The Gambia Days 4, 5, 6

Group picture at Riverside Kartong

By day four I was extremely tired, I was missing my friends and family back home and I was lost without WiFi or even any internet connection at all. You know when you stare blankly at your phone knowing no one is going to text you, yeah I was at that stage in the withdrawal symptoms. The days were feeling long with the heat and I could have done with a day of rest, in a pool with a cocktail and some breeze but days four, five and six really reminded me why I was in The Gambia, and it sure as hell wasn't for a holiday!
*Warning: Long post alert*

Day Four - Boat trip to Kartong, Folonko and craft demo

Day four started as a bad day for me, I just woke up in a bad mood, although the girls had me laughing I just had to have five minutes to myself before heading down to join everyone for breakfast around 9am. I think it was partly because I was dreading a boat ride and the long day ahead. I just needed sleep and by this point my legs and bum was covered in bites so I was fed up of scratching. 

We took a car ride to Berending where we would be getting on our boat for our river tour, although Kartong was only 8 minutes away by car it took about 45 minutes along the river. It was nice to go along the river rather than the boring car ride we had been doing multiple times a day. We technically crossed over to Senegal waters, no one had their passports so we made the joke that we went to Senegal illegally. Once we arrived at Riverside we were met by EJ who told us about the women collecting oysters in the river, he talked about how the oysters are poisonous during rainy seasons so he no longer allows the women to collect them during this time. He also spoke about his new safety features such as everyone wearing life jackets. 

Pool in Folonko

 From Riverside we headed into Kartong village where we went to Folonko. Folonko is sacred ground where the women come and pray, we learnt that they come to the pool (pictured above) twice a week and if you come along to see them and bring salt, sugar, candles or money it will bring you good luck. The women use the gifts you bring to help their families and the wider community. (Using salt and sugar in the food, using candles to light the house and money to improve their life) We also learnt that many women will shower in the pool water if they are struggling to fall pregnant. Once they have done this and of course the other things necessary to get pregnant they would name their child Folonko after the sacred ground. 

After Folonko we headed to Balantas where I met the cutest little kiddies who wouldn't let go of my hand, we also saw how you make palm wine and met some of the locals before heading to Kartong's village school where we got to meet some lovely children and watch them learn and they sang songs for us.

Once we finished at Riverside we headed back to Sandele, this was around 3pm and once we were back we headed to the craft area where we spoke with some of the locals who made crafts. The man made me a beautiful Charlene bracelet that I sadly lost two days after arriving back in London (I blame my gloves) Tara made her own bracelet, it took her a few hours but she got there!

After the craft we headed to the beach before showering and having dinner. After dinner we went back to our room for a nightcap. 

Day Five - Makasutu and Tumani Tenda 

Day five started a little better than day four although it was a much earlier start, we were up, out and departed little after 8:30am. We headed to Makasutu a Eco-retreat. When we arrived we were a little shocked to see the prices for entry. 1000 Dalasi for foreigners, 800 for non-Gambians who live in The Gambia and 500 for Gambians. The whole "Non-Gambian but lives in Gambia" threw me a little. We headed in and met our guide, the first stop was a boat trip, the boat wasn't much bigger than me so I refused to get my lard ass on that tiny boat, I walked! After my short walk I had time for a coffee break before the others arrived.

Once we were all together we went on a mini tour to try and find some Baboons, we saw loads but got told we'd see more later after our actual tour. We then went for a coffee break before heading to the top of the tower where the above picture was taken, it was such a beautiful view and I could have easily stayed there all day! Unfortunately we couldn't and we headed into the forest for our real tour to begin. The tour felt like it lasted about 6 hours but it was only about an hour and a half. It was 35c, I had a big bottle of water and I was far too lazy for this unexpected walk. It was beautiful to see the forest and we learnt a lot, I won't bore you with the details but the part that stood out to me the most was the Viagra tree and the tree that aids with abortion. 

It was crazy to me that every tree pretty much does the same thing (helps blood pressure, helps your immune system, helps the men out sexually) and then there was a tree to gives you an abortion, if you didn't know abortions are illegal in The Gambia yet everyone knows if you boil the bark of this specific tree you will "miscarry". This tree did spark a controversial conversation between myself and others as it is something I believe in, I wouldn't say believe in, but I believe every woman should have the right to have an abortion if she chooses too. After the tour we had an African buffet where we dined with some baboons! 

After lunch we headed to Tumani Tenda, by this point I was beyond bored, tired and didn't have much life left in me so I completely zoned out to the first part. It was a 30+ minute lecture on Tumani Tenda. I did zone in and out and worked out that before Tumani Tenda even make a profit they give over £600 back to the community and their village's schools. After the lecture we headed into the village and spoke with the El Carlo (Chief) of the village, he didn't speak any English but everything was translated and we were lucky enough to ask him questions about marriage, future plans for El Tumani Tenda and about his family, we finished up around 5:30pm and headed back to Sandele to shower, get ready for dinner and have another early night.

Day Six - Reflections and free time

Saturday (day six) started around 9am with breakfast, I wasn't in the best of moods as I had just had 'one of them mornings' where everything was going wrong. I wasn't very well and I was super tired. I got to breakfast later than everyone else as I needed five minutes to myself to collect my thoughts before I started the day. We then headed to the juice shack to start our morning of reflections. We did a few short tasks, one of which was doing SWOT analysis of the two Eco-retreats we visited the day before. It was nice to see how everyone saw the week. My biggest issue was how unauthentic most of the week had been, everyone was money hungry and it felt like everyone spoke a big game but didn't do much to show it. 

Around midday we had lunch and then headed to Senegambia. We went back to Kombo Beach where I picked up my lovely top from the craft market, we then headed into Kombo Beach and got WiFi for the first time all week, that's right a 22 year old social media addict from London went 6 days without WiFi, I didn't crack too much! It was nice to let my mum, dad, boyfriend and friends know I'm actually alive and did make it to Africa. We bought a few drinks so we didn't feel like we had stolen the WiFi. We then headed to the beach where I took my OOTD pictures and had a few laughs. 

The taxi driver was over an hour late picking us up from Senegambia and it took around an hour to get back to Sandele. We got home, had dinner and headed to bed early to shower and relax for the evening.

I had a roller-coaster of a few days! 
  Days seven and eight will follow within the new few days!  
In the mean time why not take a look at some of my holiday snaps that I uploaded to Facebook? You can view them here

 

What do you think of days four, five and six?

 

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