Day 102 – Banjul, Gambia

Day 102 April 16th

Banjul, Gambia

Today was our first port after five days at sea. Due to the tides, our arrival into Banjul, Gambia, was delayed by an hour, from 8 AM to 9 AM.

My research into Banjul before this cruise revealed that there weren’t many tourist spots close to our expected mooring point but I did discover a tour company called Black-And-White Safari that had several Interesting excursions in Gambia. The Gambia Home Cooking Tour caught my eye and I arranged this for Judy and me and Rick and Margaret. The cost was $60 per person. Here is a link to the Black-And-White Safari website. You can find more information about the Gambia home cooking Tour here

Here is a video with highlights of our day

Black and White Safari Cooking Tour

We’ve come to enjoy cooking tours, and this would be our third of the cruise. Cooking tours give us an opportunity to interact with the locals and share in a common activity. Looking back on our previous excursions over the years we always remember most fondly those that involve interacting with residents in an informal setting. Everyone we would meet today was fluent in English which made our interaction with them much smoother.

Months ago, when I set up my tour I arranged for our pick-up time to be 8:30 AM but I was able to contact our tour operator and change the pick-up time to 9:30 AM.

Banjul Port

The ship moored at around 9 AM and we were clear to go ashore at 9:20 AM. There weren’t any immigration requirements for this port except to carry a Gambian shore pass that was issued to us a few days before we arrived.

We moored alongside a pier that runs parallel to the coast and is connected via a bridge about 150 yards long. At the end of the bridge are numerous large intermodal containers, stacked four to five high, which formed a canyon leading us to the port gate.

The pier was extremely crowded with tour operator’s buses and vendors when we departed around 9:40 AM. A representative from Black-And-White Safari was scheduled to meet us on the pier. He called my cell phone about 9:30 AM and said that he would meet us near the gangway and escort us to our tour guide and their van. After a few minutes of wandering around the pier we spotted the Black-And-White Safari representative and he proceeded to lead us across the bridge, through the intermodal canyon and out the port gate where he met our guide, Bina, and our driver, Sanny.

Since our van was only a block away from the port gate we didn’t spend much time in the immediate vicinity but from the looks of it, it didn’t seem very promising from a tourist perspective. The main attraction near the port was Albert’s market, about a mile away, but based on conversations with people who went there it wasn’t anything exceptional. I would strongly suggest arranging an excursion in this port rather than taking your chances wandering around without a plan.

Serrekunda Market

The original plan for the Cooking Tour was to go to Bina’s house first, change into traditional Gambian clothing, and then head to a nearby market to shop for the food we would use to prepare our meal. Since we were an hour late we were going to go directly to the market and we would shop with Bina wearing our normal clothes.

Bina’s house was about 12 miles from the pier in a city called Serrekunda which has a population of over 300,000 people. The city of Banjul is much smaller, about 31,000 people, and sits on the peninsula that sets it apart from the mainland of Gambia.

On the way to the Serrekunda market, we stopped along the side of the road near a Coca-Cola vendor selling his product out of the back of a cargo bed attached to the front part of a motorcycle. Bina bought a case of soft drinks that we would drink later.

The streets around the market were busy with vehicles and pedestrians and there wasn’t any place to park. Our driver, Sanny, stopped by the side of the road and let us out and we followed Bina through the throngs of people down a small alley into the heart of the market.

Bina knew exactly where she was going, and we ended up at a small stall that provided us with most of our dry goods, vegetables and chicken. Bina was working off a shopping list, and she would confer with the shopkeeper and he would scurry off and gather her requests. While he was doing that, Bina would engage with us on a variety of topics about Gambia and her own background. Ten minutes later, we had everything we needed, and Bina paid about $16 US for everything she ordered.

We headed off down another narrow alley where we found a butcher working on a goat. We needed a few pounds of beef which he chopped off a larger piece.

On the move again, we headed down to the center section of the market where we found some spices in addition to a large sea snail. Bina explained that we would use this snail as a flavoring agent much like you might use a bay leaf.

There was an election coming up, and we saw a few posters for the various candidates, but we didn’t get into much detail about the politics of Gambia.

Bina’s Home

Once we were back on the street, Bina called our driver. He pulled up about a block away and we piled into the van and headed off towards Bina’s house. The last quarter mile or so the paved road turned into a dirt road. Bina’s house is a small apartment located in two buildings with about four units in each building. There is a center courtyard that is behind a large gate, no vehicles are allowed, and there is overhanging porch outside each apartment’s front door.

The apartment itself is about 20’ x 20’, with three rooms: a living room, two bedrooms, a small space for the refrigerator and a bathroom. There was a large flat screen TV in one corner of the living room that was connected to the satellite dish outside. They buy their electricity by the kilowatt hour in advance. They buy something like a gift card which would give them a code to enter into their electric meter that then would authorize a certain number of kilowatt hours.

Out the back door is a small patio where they prepare all their food. There isn’t any kitchen in the Western sense of the word, all the cooking is done over charcoal or wood fires inside a small shed.

Once we settled on the sofas in the living room, we met Bina’s family and many of the neighbors along with many of the neighborhood children. We changed into local Gambian clothing in one of the bedrooms and then headed out to the back courtyard to start preparing our meal. Bina and her sister were quite surprised when Margaret and Judy said that Rick and I were the main cooks. For them, meal preparation is mainly a woman’s job. All the preparation is done efficiently as Bina was quite experienced in working in the smaller space with very few of the conveniences we’ve come to expect at home.

Preparing the meal

We are all given tasks mainly cutting the various vegetables that would be main ingredients of the rice-based chicken dish called “Benachin” (which means One Pot)  and a peanut based stew called Domada, which is the national dish of Gambia.

While we were working on the vegetables Bina and her sister, Kari, were cutting the meat, preparing the fires and boiling the rice. Kari showed us her snapchat posts with one of her favorite songs called “I Hate You So Much Right Now”. It was also her phone’s ringtone.  – Nice….

Enjoying our Meal

Once the food was finished it filled several large circular trays. We moved back into the living room to eat. Many of Bina’s friends and neighbors returned to join us as we dug into this delicious meal. We were given large spoons to use but everyone else simply ate with their hands. We had made so much food there was a large tray left over that Bina sent to one of the neighbors and we had a chance to meet them while they were enjoying the meal.

After we finished eating, many of the local children returned and we enjoyed playing some games with them for a few minutes before taking some group pictures.

It was time to leave and we said our goodbyes and headed out to this street where Sanny was waiting with the van. As we pull away the children raced alongside the van yelling goodbye. It was all very sweet. We had a wonderful time enjoying Bina’s hospitality. I highly recommend the Black-And-White Safari Gambian Cooking Tour if you plan to visit Banjul.

On the way back to the ship we passed through a military checkpoint. It wasn’t clear exactly what they were checking for, and we passed without incident.

Sanny was able to get the van closer to the ship, right outside the intermodal container canyon so our walk back to the ship wasn’t quite as far as this morning’s walking from the ship to the van.

There were several local vendors on the pier selling souvenirs and we spent a few minutes looking at what they were offering but we didn’t find anything we wanted to buy.

Back on the ship

Back on the ship 4Ever performed for the second time this evening singing a variety of hits including: “Fever”, “Volare” and “Time of My Life”.