Usual warning on silly observations, these are things I noticed and they may not be accurate.

This is a poor country, people live on the edge. No health care, no compulsory education,  growing food to feed the family, working six months, if they can get it, in the hotels, returning to the land in the rainy season.  They live in anything from a flattened bit of earth in the allotments to a few in big flash houses, most live in componed, breeze block buildings with corrugated roofs around an earth square, not many look like something you would want to live in.  The breeze blocks are hand made, we saw numerous patches of land where blokes were tipping concrete into the moulds and turning the bricks out to dry. Some of the compounds have a water tap, many have wells, the water table is quite high here so not far to pull up the bucket of water, womens work of course.  Some have electricity but I couldn’t see how many, it was the satellite dishes that gave it away.  I don’t know what happens to the sewage but I don’t think these have drains.  I saw a mother giving a baby a shower, she dangled it by its arm and poured a kettle full of water over it.  The kids in the fields were intrigued by us, running up to say hello, wanting to hold our hands.  According to Lamin, a man can have up to 4 wives and 28 children, so some will have clothes, some will have shoes, and some will have an education.  Lamin by the way is the name given to the first born male. Many people have an allotment where the women grow their food, drawing water from a well and carrying the buckets to the plants.  All is dug by hand. This is a muslim country, although not fundamentalist, it’s a peaceful country with a low crime rate, although I’m told corruption is a major problem.  I struggle with the high percentage of FGM that goes on here and can’t help looking at the women and feeling very sorry for them.  We saw some boys dressed up in straw, I believe they were on their way for circumcision.

Friendliness – everyone says hello, and often refers to me as boss lady, which with my PC hat on I really don’t like but heh ho. They want a conversation with you and in the tourist areas they  then want to sell you something, taxi, guided walk to the village, nuts the list goes on.  But unlike, say India, they all accept no, although many want to keep on with the conversation. Walking anywhere is a pain.  There are some beggars but not many, but sooner or later the people you get to know would try asking for money.  We did get to know people, the first person that gives you a card has won your business.  If a fruit seller tries to sell you fruit, and you say you are already with Abi they accept it. The sellers take it in turns to approach people.  Abi did well out of us, alas we broke the rules with the bird guide and changed to a different man (Lamin) who also did well out of us. 

Rubbish – it everywhere.   Many of the nature reserves we went to were farm fields lined with rubbish, but in one case it was the rubbish dump.  White egrets seem to like dirty rubbish. Lamin told us the rubbish was caused by the immigrants,it’s funny how people always blame the immigrants.