Sunset Beach Hotel Kotu

... t as easy as it sounds. Programmes I've been to here rarely seem to combine a genuine mix of the two. There are varied reasons for this perhaps, but one of the key causes is alcohol. As a rule (although there are obviously exceptions), Gambians do not drink. For a start it's prohibited by their religion. As one friend explained it to me: "We have to behave as if we are to be audited. God will be very angry with me if when I ...

... we all stepped back from the hut a little shocked by the way all the different colors and designs had come together to occupy their own little corner of Tungbun. Etu showed his approval with a radiant laugh and clap of the hands as he circiled the hut, promising to name it after us. It was amazing to be able to give something back to him and the village for all the enjoyment we'd had there. It was amazing to be able to leave our own little mark on the village. It was amazing just to ...

... we all stepped back from the hut a little shocked by the way all the different colors and designs had come together to occupy their own little corner of Tungbun. Etu showed his approval with a radiant laugh and clap of the hands as he circiled the hut, promising to name it after us. It was amazing to be able to give something back to him and the village for all the enjoyment we'd had there. It was amazing to be able to leave our own little mark on the village. It was amazing just to ...

... There is police, army, customs, immigration all with varying levels of presence on both sides of the border. They were professionally presented and asked for nothing. Continued over the better roads in Senegal to Diouloulou, the first large village I reached. Cycled past a respectable youngster and asked if he could take me to the campment. Dropped my bags there and we headed off to for a tour of the backstreets. He ...

... Oh but police reports, they are not easy" I am told "Sometimes they can take many months". "Surely not?" I reply wide eyed "Why, my good friend the Inspector General told me it could be done in a day..." This causes some discomfort and I am told to return in the evening. Which I do. And am now informed the typist only comes in at night. I must pay for two things - once for the report (paper doesn't grow on trees you know), and once for the coffee needed by the ...

... women, their absence from higher education, their limited accepted social freedom and ownership of property, the acceptance of female genital mutilation, condescension of women's abilities and independence, and inappropriate treatment towards women in public. And even just the ridiculous but maddening smaller things get to me, like while I was riding my bike a man very bluntly said what it seems others think when they stare at me-he actually stopped me in my path and ...

... that I'll rant enthusiastically about to anyone who mentions it. But one example of these moments that happened this past week was especially disturbing, (probably for the humiliation and stupidity I felt after it as much as what it meant to me). Bryan, Shane, Maya and I had decided Monday afternoon, having completed our first days of classes and generally feeling like experienced tubabs, to go to the Serekunda market by ourselves for some fabric. Initially the experience was a ...

... it, it was pretty much like a nasty dose of flu. I don't mean to treat it lightly, because Malaria is one of the world's biggest killers, but thanks to a perceptive and persistent friend (who ordered me to the clinic rather than going along with my inclination to "sleep it off") and once again the unfair but useful advantages of being a volunteer here, I was A-OK in no time. My main lesson from this incident was the revelation of the scheming and Machiavellian nature of ...

... and every evening I would feed them bananas and peanuts! I've always been greatly fascinated by primates but I was in absolute awe watching them sit so close to me and gently take my offerings from the palm of my hand. Of course, far from being gentle, monkeys are extremely agile and strong, as I discovered one day. There was some kind of territotial establishment going on as a pregnant female was encroaching the family's trees. The mother of the resident family with ...

... go beyond that. I want to have a team of three doctors for asthma and HIV/Aids. I want you to select ten HIV/Aids patients: five males and five females for Thursday. The conditions should be explained to them before they come because if any of them backs out, you cannot replace the one that has backed out. They can eat before coming but they should not eat anything that is oily. The medicine will be given to them in the morning as a preliminary and after, they can ...