When we last chatted, I was living in Costa Rica, working too much, and not doing anything I deemed blogworthy. But because my parents rock, I was able to visit Casey in the Gambia before her tenure in the Peace Corps ended. I should give my parents credit for their more than generous financial help and my sister credit for her excellent guiding.
The adventure started in San Jose with a canceled flight. Long story short, Spirit Airlines is not my friend. But a wonderful layover in Atlanta helped things. I got to see Dad, Grandfather Lawrence and Grandmother Mary, and CADEL!!! Also, there is this thing called autumn. It's quite pretty, but I wouldn't want to live there. But it was nice to be in Georgia while the leaves were changing, even if only for an afternoon.
I then flew to Frankfurt, Germany, where I had an epic layover and lunch with a wonderful German named Marko. We walked around the city, eventually meeting someone else for coffee. After a bratwurst, I headed back to the airport. Long layovers are starting to look like a good thing.
I had an even longer layover in Belgium, but was asleep for half of it. That being said, somehow I seemed to have escaped any ill effects of jet lag for the whole trip. Not sure how that happened, but cool!
Finally, I took the final flight to Banjul. The first thing we did was load up on a bus, then ride 100 meters to the terminal. Walking? No, that just wouldn't be classy. I then handed over my passport, as I had not yet arranged a visa and didn't even know my address (just the village name would have been enough, but I arrived totally reliant on Casey for these things). Sanyango (one of Casey's host sisters) was also at the airport to meet me, which was a nice surprise. We had ice cream and went to the Peace Corps transit house for two nights, in Kombo.
Kombo was a great experience. I got an unedited opinion of the Peace Corps from its members, including frustrations with administration, medical issues, and each other. Many might have thought that to be discouraging, but I enjoyed it. It gave me a picture of the frustrations that I may be dealing with when I join the Peace Corps, and none of them were much worse than anything I've had do deal with on my own. In other words, I'm pretty excited about this whole Peace Corps thing. But more on that later, because after the transit house, we went to Bakow!
Bakow was the only place where we stayed in a hotel. It looked over the fish market, which was great people watching. It was also a nice place to watch the moon rise and read a little when it was too hot to sleep. We walked down to the crafts market, which involved many people trying to sell things to the "happy couple" (my sister and I). After asking about where the homeless people sleep for the tenth time, Casey finally informed me that there really aren't any. "You just go to a compound and talk for a while. It's a small country, everyone's distantly related. You figure out how you're related, then they give you food and a place to stay." Great country, great people.
Finally, we got serious. And by got serious, I mean got away from paved roads. This stated by going to Brikama and waiting in the car park for several hours. But it was cool, we found a Senegalese place that made a wicked chockery (related to sweetened yogurt, and you put cous in it). Also, he had coffee. And cold water! Finally, our gelly filled and we set off again. Fun fact: as there are no Volkswagen Beetles, the Gambian volunteers have started hitting each other for every donkey they see. If you think it's a donkey but it's a horse, the other person hits you back once. Twice for a cow, thrice for a dog, and if it's actually a chicken they hit you with a stick. There is no rule for mistaking a fence for a donkey. I'm sure I got the details wrong, but you get the idea. Anyway, after a short nap we arrived in Kanjibat!
Kanjibat is where Lindsay Roe lives. It's a Jola village (village, in this case, is four compounds), but they all speak Mandinka. Sometimes. Helpful for Casey. I smiled and nodded a lot. We also saw trees where genies lived, more monkeys, and Yahya Jammeh!!!!!! His motorcade passed by, and he threw cookies! Biscuits in British English (they don't have proper biscuits and gravy in England), biscuit-os in Mandinka (formed by adding an "o" to the end of biscuits, and rhymes with "mosquito"). Reflections on Kanjibat: not having electricity means great stars, showering out of a bucket isn't as bad as I expected, and Lindsay Roe rocks.
After that was a night in Brikama. We stayed at Casey's boyfriend's house, but he was away playing Dungeons and Dragons. I think that's code for fighting crime, but I'm not sure. I also got an invite to an amazing dinner that the volunteers threw together, and saw the President drive by again. This time the threw hats, but the competition was too fierce and I didn't get one. Reflections on Brikama: Steve-0 (Mandinka for Steve?) rocks (also rocks for asking me how to drink coffee, he knows me so well!), PCVs can make amazing things with few resources (foodwise), hyenas are bigger in person (and best left in a cage), and chockery is amazing.
Finally, we went to Casey's village, Kartong (not Car Tongue, but close right?). But that's another post for another day, partly because I've written quite a lot, and partly because I'm technically at work and should probably work. But first, pictures!!!
Sunset from the beach near the transit house.
Fish market!
Sunset from the hotel.
Following Lindsay and Casey around the genie's tree!
The Monkey Park in Kombo. These monkeys were playing.