Ataya Party

On Friday after school a couple of our friends, Bakary and Almamo, came over for an "Ataya Party". Ataya is a green tea from China that EVERYONE here drinks. The label says "Special Gunpowder" but they don't think there is actual gunpowder in it. Of course the label is in Chinese so it could be anything. It's really strong and they add a ton of sugar plus "nana" leaves which smell like spearmint to me. They boil the water in a little kettle on a small coal oven outside. After the leaves are added and it has time to brew, they pour it back and forth between 2 small cups until it gets frothy on top. They have to pour it like 50 times. It's weird. They only use 2 small cups, about the size of shot glasses, and you pass it around until it's gone. Once you drink it they add more water to the kettle and start over again. It has to be brewed 3 times and it just keep getting better and better. The whole process took almost 3 hours! Great time for socializing.

Random Gambia

I don't have any particular story in mind so I'm just going to type. I started with the Grade 10s today. I miss my Grade 11s. They were really rowdy but a lot of fun. When I wanted to get their attention, I'd yell "Heeeeey, youuuuu guyyyyys" a la Goonies. They thought it was hilarious and now whenever I see a Grade 11 student (in school or anywhere), they always yell it to me. hahahaha. Chantal! It makes me think of you every time.

We went to a tailor today to have outfits made. Very curious how they'll turn out. Our friend, Inna, is getting married on September 3 so we got dresses (kind of Gambian style) to wear. We pick 'em up next Thursday. I hope they turn out ok. He had one sheet of paper with all of our measurements written on it and a huge pile of fabric when we left (plus assorted drawings and prices and whatnot). Hopefully he matches the right numbers to the right fabrics. Fingers crossed.

I realized today that I don't write about things that were totally strange for the first week and now have just become normal. Like the taxis for instance. You can go almost anywhere around town, to the market, out to the tailor, etc. for 5 Dalasis (a whopping 20 cents) each. And the honking. All taxis and the other drivers honk their horns for everything! They honk to get your attention, they honk when they pass, they honk when they're angry, they honk when they're full, they honk when they have room,... Kairaba Avenue (the main street) is actually quite deafening. Picture the worst driver you've ever known and then picture an entire city full of cars driven by that driver. Now you've pictured any city in Gambia. They actually WILL run you over. I'm sure of it. In Canada we drive on the right side of the road, in England they drive on the left side, and in The Gambia they drive on both :) True story.

Before this trip, I had never.... (Part 3)

* had prickly heat rash. It sucks.
* discovered that a combination of Solarcaine Lidocaine Gel and Johnson's Baby Powder works wonders for prickly heat rash :)
* bartered like a pro at the Banjul market
* found a dead fly in my ketchup
* paid 8 bucks for fabulous shoes
* had a sales lady chew off the extra thread on a shirt I was about to buy
* seen bats the size of seagulls
* eaten sheep lung
* been chased by a machete wielding monster
* had a Gambian lose his shoe on my roof
* been told I was "Super-dubious welcome!" after saying thank you
* had 12 Gambian kids help me knock on my gate so that Allison would let us in

Morocco 0 Gambia 2

If I end up with permanent hearing loss, I will be able to attribute it to attending a football (soccer) game in Gambia. Man, those fans are loud! So Saturday started out hot and sunny as usual. About 1/2 an hour before game time, the sky opened up and it poured! Fooey. No matter. The game was still on and our friend Lamin picked us up in his car even though the stadium is pretty close to our house. He dropped us off at the gate of the stadium and we got in line with our tickets. Getting into our section required 3 security checks. Some umbrellas are admitted, some aren't so lucky. We Canadians can't tell evil umbrellas from good ones apparently because Sharon's got confiscated.



Our tickets cost us 50 dalasi (or 2 bucks) and this lets us into the "covered section". Except the bottom ones, where there were seats left, were not so covered and the seats were soaked. We sucked it up and planted our butts in the puddles. Just as the game was beginning the rain started again so everyone headed WAY up into the covered section. We actually ended up standing in the very back for the whole first half of the game. All the Gambians buy whistles that they blow kind of whenever they feel like it. Earplugs are a must. When the Gambians scored their first goal the whole stadium (30,000 people) were up on their feet, yelling and whistling. So crazy. During half-time, we went back down to the front rows and found new seats. We could see a whole lot better and were way closer to the action. It was great. We yelled and cheered and I even started our section in a round of "Ole...Ole Ole Ole" :) Straight across from us on the other side of the stadium was the Gambian Scorpions Fan Club. The entire game they were on their feet dancing and playing drums. Next time we're totally sitting with them. The best part was after the second goal, everyone in the stadium started waving their arms like scissors in front of them. It's kind of crazy to see 30,000 people doing that all at the same time. So much fun!

Next game: Gambia vs. Mali. Go team!

Nightmare on 2 Bob Street

There are no street names or addresses here so we've dubbed our little house "2 Bob St." It works better than 6 tin roofs down from the Welcome to Gambia sign. :)



So last night we spent the evening at Safari Garden. Went for a swim in the pool and had a delicious barbeque. The food was GREAT. We stuffed ourselves and hung out for a while but the week (the kids and the heat!) got the better of us and we headed home before 10pm.

Look ma! No hands!


Melanie, Allison and I (the residents of 2 Bob St.) headed out for our place while the rest jumped in a cab (their place is further). It's pitch dark here at night because of the lack of street lights and we only had my headlamp to guide us. Makes for good star-gazing though. Just as we turn on to our street, this big "thing" jumps out in front of us. He's dressed like Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock and carrying two machetes. Oh yeah. So he starts jumping and making crazy noises and running at us while he's scraping the machetes together. Needless to say, we were pretty freaked out. He didn't come too close though and we could see a couple of guys standing outside a little corner store nearby. I headed for them - figure there's safety in numbers :) - and asked what was going on. Turns out this guy is dressed up as part of their circumcison ritual. He scares away evil spirits so that they don't get the boys who are going to be circumcised. I'm like "Ok, well, tell him we're not a threat!". hehe. So now we're all holding onto each other and heading down our dark street for home. Then a friggin' dog comes out of nowhere and starts barking and growling at us. Dogs are even more scary to me than the Circumcision-Machete Dude because they'll all rabid here. We make a big cirle around him and finally get to our gate. Allison actually runs up and hugs our gate. hahaha. And some little kid, maybe 10, comes over to ask if we're ok. Funny. There's not usually so much excitement in our neighbourhood.

Only in the dark with machetes...

Halfway Day

So Monday was our halfway point in Gambia. Crazy! I finished teaching the Grade 7s and 8s, and started with the Grade 11s today. Should make for an interesting week. Allison and I should just start our own Sunday Night Sex Show. Every story starts with "I have this friend...". hehe.

Hmmm, not feeling particularly creative. Maybe a blog wasn't such a good idea. The last couple of days have been Gambian normal. :) Went to the market and got a few things, hung out at our new favourite haunt "Sultan's Sweets", made more posters for our new classes, spent some time at the beach... all good. This weekend we are going to a BBQ at a hotel nearby. They have a pool so we have an evening of swimming and relaxing all planned. Saturday the Canadians and a bunch of our Gambian colleagues/friends are going to the Gambia vs. Morocco football match. The stadium holds 20,000 people and they are HUGE football fans here (British influence, so their football is our soccer). Can't wait! Goooooo Scorpions!!!!

There and Back Again: A Toubab's Tale

On Saturday three of us (me, Sharon B., Calee) had a taxi adventure trying to get to a craft market. Dude said he would take us for 5 Dalasis each. He drove 10 minutes past where we were going and THEN asked us to tell him exactly where we meant. When he finally figured out we were in the wrong place, he made us pay 10 Dalasis each to drive us back. Bugger. It was pouring rain out to boot. We ended up wading in water halfway up to our knees to even get into the market. It means business when it rains here and it's way rainier in August than it was in July. So much for the ole tan.

Gambian taxis...

Rats!

Not only is it my favourite expression used by my sister's boyfriend, but there are also some here in the Gambia. The first rat sighting was today. Apparently a giant rat ran past Melanie's classroom. Next door to Melanie is Calee. When Calee looked out her door all she could see was a dead rat flying through the air and landing in the middle of the courtyard. haha. Turns out some guy saw the rat too. Somewhere in between Melanie seeing it run by and Calee seeing it fly through the air, he beat it with his umbrella, hehe, and then kicked it off the step!

Mondays Suck Everywhere

Yes, indeed. Last night we had a HUGE thunder and lightning storm. The lightning was spectacular all evening but the thunder, wind and rain didn't get too bad until about 6am. It woke us all up. Melanie had to come in to our room to sleep because her bed was wet (most of our windows don't close remember) and we had to close the one window that does shut because rain soaked the living room furniture and whatever else was around. Boo. We finally get to sleep only to be woken by our alarms at 7:10am. Double boo. It's still pouring rain out, I have no rain jacket and I have a ton of posters to get to the school. We gave Ansumana until 830 (classes start at 9) but he didn't show. So I fashioned myself a rain coat out of small black plaster bags that our bread comes in :) hahaha. One of these days I will post a pic. It just covered my arms and shoulders but it was better than nothing. Then we slip-slided our way in the muck to school. Luckily we got there just in time because the minute we arrived the deluge started. It was so loud on the tin roof of my class that the kids couldn't hear me speak. And it was so dark they couldn't read my posters. hehe. Doesn't make for a very good teaching environment. Also important to note: Gambians hate the rain. So I only had 8 students for the first half hour anyway. Today has gotten a bit better. It's even stopped raining. I'm wearing a long sleaved shirt for the first time since I left home though. It must've dropped below 30 degrees or something ;)

Friday in Fajara

A typical day in The Gambia is only typical because you never know what you might see or do or where you might end up. This was my Friday...

Up at 7am for school. Breakfast consisting of fresh tapalapa (white bread) bought that morning from the corner store with Nutella :) Started out on the 10 minute walk to school in Bakau and was picked up by Ansumana, the NSGA National Coordinator. He "usually" picks us up. Sometimes he's waiting at the gate, sometimes he doesn't show at all and sometimes he picks us up along the way. When I got to the school I was greeted by a chorus of "Miss Brandy!"'s from my students who hang out on the wall at the Mosque. Love it!



Then off to my classroom to erase the board, hang up posters and get my things ready for the day. Morning class involved teaching about abstinence, proper condom use (with the fake penis of course - Burris now calls it the Penis Ejaculatus) and rape/sexual assualt. Heavy topics but always entertaining. At the 1/2 hour lunch break I grabbed a snack (more tapalapa usually) and a Fanta, and hang out with my Grade 7s who still come to visit even though now I teach Grade 8. One Grade 7 comes every day to read my "Where Women Have No Doctor" book and I give him extra help with STI info. hehe. Afternoon class is repeat of the morning but with the 2nd group of Grade 8s. Another Grade 7 who still visits me, "Little Fatou" as I call her, brought me a stuffed dog named Lucky. Cute!



After school, Inna (one of our Gambian colleagues) took us to her house for a baby's naming ceremony. Baby's always have a namesake and are named when they are 7 days old. There were probably 100 people there socializing and eating. The party starts in the morning and goes all day and night. The men were sitting out under a huge tent in the street on plastic lawn chairs and the women were all in the compounds talking and cooking. The food is cooked in huge pots on an open fire. There are flies EVERYwhere. We were given warm soured milk with some sort of ground oatmeal-like stuff in it to drink. Blech. Then I had China Tea, some strong, sweet tea that has gunpowder in it (or not). Oh yeah. It wasn't bad actually. Lunch was a communal bowl (four of us shared) of spicy rice with cabbage, eggplant and sheep's lung!! hahaha. I tried it but mostly stuck to the rice. After lunch, Inna's brother, Papalie, took us to the football stadium for a tour. First stop: the gym where all of his friends were working out. Nothing like parading the toubabs around. And of course he pumped a little iron for us. hahaha.

Made our way home and got changed for a night out with all the Canadian teachers and Burris. He took us to a place called Ngala Lodge. It was probably the nicest place I've EVER been. So lovely. We got fancy drinks and watched the sunset before heading inside to the restaurant/bar. We had a fantastic meal and then became barflies for the rest of the night. I had a watermelon/papaya/vodka drink that we called the Aminata Cocktail after our lovely bartender. She made it up and it was delicious. Then I discovered they had Harvey Wallbangers and moved onto them. Hehe. We ended up dancing to the live African band and a couple of our gals joined in for their version of La Bamba - the African-Toubab version. Indeed!



Hooo-eeee... long post.
Bye for now!

Sanna's Village

For those of you who've been to PEI as a child, this village is not to be confused with Santa's Village. hehe. Makes me laugh every time I say it.

When we were upcountry at Tendaba Camp our driver, Sanna, took us to his village. The people there are from the Mandinka (sp?) tribe. The village is quite small and very poor. When we arrived in our NSGA van, all the kids in the village came out to greet us. Maybe 50 or so! Sanna had given us a bag of suckers to give out to them. Kids are always asking for "minties", which apparently means sweets or candies. Ruth took the bag and was instantly mobbed when she got out of the truck. They were grabbing and pulling and fighting with each other. Chaos! Sanna made them all line up and that seemed to work. Then he took us and introduced us to his mother, a sweet lady sitting on a rug on the porch and dressed in traditional clothing. There was also a young woman with a 3 week old baby girl who let us all hold her.

We were there for a couple of hours and spent most of our time playing with the kids and taking pictures. The kids here are SUPER cute. I taught one little girl how to "high five" and soon all the kids were yelling "High five! High five!" and running over to slap my hand. Too funny. The village is very poor and some of the kids' clothing was ripped and old. A bunch of them asked us for pens to draw with and one little girl was so thankful because I gave her a hair elastic. The football team, mainly just the older boys in the village, asked us if we had brought a football because they don't have one to practice with. How sad is that? In the short time I was there I managed to befriend a little girl named Mnana. She's the first one I taught to high five :) and I played with her a lot. When we were leaving she took my hand and walked me to the van. Then as we drove away she followed along behind us and everytime she caught my eye she'd break into a huge grin and wave furiously. I wish I could've taken her with me! It was a great experience but left us all feeling pretty melancholy.

Allison Bit the Bullet and Had the Bush Pig

This weekend we went on "vacation" upcountry to Tendaba Camp. We stayed in little huts that had 2 rooms each and there was an outdoor restaurant and bar. Not a 4 star hotel by any means but fabulous in so many ways. It was right on the Gambia River and we took a guided boat tour to see the crocs and monkeys ("crocs" in Africa does not mean brightly coloured plastic shoes :) The restaurant there hunts its own wild pig - the "bush pig". On our second night Allison decided she was ordering the bush pig but the rest of us opted out (I did try it though!). So we've almost finished our meal when Allison says "Ouch! My tooth!". She takes a hard piece of something out of her mouth and puts it on her plate. It's a bullet! Hahahahaha. She actually got the bullet that killed the bush pig in her meal. What are the chances??? Funny stuff.

Total cost for our weekend away: $50 Cdn.
What we got for our 50 bucks:
-2 nights in a thatch-roofed hut with our own bathroom & shower
-Buffet breakfast with bread, cheese, homemade mango jam and ham (what else?), tea and coffee
-Two huge lunches and two huge dinners with non-alcoholic drinks
-A 2.5 hr guided boat tour with crocodile & monkey sightings
-Enough liquor for a very fun night and enough bottled water to keep us hydrated
-A room and meals for our NSGA driver

Not too shabby eh?

Before this trip, I had never... (Part 2)

* Taken a wooden boat down a crocodile-infested creek
* Seen a crocodile/monkey/baboon in its natural habitat
* PATTED a crocodile
* Slept under a mosquito net
* Gotten tipsy drinking Malibu Rum and Pineapple Fanta
* Taught a whole village of children how to "High Five"
* Taken 4 hours to drive 175km on a highway where the potholes are big enough to lose a donkey in
* Had a donkey cart park across the street from my house
* Seen boys participating in a circumcision ritual (not the actual circumcision though!)
* Eaten bush pig
* Seen a live goat being transported on the roof of a van

Meli Melo

So this weekend we're heading "upcountry" for a little vacation. Well deserved, I gotta say. We hired one of NSGA's drivers to take us to his village and show us around. We're staying in a hotel with a pool that usually doesn't have algae :) I'll take it. I'm sure I'll have some adventures to talk about when I get back.

The night before last we had a thunder and lightning storm. It was SPECTACULAR! We got woken up by the thunder around 2 or 3am. The thunder and lightning was non-stop for ages. There were no breaks at all. Just crashing bang after crashing bang and the sky was lit up continuously. Melanie came over to mine and Alison's room and we stayed up and watched the storm for a while. It was pouring rain so we had to run around trying to shut all our windows. Turns out you can't even close most of them fully. So Melanie stayed in my double bed until her tanktop got soaked :)

I don't know what the temperature here was yesterday but it was overcast and it rained off and on. My morning class was a little sluggish and Oumie (my Gambian colleague for that class) said it might be because they were cold. LOL. And there I am sucking back water and feeling like I might just melt into a puddle. I don't know how they'd survive in Canada but they all want to visit. Better bring fur pants.

See ya! b

Gonasyphilchlamydiaids

This blog title brought to you by TJ :) So today I had to teach my Grade 7 class how to use a condom (to of course prevent gonasyphilchlamydiaids). FUN-NY stuff. Ansumana (the National Coordinator for the NSGA) was supposed to bring me the infamous "wooden penis" to demonstrate with. So this morning he shows up with a blue bag for me. Inside? Not a wooden penis but a rubber one that you can put fake sperm in and make ejaculate. HAHAHAHA. Oh my god. Calee & I were trying not to bust a gut while Ansumana put it together and then showed me how to get the sperm in. Only in the Gambia. My classroom was the most popular class all day. Other NSGA staff kept bringing people in to see the penis and then I had to demo it for all the Canadian teachers after class. Oh dear.

Why We're Here

One of the main things we focus on when teaching our students is prevention. One of the major topics is malaria. The NSGA office manager's brother died on Monday because of malaria. He was 32. They knew he had it and treated him with a medication that malaria is becoming resistant to. He didn't get better and ended up with acute kidney failure. Then they left him in the hospital without treatment for 5 days before they decided he needed to be tranferred to Senegal for dialysis (the closest country with the equipment). By this time his family could not afford the flight to Dakar and he could not survive the 6 hours drive on terrible roads. He died needlessly. Very sad. How lucky are we Canadians?

Top 3 Health Pre-Quiz Answers from our Gambian Students:

Q: Where does fertilization occur? A: Agriculture
Q: Who is most at risk of dying from malaria? A: The person who is having the disease.
Q: What is one way you can get HIV? A: From a blood confusion.

Teaching is pretty cool. I thought I'd be terrified but it's actually ok. The kids are hilarious. I have Grade 7 for the first 6 days. They ask some pretty interestings questions. For example: If a man is selling ice and he puts his blood in the ice, if I eat the ice can I get HIV? Ummm. Do you really eat bloody ice??? They're English is not great so I have to explain a lot of the terms for them. Acting helps. I was a white blood cell today :)

The Rain in Gambia Falls Mainly on the Canadian

Lesson learned. If it starts to sprinkle, head for shelter. The other day I was walking home by myself from the stationary store with my brand new bristol board that I need to make posters. The sky was looking dark and a few streets from home, a few drops started to fall. I figure I'm good. I'll be home in 5 minutes. So off I go up the alley toward our house. Then it starts to actually rain. No problem, I'll just stand here under this tree until it stops. So there I am, bristol board in hand, hovering under the tree when the REAL rain starts. Turns out it doesn't just rain in The Gambia, it friggin' POURS. And it also turns out that the trees here don't protect you from POURing rain. A couple of boys ran past me and yelled for me to take cover at the corner store just up from my tree. So off I run, bristol board in hand, up to the store. Needless to say, by this time I'm SOAKED. Right through. It looks like I just jumped in a pool. My hair is dripping, my shirt is stuck to me, water is pooling in my crocs and my bristol board is a sopping mess. Ha! Lovely sight indeed. So the guys running the store take this opportunity to quiz me in French about where I'm from. After a lovely stilted conversation in French, the rain eased off a tad and I bolted for home. As wet as I was, it was toasty warm and felt SOOO refreshing. Good times!