My day today

I have been wanting to write up a ‘typical day’ to try and capture what I do as part of my daily routine, but my days have been so random so far that I haven’t yet worked out what constitutes a typical day. The only routine I seem to have really put down is what I do first thing in the morning. When my alarm goes off I climb out from underneath my mosquito net and stumble to the kitchen. For a few days while I waged war on my resident cockroaches this involved being careful to avoid standing on bugs that had died in the night – but thankfully ‘operation exterminate’ seems to have been a success, and I no longer feel so invaded! I get to my kitchen and put a pan of water on to boil for my tea, and then head straight for a cold shower (or bucket bath if the water is off) before getting ready for the day. This happens most mornings. What follows afterwards varies greatly!

But today I arrived at the office and met John, Aloysious and a couple of staff members on the balcony that looks out over Kairaba Avenue. We spend most of our days on the balcony; things are slow while we settle in and get to know the place, and our programme at the moment is centred around ‘familiarisation’ – basically chatting with the staff as we pick up the rhythm of working in The Gambia. For breakfast I had some of John’s tapalapa (he had akra which is fried bean curd) – it is very common to share your food, and even if you only have a small piece of bread it’s polite to offer it to your neighbour and let them break some off. I was given a couple of cups of attaya to wash it down with; attaya is strong green tea which is brewed with about a million spoonful’s of sugar – giving you an intense sugar and caffeine hit in one small shot glass! The first cup is the strongest, and it is typically drunk in three rounds, each round getting slightly weaker, or mellower than the first.

We chatted with the staff, met the chairwoman of the organisation, and basically hung out for a while. Inevitably the conversation turned to food, and we were told that we weren’t truly Gambian until we had tried baxaal (pronounced baharl). Before we knew it, a big food bowl of baxaal had arrived and we sat around it and ate – with spoons this time not our hands. It was tasty, cous with dried fish and spices, but quite a dry dish. Once we had finished eating another pot appeared, this time containing domoda and rice. I have eaten domoda a few times here, and was very full from the baxaal, but we were still encouraged to eat! I am glad I did – it was the best domoda I have ever had. The ground nut flavour wasn’t as overpowering as it can be, and it had a delicious chilli kick to it. John and Aloysious must have agreed with me and before we knew it the dish was empty!

After work we called in at Aloysious’ house to check out his compound, and then I made my way home. At 6pm I decided to jog to the supermarket and veg stalls. It’s only 2k there and back, but I haven’t exercised since I left England for Uganda, and haven’t run for months and months! I also didn’t know how the people of Bakau would react to a toubab jogging down the sandy roads, dodging goats and 7x7s, but I stuck on my I-pod and just went for it! I am glad I did, it was great to get out, and I didn’t even feel too hot – despite the fact that according to the Weather Channel it was 30 degrees at 6pm but was said to have felt like 35 degrees. I must have acclimatised!

I was very grateful to discover the water had returned when I got back, so after a nice cold shower I am sitting in the dark (I have water but no power – you can’t always have it all!) eating tomato, cucumber and cream crackers, feeling very content. 

I arrived home today to find this message from my cleaner!