Billboard!

I remember on one of my first days in The Gambia being asked what most surprised me. I remember answering, "Billboards."

Okay, that's all the story I've got for billboards. I'm surprised I had any story at all. I just wanted to post this picture because I found the inclusion of "Nancy" among the names amusing. I have never met a Gambian named Nancy.

Dolls!

As Adama and Rugi are braiding my hair, Adama asks me to buy her a doll, one with hair for braiding. I tell her I will, if I have the money.

Adama: May God give lots of money!

Rugi: Give the money to Binta!

Adama: So she can buy us dolls!

Rugi: Give her...one hundred dalasis!

Adama: Two hundred!

Rugi: Four hundred!

Koina!

Koina is even farther east than Fatoto--now I've really been to the end of The Gambia.

The mosque.

Outside the mosque.

At the naming ceremony--the reason I went to Koina.

I thought there was a vending machine in the middle of the road and got really excited. A fridge in the middle of the road is only mildly exciting.

The road out of Koina.

An Ugly Bag

Female Student: Miss Jallow, that boy says my bag is ugly.

Me: Huh! But your bag is very nice.

That Boy: That bag makes her look like a Senegalese tourist.

I had not even realized “Senegalese tourist” was a category of people that come to The Gambia. Or that their bags were ugly.

Pharmacy!

I have never actually been inside the pharmacy. Or seen it open, for that matter. The outside is probably more interesting anyway.

Soap!

I went to Sinni’s compound to see if I’d missed the raffle (I hadn’t, it’s been maybe-postponed). Ma Balde and another older woman were rolling soap into balls. I asked what goes into soap.

“Oil, [a-word-I-forget], ‘ferra’.”

Pippi Isatou describes ‘ferra’ for me, which I originally think might be the word for lye, unless it is the word-I-forget. This thought is abandoned when she says ‘ferra’ is what goes into panketos. I try to think what ingredient would be common to both fried dough balls and laundry soap. I finally decide it must be flour.Unless baking soda goes into panketos? That’s another word I don’t know.

"There is sugar in Binta's hair."

The girls were braiding my hair and Kumba commented that there was sugar in my hair.

Little Adama corrected her and said, “No, it’s dandruff.”

I agreed with Adama, but to myself I imagined that in a world where everything was made of candy, the dandruff would be sugar.

Though I also imagine that in the world where everything is made of candy, there’s no such thing as dandruff.

Bride! (part two)

After they finished dressing the bride, she got on the back of a motorcycle and we paraded to her in-laws' compound.

The size of the group at the beginning.

Carrying the bowl with the rice and kola nuts.

When we got closer, she got off the motorcycle and was lifted up in a chair.

Then she entered this hut with some of the older women...

...while everyone else began dancing.

Bride! (part one)

I wish there were some cool cultural story to go along with these photos, but all that was happening was we were watching a bride getting dressed up to go to her in-laws. I didn't mind just sitting and watching, because I thought the bride was too beautiful. Hence my inability to reduce the number of photos I wanted to share.

When I came over to the compound, they were tying a string of red beads into her hair.

They also tied a string of red kola nuts into her hair.

This woman was recording everything on her mobile.

Really elaborate henna for her feet.

Someone said, "What about her ears?" so they strung bits of red yarn through the earring holes.

A bowl of rice topped with red kola nuts wrapped in a red cloth.