Spring break!

So I will first apologize for only posting once so far this month and making it the longest post ever.

Anyways... I had an amazing spring break!  Sure it wasn't super "fun," nor did I have electricity for 5 days, but it was a great experience.  I loved the Gambia and came back home with a renewed energy for my remaining two months here.

Transportation around Western Africa is horrendous.  We woke up at 6:15 to get the "car station" to take a shared vehicle down to the border.  It's called a "sept-place," meaning 7-seats in French.  It should be called a 4-seats, because that's how many it should legally and practically fit.  It was so hot and uncomfortable.  But hey, it was better than taking the communal bus.

We paid $40 for a Gambian visa, since they like to get as much money out of Americans as possible. Then a taxi and a ferry ride later, we got to Banjul.  For a capital city, it was not very happening.  But we had a nice lunch/dinner at Ali Baba's, then took a taxi to Serekunda (the unofficial capital), then one to Tanji, a little fishing village on the Atlantic coast.

The ferry at dock in Banjul

The taxi driver couldn't find our hotel at first.  I didn't blame him, considering it was a 15 minute drive off the main road into the wilderness Tanji.  They were very welcoming at the hotel, but the next morning, we decided to switch to the hotel we originally wanted to stay at.  It was called Nyanya's Beach Lodge, and not only could we stay in cute little beach-front huts, it was cheaper.  The only downside was that Nyanya's didn't have power, unlike the first hotel, which had power for 3 hours a day.  It wasn't bad at all though, given I live half the time without power in Dakar.

Our little home for 4 days

The four days we spent in the Gambia were totally worth the long travel time and crazy visa cost.  In my opinion, the people are more genuine than those in Dakar, even though speaking French to a Dakarois is often easier than speaking English to a Gambian.  We did a lot of naturey things too, which was such a great break from the noise and clutter of Dakar.  This included the Abuko Nature Reserve and the Tanji Bird Reserve, the latter being only a short walk from our hotel.  We didn't see too many birds, but we did see monkeys!

Meals were much more limited in our secluded fishing village.  Though our hotel offered pricey meals, we were much more content with Mrs. Aye's, a little shack that served a daily traditional meal for 25D ($1 USD).  I like the Gambian version of ceebujen, but the mafé was a little too thick and heavy for my liking.  But you get what you get for a meal served on a picnic bench in a cement and wood shack.  We often found more options in Serekunda, from Toubab-fast food to home-grown fruit stands.  Mangoes were in-season AND cheap in the Gambia.  They made great afternoon snacks on the beach.

Our last day in Tanji, we headed out for a camel safari.  It sounds a lot more exciting than it was, though I have no regrets!  Rather than steering your own camel down the sand dunes on bare-back like I had imagined, each camel is equipped with two, chair-like seats atop its back.  And of course there was a young man to guide them down the beach.  It was quite exciting though.  Camel are very cool animals when they are hissing at each other!

Camel-back, riding along the beach

It turned out our camel master was a Casamence refugee, so he was more than delighted to find out we were living in Senegal.  He said we were the only white French-speakers he had met during his entire time in the Gambia and seemed so content to practice his "native language" (something he apparently hadn't done in a few years.)  He told me that had we not been leaving so early the next morning for Banjul, he would have given us another, complementary, camel ride the next day.

The next morning, we headed out of our little fishing town at 6:30 am.  The day was chock-full of complicated and frustrating travel back to Senegal, but we made it.  Surprisingly, a week away from French didn't stop me from going off on our taxi driver when he tried to rip us off!  We met up in Saly at a little Swiss auberge where Jess, Jenn, and Aimee were staying.  Saly is a touristy coastal town about an hour and a half south of Dakar.  We didn't leave the tranquility of the pool and huts except for dinner.  The next day, we headed back to Dakar (and yes, still more frustrating travel and yelling at taxi drivers— in French and Wolof this time­­— though the trip only lasted about 3 hours).

Overall, I had a nice trip.  I am so glad I got to see another country that is surprisingly so different from Senegal.  Though everyone here says they are basically the same (minus the French-English), two months in Dakar lets you notice the little things.  For example, the Gambian taxi drivers ask you to put on your seatbelts.  And there are traffic lights.  And people obey them.  There also seems to be a greater since of "teranga," the warm hospitality of which Africans often brag.  Perhaps I would find the same thing in other parts of Senegal, like Toubacouta or Keur Moussa for example.  But in the Gambia, I feel like I didn't have to look far from my beach-side hut.