Stopping to smell the roses (or in my case the wanjo)...

Gambia can be overwhelming to the senses, but not necessarily in a bad way, but in a good way that I want to remember in detail. I have been trying to keep a list of things that I see, hear, smell, feel...so when I am an old lady and looking back on this whole experience I can remember small but essential aspects of my life here.

Touch: this really depends on the season. Right now it is cold season, so despite my knowledge that the temperature can't really be considered "cold", I find myself feeling chilly at night and cuddling around the fire in the middle of our compound with the rest of my family trying to stay warm. During the days, cold season is a God-send and it is such a relief after a long hot season to not sweat profusely all day. The warm Harmattan winds are blowing down off the Sahara, bringing dust but also a nice breeze. Sadly, hot season is quickly returning and is a totally different story. While I have yet to experience the hot, dry season that will start sometime in February, I have heard horror stories about hot stagnate air that just bakes everything till what is lush countryside during the rains is nothing but red dirt. The rainy season is probably best of both worlds because while it is hot and humid, the cooling rains come every afternoon bringing much needed relief. Plus rainy season is mango season so that always deserves extra points. As far as other forms of touching, I don't really have much human interaction, and I miss hugs. It is completly okay for friends of the same gender to touch, and it is very common to see grown men walking down the street hand in hand but Gambians don't tend to hug each other like I would with friends in America. There are definilty some strong taboos against people of the opposite gender touching one another and I almost committed a cardinal sin when I tried to playfully smack my friend Ustas's (an Ustas is an Islamic teacher) head when we were joking around. He jerked his head quickly away and told me, in a friendly and not at all angry way, that I should be careful because unmarried women are not to supposed to touch the heads of men.

Taste: The flavors of The Gambia are intense. It can best be summed up by lots of pepper and oil and lots of sugar followed by even more sugar.

Smell: When I first stepped off the plane in Banjul, my first thought was "it smells like Africa." The smell is hard to pinpoint but I was first introduced to it back on my Semester at Sea travels and have vivid smell memories of driving through Tanzania. The best I can describe it is a mixture of smoke, earth, wood and something sweet and musty at the same time. That doesn't really do it justice so you are just going to have to come to Africa to smell for yourself...

Hear: Prayer call from the village mosque, laughter, women pounding rice and coos, roosters, drums, generators, radio programs, the same Wolof music coming from several surrounding compounds giving a really ghetto surround sound effect, chatting, kids playing, goats, donkeys braying, girls playing their stomping and clapping game, Harmattan winds rustling the trees, cars on the road linking Dakar to Banjul, shouts of joy or anger during football season, Arabic chanting....

See: I see things that are strange and upsetting like: children pulling the heads of live birds, teachers flirting with students, corporal punishment, women doing a disproportional amount of the work while men sit on the bantaba (rest area) drinking attaya, sickly dogs, poor grades, a 14 year old boy dying because of a snake bite, children dying from worms because the family lacks the knowledge of warning signs and money to take them to the clinic...
But also I see things that make me smile and give me hope: children crowding around a book excited to learn and share what they have learned with their friends, older women teaching younger women a trade and business skills, members of the Girls Club excited to learn debating, the whole village turning out to watch a football match, babies being born and naming ceremonies, teachers who are passionate about the job and want to help children, a grade 9 girl coming to my compound and asking what courses she needs to take so she can become a pilot one day, my host brother Ousman getting an aggregate 24 on his high school entrance exam and getting into a good senior secondary school....

I have undoubtedly forgotten many things that I appreciated in the moment but was quickly overlooked as I became busy with some other task. I am sure this list will grow as I spend even more time getting to know the people and culture of The Gambia. I thank God for the experiences I have had my first 6 months in country, all the wonderful people I have met and formed relationships with and the countless things I have already learned and I look forward to all the exciting and unexpected experiences yet to come in the next year and a half!