i'm a påskpysselprofessional, and here are the pictures to prove it:



  ¶ 4:47 PM

  yesterday i was told about a man who shot himself in our basement. by someone who said he knew the man who did it. a reliable source? or maybe i'm just starting to be liked, and they wanted to scare me... if it's true it might explain why the galdor cat wants to be down in the basement all the time: to hang around with the ghost?  ¶ 8:51 PM

  i saw at least 10 butterflies today  ¶ 7:14 PM

  two things i like about my new colleagues:

one: they all seem so excited about their job.
for me crawling around in enormous tanks looking for different parts is very cool, but i really like hearing that the "old ones" think it is too. hopefully i will still be that interested in a few years.

two: they all seem to like each other very much.
i'm not sure i want them to start liking me as much though, as their ways of showing their approval are not always what i would call nice (rotten fish in boots, rotten fish in drawers at work, adjusted brakes on bikes, adjusted wires on computers, horns hidden under seats attached to the ignition on snowmobiles etc. )  ¶ 2:52 PM

  the girls just left

we had a girls' night (evening) at my home today. tommy is away at some kind of conference or something, and i've been home alone since tuesday, which means i've lived on sandwiches and coca cola. but today after work the girls came over and made me real dinner with real dessert and even coffee, like grown up people. very nice! i'm going to sleep well tonight :)  ¶ 11:08 PM

  only 91% left of the world to visit...



create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide  ¶ 8:49 PM

  the gambia, short(er) version

touched:
* monkeys
* crocodile
* cats
* children
* people
* trees

ate:
* fish domoda
* fish domoda
* fish domoda
* fish without domoda
* chicken domoda

went to:
* kachikally sacred crocodile pool
* abuko nature reserve
* brikama
* lamin lodge
* sanyang beach/paradise beach
* tanje fishing village
* sotokoi
* bulock
* bakau market
* bakau fishing harbour
* albert market in banjul
* serrekunda
* senegambia

bought:
* t-shirt
* bracelets
* wooden crocodile
* wooden hippo
* water
* friends

gifts:
* bracelets
* necklace
* big shell
* clams
* bonga fish
  ¶ 7:01 PM

  the gambia, end of the story

day 6:
maja stayed at the hotel, and tommy and i went on a trip with future in our hands. first we visited a school in sotokoi. the lessons seemed very different from what we're used to in sweden: the teacher was shouting loudly, and the children always seemed to answer singing all together like a big screaming choir. but maybe they wanted to make it a bit extra nice when they were having guests. we also visited the head master's office, and saw a list of the teachers' wages. the three with the lowest wages earned 610 dalasis/month (about 150 sek).

after the school we went to visit a women cooperative in bulock. i got to borrow a toilet at the nursery next door, which turned out to be an interesting experience: walking across the yard was almost impossible, as i had millions of little children hanging in my arms. and when i got to the toilet it turned out to be a cement floor over a big deep hole, with no door (or even wall) facing the school yard. which meant milli0ns of little children were standing and watching, until a teacher came and chased them away. afterwards the children "attacked" me again.

at the women cooperative we had lunch: the gambian dish "domoda" again, but with chicken this time (i had fish domoda at least three times this week, and it was wonderful). after lunch we walked to a medical clinic. a very dirty (and not ver good looking) boy held my hand all the way, smiling so much it looked as if the top half of his head could be cought by the wind and fall off. lots of children followed us and took turns holding our hands (except the dirty smiling boy, who never let go). these children didn't beg for sweets or money, they just wanted to hold our hands and touch our arms. maybe they were not as used to tourists as the ones closer to the hotel. anyway, it felt much better this way.

there were no patients at the clinic, which seemed a bit strange. the only person working there (as i understood it) was a young woman with no medical training. she delivered babies and took care of injuries and illnesses that weren't too serious. in the medicine closet they had two bottles of antiseptic liquid, a bag of band-aids, a few packets of malaria medicine and plastic gloves. there was no water or electricity.

walked back to the women cooperative, and looked as they tie dyed a table cloth. they earn their living by tie dying things and taking care of a garden.

stopped by an enormous termite mound, and our guide aladdin told us about the termites.

on our way back home aladdin stopped to buy some wood, as it's cheaper on the country side, and we stopped at his house to drop it there. he told us his uncle is the chief of his town (don't remember the name of it, but 40 000 people live there), and if he lives long enough he will take over one day. the road to the town was called "dance without music", as it was so bumpy. aladdin's house looked much nicer than all other houses we've seen. he had a room full of sofas, and he even had a tv and a dvd-player. but it was still far from even the simplest summer cottage you could find in sweden. we walked to visit the poorest family in aladdins village, and their house reminded very much of the toilet i'd borrowed at the nursery. except this house was falling apart. there were children everywhere (but apparently only two belonged to the very poor family we visited).

back at the hotel we found a red little sister asleep in the room. she had not been allowed to leave the hotel while we were away, so she had stayed by the pool for a while, and then got back to the room to watch tv. we washed a bit, as we were dirty from dusty children and dusty roads, and went out to read by the pool for a while. met a group of little boys who asked for money to buy a football. it feels horrible when children ask for money, but at the same time i guess it's not very good to give it to them, as that would probably make some of them not go to school anymore. but we couldn't say no so we said we'd buy them the ball tomorrow instead of giving them the money... the boys told us that "lamin" is the name of the first born boy, which was appreciated information as we had thought it was a bit fun that so many people we met were called lamin.

didn't have the energy to go far to look for dinner, so we went to the restaurant at the corner.

day 7:
beach day.
after breakfast we put the lemon from the market in our hair and went to the beach, for a long planned beach day. the sun cream was almost empty, so i let maja have it and used ordinary lotion istead (as i don't really believe in sun screen anyway). learned: sun screen seems to work after all, as i turned read and maja did not. the red spots disappeard though, so i was happy anyway :) went to swim and for short walks. for lunch we managed to walk all the way to the end of the road without company. found a little restaurant where the food was almost for free and very good. the owner was very talkative.

met the socker boys on our way back, and went to the market with them to buy them their ball. afterwards we went back to the beach, and bathed a bit more and read under a towel in the shades. went back to the hotel and started to pack.

met del boy to go to a restaurant called african queen in senegambia. the food was very expensive compared to other restaurants we'd tried. don't know why he wanted us to go there. i felt embarrased to pay so much for food. senegambia is the second biggest city in gambia, and maybe he just wanted us to see something new.

day 8:
went to the beach. bathed and rested in the sand under a towel. met del boy at 11 and gave him the rice money. he gave us necklaces made with barrakuda bones. had a shower and checked out of the hotel room. had lunch. sat in the shadows by the pool and talked and bathed a bit. tommy went outside the hotel grounds to buy a bird nest, and came back with a bird nest, a wooden elephant and having payed a guy to leave him alone. i guess you need practice to be able to walk the streets outside the hotels withouth being stressed :)

the bus to the airport picked us up at 15. had ice cream and coca cola in an outdoors café at the airport and enjoyed the last of the gambian warmth.

couldn't sleept at all on the plane. were looking forward to a "movie night", but instead of the film they were supposed to show they showed a norvegian film with fat old men looking at football. impossible to watch!

day 9:
arrived at arlanda. we waited and waited and waited until everyone except us had taken their bags and left, and only one bag was going round and round and round on the line. when i finally went to get that bag to see if i could find out who had taken my bag instead of theirs, i realised it was mine :)  ¶ 3:04 PM

  the gambia, continued...

day 4:
went to the beach, to relax a bit. had fruit salad for lunch. went for a walk, and were accompanied by a boy who was named lamin but called del boy, and another boy who's name i can't remember. del boy is an official tourist guide, who is allowed to stand outside the hotel and wear a "uniform", and they are also supposed to prevent the "bumsters" from disturbing you. they don't get any money except for what the tourists pay them though, which might be why they "disturb" you as much as the bumsters do. anyway, del boy was nice and we asked him if he would accompany us for a walk tomorrow afternoon. decided to go to the hotel next door to have dinner, but met moses and somehow ended up at a restaurant in the mangrove marsh. there was no electricity, so after a while it was very dark. and we had read a bit too much about malaria before leaving to feel very comfortable with sitting in total darkness with mosquitoes eating our legs. moses noticed we weren't completely at ease, and was trying really hard to make us happy, apologising for the canabis smoke from his friends at the table next to ours and bringing a drum to entartain us. we also met moses friend lamin, who had tried to go to the canary islands in a small boat but was stopped. the evening turned out great, and the food was wonderful. when we had finished moses followed us almost all the way to the hotel (it was too dark for us to see anything). went to bed early. when we turned out the lights a drum-night started at the hotel restaurant. maja said that this can't be music, it sounds as if they are building a road :)

day 5:
i had little red itchy spots everywhere except in the face:(

took a green tourist taxi to albert market in banjul, the capital. the green taxis are for tourists only, and cost a bit more. they are the only ones allowed to park outside the hotels. the yellow ones are for everyone, and less expensive. don't really understand the difference except for the colours.

the taxi driver simon was also a plumber at our hotel, and followed us as a guide at the market. we told him we didn't need a guide, but he turned out to be right. people and cats and dogs and monkeys and things everywhere. it was almost impossible to walk through the market. people put necklaces around our necks that we couldn't get off and put things in our hands and wrapped us in million coloured cloths. bought: two enormous t-shirts in weird colours, little wooden things that none of us wanted, a necklace, a few bracelets and a small drum. i would probably have bought a lot more if i didn't get so stressed. i think i need a bit more time to be able to take things like that cool (but i guess that was only to be expected, as i nearly panick when i go grocery shopping at ica on fridays after work too :). when we saw a very small kitten with lame hind legs dragging itself trhough the streets, while at lest 4 people were trying to sell us different things we didn't want it was too much and i asked simon to take us out of there.

when we came back to the hotel we rested a bit by the pool, and went for a walk along the beach met someone who'se name i can't remember. he asked if we could send a letter to his brother in sweden for him, but he never showed up with the letter.

had lunch at the hotel.

met del boy for our guided walk. another boy also made us company, so the "no hassling" on the official tourist guide signs apparently didn't always work. walked to a fishing harbour that was smaller than the one we visited a few days ago, but still enormous. we also walked to the local market, which was extremely different from the albert market. this one mainly sold food, and we could walk through it without people trying to get us to buy things. we bought a lemon, to see if it could make us blonder in the sun. we also visited a school where the teachers worked without wages and the children didn't have to pay. apparently the schools run by the government all cost. we got to sit with the children for a while, and a dirty little girl next to me wanted to give me her dirty toy mouse. thought it was sweet of her, but i guess she needs it better than i do. hope it wasn't extremely impolite not to accept it.

after visiting the school we took a yellow taxi to serrekunda, the biggest town, to visit one of the gambia's four cash machines. had to wait for a while for guards from the hotel to leave, because del boy said that they didn't like it when tourists took yellow taxis. went to a little supermarket to buy juice. tommy asked if del boy wanted anything, and he said that if he could chose anything it would be rice for his family. they told us at the hotel not to trust people and that they just try to get your money, but it's difficult. and del boy seemed really nice, and we thought it's nicer to trust people than not to, so we said we'd give him money to buy the rice. 50 kg rice costs more than the cleaning people at the hotel earn in a month, but for us it's less than 150 sek. so i guess fooling tourists is a profitable job. went to a local shop to buy coca cola, as it's much more expensive in the supermaret. sat in the garden of some of del boy's friends and chatted and had coca cola.

back at the hotel we bought sanitary pads (as the anti-period-pills didn't work). the shop assistant came running after us and shouting, and we thought we had payed to little or too much, but she just wanted us to put the pads in a black plastic bag (secret, she whispered), even though it was only 50 m to our room :)  ¶ 3:52 PM

  the gambia, starting to get interesting

day three:
lamin boy and a friend of his picked us up at 9. went to a crocodile pond in bakau, not far from the hotel. there were crocodiles everywhere! as it's a holy place the crocodiles don't bite. we even touched one! women who can't have babies can swim with the crocodiles, as the water is sacred. met a man who said it was his uncle who found the pond, and that there's a white crocodile in there somewhere.

after the crocodiles we went to the nature reserve in bakau. on the way there we stopped to look at a cow-market. some of the monkey's in the nature reserve were so used to people that they came up to us and took peanuts from our hands! we stayed for a long time, just to look at the monkeys so close to us. it was interesting to walk through the jungle and listen to birds and see monkeys up in the trees too of course, but being able to sit on the ground with monkeys only a few metres away felt enormous. they had black nails and very cute little hands. we also saw hyenas, baboons, different birds and big turtles. the hyenas were much bigger than i had thought.

after the nature reserve we went to the river, where we went on an hour boat ride to look at clams growing on the mangrove roots and big birds. when we got there we met a thin white dog with one of her hind legs turned backwards and the bone sticking out about a decimeter :( lamin boy bought us a bag of boiled clams.

went to see lamin boy's family. when we were driving on the dirt roads with houses and people all around millions of little children were running after the car screaming for sweets and money, and lamin boy told us to throw sweets through the windows for them. felt horrible. there were children everywhere, and they were fighting over the lollipops and it was impossible to hand the sweets to them politely, because they were so wild.

met the president! he was in a hurry though, and didn't have time to stop.

went to a beach called paradise beach and had lunch there. the food was good and the beach was nice, but it was too early on the vacation to be able to relax and enjoy it. too many new things to think about and i felt exhausted. all the friendly and smiling people who pulled in us from all different angles almost made me want to hide somewhere and not have to see anyone before i came home again.

stopped somewhere to look at the fishermen selling fish to the markets. lots of people and fish and dogs evereywhere. fun fish. some of them had enormous teeth, and some had bright colours. looked at how they smoked the "bonga fish", and got to taste some. very much bones, and difficult to eat.

back at the hotel we sat outside our room and fed two little cats with chips.  ¶ 12:09 PM

  the gambia experience
day one:
got up at 4.30. the father drove us to arlanda. arrived at banjul international airport around 17. it was 40 degrees! the warmest i've ever experienced... the husband and the sister had sandwiches at the hotel, and i had ice cream and wite wine. even though the sun had set and it was dark it was warm and nice and there were weird birds singing in the weird trees (it sounded more like cats fighting than beautiful birdsong, but it was nice anyway). went to bed early. our room was of "extra high standard" :)

day two:
information meeting at another hotel. they warned us about "bumsters" - young men who follow you around and ask for your money. walked on their beach. had at least three young boys following us. Hired sunbeds from lamin boy. not beacuse we wanted to, but because lamin boy wanted us to and we were not good at saying no. turned out to be good anyway, because that meant lamin boy's uncle chased all the other boys away. couldn't really relax anyway, as we were the only tourists on the beach and there were lots of young men watching us. had lunch at lamin boy's restaurant ley bateau. decided to go on a trip tomorrow with lamin boy as our guide. he told us to bring sweets for children. after lunch he called a taxi and followed us to the road. met the first dirty smiling children of the trip. they were very happy to see their picture in my camera, and kissed and hugged it. stopped at a supermarket to buy lollipops. tried the pool at the hotel. walked on our beach and through the village/town around the hotel, and were accompanied by two boys/young men, del boy and someone i don't remember the name of. had dinner at a nice restaurant very close to the hotel. a group of drummers and dancers performed in the street.  ¶ 2:21 PM

  i'm off to africa :)  ¶ 3:22 PM