Happy Koriteh!

Well I lasted 2 days in the office before the new moon was spotted and Ramadan came to an end calling for a 3 day public holiday of Koriteh (Eid), a 5 day weekend. During one of these days I taught Alhagie some Excel spreadsheets because he is a systems controller and accounts manager for a local hotel but does everything manually and by paper. Within ½ hour I had a large audience as people sat around in the compound watching and learning, some actively and others passively in the background but all absorbing everything I said. I really enjoyed it and it gave me further insight into the levels of IT here. These guys have taken me under their wing in the last couple of weeks and seem to understand and appreciate my situation in the Gambia perfectly. They have gone out of their way to make me feel at home, are constantly inviting me to eat at their food bowls day and night and most importantly have taught me so much about the Gambia and the culture. So for me it felt great to be able to offer something back, fittingly conforming to VSO’s mantra of sharing skills.

I ho, I ho, its back to work I go!

After completing In Country Training I had a couple of days off. I spent one day fishing off the Bakau Jetty with my good friend Alhagie, paying a small fee for some bait before basking peacefully in the sun as our lines took nibbles and the market hustled away on shore whilst boats began to come home with their catch. Alhagie took a 2 nil lead landing 2 small fish but I pulled it back with 2 of my own resulting in a score draw. They were small and were not going to fill our stomach so we supplemented them with the help of a kind lady back on the beach who filled our bag for a few Delasi. Then thick black clouds rolled in and an almighty clap of thunder signalled the beginning of a downpour worthy of any spectacular drenching I have ever seen before. We dashed for cover under the jetty but were soaked through to the skin so walked on home along side harvesting fields and through the back streets, along the floods of reddish brown water that ran through each path filling the enormous potholes and ran as small tidal waves created by the taxis that passed us by. The Gambia’s rain this year just keeps on coming, the most for 20 years it has been reported. Its now feared that many crops may be ruined from too much water including harvests of groundnuts (the biggest export here) that need a period to dry. Sustainability here treads an ever swaying tightrope of unpredictability. This storm, however, passed through quickly, cutting through the clouds as clear blue sky approached with a charming rainbow. Everything seemed raw and extreme, everything seemed bright and beautiful, everything seemed African.

Salaam Maleikum,

The MonkeyBird has been identified; it is nothing more than a speckled pigeon which seems to have nested in the roof.

The last couple of weeks I have completed my in country training, Living in the Kanifing house with 5 other volunteers who have become good friends. Coming here as a volunteer is a very different experience to travelling. Firstly you are landed in a situation that offers so many more privileges and connection to the country and its people than travelling through unacquainted would, but due to the bubble of being a volunteer during training I have also felt largely abstract from it too.

At the first given opportunity I have escaped the clutches of the volunteer bubble to explore a little and get back that sense of adventure. I took to a local ‘video club’ a small hut crammed full with rows of hot sweaty blokes sat on rows of benches to watch Liverpool triumphantly beat United in the football . The emotion for footy is raw and powerful and sometimes quite scary but very exciting. I made friends with a few Gambian men and have become very good friends with a guy called Alhagie and have spent a few evening in his compound brewing Atayia Tea and talking about Africa and the world with him and his friends. He took me to his Aunt’s house (who raised him as a boy) and I sat among the family watching tom and Jerry on the TV and eating homemade Neyebe, an oiled ground nut paste that goes beyond delicious.

Training Lifestlye

This week has been an interesting fusion from moving into a local house to finding my feet among the Gambian lifestyle. I have had an overload of language training, it turns out I am the only newbie to learn Pulla/Fula the language spoken by my family in Basse. As well as this I am learning the widely spoken Mandinka on top of Wolof which I already began learning at home. Trying to keep up 3 languages, culture training and sign language has made for an intense week and my brain feels fried. The overheating, shade seeking, sun dodging and sweat drenching has continued beyond belief. I have began dodging electric shocks from unearthed water logged electrics in the house I am temporarily living in. Uncertainty of electrical supply I can live with, uncertainty of life after plugging something in is a little more worrying. I also had my ‘Stabaliser’ (surge protector) catch on fire and explode into a puff of smoke in a local Internet Cafe. Teaching IT should be fun. So there are many challenges I face on a daily basis but a nice little collection of pleasures have started to sneak into my life as well such as eating meat pies, interacting with locals on the street, shopping in local markets, and watching the first droplets of water treacle from your shower at the end of a sweltering day knowing you have running water supply! Oh and shade! If the hippie in me didn’t love trees enough already then I certainly do now for they provide SHADE! I have never fully appreciated the true beaty of shade, my new best friend.

Salaam aleikum, may peace be upon you!

Arrival: So I have finally arrived in The Gambia, my home for the next 12 months. At Gatwick Airport, awaiting to board I met and had a fascinating conversation with the Gambian Sports Commissioner, a guy called Shariff who had been out to Beijing with The Gambian Olympic Team (who gained PBs and were awarded best costume).
It was a comfortable journey and pleasing to arrive after such a long build up and all the anticipation of starting a VSO placement overseas. Travelling with 5 other volunteers, picked up by VSO staff, we travelled by 4x4 down the ‘Champs Elysee’ of Gambia - the Kairaba high street, an area of bustling activity. It was 6pm and the rains had not come today, which I think was reflected in the many men resting exhausted, slumped in large tyres and children in wheelbarrows by the side of the road or resting under the shade of the big baobab trees. Market stalls began to be packed away and the donkeys took rest bite as their carts lay idle. However there was still a flurry of activity as we dodged in between taxis, cars, traffic dodgers and brave cyclists across a semi tarmaced dusty road with potholes a plenty. The road itself is flanked by shacks and small to medium sized shops, market stalls selling everything from fruit to mobile phones, large shaded trees and social hang outs. All from small corrugated iron huts to fairly large concrete buildings. Children played and goats continued to roam freely in the streets ignoring the buy and sell that continued all around them. In many ways for me it was a typical ‘African’ scene, in stark contrast from the comforts of home and an interesting way to be welcomed to the country, a very real reminder of where exactly you are thats for sure.