Friday, January 1, 2010

Merry Christmas and Marathon March (written December 25)

Merry Christmas (and Happy Channukah) everyone! This is my first Christmas away from home and it feels a bit unreal. Honestly, it just doesn't feel remotely like Christmas (especially because it's hot and sunny), but it's probably for the best - I think we all would be a lot more homesick if it did feel like Christmas. Please know that my thoughts are with you all today, especially my family. I love and miss you.

Marathon March
Peace Corps in the Gambia has a tradition of sending trainees on a 26k hike at the end of training. We set out early Wednesday morning with only a vague idea of what was in store for us. Long story short, what should have been a 26k hike involving crossing rivers, waist-deep mud, and quicksand turned out to be more like 40k, over half of which was spent wandering through tall grasses (well over our heads) trying to find the river. We're all a little worse for the wear today, with sore legs and various maladies ranging from sunburns to blisters to heat rashes, but we all go back safely with some good stories to tell. Here are a few pictures from it:


Group picture before the hike


Not a great picture, but evidence we saw baboons!


We saw a LOT of this


Picture taken from what is supposedly the highest point in The Gambia






Dirty and tired, but glad to have made it back


Seriously dirty

Also, I forgot to mention that before we left our training village, we found an awesome silk cotton tree and I also got my hair braided. I left the braids in until after the marathon march, almost a week. Here are some pictures:


















3 comments:

Unknown said...

You should have left the braids in, just like the locals who did your hair!

Unknown said...

P.S. You finally did your full marathon. Wow- impressive trek!

Sarah said...

Don't worry, it's rebraided now :-)