Amazing vacation

I have wanted to go on a safari for years and years and finally did.  I was afraid that it would not live up to my expectations but it exceeded them. Tanzania is a beautiful country and we saw so many animals. I should have known it would be good when our driver/guide introduced himself as Good Luck, which is his actual name.  It was just the two of us (a woman from the UN and myself)  and Good Luck in our car so we could run back and forth to see everything without disturbing anyone else.  The safari vehicles are good for that  You are not allowed to get out of the car so the whole top of the car lifts up and you can stand and take pictures to your heart's content.

Wildebeasts and zebras were among the first animals that we saw.  We had missed the migration but we had not missed the wildebeasts.

Our first lion encounter turned out to be the most memorable.  I just happened to turn on the video and captured something unexpected.

Apparently during the mating season the lions get up every 15 to 20 minutes to procreate.  I did not capture the female rolling around on her back after their very brief interlude.  The guide told us that the king of beasts is not the king in all areas and the lioness has to roll over on her back to ensure that the sperm gets where it needs to.

We saw many, many elephants and I have some nice elephant pictures but I thought I would post this one to show how close we got to them.  Good luck said that the elephants have really bad vision and that is probably the explanation for this lady's behavior.  She walked right next to the vehicle rather than crossing in front of it.  I was looking down on her when I took this picture.  If I had been sitting rather than standing in the vehicle and rolled the window down I could have touched her.

We saw many baboons and they always came in a parade.  The monkeys and the baboons amazed me with their human like hands.  They could pick up the tiniest things -- just like humans though I think a tad more wild.

The Serengeti was so beautiful especially in the early morning light. The acacia trees are so graceful.

Wart hogs were Good Luck's favorite animal.  He had an "I Love Warthogs" sticker on the window. I have to admit that they were kind of cute in their own ugly way but were very skittish.  I opened the curtains in my hotel room and was face to face with a wart hog.  However by the time I grabbed my camera for a closeup he was dashing away.

Hippos lead the good life.  They have no predators so can be as lazy as they want.  They have no natural way to cool off so during the day they lounge in pools of water, throwing mud on their back with their tails and make grunting noises.  At night when the temperature drops they get out of the pools. Hippos kill more people than any other beast in Africa.  Here you can see just a few of them during the daytime.

We were fortunate in our leopard sightings.  I was having serious camera envy with the leopards since I only had my little digital camera and saw plenty of people with giant lenses on the SLR type cameras. Good Luck said that he normally saw leopards on one out of 5 safaris.  We thought we had seen fiveleopards on our trip but when I put my pictures on my computer, I realized we had actually seen seven. Three of them were in one sitting.  None of the 3 of us realized it while we were watching.  We just focused on the one on the lower branch and never saw the two above it. This is the best picture my little camera could get.

I will end the animals as I began with the king of beasts. They were usually slinking around or sleeping in the brush.  But sometimes we saw them on giant monoliths that are scattered around the Serengeti so no brush to obscure the view of them.  Here was a sleepy guy hanging around on the top of a rock.

         Here is another guy hanging around on top and under a rock.

Saw many more animals, all of the "Big 5", and it was truly amazing.  If any of you are thinking about it, save those pennies, it is worth it.

The craziest part of the entire trip was on the way out.  We left Zanzibar late due to "operational reasons".  We did not make the next flight because they overbooked the plane and there was only one seat left.  Then the next flight was late due to "operational reasons".  We were not too nervous because we were leaving later in the day for our next flight.  However one of the ground crew told us that the "operational reasons" were that the airport was on fire in Nairobi.  Since we were supposed to be flying to that airport in the evening we were a little concerned.  Two days and many dollars later we made an evening flight that was the first flight on which they allowed passengers with connecting flights to go to Nairobi. We had almost paid for tickets with Ethiopian airlines to go home through Ethiopia two days later but luckily they were not able to confirm us yet so no money changed hands. Once we arrived in Nairobi it was crazy.  All of the things they normally did for international arrivals and departures were all done in big tents.  It was the first night for through flights so things were pretty chaotic.  Everyone was trying to get to 5 agents using laptops to get boarding passes and let us say that it was not done with orderly queues.  Elbows were necessary. I also ended up paying $20.00 for a transit visa I did not need because they did not tell me to exit through the side of the tent.  But we did got out on the first flight to Dakar the next morning and made it home only 2 days late. I have been held up on flights for a lot of reasons, but the airport burning down is a new one and I certainly hope it remains a unique event for me.

Below is picture of just a third of the tent.   The heater is because it was cold but I was not complaining knowing I was going back to The Gambia.

 View of some of the tents from the airplane as we were leaving.

Vacation Coming

I leave on vacation soon for Tanzania and Zanzibar.  This is the cooler time of the year there and it is hot here so I am definitely looking forward to that. I will also miss the last half of Ramadan.  I am going on  a safari all through Tanzania and then relaxation on the beautiful beaches in Zanzibar. Unfortunately, due to limited connections it is taking me 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back.

I did buy a new camera yesterday.  I just could not see photographing the animals with an Iphone or Ipad.  I paid too much for it, but it is not like I had time to order one from the US. The manual that came with the camera was bogus, but luckily there was a much better one online that I downloaded. So lions and wildebeasts I am ready for you.

Stay tuned for the adventures of Rindi in East Africa.

Basketball in The Gambia -- What??

As most of you probably know, I am not a big sports fan.  However one of the volunteers from my group, Justin,  is a huge basketball fan who loves coaching basketball.  He actually was able to form a national Gambian team and had a tournament with The Gambia, Mauitania and Senegal.  The Gambian team had only been in existence for 4 days but held their own their own with Mauritania.  Senegal apparently is a perennial powerhouse and cleaned the other two teams clocks.  Justin's nominal title with the team is Technical Director but he is the coach for all intents and purposes.

Justin's main Peace Corps project this year has been a  basketball clinic and tournament for senior secondary students in the Banjul area.  This was held at the stadium complex that houses a big football (soccer for you American types) stadium with a small basketball walled in basketball court and another one enclosed by a chain link fence.  The national team's games were played in the walled in (but not roofed) court. It has a concrete floor and watching them fall to the ground looked painful.  The football stadium is pretty large -- I would estimate about 35000, but I really don't know.   The picture below was taken on the first morning when one team showed up but the others had not come yet.  This was the basketball arena in which the national team played.  I think it gives a view of the importance of basketball in The Gambia.  

I helped Justin with registration on the days that the teams played and it was interesting watching the challenges involved.  Americans are used to things starting on time so it can be frustrating to deal with people who don't have that expectation.  The first day the teams were supposed to arrive by 8:30 am.  One school was there and ready to play on time but  most of the kids arrived at around 10:00.  Justin had a few words about his expecations going forward which helped a lot but things will never start right on time here. The money to finance the tournament was grant money from the Aides and Teen Pregnancy Prevention programs.  So part of each day for the kids was going through training on those subjects.  All of the kids took a pre-test so that their improvement could be measured.  Justin also arranged for free HIV testing to be done at the stadium and at the American Corner, a site sponsored by the American Embassy that has a lot or learning resources,computers and free internet for the kids there. The Gambia's HIV/AIDS rate is low compared to many countries in Africa but is climbing and is much higher than the US. Unfortunately we just found out last week that the United Nations is closing the UNAIDS office here.  I went on a trek with the UNAIDS country officer last week and it was sad. 

Back to the tournament.-- part of Justin's motivation has been to light a fire for basketball in The Gambia, and in addition to boys, he had a girl's bracket for his tournament.  He managed to get girl's teams for all of the schools except one. The level of play for both boys and girls was enthusiastic.  They made some good moves on the court but the shooting left a lot to be desired.  But these are not schools with high school gyms so there are not a lot of places to practice. Justin's goal is to field a junior national team, but I think he will find that a little more difficult than forming the national team. Speaking of the national team, they acted as instructors and they were the highlight for Justin.  They were always on time and worked really well with the kids.  They even had a group of cheerleaders for the finals.   The pictures below are of a cheerleader practice.  I got a kick out of the practice because the boys had come up with the routines and were teaching them to the girls.  In the background you can get a little better view of the football stadium.  As you can tell football is a little more important here.

However, the big finals fell a little flat.  One of the girl's teams just failed to show up.  We waited an hour and a half for them and finally gave up since the boys' game was scheduled to start. Naturally the girls team that had showed up wanted the trophy.  I think it broke Justin's heart to give it to them for just showing up but he caved.  Then, just as the game was ready to start, it started raining. Luckily it was just a short shower and the pavement was so hot that it only took 5 minutes to dry so the game did get started and a championship was won.  I haven't begun to detail all of the other issues that came up but I will say Justin was very happy to see it over and done with.  He had many lessons learned (or learnt as they say in Great Britain) and will do it again next year.

The pictures I have here are my only pictures of the whole event because I managed to lose my camera last week on my trek.  I can't even go back to the places where I might have left it. I had not downloaded the remaining bball pix from my camera so let your imaginations create the rest.  I might start using my Iphone as a camera or buy a new one, but pictures will continue.

I am about to go to an Indenpendence Day celebration at the Ambassadors residence.  He is throwing the party for both Embassy and Peace Corps staff. I guess it is too late to wish you all a happy 4th but I imagine it was more exciting in the US than it was in The Gambia.

Sights around Bakau

You may remember that I mentioned the crocodile pond in recent pust.  Well here is the warning picture that was posted next to the pond.  I guess it doesn't need any words other than BEWARE  -- it speaks a universal language.

I thought you might be interested in observing the Gambian president's full title in a billboard celebrating the 48th anniversary of Gambian independence.  His full name including the title is (ahem) His Excellency Sheikh Professor Dr. Aih Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh. Whenever they write about him in the newspaper his bull title is always included at least once in the article.

I have already posted a couple of pictures of Sukai, the daughter of the compound owner, but I thought her latest hairdo merited another  inclusion.  The Gambian women spend a lot of time and money on their hair.  Most of the hairdos start with braiding extensions into their own hair and many women wear wigs.  But Sukai went above and beyond with this hairdo.  The front part of her hair was braided into an elaborate pattern.  Then she had a large bun of braided hair using both black and dark blonde braids, and  waist length dark blonde and black braids were trailing from the bun. It was all rather awe inspiring.  I would hate to say how long it must have taken her to get it done.

Football(soccer to those of you who are out of step with the rest of the world) is huge in Africa. I live about a 10 minute walk from the national stadium which is pretty big. They love their own team but  also follow European football very closely.  Shops with a satellite dish will post the matches that they will show and will get good crowds in attendance.   Some of the satellite dishes here will have 700+ channels available so they have their choice of many games.

AIDS reduction and education is a big thing all over Africa.  The Gambia has a relatively low level of infection compared to some countries in Africa but it is going up.  There is a lot of educational material in the country and while they still recommend abstinence they also provide condoms.  This was brought home when I walked into the ladies bathroom off the UN conference room.  Since I follow the abstinence route, I resisted the urge to take any.

In a recent post I said I was trying to get a post of a truckload of people. Well, I was finally able to get a somewhat decent example.  We were driving in traffic and I saw a truckload of people ahead.  Since we were also moving I had time to get my camera out and take a picture.  Since it was taken from behind and they went a different direction before we could pull alongside, I could not get the full effect but I think you get the idea.

Hope the Portland summer is starting.  We have had a couple of good rains here but I don't think you can really say that the rainy season has started here.  I have to be unselfish and hope that it does get started.  The farmers here really depend on the rainy season for their main crops and when it is a bad rainy season people go hungry.

Actual School Feeding, the Pump and Hanging with the locals

If you have been reading my blog you know that I am working with the World Food Programme, which provides daily lunches to school children all over The Gambia.  Recently I was on a monitoring trek and had the opportunity to actually observe school feeding going on at a couple of schools.  The fare is not exciting -- rice, oil and perhaps a small among of topping.  There are two ways the food is served.  One is in a large food bowl that ideally is shared by only 5 students.  However kids being who they are there will often be more than 5 on a bowl so they can share with their friends. You eat with your right hand and squish the rice up into a manageable lump that you put in your mouth.  You are supposed to eat only from the area right in front of you and if you have some choice tidbits you are supposed to share and put them into the other people's area of the bowl.   Obviously I did not get there at the beginning of lunch.

The other way is to serve individual plates.  This is obviously the more sanitary way of doing it but the method of eating is the same -- scooping the food and compressing it into a lump and putting it into.

In the villages up country, the pump is an active place where you are liable to meet neighbors.  Any water that people use for any reason comes from the pump.  Can you imagine walking from your compound to the pump with containers for water, waiting for your turn at the pump, pumping the water that you need and then carrying it back on your head. The process needs to be repeated if you cannot carry what you need.  The picture below is a long view -- the cow gets a free ride to drink the spilled water.  There is a woman washing clothes in the background of the picture.  A boy is carrying water back from the pump.  This is not typical -- fetching water is women's work.  Note all the water containers lined up at the pump.

The other shot is closer up and gives a better of the actual pump.  I have seen the younger children at some of the schools actually jump up and down as they are pumping to give added oomph to the pump.

The next shot is of a new kind of WFP employee.  They call them Capacity Development Officers. One of them is posted in each region and they are supposed to help the government at the regional level develop the capacities they need to be able to take over school feeding.  Ousman Bojang in the picture below is a 27 year old Capacity Development Officer who was married within the past year (not an arranged marriage), and will be a new father in about 7 months.  He needs to find lodging for him and his wife in the regional headquarter area before he can send for his bride.  He was on the trek in my car so we had fun together.

When I finished taking his picture he told me he would take a picture with me and the kids.  It was like a magnet.  Suddenly kids came rushing in to have their picture taken.  No, I was not threatening them, that is the way that they posed. In general smiling in pictures is not normally done. 

As proof of the no smiling in pictures, here is a picture of a man that I have worked with who works for SAFMU (School Agriculture and Food Management Unit) which is part of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education. We were on trek together and he spent the night in his mother's village.  Here is a picture of him and is mother.  She fixed him rice porridge that morning and invited me to come and eat.  Which I did because I like rice porridge.  Luckily we got to use spoons.

I know my posts have been slowing down.  Just have been busy with work and don't usually have web access when I am not at work. I am fast approaching a year in The Gambia -- June 28th.

Gambian Furniture

Gambian furniture is not exactly what you will see in the United States.  First of all it is hand-crafted (unless you  purchase from one of the expensive furniture stores) I have already talked about my bed buying experience.  But just the furniture itself is pretty interesting.  The scale of most of it is quite large.  Then it is made with the same foam that is in my mattress which makes sitting on it a heat inducing experience. Some of the design is down right confusing -- how can it be considered comfortable to have a big bump where your head should go and a big bump where  your knees bend.  I have seen this "feature" in more than one place and have included an illustration below:

I recently stayed in the "governor's residence" in one of the regions.  There are six regions in the country with a governor of each region.  However the governor's residence is not where the governor lives.  It is a guest residence. They did say it is where President Jammeh would stay if he came to this region's headquarters.  I figured I would include the pictures of I took there as examples of furniture.  This was the bed in my room.  Including mirrors in the hed boards is rather common.  All of them have rather ornate carvings even if they don't have a mirror.  

Adjoining my room was a common area for the two bedrooms that make up the top floor of the residence.  Here is a chair -- to me it looks like the chair is angry.

This is the matching loveseat.  There was actually an even bigger sofa but I could not get it all in the picture.  You will note that there is carpeting on the floor.  This is not really a good idea here with all of the sandy, dusty dirt that is everywhere.

The furniture is definitely hand made.  There are no furniture assembly plants in The Gambia.  This is the style that sells and you can see many of examples of it for sale alongside the road.  I won't be bringing any of it home as a souvenir.  

Baboons and crocodiles

I know my posts have slowed down.  Part of the delay is that I have been fighting with Bank of America online.  My advice is don't live in a third world country and try to communicate with BofA.  They are totally and completely inflexible. ARGH! On the more pleasant side, I have also been plannng my vacation -- woohoo!  I will be going to Tanzania to take a safari and then going to Zanzibar for 3 days of beach life.  Of course all my Zanzibar relaxation will be cancelled out by the fact that it is taking me 3 days to get to Tanzania and 3 days to get back.  Gambia is not what you would call a transportation hub. 

Folks, I can now say that I live in Africa.  I have had 3 "wild animal" experiences in one week.  For the first I was walking on a different route to the United Nations when a very large monkey went scampering across the road and climbed a tree on the other side, but alas I did not have my camera with me.  My next Africa moment was in the bush on a trek  when a baboon ran across the road.  I was excited by that and then the next thing I knew we saw a whole tree full of baboons.  I asked the driver to stop so I could take a picture.  He stopped but told me they would all run away when we stopped and he was right -- no pictures of a tree full of baboons. :-( Finally when I got back from trek I went with a friend for lunch at a restaurant that adjoined a fresh water pond.  Next to the pond was with a sign with picture of a crocodile on it (sort of a "beware of the crocodile"  sign with no words). We did not notice any crocodile action while we were eating, but after lunch we we walked around the pond to see if we can catch a sighting and voila there he was.  He looked like a small log , but the log would go underwater and re-appear at another spot in the pond. I tried to get a picture of him but he was too fast for me.  

I have mentioned ghellies before.  They are the most common form of transport in the Gambia.  Taxis are ubiquitous in the city but once you get out of the city, ghellies rule.  I was in Farafenni eating breakfast, when I noticed a ghellie driver loading his vehicle.  When he took a live goat and proceeded to tie it on the top of the vehicle I figured it warranted a picture. The animal was tied with a rope to the rack but otherwise was free.  I hoped that he was sure-footed. I have also talked to Peace Corps volunteers who were in a ghelly when a goat on top of the vehicle peed -- not a pleasant experience.

I addition to a goat I also saw a bed loaded on a ghelly. (picture below)  I  also saw one ghelly with six people on the top but it was in the bush.  Apparently it is illegal to ride on top but there is not much in the way of law enforcement in the bush.  I did not get a picture of that because my camera was out of batteries at that point.  I keep waiting to get a picture of a truckload of people.  The army moves people in the back of big trucks, sometimes packed like sardines, but since they are on a moving vehicle there is not time to get my camera out and snap the picture.  I have also seen people loaded into the back of pick up trucks, which is apparently legal because I see it frequently.

I had a kinda, sorta Con-way experience today.  I attended a meeting of WFP logistics and programme staff with the transporters who deliver the school feeding food throughout the country.  Since I just got back from a trek about three weeks ago in which I heard plenty from the consignee viewpoint, it was interesting to hear things from the transporters side of things.  One of the things that I was shocked to hear was that they were not paid for over two months after they delivered the food. 

One of the things that makes being a transporter interesting is the lack of bridges here.  The lack of them is understandable because The Gambia River is pretty big and bridges are not cheap.  Ferries are used and the lines for trucks getting on the ferry are incredible.  On trek in a WFP vehicle we are given priority (thank goodness) and the trucks delivering the WFP food are supposed to be given priority but only on some days. The ferries in the main crossing between the north bank and the south bank at Banjul have been deemed unsafe by both the UN and the Peace Corps.  Some of them have floated out into the ocean and been stuck for hours.  I have not partaken of that ferry.  I did go on a smaller ferry that is up country at a fairly narrow part of the river.  My pictures are below. One of the interesting things was seeing trucks loaded with firewood and charcoal on the ferry headed north to Senegal.  Deforestation is an issue here but money talks so people are cutting trees in the bush in The Gambia to sell in Senegal.  Stopping to pickup charcoal at the end of trek is also routine because prices are cheaper up country than they are in Kombo.  Here I am on the ferry as we are coming into one side.  No, I have not gained a ton of weight.  This shirt just makes me look like a porker.

There are two ferries.  In the picture below the other one is loading on the left as we are arriving on the right.  It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to see a pump pumping out water from ferry the whole time that we were crossing. (not)

Here is the wood and charcoal (in bags) going to Senegal. They get the trucks parked pretty closely as you can see.

Hope all is well in the USA.  Keep reading the horrible news stories that pop up about shooters going in and killing people.  What about gun control is a bad thing?  There is no way that I can explain that to Gambians.  I can't explain it to myself.