Learning that the simple life, ain't so simple after all!
on Lynn Sellwood (The Gambia), 05/Oct/2010 19:22, 34 days ago
Just three people using their heads!Nothing is quite as easy or as simple it seems. I have been taking some street photos to give you an idea of the daily visual images I am currently living with. The photos of women walking and talking while balancing loads on their heads show an everyday occurrence. I had to be careful taking these shots because I suddenly feel self-conscious and don’t want to give the impression that these people are somehow specimens for us to gawp at. However, it is an image of Africa that we have all seen on the TV and it is only when faced with it daily that you realise that this is a supremely practical way of transporting things. It is elegant, and although I can’t master it, a more energy efficient way of carrying heavy loads. You should see the state of me after carrying my sports bag to the club for a swim! Or, when I am carrying two carrier bags of shopping containing fruit and veg and a couple of cans of diet coke. I sweat so much I have to carry a flannel with me and have a new one for every day.On that note, George Alagiah makes an interesting point in his book,“Passage to Africa” that you can tell a country’s wealth by the number of times you have to shop in a week. Those countries without constant electricity can’t support fridges and freezers and so shopping becomes a daily activity. he suggests a new category of  poverty index....the number of shopping trips per family per year. "Only relatively rich people can be sure enough of their income next week to blow a whole load of cash this week on food. Only people wealthy enough to have their own transport or to pay for a taxi can manage to get all those goodies back home."Traditional baby carrierThe other traditional form of transport is the donkey and cart. The photo I couldn’t take was the one with the man urging his donkey forward while conducting a loud mobile phone call. It does make you think about the inventions of the 20th century and how they can sit side by side with older, more traditional ways of conducting our lives.Typical shop frontThe shops are, for the most part, small and it is sometimes difficult to find what you are looking for. The markets are crazy and difficult for Toubabs to negotiate. There is always the nagging doubt that you have been over-charged or that the thing you have bought won’t work when you get home. The result of cheap Chinese imports, I think. But, there is the colour which really dominates and I love the shops that sell material. I am planning to have some clothes made based on things I already have so that will form the basis of a future blog. I am waiting to lose more weight before I do it though. (I have sweated off 8lbs already!) i do love the fact that fruit grows freely all over the place, hotels, compounds and streets. here are papaya and calabash.Calabash, they make the bowls from the fruit.Papaya, my favouriteI do have to confess to yearning for some of the sophisticated comforts of home. To this end, we go to the five star hotelCoco OceanLooking to the sea from Reception It is fabulous: it has a spa with lots of twinkling music, six swimming pools, towels on request, powerful showers, wi-fi and constant electricity (through generators) and a great lunch menu. Swimming, relaxing and reading are just great and it is a respite from the daily assault on the senses you get from being in a new country, getting used to new things. Familiarity is a very relaxing state of mind.Me, after swim and gin!Another form of relaxation is hanging out with friends. I have a bit of a reputation for bringing people together to make things happen and I did this very thing when I realised a fellow VSO volunteer, Max, could play the guitar, another VSO volunteer, Jane, has an amazing voice and Dean, a new friend I met at the darts evening, was a singer and lyricist. Max cooked the meal, he invited a couple of other friends, one of whom could play the drums and the evening went fantastically.It felt like the 60's again! Everyone agreed it could have been an embarrassing disaster but instead, everyone got on and we are on a promise that they are going to meet regularly and put together a set of about ten songs in time for a Christmas show!I went for a great walk at theBijilo Forest parkwith Paul, Denise and the kids on Sunday. It is a constructed pathway through trees and bush and is home to lots of wildlife including vervet monkeys.Spot the monkey The walk through the forest was really peaceful with occasional beach views (look how deserted they are).Still so unspoilt!It was where we saw the twisted branches of the tree and the children, Abigail and Bradley were desperate to climb it.Abigail and Bradley Daddy Paul is the same Paul who is trying to launch rugby in The Gambia and who I appealed for the donation of rugby balls so he isn’t forced to make them out of material! Several of you are investigating your own contacts and it is much appreciated!Wide Open Walls is nearing its opening date. The first artist, Eelus arrives on Friday and everything is falling into place. Please have a look at the blogto monitor progress. It is likely to be an annual event and I am desperate to be lucky enough to buy at least a print of some of the works. All profits will go to the Ballabu Conservation Project which has as its aim the support of rural villages and sustainable tourism in The Gambia.I am currently lurching between being pro-aid and anti-aid for developing countries, between enjoying the apparent simplicity of a life with less choice but then being the hypocrite and having the means to run off to Coco Ocean (because I do ultimately have the choice). So, nothing is quite as simple as you'd like it to be.Please keep posting the comments, they mean a lot to me.......