A few weekends ago Jane, June and I were invited to go to a peacecorp party followed by a AIDS benefit concert, organized by a HIV support group, aided by one of the peacecorps to launch a benefit cd. The concert was being led by a famous Kora player Jaliba.
The ‘Kombo’ volunteers were even coming up for the event so I spent the day cleaning, getting lectures organized and getting the final touches done to a new dress I was getting made for the event. in the end the Kombo volunteers piked and June passed out so decided not to come, but Jane and I joined a large group of volunteers to walk to ‘Maggie’s house’ which was the other side of Brikama.
The party was great fun. Maggie had organized for a big pot of domoda to be cooked by her neighbours and we all chipped in for food costs and bought Jilbrew from a case that Maggie had organized. The purpose of the party was to revise emergency evacuation plans but the meeting only lasted a few minutes so the rest of the night was a fun evening of chatting and exchanging stories about home and the Gambia. The peacecorps did teach me how to make smores which are amazing!!!! They are digestive (bran biscuits) sandwiched together with a melted marshmellow and a bit of a hershies bar (chocolate). The result would be the American equivalent of the ‘Tim Tam sensation’.
Later in the night the people working in the American embassy came and joined the party and I got really excited to recognize a familiar Australian accent (the lady sounded like my Auntie Pippa and I found out she had lived for a while in the same area – strangely I can recognize the different tones of Australian accent which I couldn’t before. NSW sounds different to a Victorian or SA person). Two of the wives of people who worked for the American embassy were Australian so we had a big chat about home. It is nice to chat to someone from home because there are some things which you just can’t describe to a person from England or America about living here which another Australian understands. It was lovely.
Jane and I left the party a bit before everyone else with Katie because we were meeting Mr Jarju, Mr Touray, Jagan and a teenager Chris who came over from the UK to do a short stint volunteering in Mr Tourays school. They had arrived early and were waiting for us at Joker nightclub. We ended up meeting the group again as they drove and we walked. The impact was a big group of white people all arriving at once which doesn’t often get seen in the Gambia, let alone Brikama.
We got into the gig and straight away Jarju asked me to stand by this man to get my photo taken. It turns out that he was Jaliba himself so I actually got to meet him before the gig.
The concert was great, Jaliba is a great performer although the music isn’t really my style. There were plenty of long winded speeches to ‘launch’ the cd, but it all ended up with dancing and it was really nice that we had such a lovely mixed group to celebrate with as another collegue Kunte (who works in the computer lab at the college) also joined us.
The ‘Kombo’ volunteers were even coming up for the event so I spent the day cleaning, getting lectures organized and getting the final touches done to a new dress I was getting made for the event. in the end the Kombo volunteers piked and June passed out so decided not to come, but Jane and I joined a large group of volunteers to walk to ‘Maggie’s house’ which was the other side of Brikama.
The party was great fun. Maggie had organized for a big pot of domoda to be cooked by her neighbours and we all chipped in for food costs and bought Jilbrew from a case that Maggie had organized. The purpose of the party was to revise emergency evacuation plans but the meeting only lasted a few minutes so the rest of the night was a fun evening of chatting and exchanging stories about home and the Gambia. The peacecorps did teach me how to make smores which are amazing!!!! They are digestive (bran biscuits) sandwiched together with a melted marshmellow and a bit of a hershies bar (chocolate). The result would be the American equivalent of the ‘Tim Tam sensation’.
Later in the night the people working in the American embassy came and joined the party and I got really excited to recognize a familiar Australian accent (the lady sounded like my Auntie Pippa and I found out she had lived for a while in the same area – strangely I can recognize the different tones of Australian accent which I couldn’t before. NSW sounds different to a Victorian or SA person). Two of the wives of people who worked for the American embassy were Australian so we had a big chat about home. It is nice to chat to someone from home because there are some things which you just can’t describe to a person from England or America about living here which another Australian understands. It was lovely.
Jane and I left the party a bit before everyone else with Katie because we were meeting Mr Jarju, Mr Touray, Jagan and a teenager Chris who came over from the UK to do a short stint volunteering in Mr Tourays school. They had arrived early and were waiting for us at Joker nightclub. We ended up meeting the group again as they drove and we walked. The impact was a big group of white people all arriving at once which doesn’t often get seen in the Gambia, let alone Brikama.
We got into the gig and straight away Jarju asked me to stand by this man to get my photo taken. It turns out that he was Jaliba himself so I actually got to meet him before the gig.
The concert was great, Jaliba is a great performer although the music isn’t really my style. There were plenty of long winded speeches to ‘launch’ the cd, but it all ended up with dancing and it was really nice that we had such a lovely mixed group to celebrate with as another collegue Kunte (who works in the computer lab at the college) also joined us.
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