Thursday May 21 2009 – Gambia Day One: Short tour of the city and the local hospital

On Tuesday morning we arrived at the Gatwick airport and met up with Jordan and Lindsay for our flight to The Gambia. Our flight ended up being delayed for about 9 hours so instead of landing mid afternoon it was around midnight when we finally touched down. Since it is the off season here they actually had to reopen the airport just so our flight could come in, but we were all happy to finally be here after spending an entire day in an airport. Alpha was waiting for us at the airport when we arrived which was absolutely amazing since everything was a little more overwhelming than I expected. He drove us to our accommodations at the YMCA where we would be staying until Sunday. Wednesday morning we all decided to venture out onto the streets to begin to get a feel for the area. Later that day, Alpha met up with us and showed us around a bit and suggested a nice place on the beach where we could go for dinner. As we were walking to the beach, I somehow managed to slip and fall when I was crossing the street and I ended up dislocating my knee. It was definitely one of the most painful things I have ever experienced but all of the local people were so helpful and one woman that came over to help even drove me to the hospital. We didn’t end up making it to the restaurant for dinner that night but the next morning we were picked up by Alpha and taken to that same place and that is where we had our language and culture classes. For the classes, Jordan, Lindsay, and Adam are learning Wolof while Justin and I are learning Mandinka as that is a common language for rural areas where we will be working most of the time.