Accelerated Adolescence

Wow - talk about finally!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Amazing photographs! I love the colours, how they are defiant in their boldness. Especially in the clothes they wear: such colour combinations or patterns are rarely seen in European styles of dress.

Coming from a country where winter extends 9 months out of the year, the dazzling sunlight and desert terrain of Gambia seems as far away as Never-Never Land.

Thank you for posting these pictures; they have certainly radiated sunshine into my day!

Finally!

You know, Ingrida, I felt a little bit like I was in Never-Never land for much of the time that I was in Gambia. Unless you grow up with it, I think that there is a certain degree of the fantastic at every turn. Gambia is a beautiful country that is relatively peaceful. Unfortunately, the image of African tourism is destroying its culture. People have stopped creating their traditional artwork to make carvings of the ubiquitous "thinking man". There is no safari and elephants, zebras, lions, and gazelles live an enormous desert away, but you'll find depictions of them in Gambia because people expect to see them. For me, Gambia and the people of the west coast provided me with a plenitude of life changing experiences.

Although sad, it is necessary for Gambia to take on some of the stereotypes of Africa that Westerners have in order to promote basic tourism.

Latvia still struggles to create an identity that is not dominated by Soviet characteristics. However, the Soviet identity is the easiest to maintain because Western tourists demand it. For example, they wish to see Soviet-style buildings, therefore often that is how Latvia is marketed to the world.

I understand you were in Gambia for your missionary posting. If I may be so bold to ask, what experience do you uphold as most life-changing since returning to Western cultures?

Great question, Ingrida!

Mendon, it is heartwarming to see you sharing the people and places that have meant so much to you.

Thank you. I'd always imagined Chris as a blonde - in, like, his mid to late thirties (apologies to Chris - you just look like you may have past the thirty-somethings. . .). And the photo with you doing some 'shaded tree' pose or something - I received it from Helen back before your wedding - I'd labelled as 'the crane', hahaha!

I've been studying sustainable tourism--tourism that takes measures to be both environmentally stable and to respect, preserve, and incorporate local culture while providing economic benefits to local people. Unfortunately, this kind of tourism seems to appeal the most to nature tourists, campers and hikers and the like, so I am not sure that Gambia could be able to support sustainable tourism. I was in Dominica for most of a week before going into Roseau, the capital. The shops near the shore cater to cruise ship passengers, and had stereotypical Caribbean island clothes and souvenirs. It was so strange to go into those shops, and wonder why someone would buy a souvenir of Dominica that in no way represented what the island is really like. Fortunately those stereotypes haven't spread to most of the island (yet), but in other Caribbean islands they have taken over the culture.

Ingrida, it wasn't exactly a missionary posting (for example, I wasn't placed there or required to do a year of service). I would say that it was more like an altruistic accident with religious overtones.

It's hard to say what was the most significant of the time I lived in Gambia because I was in such a different place from what I am used to that I had trouble making an evaluations of my changes on a periodic basis until I returned home. There were several things that really changed me that stick out now.

First, I began to really be able to see people. We think that we see people. We look around our daily lives and there are all of the people with whom we interact, and some we don't, who we think we understand. I realized that I don't recognize that well over half of humanity is human. Rather, it is easier to shove people who we bustle past into categories, "stranger on the street," "old woman," "young woman," "street vendor," "black," "white," "male," "female." To really see people requires changing our the way that we prejudge people simply by seeing or hearing or being around someone. For me, seeing others doesn't require understanding them, or stopping to make a public acknowledgement of their existence. Rather, it entails understanding that they have their own unique experiences and story that are equally valid as mine and, by placing labels on them, I limit the capacity that I am able to believe that they have.

Another major life change was my brush with spirituality. Before going to Gambia I was pretty much sure that Western culture provided westerners with a different but equally acceptable method of living. Now, I think that we are all responsible for creating a way of being that is suitable. But, I made friends with a few people who embodied spirituality. In their eyes burned passion for life, selflessness, and service to humanity. They were poor, had a baseline education, yet emitted such a radiance that they were humbling to be around. I have never met anyone in the US who was so radiant, so alive, and so commanding despite residing at the lowest echelon of society. I realized, then, that these are the true teachers. I wasn't in Gambia to teach anything (be it math, English, computers, or anything about religion). I was in Gambia so that I could go to those to learn who could not come to me. What was I there to learn? As it turns out I discovered that, more than anything, spirituality is what counts.

I came back to the U.S. with a new concept about human potential and I felt like I was speaking a foreign language to people. I commented on what I had learned and got such dry typical responses. I sincerely doubted that there were many people who had had experiences similar to mine in this great isolation nation state of mine (the US). It was frustrating coming back. But it was a spiritual revolution for me.

I came back understanding why religion is fundamentally necessary. There is no way that you can sever the most spiritual people from the overwhelming positive experience that they are having. It's sad that there are so few people who manage to embody human culture's highest ideals, the rest of us just give religion/spirituality a bad name. I dream that one day, the spiritually rich will travel to the material rich in order to teach them what even the most basic spirituality engenders.

Don't get me wrong. As much as I wish I wasn't, I'm bogged down by the materialism lack of spirituality that surrounds me. I think, the only difference is that I've had a glimpse of what can be.

Hayley,
Gambia has a thriving ecotourism trade. Tourism, in Gambia, accounts for about sixty-some percent of the total GDP of Gambia. There are two crowds of tourists, the tourists who want to go to the beach and the tourists who want to hike upcountry. Both have a place. To a degree, the area where most of the hotels are is good because it is a bubble. Few Gambians have to interact with the tourists (who I don't have a whole lot of respect for) and the tourists get their sun without doing too much damage. It's a problem nevertheless.

If I pretend I am in Gambia, I do want to see more of the marketplace, the beautiful gardens, and the coastal environment where the river meets the sea. I imagine all these areas teem with the variety of life. It does look very arid from your photos yet the banana lady has what looks like potatoes and peppers as well. I don't know what I expected Helen to look like. I am finally happy to see her real self. I also love pictures of folks from other lands smiling so brightly. I enjoyed the 'little drummerboy' photo the most.

The fruits are oranges, mangoes, and persimmons from left to right. And I love them all! I don't know what the white or small brown things are, though... I miss India (and its) mangoes. :)

Hey Kristen! I recently read an article about the recent trade deal between India and America - the author was saying that the real winner is America because it will now have access to India's mangoes!! :-) We can only hope. . .

"Don't even talk about mangoes!" my new Dominican friend said to me, just a few days ago! while we watched a game of cricket in the Botanic Gardens of Roseau. We were talking about fruit, and from his description, and the look on his face just thinking about them, I was very sad not to have been there during mango season.

Mendon, how long was it inbetween returning and coming to Miami? I can't imagine the transition!

Oh the mangos, and when Adama had cooked sweet potatoes she used to let me buy them whilst they were still hot. And the grapefruits, which were sweet and didn't have any sour.

And the malta soft drink that you liked that I thought was awful. Oddly enough, food didn't seem important at the time.

Hmm? What's this - Adama selling sweet potatoes?

Hayley, I spent about a summer at home before I went to Miami. After seven months in Gambia I was not prepared for college life. I was prepared to go somewhwere else.

Malta! They have Malta (kind of) in Haifa!!! It was not as good as Gambia's malta but it still is one of my favorite beverages. mmmm. I'm glad to see that you're weighing in on this, Helen!. What was Fatou's nickname in Latrikunda? I can't remember anymore.

Mara, Adama Badgie (the woman trying get her goat to stand still) was the matriarch of the Badgie family (not Adama Sanneh in Haifa). She has a daughter-in-law named Fatou, who is the mother of little Babucar banging on the drum with Ensa. The Fatou in that picture, though she spends a lot of time caring for Bob, is one of Adama's nieces (great-niece) who lives with the family.

You can get Malta in Mentor, at Heinen's, in the Hispanic Foods section where they have all the Goya foods.

Malta is a tasty and refreshing beverage. It's a sort of arrested beer, where they toast the malt and then don't ferment it. No alcohol but a nice, rich maltiness. Mmmmmm!

Helen, you play AOE? Do you play 1, 2, or 3?

Also, Mendon, when you've got a chance I'd like a re-match at 2. Or a game of 1. And if you pick up 3, I'll play that too, but not feeling quite so confident.

Also, have you seen the new BFME 2? Very, very pretty game. It looks lovely.