I woke with the 6a.m. Call to Prayer.
It was still very dark and, thankfully, cool. As the skies lightened, over the next half hour, early morning bird song filled the air; eventually only the cries of the persistent cockerel remained.
For sometime I lay in my bed surrounded by mosquito netting, enjoying the sounds and the stillness of the Gambian dawn, thinking about starting the last Sunday here in the shared house. There are only four of us here now, since Gareth left for his Kerewan placement, on Thursday. He was always the first up each day, but this morning it was me. I ventured into the bathroom to find that the water was still running. This is always a joyous start as the morning’s ritual is so difficult if the cistern, the sink and bucket need filling from a 20 litre container. This morning I was in luck.
Ten minutes later when I had the kettle on the little LPG hob in the kitchen for tea, I heard a cheery “Good morning” from Liam. I made tea for both of us and the usual incredibly sweet one for our day watchman, Omar who drank his under the stoop at the front of the house.
Morning teatime gives me the opportunity to sort out the water filter for the day ahead. As I sip from the mug in one hand, the other holds one of several 1.5litre bottles. Slowly the water siphons from the lower filter chamber filling each bottle in turn and the new stock can be stored in the fridge. In the African heat there is nothing to beat a long cold drink of clean water. We carry a bottle with us wherever we go and drink frequently.
As the temperature of the day rose, so did Suki and Sarah. After we had all contacted our families back in the UK, we set about clothes washing in buckets, pegging things out on the line in the back yard. When we go outside we often disturb the small lizards and beautiful butterflies that scurry or flutter away, bringing a little magic to a mundane task.
In the yard, Sarah struck up a conversation with our neighbour who was removing a branch of a grapefruit tree that was endangering his roof. She happily accepted his gift of four green, but ripe, grapefruit. Breakfast for the week ahead!
This week will also bring the last part of our motor cycle training, before we go our separate ways “up country”. Liam leaves us tomorrow and the rest of us expect to go next Saturday.
Being together these last few weeks, getting used to the vagaries of the water and electric supply and using Mandinka greetings to respond to the warmth of our neighbours, has been very reassuring for us all.
Over half of our group of VSO volunteers have houses around the Kanefing and Fajara area and so the “up country” ones of us know can return for a weekend now and again but in more ways than this, the friendships begun here will sustain us through the rest of the year ahead.
I wonder what my home in Soma will be like.
