Traditional Dress

We spent the morning at home as we were not sure what time we were expected at Ebrima’s house. In the meantime Paul helped Abu who is Lucy’s guard with securing one of the branches of the orange tree as the fruit was too heavy for it; they managed to tie it with some rope around a stronger branch to prevent it snapping. Abu then picked some of the ripe oranges whilst Paul held the ladder, Lucy thanked Paul for his help and gave us a bowl full of the green oranges and told us we could help ourselves, they were very juicy.

Amy and Georgia arrived at midday so we all quickly changed into our new clothes and set off in the car for Sanyang which is about an hours drive away. We took the coastal route passing all the tourist hotels, lush vegetation and small villages. On the outskirts of a small town we were stopped by a police traffic control man and he asked where we were heading we told him we were visiting a friend at Sanyang, he waved us on after congratulating us on our African clothes. We continued on passing Gunjur and Sandele which is the new eco hotel owned by Jerry and Morris only to realise we had gone too far and we were nearly at the border of Senegal. We quickly turned around and had a thirty minute drive back to Sanyang. I don’t know how we managed to miss the police station or market which had Sanyang in bold lettering on the walls.

Traditional Dress

We pulled up and asked a local where Ebrima Colley lived he said he would show us and he jumped in the car. We finally arrived outside Ebrima’s compound Paul quickly took the local back whilst we were introduced to his wife, five children and extended family as cousins usually live within the same compound. We were ushered into the house out of the afternoon sun where we were given some much needed water to drink. When Paul arrived back we were taken outside where chairs and a sofa had appeared for us to sit on then an extension lead was produced for the fan. A couple of Ebrima’s sons were boiling water to make Atiya, which is strong sweet tea and supposed to be very addictive I imagine a type of drug. We watched as they poured the tea from one glass to another making if froth then back into the teapot then from glass to glass again finally it was ready. First Amy was handed a very small glass of the Atiya she had a sip then passed it onto Georgia. His son then handed me a glass it was far too sweet and sickly I sipped about half of it then passed the remainder to Paul who had already drank a glass.