| The Gambia |
| U.S. Peace Corps |
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| U.S. Peace Corps The Gambia was 30 years old the year my group landed on the hot tarmac of the Gambian airport. My group consisted of education, health and natural resource volunteers. Since I have a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications, the P.C. felt my services were best spent in the natural resouce sector...naturally. |
| P.C. head office in Kombo, The Gambia |
| After our swearing-in ceremony, each of us set off to our "own" villages, to help out where our talents would be most useful. Me? Well, I tried a bit of everything. I tried planting trees, helped with a village well project, taught a few classes, helped build bee hives, painted some murals on the school walls, conducted a mud stove project and built a pier in the Gambian River (for my own sanity). Aside from these, I spent a lot of time in my hut, fanning myself and staring at the walls... |
| The first two months were spent in training villages, where 3-4 volunteers lived, learned the local language, and tried out the new techniques we learned in the weekly training classes, for our sector. I lived in Jattaba, with two education volunteers, Michelle Elsbury, and Vonnie White. Within the first week, our villagers gave us "African names," at a naming ceremony. My name was Lamin Touray. Lamin, meaning first son, and Touray was the family's surname, with which I lived. |
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