A trip to Tanjay

February 6, 2009

Since I’ve been here, I’ve slowly been getting used to everything and I even find I’m used to some of the things that really shocked me the first time I saw them. I’m really glad that the Lord sees to it that even though this whole experience has been a TOTAL immersion into this culture, that it’s been a pretty gradual experience of getting used to everything. Today was a day of experiencing something very new. After waking up early for mass and having the half day of school – because the Muslims have their day of prayer, Sister Bernadette asked me if I wanted to accompany her and Sr. Josaphine to Tanjay (A fishing village). Tanjay is right on the ocean and it’s about a 20 minute drive from our compound in Brikama. When I got view of the ocean, I was so excited because –even though I’ve seen the ocean many times since I’ve been here- this was the first time I saw the fishing boats. We parked the truck and walked down to the water where there were – I’m not joking – thousands of people. Even though Sr. Bernadette told me there would be a lot of people I didn’t expect to see what I saw. We first walked past people who owned freezers and fridges where they would keep their fish to sell, then we walked down closer to the water where I got a really close up view of all the boats out on the water. My immediate thought – this has to have been close to how it was when Jesus was alive. The men have these long wooden boats that only go out maybe 50 to 75 meters offshore and they fish there. For some reason, I could see the Lord Jesus standing on the shore looking out at Simon and Andrew in their fishing boat. I could obviously relate a lot better to the gospel about the Lord Jesus calling his disciples to be fishers of men after that whole experience of seeing the fishermen out in the boats. I’ve always loved the ocean and for me, being there today was really cool. I always find it so breathtaking, and today I really wished I could just put my feet in the water, but it was too windy and the waves were very high.
Like I’ve said, things here are SO behind the times of Canada and the US and it’s hard for me to believe that people actually live like this. The reason there were thousands of people on the beach wasn’t because they were all sunbathing like most of us would, it was because they were all selling their fish! It was like a seaside market. And….just like the regular market…I was again, very uncomfortable. I’m not really sure why I hate the market so much, maybe it’s because people are always staring at me or maybe because they’re always trying to “befriend” me so I will buy their goods. I have found that I’ve become very quiet while I’m in the market because you never want to even say a word or else everyone is trying to talk to you – even when you can’t understand them. What am I talking about? I’ve become very quiet in almost every situation around here.
I was just so taken back by everything, the people, and how everyone sells everything. I’m glad that Sr. Bernadette and Sr. Josaphine were the ones buying it. Even though I don’t mind bartering, I find I’m so uncomfortable with it here because I can’t understand anyone and I don’t know what a good price for anything is. I guess today was a really expensive day since it was windy and all the fish have been scarce. The exchange is very different here and like I’ve said before – one Canadian dollar gives me 20 Dallasis. The thing is that the Gambia is a developing country so what seems expensive to these people wouldn’t be very expensive to us in Canada. I thought that we had bought a lot of fish today, I think there were almost 50-60 fish of all different sizes and shapes and we paid 1,000 dallasis for it all. That’s around 50 Canadian dollars. That’s really cheap! But on a good day, for what we bought we would’ve paid only around 400 or 500 dallasis. So even though, I can do the math and say, “oh…well that’s not very expensive.” I could still be getting things for a better price and I’m still not sure how much everything “should” cost. Slowly I’m learning.
On the way home, I asked Sr. Bernadette if people pay taxes since – from my observations- there is no possible way that the government could possibly keep track of everyone’s income. Why? Because people sell and resell at the market. That’s business around here. (just a side note….now that the “newness” of everything is wearing off, my brain is finally relaxing and I have time to finally think about things like this. Which I find very interesting.) People don’t really pay taxes, I guess if anything they would pay a tiny little tax for using a “booth” to sell their goods. I later asked Sr. Cecile the same question and she said the same thing, other than that there are a few occupations who are starting to pay taxes. These are jobs like teachers or people who work for the government. I guess I find it so weird, since in Canada we pay taxes on EVERYTHING. And obviously, it would be nice to say, “Oh I wish it was like that in Canada – where we didn’t have to pay taxes” but...you have to think that they don’t have health care or roads or anything like we have either. We are fortunate enough to –yes, unfortunately pay taxes – but not have to pay for a doctor’s appointment. When I asked Sr. Bernadette about what would happen if someone had to go to the doctor or have surgery or something serious, she said that when people get sick they pay pretty close to everything that they have to just see the doctor. If there is something serious or surgery they will go on TV or the News and ask people for money. Isn’t that something? I couldn’t believe it! They must not have many people who have to be in that situation. I thought, “wow…if it was like that in Canada, we’d have a whole television network for people just asking for money to get better.”
When we got home, we unloaded the fish and I’ve just been trying to relax a bit.
To everyone at the Parish, thank you for your emails. I really am appreciating your prayers and thoughts. I think of all of you SO often and I wonder how home is. Cold, I imagine?!
Hope all is well!

In Jesus and Mary,

Jen