so I had to come into Kombo for a trip to the bank so I could buy some provisions and get rent money and planned it all out, I would spend the night at my site mates place and then cross the river in the morning and get a gele gele on the north bank road and ferry over to Banjul and make it in no problem. well, best laid plans I guess.
Thank you all for your emails, my health is definitely something you are all wishing the best for. And for the most part it has been in tact, I've been banged around a few times but no problem. Sunday night however, the night before I was to leave, I started feeling dizzy in bed, so I got up and went out side and for almost an hour I had what I like to call, a diarrhea/vomit sandwich. Diarrhea, vomit, then more diarrhea. It's not my favorite sandwich, and I wouldn't suggest it on a toasted bun, but I think if you're lucky, there are a few places in Van Nuys where you can order one and have it delivered. In any case, I didn't sleep that night, every bone and muscle in my body was soar, from lack of rest and squatting over a hole in the concrete latrine for 45 minutes. But somehow the lure of a nice clean med unit with Gatorade and antibiotics and a caring nurse called my name and at 7am I pulled myself out of bed, my site mate, was amazing by the way, taking care of me and thinking me stupid not to rest at her place all day. But I couldn't, I got up and took a loaf of bread and a liter of water and hit the road. I couldn't eat to save my life, and I knew more water would bring on the runs so I had to be careful. I hate that I always write about my horrible bowel infections, you all deserve more than that, so I'll make this more about my traveling experience, because in the end, the symptoms of illness paled in comparison to my frustration of traveling less than 200 kilometers in more than 10 hours.
it took me an hour to walk to the river. another 20 minutes to wait for people to come and fill the boat. another 20 minutes or so to cross through the tributaries and the great Gambian river. then, no car or donkey or horse cart on the other side. I met samba on the boat, coincidentally he is the brother to my host brother's wife. So we're practically related. he spoke a little English and thank god took pity on me and guided me through the trip. as bad as my day was, it would have been much worse without samba. so we get off at the dirt trail that makes up the makeshift wharf. it's about 9ish a.m. He takes my hand and we start walking to the car. after an hour I ask how much further, after another hour I'm about to die. I gave most of the bread I had to the other waiting passengers because I couldn't eat it. I drank half a liter and my body, from not sleeping a wink, was tired to say the least. I tried not to slow samba down, I tried to power through, but at one point, when it was just a "little bit further" I finally stopped and rested and tried my most politest to ask, where is the car, what town, how much further?? that town? I don't see a town, just more overgrown fields and more bush and more nothingness, where is the car?!!" we get to a junction and I collapse on a cement platform where others wait for the car. it's about 11am and the sun is directly on me, no shade, but it's not so hot, I'm in jeans and a t shirt and I don't can, I had to close my eyes. I faded a bit and about a half hour to an hour later the car, or gele gele, or van, or whatever, comes by. we get in and it goes the OPPOSITE DIRECTION! It goes back down the road we took 2 hours walking. They had to collect peanuts in the first town by the river. We never had to walk...I put a bandanna around my neck and tied it up like a western outlaw to keep the dust out of my lungs and it worked, I gave my spare to samba and we sat on the shaky bumpy road until we got to Ferafenni at about 1pm. this is the main transport hub and I got a banana to eat and some more water and I felt like I could die. all I wanted was a quick ride to Barra, which would have happened except a bunch of Senegalese were on board the gele gele with us and didn't have I.D. so at every police checkpoint, at least three, we had to stop and wait for ten to twenty minutes as they got hassled, then packed inside the van again. got to barra, this was supposed to be the easiest part. it's 3pm and I have 2 hours to get to the med unit. The ferry is half an hour and the cabs to the med unit shouldn't be more than that. Best laid plans...
we started walking around the various shanty set ups of shops and eateries and samba guided me through a maze to get to the ticket booth which was akin to a Chilean Soccer disaster. under the mid afternoon heat and sun, no shade within a corridor and twisted and tuned and bottle necked, made of cement on one side and corrugate tin on the other, no wider than 4ft, were hundreds of people crowded together, shoving and pushing (politely) because there is no queue system, it's everyman basically for themselves, so samba is trying to hold my hand and guide me through this gauntlet. it all stops and were stuck, no one is moving, no one knows why, it takes 30minutes or more to move 20 or 30 feet, smashed up amongst the people and the heat and the smells, I leaned against the cement wall muttering to myself how this was the single most dangerous thing I have ever seen in country so far, more than the gele's packed with people riding on the bumpers, more than the ill cooked food and undercooked meat, more than the rickety boats that fill with water, or drinking no water on a 2 hour walk through nothingsville, crampacking a hundred people in the space where 20 should orderly file, in a hallway made of heat absorbing material under an afternoon sun with no shade and sending people back against the traffic flow because there is no exit once you get to the ticket booth, you just have to go back the way you came...if one person had lost it and pushed to hard, many people would have been trampled, I was clutching the wall for support with one hand and my stomach with the other and I wanted to either die, or kill the bastard pushing me from behind. I couldn't stand it. Once we made it to the front and got the tickets, the one guy guiding the line at the beginning was very non sympathetic. all the workers could care less, they probably had it worse. who knew. I wanted to yell and scream at them but I felt if I did, what would it matter, I just wouldn't get on the ferry, i would be apprehended or something or detained, and I didn't want that and so I was important just like the rest. Why do a few hold power over the masses when their situation is so grim, because it could always get worse. and those with power know it, and exploit it. What I witnessed at the ferry was NORMAL. in fact, it has gotten BETTER, says the administration, they are proud of their corridor and how orderly it is. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. probably because no one stands up. I sure didn't, and I had probably the least to lose if I did. getting out was like trying to get out of a mosh pit, you're pushing your way out as everyone is pushing there way in. Then, done breath of fresh air. Get to the gates to go to the dock and the guards literally grabbed me and shoved me almost over a donkey cart because a car had to get by that was no where near us. But when people are constantly trying to push through the gates, again, this is normal. even when the ferry arrived and we tried to get on they were shoving us off, trying to unload all the cars first, but we're not in their way...who cares. We get on, get settled, I lower my head, by now it's almost 4pm and I am concentrating very hard on my stomach and the little water left in my bottle. I don't want to drink or eat or look up or anything, I just want to cross. The ride normally takes 30 minutes, this one took about 45 and stopped dead thirty yards from the dock. We had to wait for the other ferry to leave. So close...but so far away.
we got off and I hit the ground running I had only 20 minutes till five and then the med unit would close. we grabbed a cab to the car park. Then tried to get on a gele, but they wouldn't take us, then tried to hire a cab and a 6 dalasi ride cost me 50, if I had patience I could have made it cheaper but by then, who cares. I paid for samba and I and we went. We exchanged into another cab that took me to the med unit, I said good bye to samba and knocked on the door and I was 15 minutes to late. 10 hours and 180 dalasi (9 bucks) later and I missed it. I went to the PC office and unloaded my wares so to speak and went to the hostel and crashed for the last two days. I feel better now, but I will not repeat that route to get to kombo for a long long time. To go on the south bank road, which is a worse road and no one likes to use it, is about the same amount of money and time with an hour and a half walk to the nearest junction from my house and then wait time for a gele. There's no bus stops. You just wait for a van to come by, maybe one or two an hour. If it's full. Tough luck. If not, it'll stop. going up country to another volunteers place, where eight of us spent the holiday, took amber and I about 8 or 9 hours when it should have taken 3 or 4, because for 4 hours we waited for a gele, and one came, about every hour, full up. So we started walking up the road tot he next town and luckily one gele, already over crowded took pity on us and stopped, and didn't even over charge us.
Christmas by the way was great. we sat around the firs and made a heck of a lot of pasta and tried to buy a chicken and kill it but it was too small so we gave it to our hosts' host mother as a gift. My first month has been like my travel to kombo, tough, and hard, and some moments better than others, some moments painful and over whelming, but good people surround me and help me and I am not a lamb amongst wolves. It is very very hard just existing out there, but it also is very nice just to exist. The stars are amazing and it gets bitter cold at night and the mornings and evenings are cool and I work most of the day in my garden, digging and digging and designing a nursery for vegetable plants and trees. and so far I have cucumber and okra and tomato and eggplant and pigeon pea and carrot all doing well. the peppers I think were bum seeds, so I'll keep experimenting. People ask what to send in care packages, well seeds are a good idea, This climate is like the southwest, at least the next few months. and there are no gardens in or around my village. No one eats vegetables, only the schools have gardens and thank god, but they are still growing. I want to be able to have produce year round, it is possible here, so if you know of anything that grows well in an arrid hot climate, or in the summer it's very humid and rainy and hot, or now it's cool at night and hot during the day but very dry, then send some good seeds, all you can get around here are the aforementioned and some potatoes and onions, but not good quality or variety. I brought some squash and cucumber seeds from the states and they aren't doing to well but they were cheap and I think close to expiring. so good seeds, herbs, greens, fleshy fruits, trees, that kind of stuff that i can experiment with throughout the year would be great. also, fast food condiments. I'm not a ketchup fan but I love taco bell sauce, love it! or round table Parmesan cheese. It's free for you, essentially, just grab and handful and shove em in a box. (might wanna Ziploc em). what else...tacks or stuff to hang things from the wall, beef jerky and dyhdrated fruit/veggies, dried fruit, spices, nuts, anything to supplement my food bowl. Its just rice and sauce, and the occasional stomach bug. I don't eat with my family anymore, they serve me in my house so I can add stuff to the meal behind their back, I'm not looking for anything specific, if you're making a care package, just think of what you'd want, unless its fish.
Despite my email, I am staying healthy and well mannered. adjusting is very hard, but it's getting easier. like when I got sick the other day, it sucked, but now I'm okay, feeling better, ready to take on the world, maybe. I've lost 25 pounds, I weighed myself when I got here 192, the other day at the med unit I was 167, with jeans on too. That is technically the least I have ever weighed in my adult life. But I am not emancipated. I work out and stretch and work and feel good, the sickness(es) that I get are random. In fact, the healthier I am, the harder the illnesses, so there you go. I'm healthy and doing well and have so much more to say but not the time to say it. While writing this I got interrupted and went downstairs to give a tour. Some Americans from Washington/Jefferson college in Penn. were here for a tour so I got to tell them everything I am telling you and it really revives me to get this stuff out but still be proud of where I am and what I'm doing. To see their faces when I said I eat sour milk every day, milk that's been squeezed out of an utter of a cow, left out for a day and then served up to me, every morning and how that's a delicacy and there are people who are jealous that I get that every morning, they looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe when you read this stuff you are making the same faces, but i can't see them, but seeing those kids' faces, it made me feel good, like I knew them, like they were you. Miss you all.
I have to give up the computer so sorry if there are errors in the text, I cant go back and edit, I hope it all makes sense. I just uploaded the new radiohead to my ipod today along with season 4 of the Office and some books on tape and the new Animal Collective, and I just watched half the simpsons movie at the hostel until the bootleg copy froze up. So I'm not in the middle of NOwhere, there is some modern life still here. But I happened to see online that the golden globes were announced, I forgot about those. Kind of like how I forgot about xmas and new years. when all that junk isnt in your face, you get the better moments of stuff, friends gathering by candlelight to eat pasta made over gas burners, drinking coffee grinded in a meat grinder with local brandy shots and peppermint sticks melted inside. who need presents and walmart. not us.
but some taco bell sauce would be nice.
love ya,
