Welcome to Winter in The Gambia!

Well it's finally November and you can tell winter is coming!! Certainly not the winter I'm used to but definately winter for The Gambia; apparently winter starts near the end of November but it's already starting to cool right down by around 5 or 6 in the evening and I LOVE it!!! It's still hot during the day but not as hot as it used to be so I'm very happy...can you tell?!?!

Life has been moving along; work is picking up a fair bit now, money from the donors finally came in so there is actually work to do! There are so many activities on the go for November and December as well as people traveling outside The Gambia for trainings and workshops; I truly dont' know how everything is going to get accomplish....or accomplished properly I should say but I know that they will manage, they always do. There are going to be a couple of trainings upcountry as well so I'm hoping I will get taken along for the ride. There is one coming up at the end of November and it looks like I'll be spending my Birthday in Bansang (actually it will probably be spent on the road); it will be an interesting way to celebrate turning a quarter of a century!

I'm also very excited because on Friday one of the Programme Officers asked me to implement one of her trainings. Of course I won't actually be running the training but I get to do all the planning and logistics; basically everything from finding and confirming the venue and planning the activities for the day, choosing and inviting the resource persons and so on. I suppose it sounds a little crazy to be excited about such a thing consider it will probably be a lot of work considering everything else that is going on at the same time but this is the first time in 3 months that I'll actually be learning something useful!

Well enough about work, I've spent most of the weekend so far just relaxing; I will probably go to the market tomorrow to check out some fabric...I love being able to pick out fabric and take it to the tailor and make anything I want for a relatively cheap price! Then I'll probably spend the rest of the day lounging by the pool or maybe taking a stroll along the beach. Spent all last weekend at the beach; myself and a few of the VSOs went to Kartong. Kartong is a beach "town"that is just near the Senegalses border, it is approximately 2 hours from where I live by public transit. One of the girls had a couple of tents borrowed from the British High Commission so we set up the tents on the beach and camped out under the stars. Sounds a little cliche but it was beautiful; the beach certainly isn't as beautiful as some I've seen but it was very nice, you could see thousands of stars and the moon was so bright that you could walk around the beach and didn't need a flashlight. Even during the day the beach was totally deserted, it was just the four of us...and the guy who wanted to marry me but that's besides the point. It was a very nice way to spend the weekend; went back to work on Monday a little burnt but very relaxed!

Well I guess that's about it for now....I am currently working on uploading some photos onto facebook; it seems that it is a very slow process but there are a few there and I will try to add some more. Anyway, I hope this note finds everyone well.

Take Care and Until Next Time,