What I have been up to.

Well I have been getting some mail suggesting (rather forcefully) that I need to update my blog.  So here is the boring story that is my life.  Since my last post I have been in Kombo a lot.  We had a boat cruise on the 3rd of July for the 4th.  It was the only day we could get the boat and crew for the weekend.  Then I decided it would be a good idea to get food poisoning.  Note to self bad idea.  You would think I would learn after the first 4 times but no.  Had to try it again.  So I had to stay a couple of days, in Kombo not only to get better, but also had to wait for the med unit to open.  Thank God and some smart chemist for coming up with a drug called Cipro.  So now I am all fixed up and down at the office talking with my Program Manager.

Shortly after my conversation with my PM, but while still in the office I get asked to help with training the new group.  They wondered if I could do Gardening and Food Security.  Now this would not have been a big deal, if they had not asked me to do it on Friday at 4:30 as everybody is walking out the door.  So yea now here is my situation, I have to do training on Monday at 1:00pm and while gardening is not a big deal, I know just about nothing about food security in The Gambia.  But hey I will have 5 hours on Monday to learn about it, type a lesson plan, and prepare all the necessary materials.  Yea no prob, but hey it is The Gambia.

I am not sure what happened, but for some reason I did not have any transportation so my lessons got postponed till Tuesday.  Yes, dodged a bullet there.  So yea, next day everything is prepared and we are ready to go at about 2:00.  So I do my lessons for all the new groups over the next couple of days, and then I finally get the green light to go back to site.  Yeaaa, I had not been home in over 2 weeks and I had grown tired of Kombo.  Finally a few days of R&R.  Granted I have to come back in 3 days to get training on how to be a good peer coach.  Part of me being a member of Volunteer Support Network.

So on my way back to site, I had not even made it all the way home yet. I get a text from a site mate saying that the village where we are doing a garden developement project is ready to meet again.  Well crap there goes my R&R.  It is a 2hr bike ride to her site and then another hour to the village.  So yea that happened over the next 2 days.  So I get back to my village and spend a day chilling there, and the next morning I am on the road again heading back to Kombo.

Right now all of my training is finished and I will be headed out in a couple of days.  I am thrilled to be going home, but I fear what will come up next.  Oh well, nice part about all of this is I am keeping busy.  So, I will get to hopefully chill in village for a couple of weeks, but then I have to come back for Reconnect.  Basically all of us that swore in back in Jan, get to come down to Kombo and talk about what we have been up to for the last 8 months.

Has it really been that long, man, it just does not seem possible.  I  feel like It was just last week I was walking off of a plane with a head full of big ideas.  While those things seem to be gone now, I am excited to see exactly what I will be able to get done and where the rest of my service will take me.  So here is hoping.

Later

~ by mattcarte on 07/24/2010.