Now This is a Cute Baby

This is a picture of my favorite Gambian colleague and his baby.  We were on trek together when his baby was born. We had a discussion on the types of things he would do (changing diapers was not going to happen but did) and this one did not even come up in the discussion.  I will say that he is the first Gambian man I have seen with the baby tied on his back, but both he and the baby look pretty happy.  And what a cute baby he is.  Way to go my friend.

Watching Foodball in The Gambia

It probably goes without saying that the World Cup has been huge in The Gambia.  Every boy here is a football fan (soccer to you Americans. My question is why is US football named football, they really don't use their feet on the ball that much)  When I was in Soma I watched the US Game in a video club, which are where most Gambians gather to watch football.  It was an interesting experience.  The Argentina/Nigeria game was on one television and the US/Germany game was on the other.

Unfortunately the sound was only on for the Argentina/Nigeria game. The US game was video only. Argentina scored the first goal in either game and several of the men leaped to their feet and cheered.  I asked someone why they were cheering for Argentina and they said that Christian Reynaldo played for Real Madrid and Real Madrid had many fans in The Gambia.  So I thought the fans were favoring Argentina. Then Nigeria scored and the room erupted.  Obviously, the Africa pull was much stronger than the club soccer loyalties.

I will confess that I ended up spending more time watching the Argentina game.  The camera work was better on that network and sound does make a big difference.  The US lost but was able to advance to the next round so it was okay.  Below is a different view of the video club so you can get the whole picture. We paid 5 dalasi to get in and 2 dalasi for a bag of water.  Can the cineplexes in the states compete with that.

If it looks to you like it might have been hot inside, it was.

My First (and Only) Donkey Cart Ride

Donkey carts are ubiquitous in The Gambia.  You see them up country and you see them in the city.  I was recently in Soma and was with another volunteer who lives there.  She was buying food for her host family to use during Ramadan as silifando (a gift).  The families all fast during the daylight hours but have better food than usual during the Ramadan after they break fast so Natasha had purchased a big bag of onions, 3 liters of vegetable oil, some spices and vegetables for her family.  Instead of throwing the purchases in the trunk of a car ala America, it was time to use the donkey cart. This donkey cart was driven by a boy who looked to be about 9 or 10 years old along with his younger brother.  In the picture below you can see Natasha and the younger brother plus the purchases loaded on the cart.

We proceeded from that point and the first thing the boy did was smack the donkey with a stick which made no change in the donkey's pace.  We told him we would pay him extra if he did not hit the donkey.   He sneaked in a few more swats but seemed okay to let the donkey go at his pace. I feel sorry for the donkeys -- they are pretty stupid but they have a hard life.  The picture below is my action shot.  I was just behind the driver on the right hand side.

You can see that the donkey does not seem to have a bunch of open sores (which some do) so I don't think he usually gets beaten too hard.  Slowly and steadily we finally made it to Natasha's house and presented the silifando. Her family was very happy.