i dont mean to rub it in your faces or anything, but this was pretty much the best "spring break" I've ever had. Technically it wasn't really spring break because I haven't had any classes, but while St. Mary's was on break, we went on a group trip "upcountry". Mudhuts, thatched roofs, and goats galore. About 65% of the country lives out past the city and suburbs in the rural villages. The first two days were spent on the south bank of the river. First off was a nature reserve/zoo, Abuko Nature Reserve, we saw lots of monkeys! There were hundreds of them all over the forest and they weren't scared of us at all. Thats how I got these sweet monkeys pics. A baboon grabbed a piece of paper out of my pocket and tore it to pieces. We talked with the director of the reserve and he echoed the feelings of most of the country in saying that they were broke and relied almost entirely on donations. They could barely pay their staff. Anyway, from there we headed to Tumani Tenda, a village on the south bank that runs an eco-tourism camp. Tourists come to this village to see all sorts of classic village life work. It is a great way for the village to make money enough to survive in their more traditional ways. Like most villages upcountry, they still do without running water or electricity. We met with their Alkalo (chief of the village), he didn't speak english so had to be translated for us. He didn't look anything like what I would expect a chief to look like. He was wearing jellys (a very popular shoestyle upcountry). We visited their school, played some football (soccer) with the kids. We spent the next full day their, speaking with the local herbal healer about natural remedies, we took a canoe trip up river, and basically relaxed in the sun. The roads on the south bank of The Gambian River are notoriously bad, which we learned getting to and from Tumani Tenda. Especially getting back to Banjul, we took a different route which, to us, seemed like we were just driving deeper and deeper into the countryside and not back towards Banjul like we were supposed to. The driver, Lamin, said he knew where we were going the whole time, so we just sat back an enjoyed the ride. Every single group of children we passed reacted the same way to a group of Toubabs driving by. They ran screaming after our van screaming "TOUBABS!! GIVE ME MINTY, GIVE ME PEN". Apparently it is popular among tourists to just drive by the locals and throw pens and candies out the window. It sets a horrible example for whites in the country as a whole. It is something we saw all over the country for the entire week.

The ferry was an adventure in itself. The line of cars for the ferry was probabl half a kilometer long and apparently people wait all day and into the night to catch a ride. We pulled some strings and only waited 45minutes. On one hand, it is sweet to not have to wait that long but on the other it is hard to get a feel for a culture when we are getting VIP treatment to cross a ferry. Loading the ferry was different then a ferry ride in the US. First, they packed as many cars as tight as they could onto the deck. It was hard to believe that they weren't exceeding deck weight capacity. From there they opened the floodgates and people came running in to find a spot on the ferry. I seriously saw someone get trampled in the mad rush for the boat (he was OK though). It was so packed with people, almost no room to walk around, and people sitting on stairs. The concept of personal space was foriegn on the ferry, which also means we had to be wary of pickpockets.

Disembarking from there, we headed to Juffereh, whose claim to fame was the ancetral home of Kunteh Kinte, the main character of Roots. We met the Alkalo there, who claims to be a member of the Kinte family. We learned, while there, that there is much debate on the historical accuracy of the story. It was written by Alex Haley, an african-american, who originally went to the town to find out about his own roots and eventually heard a story of the Kinte family. The reason for the skepticism on the accuracy behind the story lies in the method of passing down history. Griots are traditional story tellers who pass down family histories and true stories of family lineages by word of mouth alone. Apparently the Griots who first told Haley the story was not born a Griot, so many claim that he can not be trusted as a reliable source, however different aspects were verified by other Griots, which is good enough for the everyday Gambian.

On a slight side note, there is a man who works with the St. Mary's program, Mr. Sidebeh, his title is our cultural coordinator. He is well known throughout the country because of his efforts for the past fifty years doing everything he can to preserve the culture and history of the country. When we got to Juffereh we learner that Mr. Sidebeh friends with good friends with Alex Haley. It turns out that he was not only Haley's translator on his excursion up to Juffereh in the early 70's but also did most of the verification of stories and well as hunting down other sources for Haley. As it was explained to us, without Sidebeh, Roots would never have been written. The most we travelled up country did we learn the Mr. Sidebeh is relatively famous throughout the country. Every Alkalo we met was already friends with him and every village we passed through, we was an honorary member of. I was very happy to have him with us as a primary source of Gambian history.

Anyway, an island on the Gambian river, James Island, right by Juffereh was a major hub of the West African slave trade. It was where the English brought hundred of thousands of the slaves that were shipped off to the west. It was a miniscule island, filled with interesting ruins for us to climb around.

After the island, we went on a walk through the ruins of an English settlement outside of the town where the English apparently traded goods with the locals. Being toubabs, we always attract attention, especially from the local children. We had a crowd of maybe a dozen kids as young as 3 up to around 12 walking with us. They walked all over the town with us as Mr. Sidebeh told us about the history of the town. They are a lot of fun to talk to and a great way to work on language skills at the same time.

The next day we drove a lot longer on lot worse roads. mad bumpy dirt roads...hardcore.

we went up to Janjanbureh. A pretty big island on the gambian river. On the ferry to the island we started talking to some peace corp volunteers and it turned out that a bunch were coming to the island for a st.patty's day party the following night. We were excited about that. Anyway, friday afternoon was spent on a boat going 3 hours down the river. lookin at crocodiles and hippos while drinkin beer and eating some slammin food. it was lots of fun. then saturday we met up with peace corps people. i met a guy from somewhere in north jersey. we drank and bonded. lots of fun. the next morning was rough though.

sunday was spent driving allllll the way back to banjul aka civilization.

hangover+really bumpy roads+lots of sun=no fun

all in all it was an awesome week upcountry