The Drive

So we made it! The plane landed at 4:50am and I haven’t slept a wink. Now I have to prepare for a 6-7 hour drive from Senegal to The Gambia. Now those of you who know me know I don’t sleep in cars so there goes getting some rest! Aww well. So the car ride ended up being 8 hours long. This has to be the worst 8 hours I’ve ever spent. First, in the incidents that there happens to be lines in the road no one pays attention to them. So I keep flinching because I swear we are going to wreck. Next, the roads are absolutely horrible! I want you to close your eyes and imagine you were to drive on the moon with all the craters and everything in a regular car. This is exactly how it is! So I say to myself, “it would be better if there were no road at al!”  And guess what…the road runs out! So now we’re driving on the sand. Not like a dirt road in the country but actual sand. Now is driving on sand better than driving on the moon? Why yes it is. Is it enough to really notice? Umm not really! So yes, we continuously go in between descent road (DC road), moon, and sand for like 8 hours.

Then we are in the middle of nowhere. I know we always say places are in the middle of nowhere but really, somewhere between Senegal and The Gambia is literally the middle of nowhere. There are no roads, no people, just sand. And honestly I had to start singing Have Faith in God to myself. And here’s the thing about the middle of nowhere, how do you know here to go? Like I said there aren’t roads anymore just paths I guess and several of them! So first, I thought back to my days in Dover, Oklahoma where the way to get to grandma and grandpas was like make a left at the red house and a right at the first light. I never learned the way to the farm (mainly because I wasn’t old enough to drive out there so I just sat in the back) but still that’s all that kept going through my head, “If I can’t get to my great grandparent’s farm how is he going to get us to The Gambia?!?!” It was seriously like when you see the big tree drive on the right side and the next tree drive on the left. I promise!

Anyhow, the most intriguing thing about this 8 hour drive was the people. From the moment we left the airport around 5:30am til we made it to our hotel around 1:30pm there were people out and about just walking around young and old. Now, I’m sure they weren’t just “walking around” but since I have no clue where they were going it looked to me as though that’s what was going on. And it is just like on t.v. the women are really walking around balancing baskets on their head. The kids are walking around in the sand. And it’s not that the people are dirty (that’s how they’re always depicted on tv) it’s just sand everywhere! So I watched people washing clothes, cleaning horses, and everything and it still looks like they just sat and kicked up dirt all day! Oh and another thing there are donkeys everywhere. I didn’t really to expect to see donkeys but my goodness! And you know they are rather cute animals.

I also noticed the distinctive difference between the have and have not’s. The only thing I will say about that is I’m very grateful that I will be allowed to experience this trip in the eyes of the haves. From what I have seen so far I cannot honestly say if I would enjoy Africa if this were not the case.

Oh and by the way I have eaten today and so far so good!!