Me Reading

Figured I'd throw a picture of myself up here. I know I've got that rather unflattering one up below, but I like this one better. Colleen took it while I was at her place - notice the decorative* socket, there are light sockets & bulbs to go with it.

* Decorative in the sense that she doesn't have power. Used to be power there, but no longer, the town generator kicked.

The Evolution of Geekdom

So I've been promising to post a picture of our power setup for awhile and figured I should actually do so already. We've managed to get an internet connection as well, which is big. The local cellular company just started offering it, and the connection is selling like hotcakes, so it was hard to get ahold of one of the modems. But now we've got it and even though the connection is slow it is wonderful to have. We likely just need a signal booster because of the trees around the apartment though, so I'll be picking that up shortly.

It is interesting how having internet at home does change things though. Instead of a walk to the Peace Corps office I can just sit down at home and browse. This weekend I needed to price out some new equipment for work, and now I can do it easily. The best thing though is that while it isn't cheap, the connection is inexpensive enough that middle class* Gambians are able to afford it as well. Slowly such access will certainly change the way they people interact with information, like news and such. It should also really help with computer skills. It is really hard to learn how to do anything advanced on a computer without the internet constantly on hand as a reference, and that is what people here have generally had to do - but without the benefit of good books either.

* Middle class might be a bit of a misnomer here, and it certainly doesn't represent the largest proportion of the population by any stretch.

Trash in the developing world...

Yes, this picture is me and a few other PCVs standing around the "camp fire", e.g. the trash heap, burning plastic along with many other items that shouldn't be burnt. The problem is, there isn't really another option here right now. Every day I wake up in the morning with the smell of burning plastic in the air. It is a big problem, and there aren't that many easy solutions. There are a few garbage trucks and other things around, but I'm pretty sure that just leads to a more consolidated burning operation, or maybe dumping in the ocean, though I'm not really sure. What I do know is that the current system isn't much good, but is the only one around for now.

More information:
Urban Solid Waste Management, The World Bank