Greetings from the Gambia! This is the scene that I met at Banjul International airport - to a certain extent the description the local tourist industry gives to Gambia is true, it really is Africa's "smiling coast"! Whilst it's early days yet, most people I have come across seem friendly and wanting to chat. I arrived on the first of September as part of a group of VSO volunteers. We'll be working on a variety of projects supporting the education system and people with disabilities. My own role is to support a national volunteering project run by the Gambian Ministry of Education, but more on that later (I'm still not entirely sure what I'll be doing myself!). For now, I'll just give you a quick update on the things that have struck me so far.
The climate - Coming off the plane the first thing that hit me was a strong blast of heat. It's constantly hot and humid, with temperatures around 35-38C. I've never lived in such conditions before, and whilst it may sound idyllic to my friends and family in the UK, it is actually quite hardgoing at times! The heat also seems to have another effect - I find myself slowing down and becoming more relaxed. Whilst there's definitely a positive to this there is a danger that the climate and the generally slow Gambian pace of life will lead me to just laze around for the next few months if I'm not careful!
This is the life - for the last few days I have been living it up, enjoying the life of a semi-tourist here. My organisation VSO has settled us in gently, so we've been staying in a nice hotel and have been going to beachside restaurants for our meals. It all feels very strange to be having such a luxurious lifestyle, considering what we're all out here to do, but I guess it's a good idea to acclimatise gently (he says whilst sipping fresh mango juice next to a swimming pool). I'm under no impression that this lifestyle will last though, and in many ways I'll be glad. I feel slightly uncomfortable to be living in such nice surroundings, whilst outside our compound most people are struggling to get by. I'll be moving into my permanent accommodation on Thursday the 8th, wish me luck... Stormy weather ahead - We're currently in the rainy season, and so are experiencing heavy rainpours every day or so. The thunder and lightning that accompanies it is very impressive – the regular “strobe lighting” effect (made all the more noticeable by the lack of artificial street lamps) turns the whole city into one big disco! We’ve been lucky enough to always be close to our hotel during these storms, but for most people the heavy rain turns a simple walk home into a wading trip through muddy roads. Rainy season should be over at the end of this month, but the child in me secretly hopes that I’ll get caught out and drenched in a heavy storm at least once in the coming weeks...
That’s it for now, but I’ll aim to do more blog posts at least once a week. Lots of love and best wishes from the Gambia, thinking of you all,
Robert
P.S. If you’re interested in getting more of a flavour of what this blog will be like feel free to check out the ones I’ve done previously: http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/ (Mongolia) and http://rob-in-ethiopia.blogspot.com/ (Ethiopia). Enjoy!
