A New Season Begins

Today has been a very different kind of day. It started like any Saturday, I woke up, put on my swimsuit and was headed to the pool and then to another town to go to a craft market for some shopping, when the manager at my compound told me I could not go out. I laughed and continued on my way. He ran me down and told me he was serious. The last Saturday of each month is a "cleaning day" in the Gambia. The roads are cleaned, trash is picked up, everthing is tidied. People are expected to stay at home and do the same. The only people allowed on the roads are emergency personel, doctors, ambulences, etc. Everyone else is arrested and fined. I finally got to leave at 1 o'clock but everything was so eerie. Gambia is the most densly populated country in Africa, and I live in the most densly populated area in the Gambia. There are people everywhere, all the time. Today, not a soul. It was so eerie to be the only one walking on the street, the only one sitting in the most popular restraunt in the country. The roads that generally bustle with honking taxis and trucks were completely empty. Even the animals seemed to be hiding somewhere.

The second thing that added to this eeriness was the rainy season began. The rains start in June and get worse and worse through August and taper off in October. I thought that meant that we would just get a little rain in June and July and gradually it would rain harder and harder. I was mistaken. I have never seen rain like it rained today. It started sprinkiling so I went onto a little porch area then the heavens opened up. Within 10 minutes our compound was flooded. Two palm trees broke in half due to the weight of the rain. There was no heavy wind, no thunder, no lightening. Just intense, hard, driving rain. It lasted about an hour and looks like its going to start again any minute. Every one has been preparing and talking about the rainy season and now I know why. It is dangerous to be in it. You need to plan ahead so you don't get caught in it. There are no tours and travel companies running right now, and now I see that it is just too much of a liability to be taking people out in that. I have changed my plans to return in late July instead of August. I first began thinking of doing that when I started to hear the horror stories of the rains (then some school responsibilities forced me to change plans), but I am so happy that I will not be here for the worst of the rainy season. It will certainly be an interesting couple weeks in this new weather!