Field Trip HNDII

Well it appears that I have been remise in updating my blog! The last time I wrote, I was on trek with my HNDIII students. Since then, a month has passed during which I have traveled to the US for the wonderful wedding of my good friend Miss Kat and her new husband Jimmy in beautiful Miami Beach. It was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones! See the beautiful picture Derek took of me at the wedding!

I came back to the Gambia even busier than when I left! I have spent the last month preparing lectures, giving lectures, and more than anything else…grading assignments. It always seems like a good idea at the time to give homework and then I receive a giant pile back from the students and regret that decision to the extreme. One of the fun things I have been working on was my second field trip. This trip was for with the second year students and would be going to the same location as before, but discussing childhood mortality and diarrhea. I was determined that this field trip would be different than the last one were we were late to everything we planned. This was the trip that we would be on time. The trip where we would do all the things we said we would do. I started bugging P.S. about the arrangements more than three weeks ahead of the trip. I asked about the transportation. Was it arranged? Was there fuel? What there enough space for all the students and the faculty? What about the sleeping arrangements? Was there enough rooms, enough mattresses? And then I took over the scheduling and time arrangements. I threatened the students with point deductions for any late arrivals to the planned activities. They all agreed to pretend they were American for three days. I even made an itinerary! This trip was going to be different.

But it wasn’t. We left one hour and fifteen minutes late. Not because any of the faculty were late. Not because of the students. Not because of the vehicle or the driver. We didn’t have the keys to the campus where we were staying in Bwiam. We had to wait for the person with the keys to come from Banjul to deliver the keys. So not really within our control. So we finally get started, 4:15 pm rather than 3:00 pm and right away, we have to stop…just a few kilometers from the school to pick up the generator for the film show that we planned for Friday evening. We stopped in Brikama, all the students dispersed to try to buy last minute treats for the trip…luckily, we stopped next to one of the toubaab mini-markets run by Indians. Diet Coke!!!!! I bought all that they had…all 5 cans. As you can see, Diet Coke makes me happy.

Then the second piece of bad news…the generator doesn’t work. So, film show is canceled. Oh well. Guess we will just plan to have a fun evening once we get to Bwiam…or so we thought. We get about 30-40 minutes down the road and the driver stops to look at one of the tires. Never a good sign. But he says we will drive a little further and stop to put air in the tire. This is starting to reminded me of the ill-fated trip Anne Wallis and I took from Mysore to Madurai last April….the one where we had a flat tire (1.5 hours to change the flat), then we got hit by a truck (another hour or so stopped to assess the damage), then we stopped for a couple hours at a police station, then we get transferred to a government bus and what started out as a 10 hours trip ended up taking 17 hours.  I tell this story to Amadou W. Jallow, one of the other faculty, and no sooner do I finish the story and boom….flat tire. I should probably refrain from telling these types of stories in the future since I appear to be lucky! Well, it turns out that we don’t really have a flat since our bus has those big truck tires that lose layers. But still not good that a large chunk of the outer tire is missing. By the way…we are currently limping along the road in order to get to a place where we can get a spare and I was just handed a glass of attaya. My students apparently took the opportunity of the stop to inspect the tire to start making attaya.

But when we decided to keep going further, they just transferred the charcoal stove, hot coals, and boiling teapot to the slow moving bus in order to continue making attaya. Yep, they are brewing tea on the bus. Have I mentioned that Gambians love attaya? Not that I can complain, since I not only enjoy it, but look forward to opportunities to drink it…even if it is on the bus en route to our destination. So not only have we canceled our evening plans, but we will be lucky to get to Bwiam before dark. More updates to come….

We make to the village that supposedly has spares. We were told it was 10 km away…30 km later we finally arrive. It is quickly becoming dark. We will either get a spare or continue to slowly drive down the wrong side of the highway till we get to Bwiam. Yes, we drove 30 km on the wrong side of the road. The roads here aren’t really flat, they are slightly convex. Since the bad tire was on the right side, we drove on the far left of the road to help take weight off that side. So Amadou spent the whole time hanging out the front door signally to oncoming vehicles that they needed to go around us. We had a few exciting moments. Right now, we are sitting on the side of the road in yet another village and I am watching them stand around discussing the tire. I wish I was better at languages, then maybe I wouldn’t feel so lost about what is going on. At least I have a good sense of humor. I keep telling the students that these things happen. That no field trip is perfect and you have to be flexible…within reason that is...being late because students take too long in the shower is completely different from being late due to a flat tire. So this doesn’t mean I won’t be a time Nazi tomorrow during data collection!

Hopefully we figure the tire out soon and get back on the road!

Well, the decision was made to continue with the tire as is and continue to make our way slowly to Bwiam. Since night had fallen by the time that we made this decision, it made for an interesting ~15 km. All in all, we ended up driving 45 km with the tire in what could be described as less than ideal conditions. After dark, we didn’t dare stay on the wrong side of the road since it would be too dangerous, instead we just drove down the middle of the road. Getting over when needed. It was a fun time. Sort of. Anyways, we arrived in Bwiam at 8:30 pm, 4 hours and 15 minutes after we set out from Brikama. It should have taken 1.5 hours. I arranged for the food to get to the kitchen, asked one of the girls to inform the cooks that we hired as to what to make and then started to get the students settled. 45 minutes later, I went to check on dinner and the cooks were just sitting there! They said they couldn’t make what we had planned! I ran back to grab the class captain, Jomma. She quickly settled the problem but now it is after nine pm and dinner hasn’t even been started. It is going to be a late night. We eventually ate sandwiches with boiled eggs, potatoes, onion, mayo and salad (lettuce) for me and the addition of sardines (gross) for the rest of the group around 11:00 pm. Needless to say, it was a late night, and with three to a room (sharing two beds pushed together), not the best night’s rest I’ve ever had.

I was up early Saturday morning due to the fact that everyone else was also up and I am unused to so many people being around in the mornings. My goal for today was to get the day started on time! Breakfast (according to the itinerary posted on the doors and with each supervisor) was scheduled to start at 7:30 am…when I went to the kitchen at 6:30 am, not a cook in sight. Slightly panicky, with my entire day’s schedule hanging in the balance, I make Fatajo call the cooks. Call the bread guy. Call again. The girls save the day and start getting the beans cooking and cutting up the onions. The cooks arrive and I start haunting the kitchen, asking how long? When will it be ready? They keep saying almost. People always say almost when they don’t want to tell me how long it will really be. I ask, can I help if it will go faster? No. I start sweeping, just to do something. They take the broom away from me. I get it, I’m not allowed to help and since I do not have the power to make the beans cook faster, nothing to do but wait. We eat a little after 8:00 am and it was like a plague of locusts descending on a field of crops. They ended up eating so fast that we actually ended up ahead of schedule! We break into groups and head out to canvass Bwiam on foot. I took a picture of my group in the hopes that I would be able to recognize them and maybe, just maybe learn their names. 

The original plan was to head out to some rural village, the same that we visited during the first field trip, but without a vehicle, we had to alter our plans and remain locally. Data collection goes well, even faster than expected. The students finish early, having done all the assigned surveys during the first data collection period. Which is good since we needed a vehicle to get to the village where we planned to do the afternoon data collection so that wasn’t going to happen either way.

Now we get to kick back and relax after a wonderful meal of chicken benechin. I saw dinner and it also involves chicken, so I am looking forward to enjoying that meal too! The students organize a football tournament among the four data collection groups and it was fun to watch the impromptu game with rocks for the goal, a tree in the middle of the pitch, and elevated rock path in the middle. I’m always amazed at how well Gambian’s play with whatever they have available. Some play in flip flops, others in their bare feet. Which doesn’t stop the ferociousness of their play at all. A dance party is planned for after dinner so it should be a fun (although not an early) night! Out transport back to Brikama in the morning is still up in the air, so it will be interesting to see how we get 46 students, 4 faculty, and one bus driver back home on a bus with a bad tire…still not fixed.

Sunday was a nice rest day. We verified all the questionnaires and had breakfast and then headed back home to Brikama. The driver had the two bad tires rotated so that they were on opposite sides and he thought that would be good enough to get us home. The trip involved a lot of singing, dancing, and of course…attaya. How could a trip on a bus be complete without attaya!

I arrived back on campus, tired but feeling great about how this teaching trip went. I hope the students got as much learning from the trip as they did entertainment. I’ll have to put my foot down the next time they decide to have a dance party till 2 am! This girl needs her sleep! As we pulled up to the building and exited the bus, the bus driver promised me that the next trip will have good tires, a spare and a tire iron! So one more field trip to go…let’s see what adventures that one will bring!

Field Trip!

I recently had the opportunity to explore at little more of the Gambia! The Gambia College, School of Public Health took the group of 3^rd year students on a research trip to Bwiam. Bwian is about 2 hours upcountry (East) of Brikama. This field trip was an opportunity for the students to take the concepts they have been learning in class and implement them in the field. I got to spearhead the project and designed a water and sanitation survey for the students to use for this service learning project.

First, let’s talk about getting there. Traveling outside of Brikama was a huge step for me and would be laughed at by many of the other PCVs in the Gambia. I typically only travel between my house in Youndum and the College (located just outside Brikama proper). So I rarely even go into Brikama. Despite the small size of this country, the poor road system makes any travel outside the major populated areas difficult. So, it’s not like driving from Davenport to Iowa City where you can drive 70 miles per hour and have no stops. That being said, the road from Brikama to Bwiam was a good stretch of road. The vehicle is another matter. Not that it was a bad vehicle, more the number of people we crammed in to it. I believe the bus was meant to hold about 36 people. We had 38 students. And 6 faculty. So, we ended up having students sitting on other student’s laps. Students also ended up standing next to the door, surely a safety violation of some sort. And one poor student had to sit on the engine. That gives hot seat a new meaning! Well, we eventually arrived in Bwiam, safe and sound, although I’m sure a few people were lucky to be able to feel their extremities.

 Our lodging for the weekend was a small campus belonging to the Gambia College, School of Nursing. There was a dormitory building with a “girl’s side” and a “boy’s side”. A set of classrooms and a kitchen. Mattresses were handed out, and we proceeded to our rooms. Turns out there weren’t enough rooms on the “boys side” and all the faculty (5 males and 1 female) had to take rooms on the “girl’s side”. I am putting these in quotes because none of the doors locked, the male faculty stayed on the girls side, and I frequently found several of the boys going back and forth between the boys side and girls side (something that made the camp counselor in me cringe), so that definition of girls vs. side didn’t really mean anything. But the students were on their best behavior and I really didn’t have to worry about any ‘field trip babies’ developing from the trip!

Sleep ended up being something to be just out of reach during this trip. As soon as we arrived, speakers were set up and loud music was pulsing through the campus. In fact, I’d be surprised if anyone within a 5 mile radius slept before 3 am on Friday and Saturday night. Considering we had to be up bright and early the next day to start our data collection...let’s just say it was a rough morning for me. By Sunday night, I was exhausted but that didn't mean I got any more sleep. I may have to enforce strict time limits on the loud music on the next field trip!

The data collection went really well. We drove out to some very small villages near the Senegalese border. Most of the villages had fewer than 15 households. They were lucky to have one water pump and a single latrine. I know that it is hard for many American’s to picture, but one village, maybe about 50 people, all sharing the same facility. And by facility, I mean hole in the ground. One village was lucky enough to have an improved pit latrine which meant that they had a nice porcelain insert in the floor and four walls. The other villages I visited mostly had cloth or sheet metal privacy screens around a cement slab. Not the most conducive to doing your business. The student’s took the data collection seriously and I look forward to seeing what the data analysis shows regarding the water and sanitation in that area.  

Busy as a Bee

Sorry for the delay in updating! It’s been a busy few weeks, and I am just now getting caught up with lectures and marking homework assignments. I was briefly back in the United States for a wedding, although I really spent most of my time in airports or on airplanes. It was amazing to celebrate with Katleen and Jimmy! I also got to catch up with my Peace Corps friend Derek and meet many new people who I have heard so much about over the years from Kat, so it was a wonderful, if exhausting trip! I was lucky enough to experience one of the few cold spells that the Southern United States occasionally gets. Which I was completely unprepared for since I did not bring any clothes with me to Africa that are appropriate for weather below 70 degrees. It made me all the more happy to return the sun and warmth of the Gambia!

Now I am back to preparing lectures, delivering lectures, marking homework, grading exams, and preparing more lectures. I am also starting to design the next field trip research proposal (for the second year students) and working on a road traffic injury study with one of my colleagues here. So when people ask what I do during my free time, my answer is what free time! I am going to start trying to carve out some time on the weekends to visit some of the closer places and some of my colleague’s home villages. A few of my students have volunteered to take me on day trips to various places, so that should be fun! I’ll try to do better with the updates!

On a side note, as a follow up to the earlier letter to the small rodent in my kitchen. He did not take my advice. The war escalated. I ended up putting out glue traps and was unfortunate enough to actually catch something. As it turns out, I can put out traps, but I cannot remove an occupied trap. I went to enter the kitchen and heard a noise near the refrigerator. Now, I tend to be a little jumpy at night, ever since that first encounter with a rodent. My own pony tail scared the bejesus out of me a few nights ago when a strand of hair unexpectedly blew in my face. So when I looked over to see a long tail coming from behind the refrigerator and saw the glue trap was now occupied, my natural reaction was to run back into the house and slam the door. I may have squealed. I know, not the most logical of reactions. It was not as if the rat would free itself from the trap and chase me, but logic was nowhere to be seen that evening. I tried to go back into the kitchen to assess the situation, but I heard it move and ran away again. So, onto plan B. Plan B was to stay away from the back courtyard until the occupant of the glue trap died. However long that was going to take. I would figure out later how to dispose of the body. The downside to plan B was that I have to go by the kitchen to get to the bathroom and the fact that the kitchen was now off-limits. So no food, drink, or bathroom until that rat expired. Seemed like a good plan at the time, but like I said, logic was long gone at this point. But then the rat started to cry. And that made me sad. I tried to block it out with loud music. I tried earplugs. I couldn't handle it. So I went next door and asked the neighbors for help. I am sure my neighbors think I am ridiculous. They followed me back to my house, laughing. I pointed them towards the kitchen and went and hid in my bedroom. Turns out I’m scared of rodents. Since the incident in the kitchen, I haven’t had any more visitors. But I put out another glue trap, just to be safe. With the knowledge that even if I do catch something, it won’t really help since I can’t actually do anything about it. 

Transport in the Gambia

Transportation in this country has been an interesting experience. I live a few miles from the Brikama campus and take a ‘bus’ to work every day. The word bus is a little misleading. Really, it is a minivan which holds about 15 people, including the driver and his aprenti. So each morning, I walk out to the main road and wait until I see a minivan bowling along. If there is a young man hanging out the window shouting, I put my hand out and indicate I would like to be picked up. No young man hanging out the window lets me know that the bus is full. If there is space, the minivan careens to a stop. Sometimes on the road, sometimes they pull part of the way off. Did I mention the condition of the roads? The roads are mostly paved in the Gambia, but they are really only two lanes. They are typically built up from the surrounding areas, so there is a bit of a slope. The drop off from the road to the dirt slope is usually several inches. This makes pulling off the road to pick up passengers...a bit interesting. And remember, we aren't talking top of the line, off-road capable vehicles with wonderful tires and suspensions to handle rough roads. These are vehicles which reached the end of their useful life in some other country and came to the Gambia to retire. So the vehicle might pull part way off the road to pick me up. So I had to learn how to enter a vehicle that was tilted about 20 degrees, which is similar to climbing a cliff in my opinion. I then have to climb over other passengers who will just lean out of the way to let you squeeze past, all the while carrying my backpack which weights more than a large toddler. I am not a graceful person. I watch Gambians entering and exiting buses and just wonder how they do it. Picture a baby elephant trying to enter a minivan and you would be pretty close what I feel like entering and exiting the vehicle.

Now that I have covered the difficulty of entering the vehicle, let’s discuss the driving. Typically, there are streams of buses working the main roads. All in search of passengers. So this is a competition in which the bus in the front of the line is most likely to get the next passenger. This creates a frog-like game of bus jumping. One bus pulls over to pick up a passenger, all the ones behind it try to pass in order to get to the front of the line and get the next passenger. The one that stops will try to get back on the road as quick as possible, usually not even waiting for the apprenti to get back in the bus. It is not unusual for the apprenti to have to run and jump into the moving bus. So if you are one of the people sitting on the end by the door, the vehicle is typically moving long before the door is slid shut. It is shuts at all...a few days ago the door fell off went the apprenti tried to shut the door. I was sitting right next to the opening so that was interesting. And this is all before we start moving. While there are driving schools in the Gambia, that doesn’t mean you actually have to go in order to get your license. So I’m not too sure about the level of training that bus drivers receive. Typically, I am more worried about whether the vehicle will actually make it to my village rather than the driving capability of the driver. Although I do worry about the goats since they seem to step onto the road without looking both ways on a frequent basis. Maybe I could do some kind of traffic safety class for the goats in this country? Anyways, with the crazy, competitive line of buses driving at ridiculous speeds, going around vehicles that abruptly pull over to pick up passengers...I am not surprised that my colleague Edrisa is interested in doing a traffic injury study.

And then the fuel. On Tuesday, I show up at my junction to catch a bus. There seemed to be an unusual number of people waiting. Normally, if there is more than one other person waiting within 50 feet, I am surprised. There were more like 30 people waiting. Odd. It took 20 minutes to get a bus when I normally don’t wait more than a minute or two. And there seemed to be fewer buses on the road. I come to find out that there is a fuel shortage. For the whole country. I felt kind of luck to have gotten to work! Later on Tuesday, I had a meeting in Banjul with Edrisa which since Edrisa has a car, we didn’t have to worry about taking public transportation. Without thinking anything about it, I asked him to drop me off in Fajara so I could stop by the Peace Corps office. Mistake! Huge mistake! You would think that the taxis/buses would be running from the major intersections to the larger cities (like Brikama). Nope. I learned a lot about price gouging while waiting for two hours to get on a bus that afternoon. I tend not to be a person who likes crowds...thus I found it difficult to join the group of 30+ people that would mob each bus that pulled over. I kept thinking of the people that get trampled on Black Friday and how easy I would go down in a crowd of people desperate to get home. I made friends with a young student who had been waiting an hour when I showed up. We eventually left Westfield to try our luck at Serrekunda market. It was a good 15-20 minute walk, but it felt good to be doing something other than standing and waiting for a bus to pull up. I did eventually get on a bus (one that was only going part of the way toward my home) thanks to my new friend, Bakary. He pushed me through the crowd and onto the bus and didn't even make it on himself. I didn’t even get to thank him in the craziness of getting on the bus. So thanks Bakary! I got halfway, where the bus stopped, made up all pay and get off. Then they let us get back on to continue to Brikama...paying an additional fare. So what normally costs me 15 dalasi ended up costing me 22 dalasi. And then I remember that 22 dalasi is still less than a dollar. But still...taking advantage of a fuel shortage to overcharge!

This morning (Thursday), I left very early for school, not knowing how long it would take to get a vehicle. I approached my junction, happy to see only a handful of people waiting. A minute or two later, an empty gilly gilly pulls up and we all jump on. I think the fuel shortage is over. Yeah! Now I only have to worry about whether I am risking life and limb, not whether I will even have the opportunity to risk life and limb. Everything is back to normal!

Tomorrow I head to Bwiam with my HND III students for a field trip. Very excited to see more of the country! Then I travel home for an interview and wedding! Going to be exciting two weeks!

To the large mouse who sauntered out of my kitchen the other night

 Dear sir or madam,

When we met unexpectedly last evening, I was startled to see you. I had been under the assumption that you confined yourself to the drop ceiling and had not be in the habit of visiting the actual kitchen proper. I promise that there is nothing for you in my kitchen, as I keep all my food in a large metal box. I do not believe you possess the opposable thumbs or strength to lift the lid, so please don’t bother trying. 

After an extensive survey of the grounds, I believe I have identified your access points.  This oversight in compound security has been repaired. 

I think you will have more luck with the baker next door. If I see you again, the situation will escalate quickly. I swear to god I will adopt/capture a feral Gambian cat and make it live in my courtyard if you make me, and really, nobody wants to see that happen. Let’s not meet again.

Sincerely,

Erin

A life full of sugar

Gambians have a very strong sweet tooth. One only has to watch them make tea to see the truth of this statement. Whether it is Fatajo (my office mate) and his three spoonfuls of sugar in every cup of tea (and he is constantly drinking tea), or the family in my compound making and drinking their many small glasses of green tea, the sugar is not lacking. So, for a girl who is used to artificial sweeteners, my life is now overflowing with real sugar! Cups of sugared tea and wanjo will be the death of me! Whether this is good for my own sweet tooth or not is going to be the question!

When talking with the director of the Epidemiology Control Unit, or any health professional in this country, one of the first health problems they mention is the increasing rates of diabetes in the Gambia. I am no longer surprised by this, but now wonder how difficult it would be to change the behavior of an entire country and their love of sugared tea. It is not only the drinking of the tea that they enjoy; it is the interaction with friends and family. It is the tradition of making and sharing the tea and conversation which the community revolves around. So if you remove the tea, will the social fabric of the country have to change? While watching my neighbors make tea yesterday evening (see the picture of Amadou to the left), we talked about the process of making the tea. When I commented that the glasses were very small and wouldn't you want more, Alfu told me that is the point. You take your time making each tiny pot of tea and it means that people will visit longer and you will have a better chat with your friends. During my first lecture for my class on risky health behaviors, we talked about behavior change and the various stages of change. I asked the students if there were any behaviors they were attempting to change and two students spoke up. One mentioned drinking too much green tea and the other staying up to late with friends. Both were aware of the health outcomes of drinking too much tea or not getting enough sleep, but faced strong social barriers to change. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this country of sweet-tooth’s and whether the health risks associated with too much sugar will be recognized or a society centered around a tradition of drinking sweet tea wins out in the end.

You may call me 'The Destroyer'

I moved to my new home on Saturday and got settled right in...after declaring war on the population of spiders currently calling my kitchen and bathroom home. War was waged and I am going to declare myself the victor. It took many a spray of Bop, the local version of Raid, but I survived. The same can not be said of the spiders. Next on the agenda? Death to the cockroaches. It would be best for them if they raise the white flag and move elsewhere, because I will find them all and destroy them! Lucky for me, they are not in the the house, but in the patio area between my house and my kitchen/bathroom. But it doesn't matter to me...they must die. Once the area was free of spiders, I spent some time unpacking and becoming familiar with all the goodies left to me by Hanna. I am very happy with my new (spider free) house!

On a side note, as it turns out, I actually live in Youndum. I have been saying Busumbala all this time, but I was wrong! I am right on the border and I guess I fall on the Youndum side. Life in Youndum is pretty much the same as in Busumbala. Really, there is not much of a boundary between Youndum, Busumbala, or Farato. Together, they are quite large. You would think that life in a village would be quiet? You would be wrong! Youndum is probably too big to be called a village, but even so, I was surprised with the level of activity on my street. While my compound is very quiet, just outside, there are people talking, babies crying, goats crying, cars, airplanes (I live right near the airport), and the baker next door with his bread dough. It doesn't really bother me, but it is interesting just how much there is going on all around me.

On Sunday, I have explored my village, met the akalo, and spent an evening with my host family. I feel like my first weekend in village was a success with one small misstep. There was a slight problem with my village tour guide. When he introduced himself to me as Alagie, I assumed he was Awa's son. Awa is the head of my compound, a very motherly woman. This Alagie took me on a rather long tour of of Busumbala and only eventually showed me to the akalo's house like I had asked. I was not very happy since he kept saying it was just a little further, and after walking around for two hours in the hot sun, I wasn't terribly happy when it was actually very near my house. I think he really just wanted to be seen in the village showing me around. When I arrived home, no one in the compound knew who he was and I actually met Awa's Alagie. The volunteer who had the house before me was robbed once when she was in the house. She was in the back doing laundry and someone walked in and packed up her computer, phone, camera, and backpack and left without anyone knowing. So my host family was very worried when this person who they don't know came around saying he knew me, waited for me to get up in the morning and then introduced himself and volunteered to show me around. It is hard to know if his intentions were sincere or if he was really just waiting for a chance to have access to my house and belongings, but I will definitely be more careful in the future. Most Gambians I have met have been wonderful, opening their homes and lives to me. So it is sad that I have to be so on my guard in my own village and compound.

This morning was my first day of teaching. I wanted to be on campus bright and early on my first day, so I set my alarm early. When it went off at 7:00 am, it was still dark! I know, I know...many of you scoff at that being early...but for me it is quite the change. Something in me just refuses to arise before the sun has risen. So I hit the snooze and decided that a shower was not that important after all. As it turns out, it was really too cold for a shower and I am glad I didn't take one. It must have been 65 degrees when I got up, brrr! Very cold! Typically, it is up into the 90's outside during the day, and down into the 60's at night. Inside my house, it ranges from a high of 85 degrees to maybe as low as 75 degrees at night. I have a fan so it is not too bad.

I was on campus by 8:15 am and had time to settle into my office, have a cup of tea, and start to figure out my internet situation. I think I have it worked out, now I just need to see if it will work at home too. Otherwise, I might be spending a lot of time on campus in order to have access to the internet. Class went well, although I didn't feel prepared as I would like since I didn't have print outs of the assignments and wasn't sure how to go about getting assignments to the students. I have worked that out and it should go more smoothly in the future. This first week will be an adjustment, as I learn how to fit in and work within the established system.

Tomorrow is the opening of the University of the Gambia's (UTG) GeoHealth Center at Faraba. This is my friend Edrisa's project in conjunction with the University of Iowa, School of Public Health. I will have a chance to say hi to the three visiting faculty from Iowa before they head home.

Congratulations to Sam and Erin on the birth of their son, Owen!