Bansang!

I went to Bansang to complete one mission (buy some jujus from the most powerful marabout in the Central River Region) but ended up completing the following missions as well:

Mission: Photograph Senegalese truck with elaborate painting on the side.
Complete.

Mission: Photograph a stop sign.
Complete.

Mission: Find my way to a village I'd only visited once before and whose name I'd forgotten on the day I'd also forgotten my cell phone.
Complete. 

Mission: Walk beside the river for several minutes without realizing  I am next to the river.
Complete.

Mission: Find a sidewalk.
Complete.

Finding a sidewalk actually was a real quest, if you'll remember. I wrote, or think I wrote, about watching Nigerian films on the staff-room television and thinking about the presence of sidewalks in Nigeria and the absence of them in The Gambia. And I wrote, or think I wrote, how I would go on a sidewalk quest if I weren't already on a Swedish-newspaper-warehouse quest. So imagine (imagine!) how excited I was when I  stumbled upon a sidewalk while stumbling around Bansang. Being lost is the best!

Mission: Play a game of foosball.
Complete.

The first time I saw the foosball table, I did a sort of cartoon double-take. For one thing, it was just sitting by the side of the road. For another thing, it was a foosball table. On the side, someone had painted, "3 balls, 2 dalasis. 6 balls, 4 dalasis." On an unrelated note, yes, that kid's shirt says "abibas," which reminds me the Persi flip flops I saw in the market the other day.