My Home in the The Gambia

Finding my home was a bit of a challenge. Initially they found me a rental that was a furnished one bedroom/living room with a minimal kitchen. They showed this to me in July and I shopped with that house in mind. Shortly before swear in I went to the house with the Peace Corps to take measurements of the kitchen. Well --  lo and behold there was someone already living there. The Peace Corps had agreed to the terms with the landlord only the week before. Apparently someone else offered more money or something and the landlord took it. That was house # 1.

The next house that Peace Corps found me was amazing but expensive. We called the WFP (UN) and their finance person was out sick so the country director named a top number we could pay. Peace Corps negotiated with that number and the owners said yes, they would like to have Peace Corps in their house. I was shocked because the house was so nice in comparison to the first. It was totally detached from the rest of the compound, had two bedrooms, two full baths (one with a tub), a kitchen with cupboards, an air conditioning unit in the bedroom, a hot water heater for the master bedroom, fully furnished, a television, a mango tree in the front yard, and the ultimate kicker was daily maid service to clean my house and do my laundry. Oh-- yes, it also was very close to the UN. How much better could it be and still be something Peace Corps could live in? As soon as the Peace Corps guy told me that I had the house, I booked it to the office to get the paper work filled out to take to the landlord. When we got to the house to sign we found them painting the interior of the house - how nice. Unfortunately they were doing it for someone else. He had come in with cash in hand the same afternoon they had agreed to my offer. What a bummer. So I was still homeless. This all occurred just before they made the decision to send me to South Africa so I assumed that nothing would be done while I was gone and I would still be homeless when I returned.

When I returned from SA, I found out that they actually had been looking while I was gone and found a house. This one was the farthest away from the UN, about 1 1/2 miles and completely unfurnished. I so-o-o wanted to protest but it was time to move out of the transit house. The house is large but a little strange as the pictures will show. The kitchen and bath are, shall we say, interesting? I have some cleanup to do and I might see if I can repaint the kitchen and bathroom. Good thing is that it is fairly close to the transit house so I should be able to access air conditioning and internet fairly regularly. But, compared to the volunteers up country I am living at the Ritz. So please take my whining with a grain of salt.

The first picture is the "burglar proof gate" my landlord had installed shortly after I moved in.  It made me feel quite secure until the landlord said that thieves will use a jack to get past the gate.  It does seem to me that this would cause some noise which would hopefully wake me or the neighbors up.  There are always people around in the daylight so I don't think they would be that bold then.  After the burglar-proof-gate, my front door has a long dead bolt and the windows are barred so they would have a big job to get in from the front. As you can see my front porch is quite spacious and with the weather cooling, it is a pleasant place to sit in the late afternoon.

The next two pictures are of my living room or salle in Wolof. As you can see it is quite large.  I am saving up for living room furniture. I got an allowance from WFP for furniture but it ran out fairly quickly.  The first picture is one of the two storage devices I got at the beach.  A young Gambian man and his father make them with metal rods that they weave palm leaves around.  They are surprisingly sturdy.  I plan to make a cloth cover for the front of it but have focused on curtains first for my hand sewing enjoyment.  I could get a tailor to do all this but I am being cheap in order to save for living room furniture.

The gorgeous plastic table and chairs are my dining room.  It is some place to sit other than my bed.  The chairs are in decent shape but the "new" table is permanently discolored and has something that looks like a cigarette burn on top.  But I also use it as a desk so I will get my money's worth out of it.  One curtain is visible, but I have actually made more.

This is my bedroom with the bed I bought in Serrekunda.  The other picture is of the other storage unit made from palm leaves.  The silver thing on the bed is my pedometer, not a giant bug.  I was using it but the battery died and I did not have a screwdriver to change it with.

I have 2 bedrooms but they are pretty much the same so no pictures of the other. It is currently serving as my storage room and underwear drying room.

Next we will focus on my gorgeous kitchen.  This is the sole thing provided in said kitchen, a lovely sink.  But it is running water -- if the water is running.

Below is the refrigerator I purchased -- it's a good place to keep water cold -- if the power is on.  The gas bottle will eventually connect to a two burner stove top I bought, but I am waiting for a table to be made so that I don't have to cook on the floor.

Here is the lovely bathroom.  The green thing on the right is a screen covering an decorative open block.  Their are two of them in the bathroom so the windows can never be shut.  This is obviously the shower.  There was no shower rod or curtain but the amazing Susie Miller sent me an expansion rod so the whole bathroom does not get wet when I shower.  I bought the curtain at a local store.

This is the sink and my version of a medicine cabinet.  There are holes in the wall where a medicine cabinet may have been, but the former renters did not leave one for me.

It's not the Ritz but it is not a one room hut either and most days I have power and water, though not necessarily at the same time.