Bridget in the Gambia: Off to Kanilai

This past week has been packed with all sorts of field trips around the Gambia, and I continue to learn more and more about the culture. Last Tuesday, we decided to go on the University trip to Kanilai, the birthplace of the president to partake in the celebrations there as a part of the week long Roots festival. Basically, this week is dedicated to celebrating Gambian history. Kanilai is about a two hour drive from Brikama, where our university is located (and Brikama is an hour from Jeshwang, where I live.) We arrived at 9:30 am, which was the original departure time. We were informed that there were some mechanical issues that would be sorted out as quickly as possible, but that we would no doubt be on the road soon. Four and a half hours later, at 2:00 pm, we left.

As we drove upcountry, I had lots of opportunity to observe rural Gambia. The habitat is so dry, and everything has a reddish tinge from the sand. Every town had two things- a house of worship (whether a church, mosque or both) and a meeting place, which I learned from one of my professors is called a bantibar. This is a Mandinka word for meeting place. Sometimes, a bantibar is a few benches under a big tree…other times it is a big open structure (the university bantibars remind me very much of a gazebo one would see in a public park in the states.) Bantibars are used to socialize, where people go to chat and drink green tea.

About an hour into our ride, the bus broke down. We pulled over in this tiny upcountry town. I walked over to a village girl who looked my age. In my very broken Wolof I greeted her and asked her name etc. She answered me and we had a lovely, albeit brief, conversation in Wolof. She then told me she spoke English, thank goodness! We discussed studying at the university, her family, her life in The Gambia and how she viewed the West. I asked her if she liked to dance, and she smiled but replied with a firm no. But she called the other children and women from the village over and before I knew it, there was a dancing circle!!!! To my delight, there was a drummer, clapping and singing, as various members of the community jumped in the middle to show their moves. Obviously, I could not contain myself with all the dancing and I had to jump in. The children were so beautiful in their display, as were the women. I had the pleasure of dancing with some of the mothers in the village who taught me some new moves! BEST EXPERIENCE THUS FAR! After about an hour, the bus was fixed and we had to say goodbye.

About twenty minutes after our exit from the village, the bus broke down again. We got on a bush taxi which shuttled us to Kanilai. We arrived at a little after 6:00 pm, which was our anticipated time of departure according to our original itinerary. There was nothing going on anymore in terms of festivities, we’d missed all the good stuff. The president was scheduled to speak at some point that night, but it was unclear as to when that might happen and our caretaker encouraged us to turn around and come home. So we hopped back on a bush taxi. After about an hour, the bush taxi got a flat tire. At this point, it was dark, in the middle of upcountry Gambia, after travelling and waiting all day, only to miss the festivities we were suppose to watch. I wanted to cry. But the kids in the village came over and we had a good time entertaining them and ourselves, so our spirits were lifted.

We returned to Brikama after what felt like hours. We then jumped on a van to Jeshwang, where I promptly fell asleep. When I was awoken near our house, it was 10:30 at night. Exhausting day. But I totally loved dancing with the Gambians I met upcountry, and playing with the children. We also got to meet other Gambian students from the university and they included us in all activity for the day. Overall, a great experience with the people of the Gambia…but an experience I never want to repeat.