A Toubab in the Gambia

Sunday, 27 Sep 2009

Written by Elise Muijzert

First impressions in the Gambia!

 I’ve been in the Gambia for only 2 weeks now and I don’t know where to start in describing my experiences so far. After our WFP onboarding in Rome—filled with interesting presentations, getting-to-know-each-other exercises and excellent food—I was ready to stop talking about what we would experience in Africa and actually go out and experience it.

The first few days were a rush of impressions and experiences. Fresh off the plane after our all-night journey, we met the WFP staff and had a chat with the country director about our assignments and the WFP-TNT partnership. The cheque for $500,000 that TNT employees have donated sits prominently in his office and he literally told us that “without TNT’s help, we would really be struggling.”

We also braved the 35° C heat and 90% humidity and took in some of the sights along the Atlantic coast, seeing fishermen bring in the day’s catch and having kids yell at us ‘hello toubab!’ (white person). The people here are enormously friendly, not to mention tall, attractive and elegant. Which I suppose explains the large amount of middle-aged European women that come on vacation here to ‘have some fun.’ :) The Gambia is also basically one big village. Everyone seems to know each other and the big intersection we pass on our way to work is known as ‘the traffic lights’ because up until a few years ago they were literally the only traffic lights in the entire country.

Our first week was slightly chaotic because we had so many things to arrange. We saw about 10 places before settling on our current apartment, which is a convenient 15 minute walk from the beach and the main going out area. And it took us a good 4 days to open a working bank account after we discovered that Visa is the only credit card accepted in the whole country. Naturally Darko and I have Mastercards.

But we are now all settled and ready to get to work! I’m extremely curious to see what the next 6 months has in store for us. Keep reading this blog to find out!