A reason for optimism

As some of you may know, but most of you probably don't, I co-edit Peace Corps/The Gambia's internal bimonthly Gender and Development newsletter. The newsletter includes articles on a wide range of topics relating to gender and development, most of which are written by volunteers, but occasionally we have contributions by Peace Corps staff members as well. I'm currently working on preparing our June issue, which has an education focus.

Julia, one of our friends living up in URR (far east of the country) had the excellent idea to interview Ida, one of Peace Corps/The Gambia's long-time language and culture facilitator, who also happens to be a former teacher (see pic below). Julia asked Ida to share her insights on the state of girls' education in The Gambia, and I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by her responses. It's easy to get down and jaded looking at things in the short-term here, but it's important to remember that the kind of change we are looking to effect in the country is a long, slow process. Just because we can't see the progress during the two years we are here doesn't mean it isn't happening. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

"In my generation, people thought if they sent their daughters to school, they would have sex outside of marriage or become prostitutes. They worried that their daughters would not be able to do the compound work and would be less desirable to husbands if they were not able to take care of the family. Now all that is changing. When men are looking for a wife, they are choosing more education women. This means families are deciding to educate their daughters so they will find a good husband. Additionally, with more female teachers as examples of good Muslim women who take care of their husbands, people can see that girls can be educated with a good job and also be a good wife. Men who are educated and go on to work outside the compound use what they make to support their own compound. However, when women are making money outside the compound, they share it with their parents, since they are provided for by their husbands. Seeing this encourages families to support their daughters' educations so they will have more financial help in the future. Also, compounds where both the husband and wife have jobs have more financial security.

When I was in school (working in a Serehule community), only 10% of the students were female, so I tried to encourage people to send their daughters by using myself as an example. I'm a Serehule. I'm married. Being a teacher won't stop girls from being the women their parents want them to be. If you educate your daughters, then they will be teachers, nurses, and health workers in your community. Girls are doing wonderful things for their families."

"Jahanka and Serehule villages that didn't have western schools before now have lower basic, upper basic, and senior secondary schools in many communities. Also, you are seeing more Jahankas and Serehules in higher government positions because they're better educated now and able to get those positions. Also, there are fewer early marriages now. Men and women are choosing their own husband or wife now, or if it is arranged, it is at least with someone they love."

Economics (written May 20)

As some of you know, a few months ago, I got this crazy idea to attempt to take intro economics courses through an online distance learning program while living in a rural village in Africa. What could possibly go wrong, right? So why would I subject myself to this logistical nightmare, you might ask. There are several reasons, but the primary one is that I had never taken an Econ class in my life before this (I'd always assumed I would hate the subject), and unfortunately, intro econ classes are prerequisites for a couple of the graduate programs I plan to apply to in the fall. Well...that and it's something I should have done a long time ago for my personal education.

Much to my surprise, I'm finding most of the material relatively interesting and extremely relevant, given the huge economic and financial challenges facing the world today. While the courses certainly have made my life more complicated (and, sadly, drastically reduced my time available to read anything else), I'm very glad I'm doing it.

On a related note, Jacob and I recently started helping a small group of Senior Secondary (High School) students prepare for their end-of-term exams in July. We've been meeting for a couple hours most nights at the village Skill Center, which has solar-powered lights, a table, real chairs, and even a blackboard. It's a huge improvement over the typical study environment of sitting on a mat on the ground in a noisy compound, attempting to study by the light of a candle or an awkwardly-held flashlight. So far we have focused mainly on math, economics, accounting, and English. While these kids are eager to learn and trying hard, it's frustrating that they are expected to do things like graph quadratic equations when their grasp of basic concepts like negative numbers, exponents, fractions, order of operations, and even graphing itself, is shakey at best. Once we get past our frustrations with the education system, however, this study group really is a great opportunity for us to make a difference in these kids' lives. Unlike working with the younger (illiterate, non-English-speaking) kids, which we have tried and found that it requires significantly more patience than either of us possess, working with these high schoolers is extremely rewarding.

Last night, I had a particularly cool experience with the study group. They showed up with an econ homework assignment: Illustrate and explain a situation where output increases and a) revenue decreases; and b) revenue increases. This quite literally could have been one of my Intro to Micro assignments, so I got to stand up and teach Gambian teenagers in a rural village exactly what I had been learning in my online class from an American university. Pretty cool, huh?

What we miss most about home

We’ve been here for a year and a half now, and people often ask us what we miss most about the US. It’s not an easy question. Among other reasons, it’s hard to pick just one or two things and our answers heavily depend on our mood at the time. So, being my type-A list-making self, I decided to make a list :-) Not surprisingly, despite the significant dent in our food cravings made by care package items (thank you SO much everyone - you know who you are!), food started taking over the list, so I decided the only solution was to make a separate food list. I limited each list to ten items and the lists are in no particular order (except for #1 on the first list, of course). See below:

Non-food
1. Family and friends (in addition to the obvious, a big difference is that in the US, even people we didn’t get to see much were just an easy phone call or email or gchat away)
2. Swimming (me only)
3. Cycling
4. Privacy
5. Blending in/anonymousness/the freedom to be left alone (see post from a few months ago)
6. Efficiency/things that work well and the way they should
7. Routines
8. Reliable electricity and internet
9. Not being dirty and sweaty all the time
10. Being able to act like a couple and do couple-y things without being culturally inappropriate and/or harassed

Food
1. Tasty beer
2. Cheese (especially feta and goat cheese)
(sidenote - apparently I’ve got more Wisconsite left in me than I realized!)
3. Bagels (I literally dream about bagels on a regular basis)
4. Breakfast cereal with cold skim milk
5. Salads (aside from the occasional lettuce, people rarely eat raw vegetables here – see crunchy things)
6. Starbucks (both the coffee and the coffeeshop atmosphere)
7. Fish or meat that isn't smoked, dried and/or consists almost exclusively of bone, gristle, and fat
8. Almost anything you need an oven to make
9. Crunchy things (almost all food here is mushy, partially because people’s teeth are so bad by the time they are middle-aged, they can’t eat much else)
10. Being able to relatively easily make or go out for pretty much any type of cuisine you might be in the mood for

Happy Mother's Day!

While Mother’s Day is not observed here, we wanted to take a moment to say happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers, mothers-in law, grandmothers, aunts, surrogate mothers, and all the other women in our lives who have stepped in and mothered us when we needed it. You are all amazingly strong, inspirational and compassionate women and we wouldn’t be where we are today without you. THANK YOU!!!