no I'm not joking, apparently monkeys can get drunk!

Dear friend,

It's truly amazing, the warm glow one gets in one's heart upon meeting someone from home while halfway around the world. A complete stranger, but with whom you are instantly connected by your shared understanding and love for a place foreign to everyone else around you.

I had such a fun weekend and have come to realise the value of weekends. It may not come as a surprise, but back home I can become (to put it lightly) wrapped up in 'work' a little too much. Being busy is not a burden but a joy when you love the work you are doing. So weekends for me were more a chance to take a deep breath in, go for a nice long run, sleep-in, grab a meal and movie with a friend, but, most importantly, play catch-up in my work. As nerdy as it sounds, my 'fun' has, in large part, always been my work.

Oh how the tables have turned.

I've made my peace about this lab project. I'll do what is expected of me on a day by day basis without worrying about the 'bigger picture.' I've made peace with the ambiguous directions and equivocal expectations (which tend to drive me more than a little nuts! hence having a total appreciation for the direct-ness of consultant surgeons). I've even made my peace with the idea that I might not finish what I start here (*shudder*). The latter is particularly unpalatable because I grew up with my dad's work ethos: 'You're not done pooing until you've wiped your bum.' hahaha... Such wise words, words which have dictated my own approach to work... until now. In other words, I've given up ownership of this project. Horrible, I know, I hate myself for thinking like this, but I have come to realise that if I don't I will spend my entire elective stressing and not enjoying myself, and that would truly be a waste of my ten weeks here.

SO, the weekend was great fun! I stayed in bed Saturday morning starting my fourth novel (Under The Blood Red Sky), an epic historical fiction of the Russian Revolution era. Then I headed out to Serrakunda market, a huge local market in a town fifteen minutes drive away, in my quest to buy an umbrella. I'd been to Serrakunda market once before. It was in my first week here, during a weekday with another girl from MRC and I had found it all super overwhelming at the time (I hadn't yet mustered the courage to even venture outside the compound on my own back then!). Only a couple weeks later and what a difference. I caught a bush taxi to get there -- these are dilapidated mini-vans filled to the brim with passengers that go along certain routes, for only NZD30cents! The first time I went in a bush taxi was quite the experience: I have never before been that physically intimate with two African men; by the end of our journey I wasn't sure which drips of sweat were mine and which were theirs. Not to mention most of these 'mini-vans' look like they belong in a dump, much less actual road, a complete disconnect between the movements of the steering wheel with what is happening to the van itself. Nowadays? Two weeks later? None of that seems to faze me one iota. LoL Plus, as a lover of value-for-money, one has to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of a 30cent 'taxi' ride.

Serrakunda market is HUGE. It is a maze of little stalls, shacks, huts and on Saturday it is jam-packed with locals doing their weekly shopping. This market is not really touristy at all, which makes it all the more interesting, not to mention, easier to enjoy as there is less hassle from Bumpsters. I got approached/was followed only a few times on Saturday. And even that doesn't even seem to bother me much now as I have mastered the art of 'stern disinterest.' I think it also helps being Asian (apparently there are a few local Chinese here, so there is less 'hassle-the-white-tourist' potential).

On Saturday night a group of us headed out to the British pub nearby to watch a Premiere League football (soccer) match. The majority of the students here are from the U.K., so I am becoming better versed in my football lingo! :) Two students from Manchester University who will be here a year had been living with us on the compound until recently when they moved into 'Manchester House' -- a house ten minutes walk from MRC set up by their university for their long-term students. It's nicer for them, I guess, since they are here for a relatively long time, giving them a chance to nest. Anyways, so after the football a few of us headed to their place for an unofficial house-warming dinner. One of the students who is Nigerian-British loves to cook -- and I *love* people who love to cook, lol. Needless to say, dinner that night was fantastic. I even experienced a first: plantain, a less sweet, starchy, potato-y type of banana you can cook (i.e. fry). And it was DELICIOUS.

That night it was raining heavy, with the most lightening and thunder during my trip so far. The lightening is amazing here -- it lights everything up as bright as day for two seconds, from pitch-black to fluorescent white! And the thunder, booming away, as if the sky was breaking and falling right above you. Magnificently scary and magnificently beautiful at the same time.

On Sunday, Jessica (fellow kiwi) and I had planned a day out exploring Banjul, the capital city. However, we were told at the last minute that Banjul is kind of dead on Sundays (including the market, which was one of the big draws of heading out there), so we had a last-minute change of plans. One of the other guys living with me also joined us for our big day out. The three of us started the day with buffet brunch at a restaurant nearby which we had been recommended. The food was good and conversation better. :) A couple hours later we set off to our destination for the day: Lamin Lodge, some big wooden 'huts' on stilts over the river, from which you can take boat rides out and explore the Mangroves and wildlife. Originally we were going to take a series of bush taxis (to keep things super cheap) but a taxi pulled over when we were leaving the restaurant and negotiated a relatively good price to take us all the way there. Once there, the weather cleared up completely and it turned out to be a perfect day for a quiet canoe ride out on the river.

And awesome movie moment of the day? Back at the hut we were sitting around having a cold drink when one of the resident monkeys came running up to our table and grabbed Jessica's glass bottle of Sprite! And, with his two very human-like hands, downed the ENTIRE bottle in a minute flat before chucking the empty bottle on the ground and running away. It was by far one of the funniest, most outlandish things I have ever seen -- I only wished I had a video camera to record the entire ordeal and send it to Americans Funniest Home Videos, lol. But I did take a photo. The waiter, unfazed by what had happened, told us it was not uncommon. We asked him if they ever stole beer too to which he replied, 'No, no. They know what is beer and what is soft drink. They don't like beer. They have stolen before and they get drunk and sleep all day. They don't like.'

Drunken monkeys.

No jokes.

Hehehehe...


After we got back we ended the day with a couple hours at the beach, the others joining in the weekly MRC game of touch rugby while I read happily in a hammock nearby, the cool ocean breeze a perfect companion to the late afternoon sun.

Weekends. You gotta love 'em.

Always,
-A