Once every month or two, Peace Corps sends out a mail truck to deliver mail, packages, newsletters, reading material, project supplies, etc to all the volunteers in the country. After a year and a half on the waiting list, June was finally our turn!
We started in Kombo (the urban area south of Banjul where the Peace Corps Office is located), crossed the river at the Barra ferry crossing, drove east on the north bank road to Janjanbureh, crossed the river again there, took the south bank road east all the way to Fatoto, then worked our way all the way back west to Kombo on the south bank road. All in all, it took six days. Despite having our hands more than full with mail, I did my best to photo-document the trek to give everyone at home an idea of what life is like for Peace Corps Volunteers here.
Check out my pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/sgardiner84/PeaceCorpsTheGambiaMailRunJune2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMj_-pSD06CITg&feat=directlink
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Women's empowerment through the eyes of a Gambian man
During my time at CARE, I was constantly hearing about how income-generating activities empower women. While I accepted it in concept, I never really understood why or how that is the case, and to be honest, I'm not sure I ever 100% bought that a woman bringing in money could have a significant impact on the power dynamics in male-female relationships in male-dominated cultures. However, yesterday I had a fascinating conversation with one of my favorite Peace Corps drivers (a jovial middle-aged Gambian man who most likely dropped out of school before high school and probably has never even heard the term "women's empowerment") that finally convinced me beyond the shadow of a doubt.
The driver was talking about how he had put his niece through school (it's very common for anyone with a regular salary to be expected to support their entire extended family with things like paying school fees, buying bags of rice, etc), and now that she had finished Grade 12, he was using his personal connections to get her a job at a government agency. Why, I asked? To keep her from getting pregnant before she got married. Certainly not the answer I was expecting. So how does that work? He matter-of-factly explained that a young woman with a good job achieves a level of respect from men that a young woman without a good job could never hope for. This gives her significantly more control over her sexual and reproductive destiny than she would have otherwise, preventing unwanted pregnancies.
The lessons you learn in the most unexpected places here...
The driver was talking about how he had put his niece through school (it's very common for anyone with a regular salary to be expected to support their entire extended family with things like paying school fees, buying bags of rice, etc), and now that she had finished Grade 12, he was using his personal connections to get her a job at a government agency. Why, I asked? To keep her from getting pregnant before she got married. Certainly not the answer I was expecting. So how does that work? He matter-of-factly explained that a young woman with a good job achieves a level of respect from men that a young woman without a good job could never hope for. This gives her significantly more control over her sexual and reproductive destiny than she would have otherwise, preventing unwanted pregnancies.
The lessons you learn in the most unexpected places here...
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Pictures from May and June
Could she be any more adorable?!?
Rhinoceros mango!
Lamin is confused as to how this mango came to be
Rhinoceros mango!
Lamin is confused as to how this mango came to be
I rode out to visit Meghan at her site and we went on a quest to find the river.
We sort of found it...
Semi-legit bridge
We sort of found it...
Semi-legit bridge
This is what I look like after eating a mango too. No, seriously.
Meghan making onion badjies for my un-birthday (I had food poisoning on my actual birthday, so we rescheduled it)
Onion badjis w/ dipping sauce. Yum!
Lighting got messed up, but you can still see the mango pies we made and the surprise cake Ida made for me
Again, not the best picture, but evidence that I even had candles on my cake!
Last weekend we helped out at a youth leadership workshop at the nearby Scout Center. Jacob and I led a session on leadership together and Jacob did a second one on global warming.
Group work
Fatou tracked down sour milk and made chakari (a tasty yogurt-like drink made with sour milk, sugar, coconut and millet or rice) for my un-birthday
Meghan making onion badjies for my un-birthday (I had food poisoning on my actual birthday, so we rescheduled it)
Onion badjis w/ dipping sauce. Yum!
Lighting got messed up, but you can still see the mango pies we made and the surprise cake Ida made for me
Again, not the best picture, but evidence that I even had candles on my cake!
Last weekend we helped out at a youth leadership workshop at the nearby Scout Center. Jacob and I led a session on leadership together and Jacob did a second one on global warming.
Group work
Fatou tracked down sour milk and made chakari (a tasty yogurt-like drink made with sour milk, sugar, coconut and millet or rice) for my un-birthday
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Gambia and Food Security
Remember way back when (January) when Sarah and I worked with WFP to help collect some data for a report... Well the report has been published and you can find it at the following link:
http://www.wfp.org/content/gambia-comprehensive-food-security-and-vulnerability-analysis-2011
http://www.wfp.org/content/
Basse, Computers, and Feeling Useful
Coming to The Gambia, I considered myself to be computer literate, but not exactly skilled at troubleshooting and resolving problems. Over the past 9-12 months I have been hard at work trying to develop such skills. Two weeks ago I traveled up to Basse and spent the weekend working with another volunteer to try and turn the Regional Health Team's computers into something they could actually use. This gave me the opportunity to put all those skills to use in one very busy, yet fun, long weekend.
The lab was having two major problems. First, the computers were full of viruses, worms, malware, etc. to the point that many were unusable. The one connected to the printer was so bad, that as soon as you put your flash drive in it, the flash drive was effectively rendered useless until cleaned (I have scanned a computer and literally had the scanner detect more than 10,000 viruses). Computer viruses/malware/worms/etc are a serious problem for The Gambia. Many Gambians have flash drives, but almost no one has any sort of anti-virus software. Of those that have the relevant software, very few actually keep the software up to date. As a result, almost all computers in the country have serious virus problems. Second, while the computers used to be networked, the network was no longer functioning.
To solve the first problem, I chose to reformat every computer to clean them out. Then to prevent future trouble I disabled all the USB ports on all the computers running Windows. Sharing flash drives is a major cause of spreading computer viruses (there are a shocking number of parallels to sexual health and preventing STD transmission) so making it so users cannot use flash drives is a major barrier to future virus transmission. I also set one computer to run Ubuntu instead of Windows. Very simply, Ubuntu is a free operating system that is relatively intuitive to use, and since most viruses are written to take advantage in security holes in Windows, relatively free from viruses. This computer was connected to the lab printer and also was the one computer that users could use their flash drives to add or remove files (until the lab internet connection is repaired and then people could email files back and forth).
The resolve the second problem I just recreated the network and added all the computers to the network. I set up a shared folder that allows users to transfer files back and forth between the various networked computers without the need for internet access or flash drives.
With all this said, there are still a few things I would still like to do. Right before leaving, we noticed another computer that was in a different room, but should be added to the network. If I go back to Basse I will have to clean out that computer and make the ethernet cables to join it to the network (the wire is laid, but the small plastic pieces that physically connect the wire to the computer and the switch are not there). Supposedly all I need is a wire crimper (which I should be able to find in country) and then I can solve that problem. I would also like to resolve the trouble they were having with their internet connection. Finally, I would like to set up an automated backup system so in case their server fails, they do not lose all their data.
So far so good - two weeks in and neither I nor the volunteer I worked with have heard of any major problems. While I picked an unfortunate time to travel to Basse (May is one of the hottest times), I had a lot of fun and I am glad I went. It is always nice to feel useful...
Its also nice to have developed a new skill set. I enjoy the work and would like to continue when I return home. I am not saying I want to shift to the IT sector, but it would be fun to continue playing with some of these things in my free time.
The lab was having two major problems. First, the computers were full of viruses, worms, malware, etc. to the point that many were unusable. The one connected to the printer was so bad, that as soon as you put your flash drive in it, the flash drive was effectively rendered useless until cleaned (I have scanned a computer and literally had the scanner detect more than 10,000 viruses). Computer viruses/malware/worms/etc are a serious problem for The Gambia. Many Gambians have flash drives, but almost no one has any sort of anti-virus software. Of those that have the relevant software, very few actually keep the software up to date. As a result, almost all computers in the country have serious virus problems. Second, while the computers used to be networked, the network was no longer functioning.
To solve the first problem, I chose to reformat every computer to clean them out. Then to prevent future trouble I disabled all the USB ports on all the computers running Windows. Sharing flash drives is a major cause of spreading computer viruses (there are a shocking number of parallels to sexual health and preventing STD transmission) so making it so users cannot use flash drives is a major barrier to future virus transmission. I also set one computer to run Ubuntu instead of Windows. Very simply, Ubuntu is a free operating system that is relatively intuitive to use, and since most viruses are written to take advantage in security holes in Windows, relatively free from viruses. This computer was connected to the lab printer and also was the one computer that users could use their flash drives to add or remove files (until the lab internet connection is repaired and then people could email files back and forth).
The resolve the second problem I just recreated the network and added all the computers to the network. I set up a shared folder that allows users to transfer files back and forth between the various networked computers without the need for internet access or flash drives.
With all this said, there are still a few things I would still like to do. Right before leaving, we noticed another computer that was in a different room, but should be added to the network. If I go back to Basse I will have to clean out that computer and make the ethernet cables to join it to the network (the wire is laid, but the small plastic pieces that physically connect the wire to the computer and the switch are not there). Supposedly all I need is a wire crimper (which I should be able to find in country) and then I can solve that problem. I would also like to resolve the trouble they were having with their internet connection. Finally, I would like to set up an automated backup system so in case their server fails, they do not lose all their data.
So far so good - two weeks in and neither I nor the volunteer I worked with have heard of any major problems. While I picked an unfortunate time to travel to Basse (May is one of the hottest times), I had a lot of fun and I am glad I went. It is always nice to feel useful...
Its also nice to have developed a new skill set. I enjoy the work and would like to continue when I return home. I am not saying I want to shift to the IT sector, but it would be fun to continue playing with some of these things in my free time.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
New York Times says it better than I ever could
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/world/europe/26migrants.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
This should be required reading for every Gambian male. Every word of this article fits with what we have seen and heard on the other end.
This should be required reading for every Gambian male. Every word of this article fits with what we have seen and heard on the other end.
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