Day 5

January 8, 2008

Hard to believe I’ve only been gone for one week. I feel like I’m a million miles away from my life at home. Oh wait, I am.

This morning we began our day by visiting with the Permanent Secretary for the Department of State for Foreign Affairs. It’s rather interesting to me that they have permanent secretaries, and secretaries. Meaning that they have a Permanent Secretary for the Department of State for Foreign Affairs, and a Secretary for the Department of State for Foreign Affairs. I don’t know the difference between the two roles, but my understanding is that the non-permanent secretary is higher up in the food chain. It was another successful meeting- perhaps even more so than with the Department of Health because I didn’t get called out while I was in Gambian penguin La-La land. He was very adamant about getting us in contact with several members of the President of The Gambia’s cabinet. Getting our foot in THAT door would be huge for the project, simply for no other reason other than the President is fully aware of the progress. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

After that meeting we went to the “toubab” supermarket to pick up last minute water, toilet paper and the ESSENTIAL Lion chocolate bars. “Toubab” is a word in Mandinka that means “white foreigner”. It’s freely used and doesn’t have a negative connotation (for the most part) so very often when I’m strolling down the street, kids will point at me and scream “TOUBAB!!!” Nevertheless, as soon as I stepped out of Mr. Badgie’s car, I was approached by a street vendor. At this point in the trip, I’m fairly used to them offering me peanuts (or as they call them, groundnuts) or bananas, but this guy appeared to reach into his pocket and pull out a whole raw shrimp complete with legs, tail, eyes…THE WORKS! I took one look at the limp brown thing in his hand, looked back at him, and shook my head furiously. Clearly the toubab would not be interested in your pocket shrimp, brother.

We had lunch at the new Sheraton which they built right on the beach (read: ON THE BEACH). It was fantastic! I was able to eat raw vegetables without fear of getting sick!

We left for the airport at 2:45 and arrived at 2:55. When we walked in the door, we learned we were about an hour early for their flight. We decided to take a walk around the airport. The Banjul airport is about the size of an airport that would be built in Brewster, Kansas, so we couldn’t do much walking inside. Instead, since there is VERY little airport security, we took a stroll around the grounds. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we strolled around to within 15 feet of the runway, no questions asked.

We sat down under a mango tree and waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally at around 6:00 PM, we pulled out of the airport with the doctors and hit the road!

The journey to Bwiam takes about two hours, though it’s only about 100 kilometers. Why do you ask? Because the road ends!

For the last hour of the ride, we bounced along a red dirt road. Many times throughout the journey, we couldn’t see six feet in front of us because of the dense dust cloud. Even more frequently did we have to slow down and honk at chickens, goats, and sheep as they lazily crossed the road.

Finally when we arrived at the hospital, it was dark. I haven’t seen any of it really because, as we know, there is very little electricity. However tomorrow I will get the full tour. I will say that already, I know the place is HUGE.

In any event, I’m going to sleep in my mosquito-netted tie-and-dye bed. Yes, tie-dye is widely practiced here but it’s called tie-and-dye. Mr. Badgie proudly told me he made them himself. Pretty groovy if you ask me.

with african love,

jz

P.S. Mr. Badgie told me he has 24 chickens. I asked him if they had names and he said no. I told him I would name all 24.

P.P.S. Ten minutes after he told me he has 24 chickens, he informed me that he would have two slaughtered in honor of our presence at the hospital. OK. Make that 22.

P.P.S. I learned how to say “My shoe is on fire!” in Mandinka today. It should prove incredibly useful, I have no doubt.