So I guess I should start with an introduction. I'm Brian Bartley. I work for the U.S. Government as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia,
First things first. It’s really hard to get to
Second. Training. You train for a really long time. You train in country. You train in a small village. You eat the local food and only the local food during training. I was in an area that spoke exclusively the local language. For us it was a bit of a baptism by fire. Full emersion into a community forces you to learn the language and to get used to your new living environment. All of the local languages use sounds that I have never herd or made before (for example you, or this sort of false m and n sound leading in the your hard g) and that takes a long time to understand/hear/and a lot off trial and error to get your pronunciation correct enough for people to understand what you are saying. The good news is Peace Corps really does hire the best teacher's in the host country and your LCF's (language and cultural facilitator's aka teachers) really make training worth it. Tech training also prepares you for just about anything you could come up with. They also keep training you every couple of months during your service. All and all training gives you tones of support, tones of opportunities to learn and a great foundation to start your service. In my training group not one of 35 people decided to go home before service.
Third village. I live in a small town, of about 1000, in the smallest country in all of
Lastly My Job. I am an environmental volunteer witch means I encourage people to use sustainable land practices, facilitate villagers with agroforesty projects, help out in schools, help connect the village connect with ngo's that can offer aid, plant lots of tree’s, and adult education particularly nonformula environmental education. Lots of other stuff too. I also will be doing some work helping out the governments National Environment Agency. my day's so far start at a little after call to pair, im in the Muslim world out here which means very little liquor and a early wake up call everyday, and go seed collecting wile the sunrise's. That’s usually the highlight of my day. The sunrises are beautiful. I get back in time for breakfast typically a delicious rice and peanut portage, read, drink coffee on my parch and great all the nabors I see. Dig a compost pit or build a local bea hive (feels suspiciously like basket weaving because it’s a big grass cylinder roughly the size and shape of a laundry basket) help out in the garden and other such things.
Out if time got to go turns out I ran out of time at the internet café and have got to go
Sunday, January 10, 2010
nity grity dirt band
fine print
the content of this website is mine alone. it is composed of my opinions and they are in no way reflective of the views or policies of the U.S. Peace Corps or the U.S. Government
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