Banjul, The Gambia

This is the smallest country on the African continental mainland. It’s a long skinny country, surrounded on all sides by Senegal, with the River Gambia running through the middle. It’s just 50 miles across and 200 miles long. This country is left alone by colonial powers as unfortunately it has few resources. Stephen had been corresponding with a young Jewish professor named Josh Scheinert, who is teaching at the Faculty of Law at the University of Gambia and is one of only two Jews in the country (long story…) and so he met us early this morning at the pier. He was a recent law graduate from Toronto, spending a year here helping set up the program. (We left him with a Passover kit of matzah, hagaddahs, gefilte fish, matzah ball soup and latke mixes!). Josh gave us a real insight to what life was like in Banjul (sporadic electricity, etc). We walked through the narrow hectic streets of carts and sellers, took local transportation to a huge open air market, a fishing village and a small (950 kids) elementary school. We posed as educators from America, and the principal took us through each classroom where the children learned by rote to spell and read. The Gambia offered us a great introduction to the chaotic emerging Africa. People were extremely friendly and men and women were dressed in beautiful colorful robes everywhere we looked. Thank you, Josh, for an incredible day.
We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
-George Bernard Shaw