This is a photograph of the house I lived in during my two year stay in Jarumeh Koto Village. It is a rectangle shaped house, built of mud bricks, and roofed with corrugated metal. In the back of the house there was a pit latrine and a cemented shower (bucket bath) area. I was somewhat comfortable here, although  the metal roof made the house heat up in the dry season and it was very loud in the rainy season.

This is a picture of my bed in the first house I lived in.  As you can see, the bed is made of bamboo.  I had a foam mattress and pillows.  Almost all the comforts of home!  What do you think the netting around the bed is for?

Many houses were shaped like mine in the photograph above. However, not all were like that. Houses in The Gambia could also be round, like this hut. Most round huts had straw roofs, which were cooler in the dry season than my metal roof. The rectangle houses and the round huts were both made of the same material, mud bricks.

All houses were built within a family compound. Many people could live in a compound, such as this one here.  Most men had their own small 2-room house.  Women and children would usually share a house.  Also in the family compound would be a kitchen area.  A kitchen would usually be a round mud hut; however, most of the cooking and preparation took place outside the hut.

This is Jainaba.  When the afternoons are hot and dry, people spend their time lounging around trying to beat the heat. Jainaba is braiding her little sister's hair. The women re-braid their hair about every week, even though it takes several hours to finish. There are many styles of hair braiding, some more extravagant than others.

The majority of the people that live in The Gambia are of the Mandinka tribe. In Jarumeh Koto Village, there were a few families of the Fula tribe. Fula women make extraordinary bead work. They use many colors to make headbands, necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. Before I returned to America, I sat down with some Fula women and learned how to bead the way they do.

This family is spending their afternoon sorting a small part of their groundnut crop. Gambian men grow groundnuts, or peanuts. Groundnuts can be eaten raw, roasted, and made into sauces and peanut butter. Gambians also can make cooking oil out of them. Growing groundnuts is how most men in the rural areas make their income.

PCV Sarah Collard (on right) and I are standing in a groundnut farm. Groundnut farms are generally worked on by men and boys, usually not women and girls.

Gambian men also grow coos coos. My village mate, PCV Lynn Granstrom, is standing next to someone's harvested crop of coos coos or millet. Like rice, coos coos needs a great deal of preparation before it can be eaten. Coos coos is not as common as rice, but can be served with the same peanut sauce as rice dishes.

There are two major holidays in The Gambia. Most Gambians are Islamic and they celebrate Islamic holidays, mainly Ramadan and Tobaski. During holidays in Jarumeh Koto Village, the village men and women elders pray together under a large silk cotton tree. In the picture on the right, you can see the villagers walking to the meeting place. After the prayers are said, the people return to their compounds and get ready to eat a big meal and brew lots of attaya, a traditional tea. Many people get new clothes made for the holidays. The girls on the left are showing off their new clothes.

For each of the two major holidays, Gambians will sacrifice an animal for its meat.  This is usually a goat or sheep, and rarely, a cow.  The animal is cut at the throat and bled to death first.  This is the way Muslim people kill their animals.  Holidays are a happy time.  This sacrifice will feed many people.

What do you notice about these two pictures?

These pictures were taken from almost the same spot during the two different seasons.

The picture on the left was taken during the wet season, as you can tell by the high grasses. The wet season in The Gambia is usually from late June to September. The wet season is malaria season, since mosquitoes breed in water.

The picture on the right was taken in the dry season. The dry season is basically from late March to mid June. It is very hot in the dry season and can be dusty from the Harmattan winds that come from the Sahara Desert.

As you can tell from looking at these pictures, there is a great difference from season to season.

In order to cross the Gambia River, you must take a ferry or a small motorized boat. These are fairly cheap, but the wait time is very long. Boats and ferries will usually go when they are filled with people and not before they are full. This is sometimes frustrating, especially if the boat man is waiting for 1 or two people to go.

This was taken just off the main dirt road on the north bank of the river in a forest park. Lynn (on right) and I would come here often to climb the hill and view the plain where our village rested.

Domesticated animals, such as cats and dogs, are around The Gambia, but aren't usually cared for.  Children abuse the animals and they are never fed, like you see here.  On the left is Tiger, Lynn's dog, and on the right, Fatty, my dog.  We rescued these dogs from a litter in the village.  They were both loyal dogs, something Gambians had no experience in.  We treated our dogs differently than the local people did, and it showed!  I have been told both dogs have died.  It is costly to bring an animal back from Africa and a quarantine period would have been necessary.  I sometimes regret not bringing Fatty home.