Catching Up

It's been ages since I updated this.  Everything seems so normal, I don't see weird things anymore.

This was a lovely thing to see though.  I'd been out and came home on the bus and was walking towards the house which also meant walking towards the setting sun.  It didn't look anything at all until I entered the compound and stopped at my front door.  Beautiful!!  I was glad I had my phone with me because by the time I'd gone in and got my camera it would have been all over.

I thought the vulture flying over was a nice touch.

I was travelling in a car with a sister and 5 children in the back.  In front of us they noticed two goats on the roof of the bus.

This bus goes from Banjul to Basse so it's a long distance one and the kids wanted to know what the goats were doing on the roof.  They have a funny way of speaking.  They wanted to know what the goats were discussing.  Discussing seems a big word for children to use, British children would ask what they were talking about, not discussing.  There were various ideas thrown around but in the end they decided the goats were going on holiday and were discussing what they would do on their holiday.  It was a very Gambian moment, couldn't happen in UK for example as you couldn't get that many kids in a car and goats don't travel on the roofs of buses.

This rainy season has been much drier than last year.  We don't live on that awful road anymore which makes things a lot easier but I've had to go on studies in that area and haven't been stuck in a puddle once!  That's not to say other people haven't got stuck.  This road was dry when the sister arrived for the ministry and an hour and an half later had turned into a river.  Fortunately there are always plenty of helping hands.

The family moved out of this house earlier this year.  They must have known it wouldn't survive another rainy season.  

The worst thing I've seen was this tree falling onto our neighbour's house.  If it had fallen in the other direction it would have landed on our compound.

 

The blue cover is over the part of the house that was damaged.  The family still live in this house but no one was hurt.


Shame also because it was a lovely tree with flowers that were visited by sunbirds.  Haha, I had to get onto birds eventually.  There are birds here that we didn't see in the other house.  This one is a Little Weaver.

 And this is a Yellow Billed Shrike.  I love his markings.

But there are also some old friends like this Lavender Waxbill (above) and the African Grey Hornbill (I think this one is a baby) and the lovely Laughing Doves who wake me up every morning with their cooing.

I thought these were fascinating.  Termite mounds are HUGE here, much much taller than me, yet they start off like this, these are just 2 cms high.  Unfortunately they didn't last long as they were built on the side of the road and got trodden on.

I was very sick for a while, I think it was July.  I had been out on a long day and came home feeling tired, not sick, just tired.  I ate and went for a lie down.  About an hour later I started to feel ill.  During the night I started vomiting and the next day I passed out on my way back from the bathroom.  Terry isn't one for making quick decisions but before I came round he had arranged to get me to hospital.  They took me into the consultation room and all I can remember is sitting in a wheelchair, sprawled out on the table, vomiting all over the table and floor and the doctor asking Terry what my symptoms were.    Terry told him I was vomiting.  Mmmmm.  They couldn't test me for anything because it was Sunday and the lab didn't open until Monday.  they put me in a room and put me on a drip.  The room was nice, clean but very basic.  There was only one electric socket in the whole room and the only thing that was ever plugged into it was my phone charger.  I was on a drip for three days.  I was sick for about 10 days after coming home and not entirely well for about a month.  They said it was probably malaria with gastroenteritis.  By the time the lab opened I had been on malaria medication for too long for it to show up anymore.

This is a fish smoker.  They burn cardboard boxes because they give off a lot of smoke but don't burn hot.  The fish is really nice flaked with lemon juice, diced cucumber and mixed with a stock cube.

Just a few hours after saying I don't see weird things anymore I saw this hanging on my next door neighbour's wall proving me wrong and proving there's more than one way to dry your hair.

Animals

3.6.13  I went to visit a bat colony.  There are thousands of Straw Coloured Fruit Bats not too far from here.  Enjoy the pictures.

 

Sun Squirrel at Abuko Nature Reserve

Violet Turaco at Abuko Nature Reserve

Red Bellied Paradise Flycatcher at Abuko Nature Reserve

African Thrush at Abuko Nature Reserve

Never trust a smiling crocodile.  Taken at Katchikally Crocodile Pool.

This little guy was trapped in a plastic bottle and seemed to take a liking to me after rescuing him.  See the way his hand is wrapped round my thumb, it was like he was cuddling me, awww, cute little thing.

I don't know how he managed it but Kat brought us gift of a bat.  Fortunately it was unharmed and hung around in the living room for the evening.  We weren't sure what to do with it as it couldn't seem to find the door.  Fortunately Toye, the vet, visited and after the bat fell asleep he pulled it away from the wall with a stick and took it outside.  He flew away quite happily.  This was a small one but I can't find out which type it is.  The bats we usually see are fruit bats and are huge, I think Kat would think twice about going for one of them.  He came face to face with our neighbours hen one day and had to back down.  Wimp!!

People and Places

The aren't any brick making factories here, concrete blocks are made by hand and sold or you can buy molds and make your own.  While preaching a sister met a young woman in her 20's.who was making these concrete blocks by herself.  When asked where she got the money to buy cement she said that she collected water in canisters (you can see the lady below sitting on one) and delivered them to the houses in a wheelbarrow.  She would only be paid a few pennies for this but the money all goes to build a house for her mother, this house that she is literally building herself!

Women threshing and winnowing.  I don't know what the grain is.  The lady at the back filled the grey bucket to overflowing and carried it away on her head.  She spread it out to dry on rice sacks much to the delight of the chickens!

 

We took a short trip on the river from Lamin Lodge.  We went for lunch first then hit the water.  See the Animals section for the birds that we saw. 

Boats at Lamin Lodge

This Kora player joined us for lunch and included our names in his songs.  Very touristy!

Baobab tree pretending to be an elephant.

My little buddies, bumsters in the making. 

The local women collect oysters from the mangroves and separate them into two sizes.  The larger ones are sold to the restaurants and the smaller are sold on the market.  They put the shells to dry for 7 months and grind them to make lime for buildings.  They also use them to make paint.  When there are no oysters they collect cockles again to sell for food and the shells are put on the ground in compounds as a decorative burglar alarm.

This was taken on an evening stroll near our house, lovely tree at sunset.

 This salad garden was a pleasant surprise on day on the ministry.  These two women told me they spend all day fertilising and watering the plants by hand.  No hoses, not even a watering can!  They grow herbs, lettuce, tomato, aubergine, chillis and cucumber. 

                                                              Fish head and rice anyone?


We visited Katchikally Crocodile Pool with Eddie and Tess who were visiting from England.  It was originally a pool with wild crocodiles.  Space was short and eventually the pool was surrounded with houses.  The crocodiles are fed daily so are too full to bother eating tourists who pay 50 dalassis (£1) to see them.

 
We also spent a very rare day on the beach and enjoyed this fabulous sunset.

New House

A couple of pictures of our house at the end of the dry season and the end of the rains.  The difference is incredible.

Finally got around to taking some pictures of the kitchen, our dinky little kitchen.

9 June 3013  Meet our new addition to our new house.  A lady I was calling on gave me a little chick, she's called Brigisa after the lady's baby.  She loves Ben and follows him around and eats out of his hand.

We finally moved into the new house on 17 May.  Here's the living room.  I looks a bit bare without pictures and we need new cushion covers.  Tie dye is a Gambian tradition so the covers are a local craft.  The big tree below is directly behind our back door and has fruit at the moment, not the kind that we can eat but the fruit bats love it and over 100 visit every evening.

11 April 2013. This house is a temporary stop until the tenants moved out of the third house in our row.  They had a court order to move at the end of February as they caused so much trouble.  Get this for logic . . .  they got a court order against the landlady to get the three huge trees in the compound cut down because they say burglars hide behind them.

 Even though they had to leave the house, the trees still had to be destroyed!!   Sadly two of the trees were chopped down but the third is still with us and we're hoping it can stay.  Gambia has lost 91% of its trees.  Deforestation ruins the soil and the general environment.  Importantly in our compound trees provide shade.  What is the reasoning of the court that allows more to be cut??

These horrible tenants finally left on 8 April and the landlady says she will begin decorating on 2 May so hopefully we will be able to move mid May.    Then I'll be able to get my washing machine plumbed and my poor fingers can recover. 



January 2013  We moved to a much smaller house this month.  It's nearer to the main road (only 2 minute walk instead of 40!) and in a quieter area so it's better for us.  There's also much less cleaning to do.  It's about half an hour away from the other one.  The removal van arrived at 12 and we were all unloaded by 3pm so it was very quick and easy.

  This is the outside, there are four identical houses in a row on one side of the compound and two other houses at the back so we're living with Finns, Nigerians and Gambians.  Sadly we couldn't bring the dogs.

After spending a year inside (because of the dogs) Kat enjoys going out and makes the most of the morning sun on the verandah.

Unfortunately there is no plumbing for a washing machine so for a while I'm handwashing.  I'm pretty bad at it so I get a little help.  I was smiling at first but I had the wrong technique and my hands were bleeding by the end.

These are pictures of inside the house.  In a few weeks we move to an unfurnished house in the same compound, we're just waiting for the tenants to move out.  Most of the furniture you can see is ours anyway, we were worried that it wouldn't all fit in but it's ok.

Living room, standing at the front door

Living room, Ben's room with the brown door and our room with the curtain.  

Dining room, kind of hallway really but it fits a small table

The kitchen is seriously tiny, you can just see the corner of the sink and the cooker.  I can wash the floor in 30 seconds!

This is the bathroom.  The shower room is on the left and the toilet is on the right.  This area has the sink, fridge from the other house and storage stuff under the pink curtain.  It's a great layout, it means all three of can use the bathroom at the same time, we just swap places like one of those puzzles with the tile missing.