I’m watching the world erase the shadows it’s spent the whole day drawing, you stacking sticks in strict patterns, blowing through a conch of fingers, coaxing smoke. I pour rice in this sift-bottom basket, comb for mites, for grain dark in its husk. Lines of laundry criss-cross the compound, rows of onion tufts mark the garden you spent the dry season watering. I’m learning how hands train to a task: precise beak of fingers cocked to constant gauge, picking a lice-sized pile; wide clasp of hand for driving a pestle down in the mouth of a pounder; coil of fingers for pulling up rope from deep wells. How many chores line your grasp like a glove of muscle? How many days did it take to forget the pencil- thin grip only a school-girl knows? Tomorrow, when you’re practicing alphabets, when I’m watching letters untether in a hoop of loose fingers, pencil gyre over lines of crabbed characters, remind me how much of this world is written in your sure hand.
Peace Corps held a poetry contest in 2015 that received more than 800 submissions from Volunteers in the field and returned Volunteers. Megan Gannon’s poem was the winner in the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Category. Gannon was a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia from 1998-2000.
In 2015, Peace Corps The Gambia Volunteers organized a Literacy Bike Trek reaching 29 schools and 239 teachers. The tour promotes lesson planning and use of printed materials.
One final trip to the Truth Place, only Grandma and the girls were around. Lots of old lady prayers, left-hand handshakes, and a final glance back to see the little girl once terrified of me running to wave a last goodbye. :’-( #peacecorpsthegambia
This is Hawa, my host sister’s adorable daughter. She’s an incredibly healthy and happy baby. She’s just starting to walk and is consequently beginning her reign of terror in our compound. Her favorite hobbies include eating and defecation - which are always accompanied by her heart melting smile
Last week, my counterpart and I attended Peace Corps The Gambia’s first Mini STOMP Boot Camp. STOMP is the Peace Corps Africa Region’s malaria initiative. Although a big STOMP Out Malaria Conference is held several times a year for Volunteers, counterparts (the main people that Volunteers work with on a daily basis) cannot attend. Mini STOMP gave my counterpart and I the opportunity to work together for 3.5 days to develop a project that aims to reduce the prevalence of malaria and increase the number of households with individuals sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets each night, regardless of whether they sleep inside or outside. So much hard work went into putting on this event by other Peace Corps Volunteers and staff, but I would be remiss for not highlighting my counterpart’s hard work and amazing dedication to making our village the healthiest that it can be.
On January 5 (about one month after being at my site), I visited the school in my village and met the Head Teacher to discuss possible work opportunities and a partnership with the school. Apart from mentioning an array of school clubs that don’t actually meet, he shared his vision of creating a school library. Over the past six months, I have thought of many reasons why a library project was impractical or not worth my time, ranging from students’ minimal to nonexistent English proficiency, children initially not understanding how to take care of books, and not knowing where the books would come from.
At the beginning of Ramadan, four teachers at my school participated in a Read Aloud Workshop, after which the school became more motivated to create the school library they had envisioned in January. Two weeks ago, along with my counterpart, we whitewashed the library walls and already have 100 books! By the end of the calendar year, we plan to have painted murals at the library, trained a school librarian, gathered more books, and hope to have a fully functioning library! In my first 9 months of Peace Corps service, I’ve discussed a lot of project ideas (all of which have come from the community) with counterparts and most have failed or never worked. Even though helping with a school library was not on my radar as a Health Volunteer, it’s so exciting to be involved in a community-driven project that people are motivated to see succeed!
PST, ET, IST–the list of acronyms in Peace Corps is never ending (a feature of government organizations I hear?) The most relevant acronym recently has been COS or Close Of Service.
Rather than call it ending your work or retiring, Peace Corps calls the end of your 27 months the “Close of Service.” It can also be used as a verb (e.g. I’m COSing in May). Three months before each group’s official COS date (24 months after the date you swear in), there is a conference during which the group gets together to reflect and get advice for the future.
My group, the education June 2014 cohort, met for 5 days to discuss resume writing, life after PC, and emotional accomplishments. It was enjoyable to be with the people who I entered the country with and who are ultimately my closest friends in Peace Corps.
