Day 1:
4:30am I am up and ready to go to Basse. I am going with Sarah and I will be painting fish on her walls making them resemble a fish tank. I'm up and waiting for Sarah and I'm wondering if the time has changed because I haven't seen her yet this morning. Oh well, this means I have computer time. 5:00am, still no Sarah but now the car is here to pick us up. Must go search for Sarah. She was sleeping in another room so I go in an attempt to wake her up. I call "Sarah" and then hear a loud thunk... Sarah fell out of bed, the top bunk. She comes out of the room disoriented and says that she hurt her arm. I ask if she thinks it is broken and she says "yeah." Ok, so now I call our medical people and wake them up to come look at her arm and I also send the car away. Won't be going today.
Sarah did indeed break her arm, actually she landed on her elbow and is now flying to D.C. to get surgery to repair the damage. Bad start to the day.
Day 2:
I still decide to go up country so I tag along with Danielle and we head out to her site which is about 7-9 hours away based on the transportation. I take my first ferry ride and then we head down the North Bank road headed for Wassu. Our Gelly will take us to Ferafeni where we will catch another going the rest of the way. Ferafeni is known for their chicken sandwiches... I don't eat meat but I get one with out chicken so it consisted of noddles, onion, tomato, lettuce and mustard. Seriously one of the most tasty things I have ever eaten here.
We caught a Gelly that would take us all the way to Danielle's village but when it reaches Wassu the driver decides he does not feel like going the last 3K to the village and is stopping. We need a ride. We walk over to the customs office and see Sam. Sam is the Gambian boyfriend of one of the volunteers and he offers to take us to the village. YEAH!!!!!
Everything in Danielle's house is covered in a thick layer of dust because she has been gone for a month but we can't do anything about it today so we take bucket baths, eat dinner and then head to bed.
Day 3:
We decide that today would be a good time to clean Danielle's house. It was dirty work but it did look better when we were done. We also had a great time singing along to Dreamgirls while using a Hanna Montana microphone. Her family was laughing at us but we were pretty silly.
Even though we cleaned the house there was still a weird smell... what could it be?
Day 4:
Danielle and I travel to Mc Carthy island to meet up with Alison for lunch. It was really enjoyable, so enjoyable in fact that we end up spending all day sitting under a tree chatting. At about 5pm we head out. I am now headed to Alison's site stay with her for two days. We get to the ferry at the other side of the island and get on. 2 hours later we are still sitting on the ferry and it is going nowhere and it is getting dark. We hop a small boat across and just miss the Gelly headed to her village. Now we have to walk about 3k out to the road, as it keeps getting darker. All the Gellys that pass are full and we are stuck walking. As we near the end of the road someone calls out "Kaddy Jatu" which is my name and I wonder who knows me up here. Eventually we make it out to the police check point on the main road and sit and wait and pray that a car will come by. One does. the one that screamed out my name. It was Sam again. So we hop in and thank our lucky stars that we have gotten a ride. We were not in the clear yet because half way to Alison's village the car stops and we have to get out and push it. Luckily it starts back up and we make it to the village. Sam is my hero!
Time for a bath and bed!
Day 5:
Brikama Ba lumo is today and we head out after breakfast to check out the lumo (a lumo is a weekly market). It's hot today but we have fun at the lumo buying food and fabric. We take lunch with the customs officers and it is delicious. This is pretty much a whole day affair and then we head back to the village via gelly. The boys (Luke and Etienne) catch up with us and we make an amazing dinner of cabbage salad with lime vinaigrette and smoked salmon alfredo pasta. So yummy!
Day 6:
Back to Mc Carthy island for the CRR meeting. I get a chance to hang with a whole bunch of up country people. It was a good day. I go back to Danielle's village and spend the night. Apparently the bad smell in her house was coming form a monitor lizard that had died some time ago in her ceiling. The family fished it out but the smell still lingers.
Day 7:
Wassu lumo and home. The lumo was great, only problem is that like no one speaks English or Mandinka. It was still fun. At about 1pm I got on a Gelly for home. Not the most comfortable ride. I was squished with my knees pressed into the seat in front of me while my head is at an odd angel because I am too tall for this ride. I'm 5'3'' how do tall people travel? Eventually I get to Barra and cross on the ferry which was really enjoyable because it was sunset and breezy. I reached the transit house just after dark and all I wanted was a shower to remove the layer of sweat and dirt from my body.
Clean again, now time for sleep.
