The Gambia -- Life in SEASON |
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One day I will disappear in yellowed stalks of coos lose myself in the maze One day I will fuse with jags of summer lightning electrify the thunderstorms One day I will run down clay red roads at dawn grow wings with the sunrise One day I will lay me down in this river of mud one with the flowing earth. |
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Bolong next to Illiasa |
Aja and Sherif, the youngest in my family compound, hangin' out in the corn |
The Bah family at Yallal, using a donkey to fetch water from the well. |
Sisters, Miriama, Aminata, and Safi pound millet, a staple grain in The Gambia. |
"What any of us had come to see or do fell away. We found ourselves at each turn with what we had not imagined." --Barry Lopez |
My Peace Corps experience in The Gambia, a tiny worm-shaped country in West Africa, began in October of 2000. I spent my first year as an Environment volunteer in the village of Njohnen. At the beginning of my second year I moved to Yallal Tankonjala and stayed with Samba Bah and his family. This site is dedicated to the Bah family, with me in my mind's eye. To Da Mai and Da Ramata, Mariama, Safi, Ami & Ami, Aja, Sherrif, Citi, and Samba--thank you for sharing your lives and making me one of your own. |
Market day at Kerr Pateh where everything from buckets to bananas and rice bags to rams was sold. |