Week 1 - getting used to the Gambia

Other than general homesickness and ‘my god what have I done?’ thoughts, the most difficult things to cope with are:

• The weather (v hot all the time and getting hotter by the day). Especially difficult when you can’t wear shorts or usual holiday clothes as the culture doesn' allow them
• The blinking Mosquitoes (surely the natural food chain can do without them? I’m covered in bites)
• The bumsters (who just hassle anyone white, especially if you are female). Generally they are okay and easy to deal with but a few can be a bit aggressive and it’s hard to shake them off. I’ve had about 5 marriage proposals so far and countless declarations of love!
• The Gambian slowly slowly attitude
• Living on about £4.50 per day (everything excluding rent)……ought to be okay when compared to the little many locals have but it’s not!

I spent the first week in a small hotel called Safari Gardens. It's very simple but did have a pool (which was great). It’s run by a lovely British couple, Jerry and Morris, who have lived in the Gambia for 11 years and are great friends and supporters of VSO volunteers.

ICT (in country training) with VSO started and I was able to get to know the other new volunteers (3 Brits, 1 Australian, 4 Philippinos, 1 Pole, and 1 Bangladeshi/Canadian). A good bunch of people who really will become my new best friends.

We also went to a concert at the local sports stadium. I add this as it did give us a few lessons in the Gambian way…..

The concert was Youssou N'dour, a well know Senegalese singer (he has appeared on some Western Albums...Adam help me out here!??) Anyway the concert started at 8pm so I arrived just before hand. Having tickets really showed the clear distinction between the haves and have nots. I immediately wished I hadn’t got a ticket as there were hundreds of people hanging around outside that could never have afforded to go (tickets were about £6).
Once inside we were given a display of the younger, western and wealthy Gambian generation… I have never seen so many well dressed girls in my life! (And I mean dressed up to the nines, blinging in every corner of the stadium), you certainly would not have known we were in a fairly strictly Islamic country.
We managed to get to our seats for about 20.30, but no problem as the show hadn’t started by then...…In fact it didn’t really start until 01.00 in the morning! Gambian timekeeping (or not!) is legendary. We had a few warm up acts at 22.30 ish (even the Gambians thought they were terrible) and then 3 prize draws (I kid you not?!) and finally, he arrived. It was, in the end, a great show and the dancers were fantastic but it was a real test of patience. Had I not been with some longer serving volunteers that I was trying to make friends with, I would have left!