Sheraton Gambia Hotel Resort & Spa Serekunda

Its funny to title this "home" but it really felt as if we were coming home... i was feeling very connected to the gambia and really like i was heading to my own home. Jori's words: The next day we finished off the last five hours of the trip heading back home to Serekunda. We stopped at a famous wood-carver's market in Brikama, where Justin picked up some nice keep-sake's and walked back into "Happy Camp" right ...

... get intense but fast walking really helps. I don't know how people who don't have a connection (aka, a girlfriend who has been here and knows the area) get a real Gambia experience. BTW, the markets are amazing.... woodworks, crafts, etc. Don't worry; gifts will be purchased for everyone! I don't know what else to say but it's been amazing and the people are so interesting here. Stories will be told latter... for now, I must put up the info about where Jori and I will be for ...

... a booth...) and guess who was waiting for the other side for me. yuppppp.... that would be jori sapper. there was about 300people at the airport for a flight of only 120or so... everyone was trying to advertise and sell some kind of hotel or taxi service. Jori and i ran through and next thing i knew i was in their friend Benz driving through the countryside(learned in was the edge of banjul). Within 15minutes we ...

... going to get dark soon. A payment of 2000 CFA - or 2 pounds was made to complete the formalities and off I set. Next town was Basse, the most easterly town in Gambia with a bank. I explored the town, feasted on BBQ'ed goat meat - chewy but tasty. Then rice and fish in ground nut source and had small sweet bananas.. so much sweeter than the ones we get in the UK. Passed the time with the locals back to the hotel for sleep ...

... like limited advancements in the Gambian education system. Yet, by the way, when we ask him about underground opposition parties, he smiles enigmatically and answers 'if they were underground, how would I know about them?" I can't help but think he relies on a hope in the possibility of great, sudden change to deal with the reality of Gambian politics. After all, he can easily remember a time before the form of government in existence now, and saw the overthrow of a government ...

... adapts to the fast; people tend to lie down rather than sit, businesses are often open fewer hours, and greetings are spoken with a sluggish cheerfulness, rather than the energetic friendliness that is common other times. After breakfast there is cleaning, and, because it is September, school has just started and you must get ready to leave. You will don your uniform: a very English style (one of the many little signs of colonialism), with a collared shirt, black shoes, and ...

... I'm used to, to an entirely different view of reality. At the end of the class I don't think even a little bit of a compromise was found. Not that it was hostile, but we left looking at each other a little like strange animals with strange ways. There may as well have been a glass cage between us. But, after this very blunt encounter with discrimination against women that I feel more subtly in small ways each day, I faced reverse discrimination as soon as I stepped out ...

... the guy talk, was one of those moments that stuck out to me, and I decided with a great amount of purpose and satisfaction that I was just being too distracted by a different style of interaction here (We consistently meet people randomly, sometimes just on the street, maybe start talking to them, or being talked to, they ask for a number, or the general place we live, and then they show up or call later, expecting to become good friends), so much that it blinded me to the common ...

... hours, a dozen flushes and several slugs of whiskey later and my new companion and I were still unwilling co-residents. Neither of us were happy about the situation. Pleading phone calls to friends elicited only hysterical laughter. Finally a suggestion was made that poking a branch down there would enable the lizard to climb out to freedom. Willing to try anything at this stage, I gave it a go, much to the disgust of the lizard who pointedly ignored it. Great, now I had ...

... as compared to the pale conjunctiva' that was earlier seen on their First-Day. This, according to reports, was confirmed by the changes in their haemoglobin levels. All the patients are physically and mentally stable. Blood samples of the patients have been taken and they are awaiting results. For any information on the President's on-going treatment of HIV infection, please contact Dr. Tamsir Mbowe, Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare, on 9914535 / 7764535.