To all the beautiful, strong, wise, graceful and hard-working sisters, mothers, daughters, and granddaughters in the Gambia: wishing you all Happy International Women’s Day!
International Women’s Day
Antwoorden
Auteursarchief: Bonnie Vooijs
Jenny’s Pictures
Friends, Visitors and Smartphones
I got these pictures right away. You’ve just got to love smartphones. And Jenny, who sent them to me. Thank you! And above, a gallery of new building pictures. Or; how to turn a piece of land into a compound.
Monkey play
Lock, Stock and Tires
I just got a call from my contact in the Gambia: what do I want to do with the tires that are left on the compound, now that the walls are coming up? The ones we didn’t use to build with? The ugly, worn out or strangely shaped ones? And suddenly I’m facing the same dilemma as people are facing in the Gambia: what to do with tires you don’t need anymore? The dilemma that made me decide to do something new: build with them. Well, please don’t burn them, that’s for shure! For now, I want to keep them and see what to do later. And I ‘m happy I was asked, because sustainability is not the first thing people think about in the Gambia. Not yet.
The Island of Goree
The Island of Goree, a former slave island near the coast of Dakar, Senegal, is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking and fascinating places I ever visited. All at the same time. Some years back I was determined to go, even by local transport (quite an experience, your back and bones will agree…). I took a guide with me and we chose the local way of traveling; a “sept-places”, which is a station wagon with seven seats, some partly welded in. If you’re lucky it’s only seven people and their luggage, since people also tend to take live animals in or on top of the car. Leaving early, and traveling from Banjul to Barra (crossing the river by ferry) to Dakar, it took a bit less than a day to get to Dakar. It was a 2 days’ trip. After visiting the island the next morning we returned to the Gambia that same day.
Pictures: the slave house, the rooms/ cells and the “point of no return”: the gate through which captured slaves were lead onto the big ship that brought them to America. Once every so-many weeks. The name “Goree” sounds kind of familiar when you’re Dutch, doesn’t it? That’s because the Dutch have been one of many people who have been fighting heavily to obtain the island. And the “trade”…
Getting things done
Recognize this? With any building job, some tools just seem to get lost. I don’t know how many pulleys I have bought since the start, but we need another one to get water from the well to continue building the walls around the compound. Luckily there are little and bigger building shops just about everywhere.