So classes were supposed to have started last Monday (9th). We were warned that the first week of classes is always iffy. Most students do not show up because the course list has not been finalized. Lecturers don’t bother showing up because they know that no students are going to show up. Out of the six classes I was supposed to have last week, I went to four. Of those four, three of them had no lecturers and a handful of students. I did have a lecturer show up for one of my classes, however no other students showed up so he cancelled the class. I wasn’t annoyed by this, we had been warned that it was just the way things ran at the university. This week, all lecturers and students are expected to show up for classes. Yesterday morning I had my first class, Peace and Conflict Studies with Dr. Taal.
Dr. Taal is an interesting man. He runs one of the nation’s newspapers, The Daily Observer. It is paper that does not hide it bias for the current governing party. As Dr. Taal explained it to me when we had him over for dinner, the president himself will often call Dr. Taal and tell him to run an article about some good thing the president has done and Dr. Taal does so without hesitation. The papers first job is to always spin the president in a positive light, its second job is to inform the public. Dr. Taal claims that he is an anarchist who is just out to make a buck and he doesn’t care how to do it. The president pays him good money to run this paper, so he does it. He is teaching this class, Peace & Conflict studies based on his own experience traveling throughout Africa. He has been to every nation on the continent and has seen first hand the many different conflicts that are tearing Africa apart. He has many strong opinions about politics and does not hesitate to share them. It will be a very opinionated class and I plan on approaching everything he has to say with a quite a large grain of salt, but I am sure that a man with his experience and two doctorates will have some good things to say.
This weekend was a good weekend. On Friday we were invited to a fruit liqueur distillery, Kim Kombo, by some Peace Corp Volunteers. Twenty of them has just finished their three month orientation upcountry and had been sworn in that afternoon. Following in the footsteps of tradition, about 50 of the volunteers, new and old go to Kim Kombo every year and get liquored up. 150dalasi ($5.50) got you unlimited access to their alcohol. Needless to say, it was a good time had by all. I really enjoy talking to the Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs).
They have a very interesting perspective on life for Americans in the Gambia. Many of those who are well into their stay are jaded by their experiences and feel that the good they can do here is limited. A few of them believe that PC is not needed in this country. Upcountry, where most of them are stationed, PCVs feel that many of the villagers sit around and wait for PCVs to come in and do much of the hard work. It defeats the purpose of PC, which is helping to set up sustainable methods of improved lifestyles in the country. The villagers know that when one PCV leaves, another will be ready to take his/her place.
This is not to say that PCV is actually useless in the country. They have set up a majority of the IT in the country as well as brought in a good deal of western education involving health and education. For example, my favorite PCV, Dan, from Toms River NJ, is working in the health field. Type two diabetes is rampant throughout the country; unfortunately there are many areas without the proper refrigeration required for insulin. However there is a tree which provides leaves that, when made into a tea and drank daily; provide the same benefits as insulin. He has been working to create a sustainable system for harvesting the leaves that can be used long after he has left the country.
Dan is my favorite PCV, unfortunately he is stationed about 150 kilometers upcountry. This weekend, Renee and I are going to travel upcountry on our own to visit him. It requires getting to the ferry crossing around sunrise and followed by a twelve hour Gelli Gelli ride on some exciting (terribly rough) roads. Gelli Gelli’s are bush taxis. They cram as many riders as they can into large vans and go driving all over the country.
On Saturday Renee and I went with Dan to an auction being held by the US embassy. They were auctioning off everything including, office supplies (shredders, copiers, and printers), air conditioning units, lamps, tables, motorcycles, cars ands bikes. The bikes were the last thing being auctioned and Dan needed to get three of them for himself and other PCV’s. The going rate always ended up around 2000 dalasi ($70) regardless of the condition of the bike. Many were without seats and plenty lacked wheels, brakes or chains. We managed to get three of them for a little more then 6000 dalasi. Originally we thought we would just hang out while Dan did jumped into the fray but apparently after you win an item you have to pay for it immediately. Dan put me in charge of getting the second bike while he was paying for the first one. I got to yell out a few bids and all sorts of exciting stuff. The prices quickly went over our cap though so I never won anything. He managed to procure more money from another PCV later and got a hold of the three bikes he needed. Afterwards, we went into Bakau, an area much more active then Kanifing Estates where we live, to explore. Our adventures there included: Walking into random homes asking if they sold food, walking into random bars looking for cheap drinks and talking to a random British tourist couple who travel the world smoking pot.
On Sunday, Renee took me out to breakfast (because I was broke) and then we bought a kilo of mangoes for a dollar. We decided to go up to Bakau again and see what there was to do. We went into one of the sweetass resorts and ate some mangoes on their beach and passed out in the shade. Then we went down to the pier where all the local fishermen bring in their daily catches to sell. It was madness. Mad Props to the fishermen, I will have to play tourists at some point soon and take my camera down there. I hate looking like a tourist though. Hence the absence of any new pictures. Afterwards we decided to try and find Baboucarr’s (our Wolof instructor) compound. It is deep inside Bakau and required actually applying out knowledge of the local area to find it. Of course, being that we kick ass, we found his compound and hung out with him for a few hours. In the Gambia, you don’t call ahead to see if someone is home, you just roll up and are invited in.
That was my sweet weekend in a nutshell.
No comments:
Post a Comment