A little bit of Paradise in a few weeks of problems…
YOK. An African/Lebanese restaurant and arts centre, owned by the most amazing man, (if slightly eccentric!) Suelle is an older man who has had an amazing life, (knows the Dalai Lama, worked for Vidal Sassoon, friend of the Gambian president….you know the type of thing!?) He has a huge number of interests, has lived all over the world, speaks 7 languages fluently, owns this amazing place and is a spiritualist/homeopath/astrologer…
Anyway, I have to thank my lucky stars that during our first week here my friends Julie, Marney and Jodie all found Yok by chance (whilst lost in the Kombos). They popped in for a coffee and happened to meet the infamous Suelle. The three of them all came back to the hotel that night in an almost delirious state, saying they had found this most wonderful place owned by an amazing man….. To cut a long story short, Suelle has sort of taken them (and me by default!) under his wing and last week invited us to his place for dinner.
Without doubt it is the nicest place I have been to in the Gambia so far. But as Suelle is such an interesting character it is much more than just a lovely place for dinner. He totally enchants visitors and even if you don’t believe the things that he does you can’t help but be drawn to him. We arrived and had Kir Royale on the garden terrace, met some friends of his and then with the restaurant closed to the public he served us a brilliant Lebanese style meal…Fabulous.
Of course someone like Suelle was never going to have boring friends so we spent the evening helping a professor from the London School of Economics to pick a cover for her new book and then had our numerology characters and futures told. (For anyone that knows or cares, I’m a 10 or a 1 and this year is a 9 for me, which is apparently great news!!)
And, being shameless volunteers we even took doggie bags home with us - All in all, a totally surreal but wonderful evening – Thank you Suelle x
Other than that there has been a few unsettling moments in the past 2 weeks but I have come out of it totally unscathed.
There have been 4 separate break-ins at various friends houses. Nobody was hurt but it is horrible as it makes you feel so targeted. The assumption is that because you are white you will have money and therefore things to steal. The truth is, many of the richer locals have far more than we do but it is still difficult to have things like your computer, music or phone stolen. And it does nothing to make you feel integrated into the community and often causes volunteers and ex-pats to simply spend less time with the local people and more time within their own community.
Julie, the Australian volunteer that stays with me in Kombos, has had a nasty motorcycle accident. She is okay but had some horrible bumps and bruises and her arm is now in plaster and a sling. She has suffered some panic attacks since and has been ordered to take things easy. She is worse than me though and finds it hard to relax so is struggling with that advice
Marney, another friend, mistakenly flooded her flat. The mains water here goes on and off so she left her tap on without realising. Later, when the water came back on and she was away for the night, it flooded her entire house. She is in good spirits though and despite having an abundance of purple clothes (they all were dyed as she left a pile on the floor!), she says “at least the whole place has had a really good clean!”
Lastly on problems, 2 friends have been mugged in separate incidents. Neither were hurt but both a bit shaken.
Crime rates here are low and it is generally safe but theft from white people is high and is something nobody warned us about. It is a horrible situation as it makes you feel so vulnerable. Of course most Gambians are nice but many often just want to try and get money from you. They either ask outright for money, con you by telling you a story about sick children, new births etc (which I, of course, have fallen for) or a small minority just steal.
On a final lighter, but more gross note…my feet. The Nurse says it is possible that I have a worm thing in them….The thought of that is much worse than the sore itchy feet, I feel weird even typing about it. I have been given stuff to put on them and sort of toe bandages and hopefully the worm will die and then pop out…Normally you can actually see them moving about but mine are motionless thank god!! Oh well at least I can claim I got some African disease whilst here for my troubles…
YOK. An African/Lebanese restaurant and arts centre, owned by the most amazing man, (if slightly eccentric!) Suelle is an older man who has had an amazing life, (knows the Dalai Lama, worked for Vidal Sassoon, friend of the Gambian president….you know the type of thing!?) He has a huge number of interests, has lived all over the world, speaks 7 languages fluently, owns this amazing place and is a spiritualist/homeopath/astrologer…
Anyway, I have to thank my lucky stars that during our first week here my friends Julie, Marney and Jodie all found Yok by chance (whilst lost in the Kombos). They popped in for a coffee and happened to meet the infamous Suelle. The three of them all came back to the hotel that night in an almost delirious state, saying they had found this most wonderful place owned by an amazing man….. To cut a long story short, Suelle has sort of taken them (and me by default!) under his wing and last week invited us to his place for dinner.
Without doubt it is the nicest place I have been to in the Gambia so far. But as Suelle is such an interesting character it is much more than just a lovely place for dinner. He totally enchants visitors and even if you don’t believe the things that he does you can’t help but be drawn to him. We arrived and had Kir Royale on the garden terrace, met some friends of his and then with the restaurant closed to the public he served us a brilliant Lebanese style meal…Fabulous.
Of course someone like Suelle was never going to have boring friends so we spent the evening helping a professor from the London School of Economics to pick a cover for her new book and then had our numerology characters and futures told. (For anyone that knows or cares, I’m a 10 or a 1 and this year is a 9 for me, which is apparently great news!!)
And, being shameless volunteers we even took doggie bags home with us - All in all, a totally surreal but wonderful evening – Thank you Suelle x
Other than that there has been a few unsettling moments in the past 2 weeks but I have come out of it totally unscathed.
There have been 4 separate break-ins at various friends houses. Nobody was hurt but it is horrible as it makes you feel so targeted. The assumption is that because you are white you will have money and therefore things to steal. The truth is, many of the richer locals have far more than we do but it is still difficult to have things like your computer, music or phone stolen. And it does nothing to make you feel integrated into the community and often causes volunteers and ex-pats to simply spend less time with the local people and more time within their own community.
Julie, the Australian volunteer that stays with me in Kombos, has had a nasty motorcycle accident. She is okay but had some horrible bumps and bruises and her arm is now in plaster and a sling. She has suffered some panic attacks since and has been ordered to take things easy. She is worse than me though and finds it hard to relax so is struggling with that advice
Marney, another friend, mistakenly flooded her flat. The mains water here goes on and off so she left her tap on without realising. Later, when the water came back on and she was away for the night, it flooded her entire house. She is in good spirits though and despite having an abundance of purple clothes (they all were dyed as she left a pile on the floor!), she says “at least the whole place has had a really good clean!”
Lastly on problems, 2 friends have been mugged in separate incidents. Neither were hurt but both a bit shaken.
Crime rates here are low and it is generally safe but theft from white people is high and is something nobody warned us about. It is a horrible situation as it makes you feel so vulnerable. Of course most Gambians are nice but many often just want to try and get money from you. They either ask outright for money, con you by telling you a story about sick children, new births etc (which I, of course, have fallen for) or a small minority just steal.
On a final lighter, but more gross note…my feet. The Nurse says it is possible that I have a worm thing in them….The thought of that is much worse than the sore itchy feet, I feel weird even typing about it. I have been given stuff to put on them and sort of toe bandages and hopefully the worm will die and then pop out…Normally you can actually see them moving about but mine are motionless thank god!! Oh well at least I can claim I got some African disease whilst here for my troubles…
1 comment:
Sounds like the hardest time yet you have had to go through with some notable highs mind you. Double harsh about the feet!
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