This past weekend, I traveled to Thies to receive some vaccines at my program's training facilities. Thies is 162 miles away from my village. This trip typically takes two days as there are no direct routes from my small town, and I have to cross through The Gambia. On the way there, I spent twelve hours on the road, got my passport stamped four times and took six different vehicles (various taxis and buses) to get to the facility. Phew! It was a long couple of days, but I got to see some friends from my program and did some grocery shopping for nonperishables and snacks, as we don’t have modern grocery stores south of The Gambian border.
I prefer to walk around my town instead of riding my bike as our roads are primarily made up of sand, which makes biking difficult. However, when I go to a neighboring village, I ride my bike, usually needing to pause every once in a while to walk my bike around the sand pits that have formed.
As part of my program, I am expected to live and work in my small town for the majority of my time. However, once a month, I can go to my region's capital city to get any supplies I need, stay in a hotel for a few nights (and get some air conditioning!) and use wifi to do some work on my computer.
