Conversations

Wealth and beauty.
It's sometimes strange how people view these things.  A woman in her 20's told me that she has never seen an ugly white person.  We asked what was it that made a person ugly.  She pointed to the bridge of her nose and said that when this is flat the person is ugly.  If it's up they are beautiful.  Made me feel a lot better.

A girl in her late teens said that if she was very rich she would never eat bread again.  Bread is one of the cheapest meals a Gambian can eat and she eats bread every day so to eat something other than bread would be a luxury.  



A little boy was putting his shoes on but the tongue of the shoe was under his foot instead of on top.  A British mother might say 'Put your shoe on properly' but this mother said 'Enter your foot properly into your shoe'.  I love the way they speak English.

One of our neighbours has to fetch water from a communal tap so that gives a good indication of their poverty level . . or so I thought.  One day their little girl came into our house and pointed out that our TV is too small.  I asked does she have a bigger one.  She looked at me as though I was crazy and said "Yeees".  

Conversation with my neighbour's little daughter:
Do your hens lay eggs?
Yes.
Do you eat the eggs?
No, we leave them alone and then they turn into chicklets.
Awwww.

I was on a Bible study when the lady told her 5 year old son that after the study he had to have a shower because he was dirty and Aunty Janet was clean.  He immediately came over to me to look for dirt and found a small mole on my arm which he tried to scratch off.  I explained that it wasn't dirt it was a freckle and asked did he not have any freckles?
"Yes, I've got one on my bombom (bum), do you want to see it?"


I arrived a few minutes early for another study so as I waited for the lady a man arrived and sat next to me on the bench.  An older woman appeared and gave him a jar of a strong smelling clear liquid.  The man lit a cigarette and took out a packet of mango flavoured powder that the kids add to water to make a mango drink.  He told me that he didn't like the local gin on its own so had to add this sachet so that he could drink it.  But he had a problem.  He pointed out that the mango powder was artificial so wasn't good for the body.  He seemed oblivious of the harm the cigarette and local gin was doing.  He assured me that he knew what he was talking about because he is a nurse working at RVTH Banjul, Gambia's top hospital.  The really scary part was that this conversation happened at 8.30 in the morning.