New Opinions

I bought a little book on Gambia before I came and I got a completely different impression of what this country would be like. First of all, the book said that this is a Muslim country. While it is true that most people here are Muslim, it is certainly not what I had in mind. I pictured women wearing long skirts, heads covered, very pious, religous group. While everyone is deeply religious they dress just like Americans! I brought lots of long skirts and tops with sleeves etc. and I couldn't have been further from what they wear here. I should have just brought my favorite sun dresses and summer clothes and I would have fit in just fine. Everyone is incredibly approachable (I was worried about talking to men in particular). But women are very empowered here, there are several wealthy business women and they seem to be treated as well as the men in their jobs, and social life.

I also planned on lots of power outages. The truth is, every once in a blue moon the power goes off for a couple of hours. It's like living in Alabama during tornado season. There is also no reason not to walk at night. My book said not to walk at night because you might fall into an open sewer. All the sewers are covered! So this book must be very outdated or maybe the author has never been here! There are people walking around at all hours of the day and night. Not just Gambians, but all nationalities and races. I feel incredibly safe here, all the time! I'm so happy about that because it would terrible living in fear for 3 months!

Last night I had dinner with some friends from my hotel. We went to a great area with lots of restraunts and live music! I would have LOVED for Alex to have been there to twirl me around a bit;) We also walked around and saw some of Gambia's most expensive hotels and took a stroll on the beach. We went by Monkey Park, but it was closed and I suppose all the monkies had gone to sleep. It was so much fun to get out and go exploring with some new friends! One of the guys was Gambian and I asked him question after question about the country and he made me feel so much better about everything!

Today I went by the WFP office and was told about my job, which I'll learn more about tomorrow. More importantly, the UN helped me find a great apartment. Its called Sea View and its in walking distance of everything I need, an African market, a supermarket, shopping centers, and an internet cafe! I've also made friends with some of my neighbors which I'm excited about. One is a Spanish man who carries a baby bird in his pocket! I think the mama bird was pretty angry about that though, she kept dive bombing him! There's also an American woman who works at the Peace Corps office that lives nearby that was helping me find a good apartment and we plan on going out sometime soon!