9 hours of travel one way - from taxi to ferry to waiting in line to taxi to waiting and passing from one immigration checkpoint to the next, the village of Njau is nestled far up along the country road on the Northern Bank of The Gambia.

One thing is apparent as you pull up alongside the mud brick house huts with thatched roofs, though - the village is surprisingly clean, unlike much of the rest of the country.  With almost as many farm animals as people, the agricultural lifestyle of the people is apparent.  I quickly learned, however, that while farming is a tradition and occupies most of their time, the people of Njau typically earn less than $50 each year from the crops they produce.

After spending time in Njau, one will quickly learn that the women are really running the place.  Not only do they raise the children, cook, clean, and attend to all other aspects of home life - most of the families' primary source of income comes from the mothers, grandmothers, and young girls who are recycling purses from plastic bags and making other traditional handcrafts in the moments of spare time they have.

While at the well waiting for her turn to draw water, with a baby tied on her back and a bucket resting on top of her head, one woman is weaving a purse.  Meanwhile, one woman is walking back from another compound, weaving a purse while she walks.  Two sisters are weaving purses in between doing laundry at home.  Even while the children are eating, one woman is weaving a purse.

These women are providing the basics for their families, such as food, clothing, and medicine.  These women are also very future-oriented and many have taken the small income from the purses to keep their children in school, even when other men have discouraged spending money on school fees.  These women each have a savings deposit box, so they can plan ahead in case of drought - in fact this year the rain is already 30 days behind.  Many of the women have dreams of buying goats, sending their children to college or technical school, sewing machines, and building better houses than mud huts, which often collapse in the rainy season and leave them in even more hardship.

I learned a lot about life and about poverty while living in Njau even for a few days.  While there is no electricity, running water and meat and vegetables are scarce, there is hope and there are dreams.  Njau is an inspiration for all of The Gambia as this village is proof that a solution to waste problems is feasible, that even the poorest of Gambians can work hard and earn extra income to improve their life, and through community building they are able to empower and educate the next generation of girls and boys.  Almost none of the women got the chance to go to or complete school, yet many of them can now write their own names, and have some basic literacy and computing skills.

One woman told me a story about how her husband died unexpectedly, and she was not able to keep her boy in school.  She learned shortly after that how to recycle the plastic to make purses and her boy has almost completed school now.  She raises him entirely on her own and feels that this skill taught her truly how to survive in a time when she would have had to resort to begging, or another prevalent source of income for uneducated girls in the villages - prostitution.

After interviewing about 30 women, I have many stories to tell upon my return.  Above all projects and people I have worked with here in The Gambia, the Njau Recycling and Income Generating Group is the most inspirational and motivating.  I hope that you will all share your comments and come to see these purses and hear the stories upon my return.