We celebrated the 4th of July by getting together with other volunteers and crying over the fact that we weren’t at home shooting fireworks or consuming large quantities of hamburgers, hot dogs, and watermelon. Only kidding – We rented a boat and took it out on the Gambia River! Although we may not have eaten any of those things we did have an ‘American Legends’ theme and lots of Gambia’s finest – Julbrew. It was a lot of fun.
Me (aka Jackie O) and Jen (aka Martha Stewart) infront of a restaurant called Omars that loves Peace Corps Volunteers
Boarding the boat!
We also did a split triathalon. I swam, ben rode the bike portion, and Jessica our site mate ran. Jessica grew up in Houston and lived in Dallas after graduating and now lives a mere 7k away from our village, small world. Our team name was team Texas and we did not win but all of us completed our respective portions so we were happy.
Living in Africa, makes you feel very proud to be an American. One night, we were talking with Solo and he started talking about the recent riots around the world. He said something like O when will Africa be united? When will we stop the stupid fights and join together? And I asked him what he meant by that, the riots are fighting for a better government not for no reason at all. He said, Oh so you agree with riots and fighting? And I said no, peaceful protests are always better than violence. Then I asked him if he knew how America came to be a country. He did not, so I fulfilled my patriotic duty for the month and briefly explained how we got our Independence. Afterwards, I explained how as an American I could never tell someone not to fight for what they believe in. It is inherent to our cultural beliefs, like McDonalds or Starbucks ;).
We actually did not have fireworks in Texas either, at least in Austin.. major drought and very very hot summer. 108 all week, do not know the temperature in the Gambia, but just letting you know fireowrks are not something you missed out on this year. :)
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