The Peace Corps in Gambia

There are spoilers in this podcast!

Around 1980, Linda Gambia was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Gambia.

In 2026, she had reflected enough about the life-changing experience to pen a memoir about it. It’s called The Geography of Desire.

This is part one of a two-part podcast.

Watch the video!

Review of The Geography of Desire

‘The Geography of Desire’ is a quietly delicious memoir that transports you to a tiny Gambian village circa 1979–1981 with the vividness of mango-scented heat and the awkward charm of a Peace Corps volunteer trying to keep a garden alive and her heart intact.

What I liked

* The writing is descriptive and novel-like, so you can feel the red dirt, the heat, and the mosquito company rather than merely read about them.

* The author’s honesty about loneliness, culture shock, and messy relationships makes the book feel lived-in and humane rather than sentimental.

* The memoir is a good primer on a little-known time and place in The Gambia; it’s especially rewarding if you want a window into rural life before phones and internet dominated everything.

* There’s the implicit Peace Corps survival kit: stubbornness, curiosity, and an inexplicable willingness to be eaten alive by insects for the sake of cultural immersion.