After today I thought I should do a quick blog on the amusement of being a wealthy catch for a local bloke. Today made me smile so I thought it should be recorded.
Being a white female means that you attract a lot of unwanted attention and it is so constant that you learn to just expect it and fob it off. In addition to that being white means that people will bug you and try to get to you do things so they can get money off you. Today was one of those days.
I had just finished teaching observations and was getting ready to sit in a Gelli for a long while in order to go back to Brikama. I was on the ‘coastal road’ at the ‘turntable’ (roundabouts are so rare in the Gambia that the three I know of are significant landmarks in their area). I knew that transport to Brikama from the coastal road was difficult so I was ready to sit in a Gelli for around an hour at the turntable garage, waiting for enough people (around 20 or so) who wanted to go to Brikama to fill it. This is the usual procedure.
Suddenly a taxi driver pulled over and said ‘I am going to the end of coastal road.’ I said I am going to Brikama no thanks I will get a Gelli, assuming he wanted a town trip which you pay through the nose for. Then he said (in a you white people are stupid sort of way) ‘You will wait for ages, I will take you to the end of coastal road and you can get transport from there, 5 Dalasi’. I was in the middle of saying ‘no thanks’, the usual response to tricks to get money out of you, when I realized he made perfect sense and I was being a snobby idiot. So I said ‘You are so right, thank you’ and jumped in. Then he asked me my name and I told him Awa and asked his, Demba. Then he said ‘Awa, I would like to have an Awa for my wife’. I said I knew plenty and could find him one and he said ‘Why can’t you love me?’ I told him I had a boyfriend back home and all I could do was respect him. He then picked up some more passengers and left me alone but turned the radio up – the song was blaring I love you I want you to be my wife…. how appropriate. Needless to say he was right in the end and I got back to Brikama in no time – with a marriage proposal to boot.
Getting back to the college I encountered another encounter of the type. I had got into my office for not long when one of the students walks in, closes the door, and says ‘Madame don’t you remember me?’ I said ‘No are you in the class I have now?’ and then I suddenly remembered him. Last week the same student had walked in and asked to be my friend. Knowing that it is not customary for females to be friends with males without implying a relationship I told him I had a boyfriend and that he was jealous (sorry Nic!) and didn’t like me to be friends with males. In reply the student looked at me in a level way and he said ‘Look Miss I don’t mean to be impolite but how old are you?’ I told him thirty one and he said ‘Well I’m twenty one, it would just be ridiculous if I wanted a relationship with you I am way to young, I just want to be your friend!’ Well that cut me down to size! I did still refuse the friendship offer (he isn’t one of my students). He has promised me he will be persistent and visit me every week until I become his friend, which he followed up on today much to my amusement.
Being a white female means that you attract a lot of unwanted attention and it is so constant that you learn to just expect it and fob it off. In addition to that being white means that people will bug you and try to get to you do things so they can get money off you. Today was one of those days.
I had just finished teaching observations and was getting ready to sit in a Gelli for a long while in order to go back to Brikama. I was on the ‘coastal road’ at the ‘turntable’ (roundabouts are so rare in the Gambia that the three I know of are significant landmarks in their area). I knew that transport to Brikama from the coastal road was difficult so I was ready to sit in a Gelli for around an hour at the turntable garage, waiting for enough people (around 20 or so) who wanted to go to Brikama to fill it. This is the usual procedure.
Suddenly a taxi driver pulled over and said ‘I am going to the end of coastal road.’ I said I am going to Brikama no thanks I will get a Gelli, assuming he wanted a town trip which you pay through the nose for. Then he said (in a you white people are stupid sort of way) ‘You will wait for ages, I will take you to the end of coastal road and you can get transport from there, 5 Dalasi’. I was in the middle of saying ‘no thanks’, the usual response to tricks to get money out of you, when I realized he made perfect sense and I was being a snobby idiot. So I said ‘You are so right, thank you’ and jumped in. Then he asked me my name and I told him Awa and asked his, Demba. Then he said ‘Awa, I would like to have an Awa for my wife’. I said I knew plenty and could find him one and he said ‘Why can’t you love me?’ I told him I had a boyfriend back home and all I could do was respect him. He then picked up some more passengers and left me alone but turned the radio up – the song was blaring I love you I want you to be my wife…. how appropriate. Needless to say he was right in the end and I got back to Brikama in no time – with a marriage proposal to boot.
Getting back to the college I encountered another encounter of the type. I had got into my office for not long when one of the students walks in, closes the door, and says ‘Madame don’t you remember me?’ I said ‘No are you in the class I have now?’ and then I suddenly remembered him. Last week the same student had walked in and asked to be my friend. Knowing that it is not customary for females to be friends with males without implying a relationship I told him I had a boyfriend and that he was jealous (sorry Nic!) and didn’t like me to be friends with males. In reply the student looked at me in a level way and he said ‘Look Miss I don’t mean to be impolite but how old are you?’ I told him thirty one and he said ‘Well I’m twenty one, it would just be ridiculous if I wanted a relationship with you I am way to young, I just want to be your friend!’ Well that cut me down to size! I did still refuse the friendship offer (he isn’t one of my students). He has promised me he will be persistent and visit me every week until I become his friend, which he followed up on today much to my amusement.
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