day 3

Good afternoon!

Today did not really go as planned. I wanted to go to my project today and help out with the kids over there, however I slept really bad last night and I had stomach ache, diarrhoea and headache. Petra told me to stay at the compound and take it easy, so that is what I did. I wrote a blog about yesterday, which took me one and a half hour because it was so long, I made some drawings and wrote down some stuff in my notebook.  Petra explained to me how I had to walk to get to the Kairoh Garden, where there is a man that can recharge my internet on my phone, because it was completely empty due to my attempt at posting my blog. So when I was feeling a bit better, I walked to the Kairoh Garden and asked for the guy, however his staff told me that he had an important meeting at that moment and it could take a while for him to be able to help out. I decided to walk back to the compound and I waited for Petra and the others to come back. Petra wanted to show me another family compound, run by Alhagie’s brother, and because it was 1.5 km away she wanted to go with the van. BUT, we were all sitting in the van and Petra could not start the engine because the battery was empty. This meant that we had to walk to Franco´s place. When we arrived there we were greeted by all of the staff members and I realized that I had already met most of the people there. For example Jay Jay and Mohammed, who are both also Alhagie’s brothers, came over to our compound every evening so far. We sat down at the dining table and listened to Jay Jay’s stories.

Jay Jay told us two stories from his past and every time he wanted to start a new sentence he had to laugh because he thought it was funny. The first story was about the fact that he ran away from his home when he was 7/8 years old. His parents had sent him to Koran school, because it was a tradition to send one of your sons to Koran school. Jay Jay told us about how he had to eat the same food every single day and how he had to learn all about God and the Koran and every holy thing else. He also said that he was not allowed to play soccer or learn normal things like English or Math. He said “one day I was sitting in the classroom and I thought ‘no, this is not what I want’ so I stood up and ran away to another village, where I stayed for more than a week.” His parents did not know where he was and neither did anyone else in his old village. Until one time there were people from his old village visiting friends in the village where Jay Jay was hiding, and they recognized him and brought him back to his parents. He told us he had a big fight with his parents, who wanted to send him back to Koran school and he was laughing about it, because he was only 8 years old and already leading his own life. The other story was not so much fun, but again he told it with a big smile on his face. He said that he was a refugee and was stuck inside a camp in Libya, where he had to eat macaroni every single night. He was stuck there for 2 years because he did not have any money or contact with his friends and family in Gambia. One day he made a deal with the owners of the place, he had to make toilets for them and if he succeeded he was free to go. So he did, and he was out of the camp. But then Libya was having a lot of trouble with, I believe was their president or something, so most refugees were sent to other camps or sent on boats to other countries, where most of the refugees had died, however Jay Jay was lucky enough to be one of the refugees that was sent back to his own country. Petra and Alhagie came to pick him up at the airport and drove him to Tanji. Jay Jay he has not left the village once since then and he was not planning on going anywhere either. I thought it was a really sad story, because the two years in Libya totally sucked for him, but he told it with a big smile on his face.

So yeah, today I learned a lot about Jay Jay, which was very interesting. After he told us the stories we walked back to our compound to eat lunch. In the meantime Alhagie fixed the van and we were able to drive to the art market. And let me tell you this, it was awesome! There were about 20 shops in the market street and all of the owners were sitting outside, trying to lure the people inside their shop and make them buy things for a price that was way too high. We were told not to buy anything until Alhagie was there to negotiate with the shop owners. I had to wait almost half an hour for Alhagie to return with Petra, Fleur, Connie and Anja, so I had all the time to look through every shop first. The first friend I made was a guy sitting outside a shop with 2 friends playing Djembe. He asked where I was from and what my name was and all that, and so I had a conversation with him. I took a look around in his shop and fought one thing I wanted to buy so I said to him “I will come back later with my friend to buy something.” And so when I did, he was really happy that I bought something and that I did not lie about coming back, and so he gave me a free Djembe lesson. It was very nice to play with him and his friends and we sounded pretty good, but after 8 minutes I told him I had to move on.  The second friend I made was a woman, she was trying to make me buy things, which worked, because I ended up buying 3 keychains, but first I had to wait for Alhagie so I said to her: I will come back. She made me promise this and every time I passed her shop she said “do not break your promise!” When I came to buy the keychains with Alhagie I made her very happy and she loved me for not breaking my promise :). The next friend I made was a man sitting in front of his shop crafting wood, he asked me where I came from, what my name was and all that but he even asked me if I had I boyfriend. I said “no I do not need one” He said: “ you also do not need someone like me? I can take good care of you and we can have lots of fun.” He basically asked me if I wanted to date him and I politely tried to turn him down. When I passed by him he asked me if I wanted to come sit down with him, but I had to find Alhagie first, so I said to him: No I have to find my friends first. And he gave me this response: “you already found him, because I am your friend.” Which was nice, because he just friend zoned himself :). The next persons to become my friends were a group of children playing at school. I was the gate of the school in between two shops so I went there to look at the kids. All of a sudden they all run into my direction and started to talked me and ask me if I wanted to play with them. Sadly I had to turn down the offer but I promised them I would play with them next time, which made them very happy. There were two more men I want to talk about, one very old skinny guy, who made me buy a wooden Gambian van, because I felt pity for him (don’t worry, I am pretty good at negotiating too and only had to pay half of the price he originally wanted to have) After that he said “God bless you” to me every time I passed by his shop :).  Last but definitely not least was a man crafting wood in the streets. He was taking a break from his work and I asked him if I could take a picture of him. He said to me “it is much nicer to take a picture when I am working” so he took a new piece of wood and started to craft. He asked me all kinds of questions, also where I was staying in the Gambia, and because I am staying in the biggest fishers village in the Gambia, he crafted me a fish. When the fish was done he asked me how I spelled my name and he even made my name in the fish. I did not have to pay for it, even though he sacrificed his break time for it, and at that moment I felt very special :). I would call him the best friend I made today.

We drove back to our compound and before we had dinner I wanted to take a shower. I was washing my hair when all of a sudden the power went down and  my whole room turned dark. Because it was also dark outside, I could not see a thing. I grabbed a towel and walked carefully to my door and tried to cover as much of my body with my towel and I walked outside to find Alhagie. He came very fast and fixed the problem in under 3 minutes, so I was able to finish showering. He said to me: This will not be the last time this happens! Great :).

Mariana had made us spaghetti for diner and it was very delicious! We had the same fruit yoghurt as yesterday for desert and when we were done eating we all sat down to talk to each other. I left the table at 9 and went to my room to type this blog, which took me some more time than I originally had planned, but that’s okay. I am going to bed now and I will talk to you later!