I'm not nearly as tired. It is faster, even, than taking taxis, because I don't have to wait to catch one in two places. I have to be really, really careful though. As I've said to Mom and Dad, the drivers here are completely out of their minds, and will do things that I had never thought possible (or even considered at all) on the roads. I try, as much as I can, to actually stay ahead of the traffic, to where it has come to a stop, that way I don't have to worry about moving traffic. It has really freed me. I no longer have to allow 2 hours to get somwhere, I can leave at a reasonable time.
I have been cooking all my own food now. I use 'Baked Beanz' (Nothing like what we have in NS, these are 'superbeans' in tomato sauce) a lot, as a meal, or as part of a meal. I've discovered that I absolutely love cooking, I can't wait to get home at the end of the day to start! I have been totally improvising my meals, frying vegetables and mixing different things, throwing things together and seeing what happens. I figure, either I'll have wasted a couple of things and learned something not to do, or I will discover something tasty. Up until now, I have yet to be dissapointed with my concoctions.
I have a few new pictures. The first one is the cock-roach I found on my bedroom wall. The body of the behemoth measures between 3 and 4 inches, and the antennae, or antlers as I like to refer to them, are another 6 inches. They fly (This one around my kitchen), but apparently, aside from scaring the hell out of tourists, are completely harmless.
The next few pictures are of Sylvester playing tug-of-war with the kids in the children's class last sunday. I would consider Sylvester to be my closest friend here in The Gambia. For tug-of-war here, they don't use a rope, they each hug the person in front of them, and then they all pull back. This is cool, because it means that each team is only as strong as its weakest link.
The next two pictures are of a bright red bug, that apparently only comes out after there has been rain. It had rained (a little bit, they say) the night before I took the pictures. As usual the rain woke me up, but the thunder and lightening kept me awake for a while. Eventually I decided I was too tired to bother staying up worrying, so I turned over and went back to sleep.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a basketball to use at the basketball court in my compound. It has really allowed me to interact a bit more with the youth and kids in the area, even though they don't (mostly) speak english. Because we all understand the game and know what is going on, we can share a laugh when something strange (haha) happens, and its really nice. The next pictures are of Sylvester and others playing basketball.
Lastly there is a picture of the local dog, he seemed very content on the pile of leaves. Generally I try to keep my distance, although he seems friendly I don't want to take any risks of being bitten etc. There is also a picture of the 'screensaver' on my rather aged cell phone. It had a limited selection of pictures, but as soon as I saw this one I liked it. At the time I came across it I was really homesick, and somehow choosing a dude zipping away on an airplane made me feel better. The pictures follow.
