Where have you been?



Me with neighbors Baa Mulie Janneh and Bunja Gitteh in Jappineh on Koriteh 2012

If you read that title out loud and I hope you're the kind of weirdo that randomly reads things you look at on the Internet out loud then I'll tell you...The Gambia, West Africa! You wouldn't know it since I've been here for 8 months and haven't updated once but trust me, I'm here and I'm still eating a lot of rice. So depending on how well you know me you either thinking 1) Oh that's nice, she's gonna update us on events 2) What?! You went back? 3) I thought you've just been lost in the bush for the last three years 4) Who are you? How do you have my e-mail address/Why are you on my FB feed? If you are a #3 or #4 then you should probably know that I'm here with the Peace Corps and I started my service in 2009 but needed to leave after a year and a half due to an assault (on a 1-10 scale, 1 being something to shrug off, 10 being dead, I'm going to go with a 6.5) Upshot: Guy came into my village house in the middle of the night with impure intentions and a knife, there was a struggle and I ended up in America for a year and a half having surgery after surgery to repair a cut tendon in my hand. I now have a small finger that is stuck in a downward position and a pretty dramatic story so you know...another thread in the tapestry of life.

So anyway here I am continuing to follow my bliss but honestly it wasn't that blissful which is why I haven't been writing. I'm glad I returned. I wanted to come back for several reasons and all of those reasons have been satisfied. My host family and community felt terrible that this happened so it was important for me to show them that I'm fine and everything is okay. I also wanted to come back for me, closure, getting back on the horse, that kind of thing. All of that stuff came to pass and I'm glad for it but while my first stint here was a total honeymoon my return has been sort of a grind. So why am I writing now? It's the New Year people! Thankfully my head finally aligned with my heart and am enjoying my service and being here again. It's probably because I know I'll be finishing this year and time is becoming more valuable. I end my service at the closing of the school year so in July it will be on to a new chapter and I know I'll miss my village a lot. I'm so glad that I can really enjoy the time I have left without a lot of tedium dragging me down.

 

So what am I doing here? Well a bunch of things actually. Here's the run down:

Sewing dolls! While I was back in America I was giving a lot of thought as to what I could do when I came back to Africa to really help the kids in my village in a tangible way. I designed a handmade doll, sewed up a bunch, made the materials such as patterns and instructions so that they could be replicated, then bought books for the school library with money that I earned when I sold that first batch of dolls. (Thanks LANI ladies, the books I got due to your support are in hot demand!)

  

These are the traditional clothes of West Africa. It's how most girls and women dress most of the time and definitely how they dress on holidays. The dolls are completely hand sewn and take three to four days to make.

The Jappineh Doll Studio artists hard at work! I started this project as a girls only endeavor but that boy on the end was not going to be denied an opportunity to learn something and earn some money so I made an exception. I've now got 20 kids sewing!

We are selling the dolls to Peace Corps volunteers, tourists to the city on the coast and to people in England who are involved in Gambian development work. I would love to be able to get them into an American market but at this point shipping is the issue and it wouldn't be financially feasible. We sell the dolls for $20. $8 goes to the person who sewed the doll (that is a lot in rural Africa), $8 to a library fund and $4 are used for supplies.

These are the most popular books we've bought for the library so far:

The 'Aya' books. These are a series of 3 graphic novels centering on the lives of a group of girls living in Côte d'Ivoire (The Ivory Coast), a West African country that is very similar to The Gambia culturally. The girls are smart, funny, full of opinions and misadventures. The books are really wonderful and the teachers as well as the students are waiting in line for their turn to read them. Reading for pleasure is a novel concept here so the delight that people take in these books is really exciting!

We love Hilda the hen! This one of several books beautifully written by Jill Tomlinson from an animal's pov. I was surprised that this was such a winner with the kids since they don't have the same relationship with animals that western kids do. They were clamoring to read a new chapter every night, which is rare. I usually try to stick with books that can be read in a single evening since their attention spans tend to dwindle with chapter books. Not with these, we've read this one and the one about the penguin with great enthusiasm which is fantastic because like I said, longer pieces of text are a challenge. We'd love to read the rest!

A few people have asked if they can send us anything. Books please! Here's our Amazon wish list:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/L9A8RNFXEBAU/ref=topnav_lists_1

The site only allows me to add new books but almost everything we selected is available used.

Things don't stay crisp for very long in this environment so gently used is a great option.

 Books will be delivered to my home in California and then forwarded to us by my family. Thank you!

Next up: We';re planting Moringa trees and that's going to prevent a whole bunch of kids from being malnourished if things go as planned. I'll be back in a month to tell you all about that. The connection here is sloooooow so this is all I can manage tonight. Thanks for reading, be well!

 -Tanya