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Greta, myself and our friend Eden Melmed returned to The Gambia on November 15, 2001, seven years after completing our service as Peace Corps Volunteers there. We were all anxious to reunite with our host families, former colleagues at our respective schools, Peace Corps administrators, and a few friends of ours that have found their way back to The Gambia for employment. Beyond that, this provided a great opportunity to see what type of changes have been made since our departure and a military coup that happened shortly before we left.
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We arrived in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal after long flights and long layovers that had Greta and I travelling for two days. At 11 PM local time, we were grateful for the overpriced hotel right inside the airport. The following day, we headed into the center of Dakar to find lodging for the night and experience one of West Africa's biggest cities.
After sorting out our accommodations, we ventured into Dakar's largest market. Full of vendors with stalls right on top of each other, life threatening traffic, loud music, mingled smells of foods, scents and others, and the constant pressure of hustlers and thieves, it's unhealthy to concentrate on any one thing in a place like this market for too long. We filled up on some great street food at one of the "chop shops" found throughout the city and that part of the world.
We retired to our room that afternoon to regroup and figure out our plans for the evening. I decided to sample some local beer in the bar downstairs and met a man who spoke Mandinka (not many in Senegal) and a Canadian who was backpacking through Western Europe and Africa for six months. Greta and Eden joined us shortly afterwards, and we all headed off to a local bar for some more entertainment.
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The next day we departed for Farafenni, The Gambia where Greta and Eden lived and worked for two years. It took us about six hours, four different cars and one donkey cart to arrive at MRC in Farafenni, a British equivalent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. My friend Paul, his wife Amy and their daughter Charlotte live there now, and invited us to stay with them while we stayed in the area.
We slept well that night after a wonderful meal prepared by Paul, and showers to wash off all of our road grime. The next day we headed for the outskirts of town via donkey cart for a weekly travelling market called the Lumo. Here we bought a number of gifts for ourselves and some more great street food.
After the Lumo, we headed to see a new school that was being built as Greta and Eden were leaving and to take a walk into the bush. We had a nice walk into the bush and took a number of photographs of the landscape there. The heat really began to take its toll on us so we headed back to town to have a cold soda at Eddie's. Eddie's is a popular rest stop for travelers and has an interesting nightlife. We were glad to see that it hadn't changed any for the worse.
After cooling down a bit we ventured into Farafenni's market. We picked up a few more items that were on our wish lists and were on our way out when we ran into a tailor that made clothes for Greta and Eden. I was shocked at how he recognized them before they even laid eyes on him. He was so excited to see them, and we sat down a chatted for awhile.
The next day, the three of us packed up and said goodbye to Paul, Amy and Charlotte. Greta and Eden relocated to Eddie's for lodging and used the rest of the day to visit their host family. They also went to their school and caught up with some of their former colleagues and were surprised to learn that some of the new teachers were their former students.
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Meanwhile, I began travelling towards my village. Transportation went pretty smoothly on my way there. There were a lot more military checkpoints than I remembered; though they didn't slow us down that much. Three bush taxis, one dugout canoe and five or six hours later I arrived in my village.
I had a wonderful time visiting family, friends and former colleagues from my village. Of the nine people that were my host family, only three remained in the village. My host family father passed away a few years ago. My brother in law was working in another country. My sister and niece were living in another village. Another sister of mine was living in Dakar and working as a tailor. Finally, my namesake brother, Ismaila, was working in the capital area.
That left only my mother, my nephew and one of my sisters in Gunjur. As it turned out, I had the closed bonds with these three, so I was very happy to be able to spend four nights and three days with them. My nephew Amidou, now nine, was two when I originally left. He and I developed quite a bond during my two years there, and we picked up right where we left off. We had a blast together.
During my stay in Gunjur I visited my school twice, went to my mother's garden near the beach, took a hike in the bush, visited the fishing village, and stopped in to see friends all over the village. It was great to catch up with
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I met Greta and Eden in Bakau at a favorite hangout when we were Peace Corps volunteers. Leybato's was always a great place to relax on the beach in hammocks away from the tourist crowds. Now they have bungalows for lodging, and we were fortunate enough to get the last room they had.
While staying in Bakau we saw a number of people still working for the Peace Corps, including Yamai Secka-Jack the education program director, Barbara Kah the nurse, Rupert the natural resources director, and Sam Cole the training director. Everybody looked great and had their hands full with over ninety volunteers in country at any given time and two training groups a year.
Another great surprise was running into Bonnie Fukumoto who was a volunteer with us. She and her husband John invited us over to their home for a Thanksgiving Luau - Bonnie is from Hawaii. We had a great time catching up and meeting their friends.
The following day we celebrated Thanksgiving again, Peace Corps style. The tradition of volunteers cooking for themselves and the rest of the American community continues. The festivities were held at the home of the U.S. Ambassador to The Gambia who had only arrived in country one week prior.
On our last full day in The Gambia we went to Yamai's home for lunch. She prepared some of our favorite meals for us while caught up. It was great to spend time with her and learn that she may be coming to Oregon soon for a visit.
The rest of our trip was a collection of eventful and uneventful travel stories that we all have at one point or another. We eventually made it home safe and sound and ready to hit the road again. We'll keep you posted!