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Little Country Big Adventure publishes new stories every Wednesday and Saturday.
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Explore Your Country

Explore Your Country

April 16, 2016
Jessica Fryman
Blog, The Gambia Files

Aside from the gaining a wealth of knowledge, the boys got to get on out there and explore their country. The boys each shadowed a professional Gambian doing their job. We took them on tours of all the higher education campuses: the college, the university, the technical training institute, the management and development institute and the hotel school.

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A Letter from Leo

A Letter from Leo

March 26, 2016
Jessica Fryman
Blog, The Gambia Files

If my mom didn’t know about the cliché “to follow you around like a little puppy dog” before, she sure knows it now! I love my mommy so much that I just hate it when we are apart, so I follow her EVERYWHERE.

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Books don’t make a library

Books don’t make a library

February 13, 2016
Jessica Fryman
Blog, The Gambia Files

An ironic contrast to the bold label above the door, the dark storage closet looked like anything BUT a library. Books filled unopened boxes sealed with cobwebs. More books stacked up broken shelves amid piles of rat poop. And even more books littered the dusty cement floor. Termites had sawn through dozens of pages, and dirt caked dozens more. Books, yes; a library, not quite.

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The First Day of School in The Gambia

The First Day of School in The Gambia

September 27, 2014
Jessica Fryman
Blog, The Gambia Files

School starts at half past 8, but on the first day, students wandered in through the gates closer to 9. Not a single child brought paper or a pen. But at least they showed up, which is more than half the teachers can say. Fifteen teachers failed to report, and one came with her baby tied to her back.

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Disclaimer

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the
U.S. government or Peace Corps.

Just a little about me

My name is Jessica Danielle Fryman, but I also answer to Fatoumata Camara.

I know three languages, the third being a tribal tongue less than one percent of the world speaks. I like to run even though I’m not that good at it. I read a lot. And I once published a book I wrote, setting all the type by hand on an old-fashioned printing press. I’m an avid traveler and amateur photographer. I’m also a master spider-killer and possess the ability to stalk my prey without the squeamish screams of my former urban life.

I’m originally from Las Vegas, a city with more people than the entire country where I currently live. I now reside in a two-room concrete house with a tin roof and a ceiling made of rice bags. I eat with my hand out of a shared food bowl. I walk down a dirt road to fetch my water and carry it home in a bucket on my head. And yes, I even poop in a hole in the ground.

Read more about me here.

About The Gambia


The Gambia, known as "The Smiling Coast of Africa," is the smallest country on the continent's mainland. Just 210 miles long and no more than 30 miles at its widest point, The Gambia carves out a space in Senegal on either side of the picturesque Gambia River.
Although many regional languages are spoken, the official language is English. A majority of the 1.8 million people are Muslim. About a third of the population lives below the international poverty line on less than US $1.25 per day.

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