Afrikanskje

Organising the pilot has been problematic and I haven't been able to conduct many interviews. I have been here for two weeks now and my time schedule is not on track, which is frustrating. I am totally dependent on others which is a challenge. Being used to Norwegian circumstances is a privilege, and I am spoiled. Misunderstandings and other unforeseen happenings has stopped the whole process for a little while. Luckily Baba (my Gambian classmate) is my savior and has agreed to help me interpret. He has been going with me to a health facility twice, but we only met one woman that filled my criteria. Tuesday will be the day when we will make success and conduct the interviews needed for the pilot! We will be going to a more rural population, which fit my criteria better. The timing is not very well as it is the end of Ramadan now. End of Ramadan means public holidays and the start of my project will be extended at least another week, which I can say has been worrying me a lot. I have the 400 interviews in the back of my head all of the time.. (I feel bad for Mona, Christina and Hege for my complain- I know you face greater challenges than I do.) And I guess everyone that are fasting for Ramadan these days think that the end of Ramadan is great! Trond-Olav and Binu saved my worst day by calling while they were just about to order tickets. They will be here in the end of November! Trond said something like "Priya, I can not order a ticket every time you are depressed". I am glad you did this time anyway!

I had this little fellow on my balcony the other day and he also cheered me up! Johanna: alle bilder av dyrene i Afrika er til deg, -som jeg lovet :)

For those of you that are in the process of trying to decide if you are coming here. This is the place to be in October-November when it is gray and rainy at home:)

A picture from my street, for you Ane! (Since you always get exited when you see red soil..!)

  This weeks big happening was a soccer game. Went to see Gambia play against Namibia together with the VSO group (Voluntary Service Overseas). Gambia won 2-1 and the atmosphere was amasing! It was raining heavily throughout the whole match and we were not covered, so we got soaked. And the sight could have been better.. I saw a couple of Gambians in Brann football shirts and Peppes Pizza rain cover. I also saw a bus the other day that obviously has been taken here from a folkehøyskole in the West of Norway with a Norwegian slogan on. It seems like some charity works!

Game over, find the shortest way out. 

This is how wet it was at the soccer game. We were sitting in the water you can see below. As I was sitting there with water all over me I got to remember my classes of water borne diseases and I wondered if parasites could enter my pants. As they do enter human skin, I guess a pair of pants will not be too tough. Hopefully the shoes of the people behind me were not carrying any parasites with them! When it rains heavily, the streets gets really muddy and it is not easy to get around with slippers. They sink into the mud, and I walked out of them a couple of times. I really appreciated my shower when I got home.

A good thing is that I am now confident in traveling around this area by my self. It seems like I was very unlucky with my first trip, cause I haven't experienced anything scary since. I can cancel my burka-plans! I also have to emphasise that I do spend most of the time in my room preparing for field work, and with Annas family. So that is why I don't have the most exiting happenings to brag about in the blog.

Hopefully the next update will be from Farafenni!