ARRIVAL

We glided into our berth before 7 am as the morning twilight waned.  The pier was already busy as vehicles for the many HAL excursions arrived and vendors started to set up for the impromptu craft market.

GAMBIAN HOME COOKING

Our plan for today was the Gambian Home Cooking tour that we also took in 2018.  This tour is organized by Armstrong (Amadou Jobarteh, proprietor of Black and White Safaris, based in The Gambia).  This tour was one of the highlights of our 2018 cruise and we were looking forward to another great experience today.   HERE is a link to the video from 2018.   I will make another video about today when I get the time.

Tour description from the Black and White Safari website:

“Gambian Home Cooking

This is a unique experience to Black & White Safari, you cannot do this anywhere else!

The day is completely given over to give you the best cooking lesson, enabling you to confidently cook some of our local food when you return home to your own country.  The menu varies from meat and fish dishes like Yassa, to Benachin rice.  We also make local juices like Baobab and Wonjo juice, which is a dark cranberry-coloured juice, made from boiling the dark red flower from the sorrel plant.

We will take you to a local market, dress in a traditional Gambian outfit and help you shop for food items for you to take home.  We will then give you the guidelines on how to cook Gambian cuisine.  You will then do the cooking including all the preparation of meats, vegetables, fish and rice.  Finally, we sit as a family and friends and devour the meal before returning to the hotel.”

EXPERIENCE LOCAL CULTURE THROUGH FOOD

We enjoy food tours and cooking classes and they are our first choice in every port.  One of the joys of a World Cruise is to experience different cultures.  Everyone eats and enjoys food and this creates a common background from which you can expand to foods unique to the area visited.  If you are taking a cooking class or simply sampling different restaurants, you will have time to learn more about your hosts, their lives, hopes, and dreams.

STARTING OUT

At 7:45 am, Ian announced the ship was cleared and we were able to go ashore.  This morning was a very speedy immigration process.  Our guide and host would meet us at the port entrance at 8:30.

Some private tours are able to gain access to the pier and will wait at the ship’s end of the bridge while other tours, including ours, will meet you outside the port entrance.  I have found it helpful to email a screenshot of the port area and mark the possible meeting points with letters and ask our tour operator to confirm the location.  Having WhatsApp installed on your phone with a data plan will allow you to easily communicate with your guide on the day of the tour.

NOTE:   The ship arranged for a shuttle bus to Albert Market – location is noted on the map above

Pam and John from Table 89 joined us on today’s tour and we left the ship at 8:15 am.  It was a 5-minute walk to the port entrance and our guide, Sheriff, was waiting there with my name on a sign.  Our van was nearby and we met our driver, also named Sheriff, and off we went.

Our destination, Sherriff’s home, was about 12 miles away, and it took 45 minutes.  The roads were crowded and we moved slowly.  After we passed one of the larger markets, we turned off the main road onto some very bumpy dirt roads for the last two miles.

Sheriff and his family live in a small compound where several one-room apartments share a larger common area with a nice shade tree.  We met Sheriff’s wife, Kaddy Dibba, his daughter Aminata along with friends Tidda Jatta and Fatou Jobarteh.  One of the local children, Kumba greeted us with a big smile.

Before we headed to the market, we changed into some traditional Gambian clothing provided by our hosts.

SHOPPING IN THE MARKET

The nearest market was two miles away.  Most vendors are inside with some who rented space from the government allowed to sell on the street.  The market is bustling with wall-to-wall people – there aren’t any window shoppers here – everyone is moving quickly with a purpose.

In the background, over small speakers, we heard an almost constant stream of chatter in the local language.  We learned later, that these were recordings the various vendors had made calling out their prices.  Nothing was marked with prices and you had to ask or already know based on other information.

Kaddy Dibba led us through the market holding her plastic shopping basket.  She moved quickly and assembled the ingredients for our meal from various vendors.  Most transactions occurred without any negotiations, but occasional we would watch as Kaddy would go back and forth with a particular vendor.  This usually happened when the vendor, spotting her accompanying tourists, would raise the prices and Kaddy had to work to get them back to their usual pricing.  Everyone dealt in cash.

We were about a week into Ramadan, and The Gambia is about 97% Muslim.  During Ramadan, Muslims fast between sunrise and sundown.  We learned later that the market was not as crowded as normal in the morning as many shoppers would shop later in the day as to be closer to sundown.

After about an hour we headed back to our van and returned to Sheriff’s home.

FOOD PREPARATION AND COOKING

There isn’t a kitchen and we would prepare and cook our food outside in the common area.   Kaddy used two small charcoal containers to heat water and cook the food.

Kaddy took the lead in preparing the food, with assistance from Tidda Jatta and Fatou Jobarteh.  We helped with a few small chores, peeling potatoes, grinding vegetables and spices into a paste, and pulling leaves off stems to use in the stew.

Kaddy stayed busy stuffing the local fish with spices, before frying it in oil.  The other women prepared the rice and assembled the ingredients for meat stew flavored with peanut butter and other spices.  Soon everything was boiling and frying and looked and smelled delicious.

Once everything was complete, Kaddy transferred the food to the serving dishes.

TIME TO EAT

Sherriff laid out a large mat and we sat down to eat directly from the two large serving trays using large spoons.  Since it was Ramadan, our hosts couldn’t join us enjoying the food as they normally would if we had been here outside of Ramadan.

The food was fabulous and plentiful, but far more than the four of us could eat.  Bottled water or soft drinks were also available.  Pam and John helped Kaddy set up an assembly line to wash all the dishes and let them dry in the sun.

After we had our fill, we changed back into our normal clothes and said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts.

BACK ON THE SHIP

It took about an hour to get back to the ship.  Sheriff was able to drive us directly to the pier so we didn’t have to walk back across the bridge as we did in the morning.  We said goodbye to Sherriff, our driver, and Sheriff, our guide, and thanked them for showing us a wonderful time.

The craft market on the pier was still going strong and we picked up some local clothes and a wooden African mask.  The Gambian police band was keeping everyone entertained as we shopped.

Brendon Peel was on the World Stage this evening and performed various magic and mentalist tricks.  He put on an entertaining show.

VISA COST

There were some disgruntled passengers onboard about the cost of the Gambian Visa – $155.  This is more than we are typically charged and at first, I was surprised until I researched the reason.  This is the same price that the US charges Gambian citizens for a tourist visa, so it’s not surprising that The Gambia may charge us the same amount.