Tuesday morning we started the second leg of our travel week plans. Ebrima is a close friend of ours who works with the health center and has done so much for us. It's his family that we cooked with everyday. He got transferred to work at the Regional Store (pharmaceutical supplier) in Mansa Konko so he wanted to take us for a short trip there and to the surrounding areas. We woke up super early on Tuesday, because our ride was supposed to be there at 6am. Well apparently that was GMT (gambia maybe time) and I have decided that GMT doesn't exist. I think GMT just means late. They didn't show up until 8:30. Needless to say, we were all a little ticked that we missed 2 more hours of sleep. Anyways, we loaded up with 11 people in the back of an ambulance and headed to Banjul. We had to take a ferry ride over the Gambia River in Banjul to Barra. When we got there, we toured Fort Bullen. Fort Bullen is the only fort ever built for anti-slavery purposes. The British built the fort to combat ships from entering the mouth of the Gambia River to capture and transport Gambians as slaves. It was very interesting to hear a little bit about the history of Gambia and the slave trade.
We made a few stops on the way, but eventually made it to Albreda, where there is a museum about the Gambian slave trade. We spent a little bit of time touring it and then took a boat over to James Island. Interestingly enough, the island's name was recently changed to Kunta Kinteh Island by Michael Jackson's brother. Strange right? Anyways, the island was used as a fort to keep captured slaves while they were waiting to be shipped to the Americas. I loved getting to see all of the various historical sites throughout Gambia.
To end the day we visited some salt fields. Basically it was this really soggy muddy area by the water where salt has collected. It was awesome! You could literally stomp on the ground and see salt chunks come out of the ground. Unfortunately it was super muddy, but it was interesting to hear how the salt accumulated there and how it is collected.
When we finally got to Mansa Konko, the lights were out (go figure) and the place we intended to stay didn't have a working generator. Clearly this was a problem because it's way to hot in Gambia to sleep without a fan all night. After scarfing down dinner in candlelight (we hadn't eaten all day), we searched for a new place to stay. The lodge wasn't exactly clean by anyone's standards, and 2 of the 3 rooms didn't have running water, but we managed.
The next day we were pleased that we only waited an hour for Ebrima instead of 2 and a half. We first visited a Fula village in the area. There are lots of tribes in Gambia, but 3 main ones: Mandinka, Wolof, and Fula. We stay in a primarily Mandinka area and have become accustomed to the language, customs, and traditions of this tribe. It was really interesting to see the way a Fula community differs and to learn a little bit about their culture. Next, we drove to the Senegal/Gambia border and took a picture in two places at once-straddling the the border! Finally, we drove to our lodge for the night called Tendaba. It was located directly on the edge of the river and had a gorgeous view! Our rooms had a porch that sat right next to the water. We spent the evening relaxing after several busy days and enjoyed a night off.
We got up early on Thursday and headed out. We drove 2 hours back to the Brikama area and went to a nature reserve called Abuko. The hiking was beautiful, but unbelievably hot. One of our group members is fasting since it's Ramadan and I felt so bad for her that she couldn't drink any water! It was awful! We hiked to the animal orphanage where they house lots of monkeys and baboons, along with hyenas. The hyenas were really cool! I've never seen them before and I was amazed at how ugly they are!
We were all so happy to be back in Brikama last night! We spent the evening hiding out from the rain and catching up with all of the lodge guys. It's so good to be back to my Gambian home and I'm looking forward to spending the last few days here with our little family.
Today we are going to our last futbol game and we're getting to watch all of our friends play. Their lower division team is playing in a qualifying game and we haven't gotten to see them play yet so we are extremely excited! Wishing good luck to New Town!
Tonight we are breaking fast with an American family so we are excited for a taste of home! Tomorrow we will head to a nature reserve to do some hiking and hopefully see some animals. I'm looking forward to Sunday, because we are throwing a party for the lodge to say thank you and to spend time together.
I'll be back to Texas in 4 days!!
Love you and miss you-
Morgan
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