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!