Kambiya!

Hi All!
Made it! I have arrived in the hustle and bustle of Banjul, The Gambia amoungst the crowd of 24 other Peace Corps Volunteers that are in my program. The flight was great, the easiest one yet, slept most of the way and woke up to us flying over the Sahara. A beautiful and endless mass of sand stretching out across the horizon. We've been in Gambia for a solid day now and its been very hot and humid. Hotter than I thought and I'm very happy that I brought so many light clothes. We've spent our first real day getting interviewed by the bosses and beginning our training in language. The language training is so much fun! Lots of good phrases that are sending my tongue and lips in directions that they never thought they could. Its really exciting and our Gambian teachers are great, full of smiles and happy to meet people. Were spending about a week in the greater Banjul area getting orientated to the country and then off to Tendaba Camp where we will partake in our next round of training. The line up of things they have for us looks really good, field trips to stone circles, croccadile parks, and other such locales. We're finding out tomorrow what language we will be speaking so I'll be either speaking Wolof or Mandinka I think. I hope all of you are well and enjoying life! Lots of Love from this end!
-N

Spending the last days of summer cruising around on my brothers lobster boat. My Dad, Eben and I spent Sunday out on Damariscove Island off of Boothbay hiking around and trying not to step on all of the dead seal bodies in various states of decomposition lying on the rocks. It seems there's been a big die off recently probably due to over population and disease. Less than a week left till I'm off to The Gambia, its now packing time. I've officially started a list, which I've found to be hugely beneficial in remembering things. The only problem is remembering where I put the list! Hope all of you are well. -N

Hi all,
Well here it is, I've taken the big step and am writing my adventures down and sending them out into the world for all of you to read. I'm off to the Gambia with the Peace Corps in just over a week so I'm mentally preparing my self for a long stint of saving the children, partaking in back-breaking labour, and long spells of idleness as I've come to find out. The Gambia looks like its going to be an interesting place to live for the next couple of years, seemingly full of contrasts to the daily life I've become used to here in Maine. Its a predominantly Muslim country if you didn't know and incredibly poor, ranking somewhere around 160 out of the 170 poorest countries in the world. Most likely I'll be living in a family compound without running water or electricity which will certainly slow down the pace of life. The Peace Corps has been fairly vague about my role in the Gambia, but I've been placed in the agricultural progam which ranges from developing alternative methods for cooking fuel, bee keeping, community garden plot development, and other things along those lines. It looks like I will be come a real development worker like all of those books and journals described in university. Lots to look forward to in this future of mine. At the moment, home life is where I'm at, bouncing around, doing a bit of sailing on our old sloop and also a bit of hiking here and there. I got to go back and visit up in old Halifax a week ago and its still as great as it always was. Its just missing the old characters which have now spread out across the world on so many different continents. And if any of you were wondering, the chicken shwarma at Venus Pizza is still as good as ever! Amazing really. I hope all of you are well where ever you may be
Lots of love