Home at last.

She is home as of last week. I was able to pull on my bargaining abilities to get her some new shoes from the local land rover monopoly of a parts dealer who I have given most of our savings to in order to get it running right. After a few days of tightening everything down as the inside sounded like a giant baby rattle while driving, and it flooded every time it rained, I dub thee Turtle. Slow and steady, green, always dirty, and did I mention slow. I am in the process of more trades and bargaining so new mods are coming. Even has a built in mister, if you open the front vents while driving in the rain you get a pleasant dirty mist. She gets compliments everywhere I go, I have a list of at least 8 people who want to buy it the minute we leave country. I LOVE IT..

The Chicken Mansion

In an effort to keep our chicken happy healthy and comfy to produce many eggs I went to great length to create a great home. The corrugate is what I raised eyebrows with carrying home in a thunderstorm a couple weeks ago. A bookshelf for nest boxes, cinder block supports and basket weaved walls. Its a pretty sweet poultry pad, and stood the test of some nasty storms the past couple week. We added another chicken to the family last week. They are both pretty vocal and on quiet afternoons and mornings, otherworldly noises can be heard as they roam the back yard. Even coming to the back door to peer inside and squawk at us through the glass. The new one seems to be healthy and bonded to Salt II already. Cross your fingers...

A Blossoming Brotherhood

Thor and Moose have been growing more accustomed to each other. Even half hearted attempts to play with each other.

Farafenni

We arrived at our hotel which I was informed was very nice. The driver Peter made sure we had rooms reserved that morning. Peter walked me down a dark sweltering hallway (no power) opened the door to a what he touted as the executive suite where many people are willing to pay double for the room. I don't know if Peter was playing a cruel joke or if he just doesn't like me. If I stand in the middle of the room and outstretch my arms I am only about a foot from touching all four walls. There is a tiny television that didn't work inches from a fan that was mounted below a bare light bulb. So with the fan and light on at the same time it created a wonderful nauseating strobe effect. I felt like if I sat down the walls would fall in on me. Peters room was twice the size of mine. So Thor and I went for our customary walkabout. Within second we had friends, a young boy was carrying around a baby baboon which he was willing to sell me for about $20, tempting but I had visions of Thor and Moose parts strewn across the yard once it got older and meaner. We also befriended a young man who called himself Spice, sporting a Rasta beanie cap and American flag Rayban sunglasses. He gave me and Thor a tour of his town for the next couple hours just like Mo did here in Fajara. Returned to the hotel, still no power, sweltering hot decided to go for a run. Here was a fat, bald Toubab soaked to the bone in sweat, weaving donkey carts and cattle on the road receiving looks like I was a one-eye one-horn giant purple people eater...Maybe the power is back on now...make it back to the room just before Hurricane Farafenni hits..hosed off and read under the strobe light for 2 hours till the power shut off again. On the verge of sleep the megaphone outside my window fires up and the evening prayer call which is a static laden yodeling in Arabic I think (apologies to the muslims) which lasted for TWO HOURS..damn you Peter.  Shake the mud and Hep C off the covers and try to sleep till 4:30am when the megaphone outside my window begins again. (oh yes, TWO MORE HOURS). Hurricane Farafenni bids us farewell as we pull out of town.

North Coast and Ferry

"The North Coast" is anything along the northern edge of the river Gambia. The people and culture can be very different as it has many influences from northern Senegal. You have to cross a ferry to get to Farafenni it only took us an hour or so wait time each way but for some of these trucks it could take a week or more of waiting, just to cross the river. I swear that every bus that offloaded the ferry was going to tip over, there was as much weight on the roof as there was inside or under the bus. CRAZY..

Trek

I asked to tag along on a trip upcountry (aka. a Trek) to drop off a couple volunteers to their villages. Once out of the main western region known as Kombo the terrain changes from commercial/industrial to almost exclusively sprawling rice paddies accented by huge palm, Baobab and Rubber tree stands. Absolutely beautiful country, like something out of a Nat Geo mag. Thor and I felt like celebrities, every time we stopped, the car was surrounded by village kids, none of them older than about 10 years old. Not sure where they go from pre-teen to adulthood. Most didn't believe Thor was a real dog and many insisted he was actually a cat. I was beckoned as Toubab from every direction the ENTIRE trip as if I was the most famous person in the world. It was like the stadium wave where everyone gets up with hands in the air screaming multiplied by about 300 kilometers.  I could hear tiny little cheers from tiny little children 200 meters into a field as they waved furiously yelling Toubab at the top of their tiny little voices.  The rice paddies are plowed, sowed, trenched, and harvested entirely by hand, and entirely by women. Then these exhausted women walk the 3-5 kilometers back home to cook, clean and tend to the many children.  The driver said the men can be found back in the housing compounds doing absolutely nothing. In the islamic culture its the woman's job to maintain household and raise the children.

Fast Food..Gambian style

Much the same as Beer, anyone who has EVER known me knows that I like to eat...., Alot..So why should moving to The Gambia change an integral, definable part of me. I feel it is my duty to eat whatever looks appetizing so as to report to my audience. Last week I was out wandering, mostly without cause as I have done for the past 5 weeks. Who am I kidding, ok the last 33 years, anyway. I noticed people leaving the corner markets everywhere with some sort of sandwich. I couldn't see the guts of the sandwich though. So for the sake of readers I asked the vendor for the same thing, whatever it was. Holy simple step to satiation Batman!!! Its a baguette (fresh every morning) with a thin slather of mayonnaise out of a gallon tub and a hard boiled egg (2 for me please) chopped and spread the length of the bread. All for less than .50 cents US.  A loaf of fresh baked bread can be picked up warm from the bakery for about .15 cents.. Today out wandering I found another gem that will now be a staple in my diet a man walking around selling what looked like individual coconuts in plastic bags. Gimme one..I don't have any idea how but here is a half shelled softball of fresh soft coconut with the water still perfectly preserved inside. (easily eaten with one hand while driving) Holy buckets it was good. Once again CHEAP, about .75 cents.  I will keep you updated of anymore noteworthy food finds..

Thor is not alone..

WORMS!!!! and not Thor this time. Sub-Saharan Africa was not meant to be inhabited by westerners with our delicate skin and digestive systems. The sun here is very close as is the water, 90% humidity and even greater heat breeds all kinds of nasties during the rainy season. The Mango worm is not specific to dogs and cats, humans can get them too from wet laundry on the line, or laying in the soil or on the beach. We have a clothes dryer so no worries there. The same time Thor had his worm I was covered in red dots, as if someone dipped a pencil eraser in red ink and colored me polka dot. They covered my legs, feet and some of my torso. The Doc said don't worry probably just heat rash, I don't know but it went away after about a week. Next starts the Acne, constantly sweating in dusty and wet clothes I feel like a teenage boy hitting puberty again.  Next was the poison ivy that I picked up last week, it continued to get worse getting bigger and bigger (which isn't supposed to happen). I finally broke down and went back to the doctor. Doctor:"Oh yes, thats creeping eruption" Me: "from poison ivy right?" Doctor: "I don't know this poison ivy" Me: "Its a plant that caused this rash right?" Doctor: "No, No you have Hookworms" Me: "Excuse me??????" Somehow from some animal I picked up a lovely case of worms. And the doctor has not seen a reaction quite this bad before..Story of my life. This morning I got Thor and Moose a dose of de-wormer from the vet including one he gave me to take (Which is actually for sheep, but he said it works for him). Ill start with the one from the doctor first then ill go with the sheep version.

And another one..

This is getting old but "White Pepper", our replacement for "Pepper" died this weekend. She had the same issues as "Salt" and "Pepper" even after my attempts at medicating with apple vinegar and hand feeding earth worms. "Salt 2" still seems to be healthy, however egg laying has halted. I built a proper roof (as opposed to a white plastic patio table) for the chicken house from the corrugate that I carried home in a thunderstorm creating a scene. Bleached the livin' piss out of the house and surrounding area, then bedded the house with a 50 lb sack of peanut shells. Nikki and I picked up about 300lbs of peanut shells from the field of peanut shell dunes accross from the peanut factory for about $1.50 total. With any luck she will be alive in a week and we can try again with another hen. RIP little hens.

Brikama

We picked up Mo in the AM and headed for Brikama one of the largest cities and largest markets in the country. We spent a couple hours wandering around the mud flooded streets and smoked, dried or just plain rotten fish ailes. Just above the food stands are these trees completely teaming with HUGE bats the size of our American Crows. They squak and make all kinds of wired noise in the afternoon heat.  We also found and rescued a kitten from a rice vendor who was more than willing to let us walk away with him NO charge. Any other vendor would have milked the sale for as much as possible. So we immediately became the laughing stock of the town. The "Toubabs" walking around in the middle of the day with a tiny white kitten refered to as (nyancamo) which is cat in Mandinka. Oh well thats how we roll, we wanted to get a pet for Thor. So his name is "Moose" which is Wolof for cat. Plus I love calling out "MOOSE!!" as a bekin for my 6 ounce kitten who promptly comes bounding in.   

Epaulated Fruit Bat

 

Thor's new kitty

Pictures don't do this mayhem justice.

Nikki and Modou in the market

Moose

Another one down..=-(

Pepper died in early morning hours yesterday, not sure what happened with her. She probably lost 3/4 of her body weight, more feathers came out and she could barely stand or open her eyes. I tried giving her drops of apple cider vinegar and bits of worm but she passed anyway. The other 2 hens seems to be  doing fine. Only one of them is producing eggs though and its only about 3 a week. I bought some corrugated metal yesterday from a building supply store to make a more respectable roof on their house. It was probably the first time any of these folks have seen a Toubab (white man) carrying corrugate down the street, and in a thunderstorm. My other moniker among many of the local vendors is Boss Man or Big Boss Man, I hope that one sticks with me when I return to the US it has a nice ring to it..

Rainy Season

As I mentioned in earlier posts we arrived at the beginning of the rainy season here. It is supposed to be from June till around September or October. The first couple weeks it only rained a short period once every 4 or 5 days then it was just warm weather otherwise. I even gave our gardner a hard time about this so-called rainy season (once a week). However, over the past week that has started to change. I have lived in the Arizona during monsoon season, Florida during hurricane season, Kansas during tornadoes and the Rocky Mountains during the summer lightning storms. Take all of that, mix it in a bowl till the lumps are gone. Now add about 10,000 Howitzer long range artillery cannons side by side from one horizon across the sky to the other horizon. These cannons don't fire all at once, its one at a time in succession from one side of the earth to the other and lasts for over a minute. No joke!! Its a deep down and otherworldly explosion that you feel in your guts, preceded by a magnificent lightning bolt. Yesterdays storm produced a bolt so clear and defined I can still picture its jagged edges and it produced a greenish aura as it pierced the clouds. The rain is every day now, with no roads comes no drainage. Rivers form alongside the storefronts with enough flow that I could have floated a canoe to the store. We keep hearing that its only going to get worse. Yesterdays temps- 90 degrees w/80% humidity thats when the sun was shining and it was clear.

Bijilo Forest Park

Sunday afternoon we picked up Modou and headed for Bajilo Forest Park (aka. The Monkey Park). A small park about 126 acres of unspoiled, Old Growth palm forest. Some of the Oil Palms here tower well over 100 feet. The guide was very knowledgeable and patient with the Toubab (white person) couple taking pictures of every leaf and twig. We made it through a good bit of the park in a couple hours, saw lots of Green Vervet and Red Colubus Monkeys, a bunch Hornbills and other birds, lizards and butterflies. It was a great little trip that I plan on repeating to spend a little more time with a bigger lens and tripod. Only cost about $8 US for 3 of us including a hefty tip for the guide. We found out the next day that "He who must not be named" has sentenced this beautiful park to be plowed under and developed into a hotel resort.  And as luck would have it, The Gambia has Poison Ivy. And I found it, after the fact so now I have the usual summer breakout head to toe.