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 :)
