It was one year ago today

This has nothing to do with the blog except that reading on the couch with Slobs has become one of Zack's favorite weekend activities!

 
So it's May again already and we have officially been here 1 year and 3 days! On one hand the time has flown by but on the other Gambia is starting to seem like home to us now (well our little circle of Gambia) and it feels like we've been here forever. This weekend last year we could hardly believe we were here. After waiting for nearly 2 years we had finally made it to this small West African country, ready and excited to experience our first posting. Today everything is so familiar, we know people when we go to the supermarket, we know how much a banana should cost, we know our way around the area - OK that last one not so much, I don't think 10 years could teach us the intricate web of narrow dirt roads that wind through the residential areas.

 

We've even experienced the month of May before so I feel I can say... "oh I just love mango season" or "yep, those damn jellyfish are back AGAIN" or "what a relief all those tourists have left, I'm so glad it's just us locals now!" and other such ridiculous things that I now feel qualified to comment on. Which reminds me, the rain will be coming soon. I have entered a bet at the Fajara Club where I play tennis (yes it is like an old colonial country club from the 50's) that the rain will start on June 13th. If I win I get hundreds of Dalasi - which probably only equates to about $10 but I'm not complaining.

I think my memories of rainy season are fonder that reality because I find that I'm actually looking forward to the rain. I love those huge storms that roll in and send floods of water across our yard. Then they disappear as quickly as they came leaving steaming puddles that soon sink into the endless piles of sand.  Of course we're lucky enough to live in a reasonably solid house - I say reasonably because compared to most houses it's as sturdy as a bunker but in actuality there are new cracks in the walls every day and sometimes plaster crumbles from the ceiling.  We're hoping to move house before the rain gets too bad. As you may remember from last October, our house isn't properly grounded (probably because it's built on what should be a sand dune) so when the ground gets too wet we have electrical problems and everything in the house capable of conducting electricity does.... oh I can't wait for the rainy season! In the mean time we're enjoying the last of the coolish, not too humid weather. It will only be a few more weeks until it's too hot and humid to sit outside for our Sunday brunch of banana and peanut butter pancakes!