Kate from The Gambia, West Africa
...off. The hope is that little critters will walk along the fence, trying to find a way around it, and fall into the buckets. After find nothing in the buckets (usually don’t during the dry season), we started putting together the quarterly newsletter. The newsletter is sent out to all of the MWT’s members, I think about 100 members, across the world (UK, Gambia, US, Canada), as well as biodiversity conservation type organizations within Gambia (national parks, eco-tourist places, etc) The NGO (non-governmental organization) is officially a Gambia NGO, but it is run by two Brits. The husband and wife are the ones who wrote the Bradt travel book on the Gambia, Craig Emms and Linda Barnett. They are pretty nice and so are the staff. Some thoughts about dividing my time between the Dept of Wildlife and MWT…..(Hans has helped me a bit with this, thanks for sharing your thoughts bro!)…………… The Dept of Wildlife (DW) is run by the gov't, thus by Gambians. Their approach to work is similar to their culture--they'll get to it when they want or when they feel like it. Gambians are hard workers (physical work), but are a bit relaxed, compared to the western approach to work. They just aren't used to the structure and organization introduced by colonization. MWT, although all of the employees are Gambian, is a bit different b/c the NGO is run by an English couple. They show up for work on time and actually DO work instead of sitting around. If there isn't work to do they try and find something to do. It puts me in a difficult position b/c I'm drawn towards MWT, only b/c that approach to work is what I know, what I'm familiar with. Hans suggested that maybe the DW would be better to work with b/c I'd be working with the true culture. He's right, but since that conversation about a week ago I've had some time to think. Gambia, and many parts of Africa, as I see it, are a bit confused b/c of the outside influence from the white man (colonization). Colonization brought a new way of life and instead of slowly transitioning to that, the native people had to skip a significant chunk of time to adapt to technology, industrialization, westernization etc rather quickly. Native Africans did not have time to slowly adapt and mold the new structure that fit their way of life more appropriately. Over time, however, I'm coming to terms with the fact that Africa is going to be like any other developed country. Medicine, health care, technology, machines, etc, it's here already. I can't stop it--which I think is the opposite of what I used to think. Now, I must help the organizations I am to work for the best way I can--sharing my knowledge that I've gained through work and school and life as an American. They are hungry for it and since they are already going in that direction why not help them along the way? Do not think that I am completely against westernization. I am not b/c many amazing things have been developed as a result, but I don't like the way it is pushed onto the people here. They do not have much of a choice with how they transition into this world because certain companies from other countries are so powerful and influential they don't have a choice. Now for some of you who know me really well, hold on to your seat for this next cluster of thoughts. I'm not too sure where I'm going with them, but it will come together at the end…….. I am still in support of using both natural and synthetic medicines. BUT, my views have changed a bit. I now realize how lucky I've been, living where I do in the states, to be able to have the position to choose what kind of medicine to take (same thing goes with eating meat and fish). People here are just trying to survive. I know many people all over the world are trying to survive also and don't have a choice of where they shop or what kind of medicine they use, but now I'm living it. I see it all around me. I see the struggle to live from day to day (not so much in my compound, but I saw it during training in Bombako and when I visit other compounds and other PCVs). It's all around me, the desire and struggle to feed and clothe the family. Pretty extreme conditions for me to have to truly see this, isn't it? I had to travel half way around the world and live for a while for me to be able to really understand what I mean when I say that I'm lucky enough to have the option of choosing how I live my life. Some people have asked me why I need to come to Africa to do the work that I need to. I always had an idea in the back of my mind why I needed to come here but I couldn't explain it to others. Now maybe I can. Like I said above, I am able to share my knowledge with people who are thirsty, almost parched, to learn as much as they can about the world. The education here is pretty poor and doesn't even come close in comparison to the education I had in the US. SO, I'm here to share my education and work experience with others, to exchange cultures and to help in anyway that I can (helping my little sister with her English homework, having a conversation with my host brother about The Alchemist and some of the complex, intangible concepts mentioned in the story, etc). ------------- It's now a few hours later than when I was writing the above. I got asked to help go into Banjul to collect all of the mail for the volunteers. We had 46 packages to load into the car and a bunch of small envelopes. It's so exciting to receive mail! Anyway, I lost my train of thought b/c of that break, so I'm going to move on to something else...... My Mandinka is coming along slowly, slowly. I'm trying not to get frustrated, but it's hard to try and concentrate on so many things at once--language, culture, how to fit in as much as possible even though I'm a white person, ...