Allen Guest Blogs - Memory of Gambia, Africa

To enter The Gambia, we drove through south central Senegal, with a ferry ride over the massive Gambia River into the country's capital, Banjul. People, grain, and even donkeys make the journey of export/import from Senegal to The Gambia!



After giving a 20 minute presentation to the Rotary Club of Fajara, Gambian Rotarian Omou Tall took me to a delicious dinner of Barracuda. Omou is rather famous in The Gambia, having personally pioneered and raised money to vaccinate over 250,000 Gambia children from Polio. Her story was highlighted in the internationally published Rotary magazine this past December. It was a true honor to sit hear her story over dinner. She is an amazing woman.

Most might think rabbits or goats are my favorite animal; but my true passion was fulfilled with feeding peanuts to Green Monkeys at the Ambuko National Reserve in Banjul, The Gambia. Now I understand the thrill of kids in petting zoos!

Since returning to the US, my mind is endlessly filled with memories of my study in West Africa.

During my last week, I took a journey with my host Senegalese family to the smallest country in Africa, The Gambia. The Gambia is almost completely surrounded by Senegal, except for a small coast on the Atlantic.

The Gambia was an English colony, a contrast to the French colonized Senegal. Though the two countries have been independent for several decades, they have had their share of struggles in development. In fact, in the 1980's, Senegal and The Gambia formed as one country, called "Senegambia". The union failed in 1989, and today the countries remain separate. Being an English colony, English is the business and official language, with Wolof again being the native tongue. It was strange only traveling five hours by car to a land where my own language was spoken! Actually, it was quite comforting.

While I was in The Gambia, I gave a presentation to the Rotary Club of Fajara on my idea to introduce rabbit farming as a means of feeding people in developing West Africa. Too, I snuck in some last-minute gift shopping, sampling of Gambian foods, like Barracuda, and of course, beaching!