Pictures from my training village

I thought I would try to post a couple of pictures.  The internet seems to be moving ok since most of the volunteers from my class are up country visiting their permanent sites before they return for the rest of training.  The first picture is of my family from the training village.  From left to right is Fatou who is almost 18.  Next comes MaMa who is a niece/cousin from Senegal.  Roxey is the 13 year old daughter and then sums toma ( my namesake) Kumba Joof.

This was taken at the local pre-school.  A class had won first prize in something and they were having a major party to celebrate.  It varied but many of the girls took this as an opportunity to get dressed up to the max.  Sequins and spangles were the order of the day along with lots of make-up, even on younger girls.  MaMa came back from Senegal with Kumba, after Kumba had gone to visit Base, her younger daughter who is staying with her grandmother for the summer.  I bought, how interesting, they have a name that sound like our short name for mother.  Well, lo and behold that is also shirt for mother here.  Mama has the same name as Kumba's mother so this family calls her Mama.  I think MaMa has a potential career as a fashion model.  She has that Imam look.

Here is a better picture of suma toma (do you remember what that means) and her middle daughter.

In the first picture, Fatou still has her braids and extensions. But a couple of days before I left for the transit house, she was busy taking her braids out and sawing at the extensions with a dull carving knife.

The fruit below is the the fruit of the cashew tree.  The cashew nut is hanging off the bottom of the fruit.  The nut is actually poisonous until it is roasted.  To me looking at this I can't believe how little cashews cost.  It looks pretty labor intensive to me.  You are not supposed to harvest them until the fruit falls from the tree.  Trust me it does.  We were sitting under a cashew tree for one of our classes and a couple of people got bonked.

The picture below is a snail at the "resort" we have used for PCT training.  These fellows come out at dusk and are out throughout the night.  As you can see they are rather large.  I wear a size 9 1/2 shoe so you can see how he shapes up in comparison.

Sideways view of mangoes growing in my family's compound

Here's a picture of my neighborhood donkey who helps me wake up in the morning.

 Last but not least here is a picture of two babies.  They are typical of the African babies.  They are all pudgy while being breast fed.  BTW,  the mom closest to you is chewing on a chew stick, the Gambian equivalent of a toothbrush.

Mbaa nelew nga bu baax.