A quickie

Hi. I'm in the internet cafe and all seems to be working ok. I'm holding my breath.

Today is Monday. Here's a quick rundown of what's been gwine on since I last posted.

Sunday:
I had a few hours of lessons with Doudou which was nice. Then I spent some time hanging around with Kala and Doudou at their respective houses – eating and drinking and being sociable. I also quickly put together Episode 3 of the Fat Gold Chain podcast – Kanchana quit in a furious rage and I was left to do it all by myself.

Not really, he had his laptop stolen. That's why I had to make the podcast. It's up, by the way. You can download it by going to fatgoldchain.com.

So, that was Sunday. The internet cafe is not open on Sundays, hence my no-post.

Monday:
Today I went to training with Doudou's group but it didn't really happen. A few of his band members had problems and couldn't make rehearsal. Tomorrow.

We then went on a mission to find the Ghanaian consulate in Gambia – the aim was to get a visa for my re-entry to Ghana, or at least try so I can get one at the airport. Initially, I had an address that I had found on 'the internet' which said that the consulate is in Serekunda. So, off we went. On the way, Doudou thought that we should check that it was where I thought so we went to visit his friend at the police station. After some to-ing, fro-ing and phonecalls, the policeman gave us a number for the consulate and said that it was in Banjul, not Serekunda. This was interesting. So we headed off for Banul instead.

To double check, Doudou asked someone else whether they knew where the Ghanaian consulate was and they said there wasn't one in Banjul – we should go and see 'Mr Akomono', a teacher at a nearby school. So we changed course again and went to visit Mr Akomono. When we got the school, Mr Akomono informed me that there was no Ghanaian consulate in Gambia – the nearest embassy is in Dakar, Senegal. He said that, for all intents and purposes, he was the Ghanaian ambassador in Gambia and that he, effectively, is the consulate. Additionally, while he can help Ghanaians with passport problems, he cannot issue tourist visas for entry to Ghana.

So, no go. It was worth doing though because now, when I get to the airport in Ghana and my original visa has expired, I can tell them that I spoke to the consulate in Gambia and couldn't get a visa there and therefore have to get one at the airport.

I hope.

After we got back, I had lunch with Kala, a lesson with Doudou and drank some Ataaya with Sulayman, a guy who works at the place at which I'm staying.

Then I came here.

Then I wrote this.

That's all for now. I'm real tired.

Bye.