Day 15


Saturday, January 20, 2018


            I woke up feeling much better today. I was woken up again last night when all of the drunk kids came back at 4:30. I was very mad. I showered and went to breakfast. There were only two of us at breakfast. All of the rest of the kids were sleeping. We did not leave the hotel until 11:00. I hate wasting the day, and I especially hate being held back by kids who need to sleep because they made bad choices the night before. We were supposed to visit the Law School at the University of The Gambia, but we never went. Nothing is going as according to planned from the itinerary. We were supposed to be sitting in on college lectures, visiting embassies and consulates, and meeting with dignitaries. We have done none of this. There is a lot of sitting around and napping that has gone on for the past few days. As you can tell, I am not happy.

            The first item on the agenda for today was to visit the Brikama craft market. This is a very large and very famous craft market in Banjul. The main craft at this market was wooden sculptures. All the crafters are sitting in the middle of each isle, whittling. Each crafter invited us into their shops. After seeing the same crafts repeatedly, I became uninterested. It is amazing what these crafters can do though. After lunch, we had the option to go to the beach or stay back at the hotel. Myself and a few of my friends stayed back at the hotel. Buba sent us on a task to go and find peanut butter at one of the local markets near our hotel. We also wanted to buy a deck of playing cards. We were unsuccessful in both tasks. I did learn a lot from going into these stores though. The first store that we went in was kind of like a mall. The first store was very similar to a Bed Bath and Beyond. They had anything you could possible think of. I was very surprised that they had so much. This proved to me that the city is economically more stable than surrounding villages. Other stores in this building included makeup, furniture, and clothing. They carry a lot of name brand clothing, but I am not sure if the pieces are real or fake. Some of the markets we went into were like any gas station’s food selection. This is quite different from village food options. The village had no pre-packaged foods. This was another obvious example of the varying levels of wealth in The Gambia.

Wild cats cuddled up with a wooden crocodile at the Brikama craft market


One more night in Banjul,



Andy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1

Saturday January 6, 2018- I departed for Senegal on January 6, 2018. Myself, 15 classmates, and my advisor, Dr. Buba Misawa all met at the Pittsburgh International Airport in order to catch our first flight- Pittsburgh to JFK in New York. It took us a while to gather and organize the luggage. Each student was allowed to fill two suitcases. However, Buba requested that if you do not use your other suitcase, that it could be used to carry school supplies and clothing down to Africa to give to the local children. This process was complicated and put us behind schedule. We were supposed to be boarding our flight at 9:41 and we just got into the TSA lines at 9:42. Apparently, Buba called Delta and had them delay the flight for us. I am not sure if this is true. A few girls set off the alarms with granola bars at TSA checks, but besides that, everything ran smoothly.               The Pittsburgh to JFK flight was only a ...
Read more

Day 19

Image
Wednesday, January 24, 2018             Today I woke up at 4:30, ate breakfast, left Pink Lake, and headed to the airport. Our flight left at 9:30. We were rushed at the airport and we had security guards yelling at us because we were supposed to arrive 90 minutes early, but we were late. I like that you board the plane from the tarmac. Both plane doors are open, so boarding is quick. The flight was surprisingly not bad. Thankfully, a girl from my class traded me her isle seat for my window seat. I cannot sit at a window seat without getting claustrophobic. I watched three movies: Beauty and the Beast, Baywatch, and La La Land. This took up the majority of the flight. The food wasn’t awful on this flight either. Usually, I absolutely hate plane food, but I ate most of the sides. The main dish was still gross.             We landed in JFK and had to go to customs. I must ...
Read more

Final Paper

The Truth about African Myths             Before embarking on this Intersession trip to Senegal and The Gambia, I had many preconceived thoughts and images about life in African countries. These countries are generally not popular tourist destinations, so the average citizen is very ignorant towards African culture and society. Americans, myself included, have several stereotypes about the entire continent of Africa. We automatically assume these myths that are spread by word of mouth or through social media. Although I only traveled to two African countries, I believe that my experiences in both Senegal and The Gambia have allowed me to test the validity of these myths.             The first myth and probably the most widespread myth is that Africa is a country and is very small. So many forget that Africa has 54 countries. These countries are not well known so we group ...
Read more