Kotu Layout

Last summer we moved into a new house in an area known as Kotu Layout. As some of you may remember we had a rather 'shocking' experience at our old place and while we liked the house and location, we didn't really enjoy being electrocuted every time it rained. Apparently this is pretty common in Gambia and from what I can tell it's a combination of dodgy electrical work and the difficulties associated with grounding a house when it's built on sand - the constant power surges probably don't help either. We had a friend who would always get shocked by the soap dish in her shower - when she complained to the landlord he seemed very unconcerned and told her to just wear flip flops when showering. Anyway so here are a few pics of our new digs - not too bad, we're just surviving over here in Africa :) The photo on the left was taken on Sunday... we were enjoying homemade fishcakes and fresh watermelon juice out by the pool to celebrate out 2nd wedding anniversary.

Although we also enjoyed our last house it is nice not to be around the seedy tourist strip. Our new area is much more residential and for Gambia it is very wealthy. The photo on the right is the view from our bedroom balcony, it's looking out over our yard and across the neighborhood, towards the beach. The idea that our neighborhood is "wealthy" is a relative term. Two of our neighbors don’t even live in finished houses, just the shells, no floors, doors, windows etc. just concrete walls and a roof.  In the morning, starting at 5 am we hear the call to prayer at the mosque down the road. Throughout the day we hear kids in the school across the street and as I write this I can hear them singing. The roads are always busy with goats, sheep, dogs, people and more kids than seems possible!  My study overlooks next doors yard where they keep sheep tied up to our fence, the sheep are kind of cute but when the wind blows the wrong way the smell is awful!   We still buy bread from the bitick (small shop) on the corner but the owner isn't as friendly as our previous bread lady. The area is also convenient for walking and I often walk to the beach (although I get hassled so much I don't go alone), supermarket, vege stand and even a great little Chinese mini-mart that has fresh tofu twice a week. Anyway, until tomorrow...

On the beach near our house

The sunset sky lights up over the pool and papaya trees

A Photo a Day

Dear Readers (I'm not sure there are many of you left now as I have stopped writing on my blog)

So believe it or not we are down to our last 10 weeks in the usually lovely and frequently frustrating but always interesting Gambia... The Smiling Coast of Africa! For those of you who don't know, we will be leaving Gambia at the start of May and taking a couple of months holiday before moving back to DC to learn Vietnamese for 9 months and then moving onto Hanoi, Vietnam.

I was recently talking to some friends at a party who, for the past year, have been taking a photo a day. They said it has not only been a great way to document their time in Gambia but it has also captured the subtleties of living here that are often difficult to describe and even remember once leaving. So I am going to give it a go... a whole year sounds a bit much for me but I thought it would be a good snapshot of our lives here and a fun way to think about all the great things Gambia has shown and taught us. For the next 10 weeks I will post at least one photo a day (or every couple of days) and share a short story of what is going on. Some will be new photos from that week but I will also share some old photos and stories from the past couple of years.

So here we go... I’m going to start with a few photos taken from our most recent trip to Baboon Islands in River Gambia National Park. The camp is located 4-8 hours (depending on the road!) from the coast and is one of our favourite places in Gambia. We visited for the third time last month when Zack’s sister and her boyfriend were over from DC. As always, it was absolutely beautiful, and thankfully not too hot. On the evening boat trip we were lucky to see a whole family of Chimpanzees just hanging out around the river. Many of the Chimps, which live in family groups, have been rehabilitated after being raised by humans. They now live, mainly undisturbed by humans, on three islands in the middle of the river, people are not allowed on the islands and we view the chimps in a boat from a safe (both for us and the chimps) distance. We also saw some cute (but intimidating) hippos peeping out at us from under the water and enjoyed a glorious sunset from the balcony of our luxury tent on the cliffs.