Leaving Gambia

Hi. Tonight is my last night in Gambia – I leave Bakau for the airport at 1am and my flight leaves for Ghana at 5am. I'll be waiting at the airport for a while, but that's fine. I may get a chance to actually stop for a bit.

The last few days have been pretty hectic here. On Friday I had some more lessons and went to the Kachikally crocodile pool in Bakau. It's a tourist museum with a pool and a bunch of crocodiles. I took some photos. It was interesting enough. I then spent a heap of time running errands, trying to get things finished off before leaving. This included making some bank trips, buying some things (drums) and lots of walking. Doudou's group ended up not playing on Friday night – they have a contract with the venue now and play on Sundays and Wednesdays. No luck for me. Turns out I'd already had my last play with the group. This was disappointing but I was ok. I didn't cry much.

Instead of playing, I went to see a Guinean Ballet ensemble from Conakry at Lama Lama. They were really good. Really, really good. It wasn't boring djembe blathering stuff but a really interesting and musical mix of balafons, dun duns, bells a little bit of djembe and lots of other drums that went boom. It was good.

I went to bed pretty late on Friday, exhausted.

Then woke up this morning and had some more lessons. Today we pretty much just played through the things I had learned. Doudou didn't seem to be able to resist changing a couple of things that I had spent time memorising, but it went pretty well. I got final recordings of everything I've learned. Then some guys came and played support parts for the sabar rhythms I've been learning. They weren't that good – they were learning too – but it gave me a recording of the rhythms with the context of 5 parts rather than just me and Doudou playing. So that was good.

After the lesson, I went back to my room and packed, organised and generally busied-about. Doudou went off to Serekunda to get a stick for the Tama (Senegalese talking drum) that I had bought and I gave him money to buy some microphones for his band. Then he came back, and I tried to pack the sabar drum, wrapped in foam, into my bag. After lots of grunting and frustration, it fit and the bag closed. I also covered the djembe I have with foam and packed it.

Pretty much done.

Since then, I've walked to the bank, given out some money, burned a bunch DVDs – (bad) recordings of the band's performance and some movies for Kala – and been to visit Kala to say goodbye.

Then I came to the internet cafe and posted this.

After I've chilled out here for a bit and got my internet kick, Doudou and I will probably get some food and watch some music until I leave at 1am. I am thinking of having a little nap in there somewhere too. We'll see.

Coming to Gambia has been great (I know I need to work on my hyperbole, but great is about all I've got). The new drumming (sabar) that I've been learning has been tickling my rhythm bone quite nicely (perhaps I should work on my expression too). It's been pretty exhausting and challenging at times, but worth it.

Anyhauser, I'll let you know when I get to Ghana. I hope I'll be alive. So do you. Because you care.

Thanks for reading.
Love from Jacob