The Temperature Drops

Getting across the river.

January already, time flies when you’re having fun and it’s nearly over. According to all reports there’s an epidemic of the January blues back in the UK. I put it down to short days and miserable weather. Thankfully it hasn’t spread south, the sun is still shining and the days are still twelve hours plus. I did have to take drastic measures one morning last week and had to don a sweatshirt and I’ve taken to wearing night clothes in bed so no more full moons here in Brikama.


Daily life plods on as normal. I still haven’t got used to cooking individual portions so my bean and veg soup/stew lasted a whole week and my bean burger mixture stretched out for five days. Being a tight northerner I couldn’t bear to throw it out. Just as well I’m in the house on my own as I seem to have OD’d on beans. We did have a treat last night though one of the Peace Corp girls got a food parcel from the States so we all dined on a Mexican delight. Mr Touray has also been sharing his garden produce, so far we’ve had bananas, oranges, papaya and tomatoes, things are looking up.

I’m still learning something new every day. Not doing too well with the language though, I think my brain is slowly converting to scrambled egg. I did find out that instead of going for your haircut you go to get your hair reduced. At least I’ll know what to ask for next time. I wonder if they’ll be able to reduce the grey as well.

One of my students recently invited me to a football tournament and introduced me to all his coaching colleagues, made me out to be some sort of celebrity. I felt like crawling under the table when he plonked me next to Gambia’s first international footballer (Biri,Biri age 64), must have thought we had age in common. One of the young players came up to ask me which team I supported and when I said I didn’t really have a team he suggested that I should support Arsenal. When I asked him why he said it was because I looked like Arsene Wegner. My celebrity status soon deteriorated after that.

June’s tip for the week – If you start to resemble ageing football managers seriously consider plastic surgery.

School Al-fresco