It's the weekend! We climbed into the back of the Land Rover and headed out to visit Ibrahim at his home. He was happy to introduce us to his family, take a family photo, give us some fresh oranges and show us his bike shop he has at his home. Mostly a tool box & a pile of old bikes. Then we went to Kartong—a small busy village on the banks of a tributary to The Gambia River. It was nice to see where most people live, work & shop around here. We took a short boat ride passing Pelican Island (only 5 there) and checked out the oysters growing on the mangrove roots. We watched women digging for cackles which reminded Rog of a song he sang in grade school: "Singing Cackles & mussels, Alive, Alive Oh". He'd always wondered what cackles were. Roads here are mostly sand with major pot holes so when you reach a paved one…it's wonderful. We traveled in the back of the Land Rover with Omar telling us about what we're passing & shouting to most people we pass with both laughing every time. He says he doesn't need to know them to joke with them. We know two words in Mandinka: twobob (means white person derived from two bits-UK $) and minty (candy). We hear both often! Spent the rest of the relaxing and getting acquainted with Mark & Carol from Scotland. They'd spend they day doing workshops for local groups: Mark does photography & Carol taught how to make a hand bag with a pattern on a sewing machine to a group of young girls. Also Gunjur Project hired a soccer team to make cement blocks. They mixed up the cement by hand, poured it into a mold, then quickly pulled the mold off. All amazingly fast! They made 994 blocks in a few hours earning about $85 dollars which they'll use for soccer equipment. It seems Gunjur Project is helping out everywhere in this community!
Sunday we met up with Brandon (one of the owners) and a group of local kids he's gotten interested in birding. We walked with them to a local forest. We spotted lots of birds, plants with medicinal use, and a crocodile. We had a quick lunch then headed to Lamin Lodge….slowly. After jostling about for about an hour, we arrived. It is considered as one of the top sites to see. We were a bit unimpressed is an understatement. The boat ride was way more than we imagined…about $35 each. We got into a small boat along with Carol & Mark & Adama. We paddled about 20 minuted and then stepped out into the mucky ground. It was low tie. We slowly made our way until we came to a steam through the mangrove. We walked slowly, slipping often spotting mud skippers (frog head, fish body), oysters and crabs. We finally arrived at the main attraction: a huge Baobab tree which we crawled inside of. Of course we had to tip them too. Monday morning, Jenny (owner) had heard how much we paid and had Omar call them and renegotiate the price. It was the first time Adama had been there and they had way over charged us. Jenny gave us back half the money we'd spent saying she'd make sure that didn't happen again! We learned an important lesson that may help us when we're out and about on our own.
