Last week I was in Kombo, which is the region of The Gambia
where the capitol city Banjul is located. I went there to take part in Marathon
March. A few volunteers and I lead the new group of Health volunteers on
a day hike. We hiked through some of The Gambia’s forests, rice fields, and
mangrove swamps. I had done Marathon March before when my group was in
training, and I really enjoyed it. So I was looking forward to doing it again.
I also had a meeting in Kombo regarding this year’s HIV/AIDS bike trek. Every
year volunteers bike to different villages and teach HIV/AIDS awareness, and I
am part of the planning committee for this year’s trek.
Kombo is actually a fairly well-developed area of the
country. It is a great place for the volunteers to go to relax. They
are many things that can be found in Kombo that cannot be found in village,
such as cereal, candy bars, cold drinks, and fresh fruit. There are also a decent amount of
restaurants that serve western style food. I also can get relatively reliable
internet access. Last week I was able to have an hour long Skype chat without
any complications. I also have friends that live there and its great to see
them.
Perhaps my favorite part of Kombo is the beach. I love being near the ocean! The
beaches here in The Gambia are not very crowded either. I recently decided that I want to compete in a triathlon when I return home. So I do a lot of swimming practice when I am in Kombo, it makes for a good time. However, what I really
enjoy doing is coming to the beach just as the sun is setting. It makes for an
absolutely beautiful and serene setting that allows me to unwind. I like to
think that I can take my frustrations or any other negative thoughts and give
them to the sun and it takes them with it as it disappears over the horizon. I
have never witnessed a sunset over the ocean before coming to The Gambia. I grew
up in the Midwest and lived on the east coast for a while, so I never had the
opportunity. It is quite wonderful!
So Kombo is a nice place. Whenever I return to village after
some time in Kombo I feel recharged and motivated. Sometimes I do not like to
go there because transportation can be irritating, and I will cover that in a
later post. Things continue to go well here. I may hit a few bumps in the road from time to time, but that is expected. It makes things exciting!
