Easter

I had my shoes mended again. I know I already wrote about this once before but if anything it was even more exciting this second time! A strap had detached on a pair of sandals. One small piece of leather around the connection was missing, so the ‘shoe doctor’ went off to search for leather, and successfully returned with half a lady’s boot. He cut a strip using a razor blade and sewed the repair into place. Then he made another repair for me, and finished the job by polishing both pairs. The shoes are like new (well, almost) so I paid well and bought him a box of attaya too. The shoe doctors work in a corner of the market next to the ladies who sell charcoal, and the ground is black with dust. I waited on a wooden bench, enjoying the opportunity to sit and watch, and enjoy the market environment. A boy came and sat next to me and chatted. It was clear where this conversation was going, and eventually he got to the point… he has a football team that needs a sponsor (this means, “will you buy us a football”). I do help various people in my neighbourhood, but not normally through chance meetings in the market, so I declined.

We have fuel shortages again and there are long queues at petrol stations. Last evening I passed the Castle garage near my house and saw not only a queue of cars, but a parallel queue of perhaps one hundred containers, belonging to people seeking fuel. (You get the same thing at water pumps. Some pumps only operate during restricted hours and women place their bottles, buckets and containers in a line, and return later in the day to fill them.) So at this petrol station a line of plastic containers snaked around the forecourt, five-litre engine-oil-type bottles of various kinds (there is no law here restricting the sort of container that can be used for storing or transporting fuel). This morning I was in a shared taxi and we called in at a garage where there was a long line of cars, and my heart sank because I thought we would be there a long time. However, we by-passed the queue, drove straight to a pump and filled immediately. I have no idea what gave us that special privilege, but I am becoming used to not understanding everything, and just accepting things for the way they are. It is not unusual to stop for petrol when you are in a taxi. Most vehicles drive round with very little in the tank. There are probably various reasons for this, but of course one of them is money. A taxi driver will not have a large surplus of cash in order to fill his whole tank – he will make enough money in a couple of hours to buy two or three litres just for the next couple of hours, and so will need to go to the garage several times per day. I had not realised what a luxury it was for me in the UK to fill my car with enough fuel for two weeks driving. And it is very much in the culture to cater only for today’s needs, and deal with tomorrow when we get there. So it is normal to pound rice every day, to go to the market every day, and not to make plans very far into the future. What is the point in planning for next week – by then anything might have happened. And sometimes, anything does.

Tonight is Gamo, the birthday of the Holy Prophet of Islam. (This makes the fuel shortages particularly bad timing, as many people want to travel back to their villages and celebrate with their families). This means that tomorrow will be a public holiday. And then we also take Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays. This is a hangover from British colonial times, probably, but also because the Gambian people know when they are onto a good thing, and Easter weekend is not something to give up lightly, even if you are Muslim. Like all Muslim festivals, the date of Gamo moves with the Islamic year and is dependent on the lunar month. This year it happens to be right next to Easter (and Koriteh was just before Christmas). I guess one thing we have like this in the UK calendar is the variable date of Easter. I like the fact that Easter changes date, though no doubt there are some who are whinging about how early it is this year. But this early date gives an increased chance that the Easter bunnies will leave tracks in the snow, which will make it easier to locate those eggs. I think it is good to have a few quirky things going on in the calendar. Here, all Muslim festivals change date every year. Most of them are dependent on a sighting of the new moon, so the exact date may not be known until the night before. And then the President is prone to announcing extra holidays from time to time just because he is in a good mood.

Your favourite blog author has made a recent departure into newspaper writing. Follow this link if you would like to read my article in Baddow Life. And if that doesn’t work click here and then select Issue 19.

And follow this link to read more about my journey to Jarreng last weekend.