En Vacance: Parti Deux

So, about the palm wine. We ended up sitting in the middle of a rice patty field, under palm trees, on buckets and rusted car parts, drinking palm wine out of old gasoline containers with a group of random men. Not exactly what we were expecting… But they turned out to be very nice and none of us got sick! We also learned that palm wine is made like maple syrup, by digging a hole in the trunk near the top of the palm tree and sticking a bottle inside to collect the palm juice. Then you can either drink the juice or wait for a while for the wine to ferment. Who knew?

Ants!



Molly

After the Serekunda we took a geeli geeli to a camp in Tendaba, further east in the Gambia. It was actually a really fun ride. I loved being able to see rural areas and since the rainy season has just ended, all the plants are really green which creates a really amazing contrast with the red dirt roads and red ant hills. However, by the end of the drive we all had rather impressive dirt spray tans.



Temple Tree

Tendaba Camp

Tendaba was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Tendaba  camp  was a very peaceful place, right on the edge of the Gambian river, with plenty of places to sit and relax. Including a bench under a tree with a sign that said "Temple Tree: Relax, Find Your Soul." 

We took two excursions while we were at Tendaba. The first trip we took started with a pirogue (colorfully painted fishing boats kind of like big canoes) trip down the mangrove lined river to a nature reserve. 

The reserve was so beautiful. After walking for a walk through a field of tall green grass, we came upon a marshy area, but since it was low tide it was a vast expanse of sand. We walked across the sand, past mangrove trees standing gangly roots. We eventually came upon water, which our guide said was the biggest watering hole in the area so all the animals in the area go there for water in the dry season. But since it was the rainy season, animals can find water elsewhere in the bush so all we saw were footprints. But the landscape was strikingly beautiful and I did catch a glimpse of a crocodile!

The second excursion we took was a pirogue trip on a small river that runs through a marsh along the Gambia River. While we did not see any crocodiles like I was hoping, we saw many different kinds of birds. I loved gliding through the mangrove lined water, past green marshes, baobabs and egrets just as the sun was setting.

Next on our trip, we headed back to Senegal, but I am on my way to Fatick to do a survey with children about malaria for my public health class and then I am going east to a village called Manda for a rural stay so I will have to finish this another day...

Ba ci kanam, Inshallah (See you soon, God willing)