The gorgeous butterflies keep arriving. Some of them are such posers and sit for ages on flowers and allow me to photograph them. Sometimes I wonder if they know what I'm doing, I'm sure I see a smile sometimes!
Orange acraea
Pierrot
Others are more difficult. This one (below) is constantly on the move from one flower to another. They just stop for a second then they're off again. Even when they're on the flower their wings are constantly fluttering. To get this shot I had to wait in front of an unvisited flower. Even then I took about 20 pictures of their feet as they flew away or if I managed to snap a little quicker I just got a blurry smudge. I'm so proud of this photo, it's not perfect but it represents a lot of work.
The other insects here aren't quite so charming. There are huge gangs of these spiders hanging between the trees and they're massive. What's the collective noun for spiders?? Gang? Mob? Horrible?? Wiki says it's collective or clutter. I prefer horrible I think. Anyway, there are horribles of spiders everywhere. I carry an umbrella for three reasons, the rain, the sun which is very strong at the moment, and the horribles of spiders.
Here's a close up for those of you interested. This was was the door keeper at the Kingdom Hall. Imagine having to pass this every time you go in!! We (I say we meaning other people, not me) took it away when we were preparing for the Special Assembly Day. To any potential visitors, we don't see these in the dry season so that's the time to visit.
The Assembly was Sunday 9 September. We had TORRENTIAL rain for the first week and we were really worried that we wouldn't be able to get there because the transport stops when there's a lot of rain. Terry had the first item so we were planning to book into a hotel near the Hall so we could just walk in the morning. On Wednesday 5, Terry went down with malaria. It was the first time any of us had had it and he had to be the one to get it right before the Assembly!! We dosed him up with the pills straight away and by Friday he was feeling much better. The rain also stopped on Friday night so on Saturday Terry had chance to recover from the worst of his illness and the roads had chance to dry out a bit and we all made it to the Assembly on time from home. What a relief!!
Here's Terry and I at the Assembly.
Later in the month I was asked to help with the catering for the Pioneer School. It was only the second school to be held in Gambia, the last one being 7 years ago!! It was great fun and a very African experience. Imagine you're asked to cook for around 20 people. Where do you start? You plan a menu then hit the supermarket, right? Nooo, you hit the market and buy food from off the floor. At the fruit stall the sisters came across a fruit they weren't familiar with and asked if I knew what it was. It was a pear. To them a pear is like a mango or papaya to a European. The couldn't decide whether to buy some to put in fruit salad so they bought one to taste and decided it was good. The next fruit was more familiar but still strange and led to the conversation of the month.
"Janet, what is this?"
"It's an orange"
"What type of orange"
"I don't know, just a normal orange"
"No, oranges are normally green"
I had to wonder whether they ever wondered why oranges are called oranges and not greens. I didn't ask. But it's true, the Gambian oranges are green when ripe.
Then you take the food to a kitchen and prepare it on the worktops, right? Nooo, you prepare it on the ground outside. These are cow skins to go in a stew, lovely!
Mixing fufu takes a lot of muscle, fortunately there's plenty to be had here.
Steaming rice
Next, you light the gas or electric cooker. Or alternatively you could just light fires on the ground and put the pans on top.
Naturally washing up is done at the sink. Not here.
But the food was delicious and looked great too. Hats off to these women who can create clean healthy food out of nothing.
Stew made with okra
A drink made with fruit from the baobab tree, it's like milkshake
The rain continued, anyone visiting in the dry season would find it hard to believe we experience mud like this. I used to think it was difficult to walk in the soft sand but the alternative isn't any easier.
The buses really struggle. Getting stuck, breaking down and wheels falling off are a daily sight. It took 10 men to push this bus out. The man walking through the water is the driver of the bus I was on going to help out. He knows that next time it could be him.
This day we tried to go on the ministry but we got rained off. Terry and I were together but Ben's group had gone to a different territory. By the time we got back to Latrikunda the buses had stopped so we started walking home. After some time we met this bus. Ben had reached Latrikunda before us and had managed to catch the last bus but when it stopped to let someone out it sank into the mud. There was no one around to push it so it had to sit there, slowly sinking. That's Terry under the umbrella having crossed the river ahead of me.
We kept walking until we reached the bridge. The water was so bad the bridge was almost useless. I should have waited before taking this photo as before those people reached the bridge the water was up to their knees!
Just a few steps before the bridge Terry turned to tell me there was "something" in the water. This wasn't helpful. Was it something useful to stand on? Was it something dangerous? I suggested it might be a crocodile and the crowd of little kids following us laughed their heads off. They didn't speak English but they understood crocodile and did their best to reassure me. The "something" was just a tyre, Terry was trying to tell me not to trip over it.
And finally a wonderful example of African English in the washroom in a restaurant.
One thing we CAN rely on is power cuts. 
