During our dramatic trip to Banjul we met a girl who was volunteering independently with the health sector for 5 weeks. She is living in a local compound in Bakau so when she invited a few of us round to her colleague Lamin's house for a traditional Gambian meal we jumped at the chance! This was our chance to put our cultural training to the test. When we arrived we greeted Lamin's family in the local language, took our shoes off at the door and was ready to eat only with our right hand (as is rude to eat with your left). As I moved the piece of fabric in the doorway and stepped inside I heard a very familiar beeping sound coming from the corner of the room. 24! Lamin's face lit up when I recognized the series on their TV and it soon became apparent that he was an even bigger fan than me! Lamin's sister brought in the food bowl along with plates and spoons – they wanted to spoil us so we couldn't convince them that we wanted the traditional Gambian food bowl experience. I can honestly say it was the most bizarre night since being here. There I was eating food bowl from a plate discussing the merits and flaws of Jack Bower's character. Priceless! (I was not expecting to have such a 24 themed blog I may add! I will hopefully steer clear of this topic in the future!) |
Monday, 7 September 2009
Gambian food bowl...
Meeting Charlie...
Since arriving in The Gambia we are constantly asked… 'Have you seen Charlie yet?' so when we were given a day off to explore we thought it was our duty to do just that. However finding him was easier said than done. We knew he was somewhere in Bakau so when we got there we kept muttering the word Charlie and people pointed in the general direction. We ended up walking through a network of tangled back streets meeting a variety of people along the way. Eventually we made it. As we walked through the gate we were confronted by a goat that had the loudest belch I had ever heard! Emily was the first to spot the pool through a wire fence. As we peered through we could see two crocodile eyes staring back at us. This must be Charlie! Charlie is famous in Gambia for being gentle enough to touch (although there are some rumours floating around that he is either made of stone or dead). As we turned the corner Emily let out an amused gasp- there was a big chunk of the fence missing… The amused laughter quickly fell silent as we realized that there were two huge crocs blocking our path. We heard a voice saying it's ok they have been fed! A park attendant appeared and leaped enthusiastically onto one of the crocodiles back as if it was a docile donkey. He was beckoning us to go and touch the croc. He didn't look like stone to me… When it was my turn I walked towards one of the many Charlies and could see his eye following me. I hovered my hand over this full but, let's face it, still very unpredictable creature… the attendant pushed my hand down… well he felt like stone- cold and rock-like. As I walked away the croc had obviously had enough and wandered off – so the stone myth was completely crushed. As we continued our walk we became very aware that there were a lot more Charlies than we first thought… they were under benches, climbing out of the pool and enjoying the shade of the trees surrounding us. After a lot of nervous laughter we made our excuses and very carefully and slowly made a dash for it! |
