Heading up country.

I want to wish you all a happy and safe Christmas!!! I will be thinking of and missing you all very much.

Andrea thanks for sending a photo of you and booz, I've missed him.

I head up country to my site in the next few days and I'll be there for 3 months so "snail mail". I'm planning on writing lots of letters and will be able to with training being done. I have to say that my job will be challenging and I'm looking forward to my new home and village.

My phone is up and running (see your e-mails for the number:)

It's official I'm a Peace Corp Volunteer!!! I swore in today with the rest of my group.




Sending much love from The Gambia!!!!!
Big fat Christmas hugs,
Amber

PS I noticed if you click on the photo's it blows them up for you:)

Heading out soon.

Sitting on the main S. highway.

How are you all doing? I can't believe it Dec. I'm picturing you all bundled up against the cold and the holiday season is in full swing. Here it is still about 90 degrees during the day and around 75+ at night. Well I'm in Kombo (what they call the city area) for another week, which is full of more training.


My Peace Corps crew. They're awesome!

At the end of the week I will go to the markets to gather up all the stuff I will need for the next two years (things like a stove, bed, dishes, etc.) then I will head out to my official site which is on the South side of the country right off the Gambian highway. It's a sweet little village and my host family (Njie's) are awesome!! They are so happy, kind and thoughtful. I'm the 14 volunteer they've hosted so they understand Americans a little more than most, so that's nice. My job is working with Kiang West National Park, Gambia's biggest natural park. As far as my work...it's wide open. I'll do what ever is needed, which is a lot. It's a beautiful park with lots of hiking and wildlife (African wildlife:)


My Thanksgiving in a really fancy home with all the PCV's in The Gambia. Sorry it's blurry.

I LOVE my house! It's big with a little back yard that's big enough for a small garden and my home is shaded by a big tree. I'm really eager to get done with training, move into my place, unpack the suitcase I've been living out of, start to get to know my family and community better and start some actual work. I will be in my village for the next three months solid (PC calls this the 3 month challenge) it's a crucial time to get to know your community and for them to get to know you.


Hiking with a boy.


Rice field art.

I will not be able to write during this time or anytime that I'm at my "site" because there are no computers by or in my village but I will be getting a cell phone in the next couple of days so a chat is very likely. I will be heading into the Kombo area at least once every month though so I will continue to write and post photo's after 3 month challenge.

Write again before I leave.
Big hugs,
Amber



PS Any names or details (my phone number, name of my village, etc) will be sent to personal e-mail accounts. That's just the way its got to be.

Hello from the bush. Yes I have falled in once or twice.

Hello to you all!!!

1st: I'm safe, well, healthy, very happy and kicking ass.
2nd: Both Gambia and Gambians are/is very beautiful, kind and hilarious. The peace that has been held in The Gambia for centuries is soley based on the joking relationships they have established amongst the different families and each other. It is both silly and sarcastic so I fit right in.
3rd: I've been "biririn baake" or very busy (as they say in Mandinka).



The fallowing is Amber's Gambian List:
Note: this is a breakdown...so put on some beats.

-For the last 2 months or so I've been in a small training village up country. There I lived with a host family the Samates. I had one father, 3 mothers and 13 brothers and sisters all living in the same compound. The family was very good to me.
-Mornings consisted of waking to "the call to prayer" at about 6:15am from a speaker at the mosque. I love waking in this way, a soft chanting in Arabic which puts me in a mood for Morocco.

-Nature in the Gambia can make me cry it's so beautiful.
-It's hot, all day everyday.

-I bath under open skies.
-I go to the village pump, fill a bucket and walk back with it carrying it on my head.

-I've mastered brewing attaya, the local tea that is a social event and takes some skill to do.
-Bugs, bugs everywhere, sometimes one flies in my eye.
-My feet will never be clean again.
-Thank God for my journal, camera, music and bike.

-I think about Lisa and the baby everyday.
-It's like I'm camping every night with my trusty headlamp/candles.
-Mosquito's love me here just as much as they did back home (thank goodness for my malaria med's).
-I really like Mandinka and hope to speak it very well.

-I love the kids and some of us have a on going game of tag throughout the village. I never win...fast little buggers.
-I've never seen the moon so bright, I don't need a flashlight at night.

-Livestock (chickens, donkeys and goats) are free roaming, sometimes they even sleep on your porch.
-I don't think I'll ever get sick of peanut butter.
- Rice poorage for breakfast. Rice with peanut sauce, veggies and chicken for lunch. Rice and fish sauce for dinner. All very delouse!

-When it rains it pours and is complemented by plenty of thunder and lighting.
-I dance with children very day (while in village).
-When I clime in to bed and my mosquito net encompasses me I feel like I'm in one of my childhood forts...every single night.

-Wait...did I just trip over a donkey tail in the road. Yep I sure did.
-I never really appreciated my health until I came here.
-Crickets chirp me to sleep every night (they are in my room).

-Andrea and beautiful people of the Janzen Morgue...I received your package...I love it...and was much needed. Thank you a hundred times over.
-My gambian name in Talaa Njie.

I'm heading back into the bush and my permanent site on Dec. 9th (I'll write more on that in a day or so).

Big fat hugs from me in the bush!!!
Amber




Oh PS I'll be buying a cell phone before I leave so phone calls will be possible:)

Off to my training village.

It's so good to hear from you all! Thanks for sending your love. Tomorrow I'm off to my training village that located in the center of the country. There my language, cross-culture and tech. skills will improve immensely. For the last week I (as well as my follow trainees) have been in the Kombo area, which is the general city area of West/coastal Gambia. Although it still feels like Africa, leaving this area will be much different, authentic and "old world". I will have my very own hut within a family compound. I'm very excited!!

This will probably be the last time I can write on my blog spot for the next 8 weeks because there is no internet access in the training village. So start sending you letters! After training my time will open up immensely and I'll be able to elaborate on the tiny/cool details and post lots of pics too. Sending love to you all!
Hugs.

PS Congratulations baby sis!!!!!!!!! love you.

Braken in.

I miss you all! This has to be quick unfortunately, eight others are waiting to write home. I had a fantastic birthday here in The Gambia. My follow volunteers sang me Happy Birthday 6 times (all by surprise) through out the day.

I've been assigned my language, Mandinka it is. It's the wides language spoken here in Gambia. My teachers name in Muhammidoo and he is very fun.

I, along with several others have been "broken in". I've just got over the big sickness that everyone is expected to go through but I'm all better now.

I will write more before heading out to the training village (this Friday). Send me your letters!

Big hugs!

PS Lisa so glad to hear it (about jess). So know what the baby is yet?

I'm here in The Gambia safe and sound!

Hello to you all. I'm having an amazing time with all the new scenery, food and language. It is so beautiful! I can't write for long because others are waiting for the computer but I will write more later. I can say that the urban wildlife is fun...lizards on the walls, big beautiful spiders, African vultures circling over head and I've already stepped out in the middle of the night to experience my first rain storm. I am very safe and I'm well looked after. I have no worries what so ever and already feel at home. The people are very friendly and smile easily. I have a feeling that my job will be to write and teach wildlife curriculum. I'm so in love with the idea but we will see if it's to be soon. I'm going to The Gambia coast on Sunday so my B-day will be one to remember. Again the people in my group are all wonderful and I'm happy to have them as piers. Big hugs from Africa!!! Write again soon.

Hello to you from Philly!!

Peace Corps training has officially begun and I have met the other 24 environmental volunteers that I'll be training with, all of which have a good sense of humor and seem like wonderful people. Tomorrow is the last day of orientation and Wed. we start our immunizations and our journey to The Gambia. Wednesday afternoon we will be driving to JFK airport where we will begin are way across the Atlantic, with a stop in Brussels, then we make are way to Banjul. We will all stay a week in the capital where we will continue with training, go on field trips and embrace culture sock. Then the 24 of us will split into smaller groups of 4 or 5 and venture to a training village up country for the following 2 months.

As for me... I am surprising myself for I am clam, cool and collected. I'm very excited but with hardly any anxiety (I'm sure this will change soon), instead I have this "lets get this show on the road" attitude.

As for now my fellow trainees and I are getting to know each other (they come from all over the US with various backgrounds and ages) and have been soaking up the last pleasantries the US has to offer. It is also wonderful that the Peace Corps has set us up in a nice hotel so we can thoroughly enjoy our last days in the good old US of A.
Big fat hugs to you all.

Starting to really sink in.

I leave for Africa in about a month and it's starting to sink in what my experiences may be. I've been reading up on The Gambia and journals from Peace Corps volunteers, the things I've read have confirmed speculations on how amazing and crazy it will be in every aspect. I'm more excited than ever but with that come nervousness.