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Location: Gambia

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Update!

Hello!
Another cloudless day has arrived here in the Gambia, another day of this funny little African life that I've found myself in. Its been about since six months since I arrived in the Gambia, three of those in my home in Janneh Kunda. Its hard to think about where to begin, so many days blend together, the routine of rural life, stumbling along learning Mandinka and adjusting to the never ending status of celebrity tubaab (white person) in a place where they're rarely seen. It certainly has been an adjustment period and I can't say that I've been optomistic the entire time, but as the days pass I'm finding myself returning the excitment I felt when I arrived. There's a freedom out here that I have never found in the US or Canada and maybe that comes from living in the bush, where people still live off the land, hunting and gathering what they need. The bush is amazing, I can walk outside of my door in the evening and look out into the Manduar forest as it stretches for tens of kilometers in every direction and know that theres not a single house or person out there. All there is are the giant mahogany and silk cotton trees speckled around with numerous baobabs and rosewoods. And then there all the bush animals which I've been able to see from time to time, bush pigs, antelope, guinea fowl, baboons and lots of varieties of monkeys, not to mention all the birds.

I have really enjoyed riding my bike in the evenings the ten kilometers through the bush down to the river village of Kemoto. The light and stillness at that time are beautiful, the river itself is like glass and most days I can look out from the shore and see dolphines playing. I can also buy all sorts of seafood from the fishermen there of which lately they have been harvesting oysters. For less than a dollar US I can buy almost a bushel of oysters which are piled high in the dug out canoes as they are paddled from the harvesting area. I can also get shrimp, cat fish and tiger prawns as well smoked fish. I feel pretty lucky to have all this close by I must say.

Work as they say here in the Gambia is going slowly, slowly. Lately I've been spending a lot of time in the bush observing forestry in my area. A group has come to town to harvest Mahogany trees and its been fairly wild watching them fell these massive trees. Its got me thinking about tree planting and beginning a tree nursery so that towards the end of my time here I can out plant a number of the more desired trees. Its been fun getting into it though, collecting seeds and identifying trees, and learning all of the different uses for the trees. I sometimes wonder how much knowledge has been lost in the US about such things, as here the trees really do provide so much. Just walking out in the bush a short way one can find sap that makes a glue equivallent to epoxy, can fashion rope out of the fresh bark of baobabs and eat the the leaves of the moringa tree which are more nutritious than most vegtables we know of back home. And this isn't even the tip of the iceburg, there are hundreds of species of trees in the bush and it seems almost everyone has a different local use.

Thats most of the excitment in the last little bit. In the coming days, my former roommates from South Africa, Theo and Jori are coming to visit and were going to spend a couple of weeks in Senegal and travel up to Dakar. It will be nice to have a break and spend time with them, a little reunion back on African soil. I hope all of you are doing well and I think of people often, wondering what life is like back in familar places. Lots of love from this end
Nick

4 Comments:

Blogger Brita said...

Hi Nick!

It's been a while since I read from your blog - and I was excited to see that Theo and Jori are visiting you (or have been:). Miss you all a lot! I'm also enjoying reading about your everyday life and what kind of thoughts you are going through!

I'm going back to South Africa in beg of Sept - staying for 8 months working with kids/youths through the YMCA.

Looking forward to hearing more from you!

hugs,
Brita:)

5:58 AM  
Blogger f-that said...

Hey Nick,
It's Areth. I picked up Nattie today at the airport in Boston and dropped him off at you grandparent's place. I saw your Mom and she told me about your site. Great stuff. I like your table, I think you should build a nice wood lathe and turn out some proper table legs :) I saw a documentry one time on this guy in Africa who had a man power lathe. The trick is to put a big flywheel on it. I'm glad you are doing well. I'll keep an eye out for updates.

-Areth

9:25 AM  
Blogger Dana T. said...

Niiiick! Hi tubaab! What's up? It's Dana here at Ocean Point thinking lots of happy thoughts for you so far away, out in the Gambian bush. You are just amazing. So much to say but ultimately I just hope you're doing very well, learning lots in addition to how to be the only white guy, eating tree bark, carrying heavy things on your head and experimenting with partial facial hair (the mustache is sort of Johnny Depp on you!) Wishing you all the very best! -Dana dana_turpie@hotmail.com

3:49 PM  
Blogger Dana T. said...

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3:49 PM  

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