Roots Tour

Yesterday we traveled on a Roots Tour, which took us 2.5 hrs. up-country via The River Gambia to the villages of Albreda & Juffureh & to Kunta Kinteh Island (formerly James Island). There were roughly 20 million slaves that passed through Senegambia during the trade & James Island was the holding place before being put onto a boat heading west. The slaves went to South America, the West Indies & North America mostly & their labor was used to produce raw goods that were then sold to Europe where additional commodities were made & used in Africa to buy people for enslavement – The Triangular Trade they called it.

 It was so interesting visiting the museum in the coastal village of Albreda & walking through Juffureh, which is home to 1,000 Mandinka tribe members & the birthplace of Kunta Kinteh, whose slavery journey was documented in the novel & subsequent movie Roots.

Kunta Kinteh Island is half the size that it use to be do to the river eroding the shoreline over time. What’s left are ruins of the building that was once the British fortress & foothold in the Gambia. You can still walk into the dungeon where they kept the biggest & most dangerous slaves (including Kunta Kinteh) & you can look down into the tiny room with its 20ft. high walls where they kept the rest of the slaves.

While it was a wonderful opportunity to be around was what such a huge part of our history, the realization of what all happened here was sobering & sad.

Creek Fishing

Today we went creek fishing along the river gambia's mangroves. The day started out pretty slow because we didnt arrange anything ahead of time, so by the time pricing was negotiated, bait was bought from town, a boat was borrowed & prepped & we actually got on our way I think it was about 2 hours later....lol. We set sail in a traditional african pirogue (canoe). There was a small area in the middle which had a canopy to keep the sun off & a 2x2ft curtained off area that was the bathroom, but I didn't dare check that out....
We scootered along the shoreline & then down one of the river channels that was surrounded by these beautiful mangroves which were encrusted with thousands of oysters. The locals say that when they are harvested the big ones get shipped to europe, the medium ones are sold to the hotels, & then the small ones are sold to locals at the market or used to make paint. I couldn't get close enough to get a good picture, but it was a cool site to see.

We did do some fishing, but sadly only caught 4 really small ones not really worth keeping. Gabou did catch a really funny looking frogfish though that even made frog-like sounds. Mostly it was just a relaxing time out on the water with my hunny & 3 other locals (1 guide, 1 boat driver & 1 kid that mostly dealt with the bait).

Christmas

Christmas in Gambia. (Note that almost 90% of the population is muslim & observe the holiday, but don’t celebrate it) I really didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be even nicer than I’d hoped, because leading up to the holiday it didn’t feel Christmasy here at all. A few stores in town had lights up & I saw a few lighted fake, but the funniest thing were the locals selling ugly tabletop trees wrapped in gaudy garland (presumably for the tourists).

Christmas Eve we went to a Catholic Church service at St. Theresa’s in the town of Serekunda (a church Gabou grew up going to). I’m so used to seeing cathedral style churches, but this one was perfect. It probably sat about 1000-1500 people & it was packed. It was modest, but with some nice mural paintings on the wall & there were no fancy pews or tv monitors, just lots of lights & fans. Before the service the choir sang Christmas carols, but funny enough, some of the lyrics weren’t the same ones I learned growing up as a kid. It lasted about an hour & half & was pretty similar to a catholic service in the US, the only difference really being that some parts were in English, some in Wolof & even some songs sung in Serrere.

Christmas day itself was pretty busy getting into Banjul & visiting with Gabou’s dad, grandmother, great aunt, cousins, sisters, brothers, half cousins, neighbors, friends, etc, etc…..so many people! Even though their houses only had modest streamers for decoration (no trees, real or tabletop) the homes felt so alive with spirit & excitement & it definitely made me realize just how commercialized we’ve made Christmas. Instead of presents we received gifts of prayers, food & alcohol. That’s really what made it such a great day, I felt like part of the family instead of just an outsider. We ate 3 times I think & I ended the night with that full beer belly feeling. There was a lot of laughing & dancing & it was just such a special time.

**There was a huge attraction in the streets today – a traditional Gambian event, but I’ll blog on that in another post.

Food & Water

Thought I'd share some info on what we've been eating/drinking...
Breakfast has been mostly hot tea with corn flakes in warm powdered milk or bread & butter....nothing special, but it's been good. I am thankful though that breakfast isn't my favorite meal :)
Lunch here isn't really lunch if you don't eat rice, so we've eaten a lot of rice! Usually topped with fish or chicken & a sauce with onions & a side of vegetables.

Dinner is usually the same, but we've had a few european style meals too...the homemade Gambian dishes have been much better though than the restaurants. I've been cooking with Gabou's sister Jahou learning to better make some of the local dishes. Today we made fish benechin (see picture) Delicious!

As for beverages there are coke, fanta & youki sodas & guinness & julbrew beers. Mostly though we're going through a TON of water...thanks dad for the filter, it's not only saved us a bunch of money not having to drink bottled water all of the time, but i'm pretty sure it's also saved our stomachs from getting sick off of the local water.

Transportation & Fishing Village

The transportation here takes a bit getting use to. While you can hire a taxi to take you anywhere it’s a bit expensive, so we’ve been doing what the locals do & that means taking different taxis from stop to stop. Good example is getting from where we are staying in Brusubi to Banjul (a 20 minute straight taxi ride). We take one car (shared with 2 other people) from our house to the town center, then we get into another taxi that goes to Senegambia, & then another one to a traffic light & then another taxi to Westfield where we then get in a big van (maybe 15 people) that takes us into Banjul where we then walk 15 minutes to get to the family house. – We save $5 per trip, & at first I thought it wasn’t worth all the hassle, but over the course of our stay here it will add up to saving over $100…..when in Rome I guess! By the way, the vans don’t always stop completely, so there are people almost running to jump in by the side of the road, & if the driver can squeeze another person into any bit of leftover space they certainly will!

We visited a town called Tanji – a local fishing village, with Gabou’s mother (Cornelia) & step father (Momodou). It was an amazing site to see. There was probably 100 boats either still on the water or up on the shore, having already pulled in their catches for the day. Most of the boats were a traditional style Pirogue or canoe and they used these huge nets to catch all different types of fish – catfish, barracuda, red snapper, kobo (one of the most common). Cornelia was a great haggler and we got an entire basket of fish (30+) for less than $20. It was the perfect time of day too, the sun was just setting in the horizon & there was a nice breeze, not only keeping me cool, but also keeping the air from not horribly stinking like fish!! There was fresh fish being scaled and getting their heads cut off with huge knifes & rows & rows of fish being dried. The beach had hundreds of people either hauling the boats in, selling & buying the fish, manning the trucks that ultimately would take some of the fish up country to other villages & the other markets in Banjul & Serekunda to sell, cutting & cleaning fish, and others were there to clean up & take away the scraps for use as bait in future fishing trips. All in all, a really exciting & wonderful afternoon. Tomorrow I am going to be cleaning & cooking the fish in some traditional Gambian dishes - I can't wait!

Trade Fair & Beach

Although I can’t remember exactly what we did on what day we’ve certainly had a lot of fun so far. While we’ve spent a lot of time this first week just going from place to place visiting friends & family there has been a lot of interest moments. I found a mouse in the tub one morning just staring at me as I walked into the bathroom – Gabou proceeded to throw his shoe at it until it was stunned enough that he could get it outside. I think we laughed for like 20 minutes. 

There is a tradefair going on right now in Bakau outside of the sports arena. There are local vendors there from Gambia as well as other West African countries selling goods. Everything from spices & vegetables to mattresses, clothing, jewelry, art, electronics & even live animals. The fresh cooked meat pies were my favorite snack & while I tried the palm wine (wine made from a palm tree) I can’t say I actually liked it. There was a lot of live music with drummers & dancing with people singing & chanting in every aisle. We watched some live wrestling as well, which was a really funny site…it reminded me of a cross between sumo and regular wrestling; all you had to do to win was take the other opponent to the ground in this very large sand pit. I'll try to upload a video later.

We also had a wonderful afternoon at a local beach called Palmarima (Atlantic Ocean). The sand was really smooth between my toes and the water was chilly at first, but almost the perfect temperature. This was probably my favorite afternoon so far, just relaxing & swimming & laughing. It was a nice change from all of the running around we’d been doing. I think we’re planning on a beach trip at least once a week. There were lots of vendors typical of beach resorts selling necklaces, sarongs & the most delicious fresh squeezed orange pineapple juice!

Gabou's sisters (Mariam, Isatou & Jahou)

We Made It!

Today is Thursday, I'm pretty sure anyways. Time ceased to matter once we got here. A very nice feeling. Our trip in was pretty much perfect except for an hour delay in Brussels & having to wait an hour for our bags & then the extra searches going through customs. We met Gabou's family, had some dinner & I just crashed being so tired from the trip.


Our first official day was really nice.....we got some money exchanged & got local phone numbers to use while we're here (incase you want to call us on a phone card our number is code 220 then 315-2579). Then we took a taxi ride to the capital, Banjul & walked around the open air market, which was just crowded with tons of little stalls with people selling everything from fabric to shoes to cook pots & mattresses. Hopefully next time I'll get some pictures - Gabou didn't want me to be quite so "touristy" yet :)



We walked all over the city & I think I probably drank a gallon of water. It was about 90 degrees, hot & sunny.....nice, but I was definitely happy when we found some shade & a fan. Gabou's family house on his dad's side is inside the city of Banjul, so we walked there & met his dad (John), one of his sisters (Betty Ndau) & brothers, some cousins & a bunch of local kids that I'm not sure whether they're related or not :) Most importantly though we met his grandmother (Anty Betty) who was just overwhelmed to finally see Gabou again after 7 years. It was a wonderful moment & we spent most of the rest of the afternoon talking with her & his dad (well - Gabou did most of the talking & I did a lot of smiling & nodding).

I think probably the funniest thing so far has been all of the little kids amazement of the tubob (white person). They just stare with mouths open & wide eyes & when I smile at them & wave they just grin from ear to ear & run away. Gabou's sister was so excited when I said she could touch my hair that before I knew it, this whole group of kids where running their fingers through my hair saying how nice it was & asking if it was real. I'm pretty sure I made their day, but for me it was such a fun moment & something I'm sure I won't ever forget.

Today's the day!

Thankfully all of our luggage just past the weight restrictions....barely though :)

Travel Schedule

12 DEC 11 - MONDAY
US AIRWAYS # 3256
LV: MPLS/ST PAUL 11:00A - AR: PHILADELPHIA 2:36P
JOURNEY TIME- 2:36

12 DEC 11 - MONDAY
US AIRWAYS # 750
LV: PHILADELPHIA 6:15P - AR: BRUSSELS 8:00A on 12/13
JOURNEY TIME- 7:45

13 DEC 11 - TUESDAY
BRUSSELS AIR # 223
LV: BRUSSELS 11:00A - AR: BANJUL/YUNQUM 4:15P
JOURNEY TIME- 6:10

COMING HOME
07 JAN 12 - SATURDAY
BRUSSELS AIR # 224
LV: BANJUL/YUNQUM 10:35P - AR: BRUSSELS 5:30A on 1/8
JOURNEY TIME- 5:55

08 JAN 12 - SUNDAY
BRUSSELS AIR # 8803
LV: BRUSSELS 11:00A - AR: CHICAGO/OHARE 1:19P
JOURNEY TIME- 9:19

08 JAN 12 - SUNDAY
UNITED AIRLINES # 3481
LV: CHICAGO/OHARE 3:20P - AR: MPLS/ST PAUL 4:41P
JOURNEY TIME- 1:21

Getting Started

Hi everyone! This is my first official blog post as we're getting things ready to leave for our trip to The Gambia. Getting excited & nervous & excited....Lots of things to get ready, but I'm hoping to chronicle a bit of our trip as we go along - I may have to add pictures later or post when I get home, but we'll give it a try. Hope you enjoy...