A lot of people, our girls included, were very concerned that Santa wouldn’t make it to the Gambia due to the lack of snow. I can assure you that he did make it and that his preferred form of transport in the Gambia is a white stretched limousine. Luckily, the was sufficient focus on Santa Claus at both girls’ schools (including an extensive correspondence, visit from Mrs Claus and learning of an impressive string of Santa themed songs) that the girls’ belief was sufficiently strengthened to have no qualms that the man himself did have time to make a trip to a local Gambian toy shop while swapping his reindeer for a limo at the local airport – there was even fake snow (that was good enough to cause a lot of slipping and sliding) to make Santa feel at home.
The Christmas spirit was also re-enforced by Aubs’ parents using most of their baggage allowance to supply the girls with an unnecessary number of presents. It also ensured I had a nice little supply of Green and Blacks chocolate so I can probably keep going until we are back in the UK.
All in all we had a fabulous Christmas. A large part of this was thanks to our friends Katie and Claudio who managed to organise a Christmas event at Boboi beach (down near the Southern border with Senegal) for 15 children and 17 adults. Although Boboi’s owners took a very Gambian approach in giving us Christmas lunch about 4 hours late, the location meant a delay could be tolerated as the children were very happy to amuse themselves bodyboarding, climbing in and out of the beach treehouses and practising their African drumming and dancing. I think Amelie’s highlight was roasting marshmallows on the camp fire, while Elise delighted in scarring me half to death by continually climbing ridiculously steep ladders up to ridiculously high tree houses. My personal highlight was watching the stars on the beach after dinner – absolutely fabulous in a place with no electricity and therefore no light pollution and we managed to see three shooting stars!
The children’s holiday was made by having their grandparents here which meant lots of attention, lots of ice cream and finally a visit to the local crocodile pool. It was as bizarre as promised – at least forty (visible) well fed (not thanks to the human visitors) crocodiles lying around a small pool with very little secure fencing to keep them from venturing further afield. I was relieved to hear that women take away water from the pool as a fertility aid rather than actually having to bathe with the crocs. Amelie was delighted to have another opportunity for a close encounter with a dangerous animal (so we have the requisite photos of her stroking a 2m plus long croc to add to her python pics) while Elise was much more bemused by the whole affair – so at least one of my children shows some sense.
For New Year we were invited to the compound of one of Aubs’ work colleagues. Simon lives with his six children and various other extended family members in a village about 30mins drive inland from us on the coast. We spent a lot of the morning memorising the names and ages of his children only to find that most of the Simon’s extended family and close neighbours were also in attendance so we had no hope of politely remembering any names. Despite having taken great pride in providing my latest hit recipe chocolate cake, the boys all preferred the Jenga game we bought with us and at least 20 local boys enjoyed crowded around a small coffee table for a tournament. The girls also worked their charms: Amelie (I’m convinced due to her straight hair which is a real source of interest among local children) managed to swing an introduction the family’s secret Fanta store behind my back (as I am continually battling against fizzy drinks here) and Elise manaed a trip to the local store for some biscuits (despite the delicious benechin on offer). Simon and his family have now set a very high standard of hospitality that will be very difficult to reciprocate!
So now back to work and school. It seems that everything now will be geared up to our return – we have only 3 months left!
