Familiarly Different

We've been away from the blog for a while and so now I (Beth) am taking it on once again, hoping to use it as an opportunity to reflect a little more on our life here in The Gambia. Here are some thoughts on our first 24 hours back...

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Jonny and I have spent the last two months in the UK, visiting friends, family, and partner churches, enjoying copious amounts of sausages (Jonny) and cheese (Beth), plus a few G&Ts, and we could not have asked for a better time. 

But on Tuesday we left our green and pleasant England for an equally green and pleasant Gambia. 

3,606 miles from door to door and, thank God, we are home. 

Wonderfully as soon as we arrived back things felt familiarly different.

Let me talk you through our first 24 hours...

Feeling pretty exhausted and very much looking forward to a cool shower and a quiet evening on the sofa, we arrived back to the compound to three dear friends, waiting for us inside our little home.

Two of them had kindly been taking care of the house whilst we were away, we weren’t necessarily expecting them to be there when we returned and, as they didn’t seem in a great rush to leave we sat down, enjoyed some cool water and caught up on what we’d missed in The Gambia for the past two months.

It was SUCH a huge joy to see our friends; we were so touched they were around to welcome us back, but after a few glasses of cold water, and after much talking had been done, we did begin to wonder whether our dear chums were planning to stay...

It seemed they certainly were for the time being, so I decided to begin unpacking some of our many suitcases, struggling to acclimatise to the silence that people here are so comfortable with in company. Our friends happily sat on in the living room, our dear friend L glued to his smartphone screen as usual, as conversation began to dry up...  Then SP told Jonny he’d seen his guitar in the house and was keen to learn. Wonderfully Jonny decided there was no time like the present and so proceeded to give SP his very first guitar lesson!

"Wonderfully as soon as we arrived back things felt familiarly different."

Much later, all three stood up and announced in a typically Gambian way ‘Ok, we’re going now’. Amused at the situation but thankful for their generous welcome we said our goodbyes and raced each other into the bathroom for our first cold bucket shower in quite a few weeks.

After a brief trip out to find some mosquito-free wifi to send a few ‘We’ve arrived!’ messsages to family, we fell into bed (safely under the newly secured mozzy net) and were lulled to sleep by the soporific cicadas. 

Next morning Jonny and I awoke to the familiar sound of the cockerel endlessly cockadoodledooing, many birds tweeting, and Uncle Modu attacking some overgrown branches with a machete (he’s the lovely chap who helps us out in the compound and can fix absolutely ANYTHING).

I was just getting out of bed, having rejected my usual morning cuppa (I’d forgotten that the milk takes some getting used to!), when the phone rang. It was a lovely friend A: she’d come to see us and was at the gate. We dressed in lightening fast time and soon welcomed A inside. 

We caught up over a cup of tea (slightly better second time round) whilst Jonny went to the SOW (Servants of the Word) office to see our boss Steven. I was touched that A had dropped by so soon and enjoyed hearing about her summer hols (she’s a teacher) and her recent trip to Senegal.

We continued to chat and I began to wonder once again whether A intended to stick around for the day...

I’d planned a day of deep cleaning the house; two months of dust and damp were calling to me! But A explained she was waiting for a call from her boss who was due to pay her salary that day. They were to meet near our compound so she was keen to stay until he’d called.

The phone call was due at 10am, it was now 10:45, and 2 months away from the Gambia is not long enough to forget that it was highly likely that A was in for a long wait.

I offered more tea (you can take the Brit out of Britain but...); she declined explaining not very subtly that she hadn’t yet had breakfast and was very hungry. Aghghghh (I thought...)! We don’t have anything worth eating inside! A quick dash out and brekkie was provided - thankful for the nearby corner shop selling baguette like bread (called 'senfo') filled with anything you like (boiled egg and mayo was the request this morning). 

The phone call due at 10am finally came at 12:30pm. I waved goodbye to A feeling rather guilty at how I’d allowed so many ‘I REALLY need to get on!’ thoughts swim around inside my head all morning.

I closed the door, smiled and thought ‘I’m back!’

Two moments within our first 24 hours I’ve found familiarly different...

Different in that I simply cannot imagine such scenarios taking place in our life in the UK. In the UK when you arrive somewhere after long travels there’s an unspoken awareness that what you probably want is a shower and a bit of space. Not here. 

In the UK you would most likely ALWAYS call ahead if you were going to pop in to see a friend, especially before 9am. Not here.

And it’s wonderful! Something I’m learning here is that people are so generous with their time. Our friends were puttting themselves out to show us they loved us. Rather than a welcome home card on the table they came themselves. 

So these scenarios feel very different to the UK culture I’m so used to. But wonderfully they also feel familiar.

Familiar in that, as much as friends popping over uninvited and staying around way past all conversation has been had is a pretty alien concept in the UK, it’s something that I grew to get very used to during my first year in The Gambia.

Now entering year two I am full of thanks to God, both for these dear friends the Lord has provided for us here and for the fact that these situations feel like our new normal. 

So I’m beginning year two feeling very happy to be here. Feeling very much at home. 

"I closed the door, smiled and thought ‘I’m back!’"

No doubt today will throw up a few curveballs, I'm aware there will be some hard days to come but for now I’m so thankful for God’s faithfulness to me here. 

A verse I recited often last year and one I’m keen to start this new year with:

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; 
his mercies never come to an end; 
they are new every morning; 
great is your faithfulness.” 

(Lamentations 3:22-23)

Our God’s love is with us today and it will never end!

Our God gives us new and abundant signs of his mercy and compassion and grace every single morning! (Our new morning mercy today: no pre-9am visitors...)

Our God is so faithful. He is with us and for us and will never leave us!