Nothing much

Not much news out of the Gambia. But I suppose that is kind of like normal life. Once you get used to a place things stop surprising you or don't seem blog worthy after awhile. That's good as far as I'm concerned because I assume that means I'm well adjusted. Maybe not so good for the people back home who want to hear interesting stories. But I'll keep trying to put out the good ones as we go along. If you have any questions that's the best way to get more bang for your buck. For now here are some random snipits

Lately work has been moving along at a good clip. I have been in the capitol all day getting some estimates for a solar water pump, panels, and tank for the Beekeepers office. We also had lunch to send off one of our college's that is ex peace corps but back working with the Beekeepers. He is headed back to the states soon.

The weather here is fluctuating quite a bit now. Some days its still killer hot and some days its not too bad. Some nights I'm still sweating but some nights are nice and cool I'm just waiting for the shift all the way to "cool". That will be nice.

Here are some interesting things that you probably didn't know about The Gambia I just noticed/found out recently.

Whenever the president flys in or out of the country the close the entire road from the airport too his house for several hours and all the ambassadors from all the nations represented in the country must go to greet him or see him off at the airport.

Sometimes you see solders on the side of the road or in trucks carrying the standard issue AK-47 or a similar weapon but sometimes they don't have any magazines (bullets).

In the Gambia you can wear sandals anywhere even to the most formal meetings (Im taking full advantage of that one)

My Gambian surname (Jurju) is traditionally a name of the ethnic group Jola, but I lived with a Mandinka family that has that surname so every time I introduce myself I have to explain why im speaking Mandinka not Jola.

I feel safer walking down any street in the Gambia at night then I do walking through some parts of Shalimar at night.

You can eat barracuda in the Gambia (and most of west Africa) and its supposed to be delicious. But you can't eat it in many other parts of the world because they feed on reef fish which contain ciguatoxin.

You are not supposed to write in the dirt, buy salt or whistle at night among other things for superstitions reasons.

You can deep fry almost anything if you put your mind to it. Hear are some of the ones you might not have tried but we have here. Cabbage, Egg Plant, Carrots, Hot Dogs, and Cucumbers.

In the entire time I've been in The Gambia I have only seen one Gambian woman smoking a cigarette.

That's enough of that.

Next week we are have our Thanksgiving meal, 40th anniversary of the PC in The Gambia celebration, and an All Volunteer meeting in the capitol. So that should be partially fun and partially a pain in the ass but hopefully mostly fun. Lydia and I got the hook up and are going to stay at the acting ambassadors house which should be pretty nice. We might even get to watch the Gator vs. FSU game on satellite TV if were luck. Go gators!