Bot flies and more

The  tourist season is getting started again in The Gambia.  I have seen early arrivals and have started to be approached more than I had been in the off season (downside).  However, tourism is a big part of the Gambian economy, so I guess it is worth being toubob'd more than usual. Cape Point, in which the UN House is located, has a number of hotels and restaurants that cater to tourists.  One of these is the Bakau Guest House which is both a restaurant and hotel. The restaurant  overlooks the fish market in Bakau where the fishermen bring their catch at the end of the day and people come to buy. It also has a tower with a winding staircase to a lookout that gives a panoramic view of the surrounding area. The photo below is facing inland and gives an indication of how closely packed in the houses are. As you can see the roofs are multi-colored.  This is because they are mostly corrugate roofs and have panels in different stages of rusting out.  They will replace a leaking panel with a new panel so you end up with the patchwork effect. You can see the football (aka soccer) stadium in the background on the right.

The next picture shows why the tourists come. The Gambia has a coastline with a lot of usable beach. Taking a beach walk is one of my more favorite activities.  On a hot day there is usually always a nice breeze coming from the Atlantic.  You can see some of the fishing boats in the foreground of the picture.

  

I recently participated in a class in Geo-Mapping along with Gambians from various government agencies. This class was sponsored by the World Bank and  held at the University of The Gambia, Faraba campus.  The University has a large campus in the metropolitan area close to where I live, however the Faraba campus is out in the countryside.  When we were taking the class in a well equipped Microsoft computer classroom, we were the only class in session at the school. There was another computer lab next door equipped with brand new Apple iMacs that were still covered with foam wrap. But there were no other students taking classes.  In the area for teacher offices all of the offices were empty except one that had a name tag and some books.  I think the idea was that if you build it they will come, but it hasn't happened yet.  The other interesting thing is that the campus itself is fenced and you have to be granted access by an armed soldier holding his rifle.  I would have been a little more intimidated by this, but there are roadblocks with armed soldiers throughout the country so I have gotten used to seeing this. Can't say that I will miss it when I come home, though.

I thought I would introduce you to another one of the joys of a tropical climate, the bot fly.  Luckily I have not had an up close and personal experience with them yet, however many of the other PCVs have had one.  The bot fly lays its eggs in your laundry.  If the clothes are dried in the sun that is enough to kill the egg, however if it is a cloudy day the eggs survive. When they hatch in your clothing the larva burrows into your skin to mature, leaving what looks like an nasty pimple.  When they have fully matured they emerge from your body.  This is not just a Gambian pest.  You Tube has many videos of emerging worms, many provided by PCVs. In the picture below the bot fly larva has not yet made its departure. Another one of the PCVs from my group, who is married, had her husband remove a bot fly from her bottom. They said that if they ever renewed their vows they would promise to remove all bot flies from each other.

Was Kunte Kinte here???

On my last trek, I was in Janjangbureh, originally called Georgetown, which is an island that was used by the English colonial government. The island is currently the regional headquarters for education and the home of the regional governor.  But back in its not so glorious history, it was home to a prison for keeping captured Africans for the slave trade until they could be loaded onto ships.  The remains of the prison still exist on the island. I was traveling with a Gambian who told me that when the captives entered the prison it was often the last time that they saw The Gambia.  When ships came to take the captives, they were taken out through a tunnel and loaded into holds of the ships in the dark. The pictures show the ruins of the prison, still standing today. They are the two worn brick buildings on the left of the road.

I do find it interesting that the English would not allow slavery in their own country but were more than willing to profit from it by enslaving people in their colonies.  I have no idea if Kunte Kinte had to pass through this prison, but he may have.  For those of you young puppies who have no clue who Kunte Kinte is, he is an ancestor of Alex Haley, who wrote a book called Roots.  The book traced his family back to a young Gambian who was captured in the forest and taken to America where he spent his life in slavery.  The book was a best seller and the subject of an incredibly popular mini-series in the 70's.  I reread the book after I had been here a year and  the scenes of village life meant a lot more to me. Obviously many things have changed but some definitely hit a familiar note.

Rant

Okay, I reached my limit with critters over the weekend.  I was used to sharing my house with geckos.  I would catch sight of them from time to time but they were always hurrying away to hide themselves.  They eat bugs so my price for their bug extermination was to sweep up the occasional droppings.  When I came back from nearly 3 weeks on vacation I realized that there were many sweeping opportunities, I just did it everyday so I did not notice.

Big roaches (aka palmetto bugs in Florida) and I did not live quite so peacefully.  Once when I was taking a shower I felt something on my upper arm and looked down and there was a big roach on my upper arm.  Luckily I always were flip flops in the shower so I brushed it off and crushed it. But again when I got back from vacation they must have been using my shower as a hotel because when I pulled the shower curtain closed there were 3 on the floor and one crawling up my leg.  Flip flops work well as roach killers.

But my most recent experience was the final straw (I hope).  One night I walked into the kitchen and flipped on the light just in time to see the back half of a rat disappearing behind the shelf/table that I had had built.  I actually let out a scream when I saw it (did not know that I was that kind of person) but quickly shut up.  I did not go into the kitchen but turned around and left.  The next day I looked for signs of my visitor and decided that it was just passing through and was not setting up residence. Boy was I wrong. This past weekend I noticed that something had been chewing on my sponges so I decided to check things out again.  I found definite signs of the rat this time but was not quite prepared for most absolutely definite sign that I found.  I lifted up my cook top and found 5 baby rats.  I think they were fairly new born -- pink, hairless and helpless, with about two inch body lengths.  I was so grossed out I had to walk out of the kitchen.  I finally decided that I could sweep them into a dustpan and flush them down the toilet (low flush toilets are not part of Gambian life) so I went back into the kitchen and followed my plan. Mama never said there'd be days like this.

End of rant.