Today we were invited to have lunch with the family that we
buy our vegetables from. We were very flattered to be asked. Gambian food
usually consists of a big bowl of rice with a different type of stew/sauce over
the top and with lots of msg seasoning.
I
most often eat local food for lunch at work where a big food bowl is brought in
every afternoon from a small nearby restaurant. I’m not going to lie, I don’t
love it. All the heavy rice and starchy veges make sleepy , I feel a little
queasy after all that palm oil and I’m not good with having the fish head
looking at me while I eat – especially when my boss slurps up the intestines! Which
I’m sure is a delicacy but I’m not very good with animal parts.
However, now again I enjoy it and I’m sure I’ll
miss it when I leave. Especially domoda - which is a peanut based sauce - and nebbe
(spelling?) which is basically kidney beans cooked with spices and put in baguette
type bread, great for brunch.
It turned out that today’s lunch was some of the best Gambian
food I have ever had. The benachin (again spelling?), which is sort of like
fried rice with veges on top, was not too oily or too salty for my taste and it
was delicious, I loved it! I ate so much my tummy is still hurting (but in the
good way!). We even had the entertainment of their 2 year old son who spent the
entire time running around trying to simultaneously build, break, stretch,
light and pull anything he could get his hands on.
The husband, Mohammed, ate with us and it was incredibly
interesting listening to all the things he has done and jobs he had had
throughout his life. Growing up in a poor, rural farming family that couldn’t
afford to send him to school, we were blown away at how intelligent and driven
he was. Moreover, he spoke perfect English (a probably at least three other
tribal languages) which made me feel very lazy for not being able to speak more
that 3 words of Mandinka or Wolof.
On whole it was such an enjoyable experience
and the immense kindness and hospitality of Gambian people is something that I will
really miss when we go back the States in 2 months.
Today we were invited to have lunch with the family that we
buy our vegetables from. We were very flattered to be asked. Gambian food
usually consists of a big bowl of rice with a different type of stew/sauce over
the top and with lots of msg seasoning. I
most often eat local food for lunch at work where a big food bowl is brought in
every afternoon from a small nearby restaurant. I’m not going to lie, I don’t
love it. All the heavy rice and starchy veges make sleepy , I feel a little
queasy after all that palm oil and I’m not good with having the fish head
looking at me while I eat – especially when my boss slurps up the intestines! Which
I’m sure is a delicacy but I’m not very good with animal parts. However, now again I enjoy it and I’m sure I’ll
miss it when I leave. Especially domoda - which is a peanut based sauce - and nebbe
(spelling?) which is basically kidney beans cooked with spices and put in baguette
type bread, great for brunch.
It turned out that today’s lunch was some of the best Gambian
food I have ever had. The benachin (again spelling?), which is sort of like
fried rice with veges on top, was not too oily or too salty for my taste and it
was delicious, I loved it! I ate so much my tummy is still hurting (but in the
good way!). We even had the entertainment of their 2 year old son who spent the
entire time running around trying to simultaneously build, break, stretch,
light and pull anything he could get his hands on. The husband, Mohammed, ate with us and it was incredibly
interesting listening to all the things he has done and jobs he had had
throughout his life. Growing up in a poor, rural farming family that couldn’t
afford to send him to school, we were blown away at how intelligent and driven
he was. Moreover, he spoke perfect English (a probably at least three other
tribal languages) which made me feel very lazy for not being able to speak more
that 3 words of Mandinka or Wolof. On whole it was such an enjoyable experience
and the immense kindness and hospitality of Gambian people is something that I will
really miss when we go back the States in 2 months. 
I can't say I miss the palm oil or fish, but I do miss benechin and nyebbeh (no clue on spelling for that either)! Especially the nyebbeh :-) And of course the kindness and hospitality as well. I hope all is well and you're enjoying your last few weeks in The Gambia!
ReplyDeleteThe little boy is staying in Gambia? Will we need to check your bags?
ReplyDeleteGreat photos and story.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from The Gambia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in The Gambia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hi Emilio... What a great project. I'd be happy to send you a postcard from here but I saw that you already have a letter from Gambia, I'm sorry to tell you that the stamp has not be changed since then so I wouldn't be any help to your collection. Best,
ReplyDeleteKatie
P.S. Anon, there is NO way we're bringing a kid back from Gambia :)
My name is Lamin Jajru and i am a younger boy at the age of 17 yrs old and i am from the Gambia located in West Africa, I hope you know where The Gambia is, It's in the western part of Africa .. I am writing this comment to express about the situation of me and my family and why i am writing this comment on here !!! My life is just full of sadness and misfortune for me and my family, and there is sorrow and tears every day for me and The Things That Never sometimes been better for me and my family. I am with my mother and 1 younger sister and 2 elder sister and i am the only male child in the family ,, but we lost our father long ago .... He past on a car accident coming from Our Home Village .., since the dead of my father life Became so hard for us, i use to go to the forest where we have bad snakes and dangerous animals and some dry wood reduce and sell it on the market and the little I got from there That we can do it, and get a cup of rice for the day to eat and live like and from day to day, and it's not safe for me but Because allow the government not to go into the story, forest, or better, in the forest, cut down on the wood Continues with the regulations of the country, and so bad our nature and the Government Securities live by them is around the forest is Transmitted, and if an order is made, considering the available prisoners is locked and I have no choice but again more and it is very difficult to feed myself and my family and survive every day. The death of my Father make us to live school in a very sad way, Because My Father what the one responsible for paying our school fees but since he death we have no one who have the good and the kind heart to help us and my mother is too old and can not be able to afford to pay for my school fees, Because our background is very poor indeed and here in The Gambia, if you do not finish your schooling, you can not have a job, and I did not finish school Because some poor barriers and poor financial back ground leave my family Sometimes I had to go to go to the our neighbors, and if it is Possible, then we need to stay in the hunger for the rest of the day, and sometimes it takes days to get something to eat for the whole day. No one cares or even better, to our state, the government has to support or give any help for the poor and needy families and it is not enabled, or help you, our home and life care, and get some of the donations, aid Organizations and projects and bad and corrupt leaders and the help and sponsorship to the right needy and the poor have to be no control over our head, and our leaders, and we are With Their families, relatives and friends suffer whiles the right stocks Weapons and Needy in misery and pain, and we are never our reason is not good, no free education for protection or good clothes or even better food available to us, Because We Can not buy a good healthcare for free, You Should Keep a training and Purchase your health as well and everything is getting Higher and Higher in the market and we do not afford the Poorer class can administration.
Delete