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Thursday 13 January, a lazy day at the beach
Gambia and Senegal 2005 - part VI
Elisabeth & Teije2006-08-26 18:01:18
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Today we go to the beach although we don't see much sun. It is misty with sandclouds, but you won't hear us complain with a temperature well above 30 degrees. As soon as we step onto the beach we are welcomed by our regular beachboy, Moses. He brings pillows for our chairs, talks a little while and then leaves us again, contrary to all the vendors of waterbags, rolexes, peanuts, newspapers, fruits, souvenirs, drinks, you name it. We stay very polite but tell them nevertheless to leave us alone. When they notice that we really are not interested in their goods they leave, most of the time. But sometimes they start a conversation as if they want to know everything about you and after a few minutes they start talking about their merchandise again. It is a game and you should keep on smiling. The Gambia is also called the Smiling Coast because when you look at a map of the country you see that the river Gambia looks like a smiling mouth, but the inhabitants also smile all the time, so the country deserves that name.
We have seen some wandering dogs and we had the impression that, like in Arabic countries, dogs were not kept as pets. But today we see this: a man who plays, runs and sits with his dog for hours on the beach, and later a Gambian passes us with his dog on a leash.
Now and then we dive into the sea to cool down a bit, but most of the time we are occupied reading. We have taken a lot of books since we had decided this to be a relaxing holiday. Or sometimes we just watch around us to everything that happens on the beach. We have no time to get bored!
Something we think remarkable is the high number of elderly, white women who are accompanied by a young Gambian. The men seem to do everthing for these ladies: long massages from top to toe, fetching food and drinks, even feeding them. We think these boys are probably happy with the occasional meal they get or maybe even some money, but according to Moses it is all True
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See photographs from:
Gambia Gallery
