Almost done in town.

Well, we have not even been here a week but we are almost ready to head out to the villages where we will be learning language over the next 2 months. The last few days have been more training but we have also had some other excursions. A few highlights were as follows.

On Sunday we all went down to the beach to had a relaxing day. We met some other volunteers there and just got to see the beach. There were people playing soccer on the beach and others just hanging out in the water or in hammocks. Everybody was ready for a break.

Monday we went to the Crocodile Pool. This is a sacred pool near here that has..... Crocodiles. Surprising I know. Anyway. The history of this place goes way back and its thought that if infertile women come to the pool and bathe with the water that they will become fertile. Many people still come from all over to do this. The crocs are fed regularly so they dont eat the tourist and people are allowed to pet them. These are fairly small crocs since the size of the pool is small but I have heard there are much larger ones in the rivers. We will have to wait to see those.

Today we went to the main market. This is the largest market in the country. Very busy and anything you want to buy you can find. There are hundreds of stalls selling anything from fish to hats. The walkways are narrow and winding and you could easily get lost if you dont know where your headed. Anyway we all used it as an opportunity to work on our language and bartering skills. Everyone is very happy and willing to help you in general here, but if they know you are trying to learn the language they love to help you out even more. They will quiz you on your greetings (a very big deal in The Gambia) and will help you get it right. Throughout the market when Lydia was shopping or something and I had nothing to do I would just try talking to some people near by and they were always happy to teach.

As I said earlier we are getting ready to leave Kambo. This is a relatively developed area. The village where we are going and fairly remote with no power or running water so you probably wont see too many posts over the next few months. The trip to the villages is <90km and will take us more than 4-5 hours due to the bad roads and transport. Hopefully when I get done there I will be much better at speaking Mandinka. Apparently the kids are the best teachers. Much of our time there will be spent hanging out with our host family and working on the language and culture. We will also be working on various other things while there.

Thats about it for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Write some letters if you get bored I can still get those while im at the village. I will try to do the same. Later.