Memories of The Gambia, West Africa

For quite sometime, I have been trying to put together a travelogue sort of a thing stringing together my memories of our stay at The Gambia, West Africa. Here is an excrept of the same. I need your valuable suggestions and feedback for me to make it more readable and interesting.

"We shifted to our house at a place called Latre Kunda which was about 4-5 k.m from the school that my parents were going to teach. The house was a typical upwardly mobile West African House which had a tin roof and in side there was artificial ceiling. The house was inside a complex which had 2 other houses on either side of it and a drive way leading on to it. Initially we were the only occupant in the complex and alter joined by two of our other neighbours. We were at last happy to settle down in the house which we really liked a lot. The house was all furnished by the Jamat (community) and also had utensils and kitchen ware all purhased new and installed. The area market was just opposite to our house which had temporary as well as permanent vendors selling their stuff. The market resembled a typical African market where the temporary vendors had there products spread across a mat on the earth and most of them had clustered their product in to small heaps and sold those heaps at a given price. Very few people at all (only a few permanent shop had weight system). The market had a vegetable section, a grocery section, a fish and non veg section and a stationery and miscellaneous section. The market used to open at about 9 a.m in the morning and used to go on till 1 p.m in the noon. To avoid the mid day heat, the temporary vendors will shut shop at 1 p.m and will resume at about 5 p.m in the evening. The market had atypical smell of its own which used to be hot, humid and a peculiar characteristic smell – the smell of dried fish, groceries, palm oil etc all mixed up to give way to a heady smell. Here also people put up small road side stall selling minced beef balls soaked in palm oil and local condiments which used to be served with French loaf all for 50 Bututs (1 Dalasi = 100 Bututs). Besides there was grocery shops storing fresh French loafs directly from the bakeries which used to be treat for us because of its taste when taken with meat or chicken peas curry.

Whenever, we used to enter the market or go outside, small kids would rush to us shouting ‘Tubabs’ ‘ Arabs’ etc. The term ‘Tubabs’ meant foreigners and some people also mistook us for Arabs. My brother used to study in a nearby primary school and his fan following was to be seen to be believed. Initially we used to go and pick him up at the end of his school but later we just gave up as his journey from his school to our school used to be another freedom march of the Mahatma Gandhi where numerous school kids would accompany him and he will be there right in the centre smiling gloriously."