Monday, August 12, 2013

A Ride on the Blue Moon Express

There are two ways I can travel in the Gambia: on a local gele-gele (think of a Frankenstein car/van with Flintstone size holes in the floor board that you would never in a million years ever imagine could move in a forward motion or for that matter hold 30 people when it should only hold 20) or a Land Cruisers newsiest mobile aka Peace Corps Vehicle (which may happen once every 5 months).  You can ask me another time the hundreds of ridiculous, scary, crazy and hilarious stories I experience on a gele. This time I want to tell you about my ‘once in a blue moon’ rides on a Peace Corps car.

I recently went to Morocco (which was amazing and beautiful), and although it is a developing country it is leaps and bounds past this place.  Not having left The Gambia in over a year it was truly an eye opening and at times, a mind blowing experience.  It helped my girlfriend, Sarah and I remember how different the world is outside of the smallest country in Africa.  Let me see, how can I help you best understand this?  In the 1930s the Empire State building was completed and in 2013 the tallest building is isn’t over 8 stories high.  The Gambia is at the bottom of the world’s list of infrastructure.   Needless to say, being on a train in morocco, going a hundred miles an hour was a little bizarre (and at times nauseating, when we have not gone over 40 miles an hour in a long time). 

I forgot how much I loved trains, shit, I forgot how much I loved a lot of things.  It was almost like Sarah and I were two kids again experiencing things for the first time.   We had that feeling of both apprehension and thrill of what felt like a new experiences. Just imagine you are sitting on a train and you get a feeling beginning to bubble up and you can literally feel the electricity of your nerves firing inside of your body as the beautiful Moroccan landscape wising by at million miles an hour.  It is like you are a kid again and every train ride is a landscape filled cinematic adventure.   It was hard to constantly re-live old, but which now felt like new experiences.  But ultimately, despite the train full of emotions, the trip was fantastic adventure and exactly what we needed. 

After a few weeks in morocco and a couple of days in Spain, Sarah and I got a heard reality our lives in The Gambia are not easy.  From transportation to proper nutrition, everything takes 10 times more effort and energy.  This realization was an enormous relief.  We have been extremely hard on ourselves trying to adapt and thrive in this new environment.  We hardly gave ourselves a break when things did not go as planned. We beat ourselves up when we did not have the energy to get a glass of water, forgetting how easy it used to be and only knowing how hard it is at the present.  All we really need was some prospective and it really changed the color of the situation.  Gambia is a third world country but in our minds up until recently, it was the country that we live and work in.  The whole country is fighting that struggle, we were not the only ones struggling and we neglected to remember. ‘It’s not easy dey’ (a common English pseudo African phrases).

So all of these thoughts really came to fruition on that ride I have been trying to tell you about.  I was sitting in the back of the Peace Corps car going 50 miles an hour.  Which mean we are flying past all the other donkey carts, motor cycles and car on the road.  I am sitting there in an a/c with my own seat and I am watching the world fly by (just like the train).  I was amazed at how different everything looked, I am used to see things  at Gambian pace in a POS but for the first time I was moving faster than the pace of life – and my eyes were widened.   I felt like I was peering in on this small little African country from a window standing on the outside while having and intimate understanding of what I saw.  That’s when all of these realizations hit me like a ton of bricks.

This is a beautiful place. The place is hard as hell.  I have been doing a good job. I can continue doing a good job. I have deep respect for anyone who even attempted PC. That’s a beautiful smile.  I live in a mud hut.  I only eat rice.  Damn its hot outside. Slowly, Slowly things will get done. Relax. Take a breath. Everything is going to be alright (to the tune of Bob Marley).

Perspective perspective perspective.  I just try to keep telling myself that.  It really is one power thought and I just got to keep working on it. 

I will leave you with this one last thing. I have never in my life felt so free to think my own thoughts.  It is truly an empowering feeling.


Jama Rek