Khalaji and our camp site with an audience (kids, cows and donkeys!)
Saturday 7th November
Khalaji has been the favourite our of all us of the villages we have stayed in so far for all of us. And, that’s not to take anything away from any of the others but if you look at the images, then we hope you will get a good sense of what we experienced. We arrived around 2pm to the sound of afternoon call-to-prayer. It seems most of the Alkalo’s live next to the mosques. A male and female voice in unison, were chanting the prayers…from the minaret …hauntingly beautiful) and our gracious host, Alkalo Lamin Jammeh, and his extended family (again, including about 30 kids – I counted them!) made us feel as if we had come home.
We began to pitch our tents in the middle of two pastures in between the Alkalos’ compounds (two in this particular village), beneath the shade of a big tree – the hub of any Gambian community. We tethered Neil and Paddy and left them happily grazing the verdant grass. As we were mid-pitching, we turned around to see around 100 cows and more than a few bulls lumbering, through the very same pasture that Momadou had tethered Neil and Paddy (who seemed completely unaffected by this), chomping as they went on the way to their pasture on the opposite side. It was quite a sight to witness as the cumbersome herd picked their way through our campsite, with their slightly bemused expressions. Cows are curious creatures, who will stare at you for an age. However, these cows turn out to be the culprits who keep us awake all night with their megaphone-like mating calls!
Then the children got on their donkeys, three at time on the backs of some, and galloped past instantly alert Neil and Paddy (quite a show was being put on for them today!), laughing and screaming with delight, followed by clapping and whooping when one of the donkeys bucked and toppled off the three kids off its back, fortunately onto the soft grass! There are so many kids in each compound that we have stayed in and they all seem to have such a happy disposition; all growing up very closely together and the older girls (from 8 or 9 years old on) often looking after the babies and younger kids.
In this particular compound, there was around 30 kids who were our chaperones right up until torch lights out in our campsite. Nothing was going to get past these kids. Every little thing seemed to interest them – even if it was just me washing my smalls!! Our team were like a mini theatre to them, in that they brought out chairs and wooden benches and placed them right up close in front of our tents. One woman even brought her embroidery! The villagers are fascinated by everything us two ‘toubabs’ (or ‘toubabo’s’ ) in our group do and that’s quite something to get used to. Not a lot of choice really. Personal space isn’t even in their vocabulary!
Jones was greatly honoured by the alkalo’s son, Soloman Jammeh, by being given a Gambian name – Mariama Janneh (after his wife).
11.30am
We have a minor emergency this morning. Janneh has a really painful tooth ache and his jaw is swollen. He is definitely not his usual chipper self. We have been asking at every village we have passed through since leaving Khalaji if there is a dentist around. No joy. We have visions of having to resort to giving him a few hearty slugs of whiskey, tying a piece of string around the tooth and then tying the other end to a doorknob. Well, you know the rest…….poor Janneh. So, Florio and Janneh have set off ahead of the rest of the team to hurry onto Quinella village, where we have been told that there is a dentist.
However, we eventually catch up with them over an hour later, we found them sitting outside the local police station, munching freshly picked groundnuts, with their new best friend, the chief of police of Quinella. No dentist to be found here either! We now have to try Soma when we reach there on Tuesday. More painkillers for Janneh and clove tincture!
So, we set off the last 5 km’s to Tendaba Camp to begin our ‘holiday’ (whats left of today and the whole of Sunday).
Who knows when we will get on next but keep checkin in as usual
A Short Walk Team Update
Image: Jason Florio – 2009
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