hello friends and family and anyone else looking at this blog. merry christmas and happy 2009. sorry it's been so long since i've updated. for those of yall who didn't know, i was able to come home for Christmas; it was great getting to visit everyone and trying to eat as much as i could. i'm sorry to those of you who i didn't get a chance to come visit. but no worries, i'll be back in a year and we can catch up over a latte then.

today i'm posting pictures of my morocco/spain trip, mail run (i got tour the entire country for a week while taking mail to all of the PCVs in Gambia), and some good stuff from village.


Vacation: Spain and Morocco

spain has good food: olives, cheese, bread, and wine.

DONUTS and COFFEE!!!!

enjoying lunch with my travel buddies.

spanish people apparently love pork. that stuff

was everywhere!

CHEESE! ellie and i were excited.

ps - though it may look like it, am not stealing

cheese, i was putting the camera case back in

my bag.

my best attempt at looking like a trendy spanish

person.

traditional tent we slept in while in the desert.
yeah, i know it was really touristy of us to do...
but i still liked it, so there!



two thugs ready for our ride in the benz.
this is a grande taxi four people in the back seat,
two plus the driver in front.





me on a camel.




scarves for sale. i thought it was quite arty.
the nutral color of the earth with all of the
bright colors of the fabric.





enjoying the sunrise in the desert. the sunset
was pretty awesome too.





shopping for handmade moroccan carpets. the
building was just as beautiful as the rugs.




these were in my opinion the most beautiful
pattern for rugs in morocco. i wanted to get
one but apperently other people like them too
b/c rugs of this style are super expensive.

typical place selling pottery; plates, bowls, etc.

someone told me that this is the third largest

mosque in the world. i am not sure if that is true

but it was HUGE and really beautiful.

I like to call this one "meat and sneaks". please

that you can get your tennis shoes right next to

where you buy your raw cow parts.

hiking in a gorge. it was really fun, except that

i was still feeling a little under the weather, thanks

to the food poisoning i had the day before.

some women of a nomadic tribe.

if all roads lead to one what happens if there are

no roads? apparently it doesn't matter, you just

drive 50mph anyway.

in the sahara desert. it was cold.

having a one on one with my camel.

near the coast. please not the boats are primary

colors (my favorite!)





coastal town in morocco. lovin the blue everything.

nice little sunset over the atlantic.

Back in The Gambia

good roads are hard to find.

i'm assuming this guy learned that you can't

drive a small car through a lake.

this used to be a road. now it's a ditch.

hard at work. please note matching american flag

outfits. our shrits have chickens on them. we got

more compliments on our clothes that day!

we found a trash can in the market. only one

other person had used it.




my gambian name is matida, but i go by tida.

sounds like tina, but with a "d" instead of n.
its pretty common for people to have someone

named after them. i was named after someone.

and this little girl was named after me. the name

also runs in her dad's family.

here is one way to cross the river that i choose

not to try. i'll stick with the big ferries. these are

fishing boats that are being used as passanger

boats b/c it was one of the busiest travel days

of the year. everyone likes to be home for the

holidays.

On mail run, we played a little game to keep

ourselves amused. we gave the PCV a blank

piece of paper and told them to write something

on it, anything they wanted. then we took pictures

with them.
also, mandy and i dress in matching clothes everyday.

overall typical: gele overloaded on top with back

door open (while moving) and a woman in nice

clothes walking through muddy streets.

my host mom

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