Pictures from my parents' visit and our trip to Tanzania

As promised, my parents just posted their pics from their visit and our trip to Tanzania. I take absolutely no credit...my dad is a much better photographer than me, so I took the lazy route and just let him handle all the picture taking this time. Just click on the links below, and when the pictures come up hit "Slideshow" on the upper left corner of the screen to begin viewing the pictures. Enjoy!

https://picasaweb.google.com/ann.gardiner3/Tanzania11?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_U3eP746-MuQE#

https://picasaweb.google.com/ann.gardiner3/GambiaAndSenegal11?authkey=Gv1sRgCLbLhq2B-LffIg#

A poignant moment (written March 19)

This evening I was sitting on a mat outside outside our house reading a magazine like I often do, when our host sister Aja came and sat down next to me to look at the magazine pictures. This is a common activity for us here...magazine pictures are a great way to start conversations and teach people about the world beyond beyond The Gambia. This particular time, Aja happened to notice a picture of people protesting plans to build Park 51 at Ground Zero in NYC. As Aja starting asking me questions about what all the people were doing and what their picket signs said, I have to admit I felt myself flush with shame. How could I tell this 11 year-old Muslim girl who doesn't know what a terrorist is, much less 9/11, that these nice rich Americans were angry because American Muslims wanted to build a mosque, a peaceful and holy symbol that is at the very core of the only life she has ever known?

In the end, I told her that people had gathered in NYC and were protesting because they were unhappy, but I could not bring myself to tell her about what. Sympathetic to my sometimes less-than-stellar Mandinka, she assumed my hesitation was due to my language skills, and stated as much. I didn't correct her. Not a proud moment.

Peace Corps Descend on Kombo!

Last week we had a whole slew of Peace Corps activities in Kombo (the urban area around the capital for those of you who don’t know), including an all-volunteer Conference, more meetings than I can count, a swear-in ceremony and party for the latest group of trainees (it's hard to believe it's been a year since it was us standing up there!), a couples dinner at our country director’s house, an open mic nite, and much much more. While I couldn’t capture all of this on camera, I did get some pictures. Enjoy!


Matt, Rachelle and Rachelle’s friend Lani (sp?) who was visiting, out to dinner at a deeelicious indian restuarant for Rachelle’s birthday

Me with the birthday girl

The whole table

Sunny, Casey and Lucia at swear-in. Lucia’s hat was amaaazing!

Gibril, the Peace Corps health program manager, and the lovely Haddy, a Peace Corps language and culture trainer, the staff advisor for the gender and development committee, and an awesome person.

Our new Ambassador, Pamela White

Cornish, our country director

Scott, one of the newbies, giving the swear-in speech in Pulaar. Bravo!

All the newbies in their asobis (matching outfits), now official PCVs

Trainers in the training asobi (we were in Tanzania when they bought the fabric, so we didn’t get them even though we helped with training, but we’ll live)

Adam, Ida and Haddy, three of my favorite language and culture trainers, with Katie, the PCV leader for our sector

Kim making peanut noodles for the swear-in dinner in a Tupperware and mixing it with her hands. And no, no one saw any problem with this. That’s how we roll around here.

Wells manning the burger and kebab table at the swear-in dinner

Danielle manning (womanning?) the indian and thai food table

Couples dinner at Cornish’s house (the blue checked fabric was the western region asobi for all-vol). Huge thanks to Luke for making an amazing thai meal despite a busted-up knee!

A naming ceremony in our compound (written March 5)

I think I’ve mentioned that naming ceremonies (kulios) are a pretty big deal here. A kulio is basically like a Muslim christening or bris/t, followed by a huge party, often with most of the village in attendance. They are supposed to be soon after the baby is born, but they are expensive affairs, so sometimes they are delayed until the family can pull together enough money (in that case, the baby is given a unofficial name for the interim). If the family can’t afford a kulio, there are also smaller versions of naming ceremonies they can do instead, but if at all possible, the family will try to do a kulio. This particular baby was our host aunt and uncle’s first child first son and the compound had been actively planning for the kulio for at least a month.

While there is a brief element of praying for the baby’s future and officially giving the baby its name, like pretty much every other community event, the main focus of a kulio is on exchanging money and gifts, wearing fancy clothes and matching outfits, eating a lot of good food, and dancing. Here are some pictures from the kulio:

The rainbow of women greeting the new mother, Jeneba


Jeneba in her finest, surrounded by family and friends


Jeneba with her escorts, Alima and Fatoumata


Umie with Muddy Jamfata (literally Tall Muddy)


Hawa with Muddy, who, of course, was completely oblivious to the fact that he was the reason for all this fuss!


Me and Jacob in our asobis


Me and Jacob with Lucy and Ellie, two VSO volunteers (the British equivalent of Peace Corps) living nearby who came for the kulio


They had hired a camera guy for the kulio and he brought a flood light, so I was able to get some really cool pictures of the women dancing


More dancing


And more


Me with Sonka and Umie


Me with Ramo and Ida


Me, Fatou, and some other girl I don’t know


Jonyi with her friend whose name I can never remember