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Typed Saturday, April 12, 2009:

As I type this, I am sitting in an undisclosed location, currently in hiding from most of the people I know in the US.

By the time you read this post, the surprise will be out, so let's call this a play-by-play of how it happened.

You know how my Peace Corps service was officially supposed to end next week?  Well ( Read more... )

First of all, click here for new pics!
***************************************************************During my two years in Africa, with minimal supervision and only a mildly annoying amount of paperwork, I've apparently forgotten that, as a branch of the US government, the Peace Corps must kill the forests of small nations with the paperwork hoops ( Read more... )

When I sat down to watch the movie Bolt yesterday, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I'd never heard of the movie before seeing it.  Had I, I might have guessed that the plot goes something like this:

- Girl has super bond with dog, who thinks he's a superhero created to protect the girl
- Dog takes himself too seriously and is ( Read more... )

It's frightening how often my blog entries seem to need an introduction of "I swear, I am not making this up ( Read more... )

I woke up before 6 am today, and couldn't sleep, so I decided I'd just come to the PC office for a while.
Waking up that early wasn't ALL bad, though.
Why?
Because I got to buy some of Jammeh's bread.  Jammeh's Gambia's president of 13 years or something now.  Or, "Dr. J," as I heard someone refer to him the other day.
Why, you ask, did I buy bread ( Read more... )

I hereby challenge you all to a Mancala tournament upon my return to the States.
What's Mancala, you ask?
It's that game that everyone's seen but most people don't know how to play:


( Read more... )

Quick!  When was the last time you took a sledgehammer to something?
My answer: Thursday.
Backstory: In Kombo (the urban coastal area), Peace Corps has a transit house, where volunteers can stay while they're in town to go to the PC office or the bank... or the beach.  We call it the stodge.
Inside the stodge's walled compound is a small house in the ( Read more... )

I feel differently about Gambia different days.
Today is a "punch Gambia in the face" day.
Why?
Our president is a Jola, that's why.
See, Gambians identify more strongly with their tribe (Mandinka, Wolof, Jola, etc.) than with their nationality as Gambians.  As such, most still fall into predictable stereotypes about their tribe.  The Serahules are ( Read more... )

In a miraculous turn of events, the Basse internet cafe is actually working today! This is doubly miraculous, because a) I've been here at least five times this month, sometimes waiting up to 45 minutes, before finding out the internet doesn't feel like cooperating that day, and b) the Basse government powers-that-be have decided they can no longer ( Read more... )