new post & update on barryclark#9

_posts/2016-03-18-Post-#10.md

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+# Q&A with a man from the bush #
+
+### Many people (I'm looking at you Bekah) have asked me many questions about life in the Gambia, so this post will be all about said questions and their answers. ###
+
+#### Date: 04/09/2016 ####
+
+## Q: ## Is there enough food, what type of foods do you eat, and whats's the wierdest thing you've eaten so far?
+
+## A: ## There's more than enough for everyone to eat but that doesn't mean that vitamin and other deficiencies aren't pretty common. 
+Most dishes consist of a base of carbs (rice, coos, spaghetti noodles) with a sauce (peanut, moringa, potato leaf, tomato), vegtables (eggplant, squash, cabbage, bitter tomato, etc..), and sometimes protein (usually fish but sometimes beef, chicken, or goat) on top of them.
+
+![Benachin]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/LunchBenachin.jpg){:height="100px" width="150px"}
+
+###### This is called Benachin, one of my favorites ######
+
+![Fishballs]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/LunchFishballs.jpg){:height="100px" width="150px"}
+
+###### This is one of my least favorites, those are like meatballs but boney ground fish.... ######
+
+And the wierdest things I've ever had are Monitor Lizard and giant Bush Rat, both were fried and eaten as a snack and the majority of people don't like to eat either.
+
+![Bush Rat]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/BushRat2.jpg){:height="100px" width="150px"}
+
+![Giant Lizard]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/LizardHead.jpg){:height="100px" width="150px"}
+
+## Q: ## Is life slower compared to the bustle of America?
+
+## A: ## Life and the culture are definitely suited to a slower pace. Not to say people work less but it's definitely dependent on the season and harvest times for different tree orchards, gardens, and staple crops. But the best part about it is that no one will blame you if you take an afternoon nap (which I constantly do).
+
+### Q: ### Do people buy most of their things at stores or do they mostly live of the land?
+
+### A: ### Well..... both. Everyone here is a farmer or gardener at some point of their life but since crops are seasonal and most people don't live on steady paychecks but on intermittent income as the crops are harvested and sold. Most people do go to the local market to buy many of their vegtables on a daily basis but they also go sell their own when harvest time comes around.
+
+### Q: ### What's the weather like?
+
+### A: ### Well the Gambia is a small country but it contains a pretty wide range of climates. The year is basically split into two seasons, the hot-rainy season (May - October) and the cold-dry season (November - April). Where I live, in the North West of the country, we have some of the best weather in the country. The hottest I've seen it around there is maybe around 95F around 3 or 4 PM and the coldest is probably around 60 F in the early hours of the morning. I guess we'll have to wait until the hot-rainy season to know about how much hotter it's supposed to be then.
+
+### Q: ### I know you took your hammock with you, how much do you use it?
+
+### A: ### I don't use it a whole lot at site because I don't really have trees suitable for it in my backyard but I've definitely been using it when I travel to Massembeh and other trainings around the country.
+
+### Q: ### What kinds of animals are in country and which have you seen?
+
+### A: ### Well Gambia is very well known for it's diverse wildlife, specially it's birds, there's like 400 different types of birds here. The one's that really stand out and are fairly common are Baboons, Black Monkeys, Red Monkeys, Emerald Green Monkeys, Bush Rats, Monitor Lizards, buncha different types of Snakes, Giant Porcupines Warthogs, Crocs, Hippos, and Chimps (in nature reserves).
+I've only seen Crocs, the three types of colored monkeys, Bush Rats, a few snakes, a Monitor Lizard and a ton of the different types of birds (some are pretty cool looking).
+
+![Giant Snake]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/SnakeBrick2.jpg){:height="250px" width="350px"}
+
+###### My host cousin/nephew? Mafuji with a skinned boa just outside of our compound. ######
+
+### Q: ### Have you taken any trips yet? Do you have any planned?
+
+### A: ### As you can see from my last post, Peace Corps has had my last 6 months fairly well planned out for me so I haven't really gotten the chance to explore a whole lot. But I'm happy to say that I've just finished planning a trip to Senegal for the St. Louis Jazz Fest. My friend and fellow PCV Cody and I are going to Senegal for 8 days to meet up w another friend of his that is finishing his PC service in Zambia and is stopping by Senegal to hang out.
+
+### Q: ### What's the most exciting thing about life?
+
+### A: ### Well that's a deep one.... Um... I'd have to say that the endless amount of things to learn is up there. Whether it's about yourself, new people, or just knowledge in any subject.

_posts/2016-03-18-Post-#9.md

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-# Trees, Bees, and places to Pee. #
+# Life's been good to me so far: Overview of the first 6 months of PC the Gambia. #
 
 ### Almost at the 6 month mark, finished up "3 month challenge", relaxing is hard work and hard work is relaxing. ###
 
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Hello again,
 
 As the sub-title suggests, my 6th month mark is quickly coming up and my beard is loving it (it's past Lieutenant Riker length and halfway into it's Tom Hanks' castaway stage).
 
-Before I get into the three subjects that the title suggests, I think you folks need a good overview of the different stages that I have gone through of service in Peace Corps the Gambia. It goes as follows:
+I think you folks need a good overview of the different stages that I have gone through of service in Peace Corps the Gambia. It goes as follows:
 
 
 1. Arrival in the Gambia, spend a week in Kombo (the capital area) having sessions on medical, administrative, and behavioral protocols, and then we head to training village for two and a half months to take part in PST (Pre-Service Training).