Another Week gone, and Monday is the halfway point

Hi Everyone,

Well today is the second of three "Clean the nation" days that we get to experience here, so for the next 3 hours, i'm locked down with practically no where to go or anything to do.

We've had a pretty good week the last few days here. We were back at WACD-TC for another module on Gender and Development. There was a great deal of interesting conversations and discussions that arose from the group, and we were able to learn alot about each other.

Lindsay has now departed to Malawi and will be staying there for the remainder of the summer.

Last weekend we had our Sunday Audience with Alkalo Bojang of Tujering (the alkalo is the village chief, Tujering is a village near Sanyang). In this village they have a system of restorative community justice, where any problems or concerns that the villagers have regarding property or land. Rather than taking their problems to the police and going through the court system, which is both long and expensive, village members can summon the other party to arrive at this meeting, held every sunday, under a Mango tree in the centre of the village, and a panel of 14 village elders (10 men 4 women) will hear and come to a conclusion about what should be done. Each of the involved parties signs a contract, usually with a thumb print and ink, as some will invariably be illiterate, and the decision is binding on the parties.
While we were there, we took in two cases, one over a construction project that was left incomplete well after the agreed upon date for completion, and another property dispute about the boundary between two compounds.
Both the issues were resolved without lawyers or judges, none of the parties had to miss work to travel 2 hours to Banjul, or pay for a lawyer to represent them, and the problems are, in some cases, solved in an ingenuous way... for the incomplete building, the rains are now coming, so construction can't continue until October, but the contractor has already purchased timber for the roof beams that he's going to be out nearly 1500 Dalasis for (about 1/3 of a months pay). One of the committee members agreed to buy the timber, as a means of settling the dispute (both could stand to wait until October, but the contractor didn't want to be sitting on so much lumber without being able to use it or make back his money). As I said, truly interesting.

We also took in a little toursit-type of attraction this week.
Megan and I went to a local distillery, where they make 9 different kinds of their own liqueurs. We tried several, including Gonjo (the juice from a hibiscus plant), Cashew Apple (the fruit on which a cashew nut grows; see the pictures for a better idea), orange-ginger, citrus, banana-pineapple-coconut, and three chocolate ones they make, Bailies, chocolate-mint and chocolate-orange.
Needless to say they were VERY delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed most of them, and am considering buying a few to take home. The best part is the owners, when they bottle the drinks (in recycled wine and beer bottles, so they divert from landfill), don't put either the word distillery or the alcohol content on the bottle, so as far as customs believes, they're just juice :)
If only the glass didn't weigh so much...

This weekend we are just relaxing and getting packed. Tomorrow (Sunday) we head for the North Bank. All that i keep hearing about it is that it's very hot! Joy!

I expect us to be there for 1-2 weeks, depending how organized and relavant the work there is. Both Megan and I are excited to get back to work in Sanyang with GamMol and the garden.
The trip to Jawara will be somewhat interesting... we may have to ferry/bush-taxi with our backpacks. This could be fun! I'm sure i'll have stories to tell from the journey.

I have no idea what to expect while we are there, especially as far as the internet goes. If we have it, i'll post/e-mail as often as I can. If we don't, i'll just have to wait until we return to Serrekunda or Sanyang and will at that time, post all my e-mails that I wrote while away.

As I mentioned in the subject line, the half-way mark of the trip is on Monday. In some ways it has gone by very quickly, in others it seems to have crawled by one hour at a time. I'm excited for the coming 6 weeks, and expect them to fly by, or at least hope they fly by. I do miss home alot, wish there were some way to transport home just for a weekend right about now. Well I'll deal with that, and keep going. This is why you buy a non-transferrable plane ticket. So you're stuck!

Ok, that's all for me now, hope to hear from you soon,
Love all,

Justin