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We've had a very busy Christmas holiday. It was as though Christmas came early when we received five parcels on the same day. To add to our excitement, Christmas lights got put up in our street that day. We could hear the Church choir sing most nights too, which made a nice atmosphere to walk to dinner in. We had a Christmas themed EC meeting-I never thought I'd have the confidence to sing "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer" with a straight face in front of 50 teenagers roughly my age. The night before leaving to the Gambia, we invited some friends round to our flat for a meal. We made Yassa and two of the rare Senegalese boys who know how to cook helped us.
The next morning, Lena and I left for the Gambia to spend five days with the 6 other volunteers. We were frequently stopped for passport controls. There are more of these in December because the rebels are more active due to lots of people travelling with money and food. In the sept places, a Gambian heard us speaking in English so he introduced himself, told us that he was going to the same place and offered to accompany us. Not knowing if he was trustworthy, we tried to explain that it wasn't necessary but he got into all the same cars as us and turned out to be a great help. At the border an officier quickly checked our passports but spent plenty of time trying to convince one of us, he wasn't really fussed which, to be his girlfriend. He was explaining that having a boyfriend at the border could be handy... The other passengers weren't impressed with the hold up. Driving through the Gambia is an enjoyable experience seeing as they have very good roads. The billboards on the side of the road kept us entertained. Here are some examples: "Happy birthday Mr President", "The Gambia and Taïwan are one", "The women of Gambia love their president and shall always rally behind him", "Don't forget to register your child at birth". The latter is a serious issue but it's weird seeing a sign for it whilst driving. When we got to the hotel, we were amazed! Big thanks to Katie and Amee for being the only ones to actually open the guidebook and find this place. It felt like being in Europe: comfy beds with pillows, an electric kettle, a powerful shower, sofas which don't have broken slats... However, we didn't get hot water because it was more expensive. There was a big contrast in living conditions: we were very comfortable but once we stepped outside we could see the locals living in poverty. Seeing they are used to seeing tourists, we could wear shorts in the village and bikinis on the beach without offending anyone, bliss! We got loads of attention, people trying to sell us fruit, guided tours, transport and the list goes on. When it comes to getting Toubabs' attention, the Gambians are even crazier than the Senegalese! There is a significant number of sex tourists, wherever we went we were guarenteed to see middle aged women with local men no older than 25.
Our stay in Bakau was very relaxing. It was really nice to catch up with everyone, we live in the same country but our lives are very different. However we all have most definately adapted to the West African pace of life. The most productive thing I did all week was horse riding with Emily on the beach. After 3months without riding, cantering along the beach was simply the best thing ever. The next day I convinced Tom to go too, he claimed to have horse phobia but in the end he loved it... We spent loads of time at the beach and just chilling at the hotel, pouring drinks like Ataya, cutting Tom's beard when he was asleep, making the most of the BBC and having races up and down the corridor with the princess skipping rope I got Lena for Christmas, when we got bored of this we added hurdles and balancing hats on our heads... I thought this year was going to make us more mature... We self catered (mainly pasta but one night was fish and chips- I'm really glad I somehow got out of gutting the fish.) There is every kind of restaurant in the village: Indian, Chinese, Italian (which doesn't serve pizzas at lunchtime...) We went to some of these but we missed Thieboujen too much so at lunchtime we often went to a little stall that sold Senegalese food, it was really tasty and cheap compared to the other places. I think that we were the only tourists who ate there! Tom and Ben impressed the locals with their wolof and wherever we went we always got a "Where's Tom?".
Christmas was very different to what I'm used too. It was strange swimming in the sea on Christmas day. We made it as Christmassy as possible: we did a Secret Santa and Katie's family had sent some crackers. We wanted to cook a Christmas Dinner but didn't have an oven so gave up on that and went fo Bacon sandwiches instead which were amazing! The others hadn't eaten porc since we arrived because their families are Muslim, Lena and I sometimes get it because the Badianes are Christian but it's not the same as bacon. In the evening, the hotel was serving a Christmas dinner which was very tempting and to be honest we couldn't afford to turn down anything that was free! That evening I also got to Skype my family, it was nice talking to them and funny to see them all in jumpers!
The week came to an end and by this time I was seriously lacking sleep. We stocked up on baked beans, cadburry's chocolate and super noodles from the British super market (expensive but so worth it!) and left the Gambia and it's crazy currency. The boys went back to Kaolack to go on a pilgrimage with their host and the girls came back to Zig with us. That evening we went to a friend's birthday party. The next morning Katie and Amee left to go to a music festival whilst Emily, Ellie, Lena and I attended a wedding- which was some experience!
The wedding was a two day event. The first day we went to the bride's village for the day, it's about half an hour, 45mins away from Zig and is really in the country. Life there is certainly different to life in Zig. We ate, sat around talking for ages as you do in Senegal, watched the family negociate a fine for the groom seeing as he didn't marry a cousin, climbed a "cheese tree" and held monkeys. During this time the bride was getting ready and having advice on married life from her mother and aunts. I think we were at an uncle's -but am not entirely sure, Senegalese families are hard to follow- and at 6 o'clock we left for the bride's house to watch some Diola dancing which was absolutely mental! I have never seen anything like it! It's mainly women who do it, they all stand around in a circle clapping hands whilst men are drumming, then a few women go it in the middle, the music gets faster and they start to dance. I don't really know how to describe it... They bend forward and stamp their feet whilst bringing their knees to their chest. There is also an arm mouvement which involves doing circles with your hands in sync with your knees... It's really hard to describe I'll try putting a video up but even that doesn't do the real thing justice. Around 8 o'clock, we all piled in to a sept place or a mini bus and at 9 we set off on a crazy drive to accompany the bride to her future husband's house. On the way, people were shouting, singing, drumming, the buses were full and had people hanging to the ladder at the back of it. There were the usual 8people in our sept places, plus one guy in the boot and two on the roof! Half way, our friend jokingly asked to drive and with out hesitating the driver stopped the car and swapped places. The driver was having the time of his life: hanging out the window, screaming, imitating a car horn, banging on the windscreen. When we arrived at Zig, we saw the police and the only advice he could give was "Just go, just gooo!!!". Anyway we arrived at Fodé's family home safe and sound, and were welcomed by tons of people and more crazy dancing. They danced in the street for a long time then it moved into the yard. This time Lena and I got dragged into the circle one by one to show off our Diola moves. Not having a clue what to do, we gave it a go for about 10seconds each, feeling extremly self concious. We both agree that we can classify this as one of the most embarassing moment of our lives and it took us about an hour to get over it. For the rest of the night, people refered to us as "les danseuses". At that point, I'd have prefered "Toubab".
The next was pretty much the same: Diola dancing (we managed to just watch this time), sitting around chatting, eating, admiring the wife's different outfits (everytime I saw her, she had a different dress and hair style). The only variations were that our friends dressed up to dance, two goats were killed and Lena was taught how to cut one up, two children were baptised, we saw teenage boys playing scrabble- not a common activity at a wedding- and we wore our boubous. There were lots of people at the wedding, basically all the family invites their friends who can invite some more if they want. The day was a little bit about the couple but it mainly just seemed like an excuse to get together, dance, eat and drink tea. The wedding was a traditionnal one, apart from the fact that the couple already had a baby and the man had a daughter with another women he was never married to!
Now on to New Year's Eve. We first went to our host family's party, ate tons, drank beer then left to go to the big roundabout to watch a firework display. It was packed, and the security was inexistant: the fireworks were set off under telephone wires and next to a petrol station... Kids set of crackers and the occaisional firework in the crowd. I've never been dragged around so much to have my picture taken, sometimes with people I've never met before. After that, we left for the club. A different club to usual, seeing as Cia was going to be overcrowded and expensive. We danced until about 4, our Senegalese dancing as good as ever, then went to our host family again and got more beer. The last thing I did, was look at my watch to see 6:40!
The next day was a recovery day, I still hadn't had proper night's sleep since the first night in the Gambia... In the evening we went to the Badianes' expecting a quiet meal but found a massive first day of the year party, now that's what I call endurance!
I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas and I wish you a very happy New Year!
Excusez moi, je n'ai pas le temps de traduire l'article mais je le ferai au plus vite.
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