TimBOOKtu

Last night I went out with some of the kids to Senegambia. During the ride there the taxi driver named me "Ay-sha" since I didn't have a Gambian name yet. We went to Bini's and it had a lot of older European cougars and...panthers (?) getting drunk and dancing with the Gambians. There was a band there playing salsa music and singing in spanish so I got super excited. After two gin bags (gin in Go-Gurt squeeze bags for 20 cents) I was dancing and pretending to play the maracas in front of the saxaphone player so he handed me his and I rocked out with them. Then on the next song he made me stand next to him and play. Later in the night the back up singer saw me looking longingly at his tambourine so he let me play that too. I think they were seriously entertained that a Tubab wanted and could keep a beat. I also met a Swede named Alfred who is 64. He was trashed and would dance with boys and girls and took a giant warrior mask off the wall and danced with it for about 10 minutes.

Then we went to WOW where they played gambian music, old school hip hop, rap, some beyonce ...and the backstreet boys...I went to the bathroom and some girl stopped me to tell me I was pretty (girls are nice? whaaaaa) and her name actually was Aysha so she came and danced with us. Some guy asked if he could fly me to London. Everyone was kind of dancing far apart and I was confused. But it was super fun.

Today I went to the beach and it was gorgeous. It was almost completely deserted when we got there. There were a few muslim women fully clothed, head to toe, and in jeans, happily playing catch on the beach and going in the water; while I was in a bikini sitting in a pool of my own sweat. I met a guy named Bai and in my head I did the "HAI! BAI!" thing and giggled a little bit. Then a senegalese dude gave me a Gambian name that i actually kind of dig, Maimouna - "MY MOON AH." He was a birdwatcher who wanted me to come to his house for "dinner" aka a marriage proposal. When I went back up to my hammock there was a euro woman on the hammock next to mine ass naked. And not good naked. I slowly moved to another hammock and spent the rest of the time reading/secretly spying on the euro boys in the cabana next to me.