The Tournament

Sorry for the time in between my posts. This is my second attempt tonight at putting this up. The first didn’t go through, which is a bunch of BS!!!!! So I have been very busy lately working on one of the biggest things I have put together in my life! With the help of 3 awesome volunteers in my region (North Bank Region)-(NBR) we are working on an amazing project. We are currently working on a North Bank soccer tournament with positive deviance messages at halftime of all the games. So far we are kicking so much ass with this. The tournament will consist of 13 games in 2 groups with a semi-final and final taking place in the largest city in our region Farafenni. The messages that will be addressed will be HIV/AIDS, Environmental Issues (not selected yet), Food Security, and one topic to be chosen by The Department of Youth Affairs and Sports in the NBR. So far we have built a great relationship with The Youth Affairs people, which recently sent in the budget 2 days before the deadline we requested (not a Gambian norm). As of now we have been running with this for several months without any bumps along the way. The hardest obstacle is still to come…funding! Currently I am in the capital until Friday morning working on this stuff. Right now we want to have this thing ready in 20 days and running by January or February of next year. Also, hopefully before my service is finished we will have a national model up and running with Gambians running the show and Peace Corps stepping back.
Other than that still waiting to work on projects October is ruthlessly hot no rain, insane humidity, and absolutely no cloud cover! So of course everyone just stays inside. I am trying to get my host father to help me the chicken coop, work on my main project that I discussed in the last post, and get a coop built for some duck and future guinea fowls. Also, the PCV before had a dog. The dog was there when I arrived. The dog was recently killed on the road. R.I.P. Ernest I dedicate this post to you. Otherwise, I am happy and doing well, the health is good and so is life. Oh, I and a few others are going to Mali in December for two weeks life is good.

P.S. All these Gambians kept saying that a wonderful Toubab like me needs a Gambian wife. At first I let it go. Well, recently I thought about and meet a girl that can cook…We are getting married soon! I am kidding…or am I?