Greetings from The Gambia! The rainy season is in full speed and everyday is a mix between tons of rain and then tons of humidity. Back and forth… rain, humidity, rain, humidity…. My body doesn’t know whether to be cold or hot? You can only imagine how my skin is dealing with the two different changes of weather. Yuck! But either way, let me allow you a walk into my life here….
Things are going well. I have been keeping really busy. Things in my village are booming. As some of you may recall I was teaching business and basic economic classes to young adults (previous sponsor children) (their ages range from 17-30years old) from my village and surrounding villages. They went through this business course offered by Ding Ding Bantaba (the affiliation to CCF in my village) for three good months. At the end of the three months they were offered the opportunity to take out a D10,000 loan—equivalent to $380 USD to start a small enterprise business. Some of these youth started their businesses and my job has been to go around supervising with my counterpart their businesses. They are in a 6 month stimulation process right now where after the 6 months they are expected to pay back the loan. Some of these groups have created some wonderful businesses in their villages. In my village a group of girls in the program came together with their loan money and created a women’s beauty shop, in another village they have started selling fuel for vehicles that come through that way and need gas. Another village has started a breakfast and dinner restaurant, while another has started a bread bakery shop. It is great to work with these guys and see their progress; overall there are 10 different companies that I oversee. Every couple of weeks I go and check up on their business books, I remit their money, ect. Its part of the community development work that I have been working on and I really enjoy it.
For a while I was feeling a bit uneasy, not really sure of my direction or what I wanted to do… but I started working with this man named Sonku and things have been great. He is very dedicated to working for the youth and being around him is contagious. He is always willing to get me involved and right now he is keeping me busy. So work is going well.
On another work note, I have also been working in my village in try to help fix our borehole that supplies the whole village water. Right now the water is salty and people d
on’t like using the water unless it is for domestic use. This is still leaving my water with a huge shortage, considering the pumps and wells cannot sustain the whole village. Relying on the taps is big, but having a salty borehole makes things a little more difficult. There is an American organization called Friends of Penyum that is willing to help my village but I am very skeptical of white people coming in to drop money and then take off. I know their intentions are very good… but living on this side of the tracks I see how harmful it is when people do that to “help” and then the village eats the money, misuses the funds or simply doesn’t appreciate them because its again another hand out to Africa.
This brings me on the topic of development--- why is Africa so crippled? They keep reaching out their hands saying give me, give me, help me, help me, I’m poor, I’m poor…. But this is a never ending cycle—poverty, I feel like is a disease here and it is very contagious. People are so willing to sit and wait here… waiting for someone to help them out of their poverty… but they are never willing to pull themselves out of it. Why would they if maybe someday someone else does it for them? So how do you develop people? It’s hard to try an empower people that are crutched by their own thoughts or the way they were raised… now, I am not saying that all Gambians are like this. I know many Gambians that are kicking butt and doing great things… but the majority of them like the people from my village are waiting for a hand out. Very discouraging and sad to see.
So, I have been working with my village development committee on ways to come together as a village and create some sort of fundraiser or someway to create funds to help this American organization help our village. I am telling them the organization is requiring at least 15% community contribution, whether it is with money or people volunteering for the labor…. I want my village to work for their borehole to be fixed… then maybe next time they will take care of it and it won’t break so easily. --- Sustainable development!!!! Getting people involved in their own needs…. Not just me. I am fully aware it’s wrong to lie to people and tell them they need to come up with a 15% contribution… but I want to make sure they are committed and motivated for their own development, not just someone else. Any thoughts or ideas?
On to another story that is happier---- I am now pretty much new best friends with the President of The Gambia. Let me explain, he just finished up his tour where he goes around the country talking to the people in different villages about development and problems that they are facing. I think it’s a wonderful idea. He made it to a village near mine…. I went a long with another PCV to go see the event… I dressed up in ALL green (the president’s political party color) and I had a t-shirt on with a huge picture of him on it that says “Thank You Mr. President”. When he drove by me in his hummer I was waving and screaming like a crazy person A.P.R.C!!!! A.P.R.C!!!! (the president’s political party) and he stopped his car and ordered a military man to give me biscuits. I was so excited I almost crapped my pants with excitement. Life here keeps getting more and more interesting. I love it.
Things are going well. I have been keeping really busy. Things in my village are booming. As some of you may recall I was teaching business and basic economic classes to young adults (previous sponsor children) (their ages range from 17-30years old) from my village and surrounding villages. They went through this business course offered by Ding Ding Bantaba (the affiliation to CCF in my village) for three good months. At the end of the three months they were offered the opportunity to take out a D10,000 loan—equivalent to $380 USD to start a small enterprise business. Some of these youth started their businesses and my job has been to go around supervising with my counterpart their businesses. They are in a 6 month stimulation process right now where after the 6 months they are expected to pay back the loan. Some of these groups have created some wonderful businesses in their villages. In my village a group of girls in the program came together with their loan money and created a women’s beauty shop, in another village they have started selling fuel for vehicles that come through that way and need gas. Another village has started a breakfast and dinner restaurant, while another has started a bread bakery shop. It is great to work with these guys and see their progress; overall there are 10 different companies that I oversee. Every couple of weeks I go and check up on their business books, I remit their money, ect. Its part of the community development work that I have been working on and I really enjoy it.
For a while I was feeling a bit uneasy, not really sure of my direction or what I wanted to do… but I started working with this man named Sonku and things have been great. He is very dedicated to working for the youth and being around him is contagious. He is always willing to get me involved and right now he is keeping me busy. So work is going well.
On another work note, I have also been working in my village in try to help fix our borehole that supplies the whole village water. Right now the water is salty and people d
on’t like using the water unless it is for domestic use. This is still leaving my water with a huge shortage, considering the pumps and wells cannot sustain the whole village. Relying on the taps is big, but having a salty borehole makes things a little more difficult. There is an American organization called Friends of Penyum that is willing to help my village but I am very skeptical of white people coming in to drop money and then take off. I know their intentions are very good… but living on this side of the tracks I see how harmful it is when people do that to “help” and then the village eats the money, misuses the funds or simply doesn’t appreciate them because its again another hand out to Africa.This brings me on the topic of development--- why is Africa so crippled? They keep reaching out their hands saying give me, give me, help me, help me, I’m poor, I’m poor…. But this is a never ending cycle—poverty, I feel like is a disease here and it is very contagious. People are so willing to sit and wait here… waiting for someone to help them out of their poverty… but they are never willing to pull themselves out of it. Why would they if maybe someday someone else does it for them? So how do you develop people? It’s hard to try an empower people that are crutched by their own thoughts or the way they were raised… now, I am not saying that all Gambians are like this. I know many Gambians that are kicking butt and doing great things… but the majority of them like the people from my village are waiting for a hand out. Very discouraging and sad to see.
So, I have been working with my village development committee on ways to come together as a village and create some sort of fundraiser or someway to create funds to help this American organization help our village. I am telling them the organization is requiring at least 15% community contribution, whether it is with money or people volunteering for the labor…. I want my village to work for their borehole to be fixed… then maybe next time they will take care of it and it won’t break so easily. --- Sustainable development!!!! Getting people involved in their own needs…. Not just me. I am fully aware it’s wrong to lie to people and tell them they need to come up with a 15% contribution… but I want to make sure they are committed and motivated for their own development, not just someone else. Any thoughts or ideas?
On to another story that is happier---- I am now pretty much new best friends with the President of The Gambia. Let me explain, he just finished up his tour where he goes around the country talking to the people in different villages about development and problems that they are facing. I think it’s a wonderful idea. He made it to a village near mine…. I went a long with another PCV to go see the event… I dressed up in ALL green (the president’s political party color) and I had a t-shirt on with a huge picture of him on it that says “Thank You Mr. President”. When he drove by me in his hummer I was waving and screaming like a crazy person A.P.R.C!!!! A.P.R.C!!!! (the president’s political party) and he stopped his car and ordered a military man to give me biscuits. I was so excited I almost crapped my pants with excitement. Life here keeps getting more and more interesting. I love it.
Picture #1 my little sister Isatou playing in my rainboots.
Picture #2 the rain streeming from my front porch.
1 comments:
hi aminata i recognise dis house is minteh kunda where u are staying right
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