A slight chill sets in

Well not really so much a chill as a pleasant break from the heat. The last few weeks have been quite nice in the evenings and the early hours. I’m not really sure what exactly the temp is but it’s surprisingly comfortable. We even need a blanket at night sometimes to stay warm. The best part of the cooler weather is seeing everybody’s reaction to it. As soon as the temp dropped just a little bit everyone started breaking out these big jackets and bennies and whatnot. It can’t possibly be cooler than 65 or 70 degrees but some Gambians are dressed for snow it seems. At night where as we usually sit out in the compound chatting and drinking Attaya (tea) everybody now is inside trying to stay warm. Lydia and I will just be sitting on the porch wondering where everyone went. I guess its all relative. When its over 100 for a good chunk of the year 65 or 70 degrees is a big change.

Lydia and I took advantage of the weather last weekend to head out on some more bike explorations. We road south almost to the boarder with Senegal to visit one of our friends in a village there and stayed and chatted with them and their family for a little while. From there we headed due west through the bush on a trail that eventually took us to the main coastal road and on to the village of Gunjur on the coast. Went down to the beach where they haul in the fish on their beautiful African Mahogany boats. These boats are amazing. Some of them are very large, maybe 40 or 50 feet, and open. Men will take them out for 3 or 4 days at a time to bring in a catch. They are all painted with bright colours and look like they would last almost forever based on the construction. And remember these are all made by hand from raw materials (trees). There’s no marine lumber yard here. On the beach where the catch is offloaded there are numerous smoke houses. This is the primary method of preserving fish in the Gambia since there is little refrigeration. Whatever is not to be sold fresh is taken to these long narrow block houses dried and smoked. After we were done there we headed back on the main road to Brikam because it was getting late in the day. It was a nice long day of exploring about 30+ miles in all.

I have had several people ask about language lately so I thought I would give you a run down on language in the Gambia and how it applies to us. African languages in the Gambia basically fall along ethnic lines. There are about eight or so ethnic groups in the Gambia with countable populations. Mandinka, Fula, Wollof, Jola, Sarahule, Serere, Bambara, and Aku. The first four are the ones you are most likely to meet since they are roughly 36%, 22%, 14.5%, and 11% of the population respectively. Luckily most people can speak more than one of the above and sometimes can speak a bit of English as well. It all depends on where you are in the country. If your way out in the bush up river you will find villages where they only speak Fula and no other language and if you only know Mandinka your kina screwed. But down country there are more people who speak multiple languages and usually one of them is Mandinka. Since we were to be posted to Brikama which is primarily a Mandinka area we learned Mandinka during our training period. Many people have asked how much we speak Mandinka and the answer is quite a bit. In our compound talking to our host family, in the neighbourhood, out in the market or around town, and travelling we use primarily Mandinka. Everyday we learn something else we didn’t know in the language. Obviously there are some frustrations but overall I am enjoying the process of learning a new language. And when we get back home Lydia and I will have a secret code language that we can all talk about you right in front of you and you will never know what were saying (cue the evil laugh) Mwuhahaha!! As for work, at the college pretty much everyone except for the grounds staff speak English so we only speak Mandinka there for practice if at all. At the beekeepers most of the staff speaks English pretty well but a few don’t so sometimes I use it there. The best thing about learning the language is the advantage you get when you meet people and can talk to them in their own language. Especially in the market this is usually met with great surprise, happiness, and cheaper goods. When your getting hassled but a kid its also quite effective. Typical interaction follows:

Kid: Toubob, Toubob, give me minty (White person, White person, give me candy)

Me: Tiilibuloo be naadii? (how is the afternoon?)

Kid: Stares in confusion, has never seen a white person speak Mandinka before.

So that’s the Gambian language run down. Were trying to lean the greetings for the other big languages (Fula and Wollof) so we can at least greet them in their own languages before switching to Mandinka. Like I said before greetings are a big deal in The Gambia.

We recently acquired a solar cooker from one of the APCD’s (review the Peace Corps lingo blog entry) and were going to try it out this weekend hopefully. It basically consists of a black glass pot which sits in the middle of a solar reflector made from cardboard that has a reflective surface on the inside. These units are on loan from Washington for field testing so were going to try cooking various things in it and recording the cook times and recipes so they can report this info back to Washington. The idea is that since there is most often a clear sky for much of the year in this region these cookers could be used to cook in the villages and towns reducing the amount of firewood used. Currently almost all food in the country is cooked over a wood fire. Deforestation is a major problem in the Gambia and at the same time firewood is a significant expense to those in villages where they can’t cut down their own firewood and must purchase it. Although I certainly don’t envision solar cookers being the final answer to this problem they my have their uses, and it should be a fun experiment anyway.

That’s it for now. Have a nice weekend.