Farewell Janneke

With an exciting new role in South Africa, Friday was time to say goodbye to Janneke. We decided on LA Live - our favourite Bakau hangout owing to the lovely staff and the good price for wine. 

We decided to decorate the place to make it more festive for Janneke's leaving do, so in the day I painted some posters and Helen sourced some balloons. Then we went and bought her a little gift - a small sand painting that we knew would fit in her luggage! We headed down to LA Live a bit early and decorate the place - with the staff helping us and the kids marvelling at the 'beautiful balloons'. We had a lovely evening, and were even given one bottle of wine for free in honour of Janneke's last night. 

Boxing day BBQ on the beach

The title says it all really. On boxing day we went to the beach for a BBQ. It was good fun, and nice to have some Christmas beach time. We took down some of the leftover food from the Christmas party and the BBQ, and Ellie had cooked up a few extra bonus treats - breaded chicken, spring rolls and homemade sausage rolls...mmmm. 

We finished the day in New Bendula bar, and then Nicola, Abdoul and I went to a local bar. 

Helen and Mags in the sea

Boxing day relaxing

Football time

Then touch rugby...

...which killed John

Snapper time

Whiskey and cake

Christmas Day 2013

On Christmas morning I had a breakfast of banana pancakes and made some skype calls, before heading out.

Christmas day was spent at Joe’s house, who hosted our volunteer Christmas party. We had a huge amount of food for the BBQ, and some great contributions of salads, breads, rice dishes and cheese from everyone.  

My first course was half a homemade burger with loads of salad and cheese – not a full burger as I knew how much food was to follow and I was trying to eat tactically! Next was red snapper, followed by grilled chicken – marinated in Joe’s yoghurt marinade – followed by some delicious lamb, followed by barbequed prawns, then barbequed pork… all interspersed with cheese and crisps and washed down with Julbrew. It was amazing – a full day of eating/constant grazing!

Lamin giving Joe a break from the cooking

Peter with the Christmas tree!

Relaxing time

We did a secret santa (I received some candles, a very useful present here) and relaxed at Joe’s all day. People came and went, but most volunteers were there and it was really nice to have everyone together – plus a few extra friends and partners along the way.  

Christmas preparations

I finished work on Friday afternoon - after waiting a few hours for some money that VSO kindly gave us towards a volunteer Christmas party - and skipped home very excited to have three weeks off work! 

On Saturday morning I met Nicola and Joe and we shopped for the party, which we had scheduled for Christmas day. We did well, and had everything done by the afternoon, so we went for a few drinks to reward our hard work and then ate dinner round at Nicola's. 

On Monday I painted a birthday card for Helen and then spent the afternoon with Ellie. We made spring rolls ready for Christmas feasts, before taking a walk along the beach to Solomans for some fish in foil with Janneke, Jaap, Joshua and Joe. (Only Js allowed). 

Before frying...

Christmas eve was our Helen's birthday, and she hosted a little party.... We had food and drink, spent some time on the roof, and generally had a nice time. The most entertainment, however, came from Helen's wardrobe. As the evening wore on Helen reluctantly changed from her lovely new birthday dress, made from beautiful fabric reminiscent of the 70s and Charlie's Angels, into her 'asobe' for the evening Mass at her church. 

Beautiful dress - complete
with birthday additions

Dressed in what she described as her granny's nightie, she was less than enthusiastic with her dress, especially when her sister Margaret came out wearing a nicer style that Helen had had made with the balance of the material. 

We all joked that Mags looked great and Helen looked 'interesting' but in truth, the dress wasn't that bad... just a slightly odd mix of styles complete with Lady Gaga-esque sleeves. Once ready the sisters went off to Mass, I went home and was invited into my neighbours house to watch the Pope's address. A lemon vodka was thrust into my hand, and I spent half an hour or so there with them, until they themselves went off to church and I hit the sack to have a good night's sleep in preparation for Christmas day!  

Catch up

Well, it has been a busy month... with a few Christmas touches, but in general it doesn't feel like the middle of December. 

The sunny weather has, like last year, prevented most of us from feeling Christmassy - a strong harmattan wind is blowing across The Gambia at the moment, bringing a layer of dust and sand and dropping the night time temperatures... but not exactly to the level that would give a Christmas time sprinkling of snow. Nicola's mum gave me an advent calendar, and Helen sent a Christmas parcel which was very lovely of her, so Christmas has peeked through the sand in little ways. 

I hosted a special 'parcel opening night' for the girls. I cooked bean burgers, we had wine - also kindly provided by Helen - and we enjoyed opening up our Christmas treats and eating cake and chocolate coins, by candlelight because the light went which is what always happens when I have people round.

Mugs waiting for wine

Burgers

Mega package from Dr Helen

Complete with baobab facemasks - very appropriate for Africa

The APRs have kept me busy and I am really looking forward to the office closing for Christmas - I need a break! Also, my brother comes in early January so I am very excited about that. 

Budget friendly recipes

Yesterday I came across a blog by A Girl Called Jack who started out writing recipes she could make on a really really low budget in England. Not only did I find her blog articles moving, I realised that many of her cheap recipes suited a VSO budget down to the ground. I figured that I could probably make quite a few of them based on what I could source here in The Gambia. When living on a low budget and / or being limited to just a few ingredients (in my case tomato, aubergine and onion!) it's nice to look for some culinary inspiration once in a while. 

I found a recipe for aubergine and kidney bean burgers, which I made last night. Ms Jack costs everything up as she goes, so some of my costs are included as well - although I halved the aubergine and kidney beans to use for my dinner tonight so they will make two meals for me.

Ingredients:

1 tin of kidney beans (30 dalasi / 60 pence)
1 Aubergine (25 dalasi / 50 pence)
1 onion (about 3 dalasi / 6 pence)
A little fresh chilli (1 dalasi / 2 pence)
Teaspoon of tikka masala powder - should be cumin but I made do with what I had... tikka masala powder sent to me in a food parcel from my bestest.
Some flour (from my store cupboard)  

Served with 1/2 cup of rice (4 dalasi / 8 pence) and tomato and onion sauce (approx 8 dalasi / 16 pence)

The original recipe is here. I softened one onion, half the aubergine, chilli and the tikka masala powder in a frying pan while boiling half the tin of kidney beans to make them soft, as the recipe recommended. Once the onion / aubergine mix was soft and nicely fried I added it to the drained kidney beans with some salt and pepper, and mashed the mix up. I stirred in some flour and left it to rest for a while. 

I decided to serve my burgers with rice and a homemade tomato sauce, so I prepared the sauce and cooked the rice while the burger mix rested. Next I shaped two burgers from the mixture and fried them for a few minutes on each side, until crisp and brown. 

At this point the light went out, so the rest of my cooking and photo taking was done in the dark - but here are the results:

Aubergine and kidney bean burger with rice
and tomato sauce

It was a good meal, and nice to eat something different!

Tuesday night girl night

On Tuesday Helen and I went for dinner at Janneke's house, and had a lovely European dinner. 

Fresh ladyfish cooked with dill and cream, served with pasta with red and green peppers, aubergine and PESTO! Helen and I were both very excited to have pesto. This was washed down with a gin and tonic - delicious and a real treat! 

Weekend fun

This weekend was a nice sociable weekend.

On Friday I went for pork in Manjai with Janneke, Jaap, Helen, Nicola, Abdoul, and Nicola's mum and dad. 

Nic with her mum and dad

Cheeky Helen

On Saturday afternoon, after some much needed sofa time in the morning, I decided to go for a walk. I chose a circular route around the Bakau women's horticultural gardens, up to Cape Point and back home via Bakau market - 7.5km in total. I put on my trainers and headphones and really enjoyed a peaceful walk to music and birdsong in the late afternoon sun. 

I passed a few people along the way who were happy to call out 'enjoy your exercise', and greeted a couple of groups of women farmers walking home from their gardens. It was lovely to say hello to them and be greeted by them, kind of the opposite experience of being hassled by men shouting 'what is your nice name?'. 

I saw some fantastic kingfishers and herons, as well as other birds that I wasn't able to identify, although the only wildlife I was able to capture on camera was this HUGE spider. 

Spot the spider

I was hungry by the time I reached the market so I bought a segment of pumpkin, a carrot, a couple of potatoes, onions and tomatoes and went home to cook a big vegetable stew with pearl barley. While the stew was cooking I chipped up one of the potatoes into cubes and fried them to make the kind of chips mum used to cook for us when we were little, which I wolfed down with some salt and plenty of water.

On Sunday I woke early and travelled to Kotu to meet Nicola, Abdou, Lamin and Nicola's mum and dad and we set off for a day trip / fishing trip to Sanyang. We called in at Tanjii to buy some fish to use as bait and some smoked fish and bread to eat for lunch (just in case we didn't catch any fish!). 

Buying the bait on Tanjii beach

Meanwhile Nicola's dad was being asked for footballs!

Abdoul inside the smoke house

Once at Sanyang we walked away from the tourists down to our favourite spot - the quieter end of the beach. Here we read, swam and lazed around while the men fished (and didn't catch anything). 

Just us on the beach

 

Not a bad view for a lazy Sunday! 

Abdoul and Nicola prepared the smoked fish, making a salad of fish, lime juice, salt, tomato and avocado (from Nicola's tree), which we ate with bread and the boiled eggs that Nic's mum and dad had smuggled out of their hotel breakfast. It was delicious, and a very relaxing day. 

Abdoul preparing fish as a local dog snoozes
in the shade

Lunchtime