Everton Blender on a jet ski

On Saturday I went on a boat trip. We had to get up and out pretty early, as Saturday was  Set Settal, or 'operation clean the nation' which happens on the last Saturday of every month. On these days you can't travel (other than by foot) between the hours of 9am to 1pm, all the shops stay shut, and the place feels like a ghost town. In theory it is a time for cleaning, be it your compound, or your neighbourhood. In reality, I think most people have an extra long lie in, and people definitely seem to stay out later on the Friday night before, knowing that they can have a good sleep in the morning! 

So, to get to Denton Bridge, where our boat was to depart from, before the cut off point of 9am, Helen, Joe, Jaap, Janneke and I left Bakau at 8.30am. While waiting for the others (a group of Rune's friends from Denmark and a couple of other friends of Rune and Helen's) Jaap spotted a dolphin (or two?), in the dock, just by the bridge. We were all pretty surprised, it wasn't the most likely place to see a dolphin, but sure enough one was swimming around while we waited for our boat. 

An unlikely location for a dolphin

The day was pretty chilled, and we mostly relaxed with a couple of glasses of wine - it felt like being on holiday. We had a delicious bbq on board, chilled out and swam in the river. Rune trailed his jet ski behind the boat which not only did I get to go on, but he let me drive! It was such good fun! Although I did feel like a massive rich toubab, especially when you saw local men in little fishing boats gliding by the jet ski that was trailing behind our booze cruise boat! But it was a lot of fun, and it's not every day that I get the chance to go on a jet ski. 

Jaap and Janneke

Joe

Amazing prawns from the BBQ

My James Bond moment!

After we got back I headed to Nicola's and we had dinner with John, Lamin, Abdou and Aloysious - I took the left over prawns from the boat which we all ate with salad and bread. We chilled out at Nicola's for a while before heading to the big Independence Stadium that is just behind my house in Bakau. We were going to a concert - a reggae concert with the amazingly titled Everton Blender! We didn't arrive until after midnight, and the place was pretty empty, with just a DJ on stage. About an hour or more later some Gambian artists came on stage, but still no sign of Everton himself. By this point it was getting late, and not only was I feeling tired from getting up at 7.30am, I also felt like I was still on a boat, and the whole stadium seemed to be rocking and swaying! So at 2:15am I headed home - sad to miss Everton, but apparently he didn't get on stage until after 3am! 

Yoga jam-tastic

On the 7 April my wonderful friend and yoga teacher, Jaqui Wan, and her AcroYogis held a yoga jam in aid of VSO. The AcroYoga crew have been running charity jams for a few months now, and were open to raising money for any charity that was nominated… so I jumped at the opportunity and requested that they raise a few pounds for VSO.

The event sounds like it was a great success, and they raised £108 – a very auspicious yoga number. I am truly grateful. I don't have any pictures of the event but for a bit of an idea here are some pics from other AcroYoga events I have done with Jaqui.

Stretching in Bath!

Me 'basing' Jaqui in a park in Italy - so that she
can have a bit of time out and 'fly'.

My fundraising continues despite the fact that I am already in country, as any money that I can raise will help VSO to send other people like me out to other countries to share their skills.

I have updated my JustGiving page to show what I have been up to work wise over the last few months. I know my blog quite often focuses on the social side of life, but I promise that I have been working hard at the same time – and can see more than ever the need to support VSO and raise as much money for the charity as possible. If anyone can spare a couple of pounds, however small the amount, you will find a link to my JustGiving page here on my blog page.  Thank you in advance! 

Recovery and celebration

After writing last week’s blog post cheerfully announcing that I was feeling fine, things all went downhill again!

That evening a few of us wanted to go out or do something, but as it is the last quarter of our allowance no one had any money to play with. So Helen invited us to her house, and we had a games night with drinking, or a drinking night with games (depending on your priority). Helen, Rob, Joe, Helen L, Nicola, Abdou and I were joined for most of the night by Alieu and Rohay, the kids from Helen’s compound. They were very sweet and helpful, rolling the dice for us, running to get it when it rolled off the table and bounced across the floor, and helping to polish off our snacks and coca cola! Helen cooked some sausages and chips (which Rohay was even feeding to me at one stage!) and everyone brought round a few luxury items like crisps and Cadbury’s fruit and nut. It was a really nice night, but – conscious of the fact I had been ill – I tried to be sensible. I didn’t drink much, and when everyone piled in to Joe’s car to go to Senegambia I went home. However, on Sunday I felt pretty dreadful and by Sunday night was back to feeling feverish and generally rotten.

I tried to go to work on Monday but it mostly resulted in me walking very very slowly to the office, and bursting into tears when I got there because I felt so ill! I was quickly taken home, and to cut a boring story short, spent the rest of the week indoors trying to feel better. I hadn’t been eating or drinking well after the malaria, so I think I was dehydrated, weak and just run down, although it’s possible that I might have picked up something else, as things do seem to run in twos here.

I still managed to work from home towards the end of the week, and delivered my quarter 2 report, which I was pleased with, but it was frustrating not to get into the office. Thankfully I do feel much better now, but I may say that with a little less confidence than last week!

I was glad to be better in time for Dodou’s celebration on the beach, down at Leybato, on Saturday. His wife Jane recently travelled to England to have their baby – a very beautiful girl called Esme Sophie Bah. Dodou is desperate to get out to England, see his wife and meet his daughter but unfortunately his initial visa application was rejected. He is currently going through the appeals process. So in the meantime he decided to hold a celebration – not quite a naming ceremony (he’s waiting for Jane and Esme for that) but a chance for everyone to dress up and eat some food. Two ladies grilled up a feast - for what felt like hundreds - of chicken, fish and coleslaw right on the beach, and people danced and had lots of fun in the evening sun. A happy night.

Pre-party preparations

Dodou took pictures throughout the day to send back to Jane

Nic and I enjoying the sunset, me with my first beer in two weeks

Abdou concentrated on making small children cry!

A lot has happened in Nicola’s life over the
last few months… a boyfriend AND
a baby! (Only joking Mrs Milner!)

Dancing skills on show

The dreaded M

Well, as John would say, I have been welcomed into 'da malaria club'. I'm not sure I want to go back! 

Last Sunday I had a great start to the day... I had a brisk walk to the market and back, and then did my exercise video. I put on my music and started cooking beans... and by the time I finished cooking the beans I had no appetite to eat them! From then on I started feeling a bit rough, and by Tuesday morning I felt ill enough to go to the health clinic as I was starting to suspect malaria. Thankfully I got over it pretty quick - I think due to the anti-malarials I got off fairly lightly; I just had a huge headache, no appetite, bad stomach, felt a bit hot, sick and dizzy and needed to sleep all the time! 

I am better now, so normal blogging will resume from next week! 

Easter weekend activities part three – domoda and drumming

After Abuko Nature Reserve, Nicola, Abdou and I went to Serrakunda market and shopped for ingredients to make domoda. It was hot and dusty, but I enjoyed walking around the market especially as I was able to ask Abdou all my food related questions! He must have felt like he was shopping with a small child with all my 'what's this, what's that, how do you cook this...?' but he was very patient with me. 

Market activity

Check out the chickens! 

Once the shopping was done, Nicola and Abdou headed home to cook and I walked down Kairaba avenue to get a few supplies. By the time I got home I was hot, sweaty, dusty and exhausted! I checked the temperature and discovered it was 39 degrees which explains why I was wilting! 

Pretty grubby after walking around the nature reserve and the market! 

After a shower and a snooze I met Helen and we headed round to Nicola's place. 

Nicola has recently moved, and now that she has more room to entertain she had arranged to cook for quite a few of us. As a sign of respect to our esteemed host I took her a Kola nut! 

Given at weddings and naming ceremonies these are a respectful gift to present to your host, and are also eaten on long journeys as I think they are an appetite suppressant. I imagined it would taste a bit like a brazil nut but it mostly tasted like evil. Worth a try though! 

After some interesting Bombay mix from Joe (it came with sachets of sauce to mix into it, which resulted in more of a soggy rice crispy experience than crunchy Bombay mix) Helen, Helen L, Aloysious, Joe, Lamin, John, Ba Sarjo, Abdou, Nic and I all tucked in to the huge bowls of domoda that Abdou and Nicola had prepared. It was delicious.

Once dinner was over and we had eaten until we were stuffed, Lamin bought out his drums and he, Abdou and Ba Sarjo got to work creating music for us. Pretty soon we were all joining in, either on the drums or alternative instruments including buckets, bidongs, empty glass bottles and teapots! 

Ba Sarjo and Lamin

We also discovered that we all had our own 'concentration face' when playing the drums (ranging from toothy rat faces to Whoopi Goldberg hyena smiles!) and that it was kinda hard to keep with the beat and talk at the same time! I think it was the longest most of us had stopped talking for days! 

Easter weekend activities part two – Abuko Nature Reserve

At 9am Helen, Nicola, Joe, Abdou, Helen L and I met at Westfield and caught a van destined for Brikama to Abuko Nature Reserve. We’d tried to get an early start to see more animals before it heated up, but 9am was the best we could do!

Room for one more? The van to Brikama.

Helen L, me, Joe, Nic and Helen

The reserve was really beautiful with some great trees, and loads of vines and creepers hanging down from the canopy. 

It was really nice to take a walk in some different scenery.

While walking we saw a few red colobus monkeys and lizards, oh and an antelope ran across our path very quickly, but not much else. Mostly it was just nice to walk through the trees.

Joe had bought his binoculars and bird book but the only birds we saw were vultures... loads of them! 

Easter weekend activities part one

It’s been lovely to have four days off work. Originally Nicola, Helen and I had planned to travel upcountry to stay with Rob in Kaur, but in the end we stayed in the Kombos. Nicola had been unwell in the week, Helen wasn’t feeling too great either, and I was just generally feeling tired; so despite Rob being the ultimate host, the idea of travelling had unfortunately lost its appeal. In addition, things have really heated up over the last few weeks. Here in the Kombos it’s a lot hotter in the day, but the cool sea breeze keeps the temperature feeling a bit more manageable. However in Kaur it’s now over 40 degrees every day, with no sea breeze to cool things down! Apparently in Basse, the hottest point, it is now reaching 43 degrees in the day. This makes any activity between 1pm and 5pm pretty hard work, and apparently sleeping at night isn’t too easy either. So… the hot temperatures and our tired bodies convinced us all that we should stay by the sea and get some rest.

Good Friday was spent at Safari Gardens. Nicola and I met there during the afternoon and relaxed by the pool for a few hours. We were joined later by Helen L, Rao, Joe, Martin and Munya and some others who came for a Gambian night that was being held at the hotel. We had a buffet dinner of vegetable domoda (Rao and Munya are vegetarian – they were catered for on this occasion but I suspect they might find things pretty hard to eat in The Gambia as a lot of dishes contain fish of some form if not meat), chicken yassa and plasas. I may have described these dishes before but domoda is a peanut based sauce, a bit like satay - which can be quite spicy depending on how much chilli has been used - cooked with meat or fish. Yassa is a sauce made with mustard and onions, and you most commonly get chicken or fish yassa, and plasas is a green leaf based dish (like spinach) but is flavoured with dried fish and spices. All dishes are served with rice.

After the food we listened to some drumming and had a bit of a dance. The hotel has had a tourism volunteer working with them, a Lancashire lass called Hayley. She has made some nice improvements, and the Gambian night was an idea of hers. Unfortunately a lot of her suggestions have involved putting the prices up and charging for things like pool entry and wifi. Whilst we understand why this needs to be done, unfortunately the prices are now a bit more than us vols can manage – so after the entertainment Nic, Joe, Helen L, Abdou and I left the 95 dalasi wine and 40 dalasi Julbrew and headed up to Aso Rock for 20 dalasi Julbrew and a live band.

The drummers playing and dancing by the
poolside - inc Abdou in the white hoody

Nic sporting Abdou's hat - extra large to
fit in the deadlocks (his not Nicola's!) 

The place was packed and very lively, with lots of Nigerians dancing to the live music and kicking up the sand! We all danced and joined in with the fun…   

Then, at about 1/1:30am we all decided to be good and go home, as we had arranged to meet at 9am the next morning to go to Abuko Nature Reserve.