The Beginning

Hello All! So I have been in Africa a solid week now...I can't believe it! Our flight over was uneventful and we arrived in Dakar, Senegal at 5:30 in the morning. As soon as we walked out of the airport we had Senegalese men asking us if we needed help with our suitcases, help loading our van, help getting into the van...no less than 30 men trying to help us...for a fee of course. Anyway, we managed that and drove to our hotel and relaxed before our drive down to The Gambia. I forget how long the drive took but it wasn't that bad. We saw a lot of Western coastal Africa. Deforestation is a huge problem in Africa and it made the landscape seem very sparse as we were driving. However, the Africans do not cut down boabab trees, so all over the dry ground there are solitary boabab trees all by themselves. We got to our house and met the housecat soon after that. Her name is Juma, I think, but we call her Little Bastard because she loves to be petted but she swats at you at random moments and pretends she hates you. We spend a lot of our free time walking around our town and hanging out at the beach. There is a beach resort called Leybato that lets people sit at their tables right at the beach without making them buy anything, even though we usually get some JulBrews...the local Banjul lager. Classes have not started at the university yet, so we've just been exploring and getting used to the culture here. Time does move slower here, but we are still on American time, so it feels like we're just as busy. The Gambians are mostly very friendly people; everyone says "Hello" and "How are you?" to each person they pass on the street. Of course, we get a lot of attention because we're white and we live in a residential neighborhood, not in the hotel district. Our house is near the national stadium, which I run by a lot. We take aerobics classes there to mingle with local Gambiams, and also laugh and "work out". The other day I ran by the stadium and passed a man carrying a machete. They call them cutlasses here, but regardless, they're illegal and I wasn't sure what to make of him. We don't eat nearly as much here as we're used to at home because there just isn't food everywhere like there is in America. There are no fastfood places here, except for fruit stands. I feel like I've been half-starving for a week now, but I'm used to it and dinners are always amazing and something to look forward to. Well, thanks for reading and I'll update soon! Enjoy the pictures!