Ding Dong the bells are gonna chime . . .

Get me to the church . . . get me to the church . . . get me to the church on time!!! One of the drama troop members at NSGA got married over the weekend! I was invited to the wedding reception and it was great fun. I had no idea I was going until the last minute when I was invited so unfortunately I was not dressed properly for a wedding reception. I looked like John Belushi in Animal House because I had been working all day! But no one seemed to mind and luckily no one passed out from standing next to me. The wedding reception was held outside because lets face it why wouldn't you have an outdoor party when the weather is great? There was plenty of music and dancing. Don't worry there are several photos of me out on the dance floor to prove to the world what a horrible dancer I am. At least I tried and everyone got a kick out of seeing me dance with the band! There was a live band for the first half of the reception and they were awesome. The drummer was using drum heads that were cracked and his symbols looked like some dog had been nawing at them but somehow he made it work. I wonder who the first wedding singer ever was? Is Neil Diamond a descendant from this person? Is that were he learned to dress? How come in the Bible during the wedding feast at Canan there is no mention of the wedding singer? I guess Elvis Costello was right " Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, it's a really stupid thing to want to do." African women love to get dressed up and they change their hair styles more often then Donald Trump changes suits. Sometimes I can't even recognize a woman I know because her hair has changed so drastically. There were many beautiful dresses at the wedding reception with very elaborate patterns on them. The food at the wedding reception was just as good as the music. Nothing compares to good old fashioned barbecued chicken. You can't go wrong with that! Before I left I congratulated the newly married couple and wished them the best. I also slipped a little something in the hand of the groom as a small gift! No it wasn't a PEZ dispenser!!! Good old fashioned cash. Something any newly married couple anywhere in the world can use! Ciao

O Canada . . .

I spent most of last week working with the new Canadian volunteers who arrived. I went around town with them and tried to answer as many questions as possible. It's amazing that just nine weeks ago I was asking the exact same questions as them. Now it's my turn to be the one trying to answer all the questions. They are a very fun group and I'm sad that I only got to spend a week and a half with them. It would have been great fun to get to know them better but so it goes. The Canadian volunteers went through a quick one week orientation before they started teaching in the summer schools. The summer school program at NSGA runs five weeks and educates students from around the country on health issues ranging from STI's to Diabetes. Glad I don't have to teach either of those subjects! I'm still working on the data for the Bed Net Dipping Campaign and I believe it may take a miracle to finish the work before I leave. I'm glad that I continue to be busy at work because I would hate to spend my last days here just sitting around doing nothing. If there is work that needs to be done I'm your man. It will be tough to say goodbye to all the friends I have made and I'm not sure how I will find time to say goodbye to everyone but I will do my best! Now that my time is up everyone wants me to come over to their house for dinner. I wonder if I could manage four dinners in four different places in one night? I know I could eat four dinners that's the easy part! Ciao

Bed net dipping campaign

I spent all last week speaking with students about their involvement in the mass bed net dipping campaign beginning Tuesday. I visited 6 schools to speak with the students and called over 100 students on the phone. Everything is in place and ready to go. All the students know where they are supposed to go and what their responsible for doing. My job this week will be to travel to different dipping sites all over the country and monitor how things are going. I will also be collecting data throughout the week which I will then bring back to the office to enter into our larger data files. The collection of data and information is extremely helpful in assessing how many people we are reaching in every town. I can say from personal experience this past week that entering data into Excel spreadsheets and making charts is very time consuming. Sometimes you feel like the clock on the wall is moving backwards instead of forwards. And the pile of papers in front of you never seems to get any smaller. everytime I think I'm almost done someone brings me more information to enter. Don't we have robots that can do this? I'm writing a letter to Microsoft when I get back telling them I would appreciate it if they could develop a robot to type and enter data into computers for me. On Friday I had the chance to meet with a local artist after work to view some of his artwork. He invited me over to his house for dinner and to view his paintings. I spent many hours looking through many beautiful paintings of all sizes. This man makes his living by painting signs for local businesses and organizations. I could see that he was extremely talented and odviously had been painting for a long time. I ended up buying two pieces of artwork from him which he tried to give to me as a gift but I insisted on paying him for them. It is difficult to make a living as an artist and this is why I felt compelled to support a local artist. I myself enjoying painting when I get the chance which lately is very rarely. I think meeting with this man has inspired me to start painting again. I know I can find the time if I just try to make time for myself. On Saturday eight volunteers from Canada arrived to help out with the summer school programs here at NSGA. We had a nice reception for them so they could meet the staff they will be working with for the next 6 weeks. It's funny how they are just arriving as I am preparing to leave in less than two weeks. Well I don't know if " funny" is the right word but ya know what I mean! Ciao

Market Day

Over the weekend I had a chance to visit one of the local markets. I went with my friend Modou who is familiar with the market. Anything you need to buy you can find at the market. This is like a Mall in the US. The streets were bustling with people and there were trucks on every corner unloading there goods. There were so many people I could barely take a step without landing on the back of someone's heel. I found some great local music which everyone can enjoy when I return and some cool gifts as well. One thing Modou and I noticed was that whenever I tried to buy something the sellers would bump up the price. This infuriated Modou to the point that we just walked away. He was angry that people were trying to take advantage of me because of the color of my skin. The Sellers assumed that since I was white I must be a rich tourist. Modou would look at a shirt and the seller would tell him it costs 300 Dalasi. Later on that day I would try to buy the exact same shirt from the same person. Only for me the shirt would cost 700 Dalasi. Modou couldn't believe how greedy people could be towards there fellow man. I think this is the first time in my life where my skin color did not work to my advantage. It made me think of all the things other people who are not the same skin color as me must go through. I can't even imagine what this does to the psyche of a person when they have this happen to them repeatedly every day! That day taught me the true impact that discrimination can have on a person. This is not the first time that I have tried to buy something or travel somewhere and have the price raised. Many times I have to argue with Taxi drivers about what the appropriate fare is supposed to be. There is no way you can explain to people here the concept of a " poor college student". They look at me and not only my skin color but my sneakers which most people here cannot afford. My pants that look brand new with no holes in them. My polo shirt that looks like I just walked out of the store with it. They are correct I'm no where near as poor as them. This is why most times I just keep walking instead of arguing with people. I have so much and they have so little. So why can't I give them everything I have? Why Can't I ? Ciao

Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Syd Barrett the founding member of Pink Floyd died Tuesday at the age of 60. I have to pay my respects to him for the great music he created with the rest of the band! Work has been going well we are preparing to conduct a mass bed net dipping campaign. We will have over 200 dipping sites were people can bring their bed nets to be dipped in insecticide that repels mosquitoes. We are still in the planning stages which is about as exciting as it sounds but it will be crucial for the success of our campaign. We are working out the logistics like how to advertise for the campaign and how to acquire the materials needed. One major problem we are facing is data collection. At each site we would like to record how many nets were dipped and who will be sleeping under the net. This is very difficult because we are relying on volunteer help and many volunteers are illiterate or at least have some difficulty with reading and writing. This means when we create our data collection sheets we must make them as basic as possible so people will be able to understand them. In the past volunteers were payed for their work but this year there is no money to pay the volunteers. This has significantly reduced the number of volunteers from last year. People here are used to getting payed for their work and don't fully understand the concept of working for free. To overcome this obstacle we have decided to ask the Peer Health educators in the Schools to help us. The students are required to do community service as part of their Peer Health program so we are asking the students to come through and help us. I spent the entire day today traveling around to many schools asking the Peer Health Educators for help. So far we have successfully recruited about 60 kids. We hope to start advertising the campaign starting Monday so time is running short but with the help of the PHE's I think this campaign will be a success. Way to go kids!!!!!!!! Ciao

The University of The Gambia

On Wednesday and Thursday I attended classes at The University of the Gambia. That's right I Philip Nicolo voluntarily went to school to attend classes. Something you would never imagine in your wildest dreams before this trip! It was great to experience college life in another country. There is no main campus to speak of and there are only two buildings for the faculty and administration. Most classes are conducted at the YMCA or the library. This means students must travel around to different places to go to class. Your 1st class might be at the YMCA and the second class might be at the Library while your third class is at an internet cafe down the street. This makes it very tough on the students and professors to have a normal class because you are always calling people who accidentally went to the wrong building or forgot where class was going to be. Aside from the logistical nightmare of traveling all over God's green earth to get to class everything was run like a normal class. The professor passed around a sign-in sheet and talked about the upcoming exams. Just like back home most students were asking " Can you give us the questions that will be on the exam?" and just like back home the professors would answer " No I can't give you the exact questions from the exam!". Some things are universal I guess. Each class was an hour and a half which is normal to some classes back home. But unlike home the students did not have access to computers or text books. All the information the students get is from their notes and hand outs from the teacher. This means you better pay attention and take good notes because you have no text book to rely on for information you may have missed. I even had my friend Lamin Gibba look at my notes during one class because he missed a section. That's right Philip Nicolo not only attended class voluntarily but he also took notes!! Is it a full moon tonight? I do know that the president here has declared another public holiday for Thursday and Monday. I wonder if this has anything to do with the upcoming election in September? Ciao

God Bless America

Since I will be at work tomorrow I will post a happy 4th of July message today,

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
" God Bless America, Land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans,
white with foam God bless America, My home sweet home.

I remeber the first baseball game after September 11th between the Phillies and the Braves. Before the game they had a moment of silence before the National Anthem and God Bless America. I remember during God Bless America they had a picture of Larry Bowa's face on the big screen. His face was streaked with tears as the song played. After the game a reporter asked him why he was crying during the song. Larry replied " Because I love this country" Thats exactly how I feel. If you can read thank a teacher. If you can read in English thank a veteran. Ciao

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

The rainy season has officially started and when it rains it comes down in buckets. It is very difficult to sleep when you have a tin roof and the rain keeps falling faster and faster. But the good thing about the rain is that it does cool everything down for a little while and it is actually pleasent to walk around outside. I'm not immedialty looking for the nearest shady spot! I'm still on holiday and enjoying my time off by relaxing and catching up on some sleep. This past weekend Fifa was running an anti-discrimination and anti-racism campagin. Before each game they had the captains of each team read statements saying why eliminating racism is important. I found it interesting that a fight broke out after the Argentina-Germany game. These are the same players who 2 hours earlier said we need to fight discrimination and here they are throwing punches at each other and cursing at each other. If we can't even get a soccer game to end in a civil manner how in the world will we ever end racism? Lets try having soccer matches that end in peace and then work on ending racism. Eating food at the schools and with families here in The Gambia has been very interesting for me. Growing up I was always tought that you clear your plate of all the food before you get up. I just assumed that the same principales applied here as well. But you know what happens when you assume! I was informed last week that here in The Gambia it is considered an insult if you give someone food and they ask for seconds. This is why most places you visit give you so much food that it is impossible for you to eat it all. So all this time I've been struggling trying to finsih all the food people gave me and it turns out I didn't have to. The few times I did manage to clean my plate people were stunned. They couldn't beleive what they had just witnesed. It was like a solar eclipse. Something they only see once a year! I guess that explains the puzzled look on their faces like " Well what do we do now? Do we give him more food? Have we insulted him?" But now I know so I will not cause any more cooks to have a heart attack!! Or myself for that matter!!

I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred, And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. Ciao

AU Summit

The African Union Summit is in full swing here in The Gambia and that means two things for me. First traveling anywhere will be a nightmare because they are closing the few paved road's we have for the traveling presidents. Second I will be on Holiday until Tuesday! President Jammeh has declared a national holiday for all Gambians until Tuesday. This ensures that I will have plenty of time to watch the World Cup without work getting in the way. I think it's great for The Gambia to host the AU Summit but at what cost? The Gambia financed 98% of the summit on their own. A fact the president here is very proud to share with anyone he sees. I think it's great that The Gambia is getting paved roads, street lights and extended electricity coverage because these things are fundamental for any developing nation. If you have no paved roads or electricity it makes it very difficult to conduct business. If you constantly have to use a generator to power your store or place of work that is just like having an added tax on top of your other taxes. This is why basic things like electricity and passable roads are crucial for development. If you cannot reach a community because there is no paved road how can you help them? I just hope The Gambians can recoup that 98% they shelled out to host the summit. My guess is they will not but as I mentioned paved roads and electricity are a step in the right direction. I think I will enjoy these next few days off by visiting the beach and the golf course. Yes I found a golf course out here in The Gambia and I couldn't be happier. Even though with the lack of rain most of the course is a sand trap! Ciao